Lucha Underground 4×13: The Circle of Life

Matches

Matanza beat Joey Wrestling
(2:53, Wrath of the Gods, ok)

Killshot beat Big Bad Steve
(7:42, Killstomp, ok)

Pentagon Dark beat Hernandez for the Lucha Underground Championship
(7:04, Fear Factor, ok)

Status Check

Champion: Pentagon Dark (5 defenses)
Gift of the Gods: Dragon Azteca (2 defenses)
Trios Champions: Reptile Tribe (Kobra Moon, Daga, Jeremiah Snake) (0 defenses)
Died This Season (14): Jeremiah Crane (casket)*, Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed), Cortez Castro (sacrificed), Máscarita Sagrada (murdered by Rabbits), Vinnie Massaro (sacrificed), Pizza Guy (sacrificed), Vibora (beheaded), Mala Suerte (sacrificed) , Saltador (sacrificed), Benji the Agent (murdered by Ricky), Angelico (implied to have been murdered by Ricky), Catrina (fell off a roof), Joey Wrestling (sacrificed)
Resurrected (2): Jeremiah Crane/Snake, Fenix

Developments

That’s a wrap on Catrina. She’s gone this season from half alive to totally alive to totally dead. Totally alive really was her undoing: it made her an enemy of Melissa Santos for taking that life from Fenix, and gave her a sour attitude towards Mil Muertes. Catrina was in the process of breaking up with Mil for good, giving him his stone and leaving the Ice Temple, when she was confronted by Melissa. The two fought around and up the Temple, ending up on the roof. Melissa threw Catrina over the side, where Catrina grabbed onto a bar to save her from her doom. Melissa had a moment to ponder what to do next. She didn’t get a choice. Mil scared Melissa off, grabbed Catrina by the one arm still hanging from the bar, put the stone in her hand, and dropped Catrina to her death.

Melissa found Catrina’s body on the ground near the Temple. Aerostar found Melissa, and asked for a favor – Melissa’s half of the amulet for the thing she loves the most. Melissa quickly agreed. Aerostar appeared to suck the life force out of Catrina into his circular Arc Reactor thingy, traveled back ten weeks to when Catrina had sucked the life out of Fenix, and put that life back in Fenix. Aerostar brought Fenix back to the present to reunite with Melissa. Fenix looked out of it, with something strange going in with his eyes, and Aerostar warned he might not be back to normal right away. Melissa gave Aerostar her half of the amulet – the same amulet Aerostar might have been responsible in giving away in the first place.

Melissa did the ring announcing for the rest of the show, with no hint of anything had happened.

The rest of the show was much less dramatic. Joey Wrestling and Beautiful Brenda appear to be the only non-injured members of the wedding party. (Vampiro went as far as to tease that Mundo’s career may be over, which seemed like a giant stretch even on an episode where time travel and resurrections just happened.) Joey made poor use of his health, challenging Matanza to avenge his friends. Wrestling got in more offense than anyone else against the powered-up Matanza, though he was still ultimately defeated and sacrificed.

Brenda was healthy enough t second Big Bad Steve, who did not fare much better against Killshot. Killshot is a full rudo now, and has changed his style to a slower, targeted attack. Son of Havoc watched the match from the bleachers. Killshot confronted him post match. Their fight led to Killshot getting unmasked. Vampiro was emphasized how mysterious Killshot was and how no one had seen his face.

Pentagon had been scheduled to defend his title against Johnny Mundo, and was disappointed not to give Mundo a wedding gift of a broken arm. Pentagon offered an open title match challenge which was meant by previous arm break victim Hernandez. Hernandez got in some offense, but Pentagon retaining was in no real doubt. A more interesting challenge was set up afterward when King Cuerno attacked Pentagon with the belt and gave him the Thrill of the Kill on the title.

Thoughts

None of the matches really clicked, and all existed just as set up matches for stuff later in the season. The Wrestling/Matanza was weirdly competitive. Wrestling hasn’t been slotted in as a bottom tier guy like many of the other Matanza victims but, he’s also Joey Mercury obviously here for a one-off and no more. It didn’t even go for three minutes, so maybe I’m making too much of very little. It also could’ve been fine going no minutes – Mundo coming back for revenge against Matanza was already set up last week.

Killshot’s style fits his new personality and matches some things he’s been doing outside of Lucha Underground. It also seemed like a total waste of Big Bad Steve to be a pseudo-tecnico selling body part damage. He can do more interesting things, and so can Killshot. This was effective, just not anything interesting. The Havoc/Killshot eventual match – mask vs mask? – will probably be good but it already feels like they’re stalling that out until the end of the season.

That end of the season isn’t really that far away. There’s nine more episodes after tonight. With that in mind, it felt like a waste of time to do a Hernandez/Pentagon match. Hernandez was fine, the match was alright as everything else, but Hernandez has been on this show twice in the last three seasons. Perhaps this was another spot designed for an AAA guy who couldn’t get a work visa and Hernandez was the last minute fill in, but it’s an issue of depth of the Lucha Underground roster that Hernandez has to be propped up as a challenger. I don’t know why the Marty the Moth vignette aired with no follow up so far – he would’ve been more interesting. King Cuerno just getting the title shot tonight would’ve been something. The inevitable Jake Strong match would’ve at least paid off those squashes. This just felt like killing time in a season where there isn’t a lot less to kill. This show needed at least one actual competitive match.

I didn’t enjoy the Catrina/Melissa fight as much as people on Twitter seemed to. It was intentionally cut to hide most of the action, which is a weird thing on a wrestling show. (Melissa tossing Catrina off the roof is more Catrina falling off-screen and a cut to her hanging from the pole.) The Aerostar time travel was authentically goofy Lucha Underground, though it kind of left the viewer wondering why all of this happened anyway. I think they just needed a way to write Catrina off this season, but the narrative arc – Catrina gets her life back, starts being a jerk to Mil for no clear reason, Mil causes her death – was not a particularly satisfying one. This vignette is the reason to watch this episode, but I’m not sure it all added up to something satisfying.