Last week closed with the surprise (well, it was only a surprise if you somehow avoided the spoiler, which would have been next to impossible unless you live under a rock or inside Cueto’s cage) appearance of Alberto Del Rio El Patron, who will add an interesting superstar dynamic to the Lucha Underground mix. Alberto’s legit status as the hottest free agent in both wrestling and MMA has increased his star presence tremendously in my view. It’s hard to remember now, but before he quit WWE he was working the B-shows and was completely out of the main event mix. Now wherever he shows up, whether it’s been AAA, Wrestle-1, ROH, and now LU, it garners solid buzz and he comes off like a true superstar.
Cueto explains to Alberto that he really surprised him “last week”. So I guess Alberto winked at Cueto, left, and then waited a full week to come back to have this conversation. Alberto inquires about the key and explains to Cueto that he showed up “for blood”. This reeked of not having much of a plan for the guy beyond “he’s a star so let’s sign him”, but LU has been so good at character development and making sure that everybody is involved in something meaningful that while watching this I had total faith that Alberto was headed in a good direction despite how weak this segment was.
1. Argenis vs Fenix – Decent match with good action, but really just served as a backdrop to the slow burn angle between Fenix, Catrina, and presumably eventually, Mil Muertes. Fenix picked up the win as expected, while Catrina lurked around. **1/2
Muertes confronted Catrina in the bowels of The Temple. He put his hand around her throat and picked her up off the ground. It was hard to tell if she was pleased with herself for motivating him, or unsure/scared of his behavior. Muertes headed down a corridor and ran into Chavo, who he threw against the wall by the neck.
Big Ryck was shown in a confession both and talked about The Crew betraying him. He declared that “Vengeance is mine!” before blowing smoke in the (off screen) priests face.
2. Son of Havok vs Johnny Mundo – This was longer and fought way more evenly than I thought it would be. A fun collection of spots between two former gymnasts, which is a sport that I don’t think wrestling farms from or exploits nearly enough. The athletic skills in gymnastics are a great fit for wrestling, gymnasts are very strong pound for pound, and there is no professional circuit to make money in beyond the amateur level so the participants leave the sport at a young enough age to transition into wrestling with plenty of athletic prime in front of them. All of the current ex-gymnasts I can think of in wrestling, including SoH, Mundo, and independent wrestler Bolt Brady all possess tremendous body control and bring great agility to the table. SoH had Mundo beat, but took too long to come off the top with the shooting star press because he was busy being cocky. Mundo got the knees up, hit the End of the World, and escaped with the win. The story here is that Ivelisse is getting frustrated with SoH’s constant losing. King Cuerno beat down Mundo after the match. ***
3. Pentagon Jr vs Ricky Mandel – Another Pentagon Jr squash ending in a broken arm as his merciless killer push continues. He keeps referring to his “master” in the post match promos. I’d like to see Pentagon really murder somebody the way he does in Mexico, but I totally get why he has to tone it down a bit in this environment. *1/2
Alberto El Patron came out for a promo. Enormous pop. I mean, just ENORMOUS. The roof blew off The Temple, and it was legit with no canned heat. He talked about his family and his background as Dos Caras Jr, and in the most vague yet still obvious way possible, how WWE (never mentioning them by name obviously or using specifics) disrespected him and held him back based on his race. This was a tremendous promo that I can’t possibly do justice with a recap, so just watch it below. Had he been able to cut free form promos like this in WWE, they’d have their latino babyface superstar today. The Alberto Del Rio pompous rich guy character feels so lame in hindsight compared to what he brings to the table as…himself. It’s not drastically different, but it’s amazing what a difference one degree of separation can make (see: Hideo Itami). Anyway, El Texano Jr, who Striker & Vampiro referred to as simply Texano, ran in out of nowhere and laid Alberto out. Striker & Vampiro did a great job explaining the back story of Alberto defeating Texano for the AAA World Heavyweight title (ending Texano’s 700+ day reign). Texano held the title belt up over Alberto, and the credits rolled.
I loved the show closing promo and angle. I very much dig that they’re incorporating some “AAA proper” stories into LU, as opposed to treating it like a completely different universe. This is 2015, and that type of kayfabing comes off dated. It also keeps Patron busy with his own title and issues, which keeps him away from the already crowded Lucha Underground World title mix (for now). Remember when I said that I had total faith that they’d do something interesting with Alberto earlier in this review? It took them less than 60 minutes to give him a compelling direction.
