By John Moore
Lucha Underground TV
Taped Early 2016 in Los Angeles, California
This week’s intro teaser started off by going over the prolonged feud between Mascarita Sagrada and Famous B. Prince Puma’s quest to avenge Konnan’s “Death” was also spotlighted. This week’s episode was titled “Ready for War”…
At Mil Muertes’s shrine, Catrina told Mil that he has beat Prince Puma before but she doesn’t want Puma simply defeated. This time she wants him gasping for air as the life leaves his body. She said Mil has done this to people before. Catrina said if Mil loses again she will not bring him back…
John’s Thoughts: I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice this, but the background music was clearly licensed music from Sony’s God of War. That’s a fun stress relieving video game and for some reason it kinda works for Mil. But at the same time it makes me think of Kratos somehow trying to invade the Temple once he’s done with Zeus.
Vampiro and Matt Striker checked in on commentary. Vampiro hyped Prince Puma vs. Mil Muertes in Grave Consequences. Striker talked about Mascarita Sagrada also having a match tonight with Famous B in the “Believers Backlash”. Matt Striker said to “Get Weird” (was this somehow a reference to his feud with creepy Johnny Curtis? I don’t Know)… [C]
1. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Famous B (w/ Beautiful Brenda) in a Believers Backlash Match. B wore his suit for battle. Sagrada threw water on that suit. Sagrada grabbed some football gear and tackled Famous B. B sold it like a champ. Sagrada found a step ladder and put in front of Vampiro. Sagrada used this to give B an elbow drop. Brenda distracted Sagrada enough to allow Famous B to stand and give Sagrada a superkick. B grabbed a giant bag of popcorn. Sagrada tripped him with a dropkick causing him to spill the popcorn. B then whipped Sagrada into a trashcan. B put Sagrada in the trash and closed the lid. B went to hit the trash with croquet mallets. Sagrada burst from the trash and hit Famous B over the head with the lid.
B kicked the lid back into Sagrada. Famous B whipped Sagrada into the barricade. Brenda handed B some useless weapons. B found some rope and stuff from the crowd. Famous B opened a toolbox and decided to pull out the perfume can. Sagrada tripped B off the ropes and sprayed the “arrogance spray” at him. Sagrada grabbed a bag. He put on a wizard cap and did some magic trick with the bag. He pulled out a bowling ball and crotched B with the bowling ball. They played a low rend sound effect. Sagrada went high risk but Dr Wagner Jr ran interference. Wagner wanted to hit Sagrada with a Famous B picture but B stopped it because he liked the picture.
Son of Havoc ran interference on behalf of Sagrada and gave Wagner a plancha. Sagrada hit Famous B with the picture drawing a gratuitous “This is Awesome” chant. Sagrada tried to choke Famous B with his tie but Brenda cut the tie with giant scissors. Sagrada took out Famous B with a tope senton. Sagrada grabbed a cheesecake and accidently hit Brenda with it. This pissed off Famous B who tossed Sagrada into the announce table. Matt Striker gave Sagrada his shoe and he used it to hit Famous B. Sagrada hit Famous B with a tornado DDT to pick up the victory.
Mascarita Sagrada defeated Famous B via pinfall in about 8:23 to win the Believers Backlash match.
Sagrada’s video game music played as he celebrated on the turnbuckles. Sagrada tossed Famous B over the top rope. Son of Havoc joined Sagrada in the ring with a Famous B cutout. Mascarita Sagrada cut the head off with the giant scissors. Son of Havoc pulled a biker vest out of his pants and put it on Mascarita Sagrada… [C]
John’s Thoughts: I really expected that to be a lot more fun than it was. It started off fun but it just got a bit boring and pointless. This seemed like a WWE Sports Entertainment special with the gimmicks, the pies, and stuff. What also made this match pretty bad was how different it was compared to the last Believers Backlash match. It was a different match. The last one they had select random people have belts to whip Hernandez with and it was actually very interactive. This one, they only had the crowd hold the props they were going to use anyway. This was not good and disappointing given the buildup to this encounter.
