Matches
Sexy Star won a Gift of the Gods match (good)
– Night Claw eliminated Siniestro de la Muerte (2:54, Flamita Fly)
– Night Claw eliminated Daga (6:25, phoenix splash)
– Killshot eliminated Night Claw (7:01, storm cradle driver)
– Mariposa eliminated Killshot (9:10, Butterfly Effect,)
– Sexy Star eliminated Mariposa (15:04, Marty punch→ Sexy Pin)
– Sexy Star eliminated Marty the Moth Martinez (17:52, cross armbreaker)
Mil Muertes defeated King Cuerno in a death match (13:47, martinete, great)
Developments
Only two matches tonight, which were more definite conclusions than setting stuff up for later. That was saved for the outside the ring moments.
Night Claw debuted in the Gift of the Gods match, which was turned into an elimination match this time. The layout of the match took advantage off that change (and was likely the reason for the cage.) The first half of the match was showcase for Claw, breaking the curse on new wrestlers by picking up two pinfalls and a moonsault off the cage. Killshot beating Night Claw moved the match to the second part, built around the two Moth feuds this season. Killshot was unable to gain revenge on Marty, and Marty still has the dog tags. It went better for Sexy Star, who was able to defeat both her tormentors (with a little accidental help from Marty hitting Sexy) to win the championship. Sexy’s been in every Gift of the Gods match so far, and becomes the first woman to win the title or any singles gold in Lucha Underground.
Of note, Kobra Moon is still hanging around watching Daga. No progress on that front.
There wasn’t much story in the main event, just brutality. King Cuerno’s natural arrogance caught him at moments, but mostly the reborn (again) Mil Muertes was way too much for him or anyone else. Mil put Cuerno thru four tables, smacked him with a crowbar to the back of the head, and dropped him with a martinete for the win. Cuerno was attended to by paramedics. He did not appear to be literally dead, but he was pretty well killed off. I’m still not convinced of Sexy Star’s chances, but Muertes appears to be a fearsome challenger to whoever comes out of Ultima Lucha with the big belt.
That title match came up at the end of the show. Striker directly asked Vampiro what his relationship was with Pentagon Jr. at the moment. Vampiro responded by dumping his meds in the garbage and announcing he was leaving to go train his protege.
The Crew and Joey Ryan do not have a match at Ultima Lucha 2, but they made their own payoff. Mr. Cisco was sent into to talk to Dario while wearing a wire. Dario had no time for him, then paranoid thought Cisco was working against him. I guess it’s not paranoid if you’re right, and Dario quickly figured out Cisco was working for the police. Dario snuffed out the microphone, then snuffed out the life of poor Mr. Cisco, beating him to death with the same red bull that Dario says was used to kill his mother. (Joey & Cortez were shocked by being found out, but didn’t rush in to make a save.) While Dario’s hands were still covered in blood, he picked up the phone and told someone “it’s time.”
Thoughts
I liked this episode better than last week’s, although I’m not sure either match hit it’s peak potential.
The 7 way match was seriously great during the Siniestro/Daga/Claw/Killshot dominated portion, with some incredible sequences and great big spots. Night Claw came off as a star on Day 1, looking spectacular in the ring, getting those first two pinfalls, and wowing everyone with his moonsault. I would’ve liked to see him go any farther, but they gave preference to the story they were telling from that season and Night Claw was being set up more for Season 3. It’s just that Sexy Star didn’t have a good performance tonight, looking slow and awkward at time, and it was hard for me to get into her story. It seems like her and the Moths feud is over now, but it felt like it was over at No Mas and it just keeps hanging around. The crowd was into her winning, but it didn’t connect with me.
The death match was a near one sided bulldozing, but an entertaining one. Cuerno got some hope spots in, but never felt like he was that close to defeating Mil. Mil’s utter destruction of him was impressive. The biggest challenge for Mil’s big matches is he’s had so many of them on this show already, and every new one has to compete against the old ones. This didn’t have the passion (or blood) of the Fenix matches, and seemed more designed to repair Mil than to be interestingly competitive.
The irony is the Mil Muertes match was laid out with the idea King Cuerno wouldn’t be available to Lucha Underground for a long time if ever again, the Night Claw match was to make him a big deal going into season 3, and it would’ve been more useful the other way. As best as we can tell, this was Night Claw’s one and only match with Lucha Underground. Perhaps they quietly taped some vignettes, but he didn’t appear before the crowd in Season 3 and seems unlikely to again given his harsh breakup with AAA. It’s shame, because just this taste of him set up so many more matches I would’ve loved to see him here. The ultimate destination of a match with Prince Puma would’ve been incredible, as their alter egos have shown elsewhere.
Night Claw won’t be the first LU character to suddenly vanish between seasons – maybe we’ll see him up on a wall in S3? – but they had already set him up as a big part of the mythos and it might be tougher to extract him. And they might not have even been sure what to do with him at first, because his status wasn’t clear for a while.)
Meanwhile, Cuerno was unable to go elsewhere and is eventually going to have to return here. He’s still a cool character, but the later half of this season has done him no favors and he’s going to need some of his own repairs to recapture his original spot. You never know how things are going to turn out – hey, maybe things will change and they’ll find a way to use Night Claw too.
There’s no repairing Mr. Cisco, who’s true and well dead. (That’s three out of the four Crew members gone, with Bael murdered by Matanza and Big Ryck offed in the comic books.) He had his best run as a psuedo-tecnico in the last few weeks, though there was always only going to be so much run with that setup. “Dead” people on this show have ways of sneaking back in under other identities and hopefully we’ll get to see him in one which better allows that style.
How did Ryan and Cortez not make a move when their informant is exposed? Their work leaves much to be desired.
This was not a blowaway show, but it was pretty strong one. Next week lines up to be great.
