the matches
Mascarita Sagrada beat Mariachi Loco (4:38, front facelock choke cradle)
Mil Muertes beat Ricky Mandell (2:37, flatliner)
Fénix [O] beat Pentagón Jr. [X], Drago (7:45, inverted huracanrana)
the developments
Dario Cueto and Konnan met prior to the first match, with Konnan explaining he’d brought the three top young talents from Mexico: Drago, Fenix, and Pentagon Jr. (Dario asked if there were visa problems, Konnan said they were cleared up.) Dario booked them in a three way match to prove who was best.
Dario came to the ring and mocked complaints that there weren’t enough lucha. He introduced Mariachi Loco as working at the Mexican restaurant down the street (with his band!) and would perform if he won. He did not win. Sagrada was introduced as part of Lucha Underground’s open door policy – anyone who shows up can fight.
Sagrada won cleanly, but was attacked and laid out by Chavo. A sit down interview with Vampiro and Chavo explained Chavo’s turn – he’s sick of playing the nice legacy carrier, he’s doing it his way now, and he thinks Blue Demon Jr. is just a famous name who’s never actually been any good.
Chavo was later confronted by Konnan (who warned him about Mexicans coming after him for his attacks on Demon and Sagrada – no mention of Sexy all show) and Mil Muertes/Catrina (who were upset THEY didn’t get to beat up Demon.)
Mil Muerte’s backstory was explained: he’s Pascual Mendoza, his family were all killed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake when he was a kid and the stone is from the wreckage. He’d like revenge on the world.
Johnny Mundo laid out Cortez and Castro again in route to demanding Cueto give him a match with Big Ryck next week. Cueto accepted, and Mundo vowed he’d take out Ryck and then Cueto. Cueto paid Ryck to take the match. He was seen in a prison like setting at the end of the show, apparently talking to a back up plan. (This part seemed to fit with the key he’s been wearing, as if Dario’s keeping his secret man in a, uh, uh, I can’t think of the word. Eh, can’t be that important.)
Another Prince Puma vignette was shown.
Fenix and Pentagon and Drago were awesome – classic situation where they all got over, though Fenix was slightly pushed above the other two.
Thoughts
Of all the shows where I was indirectly referenced in the first segment, this was my favorite.
Fenix, Pentagon and Drago knocked it out of the park in their debut. That first minute would’ve been good enough, but they kept turning up the gas to the end and everyone looked like superman. Fenix’s stage dive looked crazy, especially since that’s the first we’ve seen anyone use the Temple in that sort of way. A lot of the spots would look familiar to people who’ve followed them in Mexico, but they all looked great and the finish was perfect. Fenix won but all three guys were made by the match, and it’s just a matter of following up on it. It looks like they do. Either Striker hadn’t seen a lot of these guys before or did a good job pretending they were knew, because he was totally (and pleasantly) caught off guard at times.
Mascarita looked good in his debut and they used him the right way: Mariachi got the better of him a lot, lost advantage when he didn’t take Sagrada seriously, and Sagrada used his speed to get the win. Crowd was into the character.
The regulars from the last few shows didn’t have matches, but they did a lot of work on moving the characters a little bit forward a step. The Chavo interview was great, both in terms of getting over his character and in terms of appealing to this particular author. The Johnny Mundo skit was straight of those action movies he’s looking to film (though poor Cortez/Castro have been dropped pretty low on the totem pole already. Someone’s got to be on bottom.) They set up a match for next week and a mystery for down the line. The Mil Muertes backstory was creative and we got answers a lot quicker than I’d expect.
This show is rolling on all cylinders right now. It’s not better than I thought it would be, it’s better than I thought it COULD be.
(more than a dozen more gifs on the full entry)
