By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Dot Net Members are listening to John Moore’s Lucha Underground audio review and have access to the audio reviews of the show’s previous seasons. Join us on our ad-free website and ad-free mobile website and unlock access to over a decade of audio content via PWMembership.net.
Lucha Underground Hits
Aztec Warfare: One of the most enjoyable things to come out of Lucha Underground’s existence is this creation of Dario Antonio Cueto. This was another fun edition of Aztec Warfare. While it was a little too front-loaded with comedy for my tastes, the second and third acts of the match delivered. This match also creates a natural introduction to characters and allows fans to dive in if they haven’t seen a single episode of Lucha Underground before. It’s a great way to start a new season. It also established a cast of characters for season four to work with. I’m not sure of who else came and went from the cast of the show, but Aztec Warfare gives you a moment for each character.
Pentagon Dark: The standard bearer in Lucha Underground and the man most frequently associated with the show, Pentagon was really impressive here. After waiting three long seasons to win the Lucha Underground Championship, it was nice to see Pentagon put up a solid performance to retain it. The promise of a match with Matanza next week was a nice tease of the tough road ahead.
New Trios Champion Son of Havoc: I have a theory that the Trios Championships only exist so the Cueto family can mess with Son of Havoc. This time, it was messing with him by handing him the title and two new tag partners, The Mack and Killshot. This should make for some fun drama in the coming weeks as these three try to get on the same page.
Johnny Mundo: A strong performance was necessary after Mundo’s long stretch with the Lucha Underground Championship ended at the conclusion of season three. Mundo is a centerpiece star and was made to look like one here.
Joey Ryan’s Aztec Warfare bits: He’ll never win, but he’ll never stop trying out his brilliant and handcuff-related ideas.
Lucha Underground Misses
Antonio Cueto: I might be letting my in-person experience of this character reveal cloud my TV watching judgement. This was awkward and almost embarrassing in person. On TV, it was slightly better, but I’m exceptionally not sold on Antonio Cueto as a character. There’s something very uncomfortable about it all. It makes the show feel like a lower budget version of itself.
Matt Striker: Speaking of making Lucha Underground feel low budget Matt “If you get the reference” Striker is insufferable. The references are obnoxious, but his tendency to talk through everything and never allow a moment of silence is worse. Another season of Striker is going to be hard to stomach.
The New Temple: This is a minor miss. While I loved how this new Temple looked in person on night one, on TV there was something missing. Hopefully after the first night, production spruced up the joint a little bit. Far too much of the new Temple seemed empty in these camera angles.
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. Of interest to him are diversity in wrestling and wrestling as a theatrical art form. To see his video content subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Twitter @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
NEW: Help support Prowrestling.net when you shop Amazon by starting your online Amazon shopping at Prowrestling.net/amazon. You are not charged extra, but we receive a small and very helpful commission on everything you purchase. Thanks for thinking of us every time you shop at Amazon.
Be the first to comment