Lucha Underground #3.20 - All Night Long...Again Review (31st May 2017)

On 31st May, Lucha Underground aired the 20th episode of their 3rd season, taped 24th April 2016 at the Lucha Underground Arena in Los Angeles, California, on El Rey. The show featured Johnny Mundo [John Morrison] defending the Lucha Underground Championship against The Mack [Willie Mack] in an All Night Long contest. But was it any good? Let's take a look. 

• #ICYMI - All the build towards towards The Mack challenging Johnny Mundo for the Lucha Underground Championship tonight in an Iron Man match. 

• Some live mariachi music before Vampiro and Matt Striker welcome us to the show and put over the match that's about to come.

Mundo and Mack battled to 3-3 draw, Mundo Retains Lucha Underground Championship

Gosh, if you're gonna do a mid-season break, you better come back with a bang and that's exactly what Lucha Underground did with as Johnny Mundo and The Mack went to war over the Lucha Underground Championship in an Iron Man match that went the entire length of the show. The match unfolded across fourty minutes of television time, twisting and turning, weaving a compelling story that built up Mundo as the villainous veteran willing to do anything to keep his title, whilst Mack was the talented underdog who didn't look like he could last the length of the show. The wrestling almost took a back seat to the epic storytelling, but when called upon both guys worked crisp and fast, with the first ten or twelves minutes was almost all in the ring and held it's own. 

Both men's character performances were terrific throughout, but the act Mundo has going at the moment with PJ Black [Justin Gabriel] also, is something else entirely. He just oozes pure dickhead in everything that he does and that makes it super easy to get behind whoever is against him. All of Mundo's falls played into this. The first saw him back out of some back and forth strikes on top of turnbuckle, holding onto the ringpost and leaning back, getting some good heat, before catching Mack, knocking him off the turnbuckle and hitting End of the World (Split Legged Corkscrew Moonsault) for the pin at around the 6 minute mark. Three minutes later and Mundo was at it again, grabbing hold of the ropes after slipping out of a Mack pin with roll-up to take a 2-0 lead. Then for his third, Mundo upped the game as he feigned an ankle injury after hitting a corkscrew plancha, only to kip up and DDT Mack onto a stretcher (that was bought in to take Mundo out of the match). Add the moment where he hid under the ring and then appeared to run away out of the other side, only to appear from under the ring after Mack had given chase to what turned out to be PJ Black, before both men took Mack down with kendo sticks, as well as asking the band to play a victory song with minutes left of the bout and you had an intensely dislikable character, who had cheated his way into the lead and who the audience wanted to see get the shit kicked out of them. 

The bout was chockful of massive spots, as Black, Son of Havoc [Matt Cross], Sexy Star and Ricky Mandel all got involved off the match, not just upping the drama as they caused the momentum to swing one way or another but also being part of some of the matches creative highspots. The first big big spot in the match involved Mack getting his revenge for the DDT on the stretcher by tying Mundo to the board and sending him down the Arena's steps, which was as visually thrilling as it sounds. Then the other lads started to arrive as Havoc countered Mundo and Black arriving with Kendo sticks and awoke a shattered Mack with some beer. Then in the aforementioned moment that saw Mundo implore the band to play a victory song, Star was revealed as the groups maraca player, leaping off the balcony onto Mundo and Black to a big pop. The way Mack equalled the scores at 3-3 was probably the most spectacular fall of the match as the Battle of the Bulls winner hit an over-the-shoulder piledriver off the apron through a pair of tables. There was so much woven into the fabric of the story that was told, with each spot coming at just the right time, building the excitement without taking away from what was about to come, that it never felt like the match was dragging and there was always something either happening or right around the corner. 

