Lucha Underground 2×15: No Más

Matches

The Mack beat Marty Martinez for an Aztec Medallion (3:45, fireman’s carry into a Stunner, good)

Siniestro de la Muerte beat King Cuerno for an Aztec Medallion (1:43, springboard guillotine, ok)

Cage beat Máscarita Sagrada for Cage’s Aztec Medallion(0:51, F5, OK)

Sexy Star beat Mariposa for an Aztec Medallion in a No Más match (15:24, cross armbreaker, excellent)

Developments

Sexy Star and Mariposa destroyed each other for fifteen minutes in the first ever No Mas match, where the loser must say No Mas to give up. This didn’t have the props of last year’s Cero Miedo match, but it felt as violent and disturbingly brutal at times. The Lucha Underground did not seem to know what to make of it in the first third of the match. It was an extended battle on a scaffold above the temple, where it became clear Sexy Star star was bleeding from the forehead and Mariposa attempted to send her a long way to the floor below, where the crowd a little bit freaked out and got into the match.

(It’s unclear how Sexy Star started to bleed or if there was some Hollywood magic involved – both women spent a couple moments fighting in a darkened area of the scaffold, enough time for blading or something else to happen. There’s also plenty of time to edit. I’m not sure it really matters which one it was, because it came off as authentic, but the blood and the match around it will obviously be a big point of discussion the next few days.)

Marty tried to help his sister twice in the match, but was thwarted by the Mack both times. Mariposa tried to submit Sexy Star after, and Sexy Star screamed into “Fuck you Mariposa” in to the microphone, which was not bleeped. Sexy turned it around and submitted Mariposa to a cross armbreaker to gain revenge over her tormentor. And also win an Aztec Medallion, though that seemed trivial.

Sexy – and we, I guess – had Dario to thank for that moment. In a meeting his office, Dario likened Sexy’s problems with Mariposa to his own mother mistreating Matanza and him, and told Sexy she wouldn’t be free unless she beat Mariposa like they had done to Dario’s mother. (Sexy didn’t quite hammer Mariposa in the head with a bull statue until she was not moving, but just quite.) Dario advised Sexy that she only would truly feel free if she kept on attacking Mariposa after victory was declared, and Sexy indeed that did for a moment – shoving the referee down and reapplying the cross armbreaker before finally relenting.

There were other events on this show. No one’s going to remember them, which maybe makes it even more important to write about them.

This was a big Aztec Medallion show, with six of seven now handed out. The Mack & Marty was the most ordinary, and also the only other match to last over two minutes. Mack won cleanly, as he did against Marty later on. Siniestro and Cuerno was previewed by Catrina boasting that Siniestro would be a much more loyal Gift of the Gods champion than Cuerno had been; Cuerno disputed the point, but was quickly put down by a rock shot and a springboard legdrop to the back of the head.

Famous B’s management of Máscarita Sagrada got off to a rough start, but the GIFs of Cage tossing around the mini probably will make him famous. (They’d be all set if Cage could dropkick Sagrada into a flip off the apron.) This was for the Medallion Cage already owned, not a new one, but neither Cage nor Sagrada ended up with the trophy. Chavo Guerrero, earlier told he wasn’t getting a shot at a Medallion after getting injured in his Lucha Underground championship match last season and failing to win both Aztec Warfars, decided to just steal Cage’s and run. It’s not quite clear if this will hold up, but anything is possible in Dario’s Temple.

Next week may prove that point once again. Dario and Catrina met at the start of the show, with Catrina demanding a rematch. Dario said he had no issue with that, Matanza wanted it as well. Mil will get his shot next week in Mil’s own specialty match, a Grave Consequences match – only, Dario will now have 4 caskets at ringside, declaring it a Graver Consquences match for the Lucha Underground championship.

Thoughts

That was one of the most amazing matches in the history of Lucha Underground. It’s the spiritual sequel to the Cero Miedo match, only that match had weeks of anticipation for a confrontation. Mariposa/Sexy was not clicking in the same way, and you could very much tell early on. Vampiro sold it as stunned silence, but it came off more like the crowd didn’t care about this match or stipulation. Beating each other into bruised messes changed their minds.

That was uncomfortable. Sexy Star bleeding into an unrecognizable mess, both women hitting each other hard, the entire fight was meant to be uncomfortable. There weren’t light-tubes, but they got the sense of pushing each other to their very extremes even stronger in that match. I’m not sure I want all wrestling to be this – the mix of the cage match and the four way last week and this match and Muertes & Matanza show all the different ways this show can go – but it doesn’t get better as a cathartic epic conclusion than the final moments of this match.

I’ve seen Sexy Star have matches for an immense length of time, and nothing she’s had every came close to this. She could wrestle for another decade and not come close this. She brought something in this match I’ve never seen out of her It’s an unbelievably physical and emotional performance, and Mariposa deserves as much credit for helping bringing it out of her. Everyone’s know what Mariposa is capable of, and it was outstanding to see her get to show it in this match. This is going to be remembered as one of the signature moments of Lucha Underground’s history long in to the future.

Let’s dismiss everything else quick: Mack/Marty was fine, the other matches were so short as to not be rateable, and I actually thought the soundbite that would be most worth discussion was going to be Catrina’s take on “Siniestro”. Given his 1-0 new start, I suspect we’ll be hearing it quite a few more times. Nothing in this paragraph matters.