Lucha Underground S04E03: Three-way To The Grave

Three-way To The Grave

RICKY MUNDO TELLS THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND ABOUT HIS CREEPY DOLL - He says it comes from somewhere called "The Island of the Dolls," which Dario Cueto left a trail of breadcrumbs to lead him to. It talks on its own. Johnny Mundo & Taya show up and tell them they're at war with the Reptile Tribe. He orders Jack Evans to "call one of those reptiles up and take him to Slamtown." Jack won't do it because he's Indiana Jones and hates snakes, so he leaves. Johnny reminds us that he and Angelico have an issue, then he, P.J., and Taya leave, with Mundo bumping Ricky in the shoulder on purpose on his way out. The doll then creepily assures Ricky that "you're secret is safe with me." It then laughed evilly, and Ricky smirked evilly at the camera. I don't know what the purpose of this is, but I can assure you that this whole gimmick is something this show just plain did not need.

JACK EVANS vs. XO LISHUS - 6/10

Something else this show did not need is yet another character. XO Lishus is an exotico. He is a smooth worker and is great with his character and I'd be perfectly happy to see him in many other promotions, but like with Ricky's stupid doll, he feels like another pointless bauble they've added to the show that will just take their already limited time away from the original crop characters and stories that got me invested in the show in the first place.

PENTAGON DARK PROMO - He cut a great promo saying that everyone who has tried to take his title has failed and that everyone else who tries will fail and he will break them. Then Cage jumped him from behind and beat him up, finishing with a powerbomb off the apron through a table. Cage then cut a promo saying that he would be the one to take the Lucha Underground Title from Pentagon Dark. An excellent segment. This was pro wrestling 101. And this whole thing took less than three minutes. WWE could learn a lot from this segment.

MELISSA SANTOS & FENIX BACKSTAGE - This was good build for the main event and a good reminder of the fact that these two are a couple, but once they started making out and the atrocious over-production started I just wanted the scene to end already.

THREE-WAY TO THE GRAVE MATCH:
Fenix vs. Jeremiah Crane vs. Mil Muertes (w/Catrina) - 8.75/10

Every time Striker started to go on one of his idiotic tangents where he would wax poetical about the meaning of death or the number three or other such things that he thinks makes him sound smart it make me, too, begin to contemplate and wax poetical about something: how nice and peaceful I would find watching this show if Matt Striker wasn't on it.

The match itself was as violent and awesome as we've come to expect from Grave Consequences. This one was fought elimination style. The first man out was Crane, who was assaulted by Ivelisse with a hammer, breaking his hand and busting him open in addition to the opening salve to the leg for poetic justice, so that feud is off to quite the start. Fenix and Mil Muertes then had a good final segment of the match. Melissa Santos was great in her role, too. You could hear her voice quivering as she announced Mil as the winner.

MR. CUETO VISITS MATANZA IN HIS NEW CELL - It's more spacious than the old one, but he has Matanza chained in place, which Dario never did. Mr. Cueto tells us that when he offered his son to the gods as a sacrifice, he asked that his son "retain a sliver of his humanity." He also reveals that Dario's key was not the key to Matanza's cell (or maybe it was and I don't remember, but what's more important is this); the key contains Matanza's soul. He says that this retention of Matanza's humanity has made Matanza weak, and that caring too much about Matanza got Dario killed. He says he won't repeat Dario's mistakes, so he throws Matanza the key and orders him to destroy it. Matanza does so, and there was an odd white light emanating from his hands… and when the key snapped, so did Matanza's shackles, and Matanza roared like a monster. COOL!

Final Thoughts
An AWESOME episode of Lucha Underground, and yet not one that assuages my big concerns about the show's future direction.