Lucha Underground 2×17: Crime and Punishment

Matches

Daga [O] beat Máscarita Sagrada [X], Kobra Moon, Argenis (4:58, Thunder Rosa sit down Air Raid Crash→Daga elbow drop , OK)

Killshot beat Marty the Moth (7:08, storm cradle driver, good)

Chavo Guerrero [O] beat Aerostar, Texano, Joey Ryan [X], the Mack, Marty Martinez, Sexy Star (8:32, Cage Drill Claw->pin, good)

developments

Chavo Guerero is the new Gift of the Gods champion without having even won a Medallion match. Chavo was able to use Cage’s stolen Medallion after tricking Cage into stealing back a medallion sized washer instead. Dario ruled whoever place the Medallion in the belt got entry into the belt, so Cage was out of the match. There was no clear favorite in the match, and everyone eventually teamed up to take out Chavo, only for Cage to walk into the match and destroy everyone but Chavo. Chavo won the match and is indeed the Gift of the Gods champion – this week, and maybe this week only, since Cage revealed Dario had already given him a shot against the winner for the belt next week.

Marty tried confronting Killshot before their match, and ended up on his back. The match was no different, with Killshot pulling out his finish in an even match. Marty took this badly, attacking Killshot and taking his dogtags.

Kobra Moon was more interested in flirting with Daga than winning the match, even giving up the likely winning pin so Daga could take it instead. Daga didn’t appear too interested in anything besides the win.

Vampiro’s “recovery” strategy for healing Pentagon appears to be hurting Pentagon so much that he becomes immune to pain. This week, Vampiro hit Pentagon first with a cane, then a barbed wire bat, as the show ended.

Thoughts

The grades are all about the same, but Marty/Killshot was the best match of the night for me. The others had a few highlights that gave some value for them, these two guys did the best of putting together a match. They clicked well together with a few really impressive spots – Marty catching the dive looked really good, and Killshot’s offense looked sharp. The post match felt a little hammy but obviously the feud must continue.

The fans didn’t seem particularly into the Gift of the Gods match or rooting for any particular person to win, which hurt. They really seemed into the concept at Ultima Lucha. This match was left as a collection of big spots, some cute, but it didn’t overall feel on the level of the other massive man matches they’ve done. Chavo winning was a groaner, and can only salvaged by Cage destroying him next week. There’s decent hope of that – we are a long way from episode 2 LU lead rudo Chavo.

The four way was as good as it could’ve been expected to be when the random selection of people (and Daga & Argenis were better at working with Máscarita than most people they could’ve picked.) Not sure what to make of Kobra Moon & Daga, though between it and Joey & Sexy in the main event, we had two intergender “fights” that turned into something else.

My first thought when this was over was to check my notes and figure out how much longer we have of these Pentagon Jr./Vampiro vignettes. They are not working for me. Pentagon will get built up at the end, as everyone does, but they’re taking him way down before they get there. And the Ian/Vampiro thing is just all over the place’ maybe the idea is he’s now Vampiro all the time but pretending to be Ian at the Temple, but I’m not sure and I’m not sure I care all that much. I’d like to just get back to seeing Pentagon in the ring, soon.

This was one of the weaker episodes of the season; it’s felt like a lot of setup for things they’re going to payoff later, and the payoff episodes are the much better ones. There was nothing terrible on this one, but not a lot worth going back and checking out.