Csonka’s Lucha Underground Review 2.04.15

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.

Lucha Underground 2.04.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Angelico defeated Son of Havoc @ 6:35 via pin [**]
~ Pentagon Jr. defeated Famous B @ 1:40 via pin [NR]
~ Drago defeated AeroStar @ 5:00 via [**¾]
~ Cage defeated Johnny Mundo @ 12:00 via [***]

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* We get a video recap, featuring Cage’s path of destruction.

Angelico defeated Son of Havoc: Pre-match Ivelisse cut a promo, she was pissed that people were calling Havoc soft and a loser. She noted that she did not date losers, and that she was the baddest bitch in the building. Angelico was originally trained by Booker T. and worked in Ultimo Dragon’s Toryumon Mexico promotion and IWRG before moving onto AAA. He was also one of the young men destroyed by Cage a few weeks back. Havoc has been around since show one, is better known as Matt Cross, but is just a dude. Angelico would control most of the way, usually only getting derailed when Ivelisse would get involved to help Havoc. This got really disjointed down the stretch, and they got way too cute with how they did the Ivelisse spot for the finish, which really took away from things. Angelico scored the win, and Ivelisse was not pleased, so she walked out on Havoc. Angelico definitely needed the win here, and I love Ivelisse and feel she has a lot of potential, so getting her away from Havoc is the right call.

* Dario Cueto welcomes Johnny Mundo back. He’s glad they had time to cool off, and Mundo agrees that he’s ready for action. Cueto says that when Johnny Mundo is around they get five star main events, and books him against Cage.

* We got a cool video, showing Pentagon training in hand to hand combat, and properly owning several “masters”.

Pentagon Jr. defeated Famous B: I think Famous B got one move in, and then it was time to be destroyed. Pentagon hit the package piledriver and then applied a wacky arm submission for the win. Post match he held on and then snapped the arm back, as commentary sold that he may have broken B’s arm. And NO Vampiro, that was not a kimura. Go back to talking about, “that guy, that did that move in the UFC, and used to fight for PRIDE for all those years, that big guy”. That was from earlier in the show as Vampiro completely rambled and lost any train of thought, and then Striker had no idea what he was talking about. Post match Pentagon promised loyalty to his master. I love the take no prisoners Pentagon, and the fact that they are teasing a master to introduce down the line. This was a squash with some meaning.

* Dario Cueto was in some super secret location, with his magic key and discussing the mystery woman to a secret growling entity. He discussed to the secret entity that she, “was a girl then, but that you should see her now”. Cueto also spoke about her need for revenge, but said that he is not a fool. He could have given her the key, but needed to protect his temple from Matanza (slaughter/killing).

Drago defeated AeroStar: Drago has been established in his feud with King Cuerno, and has had impressing performance so far. Aerostar was trained by Gran Apache and Abismo Negro, and is a really fun high flyer from AAA. They had a really fun technico (face vs. face) match, it had a good flow, the fun dives and it worked very nicely overall. Drago won with a running blockbuster into a DDT for the win. Post match, Drago checked on AeroStar and helped him to his feet, and they shook hands. This was a good match, a good way to get Drago back on track and to also sell the face that despite the look he has, he is the good guy to cheer, especially as compared to King Cuerno.

* Catrina met with Fenix as he was working out. She had a special message for him, but not from Mil Muertes. She then kissed him and said to keep it between them, because if Muertes found out he’d bury them both. Apparently roll up wins turn on Catrina.

Cage defeated Johnny Mundo: Cage is wearing the torn Lucha Underground Title around his neck. King Cuerno was watching the match. Cage and Mundo then had a good match for a few minutes, until King Cuerno attacked Mundo and caused the momentary DQ. Cuerno destroyed the knee of Mundo, and then Dario Cueto came out and restarted the match, because he’s a dick. Cage worked over Mundo, and finally finished him off after they made Mundo out to be the valiant babyface. I wasn’t really a fan of this, it felt way too over booked and the “machine” took too long to take out an already injured opponent. Mundo has been established as Puma‘s equal thus far, let these guys go 12, have Cage win clean after Mundo puts up a good fight and then you sell that Cage beat Mundo and should be able to beat Puma. He’s then put over as the legit contender, which after lack week’s weak finish is somewhat in doubt. Then you do the King Cuerno attack post match, after the machine had taken all of the fight from Mundo. Both guys did good stuff, but the booking and layout of the whole thing came off poorly, and quite frankly lazy. Also Mundo’s selling of the leg was suspect down the stretch. This was a rare instance (for Lucha Underground) of the booking hurting the action.

* Post match, Cueto is on the phone and discussing the mystery woman. Someone knocks on the door, he tells them to go away but then hears the voice and decides to answer…

“My name, is Alberto El Patron… but you already knew that…

You should never, ever miss the final few seconds of #LuchaUnderground… but you already knew that! (cc: @VivaDelRio) pic.twitter.com/a2Rb6ZKfjN

— Lucha Underground (@LuchaElRey) February 5, 2015

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

I’d label this a down week for Lucha Underground. I didn’t think that it was a bad show, but it didn’t feel nearly as strong as many of the other shows. The main event was really the annoying part; it felt like a haphazardly booked deal, something like WWE would do. They have been really good so far, but I felt as if this was a case of the booking/layout hurting the work of the guys. They did some great things, but it was simply laid out all wrong and lacked any real effectiveness, and hurt the match for me.

I also feel that they aren’t really being careful on how they advance things, like Ivelisse and Catrina both apparently leaving their men. This shouldn’t be happening on the same show, and feels as if they did not pay attention when they laid out the formatting. You have to be careful with things like that, it shouldn’t get past quality control.

The show did have good action, and I love Pentagon Jr right now. He’s being build as a threat, looks legit and then is teasing the arrival of someone (the Master) and the reveal of El Patron at the end is the classic cliffhanger to make you want to see next week’s show. That’s certainly a good thing. Unfortunately I didn’t feel that the booking was nearly as strong on this week’s event as it has been in the past. Again, I didn’t think the show was bad; it just felt like a show.