Lucha Underground: Episode #38 – Ultima Lucha Part I

Lucha Underground – Episode #38: Ultima Lucha Part I
Date: July 29, 2015
Location: Lucha Underground Temple, Boyle Heights, CA
Commentators: Matt Striker, Vampiro
Follow @udkyle

It’s finally here! Can the show match the hype? Let’s find out…but first:

Previously on Lucha Underground…

Dario Cueto hypes Ultima Lucha. Cage assaults The Mack in the locker room over a spot on Daivari’s Trios team, The Mack responds by scoring an upset victory on a roll up in a one on one match with Cage, leading to an all-out brawl between the two and a Falls Count Anywhere match set for Ultima Lucha. Drago defeats Hernandez as part of a Fatal Fourway for the #1 Contender’s spot. Catrina calls out the Trios Champions, Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico. Hernandez assaults Drago with a leather strap, leading to Dario Cueto making the Believers’ Backlash match for Ultima Lucha.

We open in the prison under the temple with Black Lotus doing pull-ups in her cell. Dario Cueto enters in a tuxedo and brags about his triumph, Ultima Lucha, and offers Black Lotus some champagne. Black Lotus responds by flipping Cueto off. Cueto downs his glass of champagne, and as we hear the sounds of Matanza from the adjoining cell, Cueto says that he had hoped Lotus spending all this time next to Matanza would have made her have a change of heart in relation to him. While Lotus paces in her cage, silent, Cueto goes on to explain that his brother is like a pitbull, exploited and twisted by a master, his father, who used his brother to make a lot of money from fights in underground arenas, billing him as “Monster Matanza Cueto.” Cueto admits that Matanza hurt a lot of people, but says he did not touch Lotus’ parents. He says that her parents were killed by El Dragon Azteca, Lotus’ lucha libre teacher. Cueto goes on to say that Lotus’ father was the leader of the Black Lotus Triad in Hong Kong, who were at war with El Dragon Azteca’s mercenaries, and that Azteca killed Lotus’ parents, and blamed Matanza, so he could have the last laugh by turning his rival’s daughter into his apprentice in a futile quest for revenge. Cueto says that Matanza may be a pitbull, but Azteca is a snake. Cueto tells Lotus that the truth may hurt, but it also may set her free (brandishing her cell key), and he leaves to tend to Ultima Lucha. Lotus no-sells the conversation and begins punching the chalk outline of a man drawn on the wall of her cell.

Reaction: This is one of the longest film vignettes of the season, running about three and a half minutes or so, and it fills in a lot of backstory on this angle, that is arguably the most controversial part of this show. Lotus’ character plays a lot better as a kind of silent, brooding black widow type, and Cueto is fantastic here, as always, doing his best with some weighty and cumbersome dialogue. I’ve suspected for a while, and this kind of confirms it for me, that if the show gets renewed for future seasons, the longer story arc of the show may end up being a power struggle between Cueto and Dragon Azteca for control of the temple, and if the actor who plays Cueto eventually leaves the show (because he’s not a wrestling guy, he’s an accomplished Spanish actor), Azteca may ultimately become his replacement as things progress. However, we’re way ahead of ourselves in terms of long term planning. Let’s wait and see if this even gets renewed for Season 2.

Melissa Santos, standing in the ring, welcomes us to Ultima Lucha.

Vampiro and Matt Striker promote tonight’s event as Sergio Arauo play on the bandstand. The temple has some pretty awesome banners of each match on the Ultima Lucha card hanging around the temple to help give this a big event feel.

Match #1 – Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage

Mack is introduced, but Cage attacks him before he even makes his way down the temple stairs and throws him into a wall. The two trade blows and fight out on to the roof of the storage room that Fenix was powerbombed through earlier this season (Striker says it’s been reinforced). Cage slams Mack on the roof, and then drags Mack down from the roof into the crowd. Cage goes to either piledrive or powerbomb Mack on the wooden bleachers, but Mack escapes and shoves Cage into the wall of the storage room adjoining the bleachers, and backdrops Cage onto the bleachers. Mack covers for a two count.

An edit it made and we cut to Cage escaping the crowd at the bottom of the bleachers and heading towards the storage room where he grabs a steel chair and cracks Mack in the stomach, and on the back with it. Cage goes for another swing, but as he lifts the chair up, Mack spears Cage through the door of the storage room. Cage recovers and finds a fire extinguisher with which he sprays Mack (and a ton of fans). Cage then emerges from the room with a STOP sign, while Mack holds a 2×4 as he tries to clear his eyes from the fire extinguisher.

