Lucha Underground (SAT) 10/18/2014 Lucha Underground Temple, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
1) Son of Havoc b El Americano
Dark match (though Havoc cut a promo before the match.)
2) Cage b Angélico, Aerostar, Argenis
AAA debutantes looked good in their spots, but this was more about getting Cage over. The next segment (unrelated to the match) had Chavo Guerrero Jr. coming out to apologize to Blue Demon Jr. Crowd (mostly unaware of what he was apologizing for) rooted for Blue Demon Jr. to beat up Chavo, and Demon obliged with chair shots. After Demon left, Catrina and Mil Muertes came in the ring to give Chavo the Kiss of Death.
3) Prince Puma © b Fenix (AAA) [LUCHA UNDERGROUND CHAMP]
Prince Puma’s first defense in an excellent high flyer vs high flyer match.
4) Drago (AAA) DCOR King Cuerno [three falls match]
main event of first taping. Drago did a second floor dive onto Cuerno, which along with the finish set up the falls count anywhere match.
5) ? & Cortez Castro b Mascarita Sagrada 2007 & Pimpinela Escarlata
opener of the second episode. Castro (Reyes) teamed with a member of his usual group, not specified which one. It was not Big Zeke – he came out after the match and was attacked by his (former?) partners.
6) Pentagón Jr. b Súper Fly
Pentagon Jr. showcase. Pentagon appealed to Vampiro to mentor him (similar to Konnan and Prince Puma? Pentagon appears to be next title challenger.)
7) Sexy Star b Mariachi Loco
8) King Cuerno b Drago (AAA) [falls count anywhere]
Cuerno used the top rope to choke out Drago for the win. Cuerno appeared to be doing
Air date: a month that ends in “y”. Probably January. We’ll come back to this in a bit, because I’d rather talk about the matches.
Everyone’s just raving about Fenix/Puma. There are other strong matches on this taping – both Drago/Cuerno matches and the four way match were specifically touted to me – but Puma/Fenix is said to be a possible match of the year.
They were already busy setting up challengers. Tecnico Prince Puma works well against rudo Pentagon Jr., rudo King Cuerno (once he’s done with Fenix) and rudo Mil Muertes. I don’t think all of those things are going to happen on Sunday’s taping – that should probably be seen as a taping break point, but not a storyline break point. (If there was one of those in this batch, it probably was the Prince Puma title win in the prior episode.)
Greatly amused by a tease of a Vampiro/Konnan issue. It is a feud which will never die, which will out live us all, and which now exists in multiple realities. Also, I guess Vampiro is meant to be a rudo? Or maybe Pentagon will have to convince him to be one again? Vamp’s not presented as a rudo (or a tecnico) in the material released so far, so we’ll have to wait and find out.
The Chavo stuff is interesting. We’re missing a bit of results, so some stuff has to be guessed at – presumably whatever went down with Big Ryck and his crew to break them up happened at the last set of tapings – and I’m guessing Sexy Star won the feud over Chavo (because she kind of had to.) Chavo definitely gets the worst of his issue with Blue Demon here, and his odds against Mil Muertes seem bad. This is not the high profile heel run it looked after that second show, but a guy with some name value putting over people left and right. I wonder Mil Muertes might finish off Chavo and he’s not much of a key onscreen figure going forward (but still has the same backstage responsibilities.) I’m not looking to run off Chavo here, just trying to make sense of a pattern.)
It’s not hard to figure who the top guys are supposed to be here. Lucha Underground has clearly decided who their stars are and are completely behind them. Prince Puma’s the man here, but they’re also focusing a lot on Fenix, King Cuerno and Pentagon Jr. (who may have worked his way into the mix like always.) That’s a pretty exciting top 4. Other people may be breaking into that mix – Cage and Mundo are harder to place – but there’s not a slug among them. The names picked are amazing for someone who’s watched AAA the last few years. One dissatisfaction I – and others – have with AAA is there’s never the big singles matches between the young wrestlers, and instead they just get thrown together multiman matches. So what AAA has done here is created a wholly separate promotion where they’re running the type of singles matches I’ve been wanting to see so long, and they brought along Ricochet Helios in a new mask just for fun. (It’s so nice of them, thanks!)
As a card carrying member of the Aerostar fan club, I would’ve liked them to do much more with him here, but they’re throwing a lot of new names and faces at the audience at one and they’ve got to keep a narrow focus on the ones who really matter at first if they’re getting over. It looks like that’s what they’re doing and it looks like it’s going to work. Eventually it’ll be time for new faces and hopefully he (and Jack Evans and let’s not make a list here but you get the idea) get a shot to be those new faces, but once they decided who to go with at first, it’s got to be this way for everyone else for now.
Kind of curious about the dark matches. They’ve been pretty consistent on taping them, even on shows like this where they might be more concerned about burning out the crowd. There must be a reason – maybe they’ll be released as extra content (YouTube bonus matches? DVD extras?) or maybe they’ll be subbed in as real matches if something doesn’t go right.
One last taping going on right now, and then they’re done until January. Well, the luchadors are done taping matches, but I’d guess there’s still going to be plenty of busy people putting these things together.
And hopefully announcing air times. Let’s unpack that here: Lucha Underground announced the 10/29 show would be a two hour premiere (the first two episodes airing back to back) when it was pushed back from the official start date. The TV listings for 10/29 El Rey started turning up yesterday with just one new hour of Lucha Underground. El Rey’s own website (and Comcast’s listings) have it as a 2 hour show. Meanwhile, there’s still no official announcement of the Unimas airing of the show That was expected to start Saturday 11/01, airing something 4pm, but no one’s said anything and we’re less than two weeks out from that now.
That’s what we know officially. Unofficially…eh. Kind of tired of trying to sleuth things out on this front and getting nowhere. I know Lucha Underground and Unimas were talking the last few days and they want to get the deal done. I know it’s going to be an obstacle if that doesn’t come thru, but either the show airs or doesn’t – there’s no point in speculating at this point, we’re going to know soon enough. Same thing with the El Rey two hour slot: if it’s two hours, the social media accounts will loudly proclaim that for the next 10 days. If it’s only one hour, they’ll quietly announce the change but we’ll still know. If it’s only on El Rey, that’ll be sad for those who don’t have the network, but if you can find this obscure corner of the internet I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find the show.
The questions about when/where the show will air are meaningful questions. But the others questions I wanted answered back in September have been pretty much been answered:
- Will Lucha Underground have people I wanted to see on Lucha Underground? (YES)
- Will Lucha Underground have matches I would like to see? (YES)
- Does Lucha Underground appear to be something enjoyable to watch? (YES)
Yes, there’s still a thousand different ways what was taped in the building could turn out disappointing on the screen. You know I can come up with that cynical list if you’ve read this website for any length of time, but I’m not really too concerned about all those things. The foundation, especially as they get in deeper into the series, looks very solid. Lucha Undergroudn looks as good as could be expected. Maybe better.
Ten days to wait.