Matches
Dezmond X beat Paul London (4:14, bodyscsissors cradle, ok) for an Aztec Medallion
The Mack won a battle royal over King Cuerno, Ivelisse, Dezmond X, Dragon Azteca, Mil Muertes, Son of Havoc (2:01, ok)
Vibora beat Johnny Mundo (8:51, twisting chokeslam, good)
Pentagon Dark beat Brian Cage to keep the Lucha Underground championship (6:46, package piledriver, good)
Status Check
Champion: Pentagon Dark
Gift of the Gods: vacant
Aztec Medallions: Dragon Azteca Jr., King Cuerno, Ivelisse, the Mack, Son of Havoc, Mil Muertes, Dezmond X
Trios Champions: Killshot, the Mack, Son of Havoc
Died This Season (6): Jeremiah Crane (casket), Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed), Cortez Castro (sacrificed), Máscarita Sagrada (murdered by Rabbits)
Happenings
This was not a big week of shakeups on Lucha Underground, but everything else seemed a little bit off from normal.
Take the opener. Paul London and the Rabbit Tribe were off – apparently a darker Rabbit Tribe after last week’s murder – and figured to beat the Dezmond X. Instead, X won cleanly and earned the final Medallion. Antonio Cueto proceeded directly to the ceremony of placing all the Medallions in the belt directly after, something that hasn’t been seen in-arena for a while. (During this, Matt Striker mentioned that some of the luchadors had been hearing about this belt since they were young, which doesn’t seem to fit with Dario coming up with the idea three seasons ago.) All seven luchadors where assembled in the ring when Antonio explained he didn’t like the number seven and ordered an immediate battle royal. The winner would get to pick one person to be eliminated from next week’s title match. Mil Muertes destroyed everyone until Havoc and Mack teamed up to send him out, so, after Havoc eliminated himself to give Mack the victory, the Mack wisely decided to eliminate Muertes. Muertes proceeded to destroy everyone for this offense except for Mack. Mack’s in the Gift of the Gods match next week and has a beating from Mil coming at some point.
The title match also felt a little bit off. It was not much longer than the Penta/Mantaza match, with Penta just getting in the right position to kick off for his Destroyer/package piledriver melody. That was enough to put down the Machine for the win, but not enough to put Cage done for the arm break. Cage ended up giving Penta a F5 on the belt, and the title match hasn’t ended this feud.
The Reptile Tribe versus Worldwide Underground feud is not close to over. The Vibora/Johnny Mundo match saw Taya, Kobra Moon, PJ Black, Drago, Daga and Ricky Mundo all get involved and brawl even after the match was over. In between, Vibora beat Mundo relatively clean in by far his longest match in this promotion. That didn’t get anyone closer to settling it.
The only vignette tonight saw XO Licious having some Flashdance fantasies post workout, without realizing Jack Evans was stalking him. Ricky Mundo found Jack, upset he wasn’t part of the previous brawl. Jack was annoyed about Ricky and his creepy doll Rosa. Jack walked off, and Rosa suggested doing to Jack what they did to Angelico. It’s still unclear what that is, but it doesn’t seem like they bought him a first-class flight to Europe and one of those neck pillows.
Thoughts
This was an OK show. It was hurt a little bit because Penta & Cage wasn’t the epic that some Lucha Underground title matches have been, and that’s becoming a pattern with Penta title matches this season. The post-match was a tease for more, and maybe they were saving something back for whenever that’ll be happening.
Dezmond X(avier)’s lack of creativity in character was surpassed in the ring, where he got to show some cool offense with newly evil Paul London. The Rabbit Tribe doing not a lot more besides London in a black outfit seemed a little let down after last week’s bit. Maybe they’ll get to it later, and maybe they didn’t want London to lose in a bigger match quite yet. Mil being taken out of the Gift of Gods match was transparently that way, something where Mil isn’t going to be challenging soon but they didn’t want him to take another loss. They’re definitely setting up a Mack/Muertes feud, and that’s not a pairing I would’ve expected.
The battle royal wasn’t much of a match and the Medallion presentation ate up a lot of time on a show with a hurried main event. It makes sense for the overall picture because it gave an opening for Striker to explain/re-explain some ideas about the tribes and the Medallions. If they’re going heavy on the series lore, this show could use a bit more of that. Someone must’ve thought the show needed some late changes; there was a lot of Striker commentary obviously redone after the fact, and the crowd booing Cage after his attack sounded faker than usual.
Vibora’s been a Johnny Mundo project during the “off season.” It wasn’t a big surprise this match took place, so they could do it for ‘real’. All the interference meant these two were wrestling for less than the time would indicate, but Vibora did look a lot better than the last time we saw him. I mean, he could barely put one foot in front of another last time, so the bar wasn’t high, but he was able to flip over the bar. It’s mostly Vibora on offense, and selling is going to be the bigger challenge but destroying people is kind of what he should be doing. He was able to take Mundo’s reverse huracanrana, and I don’t think that would’ve happened last year. Vibora’s still not smooth and I don’t need a big singles run for him, but he’s got more to offer to the role now than just being tall. I wish they had a better angle of Mundo’s dive onto Kobra Moon, because it seemed like she was destroyed but we couldn’t really tell. Street clothes Daga was cooler than expected, and Drago no longer wearing the slave chain around his neck suggested to me that these reptiles are meant to be the técnicos.