Cage cracks Mack over the head with the STOP sign, DDT’s Mack on the sign, and covers for a two count. The crowd chants for tables as Cage picks Mack up, but Mack grabs his 2×4 and hits Cage in the stomach with it, then breaks it over his back. Mack then goes back by Dario Cueto’s office and grabs a cooler and blasts Cage in the face with it, beer and ice spilling out upon impact. Mack grabs two Miller Lites off the ground (awesome product placement, MillerCoors is one of their sponsors), cracks them open Steve Austin style, takes a beer bath, and then BAH GAWD STUNS CAGE! Mack flips Cage off and jaws in his face as the crowd goes nuts, and then covers for a two count.

Cage crawls away and gets to his feet as Mack finds a glass bottle, and breaks it across Cage’s head, but Cage no-sells it (a call back to his introduction vignette where he takes out a bunch of thugs in a parking lot, one of them futilely breaking a bottle over Cage’s head in the piece). Cage responds with a lariat, and then grabs Mack and bounces him head first off the ring post. Cage sets up a table and climbs the turnbuckle, dragging Mack up with him. Mack counters with an enziguri and switches to a position under Cage where he grabs him, and hits a sit down powerbomb from the top turnbuckle, through a table to the floor. Mack covers for a 2.999999999 count.

Cage crawls away again, and Mack chases him with a crutch handed to him by a fan. They climb up a set of stairs that lead to the top of Dario Cueto’s office, and Mack plasters Cage with a trash can lid that knocks him over the safety rail and out on to the office roof. Mack climbs out onto the roof with the rest of the trash can and hits a spinebuster on Cage, on the can, for a two count.

Mack goes to throw Cage off the roof, but Cage counters,and hits a discus lariat on Mack sending him back over the safety rail. Cage then climbs up on the safety rail and suplexes Mack back onto the roof for a two count. Cage then grabs a cement block from the edge of the roof and sets it on the ground, grabs Mack off the ground by both arms, and curb stomps him through the cement block. He covers for the pinfall. Cage rips down his singlet after the match, and poses on the top of Cueto’s office.

Winner: Cage via pinfall
Rating: ***
Reaction: They never got in the ring. This was a fantastic use of the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation. They fought all over the temple, and the temple is such a great set that it really helped make the match. This was a high quality, brutal brawl with some really physical spots, and a really hot crowd. The Steve Austin spot was probably the highlight in terms of what the crowd popped the loudest for, but they went nuts for all of this. Great start to the show. The only real criticisms I had of this were the ending was kind of abrupt, and the edit at the beginning of the match was fairly noticeable. Story-wise, Cage finally gets his win after Mack stole a couple victories from him earlier this season.

Striker promotes the Trios Championship match, which is next.

Commercial Break

Striker and Vampiro promote the matches airing on Part II of Ultima Lucha next week.

Match #2 – Trios Championship: Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico (c) vs. The Disciples of Death

The Disciples are introduced with new masks of different colors to help tell them apart. Their names are apparently Barrio Negro, El Sinestro de la Muerte, and Terce, but telling which is which is still difficult. The Trios Champs come out with Ivelisse still injured. We get a quick commercial break before the match begins.

Commercial Break

The Disciples jump the champs immediately after the bell rings. Barrio Negro is apparently the gold masked Disciple of Death, and he gingerly hits the injured Ivelisse in the corner. Ivelisse escapes out of the ring while the other two Disciples stomp Havoc and Angelico in different corners. Sinestro and Terce double team Havoc, while Barrio Negro engages Angelico in the center of the ring. Negro hits a move on Angelico that could either be described as a fireman’s carry into a neckbreaker, or a reverse F5. Sinestro, who has the purple mask, pairs off with Havoc, and Terce, who has a silver mask with ’13’ on the forehead, pairs of with Angelico, and the Disciples begin beating on them while Negro jumps to the outside and plants Ivelisse with a big kick to the face, and then hits her with one of her crutches.

Back in the ring, Sinestro hits a crucifix on Havoc for a two count. Sinestro gets up and charges Havoc, and Havoc just sidesteps him and tosses him over the top rope. Havoc then flies, jumping out of one end of the ring, hitting a tope on Negro, and then jumping back in the ring, and running and jumping out of the other side to wipe out Terce with another tope. Angelico gets in the ring and runs at Sinestro, doing a somersault flip over the top rope and taking him out.

