Matches
Ivelisse defeated Mariposa (6:16, sunset flip powerbomb, OK)
Cage defeated Texano (6:26, F5, good)
Matanza defeats Puma (12:57, Wrath of the Gods, great)
Developments
The Dial of the Doom was a big part of the show for the third time this season, though a little differently than before. Dario spun the wheel at the start of the show, and landed on Puma. He declared that would be the main event, not the immediate match the last two occasions. It was a main event quality match, both entertaining and Puma coming as close to a win as anyone besides Pentagon Dark. Puma landed the 630 in the corner, but was immediately speared by Mil Muertes. Dario ordered the referee to not call the DQ. Striker drew attention to how Matanza was slow to get up and might have not kicked out had their been a cover (and ignored how close he was to the ropes.) Matanza and Mil, meeting for the first time on this show since their Grave Consequences match, had a brief glare before Matanza finished off Puma himself. Vampiro continues to push the idea that Puma needs to get in touch with his dark side (not in those words) to reclaim his spot, but attacking Muertes to do so might have cost him the title here.
We’ll have to wait until next time to see who gets Puma’s spot on the wheel. Ivelisse got the Mack’s spot, but her name obviously didn’t come up. Instead, she had an ordinary match with Mariposa. Ivelisse won despite Marty interfering, and suffered an attack from the siblings after the match. Later, as Ivelisse was recovering in the locker room, her new boyfriend caught up with her – he missed her match, tried to cover by saying he figured she would be in main event, and threatened to break the face of the Martinez’s for attacking her. His name is Jeremiah (the debuting Sami Callihan) and he seems like a wonderful total scumbag. Ivelisse wanted him to stay out of it, to keep her Lucha Underground life separate from her real life, but I don’t think any of this is going to work out well for her.
Cage beat Texano to go up 2-0 in their best of 5. It was more of a brawl, but Cage is dominant in the standings. He’s one win away from an opportunity. I guess Mundo is also one win away from an opportunity, but he can’t seem to get that right win and is upset about having to do it in the first place. For about the third time in five episodes, Mundo demanded Dario give him a title shot against Matanza or Sexy Star, and he got turned out down again. Mundo pointed out his team won the atomicos match, and Dario pointed out Jack actually got the win, so Jack will get a shot against Sexy Star next week. Mundo is less than thrilled with Dario’s booking.
The preview mention seeing the Rabbit Tribe. We got a vague :30 teaser for the Rabbit Tribe that seemed to have less info than the preview. The previewed mention a chilling message for Killshot. We got just that. Joey Ryan said a mystery man handed him an envelope to hand to hand to Killshot. (Given Joey’s current status quo, who knows about any of his stories.) Inside was simply a message saying “You Left Me For Dead.” Back in his intro vignette, Killshot mention he believed he was the only one of his unit to make it out alive from being a prisoner of war. Looks like he might have not been wrong on that one, or maybe not telling the truth.
Thoughts
Main event really brought the show up. It was a very competitive and exciting match. I’m willing to trade Matanza’s reduced invulnerable for more of him just tossing people around like a ragdoll. Puma can be a pretty good ragdoll, and he can impressively knock Matanza around. They went 12 minutes and felt like they were just starting to get into an exciting end game; there’s a lot more here if they have a chance to get back to it. Mil costing Puma the match was a rare interference bit that got an actual angry reaction from the crowd. I think they’re ready to see that match.
The opener was perhaps Lucha Underground’s best argument yet for intergender wrestling, because the woman versus woman match wasn’t all that interesting. I rated it OK and that feels generous: it was a slower speed match than normal LU, the action wasn’t as good, and there were some noticeable edits/framing to hide some moves not looking good. Mariposa’s in storyline performance hasn’t been great – she’s in danger of Catrina sucking out her soul too – and her actual work on this show has been disappointing on this show. I still love the No Mas match, but nothing else has been much good. The promise of this being a mixed tag feud was not promising. (On the other hand, Jeremiah does seem like he’ll be entertaining at least – he had a pretty good sense of his character in his first time out.)
Cage/Texano was definitely better this time (though “This Is Awesome” chant four minutes in was a bit much, or we missed a whole lot.) The concept itself isn’t working as well this time. Drago & Aerostar were about on the same level when they did this. Cage has had title challenges on both seasons, Texano has…been on both seasons, and Cage dominating the series is re-enforcing those standings. Hopefully Texano’s inevitable comeback will give people a better reason to care about him and this series.
