Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Lucha Underground "The Prince and The Monster" Review

Dario Cueto opens the show to "Jefe" chants. It's time for Dario's Dial of Doom! The first two times we've seen this, Son of Havoc and The Mack got shots. Tonight, it lands on the first ever Lucha Underground Champion, Prince Puma! Dario says that Puma may be the first champion, but Matanza is the greatest.

Ivelisse def. Mariposa w/ Marty Martinez in 6:15
Ivelisse has an already scheduled date with Catrina at Ultima Lucha 3, so it's interesting to see what they do with her until then. She looked all kinds of amazing tonight. Ivelisse started in with the kicks but Marty tripped her to give Mariposa the upper hand. Mariposa seemingly went for a cover only to wrap up the legs in the kondo clutch. Ivelisse reached the ropes and added a slap to Marty. Marty still gets in more cheap shots behind the official's back. Ivelisse blocked the vertebreaker and scored with a code red to win. I enjoyed this but that might be because I'm a mark for both women. I'm sure they are capable of better though. **

Marty attacks Ivelisse from behind and then slammed his sister onto Ivelisse.

Dario Cueto is in his office. Johnny Mundo comes in and complains about Prince Puma getting a title shot. Mundo uses it as an excuse to show off his abs. Dario still denies his request, so Johnny asks for Sexy Star and the Gift of the Gods Title. He mentions that Sexy was on the losing side last week. Dario reminds him that it was Jack Evans that pinned Sexy, Evans will face Sexy for the title at some point.

A weird video telling us to "follow the white rabbit" is shown. It ends with "they'll be here soon."

Match Two in Best of Five: Cage (2) def. Texano (0) in 6:22
This got off to a fast start than their first encounter. Texano shouting obscenities in Spanish while diving onto Cage was pretty entertaining. Cage showed off his athleticism with a sweet tornado DDT. Texano decided to bust out ushigoroshi for a near fall and we got "this is awesome" chants. Cage got a near fall for the Alabama Slam. They continued to trade big blows until Cage nailed a dead lift suplex and F5 to take a 2-0 lead. Much better than their first outing but I'm still not really interested in this series. They worked with a purpose and it was enjoyable. Hopefully, we don't get the cliched 2-0 comeback. **3/4

Ivelisse's boyfriend Jeremiah appears to say that he was here to see her. Ivelisse says that he's late. She won but she got jumped. He freaks out and wants to get involved, but Ivelisse declines, saying that she wants to keep her personal life and career separate. It didn't work out last time. He likes to beat people up and wants to join the Temple. Oh, by the way, Jeremiah is Sami Callihan or Solomon Crowe if you only know his NXT work.

Lucha Underground Championship: Matanza Cueto (c) w/ Dario Cueto def. Prince Puma in 12:55
Though this was just randomly chosen by the wheel, this felt like a big time match. Vampiro continued to discuss Prince Puma needing to basically dig deep if he's to turn his career around. Puma started hot and even hit a shooting star press off the apron. Matanza took over and threw Puma all around the ringside area. Dario told his brother not to let up and inflict more damage. Matanza continued to dominate but Puma found the fire for a rally. In an impressive moment, Puma caught Matanza in mid-air and not only suplexed him, but deaf lifted him into a second one! Matanza nearly hit Wrath of the Gods but Puma counterd into a big DDT. Puma used kicks to knock Matanza down, perfectly in position for the 630. Puma nailed it but Mil Muertes showed up and hit him with the POUNCE...PERIOD! Dario shouted at the referee to not call a DQ. Matanza then won with a big Wrath of the Gods. Really strong match. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands and they believed that Puma would do it. The Mil Muertes run in kind of hurt it but it did advance the angle, which made sense. They had to protect both guys too. ***3/4

In the back, Killshot is working out. Joey Ryan arrives with a note. When Killshot questions who gave it to him, Joey responds with "What am I? A detective?" Great line. Killshot opens it and it says "you left me to die." It looks like one of his old military buddies is coming back.

Overall: 7/10. Lucha Underground once again delivers a good show. While the first match was disappointing, Cage and Texano did better than expected and we were treated to a great main event. I'm not interested in the arrival of Callihan but it could be an interesting storyline. The Killshot and Johnny Mundo stuff is also intriguing.

If you do want to check out Lucha Underground, which you absolutely should, and don't get El Rey Network (like me), you can sign up for the streaming service Fubo.TV. It's a great way to support the company and channel while streaming the show online. You can sign up and get Lucha Underground right here with Fubo.tv!

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