By John Moore
Lucha Underground Hits
Fenix vs. Marty the Moth: A minor hit for match quality alone. Fenix has been underutilized for the longest time so any main event he’s in is welcome as he ascends up the Lucha Underground ladder. I’ll have more thoughts on the sudden insertion of Melissa Santos as a love interest, but since it’s not a Hit you’ll know where that would end up. Marty is similar to Mack in that he has a heavyset build yet can do flips for days. His strength is that he doesn’t go for pops. The ending scene with Marty jabbing a fork in Fenix’s head was really uncomfortable, which reached it’s intended emotional invocation.
Mil Muertes vs. Paul London: This is an example on how to put together a match where both men get put over. Mil Muertes is Lucha Underground’s all-round MVP. He’s a monster, he has good matches, and he plays his character well. Catrina has been a really good complement to his act. Paul London got to be put in a different light in his last two singles matches. Matt Striker toned down the drug references in this one. He replaced it with random plugs for past Ring of Honor matches which was odd, but I get that he’s trying to get viewers to seek out London in a serious setting. You would think that Mil’s monster mystique would be hurt by having to take almost ten minutes to dispatch of a comedy goofball, but both men played it well. Mil dominated as he should have, and London’s game was to run away and get shots in when he could. This would actually be a good match for other wrestlers to watch to learn how to get a big man face and a little man heel over without parity booking. London gained in that sequence where he hit those two shooting star presses consecutively.
Jeremiah Crane vs. Taya Valkyrie: I feel like I say this every week… while the intergender thing might not be for everyone, Lucha Underground knows the formula on how to do them well by presenting them as regular matches as opposed to special attractions. Taya needs more settings where she can also break away from the the mid-card 3MB-esque Worldwide Underground way of doing things. For the most part, the 3MB part has sorta fizzled away with Taya and Mundo starting to gain in-ring credibility. The little rally Taya had was well done. Crane continues to show the stellar storytelling abilities that he’s gained since leaving WWE. Speaking of Mundo, we didn’t get a Michael Schiavello documentary package this week?
Lucha Underground Misses
Melissa Santos: Melissa Santos is a really talented ring announcer. I complained when WWE did something similar with Renee Young against Miz, but I feel that it’s not in the best interests of Lucha Underground to make her one of the characters in the storylines. Another part of this Miss is how them heavy-handedly trying to shoehorn her into storylines detracted from the main event because they would make sporadic cut to show her worry. This seems to be Lucha Underground’s continual problem as the seasons go by as they are constantly trying to come up with new concepts rather than tell stories with what they have. They were starting to do that with Dragon and Kobra Moon, but I feel like pivoting Fenix away from Catrina is a bad move. Especially when the Fenix and Catrina relationship equaled really good Fenix vs. Mil Muertes matches.
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