Lucha Underground 1×26: Best in the Business

the matches

Cortez Castro & Mr. Cisco [O] DQ Havoc [x] & Angelico (5:24, Psycho Realm)
DelAvar Daivari DQ Texano (0:12, Texano refused to break from the corner at a count of five)
Cage [O] & Cuerno b Puma [X] & Hernandez (7:24, Weapon X)
Alberto el Patron b Johnny Mundo (12:17, Rompe Destinos armbreaker kick to the head)

the developments

The show started and ended with Alberto el Patron and Johnny Mundo. They met Dario together to start the show, turning their ongoing back and forth about who was better into a declaration that they were both better than Hernandez (or “Fernandez”, if you’re Mundo) and he shouldn’t have been the #1 contender. Dario acquiesced to their demands, offering them a match to settle who was best, with the winner facing Hernandez next week to determine the true #1 contender.

The match took up the last quarter of the show. Alberto used some rudo tactics early. Mundo may have hurt his knee on a bad fall out of the ring. Mundo landed the Fin de Mundo, but Alberto got the ropes. Alberto got his armbreaker, but Mundo also turned out of it and got the ropes. Alberto was able to land the big kick to the head one more time and put on the armbar for the clean win.

The first match on the show continued the Crew/trios champions issue: the Crew won a 2v2 match by beating Havoc. Bael got punched off the apron late, but it was otherwise a fair win for the rudos. Ivelisse spent the match yelling criticism to her team, who mostly ignored her and were back to not working well with each other.

Delavar Daviari debuted, after first meeting with Dario in his office. Davari spent most of his meeting messaging on his phone and not looking at Dario, to Cueto’s obvious annoyance. This segment and the match established Davairi has become a real estate mogul in recent years and was now so rich that he didn’t need to wrestle. (He’s nicknamed the Goldn Warrior, and wears all gold.) Daviari claimed he still is wrestling because he inflicting violence. He didn’t get to inflict much, as Texano rushed the ring and refused to stop punching Daviari until he was quickly disqualified. Daviari escaped the beating after the bell.

Dairo continued to stir things up with Hernandez and Puma, but they were pretty much stirred up on their own. Puma would’ve attacked Hernandez in the locker room if not for Konnan’s intervention. Hernandez made it clear he’s no friend of Puma, but stated his intention was to help Puma keep the title long enough for Hernandez to win it from him. Hernandez and Puma weren’t thrilled when Cueto made them a tag team against Cuerno & Cage, and Hernandez was even less happy when Dario informed him he’d have to defend his #1 contendership next week. Hernandez antagonized Puma during the match before pulling him in front of Cuerno’s Flecha del Infierno, then outright turning on him with a kick to the head. Konnan, who had been trying to forge a partnership, backed off Hernandez after the attack. It was too late for Puma, who was easily beat by Cage.

In non match segments, Black Lotus continues to believe she’s ready to face the monster but can’t get past Dragon Azteca. And, to close the show, Catrina stood by the coffin of Mil Muertes, opened it, and ordered him to rise to life once again. Mil Muertes’ eyes reopened to start the show.

thoughts

That’s a lot of text already. There was a lot of different stories packed into the show, especially the first half of it. Everything was easy to follow, but there was so much going on that not all of it was retained. They had so much to work in that only the main event got a proper entrance; two matches started with everyone in the ring and the other had Texano running in and not lasting longer. Maybe that’s the one story (Texano/Davaiari) that could’ve been moved to a different week to give it more time. They advanced the story a bit by explaining Daviari’s back story, but the match itself was a letdown.

Or maybe other things could’ve been moved. The trios feud was just there to remind us what the status quo was for that feud, and the Black Lotus feud just repeated what we had seen prior. Both exist to build anticipation for what’s coming, but the effect is less when there’s so many other things going on.

Second tag match was good and took care of all they needed to. Puma got to do some stuff, Hernandez got to be highly annoying, and Cage & Cuerno won in a situation where they really should’ve won. It’s clear the Puma/Hernandez match is happening at some point, whatever happens with next week’s Alberto/Hernandez match, and they’ve set up everyone well for it.

Main event was very good, easily Great. It felt more like a WWE style match (two chinlock will do it for you), but Alberto working as a rudo went well with how they could set the match up. Alberto never did anything so rudo that he couldn’t still be a good guy by the end of the match. Mundo looked in trouble after taking the flip out of the ring onto the steps, but seemed fine the rest of the way. The finish was really great: it was a clean one after a bunch of recently screwy ones (all seemingly for storyline reasons), Alberto’s kick prior to the end looked awesome, and it’s something Mundo has to address going farther – he tried to get to the top and fell short again.