Lucha Underground Review: Episode 33 (WE WANT THE MOTH! WE WANT THE MOTH!)
Press play.
It's time, it's time, it's Lucha Underground review time! How appropriate to use that the night after Vader returned into our lives? Yes, not only did the original Beast King appear on a wrestling show last night, but the LU returned to deliver another solid show. No, it wasn't All Night Long, but what is All Night Long? You don't just follow up Shenmue with Jet Set Radio, you need to cool down first, play a little Crazy Taxi or Sonic Adventure. This was the cool down, and hey, as far as cool downs go, pretty solid. But enough Dreamcast references; wouldn't want to alienate the Nintendo readers. ON WITH THE SHOW!!!
Johnny Mundo vs. Alberto El Patron at Ultima Lucha
Yup, it's official dudes; the rematch will indeed take place at the Grand Papi of Them All. And really, what more needs to be said? I loved the first match between these two, and I expect the second one shall be just as good. And yet, it still may be the fifth best match on the card. Goodness me, I cannot wait for this show.
I'm Super Fly, I lost my mask and WAHHH! WAHHH!
Man, good work by the LU to make Super Fly come off as the biggest baby since Bruce Willis in Look Who's Talking. How he's more upset with Sexy Star for taking his mask than Dario Cueto for setting the match up or Pentagon Jr for breaking his arm is a mystery to me, but hey, maybe Fly's got some weird ass priorities. Or he's just the first ever emo lucha star. In any event, I liked the passive aggressive nature here, and I really liked how Vampiro looked like he wanted to deck Super Fly five or six times. It was a nice way to build up both the Super Fly-Sexy Star angle and the Vampiro-Pentagon story. We'll get to the latter a bit later though.
Super Fly defeated Sexy Star
This match was what it was. Which is to say eh. I don't know what happened between this match and the mask vs. mask match, but it just didn't work for me as well as I'd like. Especially Super Fly. He had the aggression I expected him to have, but it didn't come across well, and even worse, he seemed kind of rushed and sloppy at times. Whenever he was on the attack, the crowd was more disinterested than a high schooler watching The Searchers. Honestly, Sexy saved this match. The pace picked up when she had control, she was mostly crisp with her in ring action (save a out of the ring crossbody, which she managed to pull off with some clever thinking mid air) and things just seemed to work better with her carrying the load. Good performance by her, average performance by her opponent. Let's hope they are moving onto better things. And to think I was predicting them for Ultima Lucha just a few days ago! The lesson, as always; don't let your love for Sexy Star cloud your judgment. Certainly don't get sad when she loses to Super Fly. Which didn't happen with me. YOU CAN'T PROVE IT!
Dragon of the Sun
Loved the shots of Drago doing the martial arts training up on the Temple roof as the sun beamed down like a Bridge on the River Kwai scene. It didn't do a whole lot and I'm not really sure what the point was, but it looked cool, and recalled some of the earlier vignettes the LU used to do. Not bad, not bad at all. Though it holds no candle to what came next.
Pentagon and Vampiro: Shit Gets Real Edition
First off, props to LU for continuing the ongoing issues between Melissa Santos and Pentagon. Good they haven't forgotten that, and I especially liked Santos standing up for herself and giving the man with zero fear a shove. Nice work. Secondly, yeah baby, yeah baby, I really like it! How awesome of a job have the LU team done putting this feud together? Every time Pentagon and Vamp have stared each other down...hell, every time Vamp has just gotten up from the booth to confront Pentagon, there's been an electricity in the Temple you only feel during stuff like Angelico's leap or every Fenix-Mil Muertes match. I love it. What I loved even more here is that Vamp stood up for himself, didn't get rattled this time and actually forced Pentagon to walk away. Nicely done. I think having Vamp do something similar to the last confrontation, while not a terrible choice, would've been a tad disappointing. Here though, they had him look like the badass he is and still managed to have him give the Roy Batty "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe" face. Congrats LU and congrats Vamp! I can't wait for this match. It might be the match I'm most hyped for in regards to Ultima Lucha.
Aztec Medallion Four Way
Aero Star defeats Cage, The Mack and Marty the Moth
With Pentagon having left due to a case of fearing Vampiro/not giving a crap about medallions, this match was turned into a four way. And while we all missed what Pentagon could've brought to the table, this match was still pretty damn good. Aero Star did his usual high flying goodness while paying homage to Power Rangers: Turbo. The Mack and Cage battling each other was sick nasty. Holy shit, when can we give these two an All Night Long episode to go at it? They beat the ever living tar out of each other, and all I want to see now is them tangle like Harmonica and Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. And yes, for those keeping score at home, that's now the fourth reference of a movie made before 1983. We're going old school today!
