Lucha Underground on El Rey

[Prince Bálor]

Episode #16 was good.

The Battle of the Bulls tournament was done well overall, and this week's match was damn good.

They did a good job of advancing the Kobra Moon/Drago angle, as well as Texano/Cage, The Mack/Mundo and set up Crane/Muertes.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Episode #17 was good.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Episode #18 was good.

There wasn't anything particularly great or must-see, but overall, it was an enjoyable storytelling episode.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Episode #19 and the mid-season finale was good.

That Matanza/Dragon Azteca ME, though! :damn:

 

[Snowman1]

1: reading this. Poor Prince. :

Anyway, a nit to pick...

I hate criticizing this show. Haaaaate it. As someone brought up, the worst parts of Lucha Underground are usually better than the best parts of most wrestling shows... But honestly the booking of Mil Muertes has dragged it down quite a bit.
Mil is a scary dude. A believable badass, and him being Prince Puma's final boss as he Earthquaked the shit out of dude at Ultima Lucha Uno was GLORIOUS!... Since then, he kinda pointlessly lost to Fenix, got replaced by SUPER Monster Heel Matanza, then got killed again and as Catrina dug him out from the underworld for the third(?) time... and his eyes glowed red and he WRECKED Pentagon... just to see the ULTIMATE FORM of Mil Muertes lose to fucking Sexy Star of all people at the end of Aztec Warfare III. Fuck that noise. I'm okay with Star winning the belt... (well okay with a woman holding the belt but moreso Ivelisse) but Mil Muertes feels like a shell of the monster we know him as.

That really did hurt the Matanza/EDAJ main event to me, the concept of death on this show is so wacky that I can hardly buy it as a stipulation - Matt Striker not taking it seriously damn sure doesn't help, when a stipulation is THE MATCH ENDS WHEN SOMEONE DIES it's not so easy to be comically quipping one-liners, but again nitpicking here... and that final spot was FUCKING NUTS. RIP EDAJ and possibly Matanza too. Next season Dario's key will open up a portal to the underworld or some shit.

But Mack vs Mundo, All Night Long is the cliffhanger? Weaaaaaak. Hey one backstage segment changed Mariposa from "a chick on the show" to "OMG OMG OMG KILL THE MOTH KILL THE MOTH YOU'VE DEALT WITH THIS ENOUGH GO FOR IT GIRL WOOOOOOOOO"

Six months without it. : I stopped reviewing largely because... doing it is kinda rough sometimes without repeating talking points or just writing an entire damn book on every backstage segment... but this is still the best wrestling show on TV and it isn't even close. I love the random stuff like Jeremiah Crane hiding a ouija board in Dario's office, the ongoing drama between Dario and Everyone Ever, AR Fox is cool as hell, the weird thing with those medallions from millenniums ago feels like something right out of Lost, Catrina's boobs are back thank you so much, Mascarita Segrada >>>>, and why is Baron Corbin a reptile. That enough?

 

[Snowman1]

 

[Prince Bálor]

Lucha Underground returns with a bang! Episode #20 was great.

Mundo and Mack delivered a great and fun match. They worked hard, had the crowd invested, had some great spots, the interferences made sense and they delivered an entertaining match overall. I didn't mind the non-finish and I'm looking forward to the continuation of this match next week!

 

[Snowman1]

-Son of Havoc cleans house, walks to Dario's office-
-Dario hands him water-
-Havoc knocks the bottle of water to the ground in annoyance-
-Crowd chants BRING HIM BEER-
-Dario obliges, nods at the crowd, then brings out 2 Steveweisers-
-Havoc grabs 'em, opens' em up Steve Austin style and pours them on Mack's face-
-Mack pops up like Popeye and KICKS THE HEELS ASSES.

I MISSED THIS SHOW SO DAMN MUCH. And that may not have been even in the top 5 spots of the night!!!

 

[Geek773]

Genuinely was biting my nails when I thought Mack wasn't gonna pin him in time, and was gutted when he didn't. Match had me totally invested, Mack and Mundo are so great as a truly lovable face and hateable heel respectively. Hoping in my heart that Mack wins next week even if my head tells me that if I were booking, Mundo would win for heat then face EDAJ or Rey.

Sometimes, if wrestling is done well enough, it can do what it's supposed to (make you cheer for the face and boo the heel) even in the era after kayfabe. LU is the best.

 

[Jeffry Mason]

Sometimes, if wrestling is done well enough, it can do what it's supposed to (make you cheer for the face and boo the heel) even in the era after kayfabe. LU is the best.

This can be true at times, yes. But remember also, this is a company which prides itself on lucha libre influence. And in lucha tradition, it's common and accepted for both the good and bad guys to have their own fans. I believe we can all agree though that the wrestling is indeed done well enough to get us all watching again as though there wasn't a 5 month break in the middle of the season

 

[Snowman1]

Genuinely was biting my nails when I thought Mack wasn't gonna pin him in time, and was gutted when he didn't. Match had me totally invested, Mack and Mundo are so great as a truly lovable face and hateable heel respectively. Hoping in my heart that Mack wins next week even if my head tells me that if I were booking, Mundo would win for heat then face EDAJ or Rey.

