Lucha Underground 2×20: The Contenders

Matches

Killshot DCOR Marty The Moth (1:20, OK)
Drago & Aerostar defeated Jack Evans & PJ Black in a nunchuck match (7:53, Dragon’s Lair, great)
Rey Mysterio Jr., Prince Puma, Son of Havoc, The Mack, Texano, Sexy Star defeated Fenix, Pentagon Jr., Ivelisse, Johnny Mundo, Taya, King Cuerno (12:21, Mundo Spanish Fly on Puma, good)

Developments

Ultima Lucha 2 is four weeks away, and everything on this show was directed at that. Black Lotus will finally make her in-ring debut as part of that show, with Dario giving her a match against Dragon Azteca Jr. to avenge her parents. Dario’s not without his reasons: Lotus’ confrontation with Azteca has given her some doubts about who’s telling the truth about her parent’s death, but Dario managed to keep her from believing it was Matanza from the moment. (We actually don’t really know.)

Matanza himself will be busy on the show. There’s no #1 contender and no Gift of the Gods champion, so Dario’s cooked up a new plan to determine who gets a title shot: a 6v6 match one fall this week, with the winning team facing off against each other in an elimination match next week, and the winner of that getting the shot. This meant people who wouldn’t ordinarly get along had to for the sake of the title shot. Taya & Ivelisse had the most issues among teammates, but no one outright backstabbed each other. Rey & Puma did cost each other match in a fashion – Mundo throw Rey into Puma as he was going up for the 619, then Mundo pulled Puma off the top with a Spanish Fly for the surprising clean win. Puma & Rey aren’t having much luck as a team.

Chavo Guerrero was meant to be among the 12, and would’ve advanced to the final if the original lineup stayed. Instead, before he could get to the ring, he was met by a wheelchair riding Pentagon. Pentagon thanked Chavo for being the only one who supported him. (Unclear what this meant, unless we’re going all the way back to the early episodes of season 1 – and I seem to recall Chavo hitting Pentagon with a chair by the end of that.) Pentagon paid Chavo back for the assistance by rising out of the wheelchair, hitting Chavo, and breaking his arm. Pentagon demanded Chavo’s spot in the match. Dario wasn’t sure if Pentagon was ready, but agreed to let it happen when Pentagon insisted. Vampiro had no idea what to make of it, and us of him.

There wasn’t much story advancement in the nunchuck match. The nunchucks were harder to get than you’d think, stashed away from the ring and sometimes requiring a boost to get. Aerostar did a dive off the office after Jack carefully fell from a hanging position. It didn’t get much better for Jack: Drago knocked him around with the nunchucks, misted him, and then rolled him up for the win.

The opener really never took place. Killshot snuck up behind Marty, tackled him out of the ring, and they never made it back. Marty still has the dog tags and they’re probably not done with each other.

Also not done: Mr. Cisco. The officers convinced him it was better idea to go talk to Dario wearing a wire than spend the next long stretch in jail. The weird bit is the cops feel they already have Dario for a lot of serious crimes, but they’re still investing him because Dario Cueto is “the linchpin to the end of days.” That doesn’t sound good.

Also also not done: Mil Muertes. With Cuerno back in the ring, Catrina was able to ghost into his trophy room and use her rock to wake Mil back up again. Who knows how many times she’s done this so far, but I’d bet many of them don’t involve Mil waking up and headbutting a glass case to get free. Bad things are coming for King Cuerno.

(In an error that definitely wasn’t supposed to be part of the developments, the preview image for the 12 man tag showed Fireball instead of Fenix.)

Thoughts

This is another week with really good matches. The opener really was an angle disguised as a match, but the main event and the nunchuck match were fun chaos.

I wish the main event got more time, which is weird to say about a 12 minute match. There was a ton of action, a lot of matchups we haven’t seen before, and a fast pace to it all. It was just missing a few moments to breathe and get over the importance of the match; it was more an all-star match than one everyone was desperately trying to win (and getting along with people.) Outside Taya/Ivelisse (and the nice Ivelisse/Son of Havoc bit), there didn’t seem to be enough time to examime the idea that these were unusual alliances for the night – it should’ve been a bigger deal to see Cuerno & Fenix on the same side, but we just got brief pushing and shoving before the match. Pentagon forcing his way into the match was a bit of a tell about who was going to win, but the match was enjoyable even without total drama. (Pentagon didn’t seem to have the massive back injury being played up in this storyline, which was more of an issue.) The dive train at the end was cool, as well as Mundo putting a premature end to it and leading into the finish. Mundo winning clean was a big surprise after last week; if this show was happening in real time, the Prince Puma rumors would be exploding after the last couple of weeks.

Striker selling the a six way elimination match as some cruel twist by Dario was a bit too much, but the match should be good anyway. The only time we’ve seen Fenix, Pentagon and King Cuerno (or a guy who looks a lot like him) in the ring together this year, it was pretty good so I’ve got high hopes for this one. Taya, Ivelisse and Mundo can take turns playing Octagon Jr.

The nunchucks match felt like a month or so late. It was good they reminded us of the previous bathroom run-in between the two teams because of how long it’s taken to get back to it. The match was a total big spot showcase. Everyone got moments, but Jack’s rubber man antics really stole the show. He’s so good at being a jerk on this show, and then taking amazing looking beatings. I don’t even have room to GIF have the stuff he did in this one (or even Aerostar’s dive, or the mist, or the wacky double teams early.) The gimmick match is usually the end of a Lucha Underground feud, but PJ & Jack bringing the trios title out for this suggested there’s more to it.

Killshot and Marty came across stronger in their brawl than I think they did in their match a few weeks ago. This really wasn’t much (I was surprised to check and see it went even a minute), but it bodes well for whenever they have the real match.

The rudos air guitars/drums now making audible music is going to be another won of those things everyone has strong feelings about. I amused by that, but I’m leery about wherever mythology plot they’re going with Dario and the man in the limo – but as long as they’re giving me good matches, I don’t really mind much.

Ultima Lucha 2 Card So Far – starts on July 6th, 3 weeks of shows

• Matanza (c) vs one of Johnny Mundo/Taya/Ivelisse/King Cuerno/Fenix/Pentagon Jr.
• Dragon Azteca Jr. vs Black Lotus
• (probably something with Killshot & Marty)
• lots more matches, that’s three weeks to fill.