By John Moore
Lucha Underground on El Rey Network
Taped April 2016 in Los Angeles, California
This week’s Lucha Underground teaser video focused on The Mack winning the Battle of the Bulls. Paul London’s rabbit tribe were shown on their drug trip. Sexy Star is afraid of toy spiders. Drago is hungry for food after being starved by Kobra Moon. This week’s episode was titled “Evil Rising”…
Mil Muertes was sitting in his shrine area. He said that Puma shouldn’t be alive because he was destroyed and buried. Catrina said it was Vampiro’s fault because he toys with dark magic. Catrina said if you want to get to Puma you have to get through Vampiro. Catrina teleported to the temple hallway where Jeremiah gloated about beating Mil, the man she loves. Catrina said he’s not the man she loves. Jeremiah facepalmed…
El Metalachi was the house band again as Matt Striker and Vampiro checked in on commentary. Striker hyped Willie Mack vs. Johnny Mundo for the Lucha Underground Championship in the main event…
1. Sexy Star vs. The Mariposa. Sexy Star started off with a double leg takedown. They rolled around in the ground and pound. Star tossed Mariposa around by the pigtails as Vampiro started making strange noises again. Sexy Star sent Mariposa outside with a huracanrana and followed up with a nice tope cannonball. Sexy Star and Mariposa traded chops. Mariposa gained an advantage after whipping Sexy Star into Dario’s office.
They fought their way to the announcer table. Mariposa slammed Sexy Star several times into the table from the wheelbarrow position. Mariposa went for the vertebreaker in the ring. Sexy Star escaped and hit Mariposa with a boot. Sexy Star came back with chops. Sexy Star hit Mariposa with a Lucha armdrag. Sexy Star went for several pin attempts while they sold fatigue. Sexy Star punched Mariposa in the gut but Mariposa came right back with a Samoan Drop.
Mariposa locked in a reverse Indian Deathlock on Sexy Star which allowed her to also put the boots to Sexy Star. Sexy Star broke the hold with the rope break. Mariposa came back with an axe kick. Sexy Star dodged a moonsault as Vampiro continued to make the weird sex noises again. Sexy Star blocked a superplex from the top rope. Sexy Star pushed her off and hit Mariposa with the double footstomp to pick up the victory.
Sexy Star defeated Mariposa via pinfall in 6:51.
Sexy Star yelled at Mariposa and walked away. Marty the Moth joined Mariposa in the ring to help her up. He instead hit her with a Uranage in the middle of the ring… [C]
John’s Thoughts: I’m surprised that Sexy Star couldn’t get a good match out of Johnny Mundo because she has good matches with everyone else these days. That was a good match. It went seven but seemed to be much shorter in a good way in that the action just kept moving. I’m intrigued to see where the Mariposa and Marty thing goes as it’s something different. Hopefully Mariposa gets some development because she has zero character.
Mascarita Sagrada was doing bicep curls in the Lucha Underground gym area. Paul London and his tribe joined him as said they found the white rabbit. They thought Mascarita was a rabbit as Sagrada wagged his finger in disapproval. Paul London told Sagrada to join them at ringside to help them achieve victory as their leader. Sagrada said “Tu, estas loco” and he walked away. London said he was incredible. Male Suerte and Saltador held his hands… [C]
2. Paul London, Mala Suerte, and Saltador vs. Drago, Pindar, and Vibora (w/ Kobra Moon). Before the match, Kobra Moon forced Drago to take her place. She had him bound with a dog leash. Mala Suerte started off against the lizard guy. Suerte hit lizard guy with a huracanrana. Checkerman tagged in and worked on the lizard. The lizard hit him with a powerslam. Drago tagged in as Kobra Moon told him to get to trabajo. He hit checker guy with a huracanrana. London tagged in as the trio worked on Drago. Drago took advantage of them dancing to tag in the luchasaurus.
Paul London poked him and rolled out of the ring. Luchasaurous gave the checker guy and suerte a double chokeslam. He gave Paul London a boot to the face. The lizard people put London in their corner. Kobra Moon snuck in a cheap shot. Paul London was given the boots in the corner of the lizards. Vampiro pointed out how Drago doesn’t look like he wants to be there. The other two rabbit tribe guys tagged in as Drago tagged in.
