This week’s episode of Lucha Underground starts with a recap of last week, as Dario Cueto explains that the reason he signed the “biggest free agent in wrestling”, Johnny Mundo, was to make an example out of him. Doesn’t sound like the best plan if he wants to sign the next big time free agent.
Next we see Konnan in Cueto’s office, and he’s very excited about delivering three of the best fighters Mexico has to offer, Fenix, Pentagon Jr and Drago. Cueto is confused by this, and wants to know if the rumors were true. Konnan says nope, we were able to get them over the border. Heh. So they’ve weaved the lack of luchadores on early shows into the story. Cool.
Cueto is in the ring, and he’s addressing the issue of a lack of authentic lucha talent. He calls the fans whiners, and he’s utterly fantastic here in mocking the complaints. He says he has a new luchadore for us, and it’s El Mariachi Loco, who he says he found at the Mexican restaurant down the street. Cueto is the best.
1. El Mariachi Loco vs Mascarita Sagrada: Striker spent a lot of time here putting Mascarita Sagrada over as a lucha libre legend. Sagrada was too fast for Loco early, and showing off his impressive flying. Loco catches the little fella with a kick to the gut, and briefly takes over on offense. This doesn’t last long, and Sagrada uses a front face lock choke into a cradle for the pin. Chavo shows up out of nowhere and beats up the Sagrada. It seems Chavo has an inferiority complex about his legacy, and is going after legends. This was a strong showcase for Sagrada, but i’m a little skeptical moving forward when it comes to the believably of minis facing full sized wrestlers. We’ll see. **
Next up we’ve got a recap of Chavo’s actions over the last two weeks, including the attacks on Blue Demon Jr & Mascarita Sagrada. In a sit down interview, Vampiro accuses Chavo of riding the coattails of his family. Oddly, Chavo doesn’t really deny that, and says he’s now carving out his own path. Chavo says Blue Demon Jr isn’t a real legend, his daddy Blue Demon was. “Even in his prime, Blue Demon Jr still sucked!” Lots of people actually agree with that. Chavo talks some more smack about Blue Demon Jr, and Vampiro wraps it up by saying “Bro, you got some issues.”
Back from break, and Konnan warns Chavo that “back in Mexico” they found out what he did to Blue Demon, and soon they’ll find out what he did do Sagrada. Konnan says “If I were you, I’d dip!” I love the dialogue these guys use. Konnan leaves, but now Mil Muertes and Catrina are lurking around. Catrina tells Chavo that he took something that wasn’t his, and gives him the lick of death. Everybody hates Chavo. Insert your own snarky joke.
2. Ricky Mandel vs Mil Muertes: Before the match they did another Mil Muertes vignette. Catrina explained that as a boy, he survived the massive 1985 earthquake that rocked Mexico City. The quake killed his entire family, but he was buried alive for seven days. When he emerged from the rubble, he felt close to death, but embraced it, and became Mil Muertes. “A thousand deaths are coming”. Pretty great stuff right there. Mandel managed to land a single dropkick, but otherwise this was a short squash, ending with a Flatliner. Catrina licked Mandel’s face after the match. What a terrible gimmick for her, having to lick all of these sweaty dudes. Catrina also hangs out on the apron instead of the floor during the matches, which is different. **
Big Ryck’s gang is outside Cueto’s office talking smack about the beat down of Mundo two weeks ago. Mundo shows up and asks to see Cueto. They sarcastically ask him if he has the password. Mundo says “I GOT YOUR PASSWORD RIGHT HERE!” and takes them out, complete with exaggerated movie THWACKS added to his punches. This is all so goofy, but for some reason, it works. While this is going on we see Cueto interrupted from looking over his paperwork, shitting his pants while listening to the commotion. Mundo busts through the office door, but tells the startled Cueto to “CHILLAX BRO”, because he’s not here for him. Mundo wants to do some business. He wants Big Ryck in the ring. Cueto says he’ll make the call. Mundo says THANKS BROSEPH (I wish he did, but I made that part up), but “when i’m done with Ryck, then i’m coming for you. Bro.”
Every awesome thing in the above paragraph actually happened unless otherwise noted. I swear.
Back from break, Cueto hands Big Ryck a stack of money, and says “I don’t care what it takes, but next week I want Johnny Mundo in the hospital!” Ryck chuckles.
They run another Prince Puma spot to keep him fresh in the viewers minds, since he wasn’t booked this week.
3. Drago vs Pentagon Jr vs Fenix: Allow me introduce you to Pentagon Jr:
Striker explains that the first falls wins, and that there are no count outs or DQ’s. Within ten seconds, Pentagon Jr was already doing a plancha to the outside. That’s basically this match in a nutshell. Just an incredible spectacle of wild action and crazy spots. At one point, Fenix did a dive off of the second level balcony onto both other guys below. Very much earned “this is awesome” chants all throughout this. Back in the ring, Fenix used a corkscrew somersault senton on both guys. Penatgon gave Drago a package piledriver, but flipped him right into Fenix who delivers a sit out tombstone of his own. That took out Drago. Fenix used a reverse rana on Pentagon, and pinned him to pick up the win. Too much happened here too fast to take notes. I’m barely doing any justice to this, go find it now and watch it. ***1/2
The show wraps up with Cueto mumbling & complaining about Mundo. After not doing much last week, Cueto was fantastic on this entire show.
Final Thoughts:
Another fun show from Lucha Underground for Week 3. This is now a trend. The other good news is the total viewers in the 18-49 demo more than tripled from Week 1 to Week 2. That’s almost surely entirely from word of mouth and the great Mundo vs Puma match that made the viral rounds following the debut. All three weeks have featured at least one fast paced and super fun match, so with several well crafted storylines already in place & a few others festering beneath the surface, and the addition of some cool new lucha talent, Lucha Underground is quickly establishing itself as a must watch show.
