By John Moore
Lucha Underground TV on El Rey Network
Taped November 22 in Los Angeles, California
The show was dedicated to the memory of the late great Hayabusa. The episode’s title was “Life After Death”…
The show didn’t have a “previously on…” video package like they usually do and instead we were brought right into a cinematic where Fenix was clutching his Gift of the Gods Championship. Eerie music was playing. Catrina teleported in. She said she tried everything against him but he just keeps rising from the ashes. Catrina said she desires Fenix’s powers since it would give her life again. Fenix held out his hand and Catrina accepted. Catrina said she sometimes wonders if she made the wrong choice by not staying loyal to Fenix.
Fenix and Catrina shared a romantic kiss that lasted a few seconds with the camera rotating in dramatic fashion. Catrina said it was their final kiss and Mil Muertes will destroy the Fenix once and for all. Catrina said that Fenix will bring her back from the dead. Catrina teleported away and Fenix double facepalmed…
John’s Thoughts: I like to overthink these things sometimes. So I’m going with Catrina’s a several century old witch who licks people to “soul-transfer” and give her youth. She also probably sees Fenix as a fountain of youth/life. Ughhh… This show sometimes… But that’s was makes it awesome!
In another unorthodox opening. Melissa Santos opened the shows before Striker and Vampiro checked in. The announcers were there though and the Trios title match was announced.
1. Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico vs. The Disciples of Death (w/Catrina) in a career vs. title match for the Lucha Underground Trios Championships. Catrina led the disciples to the ring with her magic rock. The trios paired off with Havoc’s team getting the upper hand with a triangle of moves. They then isolated the silver guy. The purple guy knocked Havoc off the top rope. The Purple guy then dropkicked Ivelisse when the action slowed down. The gold guy kicked Angelico outside and kept him down.
The purple guy locked in a stretch muffler on Ivelisse and Striker noted that the disciples are targeting Ivelisse’s history of lower body injuries. Son of Havoc eventually got the hot tag and beat up on the purple and gold guy. Angelico tagged in and hit a tiger knee on the purple guy. He followed up with a caporieta kick on the gold guy. Angelico hit a Pele kick on the silver one. Havoc and Angelico took out their opponents with outside flips. Havoc tried a springboard but was tripped by Catrina.
In a strange move that reminds me of dumb TNA moments, the silver guy escaped a Razor’s edge by Angelico. Then the purple guy did twin magic on him? Didn’t the silver guy escape and thus wasn’t damaged by the power bomb? The purple guy tried to use this to steal the win with an inside cradle. Angelico hit the Fall of the Angels on the purple guy with Son of Havoc hitting the shooting star press. Angelico picked up the pinfall victory to secure their jobs as well as their titles.
Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico defeated Disciples of Death via pinfall in 4:55 to become the new Lucha Underground Trios Champions.
The crowd chanted “you deserve it”. Oh no! God help us! Matt Striker just announced Chavo Guerrero Jr vs. El Texano Jr coming up…[C]
John’s Thoughts: An awesome performance from Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico as is usual. I am both surprised and not surprised at the outcome. I’m not surprised that the babyfaces won and were allowed to stay at the temple. I was surprised that the Disciples were made to look so ineffective in the loss; almost as if Lucha Underground has started to give up on the putty patrol dudes. At least all is right in the world and hopefully the Trios division picks up against with the titles now in better hands. All the putty patrollers did was get beat up by people like Konnan singlehandedly while holding the titles hostage.
Prince Puma was beating up a punching bag as Johnny Mundo walked in and called Puma an amigo. Johnny Mundo was sarcastic in saying that he thought Puma would pull out a win last week. Johnny Mundo assumed that Puma was prepping for Aztec warfare. He said he was too nice on Puma last year and this year he’s taking Puma to “slamtown”. Mundo was shadow boxing as Puma was kickboxing the bag. Mundo said this wasn’t Puma’s world. He did a combo on the bag and said it was his world. Puma then started to emit funny puma sound effects. Puma punched a hole through the sandbag…
Rey Mysterio was sitting down at his dojo table while drinking some El Rey brand liquor…
John’s Thoughts: Ok! Ok! Wait a sec.. Freakin’ El Rey Brand liquor! At least it isn’t the overkill of Miller Lite that we got last year.
