Lucha Underground Review 5-13-15
Hello again everyone and welcome to another look into the Temple where Marty Jannetty can now say “hey wait, that’s my thing!” welcome to Lucha Underground. If you didn’t see the show yet, I’ve posted a link below, go watch it and then come back and read that Marty Jannetty joke, it will make more sense. This week’s edition of Lucha Underground features the LU debut of Jack Evans, the introduction of some new prizes to chase, and of course the main event between Alberto El Patron and Hernandez to determine the number one contender to Prince Puma’s Lucha Underground title. This show is one I’ve been showing to everyone I know as an example of how great wrestling can be, so let’s get to the action. As always, I’ll give a chronological listing of what happened on the show followed by my thoughts on some of the major happenings. Let’s Lucha everyone!
The Breakdown
Recap of Johnny Mundo-Alberto El Patron build, Hernandez Number one contender win, Mundo-El Patron Number one contender match
Cueto backstage segment with Matanza talking about 7 Aztec medallions
Aerostar defeats Jack Evans via pinfall
Big Ryck backstage segment with The Mack
Fénix defeats Cage, Pentagon Jr., Killshot, Sexy Star, King Cuerno, and The Mack in a 7-way match for one of the 7 Aztec medallions
Cueto backstage segment with Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angélico
Catrina backstage segment with Fénix
Alberto El Patron v. Hernandez to determine number one contender for Lucha Underground title (read on for result)
The Aztec Infinity Gauntlet
The show opens with Dario Cueto visiting his brother Matanza in the spirit of bragging about collecting seven powerful Aztec medallions, each one representing one of the ancient Aztec Tribes. I love how Lucha Underground is building this mythology into the show as it just makes the world they have built that much more colorful and interesting.
Cueto tells Matanza that the warrior who holds all seven medallions will be very powerful, perhaps more powerful than even Matanza. This made me think of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline from Marvel Comics (I highly recommend you read the comics if you haven’t yet). At first I was wondering why Cueto would give any warrior so much power, but that line to his brother makes it work. I’m not sure if Matanza gave Cueto one too many wedgies when the two were kids or what, but clearly Cueto has some serious issues with his bro.
Opening Strong
This week yet another talented luchador showed up in the Temple as Jack Evans debuted. The Lucha Underground roster continues to add great talent. I’m not too familiar with Evans but sought out his work on You Tube after this show and am excited to see more of his work in the Temple. His opening match with Aerostar was the best match of the show this week.
Aerostar continues to impress with his tight-rope walking abilities, this time going across the second rope from one corner to a deliver a kick to a top-rope prone Evans in the other corner. That was ridiculous. Also kind of ridiculous is the amount of butt-based offense in Aerostar’s matches. At least once a match he delivers a kick to his opponent’s derriere. This time he did a move that was similar to Naomi’s rear view but with what I can only describe as an ass-to-ass variation. It looked weird. Please Aerostar, I know you patiently await my columns every week so since you’re reading this, less butt stuff in the future. Thanks!
Beyond the assfense, the rest of the match was spectacular. Jack Evans really shined in his debut, even in the loss. At one point the two were battling outside the ring near the elevated fan seats. Evans got Aerostar down and then delivered a 450 splash from the top of the barricade. That got a well deserved “Holy Sh*%t” chant from the crowd. Aerostar was able to recover and eventually picked up the win with an amazing looking Canadian Destroyer…from the top rope! That was crazy, and Evans sold it like a champ, twitching in the ring like he was having a seizure. These types of matches are what make us Lucha Underground fans. Hopefully we see more of these two in the future.
The Rise and Fall of Fénix
The first of the Aztec medallions introduced by Cueto earlier in the show was contested in a seven-luchador match with Sexy Star, Cage, King Cuerno, Pentagon Jr., The Mack, Fénix, and Kill Shot all vying for the prize. The match was ok, but it suffered from being a one-fall match with way too many people involved. There were several moments where two luchadors were in the ring and you could see other luchadors just kind of standing around outside not doing much. Props to Cage and The Mack for at least looking like they were battling outside of the ring during one of these exchanges, with Cage choking The Mack from behind.
There were still some cool spots within the match. Pentagon Jr. delivered a package piledriver to Fénix while Sexy was hooked on his back to get an inverted spine-buster, that was a cool spot. The announce team of Stryker and Vampiro did their best to put over each individual in the match and highlight their strengths. I was still pretty confident Fénix would pick up the win here and he did. So Fénix now has the first of the seven Infinity gems…errrr, Aztec Medallions.
