Lucha Underground 1×24: Trios Champions

the matches

Sexy Star beat Pentagon Jr. (7:01, spinning headscissors into a backcracker)
Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc defeated Cage, Texano, King Cuerno and Big Ryck, Mack, Kill Shot in an (retroactive) Lucha Underground Trios tournament semifinal
– 8:03, Killshot top rope double stomp on Texano Jr.
– 13:50, Angelico Fall of the Angels Killshot
Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc defeated the Crew (Bael, Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco) to win the Lucha Underground Trios tournament, become first champions (6:38, 20:28 total, Angelico top rope double stomp Cortez Castro + Son of Havoc shooting star press on Mr. Cisco)

the developments

The focus was on the trios tournament, but there were a couple of non-tournament segments:

Black Lotus has now been training with Dragon Azteca for eight weeks and believes she’s ready to take on Matanza. Dragon Azteca believes her anger will cost her. Lotus is able to dispatch assialnts in the dark, but Azteca gets the better of her in the lights.

Johnny Mundo and Alberto el Patron had another testy exchange. Alberto poked Mundo about losing in the trios tournament and not winning the singles title. Johnny Mundo made a slap joke. They will not be hanging out.

The one non-tournament match was Pentagon Jr. taking on Sexy Star. Melissa Santos, with a foot taped, announced much more positively for Sexy Star and rooted for her from her chair. Pentagon dominated the match, but maybe took Sexy Star too lightly (or his run of success too highly) and didn’t really try to put Sexy Star away. Sexy rallied back at times, and eventually caught Pentagon with a headscissors into a backcracker for the upset win. Pentagon was beside himself.

The Cage, King Cuerno, Texano Jr. team lost when Texano Jr. collided with a front row seated Daivari after being hit by a Havoc dive. Daivari spilled his drink on his shirt and went mad, beating up Texano and posting him. Ryck’s team took advantage to beat Texano. Cuerno & Cage looked annoyed.

Ivelisse was limping early on and never came much in. Announcers belived it happened on a silla, but it appeared she might have suffered the injury earlier. She struggled thru the match, and Angelico spent a long time trapped in the ring 1 on 3. He was eventually able to tag out. Havoc finally turned it around by giving Killshot a reverse huracanrana and knocking over Mack & Ryck with a tope after they had caught Ivelisse on a plancha. Angelico took out Killshot with his Fall of Angels crucifix powerbomb for the win.

Melissa did not finish her winner announcement before Dario appeared to interrupt. He congratulating the misfit trio on getting so far, but said the tournament wasn’t over. He introduced the Crew as the final competitors and made it a no DQ match. Announcers pushed the idea that the Crew had been recovering and relaxing fur four weeks, while the other team had been fighting each other and the the other teams. Second match was a total brawl, mostly out of the ring, and with Ivelisse very limited in what she could add. Mr. Cisco dragged Angelico upstairs to separate him from the rest of the team, and the rest of the Crew destroyed Havoc & Ivelisse. Ivelisse was able to escape away from a cane shot, and Angelico wiped out two of the Crew with a running giant plancha from a top Dario’s office all the way into the ring. Ivelisse took out the Crew with cane shots of her own, and Havoc & Angelico landed top rope moves for the victory.

thoughts

Show was very good!

The trios tournament story came across as well on TV as it did live. Maybe more so live, because Angelico’s big dive to end it came as a bigger surprise live, and Striker did a great job telling the stories of all the winners after the match. Still, it was really really good live – I got this week’s show and last week’s show in the course of a few hours, one of the best live experiences I’ve had watching wrestling.

One of the challenges with doing this show, which I’ve mentioned a few times, is they’re always going to be taping episodes months ahead and so they won’t quite know the TV crowd reactions to their stories while they’re filming it. It seems to have worked out great with the trios champions, something that might have looked unimpressive on paper but came thru strongly on TV.

I wonder if they would’ve made a different decision with Pentagon Jr. if they were doing it live; Pentagon got over strong live, but even more so with the TV audience. I think the Sexy Star story makes sense, and the match they had worked, but maybe that wouldn’t have been priority at other times. On the other hand, Sexy Star really needed a serious win if she’s meant to be taken seriously (and she is), and Pentagon didn’t feel hurt that much.

Both the taped pieces came off well. The Black Lotus story is being paced well for something that’s going to last 39 (or so) episodes. Mundo/Alberto will be big when they get to it.