Lucha Underground: The Re-watch EP3

EP 3: Crossing The Border

So now that LU season 1 is officially over, my life is meaningless, so in order to stay alive, i'm going to start re-watching LU from the beginning, evaluating subtle hints, things that were never payed off, build up that I missed. etc. I don't have to say, but I'll be spoiling a lot of future shows in case you haven't seen them. I won't rate matches with numbers, but I'll try to find a word that describes my feeling for the match.

We start with Dario and Konnan in the office. Konnan is making the introduction to Fenix, Pentagon Jr, and Drago. So Konnan was the one who brought them, and he says he had trouble in the border, which was actual non-kayfabe. Cueto announces that they'll fight each other tonight. This is what the episode title obviously refers to. I'm already excited.

Vampiro gives a quick update on Blue Demon

Dario comes to the ring. Mariachi Loco is in the ring, barely noticed his mask is a tribute to Dr. X (RIP). Dario welcomes the people to the and tells them that since they keep bitching that there isn't a lot of lucha, he'll give them more lucha, in the form of...

Mariachi Loco vs Mascarita Sagrada - FUN
I'm really surprised how over Cueto tried to put Mariachi Loco. This was like pretty much every Mascarita Sagrada match where you can't say it's good or bad, but "fun" perfectly describes it. Mascarita is super over with everyone including kids, yeah, remember when Kids were allowed inside the Temple?

Post-Match: Chavo Guerrero storms the ring and takes out Mascarita Sagrada. This is how you build a heel, you take out the best babyfaces, women, and small people.

Vampiro/Chavo Guerrero Interview - The first of the Vampiro passive-aggressive interviews. Awesome talk about The Guerrero Dynasty, but Chavo says that he is doing things differently. Chavo says that Demon is famous because of what his father did, and suddenly that whole story of people coming from Mexico for Chavo makes sense, because for 1/3 of the masks in Mexico, you could say the same thing.

Chavo is walking in a hall and finds Konnan. They're cool with each other, but Konnan tells him that Mexico is coming for him. They're coming, Tito. Then the lights flicker and Chavo is face to face with Mil Muertes, Catrina tells Chavo that Chavo took something from Mil and he never forgets. Chavo is now the most heelish most wanted man in wrestling, in just three episodes.

Mil Muertes Origin Story: 'Death is a debt that we all must pay". Catrina accounts the story of Mil Muertes, coming from the 1985 earthquake in Mexico and that he survived buried in the destruction, he lost his family and all that death made him who he is. Pascual Mendoza is Mil Muertes real name. Trivia, I was in the same earthquake that made Mil Muertes, but i was considerably younger than him.

Ricky Mandel vs Mil Muertes w/Catrina - SQUASH
BEST SPEAR IN THE BUSINESS. Ricky got like one or two hits in, and the Muertes decimated him for several minutes. Catrina gives Ricky the lick of death at the end and suddenly, the squash was all worth it.

Mundo vs The Crew in a hall - Mundo wants to see Cueto, but instead he kcisk the Crew's ass in a hallway. Mundo offers Dario violence in the form of Big Ryck vs Mundo, then he tells Dario "he's next". Now, the whole hallway to office thing has me confused, I hadn't noticed that Cueto must have two doors in his office.

Dario and Ryck segment - Dario gives more money to Ryck to destroy Mundo next week.

Prince Puma Vignette - Prince Puma rides a motorcylce and he wears his lucha mask underneath the helmet. Nice vignette, but no new information.

Pentagon Jr vs Fenix vs Drago - PERFECT
I can't think of a better way to introduce these three guys. Didn't remember that Fenix did a stage dive from Dario's office in their very first match, this was surely forgotten by the time Angelico did his. As awesome as this match is, I believe this will be their worst match all season.

Dario is hanging out with Matanza, he is pissed off that Mundo is threatening him.

FINAL THOUGHTS: You can feel we're still in a bit of an intro period, but the debut of Fenix, Pentagon, and Drago gives the show a completely different feel now, it's not just trying to make something from the recognizable mainstream names, not we have the strong workforce in. Mil Muertes has also started his momentum gain and hints of Matanza, which we all know is quite important for the season.