matches
Prince Puma b Marty the Moth Martinez (3:49, 630 senton) [OK]
Texano Jr. DQ Delavar Daviari (3:52, interference from Big Ryck) [OK]
Angelico, Son of Havoc, Ivelisse (c) defeated The Crew (Bael, Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco) (13:42) for the Lucha Underground Trios Championship [good]
– first defense
developments
Marty the Moth got his match after all, against the champion in a non-title match. Martinez claims to be a descendant of one of the seven Azteca tribes and was creepy around Melissa. It wasn’t a total squash, but Puma wasn’t in much danger. Hernandez appeared on the stairs after the match, Konnan taunted him, but Hernandez wouldn’t come to the ring.
Texano and Delavar lasted a lot longer this week, but nothing was settled. Announcers positioned Daivari as the rich spoiled kid and Texano Jr. as the hard working one. The story has changed from Daviari being successful post-WWE to Davairi’s family being successful and Daivari himself being a spoiled rich kid. Striker made it very clear that Daviari had used the money to buy Big Ryck’s help.
Black Lotus finally checked out from Dragon Azteca’s dojo/warehouse, though without Dragon Azteca approving or knowing. He only found out by reading her diary, left behind. Chavo Guerrero returned, agreeing with Azteca that Lotus would be killed if she went up against Matanza. Chavo offered a deal, protection for Lotus against Matanza for protection against the ‘all of Mexico’ he’d angered by attacking Blue Demon 20 some episodes ago. Azteca agreed.
Catrina, with ghost powers this week, tried to take Dario’s key right off him. This did not work, even with ghost powers, but Catrina still managed to convinced Dario to sign Mil Muertes versus Fenix in a death match. Dario was briefly weirded out by Catrina being Catrina, but liked the idea of violence.
The ‘shoot’ in the title refereed to Johnny Mundo opening up on on his actions last week. Mundo called Alberto overrated, overconfident and not that good. Mundo blamed Alberto for causing everything and suggested Alberto would not be back. Mundo said this is his world, and stole Alberto’s catchphrase (including the wink).
The ladders were in the main event, though not as many ladders as you might think. The windows that were broken by Alberto’s head were boarded up, but the boards were pulled off and used in the ladder match. Members of the crew were thrown into Dario’s office, allowing the match to be 2 on 2 for periods. Ivelisse barely participated except for climbing up at the end, and Angelico ended up above Dario’s office again for a sequel to his plancha (this time a dropkick), so the bulk of the match was Crew beatdowns and Son of Havoc comebacks. Son of Havoc attempted to put one member of the Crew thru a table via shooting star press, but didn’t hit the table right and the table didn’t break for him. Angelico took out another member with the giant flying dropkick and Ivelisse climbed up the ladder on one leg to remove a title belt (which felt to the ground where Havoc grabbed it) for the win.
Dario earlier reminded The Crew that losing would mean bad news for them. The Crew flying into his office also interrupted a phone call he was on, so rude.
The commercials promoted Hernandez/Puma and Muertes/Fenix for next week.
thoughts
This was a distracting night with a lot of competition for attention even as I watching this show; ladder match might be better on a quieter rewatch, though there were a few things going wrong that not even editing could save. The parts that were good were very good, but it seemed a slower match than previously and the hot finish they were hoping for didn’t quite work. Havoc’s SSP landing looked super brutal. The Angelico crazy dropkick was great, but I hope he’s not thinking he’ll be doing those every match. The belt drop bit seemed like it was the bit that went wrong and angered as mentioned in the taping results. Son of Havoc broke character a little bit by consoling her before she climbed back down.
Marty Martinez/Prince Puma was what it needed to be. Martinez weirdo character translated well to a match. He’s essentially sliding into Son of Havoc’s old role, and that ended up well for him.
Texano/Daivari didn’t click. Texano’s now a face, something the announcers hammered home during the match. Hammered home so annoyingly hard. There was a lot of dubbed in commentary to emphasize that change and Big Ryck being paid off (though Striker couldn’t reference the skit last week since announcers don’t see those), and it came off as a bit overbearing and forced.
Chavo hooking into the Black Lotus storyline felt so random. I mean, at least they’ve got someone who’s actually wrestling on the show a part of it now, but he’s been away from the Temple even longer than she has at this point.
Not a bad episode, but there’s definitely ones I liked better than this one. Still, that Angelico dropkick was crazy.
