Lucha Underground 3×34: Career Opportunities

Matches

Drago beat The Mack for an Aztec Medallion (4:43, Dragon’s Tail, good)
Cortez Castro defeated Joey Ryan (13:02, fireman’s carry bomb onto riot shields, good)
Matanza beat Saltador Paul London & Mala Suerte (4:40, Wrath of the Gods on Saltador, ok)

Developments

An old issue was wrapped up, a new one was started, and a couple existing ones were made bigger, but the focus was mostly on lining up the pieces for Lucha Underground.

The big news came in a showdown between Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo. Puma was there to reveal his team for an atomicos match next week, but never got to it before Mundo interrupted. Mundo successfully baited a confident Puma into putting his mask on the line in their title match at Ultima Lucha 3. Dario put a stop to it – not because he didn’t like it, but because he already has a mask on the line (Fenix) and he didn’t want to seem like he was running out of ideas. Dario proposed putting Puma’s career on the line instead, and Puma agreed.

Dario was busy on the show. He also informed Rey of his match with Matanza next week’s, but told him to leave the building before Matanza’s match tonight. Rey didn’t like being ordered around, but relented when Dario threatened to fire Dragon Azteca if Rey didn’t bail. Matanza was in a bit more trouble than usual against the Rabbit Tribe, with the trio using confetti eggs to set up a London Shooting Star Press, but Matanza kicked out of that and destroyed them all. Rey threatened to end the Cuetos next week, but it’s hard to see how he’s going to pull that off – he holds that pin over Matanza, but only after a lot of people got in shots on Matanza.

Since Rey left, Dragon Azteca will still be with Lucha Underground to face Pentagon Dark for the final Aztec Medallion next week. Two more were given out on this show. Cortez Castro beat Joey Ryan to get one and possibly finally shut up (ex?) partner for a while. Drago won the other medallion, defeating The Mack with distraction help from Kobra Moon. The Mack attack attacked both of them post match, only for Pindar & Vibora to go after him. The Mack could use a couple of friends.

Rest of The Season guide

announced matches
episode 100 (September 13):

• Rey Mysterio vs Matanza
• Johnny Mundo, PJ Black, Taya, Ricky Mandel vs Prince Puma, ?, ??, ??
• Dragon Azteca vs Pentagon Dark for the final Aztec Medallion

episode 101 (September 20):

• nothing yet

episode 102 (September 27, Ultima Lucha Week 1)

• nothing yet

episode 103 (October 4, Ultima Lucha Week 2)

• Fenix vs Marty the Moth, mask vs hair

episode 104 (October 11, Ultima Lucha Week 3)

• nothing yet

episode 105 (October 18, Ultima Lucha Week 4)

• Johnny Mundo (c) vs Prince Puma, title versus career for the Lucha Underground championship

Matches teased but not Dario official:

• Gift of the Gods match (Paul London, Mala Suerte, Saltador, Son of Havoc, Cortez Castro, The Mack, either Dragon Azteca or Pentagon Dark)
• Mil Muertes vs Cage
• Taya vs Sexy Star
• Killshot vs Dante Fox
• Ivelisse vs Catrina – announced at the start, not mentioned since Ivelisse was injured
• the Mack and partners vs the Reptile Tribe for the Trios championship?
• That Famous B/Texano thing is probably still happening

There’s things that are going to change; it’d be hard to have Ultima Lucha with Pentagon or Dragon Azteca not being involved. Matanza and Rey have a match next week but not the actual Ultima Lucha shows. Jeremiah Crane is out there as an important name who doesn’t have a spot. There were no vignettes on this show, perhaps they’ll have a bunch to start putting some of those matches down in pen next week.

Thoughts

I didn’t get much out of this one and that was so much different than reactions I was reading that I wonder if it was me and not the show.

I think I’m least off from everyone on the Mack/Drago match, in that it’s hard not to have the same opinion on it: the few minutes they went were fine, wish they went a lot longer, another cheap distraction finish felt like the Cueto Cup was back, maybe it’s not great they didn’t go long if that was going to be the ending. The upside was they at least seemed to set up a direction for the Mack, who hasn’t had one since the Mundo matches. The Reptiles haven’t had much to do either, so it’s more just interesting figuring out who could be the Mack’s partners. He’s friends with Sexy Star, but she’s got Taya. He’s friends (or at least was at one point) with Killshot, but he’s got Dante Fox.

The Matanza/Rabbit Tribe is entirely dependent on how much time you’ve got for the Rabbit Tribe antics. I had a minimal amount of time. I was surprised how much they got on Matanza, even if it was 3 on 1. I expected them to be tossed around and destroyed impressively and quickly, and it took a while to get there. Everyone gets something in and the Rabbit Tribe had a lot of fun, but setting up a match the level of Rey/Matanza didn’t seem the right place for it – something more like Argenis/Fenix would’ve worked for me.

The police brawl played a lot more to the gimmick than last week’s biker brawl, but it felt to me like them just going from one pre-arranged scenery spot to another. Neither man is as exciting as Son of Havoc can be, but also neither man was all that much trying to win, instead just running through every cop joke spot they could think of. It felt too artificial at times, like when the riot gear guys suddenly stopped standing around the ring and got into a tight circle around Joey Ryan for no real reason (except the next spot was them getting spectacularly taken out.) I checked out around the time when a tazer shot to the groin was sold for the length of a crowd cut and was the set up for a donut toss, but it wasn’t getting me much before that. It wasn’t as fun or inventive as the Máscarita/Famous B brawl either, it just felt like stuff to me. And that’s to me – this match seemed to be way over with other people, so don’t let my disregard totally turn you away. I understand Cortez & Ryan did more and worked harder, but I still kind of enjoyed Mack & Drago more (at least up until the finish.)

The in-ring segments were fine. Except, the Dario/Rey one felt like one that was written up to be a Dario’s Office vignette, only they suddenly realized Rey wasn’t going to be available to film it so they reworked it as an in-ring skit. I have more I want to say about the main event, but not until it happens – I think I need to start writing a post about all the stuff I want to write but can’t for altering how you watch episodes. Let me just point out for context that when this was being taped (way back in early June 2016), the same stories about Ricochet leaving LU existed and this is an intentional wink at them. I may have not gotten into this episode, but I’ll at least say they had a pretty idea where they were going.