BRM Reviews the 9/28/2016 Lucha Underground

[Big Red Machine]

DARIO & SEXY STAR BACKSTAGE- very good.
Dario is goading Sexy Star into trying to cash in the Gift of the Gods Championship. He is playing her like a fiddle. But I will be SOOOOOOOO f*cking pissed if Sexy Star is the one who beats Matanza. Also, Dario books the eight-person tag match we’ve all been expecting with Sexy Star & Team Babyfaces vs. The Worldwide Underground.

Speaking of the Worldwide Underground, after Dario left, Johnny Mundo rushed past Sexy Star, looking for Taya, and they had a confrontation. This did play nicely into the bit with Dario, as it should either build to Sexy Star vs. Mundo or push her into cashing soon because she is afraid that Johnny might take the belt from her and she would lose the title shot that comes with it.

SINESTRO DE LA MUERTE vs. PRINCE PUMA- 4/10
They did some stuff, all of which was designed to give the announcers evidence to point to when talking about Prince Puma’s “new attitude.” Then Mil Muertes showed up to interfere, but Price Puma avoided his spear. Then, instead of just trying to interfere again, Mil just stood there and watched the end of the match (which saw Prince Puma get the win after hitting Mil’s own Flatliner).
After the match, Prince Puma dove onto Mil Muertes and they started to brawl. Prince Puma once again was getting the better of it, so once again Catrina pulled Mil Muertes away and held him back.

On commentary, Vampiro keeps bushing that Prince Puma seems to be on a “dark” and “more violent path” and says that he likes it, but he has never once mention that it was advice that he gave to Prince Puma that seems to have brought this about. This makes me extremely suspicious of Vampiro’s motives here.

DARIO CUETO & CORTEZ CASTRO IN DARIO’S OFFICE- AWESOME!
There was SOOOO much tension here and such a beautiful double-meaning in the words. That line of Dario’s about wanting to “bring the real killer to justice,” was AMAZING, because both of these guys know that Dario is the real killer…and yet, in Ricky Reyes/Cortez Castro’s mind, he, too, deserves some blame for forcing his friend to go on this dangerous mission which resulted in his brutal murder.
I also loved the reference to Big Ryck. Just because he’s not on the show anymore doesn’t mean he should be forgotten. Working him into the script where it makes sense is a little touch that I love because it shows respect for the history of the show and its stories.
So Dario books Cortez Castro in a match and tells him to “win this one for Mr. Cisqo.” That match is…

CORTEZ CASTRO vs. PENTAGON DARK- no rating.
And of course that match is against the psychotic, sadist who likes to break people’s arms just because. I was quite shocked at how quick this was. It was basically a squash, with Castro getting his arm broken afterwards, but they could take it in some interesting directions if they portray this as Castro having given up and then letting Pentagon Dark break his arm as penance.

PENTAGON DARK PROMO- good promo reminding everyone of the main event and, along with breaking Castro’s arm, it reminded the fans why we might want to see either man get revenge on Pentagon Dark.

THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND vs. DRAGO, AEROSTAR, FENIX, & SEXY STAR- 6.5/10
Some extremely unoriginal fans have brought signs that say “Mundo Section.” They are billing this as an “atomicos match” but they aren’t using Lucha tag rules. Shouldn’t it just be a regular eight-person tag team match, then?
Fun match. Heels win clean when Jack pins Sexy Star after a superkick from Mundo and then a roll-up. Right before the finish Taya hurt her leg on the outside, and it took a while for her teammates to notice.

SINESTRO DE LA MUERTE HAS FAILED MIL MUERTES AND CATRINA FOR THE LAST TIME- Catrina executes him, then inhales his spirit and exhales it at Mil Muertes to power him up or whatever. She says she wants to see him kill Prince Puma. They have been doing such a phenomenal job of building this match up.