Ending a match like this with a draw is a brave decision, as there's always the chance that the viewer can feel let down by having spent 40 minutes plus with a match only to have it conclude with no decisive winner. However, the last two minutes of the match, made me desperate to see a rematch and even more desperate to see someone knock Mundo off his perch (what a mark, right?), that slippery bastard. It felt like pretty much everyone inside the temple felt the same way, as Mundo missed an End of the World onto a ladder and Mack slowly made the climb up the ladder after draping Mundo across the table. After Havoc and Star had dealt with Ricky Mandel's interference (with the clock still ticking away in the corner of the screen), Mack reached the top exhausted and splashed the Mayor of Slam Town through the table, only for time to run out just as he made the cover. Helped by the crowd's enthusiasm this was a captivating piece of television that pulled me in deeper as the story unfolded and by the end of the show I was hyped to see them go at it again on next week's episode. 

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 7.8/10 

There isn't much more to add in this part, the match was great, the whole episode was the match. Go and watch it and enjoy the silliness.

TV Review: Lucha Underground #3.06 - Pentagon Dark v Rey Mysterio Jr v Chavo Guerrero Jr.

The 12th October 2016 episode of Lucha Underground, featured a main event including Pentagon Dark (Pentagon Jr.), Rey Mysterio Jr and Chavo Guerrero Jr. battling in a triple threat that had a lot of history behind it. In an action package hour, Dr. Wagner Jr, Jack Evans, Son of Havoc (Matt Cross), Gift of the Gods Champion Sexy Star and Famous B were all involved, but was that action any good?

The night's main event with Pentagon Dark, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. tangling in a triple threat was enjoyable contest, that featured some nice interactions between all three men in different combinations. The bout was paced well, with Guerrero being used to simmer the action down, whilst the flashier Mysterio and more physical Dark picked things up. The spots involved all three were done well, usually coming as a nice jolt following a string of singles action, like Guerrero sliding into the ring to drop toe hold Dark into a chair wedged in the corner during a Dark and Mysterio section and Mysterio leaping over the top rope with a body scissors that top both he and Guerrero to the outside whilst Guerrero fought Dark. The finish saw Guerrero trip Mysterio on the top rope, Guerrero take a superkick off the apron from Dark, with Dark pulling Mysterio in Fear Factor (Package Piledriver) to earn the win. Guerrero and Mysterio's issues deepened post-match as Guerrero attacked Mysterio with a chair, hanging him in a tree of woe and hammering on his knee, in a scene reminscent of their 2007 "I Quit" match in WWE. 

This episode's semi-main was Sexy Star retaining the Gift of the Gods Championship over Jack Evans in a violent clash, that ended with a series of interference from the Worldwide Underground (Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) & PJ Black (Justin Gabriel)) and Trios Champions Aero Star, Drago & Fenix. I thought Evans did some wonderful work in this match as he came across like an absolute dick, whenever he was in control. He was frustrating to watch, but in a good way as it meant whenever Star began to turn the tables it was even more satisfying to watch. This was helped by the viciousness that Star brought to her offence, with a particularly memorable moment being the multiple rope-aided bronco busters in the corner. The match would end devolving into a series of fun run-ins, with Mundo & Black giving Evans a wonderful near fall and Aero Star & Drago eventually running them off. I would've liked to have seen Star and Evans get to have one last exchange before the finish and feel that that could have elevated the match further, but Fenix distracting the ref and Evans, as Star hit her opponent low with a kendo stick and hits a spinning Fisherman's suplex for the win, will probably open up more option going forward.

The opening match saw Dr. Wagner Jr & Famous B (seconded by Brenda) defeat Mascarita Sagrada and Son of Havoc in varied encounter, that had plenty of fun. I felt like the bout started and finished strongly with the Havoc and Sagrada face-shine getting over the odd-couple vibe with their entrance on a bike and side-car getting a great reaction. The finish with Havoc getting pushed off the top rope by Wagner, before Sagrada took the Doctor Driver and Famous B pinned the mini with his stethoscope was also well worked. Unfortunately the contests mid-section didn't do a whole lot for me and I began to lose interest in the match a few minutes in. There wasn't particularly anything wrong with what was going on, I just didn't find it particularly interesting either.

