Last week saw the start of the Trios tournament, and the introduction of the Trios title for whoever wins the tournament. This week, we get more Trios action and a Cuerno/Puma main event for the Lucha Underground title.
Cueto tells Puma and Konnan in his office that Cuerno will be on the opposing trios team against Puma in this tournament, and Cuerno’s two partners will be at ringside for the main event tonight. Interesting. Dario tells Puma that he better get two partners after this week.
Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc vs. Drago, Aerostar and Fenix: Well don’t we just have some strange bedfellows here. The Angelico team is self explanatory, after the ridiculous love triangle the three have had. And Drago/Aerostar are tied up in their best of five series together, and Fenix is back finally after Grave Consequences. Can these teams work together?
The dissension here worked well. The Love Triangle (my name for them) kept blind tagging each other, Drago went for a pin off an Aerostar move even though Drago wasn’t even legal and Aerostar got hot with him. Man, oh man, was this match something special. An absolute SPRINT, I don’t think these guys stopped for even half a minute during this. It featured some incredibly innovative offense like Aerostar jumping off Fenix’s shoulders from the corner to hit a double stomp and one of the most insane multi-minute sequence of outside dives you’ll ever see. Havoc got the win off the Shooting Star Press on Drago when Drago and Aerostar once again couldn’t get along. Mind you this followed Ivelisse jumping off the apron and walking up the stairs when Havoc tried to tag out. I hope I’m not going overboard on this one, but this was excellent and needs to be watched. ****1/4
They show last week when Sexy Star rescued Superfly from becoming a victim to one of the best wrestler’s on the planet right now, Pentagon Jr. Yes I said it, one of the best wrestlers in the world. He’s just an amazing, intimidating presence and he commands your attention.
Puma’s lifting bro. Konnan arrives with some “good news”. He says that Hernandez is one of their partners; then Johnny Mundo shows up and announces he’s the third man. Konnan is not pleased, and he doesn’t trust Mundo at all. Mundo will be at ringside with Puma when he faces King Cuerno tonight.
Sexy Star vs. Superfly: This matchup doesn’t make much sense to me, she saved HIM last week. Cueto shenanigans I suppose. Speaking of the devil, he comes out and says WAIT WAIT WAIT, I KNOW YOU’RE BOTH FRIENDS BUT TONIGHT YOU WILL HAVE NO MERCY WITH EACH OTHER. He decides to give them something to fight for: mask vs. mask! This is the first mask vs. mask in LU, which is usually a staple of the Lucha world. I love how they put over how much of a dick Cueto is for booking this, something that usually takes MONTHS of build and puts so much honor and respect on the line just for his sick kicks.
Superfly takes it to Sexy Star throughout this match, kicking her senseless with big mafia kicks. SS comes back with offense based around using Superfly’s mask, throwing him around by it. Superfly hits her with some gunshot sounding chops that made me cringe a bit. But she hits a headscissors from the corner to turn the tide again. She hits a killer crossbody to the outside as well. SS hits some chops of her own and a codebreaker. The slaps they keep exchanging are so brutal. This exchange really puts emphasis on the high stakes of this match and what both competitors will go to in order to retain their pride. The finish was solid, Superfly powerbombed Sexy Star, went for a moonsault and missed and Sexy Star got the cradle pin in order to unmask Superfly. This was solid, nothing more nothing less. **1/2
Back from commercial, Superfly takes this like a man and gets down on his knees and asks Sexy Star to unmask him, she reluctantly does so. They embrace and he gives her the mask. Very cool moment…RUINED BY PENTAGON JR. Pentagon Jr. has no time for sappy feel good stories, his master needs to be fed and he knocks Sexy Star off the apron. He gives the package piledriver to Superfly and THIS time breaks his arm! The master can go home happy this week! Cero Miedo chants filled the temple, they absolutely love this guy. We have our main event next!
Lucha Underground Championship – Prince Puma © vs. King Cuerno: Remember, Puma is accompanied by Mundo and Hernandez at ringside here, his new trios teammates. Puma enters with this really cool Puma fur skin drapery on his head. King Cuerno comes out with Cage and Texano Jr.! Oh man, this trios match next week is going to be insane. This tournament keeps getting better and better.
After some initial stalling by Cuerno, he leaves the ring, and Puma goes for an outside dive only to be caught by Cage and Texano, who throw him up for a Cuerno neckbreaker, oooof! Cage and Texano with the bull rope try to fend off Mundo and Hernandez from helping. Cuerno does the cutthroat motion on Puma during this, he’s a cold and calculating one for sure. Cuerno slowly takes Puma apart in the ring. Texano grabs a hold of Puma’s feet when they are hanging from the corner over the apron and holds them with the bullrope so Cuerno can stomp him out without resistance. Puma finally fights back with a huge superman punch and jumping lariat, his comeback sequences always being entertaining. Something I thought was REALLY cool was Puma doing the Monster Express like leg raise and arm raise in the corner before hitting Cuerno with a clothesline. Now I swear, I think some guy named Ricochet used to do that with Monster Express in Dragon Gate.
Puma nails Cuerno with an outside senton, then Mundo hits Cuerno and Texano with a corkscrew outside dive. Puma goes for a springboard something here, Cuerno clearly was supposed to catch him and hit him with a slam but Puma slipped off and it just looked messy. Puma hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for a nearfall. Striker, you’re right for once. This is an ugly fight. Puma misses a springboard 450, and gets hit with two germans and a brainbuster for a nearfall. Cuerno goes for The Thrill of the Hunt on Puma, but Hernandez distracts him, Puma throws him into Hernandez who claps the ears of Cuerno and Puma kicks both Cage and Cuerno. Puma got angry at Hernandez for interfering, he wanted to do it on his own. Puma locks eyes with the Cuerno deer head in the corner, then hits the 630 for the win. Hmm, this was one of the weaker LU main events actually but it by no means was bad. It was more of a showcase to setup the big trios match with all these people involved next week. ***1/4
Everyone brawls in the ring after the match to generate more heat for the trios match. We’ll find out which one of these teams joins Mack, Killshot and Ryck; Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc in the next round of the tournament!
Final Thoughts: A really good episode. The opener actually trumped everything tonight in my opinion. Angelico, Ivelisse, Son of Havoc, Aerostar, Drago and Fenix just flew around the ring and out of it for several minutes without stopping and gave a picture perfect example of how trios style matches can be amazing, and not slow down bore fests with no heat or crowd interest like in WWE post-Shield. Sexy Star and Superfly was solid quick match with a memorable unmasking for the first time in the program’s history followed by Pentagon murdering Superfly’s arm; just wasn’t the guy’s night I suppose. Cuerno/Puma was more decent than great, but I understand the direction to set up for next week’s trios match between Puma/Hernandez/Mundo vs. Cage/Texano/Cuerno. It just didn’t have a main event title match feel and felt short.
Looking forward to more trios madness next week. It’s brought a whole new wrinkle of entertainment into an already deep and creative promotion and I can’t wait to see how this tournament progresses. Until next week folks!