Havoc beats on Terce on the outside, while Ivelisse chokes Negro with her crutch. Negro escapes back into the ring, and catches a knee strike from Angelico, followed by a standing shooting star by Havoc for a two count that’s broken up by Sinestro. All three disciples get back in the ring and quickly dispose of Havoc and Angelico. Sinestro grabs Ivelisse by the neck and pulls her into the ring. Ivelisse attempts to fight back with chops, but Sinestro overpowers her with a choke. Sinestro then grabs Ivelisse’s good leg and wraps it around his neck in a submission attempt. The other two disciples taunt Ivelisse, but Havoc jumps in the ring and breaks up the submission. Havoc plants Negro & Terce with his springback back elbow. Angelico and Sinestro begin fighting up into the crowd, making their way up the bleachers. Negro & Terce dump Havoc out of the ring, while Angelico and Sinestro trade blows at the top of the bleachers. Sinestro finally wins out after a series of exchanges, backdropping Angelico onto the bleachers. Meanwhile, Negro and Terce crotch Havoc on the ring post.

Sinestro makes his way back down to the floor. Havoc fights back temporarily against Negro and Terce, backdropping one on to the other after some kicks, but the Disciples overpower him again. All three Disciples converge together on the floor to plot their next move when Angelico gets up onto the roof of the storage room, runs, and leaps off the roof with a crossbody wiping out all three Disciples down on the floor. This actually may have been a crazier dive than Angelico’s previous two death defying jumps this season, because of these guys being on the floor. Vampiro screams enthusiastically “Angelico is dead!!” Angelico is shown bleeding from his mouth.

Catrina starts pacing around the outside of the ring, and then jumps in the ring with her stone and walks to the side where the Disciples are laying and raises the stone. Striker says “the higher the stone goes, their life force increases.” Meanwhile, Ivelisse climbs into the ring and calls out Catrina. Ivelisse hobbles over to her, and Catrina grabs her by the throat, but Ivelisse flips her down to the mat, sending the stone out of her hand, and begins hitting her with forearms to the face. Ivelisse pauses for a moment to scream towards the crowd, and Catrina reverses the mount, grabs her stone, and punches Ivelisse in the head with it, knocking her out. Negro climbs in the ring and pins Ivelisse while Sinestro and Terce prevent Havoc and Angelico from making the save. Catrina administers the lick of death to Ivelisse after the match, and the Disciples pose with the belts.

Winners: The Disciples of Death via pinfall
Rating: **1/2
Reaction: The extra 1/2* is for Angelico being a lunatic with these dives. This match was kind of flat, in all honesty. It was still a solid TV match, but between the Disciples being so non-descript and bland, and having to work around Ivelisse’s injury, this thing never really seemed to get out of first gear. It kind of just broke into random brawling amongst the six participants with occasional dives. The win for the Disciples seems to be an omen that Mil Muertes may be leaving with the LU Championship next week.

Commercial Break

Striker and Vampiro crack a Miller Lite as they promote the Believers’ Backlash match.

Match #3 – Believers Backlash: Drago vs. Hernandez

Fans make their way down the temple stairs with leather straps. Hernandez comes out yelling at the fans. We catch a commercial break before the start of the match.

Commercial Break

Hernandez jumps Drago early, and crotches Drago on the top rope, and then hits a drop kick sending him to the outside into the fans. The fans help Drago up but refuse to whip him causing Hernandez to become enraged.

Hernandez jumps out of the ring to go after Drago and immediately gets whipped by fans. Here’s the problem with this: Lucha Underground picked arguably the most unintimidating group of people they could possibly pick to be threats to Hernandez. Yet, Hernandez has to sell that he’s afraid of these people, and run for his life. To his credit, he does his best to sell this, and some fans get kind of halfway decent shots in on him (he does have a welt on his head), but this just really doesn’t work on a believability level, as opposed to if the wrestlers in the locker room were performing this lumberjack function.

Anyway, Hernandez is whipped around the ring until he escapes up the temple stairs. He runs back down the stairs and gets into the ring, and takes control with a kick to Drago’s chest. Hernandez charges Drago in the corner, but Drago dodges and climbs to the top to hit a corkscrew, wiping out Hernandez. Hernandez gets back to his feet, but Drago cuts him down with a series of kicks. Hernandez catches a chin buster from Drago which staggers him towards the ropes, and Drago takes Hernandez over the top with a cactus clothesline, both men hitting the floor.

The fans immediately begin whipping Hernandez again, laying in some better shots. Hernandez runs away and then tries to get back in the ring before catching a shot on the back by an extremely fat guy at ring side. Another fan goes to hit Hernandez, and Hernandez grabs his arm and takes the strap. I have to say Hernandez is getting pretty messed up here. These people are laying in shots. They don’t look overly impressive visually, but they’re definitely connecting with them.

As Hernandez goes to get back in the ring, Drago charges him with a knee, but Hernandez shoves him back and hits his springboard shoulder block to take Drago down, then immediately breaks into his strut while taunting the fans. Hernandez charges Drago in the corner, but Drago stops him with a kick. Drago climbs the ropes and goes for a cross body, but Hernandez catches him, lifts him up, and drops him with a sit-down powerbomb.

