Lucha Underground 1×30: Submit to the Master

matches

Jack Evans beat Argenis for the 2nd Azteca Medallion match (6:07, backslide bridge)
Angelico, Ivelisse, Son of Havoc [O] beat Big Ryck, Cage, Delavar Daivari [X] to retain the Lucha Underground trios championships (7:38, shooting star press]
Pentagon Jr. defeated Sexy Star in a Lucha Underground championship match (9:34, modified tapatia)

all the gifs from the show

developments

A busy show for Chavo, who remains only out for his own best interest. He sold Black Lotus out to Dario Cueto at the first chance, in exchange for protection (the remaining members of the Crew) and some other unsaid reward. Chavo and the Crew were eventually able to subdue Lotus in the locker room and take her to Dario, with Dario threatening to put her in a cage across from Matanza. We never found out her ultimate fate on the show. We did find out that Dario Cueto not only knows Dragon Azteca, but knows Dragon Azteca would not ‘dare’ to set foot in the Temple. (He actually did, kidnapping Lotus to kickstart this plot.)

Black Lotus wasn’t alone in having lockeroom fights. Daivari told Big Ryck that he was able to talk Dario into giving a team of his choice a trios title shot tonight. Ryck suggested his cousin the Mack as the third man, but Cage interrupted to nominate himself. Cage & Mack had issues at the end of the 7 way match and fought again here, with Cage getting the better of it and leaving both Mack and a row of lockers laid out. Daivari stopped Ryck from getting involved, but it didn’t look like he really needed to – Ryck seemed willing to let harm come to his family before it came to his money. It was the champions who had drama during the match, with Havoc and Angelico not wanting to tag out and neither wanting to tag the still hobbled Ivelisse. Ivelisse spent a portion of the match sitting in the crowd, angry she wasn’t allowed in or heard. As Daivari ordered Ryck around late (demanding a tag by saying “I pay you, give him to me”), Ivelisse jumped up on the apron to provide a distraction and Texano hit the ring to lasso punch Big Ryck. Angelico & Havoc got their acts together just enough to quickly beat Daivari and keep the titles.

The show was scheduled to lead off with an Argenis versus Jack Evans match, only Dario found a man returning from a broken am and a man who lost in his debut too boring of a matchup for his show. He decided to make it interesting by putting the second of his seven Aztec Medallions on the line. Jack won in a competitive match.

The main event was a submission match between Pentagon Jr. & Sexy Star. Star seemed to take most of it, despite the announcers pointing out her relative lack of viable submission moves and Vampiro being more uncomfortable with women fighting men (or at least Sexy Star fighting Pentagon Jr.) than in previous match ups. Sexy Star seemed on the cusp of an earned but still surprising victory when Super Fly returned. Super Fly at first signaled he was going to help Sexy against the man who broke his arm, but instead betrayed the woman who took her mask. Super Fly dropped Sexy with a powerbomb, then set her up for Pentagon’s 3 Up 3 Down Driver and a modified tapatia for the win. Pentagon went to break Sexy’s arm, only for Vampiro to rush the ring and break the save. (He’d teased doing it before, when Melissa’s arm was almost broken.) Sexy escaped. Pentagon and Vampiro faced off, with Pentagon seemingly asking Vampiro to take a shot. Vampiro was cheered heavily by the crowd, but refused to fight and walked out. In the lockerroom, Vampiro’s negative thoughts raced thru his head, and caused him to break the mirror with multiple headbutts.

thoughts

Last comes first: there’s a pretty obvious schism between many fans of the show, who would like to see Pentagon Jr. destroy everyone and everything, and the people putting the show together, who believe Sexy Star is an emerging empowerment icon for women (with Striker explicitily making the Rousey comparison during the match.) The people making the shows are the ones who get to make those decisions, but this was just strange to see in action. Sexy Star was a decided underdog in the first Pentagon Jr. match, getting a pinfall victory that seemed to surprise everyone involved. The odds were even more stacked against Sexy Star this time around, and yet she seemed to take most of the match. Pentagon got in spots, including some vicious superkicks, and it was no squash. Just, there was a clear winning side and it wasn’t the armbreaking ax murder. It didn’t work for me and it didn’t seem to work for the people I usually follow when watching these things, but maybe there’s a (more female?) audience out there which bought into it. Even then, even if it gets Sexy Star over, it feels like a waste of Pentagon Jr.’s potential. The show very quickly transitioned Pentagon Jr. out of the Sexy Star feud to Vampiro, but the vignette to close made it clear that’ll be a lot about the non-Pentagon Jr. person as well.

On the flip side, Lucha Underground has gotten more out of Argenis than any promotion before. Maybe after. He looked good against Jack. This wasn’t quite as good as the match with Aerostar, but neither man had to kill each other. Jack as over the top heel is working out well.

Trios title match was a bit disappointing for fans of the champions. The storylines just prevented the match from really getting going until it was just about over, and it ended up as a chapter in the (less interesting) Texano/Daivari feud, with some subtle hints of Big Ryck problems down the line. I kind of liked the Mack/Cage fight more than I liked the match.

Dragon Azteca was more explicitly set up as the polar opposite to Dario. And also a fool for trusting a Guerrero.