El Dragon Azteca was summoned by Rey Mysterio Jr and Rey gave him a shotglass of the El Rey tequila. Rey said that Dragon’s training was complete. He said he had something to give him and it was a sealed envelope. The envelope had an invitation to Aztec Warfare. Rey said he will have the opportunity to show that Dragon Azteca belongs in the temple. Azteca wondered, and Rey revealed that he was going too. Rey said “may the best man win!” as they took their shots…[C]
John’s Thoughts: The middle of the show seems to be the place where they usually place these cinematics. I like the purpose of these two in that it served the purpose of hyping Aztec Warfare which is coming soon! Rey Mysterio is also finally coming! And his buddy too.
Here we go! It’s Texano and Chavo time…eh.
2. El Texano Jr. vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/Mr. Cisco and Cortez Castro) in a Texas Bullrope Match. Chavo motioned for the crew to enter the ring to help him. They went up on ringside. Cortez Castro led the way and he and Cisco walked out on Chavo. Chavo and Texano played tug of war with Texano winning. He worked on Chavo in the corner. He then used the ropes several times. Striker and Vampiro talked about Guerreros. Chavo dodged the cowbell outside of the ring. Even more interesting than Chavo, there was this one fan who felt the need to rub his body in a weird way after Chavo got chopped. That was odd by that fan.
Chavo ran away and used the rope to pull Texano into the turnbuckle. Chavo threw Texano into the wooden seats up front. Chavo brought Texano in the ring and choked him with the rope. Matt Striker and Vampiro talked about there not being much action to call. Vampiro started to talk about malls and tacos. Texano finally escaped with an electric chair. Texano got the upper hand with a clothesline. Texano then crotched Chavo with the bullrope. Texano got a nearfall off that.
Texano went for a superplex, but Chavo pushed Texano off. In another strange logic move of this night, Chavo shortened the rope length before he pointed in the sky for a frogspash. The shorter rope allowed Texano to pull Chavo down. Texano hit the sitout powerbomb for the victory.
El Texano Jr defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr via pinfall in 6:05.
Texano grabbed a loose rope at ringside. He yelled “Viva Mexico Chavo!” and hit him with the rope… [C]
John’s Thoughts: Well… That happened… I wonder if people wanted to use the prefix bull- in a different fashion for this match?
Mil Muertes roared as he beat up his putty dudes. They emitted special effect electricity when they were hit. The purple guy got a shot in. Mil’s eyes glowed blue as he chokeslammed the purple guy. The camera stuck on the purple guy as Mil walked out…
Dario Cueto was still 375 miles away from Los Angeles in at his little shop of horrors as I like to call it. Sounds of suffering can be heard from Matanza’s cage. Dario Cueto said that Matanza was ready and it was time to take back his temple. Cueto took off the key and opened the “Temple” door. We finally got to see Matanza who look liked he was wearing a Mortal Kombat cyborg mask. He was also covered in “blood”…
Matt Striker and Vampiro were supper hyped for Aztec Warfare next week. Vampiro drew attention back to tonight were we were getting a Lucha Underground Title match…[C]
3. Fenix vs. Mil Muertes (w/ Catrina) for the Lucha Underground Championship. Mil Muertes had the power advantage early on and Fenix used his agility to pull off a springboard dropkick. Mil kept with the pursuit and ran at Fenix with a knee. Fenix flipped out of a back suplex and hit some forearms on Mil. He then followed up with a Lethal Injection cutter. Mil was shaken up with a feint kick. Fenix was on the apron and Mil plowed through Fenix with a spear through the ropes.
Fenix went for a springboard move, but Mil cut him off with an RKO-like cutter. Mil ripped open Fenix’s mask to get some shots on his forehead. Mil dragged Fenix to the apron for a suplex. Fenix blocked it with rapid punches. Mil was sent down with a springboard roundhouse. Mil grabbed a chair from under the ring. Mil hit Fenix with an unprotected chairshot to the head. Yup.