Best of the Rest 

• Rey Mysterio Jr. & Chavo Guerrero Jr. came to blows in Dario Cueto's office, which lead to Cueto adding them to the main event with Pentagon Dark - Chavo Guerrero Jr. brutally assaulted Dragon Azteca Jr. with a steel chair in the locker room, with Rey Mysterio Jr. discovering DAJ following the incident

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.25/10 

Show in a Sentence - A fun hour, with two good matches, that open opportunities for bigger bouts to come. 

Strongest Moment - Pentagon Dark v Rey Mysterio Jr. v Chavo Guerrero Jr. 

Weakest Moment - Dr Wagner Jr & Famous B v Mascarita Sagrada & Son of Havoc

Words - James Marston

Lucha Underground 7th January 2015 Review

           Those Lucha Underground chaps only went and crowned their first champion on their first show of 2015! But was the show actually any good? Let's take a look

Lucha Underground Championship Aztec Warfare

Fenix vs. Johnny Mundo vs. Mr. Cisco vs. King Cuerno vs. Son of Havoc vs. Pimpinella Escarlita vs. Prince Puma vs. Ivelisse Velez vs. Drago vs. Bael vs. Cortez Castro vs. Ricky Mandel vs. Big Ryck vs. Pentagon, Jr. vs. Super Fly vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Sexy Star vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. Mil Muertes

       Aztec Warfare is essentially a Twenty Man Royal Rumble, but with pins and submissions instead of over-the-top rope eliminations. This style of match, of course, suited Lucha Underground's performers much better than your traditional battle royal, as it allowed them to pull off some exciting flips and tricks over the top rope, whilst also allowing the ring to be cleared at times to allow for some more exciting action inside the ring. Unlike your traditional WWE-style Royal Rumble, which more often than not has a lot of guys standing around or dicking about by the ropes, this match was full-on action from start to finish.

      Alongside the quite frankly ridiculous action, a few storylines and feuds were weaved into the match. There was the struggle of Big Ryck's Crew to stay in the match before Big Ryck arrived, in which they ultimately failed, leaving Big Ryck to get eliminated thanks to a three pronged flippy floppy attack by Johnny Mundo, Prince Puma and Fenix. There was rascally veteran Chavo Guerrero, Jr's steel chair based madness, as he twatted many a wrestler in the head, before Sexy Star continued the pairs feud. The return of Blue Demon, Jr. to attack Guerrero felt like an important moment and the set up to a chair shot from Star allowed that story to reach a satisfying conclussion in the match.

    The final two in the match were Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo, with Mundo having been in the match since the very beginning. With the pair having main evented the first Lucha Underground, this felt like fitting finish to the match to crown the first champion. The pair had an engaging battle, with both going back and forth with a series of exciting moves. A top rope reverse rana from Mundo was perhaps the highlight of the bout for me. Puma's selling was also particularly impressive, especially with Mundo looking to see up for a Spanish Fly on the top rope, Puma looked genuinelly out of it. The finish saw Puma knock Mundo off the top turnbuckle, crotching him on the rope, before delivering a kick and a beautiful 630 splash to pick up the victory and become the first Lucha Underground Champion. It was refreshing to see a match end in such a fashion, as both men are big stars for the promotion so to see one of them gain a clean victory over the other on TV, was a nice change to WWE's usual shitty finishes. 

      This was a great watch from start to finish, which felt like the action didn't stop one bit, and the action was always exciting, with each wrestler getting an opportunity to show off, at least some of their style in the ring. If you hadn't seen Lucha Underground before this would be a good match to start with, as you get to see twenty of the promotions top stars, pulling out some of their most exciting moves. Put quite simply, this match was an awful lot of fun to watch.

Finally...

I thought having only one match take up the entire show was an interesting concept that having only an hour long show affords Lucha Underground the chance to do. As the show went to commercial breaks you had a reason to continue watching to see how the match would unfold, and unlike WWE's commercial breaks you didn't go into the break with a rest hold, you went in with a Tope Conhilo or some other flippy move.  This show is steadily become on of the strongest and most unique on the market at the moment, if you're not watching Lucha Underground, you should be.