Sometimes, if wrestling is done well enough, it can do what it's supposed to (make you cheer for the face and boo the heel) even in the era after kayfabe. LU is the best.

Oh totally! I thought he got that cover with exactly 3 seconds left and when that draw happened I was SO PISSED for all the reasons you were. Actually threw my empty sealed-up bag of mini donuts across the room, and the announcement of next week's show made me so happy. Dario's the best character in wresting. I can type here and talk up how much I love the Worldwide Underground and was entertained by that spot but still popped at them getting their comeuppance for being a bunch of cocky pricks by Star's big move. AWESOME.

It's an era where guys like the Miz can be hated for years, he'll have the best run of his career on SDL and we'll happily type "Damn, the Miz is so entertaining right now! MVP of SDL for sure!" on wweforums.net before watching Smackdown and naturally rooting against him, cheering on a character in Ziggler passionately and I jumped up and will type how Miz is doing an awesome job as a heel and...... yeah we eventually just wound up liking the guy and cheering him on. (granted bad storytelling + John Cena had as much to do it than naturally liking a guy we hated so much learned to love).

Anyway yeah! Really cool finish, and I'll be even more gutted now if this win the Mack had in the bag doesn't come true next week... and if it doesn't, then this LU-career midcarder who was a guy on the roster certainly does feel like championship material. Great booking indeed.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Episode #21 was very good.

- The opening segment with Puma/Rey/Vamp was good.

- Mundo vs Mack was a pretty good follow-up to last week's bout. They played well to the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation and put on an entertaining match. The finish was sick with Mundo doing a Sunset Flip Powerbomb onto a pile of chairs and he retained, of course.

- The Cueto Cup is coming! And the winner will go on to face the LUG champion at Ultima Lucha III, while the LUG champ will defend his title against ReyRey at The Cueto Cup Finals.

- Pindar, Vibora & Moon vs Aerostar, Fenix & Drago was solid. The heels won the trios titles when Drago turned on his friends and officially joined Moon and her crew.

- There was a backstage segment with Mundo/Ricky and Taya. Mundo said he'll have to train harder than ever before in order to face ReyRey and then left without putting his pants on. lol

- Puma vs Muertes was a very good ME. These two can never disappoint, they brought out the intensity, had an invested crowd and delivered a fun match. They also teased the Puma/Vampiro association considering Vamp helped Puma win.

All in all, a very good and fun episode.

 

[Jeffry Mason]

The parkour flip by Mundo from the railing was sick as well, which was damn close to a backwards 450.

The entire show last night kicked ass, and my only complaint is the way they had Drago turn. I didn't like when they did it back with Cody Rhodes in the WWE, and it makes even less sense to do it now, in a promotion which has so many opportunities and so few restrictions as far as the realm of storytelling goes. Just felt lazy on their part, and like a super cop-out to say at the last minute that Kobra was never officially their tag partner as Drago is getting the pin against his own teammate. Could have been handled in so many better ways. But that's just my opinion, and I have high hopes that where they go with the story moving forward will continue to be great

 

[Geek773]

The parkour flip by Mundo from the railing was sick as well, which was damn close to a backwards 450.

The entire show last night kicked ass, and my only complaint is the way they had Drago turn. I didn't like when they did it back with Cody Rhodes in the WWE, and it makes even less sense to do it now, in a promotion which has so many opportunities and so few restrictions as far as the realm of storytelling goes. Just felt lazy on their part, and like a super cop-out to say at the last minute that Kobra was never officially their tag partner as Drago is getting the pin against his own teammate. Could have been handled in so many better ways. But that's just my opinion, and I have high hopes that where they go with the story moving forward will continue to be great

I agree that they could've turned Drago better than having him be on Kobra's team from the beginning (after all, Drago/Fenix/Aerostar were champs and it was a title match so Drago had to be on theirs legally and couldn't have switched teams). They tried to explain it with the lack of ring announcement and it was a very neat way to have the Reptiles win, but it didn't logistically work and they glossed over that instead of having it lead to a rematch.

I loved the rest of the show, as ever the thoughtfulness and interconnectedness of LU astounds me. Puma is torn between Vampiro and the people but refuses to trust Rey because of Konan. Puma is also being built as a favourite to go to UL3, on the same night as that'll be decided Rey is getting a title shot out of respect for what he did for LU, Mack's story isn't done because he was screwed, the whole Worldwide Underground is working overtime to keep the belt on Mundo, Matanza's due a return at some point and Dario is driving a wedge between them... it's all so well connected. Love, love, love this show.

 

[Jeffry Mason]

Even if I'm admittedly sad that Famous B was robbed and is out of the Cueto Cup, last night's episode was yet another great one.

And that ending...holy shit, fuck yes!