Reviews

Lucha Underground Review 04/27/16 by Mark McAllen

TJR Wrestling

Taped in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California this is Lucha Underground for Season 2 – Episode 14.

Mexican rock band Bang Data kick off this week’s episode with their musical stylings as our commentators Matt Striker and Vampiro welcome us back to The Temple. Striker updates us that both Mil Muertes and Lucha Underground Champion Matanza will return to action soon after crashing through the roof of Dario Cueto’s office to end last week’s episode.

Steel Cage Match: Cage vs. Johnny Mundo w/Taya (Winner earns one of the seven Aztec medallions)

As they do every week, the El Rey Network’s YouTube channel uploaded a match from this week’s episode in its entirety. You can watch the full match below.

This is the second Steel Cage match in Lucha Underground history. The first being Johnny Mundo vs. King Cuerno in which Mundo walked away victorious. Let’s see if he can do it again. This is for one of the seven Aztec medallions; so far the only other wrestlers who hold medallions are Texano and Aerostar. You can win this match by pinfall, submission or escaping the cage.

Both men evenly trade punches and kicks. Once Cage starts to gain control with a few clotheslines, Mundo makes the first attempt to climb up the Steel Cage and escape. However, it is met to no avail as Cage takes him down. Cage begins to use the Steel Cage to his advantage by throwing Mundo face first into the steel. Cage has Mundo tied up in the second turnbuckle in a unique way where Cage is sitting on the top rope and it looks like he has Mundo in a Boston Crab. Crafty move. Cage now makes his first attempt to escape, but Mundo kicks the ropes Cage is balancing on causing cage to fall down.

Mundo climbs the Steel Cage trying to escape, but is again met by Cage who is climbing right behind him. Taya also scales the Steel Cage from outside and uses her belt to whip at Cage. While both men are standing on the top turnbuckle/rope, Mundo hits the standing single Spanish fly. That move looks impressive every time. He goes for the cover but Cage kicks out at two. Now Mundo nails Cage with Moonlight Drive off the top rope. He once again goes for the pin, but Cage kicks out at two. Taya tries handing Mundo a kendo stick through the Steel Cage, but Cage interferes before the transaction can be made. Cage starts throwing Mundo into the steel like a rag doll. Cage tries to escape but Taya prevents him from doing so with kendo stick shots to the head. She throws the stick into to Mundo inside the ring who now starts wailing on Cage with it.

Mundo goes for the pin after many devastating shots, but Cage kicks out. He’s still got some fight left. Now Cage has the kendo stick and Mundo avoids Cage’s swings in some very creative ways, until Cage catches him and begins to unload on Mundo with kendo stick strikes. He covers but Mundo kicks out at two. Cage has Mundo in position for his Weapon X finishing move, but Mundo counters it into a rollup for a nearfall. Taya scales the Steel Cage once again and throws Mundo a chair that he immediately uses on Cage. He plants on hard shot on Cage across his head and was sure that was it, but Cage kicks out at two.

While Cage is seemingly unconscious, Mundo climbs to the top of the Steel Cage. Instead of escaping, Mundo stands on top of the Steel Cage and attempts his End of the World finisher, but Cage rolls out of the way. Now Taya climbs to the top of the Steel Cage and hits Cage with a flying crossbody. Taya and Mundo team up on Cage and hit him with a modified Magic Killer. They both cover Cage but he still kicks out. Taya whips out handcuffs and tries to cuff him to the rope. However, Cage catches Taya and cuffs her to the ropes instead. Mundo rushes at Cage with a chair but he ducks and Mundo ends up hitting Taya. Cage then piledrives Mundo on to a chair for the win after 14 minutes.

Winner by pinfall: Cage

Evaluation: What a great match to kick off the show! It was obviously not a technical masterpiece, but It was a hell of a lot of fun and a nice conclusion to Cage and Mundo’s feud. Some really good nearfalls there at the end, but once Cage kicked out of the Magic Killer I knew there was no way he was losing. Good for Cage on winning one of the Aztec medallions. I don’t think Mundo needs it as much as Cage does so it was the right move.

Up next is a four team elimination match for the Trios Titles.

(Commercial)

Melissa Santos begins the introductions for the Trios Title match, but is interrupted by Dario Cueto who “has some braking news.” He informs us that Angelico has had an unfortunate accident and is unable to compete tonight. However, the match will go on. Ivelisse and Son of Havoc will still defend their Trios Titles without Angelico.

Evaluation: Since I like to avoid all Lucha Underground spoilers, I’m not sure if Angelico is legitimately injured or if him suffering an unfortunate accident is part of the storyline. Either way, it works since it helps Ivelisse and Son of Havoc not look weak if they lose the Trios Titles, since they were down a person.

All four teams make their entrances as Lucha Underground takes a commercial break.

(Commercial)

Four Team Elimination Trios Championship Match: Ivelisse & Son of Havoc vs. Jack Evans, PJ Black & Fenix vs. Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco & Joey Ryan vs. Prince Puma, El Dragon Azteca Jr. & Rey Mysterio

A few important ground rules to know going into this match: One member from each team will start the match essentially making it a Fatal Four Way with tags, and once one member of a team gets eliminated the whole team gets eliminated.

This will likely be a nightmare to call play by play for due to the nature of the match, so I’m probably going to keep it very abbreviated.

