Matches
Jake Strong won a Gift of the Gods seven-man battle royal (3:07, ok)
0:56 Big Bad Steve OUT (via Aerostar)
1:12 Hernandez OUT (PJ Black & King Cuerno)
1:51 PJ Black & King Cuerno OUT (Jake Strong
2:09 Aerostar OUT (Jake Strong)
3:07 Dante Fox OUT (Jake Strong)
Willie Mack beat Killshot
(2:57, n/r, DQ for Mil running in)
Jake Strong beat Johnny Mundo
(13:05, ankle lock, good)
Status Check
Champion: Marty the Moth (1 defense)
Gift of the Gods: will be one of Jake Strong, Big Bad Steve, Hernandez, PJ Black, King Cuerno, Aerostar, and Dante Fox
Trios Champions: Reptile Tribe (Kobra Moon, Daga, Jeremiah Snake) (2 defenses)
Died This Season (15): 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), Jack Evans (sacrificed)
Resurrected (2): Jeremiah Crane/Snake, Fenix
Developments
With all the major players accounted for on Ultima Lucha already, Lucha Underground focused on the one person they’ve been treating like a big deal who has nothing to do: Jake Strong. Strong got two matches, two wins, and one vignette. We learned Strong didn’t want to be handed a title opportunity but was fine with being handed a Medalion. (Antonio awarded picked all 7 Medalion holders, as Dario has done for select people in the past.) We learned Strong is so determined to prove himself that he made a dumb decision not to eliminate anyone from a match. We learned he may be working with the Cuetos to soften up Johnny Mundo before the Ultima Lucha match. And we learned Strong may be demonically possessed, based on the weird way his voice changed while talking to Cueto.
Antonio announced the Aztec Medalions would work a lot like the last cycle. There was a surprise battle royal, where the winner would get to eliminate someone before next week. Dante Fox made his first appearance in the battle royal. The announcers noted Fox had been missing. There was no explanation of where he’d been on this show. Fox did make it the longest before being thrown out by Strong. After Strong refused to eliminate anyone – he wanted to prove he deserved the shot by beating everyone – Antonio announced next week’s match would be a seven-way elimination match. That seemed to render this week’s match completely moot, though it did inspire Antonio to give Strong more of a challenge by putting him against Johnny Mundo in the main event.
Mundo battled Strong for a while, coming close to winning a couple times. He also seemed intimated by Strong during the match, and desperate in moments. The announcers suggested Mundo wasn’t 100% from the wedding attack, which is the closest thing he got to an out for losing clean. Strong went to break Mundo’s ankle after the match, only to be surprisingly confronted by Matanza. Matanza and Strong were going to have their own face off, only for Strong to back off, leaving Matanza to his Ultima Lucha opponent. There was a suggestion here that Strong & Matanza were working together, though that wasn’t really set up in the vignette of Strong & Antonio that started the show. At any rate, Matanza bashed and bloodied Johnny, and took out Taya when she tried to make the save.
One more Ultima Lucha match was made, though not exactly how it was expected. Ivelisse & XO Liscious had a rare in-ring promo, something that clearly would’ve been a vignette in past seasons. They explained there was a challenge for the Reptile Tribe to defend the trios titles against the Rabbit Tribe and Ivelisse/Liscious/Joey Ryan, only Ryan was injured by the White Rabbit’s mandible claw and he won’t be back in time for the match. They introduced their replacement partner: the returning Sammy Guevera. Guevera didn’t get anywhere before Famous B interrupted, having suffered no ill effects from last week’s beating. B pointed out that Guevara had signed a contract Infamous Inc – an inescapable seven-year contract, wink wink. The only way Guevera would be competing in a trios match at Ultima Lucha is on a Famous B team. (Famous offered to get Texano & Wagner pulled off a Tijuana house show to help out.) Guevera threw the contract in the trash, threw the trash on Famous B, and then superkicked Famous B. Those seven-year contracts don’t seem as binding as hyped.
The only other piece of business was not a long one. Old friends The Mack & Killshot had a one on one match. As long as it lasted, the ideas were The Mack was going into the Mil Muertes match more focused than ever, and Son of Havoc was doing the same sort of watching from a sniper perch that Killshot has been known to do. It didn’t last long, with Mil Muertes attacking The Mack and laying out of Havoc when he tried to make the save.
Ultima Lucha 4/Remaining Matches
4×20 (next week):
7 way elimination match for the Gift of the Gods
(Perhaps other matches, but they haven’t done the “one match, one hour” episode yet this season, and there’s not much else left to do.)
4×21 (Ultima Lucha 4 week 1/Halloween)
three way trios title match
Taya Mundo vs Ricky Mundo
Son of Havoc vs Killshot in a mask versus mask match
4×22 (Ultima Lucha 4 week 2/two hour special)
Dragon Azteca Jr. vs Fenix in a 2 out of 3 falls match
Mil Muertes vs the Mack in a death match
Johnny Mundo vs Matanza Cueto
Pentagon Dark vs Marty the Moth Martinez in a Cero Miedo match for the Lucha Underground Championship
Thoughts
Jack Strong/Johnny Mundo was Strong’s best match on the show. It still was missing something. Strong plays a vicious character, breaking people’s ankles regularly. Matanza seemed so much more dangerous in the minute he was beating up Mundo, even beyond the blood. Strong throwing Mundo around looked impressive, and Mundo showing fear towards him helped his character, but it still left me thinking about how I’d be a little more interested in seeing Mundo/Muertes again. Neither Strong nor Mundo are visually that much different than their WWE incarnations, but Mundo feels distanced from it and Strong still feels right of WWE TV. Wherever they’re going with that demonic voice, I wish they had started it a lot sooner and paid it off this season.
The rest of the show really wasn’t much. It’s nice they came up with an explanation for Sammy Guevera on the team (and I’d rather see him than Joey Ryan), but that skit felt like something the Lucha Underground of the last 3 seasons wouldn’t have done. Not the 7-year contract part – Son of Havoc used the same reference way back in episode 3! – but it would’ve been a cool vignette. The Mack versus Killshot made a lot of narrative sense as a match, though I couldn’t figure out how they were going to get an ending until they just didn’t have one. I guess, in a 2018 meta way, having a bad finish there made me surprised when they just ended the main event clean. The battle royal was better than the last time they did it, but utterly pointless by the outcome (outside of the fun Aerostar/Steve spots, I guess.)
