Lucha Underground 2×18: Enter the Mundo

Matches

Joey Ryan beat Máscarita Sagrada (3:15, running tornado DDT, OK)

Cage defeats Chavo Guerrero for the Gift of the Gods (7:57, Drill Claw, GOOD)

Johnny Mundo, Jack Evans [O], PJ Black defeated Dragon Azteca [X], Rey Mysterio Jr., Prince Puma for the Lucha Underground Trios Championship (11:30, Jack Evans chair shot to the back→Jack Evans, good)

Developments

Two championships changed hands tonight. Rey Mysterio, Prince Puma and Dragon Azteca are no longer the trios champions, as the new trio of Johnny Mundo, PJ Black, Jack Evans dethroned them. It was meant to be Fenix, and not Mundo, to be part of the challenging trio as a follow up to their runner up performance in the four way trios match. Mundo put himself in the match by taking Fenix out. We didn’t see exactly how, but Fenix was laid out in the locker room with Mundo claiming responsibility. The match was competitive and lengthy, with Puma seemingly having the win off a 630 senton only for Mundo to pull the referee to the floor (taking him out of the match.) The rudos took out Rey with a double superkick, and gave a variety of moves and fouls to the other two champions. Dragon Azteca kicked out once, but was beat soon after.

Cage earned the Gift of the Gods championship he believed he already deserved, by defeating Chavo Guerrero in the middle match on the show. Chavo put together his strongest match of either season and made Cage work for the win (though he never did cheat.) Chavo just didn’t have enough to stop Cage, with Cage even kicking out of the frog splash and turning an attempt at the Three Amigos around into the Drill Claw. Cage wasted no time and immediately declared his desire to cash in the Gift of the Gods for a title match next week against Matanza. Dario & Matanza were not seen on this week’s show, but we were left wondering if we might see another title change next week.

The other match on the show was a Joey Ryan win over Máscarita Sagrada. Ryan had other plans for the rest of the night, and the outcome was more notable for being Sagrada’s third in a row since taking on Famous B. Famous B has made Sagrada more famous, but not more successful. Famous B spent the match trying to advertise his services to everyone and not really paying attention to the fight, which is also not a great sign.

Ryan, frustrated at his lack of progress in the investigation, decided to illegally search Dario’s office. He didn’t really find anything would help, though he did pocket some of Dario’s cash. Joey also wasn’t too sneaky, with first Cortez finding him, then Cisco finding both of them. That one was a problem. Cisco was upset he wasn’t cut in on the robbery attempt he believed he was seeing and said he’d rat them out to Dario. Ryan promptly blew his cover and Cortez had to arrest Cisco (“Francisco Garza”) to keep him quiet.

The bit with King Cuerno at the end of Graver Consquences was explained: he’s now got Mil Muertes mounted on his wall, encased in glass. Mil is unconscious/dead. He needed Catrina to awake him last time, and there’s still no sign of her.

Pentagon, also a Matanza victim, seemed to be doing a lot better. He was moving around normal at Vampiro’s dojo. In a moment echoing a scene between Black Lotus & Dragon Azteca last season, Pentagon Jr. insisted he was ready to get revenge while Vampiro was just as sure he was not. Pentagon seems headed back to the Temple soon either way.

Finally, a Taya vignette aired, pitching her as the Perfect Woman.

Thoughts

This was a much better episode than last week. This Gift of Gods match was surprisingly better than the last one, and the trios title match was very good.

It was a fun main event, if not always as smooth once. They tried a lot of big ideas and not all of them cleanly landed, but it led to a lot of highlights. Jack’s impressive at working with these técnicos and Mundo had some very good moments. The cheating at the finish felt intentionally comically out, but not having it end on the first fall helped.

Johnny, Jack, PJ and Taya have obvious potential as a rudo group on this show. It’s still too bad we couldn’t get more Rey, Dragon, Puma title defenses.

Cage & Chavo’s match was not at all worked the way you’d expect from a Chavo match in LU, and also was a surprisingly good match. Chavo’s matches have been good (to be fair, some of them have been intended to be matches people wouldn’t like), but this became Chavo’s attempt to have the big quality match. They built up the drama with the early leg attack and later setting up for the frog splash, giving people a moment where they believed he could actually win. It didn’t quite fit Chavo’s character for him not to cheat, but it was better for the show for that to be saved for the main event. I’m not sure it makes sense for Chavo to hang in there so long when they’re trying to show Cage has a shot against Matanza, but I don’t think anything that happened hurt Cage for next week.

The Máscarita/Ryan match was fine comedy. They are acknowledging the Famous B/Mascarita bit hasn’t been successful, so hopefully they’re onto to whatever the next step is. Pentagon going from being in traction to walking around fine a week later was odd, but I wanted them to move that along so I don’t have an issue with them moving it along quick. The police vignette also nudged that story along. The Taya vignette was fine and probably over due. The Cuerno one was epic.