By John Moore
Lucha Underground Hits
Aero Star Vignette: This was awesome. We found out that Aero Star isn’t just a sentai warrior, but he is also either one thousand years old, or he utilizes the power of his core generator to time travel. Also, we found out that in present time 2016, the gods are here in the form of man and that Aero Star is here to stop them for the good of humankind? This is an only in Lucha Underground moment, but this is normal in the universe that is being presented.
Jack Evans vs. Drago: Matt Striker was extremely hyped pre-match as it sounded, and for a good reason as we were getting two of the most athletically gifted wrestlers on the roster in one match. These two put on a good show with Drago looking as great as usual and Jack Evans selling his ass off. Jack also has this cool ability to draw huge amounts of rudo heat from the crowd while utilizing what is usually a technico moveset. Drago takes a lot of loses on his end, yet comes out no worse for wear. Hopefully with this “Dragon Slayer” thing, we can get a fun feud.
Catrina: A solid night for Catrina in the backstage scenes. Everything she did progressed a story and she progressed several. We saw her continue to toy with Fenix at the beginning of the show given their history. She had a cool encounter with King Cuerno that developed Cuerno’s motivations as well as Catrina’s contract with the bounty hunter. We also got Catrina trying to bring Prince Puma to the dark side by invoking his love for his mentor, the now “dead” Konnan.
Fenix vs. King Cuerno: This was a fun Last Luchador Standing match. A notable spot in this match, which is usually Fenix’s MO, is where Cuerno kept trying to kick the luchador down, yet he keeps getting up immediately, like a phoenix! Several other cool moments in this match didn’t happen in the match itself. It happened every time they focused the camera on Mil Muertes. Every time Cuerno was on offense, Mil was still, but when Fenix would get the advantage Mil would be excited or at unease. That visual and Matt Striker’s commentary forwarded the history between the two and how Fenix was the one person in the temple that Mil fears.
Officers Ryan and Reyes: I never saw this coming, and again this totally fits into this sci-fi/grindhouse Lucha Underground show. They managed to turn the forgettable and shallow Cortez Castro character into an Officer Reyes character that has actual depth. This is also very unique because now the TV viewer is getting a different POV behind the Reyes character that Temple crowd doesn’t know about. I’m intrigued, and intrigued to see what the sleazy cop Joey Ryan can bring to the table.
Lucha Underground Misses
Kobra Moon vs. Bengala: This was an okay debut for Kobra Moon, but the match still wasn’t that great. To cut them a bit of slack, the production team deserves a lot of credit for cleaning up this match. This comes from my live experience of the match, but I can tell ya a good minute or two was extricated from the final cut and when I saw the match live, it was actually a lot worse than what we saw on TV. All that said, the TV final cut was still a miss overall.
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