Dante Fox (AR Fox) was getting ready in the locker room as he was approached by Killshot. Killshot said he heard Dante has a job now. Dante said Dario Cueto was impressed by what he did to Killshot. Killshot said he understood why Dante did what he did but hopes they can put it behind them. Killshot said it was good to have a brother back home in a very guarded and sarcastic way as he held out his hand for a handshake. They shared a hug. Dante said tonight they stand united, just like old times, brother…
Drago was in his bathroom doing nunchaku katas. Kobra Moon popped up behind him and said that he was preparing for war. Drago said he was never a part of her tribe and was rather a slave. She said Drago doesn’t want to suffer the same fate as Daga, torn up by “Lord Pindar”. This freaked out Drago somewhat as he wondered if he lives. Kobra said he will make Drago knee before Kobra Moon and make him call her his queen. Vinnie Massaro walked in and farted again…
Melissa Santos introduced the next match which was a huge multi person Aztec Warfare qualifying match. The first team was The Mack, Mariposa, Marty the Moth, Ivelisse, and Jeremiah Crane (Sami Callahan). Their opponents were Killshot, Argenis, Dante Fox, Texano, and “They Call Him” Cage… [C]
John’s Thoughts: Give me a break… I don’t want to be negative, but this is giving me serious Season 2.5 flashbacks. They did such a good job building to the debut of AR Fox and Sami Callahan, but now they throw them in the “Get everybody on the show” match?
2. The Mack, Mariposa, Marty the Moth Martinez, Ivelisse, and Jeremiah Crane vs. Killshot, Argenis, Dante Fox, Texano, and “They Call Him” Cage in an Aztec Warfare Qualifying Match. Crane hit a pump kick on Fox and followed up with a kick in the corner. Fox recovered and hit Crane with a springboard cutter. Crane planted Fox with a Death Valley Driver. Killshot tagged in and ate a slap form Crane. Killshot hit a headscissors on Crane. Crane fought back with a pump kick. Ivelisse tagged in and they did some double team moves on Killshot. Cage tagged in and ran through Ivelisse. Marty tagged in and gave Cage a boot which he no sold and countered with a discus clothesline. Texano tagged in and hit Marty with a uranage. Mariposa dropkicked Texano into Cage. Texano no sold Mariposa’s moves and eventually tossed her into cage.
Argenis tagged in and kicked Mack. Mack hit Argenis with the codebreaker. Mack took out Cage and Texano with a Tope con Hilo. Crane took down Cage with a clothesline. Ivelisse had a crossbody blocked. Crane hit them with a tope. Argenis took out everyone with a moonsault. Killshot and Fox bickered in the ring a bit until they hit tandem dropkicks on Marty and Mariposa. Fox stopped Killshot from doing a tope and instead took out everyone outside with a springboard reverse shooting star. Ivelisse took a knee from Killshot. Ivelisse countered Killshot into a rollup to pick up a really good nearfall (and Striker actually called this false finish better than he usually does).
Everyone retreated to ringside to recover. Ivelisse sold an ankle injury. Dante Fox blocked Marty from hitting Killshot. Fox then planted Killshot with a brainbuster to draw boos. Marty picked up the easy pinfall victory.
The Mack, Mariposa, Marty the Moth Martinez, Ivelisse, and Jeremiah Crane defeated Killshot, Argenis, Dante Fox, Texano, and Cage in 5:18 to qualify for Aztec Warfare.
Marty the Moth and Mariposa celebrated in the ring by flapping their arms. Matt Striker hyped up Grave Consequences for after the break… [C]
John’s Thoughts: More is not better and Lucha Underground should be taking the quality over quantity approach with their storytelling. There was just too much and Lucha Underground could have edited things up better to just not even have this match. As a person who attends the tapings, this seemed like a Lucha Underground Dark Match given less time than they actually usually get. The one bright spot was the Killshot and Dante Fox feud got solid development. Everything else was just extraneous. The last two seasons were better at the Aztec Warfare thing where Catrina and Dario Cueto just invited people to wrestle as opposed to taking this traditional pro wrestling approach.