Suerte got a two count on Drago. Suerte “accidently” dropkicked the checkerguy. Luchasaurus and lizardguy did a double team to the checker guy. Paul London hit several superkicks on the luchasaurus. Luchasaurus gave London a pile driver. Drago gave the checker guy a blockbuster to pick up the victory.
The Reptile Tribe defeated Paul London’s Rabbit Tribe via pinfall in 7:04.
Kobra Moon put the chain back on Drago after the match. Fenix and AeroStar tried to make the save. AeroStar managed to give luchasaurus the codebreaker. They cleaned house. Kobra Moon tried to choke out Drago. Drago sold amnesia in the middle of the ring. He did give them a handshake in the end…
Sexy Star went to encourage Willie Mack backstage. Mack said he was telling Sexy Star the same thing that she did to him last week to prove himself. She said it was cool and they did their bro handshake…[C]
John’s Thoughts: The trios championships seems like a waste of a title at this point and it’s mostly due to the unfortunate injuries of Team Havoc. Let’s see where the Drago thing goes. It’s a bit campy but campy works in Lucha Underground’s grindhouse universe. I’m not sure what the purpose of Paul London’s drug trip is. This reminds me of that gimmick The Brian Kendrick used in TNA when he called himself “The Wizard of Odd” in his feud against Austin Aries.
Next wednesday was billed the “Mid-season” finale. Dario Cueto was walking around the locker room and talked with Mack “Daddy”, the Mack. Dario informed Mack that tonight wasn’t going to be a title match and more of a warmup. Dario Cueto said the winner will get to pick the stipulation of the title match. Mack said as a betting man you should always bet on Mack…
Johnny Mundo came out next with his new theme music where he provided the lyrics. Mack came out next and Marty Elias was the referee… [C]
3. The Mack vs. Johnny Mundo where the winner picks the stipulation for the Lucha Underground Title Match. Mack dominated early on with a running leg lariat and armdrag. Mundo snuck in a poke to the eye. Mundo toyed with Mack a bit and flipped the bird from the outside. Mack gave Mundo an exploder on the outside. Mundo tried to escape from under the ring but Mack found him. Mundo did a drop toehold to mack in the barricade.
Mundo gave Mack the flying Chuck Kick in the ring. Mundo went for starship pain, but Mack went for the rollup in counter to it. Mack gave Mundo a powerful clothesline and followed up with a lie detector. Willie Mack hit Johnny Mundo with the People’s Elbow. Johnny Mundo blocked Mack with a boot. Mack came back with the Samoan Drop and kip up. Mack hit a standing moonsault to lead to a nearfall.
Mack went for an exploder. Mack came back with a pop-up forearm. Mundo broke the pin with a rope break. Matt Striker pointed out that Mundo was favoring the shoulder. Mack gave Mundo a codebreaker for the next nearfall.
Mack had the stunner blocked. Mack caught Mundo into a sit-out powerbomb but the pin didn’t happen because the ref got bumped earlier. Jack Evans ran in next to distract Marty. Johnny Mundo hit the low blow to pick up the pinfall victory over Mack.
Johnny Mundo defeated The Mack via pinfall in 8:42.
The worldwide underground put the boots to Mack after celebrating with Johnny. Johnny Mundo told Mack that he sucks. Mundo said Mack doesn’t deserve to stay in the same ring as him and couldn’t even survive ten minutes. Mundo said he was going to pick an “all night long” match. The underground gave mack a triple curbstomp and Mundo called him fat trash.
Suddenly Mil Muertes walked to the ring to send the worldwide underground to retreat. Mil Muertes ran at Vampiro and gave him clubbing blows. Mil put the boots to Vampiro in the ring which brought out dark Prince Puma. Vampiro stopped Puma from entering the ring as Mil gave him the flatliner to end the show…
John’s Thoughts: The match was okay but the worldwide underground fluky finishes are just getting a bit tired. It also makes either the babyfaces or referees look like idiots for allowing the exact same finish to happen every time. Johnny Mundo’s repeated cheating finishes are also killing his in ring credibility. As for a positive, I’m glad they didn’t rush to the title match tonight as they should stretch out their programs.
This was another episode of solid storyline progression for the storylines they have on tap. It would be good if they could find a way to trim down a few of their storylines so they aren’t trying to homogenize everyone. Is “All Night Long” supposed to be next week during the mid-season finale? Also, are we getting a break from Lucha Underground? I sure hope so! I’ll have my member exclusive audio review uploaded soon.
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