Later in the show, Fénix was cooling down in the locker room when the lights all went out. Some candles were shown lighting and in came Catrina to tell Fénix he’d been used in her plan to make Mil Muertes stronger. I’m happy about this because I was hoping we’d get an explanation for why Catrina went back to Mil. Catrina told Fénix was just a pawn for death, and he went to grab her. That’s when the lights went out again then came back on to reveal three creepy skeleton dudes standing on top of the lockers Fénix was sitting in front of. The dudes jumped down and that was it for the scene. Now we have to wait until next week to see how Fénix survived this encounter and what the deal is with these three skeleton dudes.
Trios Stepping Up
Cueto met with the Trios Champions in his office to tell them he was impressed with their accomplishments, but The Crew now held a tag victory over Son of Havoc and Angêlico and therefore deserved a shot at the Trios titles. Cueto told them they would defend the titles next week in a ladder match. SoH pointed out that Ivelisse was still injured and Cueto said he could just strip them of the titles then. All three said, “We fight” so next week we’ll have that match. The three left and Angélico tried to help Ivelisse with her crutches and she blew him off to put over the continuing dysfunction with the champs.
Even with Ivelisse’s injury and the teams dysfunctional, I like the champs to retain in that match. I think she will obviously play a limited role but will somehow have a hand in the win (maybe bringing those crutches into play) and it will work to put over the champs even more. It’s too early to take the belts off them, so unless Ivelisse’s injury is more serious than we think, the champs keep the belts.
The New Barbershop Window
Hernandez and El Patron came out next for their number one contenders match. We learned earlier in the show that the match must be determined by pinfall or submission, meaning no DQ’s. As soon as I heard that I figured some kind of outside interference was going to cost El Patron the match, as they’ve been building the Hernandez-Puma feud and the questions of Konnan’s loyalty to Puma over Hernandez. The match itself was ok, but nothing spectacular. It was just what you’d expect from these two with Hernandez hitting a lot of big power moves and Alberto putting on a technical show.
The real moment from this match involved the man that El Patron beat last week to get here, Johnny Mundo. After delivering a vicious kick to Hernandez and getting a two-count, Alberto was setting up in the corner for the cross arm-breaker when Mundo ran out to grab El Patron and pull him out of the ring. Mundo hit a big DDT on the floor, and then picked up Patron to throw him through the window of Dario Cueto’s office! Wow that was a crazy spot! Cueto was spectacular here, getting up from his office chair to survey the wreckage and going to pour himself a drink. His facial expression as he looked on was perfect. I mark out for Cueto at least once a week. Mundo grabbed El Patron and slid him back in the ring and Hernandez covered a bleeding and wounded Patron for the win.
Maybe it was because I was at the live taping for the previous week and saw the speech where El Patron put Mundo over that I didn’t see this coming. I should have. It makes perfect sense and I love Mundo in a heel role. He was great as he left the Temple and stood on the stairs and said “This Is My World!” That was another in a long line of amazing moments we’ve gotten in this first season of Lucha Underground, and there are still 14 weeks left to go. The crowd booed and chanted “Why Johnny Why?” The one thing we know is the El Patron-Mundo saga has more life in it now, and that’s a great thing for Lucha Underground fans.
The Wrap
Beyond the spectacular opening match, it wasn’t a great show in terms of the wrestling, but wow was the Mundo-El Patron spot incredible. There was some great storyline development with the introduction of the Aztec medallions and the inferred attack on Fénix by Catrina’s new goons. It’s been good to see her back on the show the past couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of that storyline.
There is so much awesomeness in the heel-turn by Mundo that I’ve been showing it to people who don’t even watch wrestling. That’s how you do a heel turn. The bit actors in that piece were also great, with Hernandez feigning being upset at the attack before celebrating his victory like he’d earned it, and Cueto being the perfect evil boss. That moment where Johnny threw Alberto through Cueto’s window will go down with the Angélico leap from Cueto’s office and the Mundo-El Patron match as one of those iconic moments from the first season that fans will be talking about for a while to come.
Once again we have several questions coming out of this week’s episode. Who are the new goons running with Catrina? What is the significance of the Aztec medallions and will one warrior be able to collect all seven? What does Hernandez’ win mean for Prince Puma and Konnan? And of course, “Why Johnny Why?” I’m looking forward to finding out the answers in the coming weeks.
That’s it for me this week, but let me know what you think in the comments below. Are you as big a fan of Jack Evans as I am after this week? Did you see the Mundo heel-turn coming or did it shock you the way it did me? Do you want all the Aztec Medallions to be put together into an Infinity Gauntlet? Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading!