Matches
Joey Ryan [O] beat Mr. Cisco & Cortez Castro [X] for an Aztec Medallion (1:17, inside cradle with tights pull, OK)
Rey Mysterio, Prince Puma [O], Dragon Azteca Jr. beat Son of Havoc [X], Ivellise, Johnny Mundo (w/Taya) to retain the Lucha Underground Championship (7:58, 630 senton, good)
Matanza (c) defeated Mil Muertes in a Graver Consequences match to keep the Lucha Underground Championship (14:46, Wrath of the Gods -> coffin close, good)
Developments
This was mostly a straight forward match show, with one key storyline bookending the show and another passing thru it.
Dario met Councilman Delgado in an empty subterranean bar. Delgado definitely holds some power over Dario. Dario paid Delgado $50K in what appeared to be protection money, but that’s not all. Delgado informed/threatened Dario that his boss would be appearing in the temple when his descension is complete, and that Matanza would be no match for him. Dario did get something useful out of it; Delgado let Dario know the police were on to him and may have people undercover the Temple. We know that’s Joey Ryan and Cortez Castro, but Dario seemed dismissive of the idea.
To close the show, Councilman Delgado handed over the $50K to his boss in a limo. Delgado seemed confident and controlling with Dario, but was sweaty and nervous in this moment. We, of course, never saw the boss – we just saw him light up a cigar in a brief flash to end the scene.
The other big plot line is King Cuerno has apparently decided to make Mil Muertes his new prey, with or without the title. Cuerno was stalking Mil in his candle sanctuary (yes, it’s a sanctuary for candles) and took the place of one of the pallbearers wheeling the casket out at the end of the show.
The whole Mil organization had a rough night. No sign of Siniestro, but Mil was roundly and fairly beat by Matanza in their title match. Matanza attacked Catrina late in the match (revenge for Catrina slapping Dario), knocking her out and placing her and the rock in a coffin. Dario looked in the coffin after the match, and Catrina was nowhere to be found. Ghost powers work in her favor, maybe.
For what it’s worth, Catrina explained she’d been waiting for the main event and Mil to win the title for 197 years. It’s unclear what Catrina would get out of this title reign that she was unable to do (or complete?) in the first one, but it did give an estimate to her age.
Dario off delivering bribes perhaps prevented us from getting an office scene where he explained why Mundo was Angelico’s replacement on the trios team. We were just reminded the original team didn’t along at first anyway so maybe it wouldn’t be a big problem that this team didn’t get along either. I guess it wasn’t a big problem, because the new champs generally outclassed the old ones in a match less competitive than you’d think, but Ivelisse and Taya not getting along didn’t help matters. Taya attacked Ivelisse after the match, so this won’t be the end of that. Rey Mysterio insisted Prince Puma hit his move for the win, for whatever it means.
The opener was mostly noteworthy for how suddenly it ended. Joey pulled the tights, but since it was Cortez involved, there might be something extra to it. Joey Ryan is the seventh medallion winner, joining Aerostar, Texano, Sexy Star, the Mack, Siniestro de la Muerte and (I guess) Chavo Guerrero as holding a Medallions. This means a Gift of the Gods match is coming soon, but it’s hard to see any one of those seven being able to defeat Matanza. It’s hard to see anyone beating Matanza.
Thoughts
Like last week, this show was mostly dependent on the main event. There was more help in the undercard this week, but they laid out the time to have a big epic conclusion. It didn’t work for me this time; there was big guys brawling and cool destruction but it was missing the story and emotion from last week – and from the other Grave Consequnces match. The extra caskets were never really explained, but served as just more things to break. There were definitely some cool spots – the idea of punching out of a casket to stop it was great, and they came up with an explanation with the weird chainmail glove. This just didn’t feel like one of the bigger matches in Lucha Underground history, and had to follow one that was.
(However you feel about the intergender wrestling on the show, Catrina being knocked unconcious and carried around limp is not a great visual for a day where domestic violence is in the wrestling news. They couldn’t predict the future four months ago, but it didn’t make it any less unsettling.)
The trios title match felt like it took a while to really got going, and then only got there for about a minute before ending. Ivelisse may have been hurt early on and it could’ve thrown it out, but there’s got to be a really good match with Son of Havoc & Johnny Mundo against these three guys and this was not really that. The opener was quick and inconsequential.
The latest mystery man angle concerned me. Throwing around “desecnion” and “My Lord” seems like like a religious plot line, which usually don’t work out so great on TV shows. On this TV show, it comes off as trying to create a new unseen but fearsome super villain just episodes after we finally met the last unseen but fearsome super villain. (They were selling as the new big bad as the scariest thing possible, which was hard to take seriously after we saw a monster and the personification of death battle for 14 minutes.) Matanza’s turned out OK, but I’d like not to do this again so soon, and making it work twice is going to be awful tough. This show has pulled off things which didn’t look likely on paper, but I just have a bad feeling about this one.
