BRM Reviews the 2/3/2016 Lucha Underground

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- a lot of this felt like it actually belonged at the beginning of last week’s show. Everything from the basic intro “I want the best fighters in all the world to come to the Temple” to Mil winning the title to the stuff with Black Lotus, Dario, and Dragon Azteca explaining about her parents and her killing Dragon Azteca and Dario saying “OMFG we have to leave right now!” to even just the cool highlights guys like Cage and Mundo doing their stuff.
Part of me wonders if it would have been better to do a two-hour season premiere, just to be able to follow up on everything (even if it’s just a little tiny bit of follow-up) in the first episode. (You probably would have had to change around some of the stuff with Ivelisse earning and getting her title shot, though. That is the sort of thing that works fine as an “episode-long storyline” in one hour, but probably wouldn’t work as well at two hours.

PRINCE PUMA & PENTAGON JR. BACKSTAGE- awesome.
First we’ve got Puma lifting weights and looking a lot bulkier than before as images of losing his title Mil Muertes replay over and over in his mind. Then Pentagon Jr. comes out and says that they will team together tonight, but once we beat the Disciples of Death, I’m going to break your arm. He might be a sadist, but at least Pentagon Jr. is honest.
Then they had a quick Kung Fu movie fight backstage and it was awesome. Puma could have won if he wanted to, but he decided to let Pentagon go instead and he walked off.

Matt Striker asks Vampiro if Pentagon Jr. broke Mil Muertes’ arm on his orders. Vamp’s response is “why would you even ask me that?” Striker suggested that Pentagon Jr. was trying to get a title shot the wrong way, but Vamp defended Pentagon’s actions. Their later interaction about this (Vampiro and Striker, I mean) clarified that Vampiro’s original response was not meant as a deflection, but rather as a “you know that question could literally be bad for my health” type of thing… except that we know from that video that opened the season that Vampiro is perfectly capable of lying through his teeth about such things.

JOHNNY MUNDO vs. KILLSHOT- 5/10
Just that one spot where Killshot got that false finish in all of a sudden made him go from jobber to someone who I actually care about. Rick Knox appears to have legitimately injured his leg whil taking that ref bump.

JOHNNY MUNDO PROMO- awesome!
He’s coming for Mil Muertes and the Lucha Underground Title!
Then Cage showed up and cut a decent promo on Mil. Then Cage and Mundo had a great verbal exchange. They want to fight each other.
Now what would normally happen in this situation is that Dario would show up and tell them they’ll have to wait until next week because Dario’s gimmick is that he is a promoter and wants to be able to sell tickets. He wants to make money. That is his motivation- or at least a side motivation because there is clearly something bigger/more magical going on here. But as far as everyone else (except for a few- Dragon Azteca, Mil Muertes and Catrina, and possibly Chavo and Marty the Moth) knows, that is his motivation for running this place.
So I have to ask… what is Catrina’s motivation? One would assume it is something mystical, having to do with the power of the Temple, or else why would she bother putting effort into continuing to run this place? And if she wants this motivation to remain a secret (which she probably does because it probably involves some sort of ancient power or treasure or secrets or something like that), then what motivation does she use as a façade. She’s shown herself to be so involved with the mystical that her running this place to make a profit so that she can have lots of money seems… off.
Just food for thought.

What happened in this case was that Mundo backed down from Cage, claiming he was playing mind games. And then tried to jump him from behind, but Cage still got the better of him. I guess Cage is a babyface now.

MARTY THE MOTH STILL HAS SEXY STAR TIED UP IN HIS HOUSE- good stuff.
Marty is really nailing the part, and you got the feeling that the previously tough, brave, Sexy Star has been close to broken by this insane ordeal. Of the butterfly metaphors (including the fact that when we originally saw that Marty had abducted her during the season-ending montage, she was tied up with so much rope it looked like she was in a cocoon), have gotten me thinking that instead of being a new character, maybe Marty’s “sister” is some kind of psychosis he is trying to bring out of Sexy Star. Either he is trying to turn her into something else or he is trying to bring something out of her that has been inside the whole time (or maybe softening her up for a demonic possession of some kind)?
Either way, we were promised some more movement on this soon by Marty saying they were almost ready to go back to the Temple, and his sister would be coming with them.