Fenix was bleeding and Mil laid some punches in. Mil sucked some of the blood on Fenix’s head. Vampiro liked the cannibalism. Mil hit a DDT and sent Fenix outside. Mil Muertes dragged Fenix to the upper section to fight amongst the fans. Fenix fought out of the onslaught with several superkicks. Fenix tried a tightrope move but was tossed onto fans by Mil. Marty Elias helped Fenix out. Fenix recovered and hit a cool tightrope splash on Mil.
Fenix had a hard time getting to his feet which allowed Mil to powerbomb him on the announcer table. Mil slammed Fenix’s head on the audio mixing box. Catrina and Mil shared a kiss outside. Fenix recovered in the ring and hit a roundhouse kick on Mil. He hit a running front kick on Mil as well. Fenix went to the top rope and hit a double footstomp on Mil as he was reeling on the ring apron. Fenix then ripped Mil Muertes’s mask in return revealing his Judas Mesias hair. Mil was angered and hit a spear on Fenix in the ring.
Fenix was dragged in the center of the ring with a chair. Fenix grabbed the chair to block Muertes’s punch. Fenix then hit some chairshots that at least looked protected this time with Mil’s arms. The crowd chanted “Animo!” for Fenix as both luchadores recovered. Fenix gained the upper hand on Mil with a superkick. Fenix followed up with a springboard 450 to get a good nearfall on Mil. Fenix got his second wind but was sent to the mat with a chokeslam. Mil got a good nearfall of his own.
Fenix hit a cool high back kick combo on Mil. Fenix lifted Mil into a bridged German Suplex for the nearfall. Fenix’s head left a mark of blood in the shape of his head in the ring. Fenix struggled but eventually got to the top rope. Mil met Fenix with an uppercut. Fenix no sold it. Mil followed up with forearms and a super DDT. Mil Muertes went for the flatliner, but Fenix flipped into a unique surfboard rollup for the victory! Wowzers!
Fenix defeated Mil Muertes via pinfall in 13:38 to become the new Lucha Underground Champion.
Fenix rolled out and celebrated his title win with the believers in the stands. They held him up as he held up his newly won world title. Catrina told Fenix to celebrate now while he can because next week Aztec Warfare was now a World Title Match. Catrina said Fenix was number 1 while Mil was number 20 . Catrina said death is coming for everyone, a thousand of them! Mil stared at Fenix in anger as Fenix celebrated along with the fans all over the temple. Lucha Underground ended.
John’s Thoughts: Fenix and Mil Muertes have some damn good chemistry with each other and this was yet another classic between the two luchadores. The unprotected chairshots that Fenix takes are still dumb. Putting that aside, this was a really violent and grueling battle. Fenix shows that he is versatile in his style as he can move from athletic, to methodical, to brawling depending on the opponent. Mil Muertes also used to have some of that TNA stank from his days as Abyss’s brother in the U.S., but these past two weeks have shown that he is well past that, and he has had a good string of matches against many others in this company.
The finish of the match also has me intrigued as it was a rollup victory for a world title. It also sends the message that this wasn’t the end of this feud or match and we got the continuation announcement being Aztec Warfare’s rebooking as a world title match. What’s a very funny coincidence, and a coincidence in that Lucha Underground taped this back in 2015, is that this story is exactly the same as WWE’s booking of the Royal Rumble with the babyface champ at number one while the heel boss is the final spot. Mil and Fenix are eternal rivals and their compendium of matches continue to be epic classics.
This was a very good show with the underlying message of Aztec Warfare being just around the corner. Next week in fact! The Chavo match was bad, but it was so bad that it made the main event that much more refreshing. Rey Mysterio debuts next week, Dario Cueto is on his way back, the warriors are ready, there’s a new babyface champ of the people, and a vengeful former champ out for blood. A lot of cogs are in motion and Lucha Underground is that weekly great show again. Make sure to check out Will Pruett’s audio review once it’s available for members and thank you so much for reading along with us at Prowrestling.net.
Lucha Underground has me more hyped for Aztec Warfare in just one episode than WWE has done in several for Wrestlemania. While it is coincidental that Aztec Warfare and the Royal Rumble have pretty much the same stipulation, I can honestly say I’m looking forward to Aztec Warfare as it has that sense of surprise and unpredictability. As for the Rumble, that was pretty much predictable from the set up.