wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s Lucha Underground Review 11.05.14

November 5, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s Lucha Underground Review 11.05.14  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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Lucha Underground 11.05.14


OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Johnny Mundo & Prince Puma defeated The Crenshaw Crew @ 8:30 via pin [***¼]
~ Sexy Star and Chavo Guerrero defeated Lord of Havoc and Ivelisse @ 5:30 via pin [**½]
~ Mil Muertes defeated Blue Demon Jr. @ 4:30 via []


* Previously on Lucha Underground…

* We’re at the Temple, Matt Striker and Vampiro are the announce team.

* The Crenshaw Crew, Cortez Castro (Ricky Reyes), Mr. Cisco (Lil Cholo) and Big Ryck (Ezekiel Jackson) are in the ring to kick off the show. They were discussing what happened last week and Johnny Mundo hit the ring. He ran wild and cleared the ring. Big Ryck backed off and watched his guys about to take out Mundo, but Prince Puma hit the ring to even the odds. Dario Cueto arrived and made the tag team match.

Johnny Mundo & Prince Puma vs. The Crenshaw Crew (Cortez Castro & Mr. Cisco): I’m not crazy about the way the show started, it feels like every other show, but it did make sense and played off of last week. This was a really energetic and fun opener, the opposite of last week’s opener, which felt slow and off most of the time. Mundo crashed and burned on a dive attempt, leaving Puma to fight on his own. This was the kind of high-energy match that they need to have on a regular basis. Puma and Mundo hit stereo 450s to score the win. We’re two episodes in and Puma and Mundo are coming off as stars, which is fantastic to see. That was a ton of fun, and got the show off to a great start. Striker in particular did a good job selling that Mundo and Puma earned each other’s respect last week and were united against common enemies for this match just one week after being opponents.

* Konnan praises Prince Puma, but warns him about Johnny Mundo, saying that his fight is not their fight. He and Mundo aren’t friends, Konnan is his only friend. Puma did not speak, but sold that he was not quite on the same page as Konnan. They are telling a good, but simple story of Puma being pulled in two directions.

* We get a video package for Mil Muertes w/Catrina.

Chavo Guerrero and Sexy Star vs. Lord of Havoc and Ivelisse: Sexy Star is a regular performer for AAA and we all know Chavo. Ivelisse was on WWE Tough Enough, the TNA Gutcheck and is the current SHINE champion. Havoc is one time Tough Enough competitor and veteran independent worker Matt Cross. The heels beat down Chavo for a while, he eventually got the hot tag to Sexy Star, she ran wild a bit until she got cut off by Havoc. Chavo got the second hot tag, it broke down and Star got the roll up victory after Chavo hit the frog splash. Last week I felt that they missed the boat on introducing a new audience to the intergender wrestling, but this week’s effort came off much better. Not as good as the opening match, but quite enjoyable overall and we got introduced to a new talent in Ivelisse. Striker needs to back off the “Eddie” stuff, it was way too over the top. The only other criticism is that I would have waited to set up Star getting the win on Havoc, he beat her last week and she already got some revenge. Let the story breathe.

* We see Blue Demon Jr. preparing for his match, and Catrina (former WWE Diva Maxine) arrives to play mind games with him. And lick him. Lick him to death. One of a thousand deaths perhaps? Too much? Ok then…

* We get a training video on Prince Puma. Konnan does a great job of putting over Puma as the next big thing.

Mil Muertes w/Catrina vs. Blue Demon Jr.: Mil Muertes is known to most as Judas Mesias (TNA) or Ricky Banderas (AAA). As stated last week, and stated again for possible newcomers, Blue Demon Jr. is 48 years old and has been wrestling since 1985. He’s the adopted son of Blue Demon, is a former NWA Champion and has reportedly defended his mask in 19 Lucha de Apuesta matches. Muertes attacked before the bell, and just pummeled Demon early. Muertes wanted to brawl, but Demon used wrestling to fight back. Similar to what I said for the first match, this main event was the exact opposite of last week’s match. This was slow, and while hard hitting, not particularly exciting. Muertes won clean with the flatliner. Muertes attacked Demon post match, and Chavo made the save only to run on Demon with a chair shot. Chavo laid out some refs and beat down Demon after laying out some random “luchadores”. Sexy Star tried to stop Chavo and destroyed her with a chair shot. Demon got stretchered out. I get why they did this, because it played off of the loss last week and the patronizing speech from evil owner Dario Cueto, but it comes off as rushed, especially after Chavo appeared perfectly happy in his tag team match earlier.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Last week there was a lot of discussion about the cinematic feel to the camera work and specifically the backstage stuff. This is a very different, but good thing for a new promotion. People have wanted change, it may not be what they want exactly, but you have to appreciate the different feel. Some people used the term “telenovelas” to describe the show, like it was a bad thing, but I don’t think that way. A “telenovelas” or soap opera is the very definition of episodic TV, and when wrestling TV is done right, it can be great episodic TV. This show flowed perfectly from the debut episode; Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma went for revenge against The Crenshaw Crew, Sexy Star and Havoc continued their beef from last week by introducing new a new character and someone we already saw last week and the main event was set up last week when Dario Cueto stated that he was bringing someone in and that “1000 deaths may be coming for us all;” which is Mil Muertes. If you put on a TV product that looks great and is going to put on episodic TV, then you have a big portion of the battle won.

The show’s open I am not a fan of, because it’s two weeks in a row that they went with the cliché wrestling promo open (this time with the tag team match) that I seem to see on every other show. It made sense, that’s not the problem; I just want them to continue to feel different and fresh. Some of the booking (Chavo and Sexy Star) felt rushed, I felt that they could have let things develop a bit more with those angles. You don’t have to give everything away at once.

The in ring presentation, as far as the camera work is still something I need to get used too. It’s different, not in a bad way, and I appreciate it but since it’s only the second episode, it still feels very new. Again, that’s not a bad thing at all. The overall wrestling was better this week, with the first two matches being particularly enjoyable. The main event lacked for sure, but was more of an angle-building device than anything else.

Overall I’d say week two, despite some issues, was another good effort from the company. They have me interested, and I love the fresh presentation.

legend