“DAREWOLF” PJ BLACK VIDEO- good.

THE MACK vs. “DAREWOLF” PJ BLACK- 6.25/10
Vampiro totally buried PJ by claiming he had no idea who he was. Also, I’m certain that Striker called The Mack “Norvell Austin” which is kind of a racist in an “all Chinese People look the same” kind of way.
Well… that finish was unexpected.

KOBRA MOON VIDEO- the video was fine. Is she supposed to be like a jewel thief or something? The thing I didn’t like was the name. It’s just kind of… goofy.

HANDICAP MATCH: Prince Puma & Pentagon Jr. vs. The Disciples of Death (w/Catrina)- 6.5/10
The match was pretty short for a main event (only eight minutes), but they told their story tell (and the announcers definitely deserve credit for helping out, too).
I’d been wondering where Konan was all season. I had totally forgotten that he got killed off. That’s not the sort of thing I should be forgetting. That’s the sort of thing that should be mentioned at some point before the main event of the second episode of the season.

POST-MATCH- I literally shouted “DON’T TURN YOUR BACK TO HIM, YOU F*CKING IDIOT!” when Puma started to walk away. At least he managed to escape. He’d have looked like an even bigger idiot if he didn’t.

REY MYSTERIO WILL BE TRAINING THE NEW DRAGON AZTECA- AWESOME segment!

A good show from Lucha Underground. If there is one flaw with Lucha Underground right now, it’s that… well… it’s not really a flaw in LU so much as a flaw in me, which is that after waiting so long for season two after the crazy ending to season one, things just aren’t moving forward as fast as I’d like. Every time I see something like Darewolf vs. The Mack, I’m wondering why we aren’t getting segments with Dario and Black Lotus and Matanza instead. They’ve earned my trust that everything will be worth it, but I’m just getting impatient. I presume that will change once I get re-acclimated to the show’s pace. Or possibly the show’s new pace, as it seems like they are only focusing on two or three thing per show this season instead of last season’s three or four. Oh well.

[cero2k]

So I have to ask… what is Catrina’s motivation? One would assume it is something mystical, having to do with the power of the Temple, or else why would she bother putting effort into continuing to run this place? And if she wants this motivation to remain a secret (which she probably does because it probably involves some sort of ancient power or treasure or secrets or something like that), then what motivation does she use as a façade. She’s shown herself to be so involved with the mystical that her running this place to make a profit so that she can have lots of money seems… off.
Just food for thought.

good point. I would imagine there is something in Muertes being champion and controlling the Aztec gold. You can't be a champion without a place to be a champion off, so the Temple lives because Muertes can be a champion, not sure if that makes sense.

[Big Red Machine]

So I have to ask… what is Catrina’s motivation? One would assume it is something mystical, having to do with the power of the Temple, or else why would she bother putting effort into continuing to run this place? And if she wants this motivation to remain a secret (which she probably does because it probably involves some sort of ancient power or treasure or secrets or something like that), then what motivation does she use as a façade. She’s shown herself to be so involved with the mystical that her running this place to make a profit so that she can have lots of money seems… off.
Just food for thought.

good point. I would imagine there is something in Muertes being champion and controlling the Aztec gold. You can't be a champion without a place to be a champion off, so the Temple lives because Muertes can be a champion, not sure if that makes sense.

It does make sense, but I don't think it's impossible that Mil somehow... feeds (for lack of a better term)... on violence. Or something like that. Maybe Mil himself doesn't, but the power does, and keeping the Temple going makes the power that Mil will hold stronger.
It's also possible that they need money so they can go find other powerful objects or something like that.