Rey Mysterio, Ivelisse, Fenix and Mr. Cisco start off this match. All four of them go at it quickly with punches, kicks, counters and pinfalls for about a minute. Nothing happens and they all tag in their partners at the same time. Now it’s Prince Puma, Son of Havoc, PJ Black and Cortez Castro in the ring. All four men start hitting suplexes, clotheslines, dropkicks and springboard moves very quickly. This is almost too much to try and keep your eyes on. Striker and Vampiro even acknowledge that they don’t know what to say or how to commentate this.

Cisco and Cortez tag each other in and out hitting Son of Havoc with some big double team moves. Some really cool moments from Fenix, Mysterio, Puma and Son of Havoc all hitting big dives over the top ropes onto everyone outside the ring. Ivelisse and Ryan are alone in the ring where Ivelisse slaps a flirting Ryan across the face and nails him with a German Suplex. Castro jumps Ivelisse and is in control, however Ryan s crying out for Castro to tag him in. Distracted by Ryan’s pleas, Ivelisse rolls up Castro for the three count eliminating the team of Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco & Joey Ryan.

(Commercial)

Prince Puma, Son of Havoc and Jack Evans are the legal men at the moment. Havoc and Puma take out Evans before trading blows with one another. Havoc hits Puma with a double stomp and standing moonsault. He goes for the pin but Puma kicks out. Evans gets back in the ring and is attacked right away by Ivelisse. Evans shucks her away and lays her out with a big boot. Evans: “She actually thinks she’s the baddest bitch in the building, but I’m the baddest bitch in the building!” Evans is awesome. Ivelisse gets back to her feet and superkicks Evans before hitting him with a sunset flip powerbomb. As Ivelisse rolls up Evans, Black blindsides her with a kick to the back of the head. He rolls them over so it’s now Evans who’s covering Ivelisse. He gets the three count which means there will be new Trios Champions. Ivelisse and Son of Havoc are eliminated.

(Commercial)

It’s down to the final two teams: Prince Puma, El Dragon Azteca Jr. & Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Evans, PJ Black & Fenix. El Dragon Azteca Jr and Fenix are the legal men. Both luchadores go back and forth with reversals until Fenix catches Azteca rolling underneath him with a double foot stomp to the back of the head. Fenix goes for the cover but Azteca kicks out. They trade another series of reversals incredibly quickly until Azteca catches Fenix with a spinning DDT. Both men are laid out and look for tags. Puma and Black tag in. Puma lays out Black and Fenix and heads to the top rope where he hits Black with his signature 630 splash. Before Puma got to go for the pin, he was kicked in the groin by Evans.

Evans tags in and so does Mysterio. Rey hits Evans with a springboard crossbody and then hits Evans and Black with a 619. Puma throws Azteca into the air leading to Azteca hitting Evans with a flying DDT. That looked really cool. Puma and Azteca then high five and suicide dive through the ropes simultaneously out onto Black and Fenix. Rey, still the legal man, hits Evans with a moonsault off the top rope for a three count after 17 minutes (24 minutes with commercials).

Winners by pinfall and NEW Trios Champions: Prince Puma, El Dragon Azteca Jr. & Rey Mysterio

Mysterio Puma Azteca

Evaluation: Great main event. The start to the match was a little annoying due to the sheer amount of action happening at once, but once the first team was eliminated (which was relatively quickly) the match became a lot more manageable. Although there were only two matches on the night, this match did the job of getting a ton of people on the show. I thought everyone did a great job in role they played, however small or big that role was. Tons of great action in this one. This is the perfect example of a Lucha Underground match that you have to watch to fully get and understand because writing just doesn’t do it justice.

Vampiro is shown in a black cloak backstage. He calls upon Pentagon who arrives using a wheelchair to get around. Vampiro tells Pentagon to stand up, but he struggles. Vampiro starts to pour a hot liquid on Pentagon, screaming at him to get up. However, Pentagon just falls to the ground. Vampiro looks on ashamed, calls him weak and leaves Pentagon by helpless on the floor.

Evaluation: We last saw Pentagon about a month ago losing in a Lucha Underground Championship match to Matanza. Matanza defeated him quickly and put him through the announce table after the match. Pentagon was taken out on a stretcher and it seems like it has temporarily paralyzed him. After this segment, it doesn’t look like Pentagon will be in fighting shape anytime soon.

Game ball goes to…

Johnny Mundo – If for no other reason that he tried hitting The End of the World off the top of the cage and missed. He was in control for a lot of that match and also took some brutal bumps when he wasn’t stealing the show with a standing Spanish fly off the top rope.

Final Thoughts

– Two fun matches who’s combined length took up almost the entire hour long episode. I’ll take that anytime.

– Mundo and Cage (in a cage) was the best opening match to an episode of Lucha Underground this season. Nice to see Cage getting the win and holding the medallion. Texano, Aerostar and Cage now hold three of the seven Aztec medallions. As I mentioned above, I don’t think Mundo needs the medallion as much as Cage does so it was the right move giving him the win. Mundo/Taya and Cage had a great feud that lasted through the first half of season 2. It was always one of my favorite parts of LU to look forward to and tonight they went out in style.

– Having Mysterio, Puma and Azteca Jr. holding the Trios Titles should be a blast. I really like those three as a team and although having them together is likely not a long term plan, it should make for some great matches for the time being.

– Interesting to see Pentagon still feeling the lingering effects of Matanza. It helps it putting over how much of a beast Matanza still is, even though he was getting owned by Muertes for most of their match.

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That’s it for me. Thanks for reading. If you like Lucha Underground and have other friends who enjoy the show too, then give this review a share. I appreciate any thoughts or conversation in the comment section below.

Pictures used above are courtesy of Lucha Underground.