Lucha Underground 2×5: The Machine

Edit: Here’s Famous B’s voice mail message

The Matches

• Jack Evans defeated PJ Black (3:50, Jack backslide PJ, OK)
• King Cuerno defeated Killshot (5:28, Thrill of the Hunt, OK)
• Texano defeated Mr. Cisco (0:09, superkick,)
• Texano defeated Cortez Castro (2:26, powerbomb)
• Chavo Guerrero defeated Texano (2:33, Cortez trip, entire segment OK)
• Johnny Mundo defeated Cage (7:53, lead pipe, Good)

The Developments

There were a lot of different plots moving forward tonight. Let’s see if I can get them all.

The main event saw Cage and Johnny Mundo have their rematch. It was a back and forth match and one of the longer matches of this season so far. Cage evaded the Fin de Mundo and dropped Johnny with Weapon X, which seemed to mean another win (and one step closer to Mil.) However, Cage was distracted by the debuting Taya, who argued with Cage from the apron while also slipping in some sort of pipe to Mundo. Mundo smacked Cage right in the face with the hard looking object, and Cage was knocked out. Mundo got the win, and he and Taya put the boots to Cage after the match. Taya is in her AAA persona and appears to be Mundo’s new ally.

The main event for next week was set up thru the night. King Cuerno got back on the winning side by beating Killshot with the Thrill of the Hunt. Announcers heaped praise on Killshot despite the loss. After the match, Cuerno went to add in his new piledriver move (called the Thrill of the Kill), but Fenix made the save. The show ended with Cuerno complaining to Catrina about being the hunted instead of the hunter because of the Gift of the Gods belts, and wanting to change things immediately – he wanted Mil Muertes next week. Catrina reminded Cuerno of their deal, but Cuerno wanted no part of that. Catrina switched tactics, revealing she’d already set up a match for Cuerno next week: he’ll defend the Gift of the Gods championship against Fenix, in a ladder match.

King Cuerno wasn’t the only luchador getting on Catrana’s bad side. Pentagon confronted Catrina, demanding a match with Prince Puma after being beat last week. Catrina and Pentagon actually fought, with Pentagon getting Catrina in the armbreaker but Catrina using her vanishing powers to escape. (This segment was a lot of video edits/Catrina vanishing.) Catrina gave Pentagon his match, while warning him he’d pay for attacking her.

The show also caught up with the old boss of the Temple. Dario Cueto and Black Lotus were still setting up people to be thrashed by Matanza, with Dario explaining Matanza had to get ready before they could return to the Temple (and blaming Lotus for this situation.) Dario talked about how much Matanza meant to him. Their mother was an awful person who beat them both. Dario tried to stand up to her one day and would’ve likely been murdered by his mother if not for Matanza making the save – by beating their mother to death with the red bull Dario had on his desk all last season. Dario still has the bull with him as a reminder of that day. Not because of his mother’s death, because that moment made him realize how much he loved violence. Black Lotus did not seem comfortable with this story.

There were actually matches on this show too in between the drama. The opener saw Jack Evans continue to win and PJ Black continue to lose. Jack Evans boasted about being the Dragon Slayer once again, which drew out Drago to watch from the upper level. A distracted Jack threw a water bottle at Drago. It missed, and Jack nearly lost to PJ in the process. Drago came down to ringside, but his mist attack got PJ instead of Jack, and Jack’s all powerful backslide got the three count. Jack escaped. PJ angrily stared at both Drago and the pair of nunchuks he brought to the match, but didn’t attack Drago.

Texano got his hands on Chavo Guerrero, though he had to go thru the Crew to get there in a gauntlet match. Texano beat Mr. Cisco (in a shoulder sling) in seconds, when Cisco was distracted by Chavo’s advice. Cortez Castro lasted longer, but taunted before running into the powerbomb. Chavo didn’t seem a match for Texano either, but Cortez used the bullrope to trip up Texano and hold him down while Chavo got the pin. There was still discord among the rudos after the win, but Texano ran them off before they could act on it.

To start the show, Ian/Vampiro explained his behind the scenes actions from season 1. Vampiro is a personality Ian had locked away for many years, but Vampiro used Pentagon to get out. Vampiro ordered Pentagon to make the sacrifices so Ian would feel no choice but to give in to his darkside, and Vampiro would be fully in control again. (This seemed to fit together with similar scenes in the comic book released today.)

A commercial during the show had Famous B giving out a phone number and promising to make the someone who called famous. It came off a bit like a used car commercial, but the message on the phone had Famous B explaining that he wanted to make the right deserving person famous – kind of like a manager or an agent.

I think that’s everything! No sign of Sexy Star, Willie Mack or any moth. Rey, Dragon Azteca and the ex-trios champs also had the week off. Puma was mentioned on the show but not seen. Mil was on his throne the whole show but didn’t react much.

Thoughts

This was a busy show! Lots of outside of the ring stuff, plus four different match segments. (I’ve got the gauntlet match listed as individual matches, but it was one continuous stream as televised.) It’s a lot of different plots to keep straight, but it felt like they were mostly successful in getting what they needed to get over. There’s so much stuff to get over that maybe some of the minor stuff might get lost, but the really important stuff – Puma/Pentagon, Fenix/Cuerno, Dario’s coming back at some point – went well.

All the different directions meant less time for matches than I’d like, but all the matches were at least OK. I’d like to see what PJ Black and Jack Evans could do with more time, but maybe doing a short match isn’t that bad idea when it’s going to end with a mist attack anyway. Black’s losing seems to have a direction, which is much better than losing for no reason.

Killshot looked better with Cuerno then he did against Mundo to start the season. Te announcers – or those feeding them their lines – are trying to do their best to protect Killshot despite the losses.

The Chavo/Texano stuff feels like a solid early 90s story and wrestling, a different time and place than the rest of the show. It’s not hard to figure out where it’s going – Texano finally defeats Chavo, but in a way where Chavo keeps his credibility – but I think it’s supposed to be a big positive feud for Texano and feels more like killing time until something better opens up for him.

Cage/Mundo was obviously the match of the night, better than I had expected it to be. It could’ve been these two guys doing a lot of moves, and they did do a lot, but it felt like more of a battle. The small bit of Cage taking a look at Mil before finishing his move was a nice touch. It’s hard to believe Cage is actually getting his hands on Mil, with Puma, Pentagon, Fenix and Cuerno (and now Mundo!) seemingly all ahead of him in line, but Cage doesn’t know that – Cage thinks he’s winning and he’s getting the belt that should be his, and he acted appropriately. I wasn’t thrilled with a distraction finish – especially after they seemed to go out of their way to point out those finishes don’t necessarily happen on their show in the opener – but Cage looked like he got destroyed by the pipe shot. I’m sure they had the good sense to protect Cage, but it looked convincingly brutal on TV. It’s too quick to tell how Taya is going to with Mundo, but her first big obstacle is definitely going to be overcoming the stigma of being Replacement Melina.

No one else in wrestling could’ve pulled off the Dario’s Red Bull story better than Dario. He had to go thru a lot of different emotions in a short period of time. The Pentagon/Catrina segment was not on that level, but the way they used Pentagon’s translation captions was effectively done.

Is that everything? I think that’s everything. This felt like the best show since episode 1. Next week, with both Puma/Pentagon and Cuerno/Fenix, figures to challenge for the best episode of the season.

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