SINGLES MATCH WITH REY MYSTERIO JR. AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.- 5/10
I didn’t have a problem with the finish, but I think it would have been a lot more interesting to have Chavo win on some controversial call (maybe Dragon Azteca Jr. gets his foot on the ropes but Rey doesn’t see it), which would let Chavo get his match with Pentagon Dark (which he would lose), but importantly it would build some tension between Rey and Dragon Azteca Jr., with Dragon Azteca Jr. thinking Rey screwed him on purpose because Rey had told him to ignore Pentagon Dark and focus on getting their revenge on Matanza for killing Dragon Azteca Sr.
Chavo tried to attack Rey after the match but ate a 619.

BLACK LOTUS AT HER PARENTS’ GRAVE/SHRINE- interesting. She still truly believes that Dragon Azteca Sr. killed her parents. She is going to be sending the Black Lotus Triad after Pentagon Dark as revenge from preventing her from taking the mask from Dragon Azteca Jr. I guess she is going to go after Dragon Azteca Jr. herself, then?
Also, she was flanked by Ninjas.

A pretty great show from LU. Not everything was great in the ring, but there were some great segments and the stories all feel like they are moving along at a good pace. By the way, I don’t usually comment on these (mostly because I rarely ever see them), but the title of this week’s episode “Brothers in Broken Arms” was very clever.

[cero2k]

DARIO CUETO & CORTEZ CASTRO IN DARIO’S OFFICE- AWESOME!
There was SOOOO much tension here and such a beautiful double-meaning in the words. That line of Dario’s about wanting to “bring the real killer to justice,” was AMAZING, because both of these guys know that Dario is the real killer…and yet, in Ricky Reyes/Cortez Castro’s mind, he, too, deserves some blame for forcing his friend to go on this dangerous mission which resulted in his brutal murder.
I also loved the reference to Big Ryck. Just because he’s not on the show anymore doesn’t mean he should be forgotten. Working him into the script where it makes sense is a little touch that I love because it shows respect for the history of the show and its stories.
So Dario books Cortez Castro in a match and tells him to “win this one for Mr. Cisqo.” That match is…
I loved that they had Melissa make Castro's introduction while they were still inside the office, it gave me a sense that there is always something happening in the temple, sometimes on WWE or TNA it feels like they stop having matches to have backstage segments, but here it felt more real i guess. Plus it added a lot to that tension that you're talking about, that point you kinda see how Cortez realizes he is kinda defeated

THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND vs. DRAGO, AEROSTAR, FENIX, & SEXY STAR- 6.5/10
Some extremely unoriginal fans have brought signs that say “Mundo Section.” They are billing this as an “atomicos match” but they aren’t using Lucha tag rules. Shouldn’t it just be a regular eight-person tag team match, then?
Fun match. Heels win clean when Jack pins Sexy Star after a superkick from Mundo and then a roll-up. Right before the finish Taya hurt her leg on the outside, and it took a while for her teammates to notice.
Did you notice Sexy Star's eye after the match?

[Big Red Machine]

