Lucha Underground S02E19: Of Monsters and Machines
Of Monsters and Machines
SON OF HAVOC vs. DAGA- 5.25/10
Ivelisse was not at ringside for this match. No explanation was given for this. Kobra Moon came out to try to help Daga win by grabbing Son of Havoc’s leg to stop him from hitting his finisher. The announcers pointed out that Daga did not see this. Unfortunately the referee did see it, but instead of calling for a DQ like he should have, he started a five count.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Kobra Moon progressed from checking to see whether Daga was okay to sexually harassing him. He wanted no part of it. This is a fine example of a completely unnecessary storyline between completely unnecessary characters that is taking time away from characters people actually give a sh*t about. Where is Drago? Or Catrina? And what is Sinestro de la Muerte doing without Catrina and Mil Muertes around to give him orders? What are Sexy Star or Mariposa up to now that their feud has ended? Where’s Aerostar? Can we get some follow-up to the stuff with Joey Ryan, Ricky Reyes, and Mr. Cisqo last week? That seems like a big deal. How about another segment with Councilman Delgado and the super-scary â€"boss†who is going to come to The Temple? Or maybe some more backstory about the seven tribes? All of these are things I care infinitely more about than Daga and Kobra Moon.
REY MYSTERIO JR. & DRAGON AZTECA JR. HAVE A DISAGREEMENT BACKSTAGE- Dragon Azteca Jr. has found the location of Matanza’s cell and wants to get revenge on him. Rey says he isn’t ready and they should focus on getting back the titles. Dragon Azteca said some borderline hurtful things to Rey and they got into a brief fight. Prince Puma showed up and said it was time for their match, but Rey told him to butt out because this was none of his business. He said that they are his partners tonight so any issue between them becomes his business. Rey admits that Prince Puma is right and they head out for their match.
Also, they really need to ditch that growling noise that plays when Prince Puma is angry in a backstage segment.
LUCHA UNDERGROUND TRIOS TITLE MATCH: Jack Evans, P.J. Black, & Johnny Mundo(c) (w/Taya) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr., Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma- 7/10
The heels picked up where they left off last week, using low blows whenever they could get away with them. Eventually Prince Puma snapped (despite Rey’s attempt to cool him down) and kicked Mundo right in the balls for the DQ. Good finish.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- the heels taunted Prince Puma, who aimed a superkick at Mundo but he got out of the way and Taya accidentally ate it instead.
This was all certainly good the way they did it, but I think it might have been a little more interesting (and played into the earlier segment better) if it was Dragon Azteca Jr. who lost his cool instead of Prince Puma. That way Prince Puma could be annoyed that the issue between Rey and Dragon Azteca Jr. contributed to him losing the chance to regain the titles while Rey could use Dragon Azteca Jr. losing his cool here as evidence that he wouldn’t be able to effectively fight Matanza.
DRAGON AZTECA JR. GOES TO CONFRONT MATANZA- Black Lotus shows up. They get into the whole â€"he killed my teacher and he killed your parents†â€"no he didn’t â€"yes he did†argument. She tells him that â€"sometimes the truth hurts.†He says that she knows the story she has been told is a lie. Dragon Azteca Jr. left, and then we got a nice little shot of Black Lotus looking at Matanza, conflicted.
LUCHA UNDERGROUND TITLE MATCH: â€"The Monster†Matanza Cueto(c) (wDario Cueto) vs. Cage- 6.75/10
This was a fine match until that fighting spirit spot. This is Matanza. No one should never be no-selling ANY of his moves… but if you absolutely had to do it, they should have done it ONCE. Each guy no selling the move ONCE can be kind of cool. Three times in a row makes it look ridiculous.
Maybe this is the wrong way to look at this match, but it almost seemed to me like this was more about Cage getting his sh*t in than it was about Matazna being Matanza. I liked the â€"matching power†stuff they were doing in the beginning, but it really started to go downhill for me when they did the high-flying stuff.
In this match, Matanza felt like just another guy, and there were a few things on this show that made it feel like just another wrestling show. The announcing had a slightly different tone (Striker said things like â€"if you’re just joining us now†and just flat-out explained the history in a very un-Lucha Underground sounding way) and the booking, while not feeling out of place in LU, felt like stuff you could easily see anywhere else. It certainly wasn’t a bad show, but it really felt less unique than it usually does.