Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Lucha Underground "Ultimate Opportunities" Review

The episode starts with a recap of the debut of Dario's wheel, Pentagon nearly breaking Dragon Azteca Jr.'s arm and the Worldwide Underground being run off by the Trios Champions and Sexy Star two weeks ago.

Things actually open with Azteca and Rey Mysterio sparring in a ring. Rey is trying to get Dragon to focus on their battle and not get caught up in the Pentagon stuff. Chavo Guerrero randomly appears. Dragon Azteca charges at him for lying but gets rolled into the old Lance Storm maple leaf. Rey convinces him to let go and Chavo says that he'll have to teach Azteca the "Guerrero ways."

In the Temple, Dario says that his brother will defend the Lucha Underground Title tonight against whoever comes out on Dario's "Dial of Doom." Dario says that nobody actually believed in Son of Havoc two weeks ago. He spins it and the lucky, or unlucky winner, is the Mack.

Lucha Underground Championship: Matanza Cueto (c) w/ Dario Cueto def. The Mack in 6:04
Matanza waited for the Mack on the steps. I lost connection to the channel for a second but once it came back, Mack hit a stunner on the outside and rolled him in for a near fall. Mack doesn't let that get to him and continued to stay in control. The crowd was way into him. Matanza blocked a second stunner and turned it into a release German suplex. Matana took over from there but Mack responded to some shots with a loud "THAT'S ALL YOU GOT BITCH?" Matanza answered that with a vicious shot. Mack nailed a nice dive outside and went for a bullfrog splash but Matanza got the knees up and retained with Wrath of the Gods. Like the SOH match two weeks ago, this was a lot of fun. The crowd was totally into it, it was a fresh matchup, Mack looked good and Matanza still came off like a monster. ***

The Famous B commercial plays as Son of Havoc somewhere on the "open road." He says he can't stand them. He's chilling with Mascarita Sagrada, who agrees by flipping him off. Havoc's mom shows up with BAGEL BITES for them! Amazing segment.

Johnny Mundo barges into Dario's office, asking for his Lucha Underground Title shot. Dario says that he and his boys get a Trios Titles shot tonight. He says that the Worldwide Underground just cares about him as LU Champion and not the Trios Titles. Mundo is pissed and won't compete tonight. Taya offers to replace him and Dario accepts.

Ultimate Opportunity: Cage def. Texano in 5:51
Dario showed up before this match and announced that it would be for an "Ultimate Opportunity" since both men lost in the first round of his "4 A Unique Opportunity" tournament at Ultima Lucha Dos. Texano took to the air early and did his best to negate Cage's power. He worked the ankle and hit a weak clothesline to take Cage down. They work into an exchange where both guys come close a few times. Cage won with a discus lariat in an uninspired match. It wasn't bad, it was kind of just there. **

Dario Cueto came out of his office to say that Cage wins the "ultimate opportunity", he has to beat Texano two more times because it is a Best of Five Series. Doesn't sound too interesting.

In his office, Dario gets a box with hats. He tosses them aside and opens an envelope with photos in them. It's hard to tell what's on them. Dragon Azteca barges in to demand a match with Pentagon Dark. Dario doesn't want to do it but decides to say that he'll pencil it in. A random dude arrives to ask for a match. He notices the pictures on the desk, which surprises Dario since he threw them in the trash. Dario gives them to the guy and he leaves. Chavo shows up now to say that he needs to talk to Dario.

Trios Championship: Aerostar, Drago and Fenix (c) def. Worldwide Underground in 9:27
Jack Evans was his weird self, blindfolding himself and doing some bootleg karate stuff. It didn't seem to really amuse Taya and Black. Taya came in and worked a very good back and forth with Drago. Jack refuses to tag back in, so Black goes against Aerostar. There continued to be problems with the Worldwide Underground. Evans pouted like a child outside and left Black to take a beating form the three champions, who just work at a very good, quick pace. Taya hit a nice dive outside onto Fenix and Drago. Shortly after that, Aerostar won it with a springboard codebreaker while Evans continued to pout. Good match that told an interesting story, but nothing special. **3/4

Johnny Mundo runs out and jumps the champions along with Taya and PJ Black. Jack Evans still just pouts. Sexy Star shows up and dropkicks Taya and Mundo. She gets help from the champions to run off the Worldwide Underground.

The final segment sees Rey Mysterio in Dario Cueto's office. He tells him that Azteca Jr. asked for a match with Pentagon Dark. Rey is disappointed but Dario says that Chavo wants the same thing. Next week, Azteca takes on Chavo and the winner gets Pentagon. Rey will be the guest referee.

Overall: 6/10. An average episode tonight. They advanced some stories as Lucha Underground almost always does. A lot of Dario tonight, but that's a good thing. The matches were all relatively enjoyable, though I'm not too keen on a best of five between Cage and Texano. The "Dial of Doom", SOH and Mascarita segment and Worldwide Underground issues were all fun.

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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