By John Moore
Lucha Underground Hits
Prince Puma and Pentagon Jr vs. The Disciples of Death: Solid match all across the board and a good story told all around. The story here was Mil trying to get revenge against Puma and Pentagon for their actions last week so he tried to use their hatred for each other to his advantage. On one hand, his cannon fodder guys still failed, but Pentagon and Puma were at odds by the end so Mil gained something from this match. The Disciples also got to look better in the ring, but it sucks that all they do is get beat up on behalf of Mil Muertes.
PJ Black vs. The Mack: While it was odd that Lucha Underground had PJ Black lose his debut match, the match itself was still solid and Mack is developing into a huge fan favorite. Mack seems to put all of his effort in the ring and he’s also deceptively athletic, even up there with Drago as far as ability is concerned. Even though Black lost, I’m confident that he will end up being built somehow and that it will fit into the universe that is Lucha Underground.
Marty The Moth and Sexy Star: This was a really uncomfortable segment to watch and I believe was the intention. Marty the Moth also plays the creepy suburban man-child very well. At the same time, as the viewer you can’t help but feel afraid and sympathy for Sexy Star. She’s been trapped by this creep-o for six months. They are also going into the deep symbolic route which are Marty’s possibly false motivations which add another layer of intrigue. The best part of this storyline though is Marty’s unknown “sister”, which they are building up slowly and surely.
Kobra Moon: I’ll get into it later on in how these vignettes are starting to get a bit repetitive, but I like the intro from the standpoint that we are getting another unique female on the Lucha Underground roster. Last season, we only got two, this season we have Kobra Moon, and Marty the Moth’s sister in the pipeline. Maybe we can finally get some woman vs. woman matches in Lucha Underground which is a rarity. Kobra Moon also looks to have a cool characterization in that she’s a street fighter, a thief, and a masked luchadora.
Rey Mystero and Dragon Azteca: Lucha Underground always knocks it out of the park with these post show hooks for next week’s episode and what a better hook there is then to introduce the viewers to their huge free agent “get”, Rey Mystero. They are also putting him in one of their prime storylines which are the “Mexico” and “Black Lotus” storylines. We were also introduced to another cool character in Dragon Azteca II who will be taking the title of Dragon Azteca after Black Lotus killed the original when he tried to rescue her. Last season, Dragon said this apprentice was “not ready yet” and that he wasn’t as strong as fellow student Puma yet. I wonder now with the death of his master, now is he ready?
Lucha Underground Misses
Johnny Mundo vs. Killshot: Minor miss, as this was a solid one-on-one match. Killshot is a really tough person to get behind because we really don’t know what we are supposed to think about this guy one way or another. He wears a mask and he likes to aim at things? He also is either a friend or family member to Big Ryck. Another reason behind this miss is that I did see this segment live and there were several scenes cut from Johnny Mundo including a really good heel promo that he cut after his match.
Backstage Fight Scenes: From a production standpoint, these scenes are awesome! The integrations of wing chun are well executed. The thing that causes a disconnect with me is how the fight scenes happen in almost a different universe than the Temple. I had thought this ever since I saw the Alberto Del Rio debut vignette. The question that comes to the viewer’s mind is “why can’t he (or she) do that in the ring?”. It’s also becoming their formula vignette like the following: Alberto beat up mooks in an alley, PJ Black beats up mooks in front of a motel, Vampiro beats up mooks in a hallway, Kobra Moon beats up mooks in the street, etc. The remedy to this would just to have the luchadores use their unique style in the vignettes and make that look good. Examples of good use of this technique is the Vampiro one where he uses Krav Maga that he can utilize practically. Also, they did a vignette for Konnan’s stick and it was a solid one because he used that stick to destroy Cage and the Disciples of Death, and it matched the vignette.
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