DARIO CUETO & CORTEZ CASTRO IN DARIO’S OFFICE- AWESOME!
There was SOOOO much tension here and such a beautiful double-meaning in the words. That line of Dario’s about wanting to “bring the real killer to justice,” was AMAZING, because both of these guys know that Dario is the real killer…and yet, in Ricky Reyes/Cortez Castro’s mind, he, too, deserves some blame for forcing his friend to go on this dangerous mission which resulted in his brutal murder.
I also loved the reference to Big Ryck. Just because he’s not on the show anymore doesn’t mean he should be forgotten. Working him into the script where it makes sense is a little touch that I love because it shows respect for the history of the show and its stories.
So Dario books Cortez Castro in a match and tells him to “win this one for Mr. Cisqo.” That match is…
I loved that they had Melissa make Castro's introduction while they were still inside the office, it gave me a sense that there is always something happening in the temple, sometimes on WWE or TNA it feels like they stop having matches to have backstage segments, but here it felt more real i guess. Plus it added a lot to that tension that you're talking about, that point you kinda see how Cortez realizes he is kinda defeated
I thought it was more about showing that Dario was trying to screw Castro by giving him absolutely no time to prepare.
I don't mind the idea that they stop having matches to have backstage segments IF those segments are interviews or backstage promos to camera (something that it makes sense would be pre-scheduled by the promotion and the promotion would want all of the focus on it for reasons that make sense in kayfabe (because they are the same reasons that promotion would want all focus on it outside of kayfabe). The way WWE does it irks me because it requires me to put in more effort to my suspension of disbelief than if they were always sure to have an explanation for why the camera was catching this or why the wrestlers don't notice the camera, etc. In a way, WWE was doing LU before LU was doing it, except that in LU it comes across as part of the whole presentation of the show- it's a thing they have embraced wholly by doing everything as pre-tapes and adding in background music and different angles and shooting and re-shooting until they get it just right, as opposed to WWE where it really just feels like something they do out of laziness, but because WWE has gone totally 100% with that laziness it feels like this is just the way they do things and we're supposed to pretend the camera isn't there- in essence, they're doing a crappier version of what LU does, but it doesn't bother me in the "they stopped having matches to have a backstage segment" way because it feels like "part of the show" in the non-kayfabe way.
The one that irks me is TNA's voyeur-cam style of backstage segment, where the cameraman hides so that the wrestlers won't see him, but it makes you wonder why they are cutting to what, for all intents and purposes, is a random cameraman walking around backstage instead of whatever should be scheduled to be happening at that time.
WWE tells you "just don't think about it, okay?"
TNA asks you to think by having the cameraman hide, but then doesn't provide any sort of answers for the follow-up questions that their first answer leads to (which is why it annoys me so much).
LU does everything in a way that makes you realize on your own that the question doesn't apply, which is in essence, just the same as answering all of the questions (which are the two approaches I obviously feel are the most correct).


THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND vs. DRAGO, AEROSTAR, FENIX, & SEXY STAR- 6.5/10
Some extremely unoriginal fans have brought signs that say “Mundo Section.” They are billing this as an “atomicos match” but they aren’t using Lucha tag rules. Shouldn’t it just be a regular eight-person tag team match, then?
Fun match. Heels win clean when Jack pins Sexy Star after a superkick from Mundo and then a roll-up. Right before the finish Taya hurt her leg on the outside, and it took a while for her teammates to notice.
Did you notice Sexy Star's eye after the match?
No. What's up with it?

[cero2k]

THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND vs. DRAGO, AEROSTAR, FENIX, & SEXY STAR- 6.5/10
Some extremely unoriginal fans have brought signs that say “Mundo Section.” They are billing this as an “atomicos match” but they aren’t using Lucha tag rules. Shouldn’t it just be a regular eight-person tag team match, then?
Fun match. Heels win clean when Jack pins Sexy Star after a superkick from Mundo and then a roll-up. Right before the finish Taya hurt her leg on the outside, and it took a while for her teammates to notice.
Did you notice Sexy Star's eye after the match?
No. What's up with it?

not sure when, but she took a stiff hit to the left eye and it was super swollen

[Big Red Machine]

THE WORLDWIDE UNDERGROUND vs. DRAGO, AEROSTAR, FENIX, & SEXY STAR- 6.5/10
Some extremely unoriginal fans have brought signs that say “Mundo Section.” They are billing this as an “atomicos match” but they aren’t using Lucha tag rules. Shouldn’t it just be a regular eight-person tag team match, then?
Fun match. Heels win clean when Jack pins Sexy Star after a superkick from Mundo and then a roll-up. Right before the finish Taya hurt her leg on the outside, and it took a while for her teammates to notice.
Did you notice Sexy Star's eye after the match?
No. What's up with it?

not sure when, but she took a stiff hit to the left eye and it was super swollen

Well... she said she was going into boxing, right? So this should be good training for her.