Lucha Underground Ep. 1 - (Mundo vs. Puma) Review

Earlier this week a brand new wrestling product began to air on the El Rey network, which incidentally only air on the other side of the pond. But of course, with the power of the internet these days, if something airs somewhere in the world, it is available everywhere else within 24 hours. So I thought I'd give it a cheeky look and let you fine people know if you should be checking out the show as well. 

Presentation

One of the most important parts of any wrestling television show is the presentation, television is a visual medium after all. Lucha Underground is supposedly set in head honcho Dario Cueto's make-shift temple, which is a bit of hodge-podge, truth be told. I found it difficult to believe Dario Cueto when he spoke about his wrestlers needing to have respect to fight in his temple, when the visual didn't quite match up. It looked as if there hadn't been a clear brief on what was needed from the set, to me. What is important though is that this setting looked visually different from any other wrestling show at the moment. It would have been silly to try to reproduce WWE's look on a smaller budget, TNA is still undecided on how it wants to present it's product and Ring of Honor has the Indy look nailed on, so I commended the Lucha Underground team for trying something different with this.

Talking of differences between Lucha Underground and other products, the backstage segments are completely different from what I've seen a wrestling company do before. The scenes were filmed very theatrically, with multiple cameras and even incidental music added on top. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, to be honest I'm not sure if it's mine, but this style makes the product instantly stand out and that can only be a good thing. Although, I think if this was the style they could have brought in a better actor to play the owner of promotion, Cueto.

On Commentary duty, Matt Striker comes across as extremely knowledgeable, comfortably calling the matches and adding any extra details that he think will add to the story. This felt much more like the Striker that used to commentate on WWE's version of ECW, rather than what he presented later in his WWE career. Unfortunately, his partner Vampiro, often feels like a fish out of water. Floundering all over the shop, randomly naming moves and genuinely sounding like he was getting on Striker's nerves throughout. Hopefully, AAA will notice this and quickly replace Vampiro with someone else, better suited to the role.

Johnny Mundo vs. Prince Puma

The main event of the show saw, Johnny Mundo, better known as John Morrison, taking on Prince Puma, better known as Ricochet. Before the match got under way, there were a number of segments geared toward building up the main event. The first of these saw Cueto talking to Konnan in his office. I found this segment utterly bizarre and devoid of all logic. Cueto had apparently "signed (Mundo) to make an example of him" and wanted Konnan's new protege Puma to take him out and collect the $100,000 prize that Cueto had offered up at the top of the show. Please someone explain to me how that makes any sense? 

A video package explaining the relationship between Konnan and Prince Puma was later shown. There was a lot of cool stuff thrown in here, like the explanation as to why Luchadores wear masks and it allowed the fans to get an idea of what to expect from Puma in the ring later on, for anyone not familiar with Ricochet. I do find Konnan a very odd choice as his manager though, as he's never been someone I'd considered a great mic worker. 

The match itself was a lot of fun to watch, as the two pulled out a series of tricks and flips. The pair seemed to have a chemistry in the ring, flowing nicely through a series of back and forth exchanges. There was little in the way of psychology, but I don't think that's what this match needed to be, anyway, being the debut programme, it was a lot more important that the new audience got an opportunity to see what these two could do in the ring. Both men were allowed to look good, with Puma standing up nicely against the former WWE star, with a missed Standing Moonsault being turned into a Standing Shooting Star Press being one of the highlights of Puma's offence. 

The slight bit of story that the match was given was Mundo's multiple attempts to hit the move formerly known as Starship Pain and now rechristened The End of the World. Firsty, Puma would thwart Mundo by catching him with a School Boy Roll up for a nice near fall. The second attempt saw Puma rolling out of the ring and hitting his signature Chocolate Rain for another well worked near fall. Finally, after a nice sequence saw Puma slip out of Mundo's powerbomb attempt, Mundo was able to hit a Solo Spanish Fly, before dragging Mundo to the corner and hitting The End of the World to pick up the victory. This was a nice inclusion as it built a little bit of drama into the match, with the crowd knowing if Mundo hit the move it would be the end of the match.