Dario Cueto was around Matanza’s cage and he said Matanza will defeat 19 other luchadores to defend this belt. He said he would show the world what his family is capable of and that Matanza knows what to do and what they fought for. Dario Cueto said Matanza knows what their father trained them for. Matanza clapped his hands and said “War!”…
It was Grave Consequences time and the Dia De Los Muertos setup was put together (Sadly we didn’t see the skeleton people set it up). Melissa Santos introduced Mil Muertes. Prince Puma didn’t allow Mil to get to the ring as he just kicked Mil and then followed up by tossing him into the bleachers and then clearing the rail to hit a cool crossbody onto Mil Muertes into the crowd.
3. Prince Puma vs. Mil Muertes (w/ Catrina) in a Grave Consequences Match. The bell actually rung after Puma hit Mil. They fought to ringside ad Puma went for another crossbody but rather ran into a power slam. Mil slowed down the action by tossing Puma around. Mil tossed Puma into wooden chairs. Mil then tossed Puma into a closet. Puma’s head was bashed into the ring bell. Puma turned the tide and used the bell to hit Mil. Puma grabbed a flower reef and hit Mil with it. Puma dragged along the casket. Mil was recovering and then hit Puma with a powerbomb on the casket. Striker was selling how tough the caskets were (and they in fact were, I tested out the strength of that exact Casket after this match happened).
Mil took the action back in the ring and hit Puma several times with a chair. Mil set up the chair in the turnbuckle. Puma hit the brakes and managed to get Mil to spear the chair. Mil bounced back quickly and gave Puma a spear into a table. Mil Muertes took apart a turnbuckle hook to use as a weapon. He hit Puma with it. Mil dragged the casket inside of the ring. Mil gave Puma consecutive clotheslines in the corner. Puma fought back with several kicks and a knee. Mil was staggered by a back kick and a spinning roundhouse which put Mil on the top of the closed coffin. Prince Puma hit a springboard 450 on Mil as he was on the casket.
Puma tried to put Mil into casket but Mil fought back. Puma slammed the lid several times over the back of Mil. Puma grabbed a chair and slammed it over the lid of the casket which hurt Mil’s back. Puma grabbed a table and set it up outside. Vampiro said he likes Puma not going for the victory but rather going to “take Mil’s soul”. Mil had time to recover and hit Puma with a chokeslam onto the casket, denting the casket even more. Puma was in the casket but Puma fought back with all his strength. Prince Puma kicked his way out. Mil ate a kick, knee, and elbow. Puma blocked the Flatliner with an awesome handstand and followed up with a dropkick on Mil.
Puma sent Mil outside with a springboard dropkick. Puma ran into a fist when he went for the Tope. Puma used a chair to attack Mil. He hit Mil with a Van Daminator. Puma tried to put Mil through the table with a high risk move but Mil recovered to trade punches with Prince Puma. Puma dominated by hitting a few kicks. It took a single punch to gain Mil a few seconds. Mil clotheslined Puma through the two tables. Mil found Konnan’s Casket and dragged it to the ring. With Marty Elias’s help, Mil put the casket on the wheels. Mil Muertes gave Puma a flatliner at ringside. Mil opened the casket (and luckily Konnan wasn’t in it). Mil put Puma in the casket to pick up the victory. Matt Striker said Mil Muertes has ended the career of Prince Puma.
Mil Muertes defeated Prince Puma in 16:30.
Mil and Catrina shared a kiss outside. Vampiro smiled at the casket. The crowd chanted “That was awesome”. The skeleton people escorted Prince Puma’s casket out of the ring as the show ended, there were no post credits…
John’s Thoughts: Lucha Underground usually does this with some of their bigger shows where the lead up to it sucks and we get a solid main event. We got a solid main event tonight and this was certainly an upgrade over last year’s Graver Consequences involving Matanza. This is why Puma is back in the main events and Mil also belongs in all Lucha Underground main events as well. Now hopefully you can stagger the two if this is truly over. Puma is “Dead” but they didn’t sell it strongly so I assume he’s staying alive. Will we get a new Prince Puma/Konnan Hybrid? I’m reaching. Anyway that was a good match. One funny note was the crowd giving a “That was awesome!” Chant which totally killed the mood of the setting.
Overall, this was a one match show. They should have edited out the second match and they could have done the same job with a cinematic or two. The first match was also just too WWE-ish for my taste on this show. What also hurt the opening match was Drago and Hernandez having a much better version of that match. My LU audio review will be available for members today, and check back for my LU Hit List.
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