Of course, as great as those three were, the MVP was, to the surprise of no intelligent woman or man, Marty the Moth. My boy! As big of a supporter as I am of the Moth, even I couldn't believe how entertaining he was in this match. He nailed all of his comedy spots; my favorites were him and Aero Star buddying up at the beginning, and then the Moth waving at the Mack later on because that's what the Moth does. Even better though, he was crisp as hell in the ring. How about that outside the ring dive? It recalled the Undertaker's dive out of the ring from Wrestlemania 25, only Marty hit his opponents instead of the floor face first like poor Taker did. Great spot, the kind you take for granted when people like Angelico and Puma are just blowing your mind all the time. Well done Marty; even though Aero Star took the win (very deserved by the way. I can't wait to see him, Jack Evans, Fenix and whoever else is in this major seven man match), you left a really big mark on this match. Myself and the rest of the killer moths are proud.
We're taking over!
You could make the case that this segment, along with the Vamp-Pentagon confrontation, was the moment of the night for the LU. There were Angelico, Ivelisse and Havoc, arguing as per usual, until Catrina came in and nearly made Eric Bischoff the happiest man alive. Actually, the more I think about it, this was definitely a scene Bischoff would've enjoyed. All that was missing was Catrina saying the best Trios team in the world had three minutes (which by the way would've been the sexiest uttering of the phrase "three minutes" in history) right before the Skeletor Army kicked the tar out of them. Not looking good for any one on the LU roster these days who isn't associated with Catrina and the Beast King, huh? Let's just hope the Skeletor's have got their chemistry down for the inevitable tangle with everyone's favorite dysfunctional trio. I'd hate to see Havoc and Angelico do multiple big spots in order to save the match. Wait a minute...nope, I would love to see that. Keep on flying boys!
#1 Contenders Match for the Lucha Underground Championship
Mil Muertes defeats Drago
Remember when I was predicting a triple threat between Mil, Drago and Puma at Ultima Lucha? Boy, was I off on that one! In my defense, I didn't see Hernandez showing up here and beating up Drago like he was going to TNA afterwards and there'd be no consequences. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened! In all seriousness, I have no problem with Hernandez showing up in TNA, much like I had no problem when guys like Luger and Rude did it back in the 90s and much like I have no problem with dudes walking out if they're unhappy. Perhaps I will if it affects whether LU airs his feud with Drago or not, but otherwise, I don't hold it against someone for making what they feel is a sound business decision. Gotta do what's best for you, right? The only thing; how is going to TNA best for Hernandez when it looks like they're about to sink into the ocean two months from now (not to mention the fact that he's never exactly taken off their as much as we all thought)? Like I said, I don't blame him for leaving. But I'm also not going to feel bad for him if he finds himself floating on a door when/if TNA sinks like the Titanic a few months from now.
As for the match, it was a tale of two halves. I'll admit, I wasn't that interested at first; not that the action wasn't bad, but the result appearing to be a foregone conclusion (something the crowd sensed as well) seemed to just suck the energy out. Then Mil turned into the Beast King, Drago turned into the resilient fighter that wouldn't go away, and bam, I was sucked in again. What a great second half. When Mil turns it on, there's no one better than him these days; he really is the LU's Brock Lesnar and Bray Wyatt all rolled into one. And while I'm disappointed Drago isn't going to be involved in the title picture (especially if his feud with Hernandez is now scrapped), it's great that Mil will be in the title picture. We're getting closer now to the Mil-Catrina-Skeletor takeover, which should hopefully lead to El Jefe (evidently on vacation for the second straight week because, hey, El Jefe needs some time off too) having no choice but to unleash Matanza to stop him. By the way, loved Puma and Konnan walking out to have a far away stare down with Mil and Catrina. Did you see Konnan's face during that? Man was scared shitless. I haven't seen him look that despondent since El Hijo del Santo gave AAA control back at Triplemania 2009!
That's it dudes! Hope you enjoyed the show and the review. I'll be back later with some NBA talk, perhaps some more wrestling. Whatever tickles the fancy. Till then, TEAM VAMPIRO!