Hernandez does more taunting and then climbs to the top and attempts a splash, but Drago gets his knees up. Drago follows by planting Hernandez with a tornado DDT. Drago waits as Hernandez gets up, and Hernandez goes for a kick, but Drago takes him out with a leg sweep. Drago then attempts a sunset flip off the ropes, but he can’t take Hernandez down. Hernandez lifts Drago up by his neck, and Drago counters from his standing position with an enziguri. Drago goes for a slam, but Hernandez blocks it and picks Drago up on his shoulder, but Drago counters that into an arm drag take down and rolls through into a pin attempt for a two count.

Hernandez regains control clubbing Drago across the back, and then picks Drago up in the Last Ride (Razor’s Edge) position and tosses Drago over the top ropes into three fans in a really cool spot. Best use of the fans so far. As Drago tries to get to his feet, Hernandez goes for a suicide dive, but as he leaps, Drago moves and spits green mist into Hernandez’s face. The fans again converge on Hernandez, whipping him, and Hernandez escapes by crawling under the ring. Meanwhile, Drago grabs a table. Hernandez comes out from under the ring, and the fans start whipping him around the outside of the ring. Meanwhile, Drago grabs a pair of his training nunchucks and waits for Hernandez to reach him.

Hernandez finally has had enough and grabs a fan and toss him head first into another fan. Hernandez grabs a strap from another fan, and threatens the fan, but then turns around and Drago starts leveling him with the nunchucks. Drago slams Hernandez’s head off the table and then sets him on it, climbs to the top, and crushes Hernandez with a splash, breaking the table.

Drago slings Hernandez back into the ring, climbs to the top, and hits another splash for a three count and the win.

Winner: Drago via pinfall
Rating: **1/2
Reaction: The action was ok. The fans did level Hernandez with some good strap shots, but they were so geeky that it was hard to believe Hernandez couldn’t have just started swinging, and killed all of them. Also, the big sell on this match was Hernandez fighting back against the fans. He really didn’t do that until the end in a couple carefully planned spots. More integration of that might have helped. I was intrigued by this as a concept match going in to this show. It wasn’t an abortion, and the match was decent enough, but I’d probably shelf the concept unless they put a lot more planning into the fan spots. This marks the end of Hernandez’s tenure in Lucha Underground. While it’s a little easier to understand why he may have quit, after watching fans whip him for 15 minutes, I have to say this short run in Lucha Underground may be the best Hernandez has ever looked. His match with Puma earlier this season, may be one of his best matches ever. So I’m not sure he made the right decision. But who knows, TNA may out live Lucha Underground at this point.

Striker gives the hard sell for next week’s two hour finale and signs off.

We get a shot of El Dragon Azteca walking the streets outside the temple with a purpose. He approaches the temple and a man with a hoodie jumps out of a door, and the two spar quickly before the hoodied man tells Azteca that he knows the prophecy, and cannot enter the temple. Azteca responds that Lotus is a prisoner because he failed her. The hoodied man says he’ll tell Puma, and Puma will rescue her and bring her back to Azteca like he did the first time. Azteca responds that Puma has his own path to follow and he will not put him in any more danger. The hoodied man then says he will go and rescue Lotus. Azteca respond that this is his fight. The hoodied man warns Azteca that the prophecy says Azteca will die. Azteca says he may die, but El Dragon Azteca will live forever. He enters the temple.

Reaction: So this Lotus/Matanza/Azteca angle seems to be heading for some type of temporary resolution in the season finale. I believe the implication of Puma, as an informant with Azteca, is a bit of a reveal here. I don’t recall Puma being previously named as the person who kidnapped and delivered Lotus to Azteca.

Final Thoughts: Good appetizer for the main course next week. The Cage/Mack match was a lot of fun, and while the other two matches weren’t exactly stand outs, they were still enjoyable TV matches for the most part. LU clearly made the decision to burn their three least heated matches on this pre-finale show. Given how hot the crowd was during these three matches, I imagine they completely lose it next week. So that will be fun.

The revisiting of the Cuetos/Lotus/Azteca storyline is an interesting call for the finale. I don’t know if we’ll get a reveal on Matanza or not, but I imagine whatever happens with this angle next week will do a lot to set up the main story arc for Season 2. As I said earlier in the review, I could see a Cueto/Azteca long-term power struggle over the fate of the temple. Although, honestly, this could be as simple as Azteca frees Lotus, but Matanza kills Azteca, and we just leave it there for now.

Once again, Ultima Lucha Part II is two hours next week, so adjust your DVRs if need be. And this should be a home run of a show with two excellent headlining matches in Puma/Muertes and El Patron/Mundo