Following the match, Cueto was out to offer Mundo the $100, 000, only to remove the offer, as three men ran into the ring and destroyed both Mundo and Puma, firstly with a cool double team 3-D/Codebreaker construct, before the bigger of the three nailed Mundo with a huge Ura-nage slam. These three men were former WWE wrestler Ezekiel Jackson, now going by the name Big Ryck, former ROH wrestler Ricky Reyes, going by the name Cortez Castro and Lil Cholo, going by the name Mr. Cisco. It was revealed they worked for Cueto. I have to admit a ground a little at the conclusion to the show, as the Heel faction with the boss as their leader, really has been run into the ground. I'm happy to give Lucha Underground the benefit of the doubt for now on this angle however.

Lucha Underground have even put this match up on Youtube. Give it a look.

The Undercard

On the undercard for the show, Chavo Guerrero took on Blue Demon Jr. in a match that I just couldn't get my head around. The two had an awkward match, with a confusion over who was supposed to be playing the heel or babyface. For example, Demon would be slapping Chavo hard in the face and then begin to clap to attempt to get the crowd involved in the match. This could have been forgiven if the action in the ring was any good, but it simply wasn't. A terrible looking headscissors from Demon, a dodgy Tornado DDT and a horrible top rope powerbomb complete with a awkward set up, and that's the three big moves in the match that all looked piss poor. Demon would go on to pick up the win as Chavo tapped out to El Chulo, which at least made some sense considering Chavo had probably broken his back taking that nasty top rope powerbomb.

Later on in the show, Chavo was seen getting a verbal beating from Cueto, who really is all over this product. Cueto told Chavo he would have to find a new opponent for Demon, seeing as Chavo couldn't get the job done. I'm not sure why Cueto wants Demon to be taken out, as this wasn't explained, and meant that Demon playing the heel for some of the previous match made even less sense. 

Elsewhere, Son of Havoc (previously known as Matt Cross on WWE's Tough Enough, as well as ROH, Chikara, Wrestle Society X and elsewhere) took on AAA's Sexy Star. Sexy Star's gimmick is that she's a girl. There was some good back story put into it via a video package, but when you boil it down that's what her gimmick is. That meant that the story of the match was the Havoc should be booed because he's fighting a girl who has chosen to wrestle him. I just couldn't buy into it and therefore didn't feel any sympathy for Star. There were some nice moments and everything looked alright in the ring, but when a match goes less than two minutes, it's difficult to really judge anything. Havoc picked up the win with a Side Slam Backbreaker. The commentators also insinuated that Havoc was grabbing the tights during the pin, but it just looked like he was copping a feel of Star's arse.

Finally...

There was a lot to like about Lucha Underground, the look and feel are completely different from anything that's on TV at the moment, in both terms of what is shown from the arena and the backstage footage. The main event was also a lot of fun to watch, with both Mundo and Puma standing out as wrestlers who could offer a lot for the promotion going forward. That being said, the other two matches on the show did absolutely nothing for me, Chavo Guerrero and Blue Demon Jr's match especially was unforgivably poor, especially considering Guerrero is supposedly a driving force behind the direction of the show.

However, I would certainly recommend this show to anyone who is tiring of WWE's output, to at least give it a try, as you may find that some of the new things that Lucha Underground is doing will appeal to you. If they don't you've wasted 45 minutes and can send me angry message on Twitter, if you so wish. I know I'll be checking out Episode Two anyway.

Quick Results and Match Ratings

Blue Demon, Jr defeated Chavo Guerrero - DUD

Son of Havoc defeated Sexy Star - N/A

Johnny Mundo defeated Prince Puma - *** 1/4