Lucha Underground 1×8 (2014-12-17): “A Unique Opportunity”

The Matches

1) Fenix won a ten man single fall match with a sit down piledriver on Prince Puma (10:47); Big Ryck, Drago, King Cuerno, Mariachi Loco, Mascarita Sagrada, Pentagon Jr., Son of Havoc and Super Fly were also in the match.

2) Mil Muertes won a 10 man battle royal
Elimination Order
– Famous B (0:47, by Pimpienla Escarlata)
– Ricky Mandell (1:29, by the entire Crew)
– Pimpinela Escarlata (1:54, by Mil Muertes)
– Sexy Star (2:51, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Cortez Castro (4:21, by Johnny Mundo)
– Cisco (4:26, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Bael (4:37, by Mil Muertes)
– Chavo Guerrero (7:01, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Johnny Mundo (10:58, by Mil Muertes)

3) Mil Muertes beat Fenix (5:45, flatliner)
Mil Muertes earned the 20th and last spot in Aztec Warfare
Fenix will be the 1st enterant in Aztec Warfare

The Developments

• Drago & Cuerno fought in their match, as did Sexy Star & Chavo. Everyone in the opener repeatedly stopped fighting to take out Big Ryck, who did not have his men with him for the first time.

• Konnan, furious over Puma losing the opener, declared he might drop Puma as a protege if he failed to take advantage of another big opportunity.

• Bael is a member of the Big Ryck/Castro/Cortez “Crew”.

• Dario Cueto was wearing sunglasses to hide a black eye from last week’s attack by Mundo. There were no other references to the attack or any retribution for it. Mundo, Puma and some of the Crew were bandaged from last week’s ladder match.

• The Mystery Woman was seen watching the first two matches, but no new information was shared about her.

• Another Cage vignette aired, though with a completely different tone. This week’s Cage vignette was a positive push the limits message more akin to Strong Man’s Twitter feed.

• Dario Cueto said he would debut the Aztec Warfare match on the 01/07 show and it would determine a champion. Dario Cueto shows off a new belt. It has an ordered set of entrances, and will have 20 people involved but nothing else was explained. The field was implied to be the same 20 as seen in these matches.

• Dario visited his caged ally, saying it wasn’t time to let him out yet. Dario was afraid his ally would destroy the belt if he touched it. Dario’s Key was implied to be the thing keeping the monster in the cage.

19 GIFs from the show are here.

Thoughts

The opener was great and made it hard to follow everything else. It was a nothing but action match with a lot of that. There were parts which looked too much choreographed – everyone stopping fighting to take turns hitting Big Ryck was a bit much – but the crazy high spots were enough to make it work. This was a secret showcase match for Son of Havoc, who got to do more high spots in this match than in his four previous matches combined. Mascarita Sagrada also won the crowd over with his antics. Finishing sequence between Puma and Fenix went well and Konnan being angry after Puma lost big matches back to back weeks makes a lot of sense.

They really need to advance Mystery Woman’s story. Everyone else gets a little bit more to their story most every week, and they haven’t even given Mystery Woman a name yet.

The battle royal was a battle royal and went longer than I needed to see it. Bael was treated as a notable mystery last week but his presence was tossed out like we all already knew who he was. (It would’ve been tough to even know which guy was Bael if he didn’t happen to have gear with a a giant “B” on them.) They really needed at least 15 seconds of explanation. This was a WWE feeling match, both with Mundo doing his Royal Rumble elimination scares and the announcers dropping WWE names during the broadcast (William Regal, Fit Finley, HBK). I understand the idea is not to be afraid to mention other places but it felt like too much.

Fenix and Mil Muertes didn’t click as well as I’d hope. I don’t know if I was just not as interested after the battle royal. I don’t think the stips helped either – the little information we had about Aztec Warfare made it sound like the Royal Rumble (in another WWE-ish moment), and everyone knows the guy in the last spot of the Royal Rumble rarely wins the thing.

The ladder match show was actually taped after this one, so Dario and Puma were selling injuries they didn’t quite yet. This was also the least WWE-feeling bit, as guys actually visibly the damage from a ladder match the day after.

I don’t think Aztec Warfare will be exactly a Rumble. Lucha Underground always seems motivated to do something a little different. Maybe it’ll be weapons involved, maybe it’ll be other types of eliminations, but there surely will be a twist. And it might be the only match, since a 20 man elimination match. I wish we didn’t have to wait two weeks to see it.