By John Moore
Lucha Underground Hits
Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Segment: Even though I felt like this dream match build came out of nowhere while fitting into the Season 2 trend of randomness, this was still a solid and effective confrontation between Puma and Rey. Rey showed a bit of arrogance here and that character works for him on occasion. This is a feud I keep going back to but it’s one of my personal favorite Rey feuds. Rey as the proud veteran vs. the young gun reminds me of the Rey Mysterio vs. Dolph Ziggler feud of 2007, the feud that sparked Dolph’s upward career momentum while leading to a series of great matches. Puma was good in his role since he did play the hungry newer wrestler who wants to prove himself. This was also a special moment done well with Puma speaking for the first time in the temple. What would have made this much better would be if they didn’t have Puma talk during those cinematics in the trios sidetrack.
Mr. Cisco: One of the fun things about Lucha Underground is the organic development of new stars, which is emphasized when their forced development doesn’t pan out. Ricky Reyes was the member of The Crew that the backstage guys seem to gravitate towards due to him having a good technical wrestling background, and they gave him the LAPD push. The temple and the fans seem to naturally gravitate towards Mr. Cisco who has some fun Lucha libre sequences when he wrestles a technico style. His hidden athleticism and babyface charisma reminds me of Willie Mack and how he caught on with the fans.
Dario Cueto and El Dragon Azteca Jr cinematic: Dario Cueto continues to be one of the best heel authority figures in professional wrestling and he shines in moments where we get to see his great acting. You actually believe that this guy is Dario Cueto and he delivers his material with believability, which was the key to his segment with Dragon Azteca Jr., because he made Azteca believe into his manipulation in a similar way that Black Lotus did last season. A good production note of this cinematic was the camera zooming in on Dragon Azteca Jr’s face when he got the murderer revelation and he was ignoring everything Dario Cueto was saying because the name of his master’s killer, Black Lotus, kept playing in his head.
Mascarita Sagrada vs. Daga: Daga still does nothing for me because he just comes off as a local enhancement wrestler even though he’s starting to win matches now. That first loss really hurt him. The best part of this match was the post-match angle with Famous B turning on Sagrada. Lucha Underground luckily didn’t hit the abort button on this feud like they’ve done on many feuds this season. Even though it’s an undercard sideshow feud, everyone in this segment played their roles well. Beautiful Brenda was especially good in this segment in her crying for Sagrada. The cliche thing would have had Brenda turn with B and her sadness added to Sagrada’s sympathy. Famous B beating down Sagrada with a shoe was a bit funny too.
Lucha Underground Misses
Killshot and Marty the Moth Feud: Wasn’t the purpose of retconning the Killshot character was to make Killshot less of a loser. He isn’t losing matches anymore, but he looking a bit like an idiot with the writers giving him a lame weakness, which are his dog tags. What’s interesting, is as much as I dislike the LAPD storyline, “military” Killshot would have made more sense in that setting as opposed to a random story with Marty. There’s the word again, “Random”! The writing for Marty has also gotten a drop in quality. Even though it may have been uncomfortable for some, the Sexy Star storyline had some heart put into the storytelling and reached a great crescendo. You would have thought that the natural progression would have had Marty facing Willie Mack now as they were building towards. The aborted Mack vs. Marty feud reminds me of the aborted Mil Muertes vs. Pentagon Jr feud. Season 2 folks!
Sexy Star and The Mariposa vs. Taya Valkyrie and Ivelisse: This was a very disappointing match with the four top female performers on the Lucha Underground roster. The wrestlers just seemed to be meandering around here with bits and pieces of the reluctant partners cliché. The match had its moments, like the fun spot where Mariposa worked on Taya on the chairs, but the match never really got out of first gear. There was also something missing between Sexy Star and Mariposa given how well received their no mas match was.
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