Lucha Underground S03E03: Ultimate Opportunity

Lucha Underground S03E03: Ultimate OpportunityLucha Underground S03E03: Ultimate Opportunity

By Big Red Machine
From September 21, 2016
Discussion

Ultimate Opportunity



REY MYSTERIO JR. & DRAGON AZTECA JR. HAVE A CONVERSATION WHILE SPARRING- they had a combination Kung Fu Fight and Lucha Libre match. It was AWESOME, and the corny pauses for dialogue during holds just made it even better. The gist of the dialogue was Rey warning Dragon Azteca Jr. not to get distracted by Pentagon Dark, because they have a much more important, much more dangerous battle to fight.
Then Chavo Guerrero Jr. showed up. Dragon Azteca Jr. called him a liar (I don’t remember what this is about. I remember him selling out Black Lotus, but I thought she and Dragon Azteca Jr. were on different pages). Dragon Azteca Jr. charged at Chavo, but Chavo caught him in the Calgary Crab. I’m not sure what the point of Chavo’s presence here was, because I really don’t see Dragon Azteca Jr. turning on Rey to join Chavo (and if it did happen I think it would be a tremendous mistake and a disservice to his character).

DARIO’S DIAL OF DOOM CHOOSES A NEW CHALLENGER- I don’t like this. The Dial of Doom was hilarious as a one-time gag, but unless they are using it to pick off challengers one-by-one until we are guaranteed one huge match-up, I don’t see the point. For those wondering, the only truly big match-ups the wheel makes possible are Matanza vs. Mundo and Matanza vs. Prince Puma, but with those two (especially the latter) there has got to be a better way for him to earn a title shot.
Dario made fun of Son of Havoc. The Title shot will go to The Mack.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND TITLE MATCH: “The Monster” Matanza Cueto(c) (w/Dario Cueto) vs. The Mack- 1.5/10
Matanza doesn’t feel like a monster anymore. He just sells and wrestles like a normal guy. Yeah, he won in very few moves, but it felt more like one of those lame wins where the guy gets beaten up all match then hits three moves at the end and wins… and yet, at the same time, he is still Matanza and was previously treated like a monster, so it’s hard for me to take it seriously that The Mack is putting such a beating on him. Maybe I would have liked this more if The Mack was using move power moves (that stunner HAS to go).

SON OF HAVOC & MASCARITA SAGRADA ENGAGE IN WHAT I REALLY HOPE WAS PRODUCTIVE USE OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT- as opposed to someone thinking this would be funny on its own.

DARIO, JOHNNY MUNDO, & TAYA IN DARIO’S OFFICE- good.

ULTIMATE OPPORTUNITY MATCH: El Texano Jr. vs. Cage- 4.25/10
Pretty good for the time it got.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Dario comes out and reveals that this was really just the first match in a Best of Five Series. I get that it’s Dario’s gimmick, but I’m finding these swerves extremely annoying. Also the timing of this Best of X Matches Series is rather unfortunate for Lucha Underground, who taped this long before WWE did theirs.

DARIO OPENS HIS MAIL- he gets a hat from Famous B, as well as some picture that must be very important, or else they wouldn’t have spent so much time focusing on them. They will lead to a pay-off at some point. Probably at the end of this season (YOU HEAR THAT, QUACKENBUSH?!)
He goes against Rey’s advice and demands a match with Pentagon Dark. Dario says he’d rather see Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Black Lotus (I want a payoff to that, too!) but she is in Hong Kong, so he’ll give Dragon Azteca Jr. the match he wants.

A JOBBER SHOWS UP TO ASK FOR A MATCH- and HOLY SH*T DARIO’S PICUTRES MOVE! Not in the Harry Potter way, either. In the “Dario threw them in the garbage before, but now they are magically on his desk again” way. Quite creepy. In an effort to get rid of these magically and probably cursed photographs, Dario offers the pictures to the jobber, who happily takes them.

CHAVO GUERRERO JR. IN DARIO’S OFFICE- Chavo says that they “need to talk” and we cut away. Ominous.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND TRIOS TITLE MATCH: Drago, Fenix, & Aerostar(c) vs. P.J. Black, Jack Evans, & Taya- 2.5/10
The champs have come out first in both title matches tonight. Strange.
What sort of TERRIBLE PARENT BRINGS A CHILD TO AN UNDERGROUND FIGHT CLUB?!
Taya does not like her spotlight stolen on her entrance… and that one little bit planted the possibility in my mind that this Johnny-Taya break-up stuff might be a red herring and we could wind up with Jack & P.J. vs. Johnny & Taya when all is said and done. I don’t think there is a big chance of it happening, but it used to be at zero and it’s not anymore. All because of one spot during an entrance. It might be significant or it might mean nothing… and the key is that either way, everything was still in-keeping with all of the characters.
The fact that Jack Evans has never been signed by any major televised wrestling promotion in the USA and Canada is perhaps the most baffling mystery in all of professional wrestling in this millennium. That stuff where he couldn’t get his entrance gear off without help and was falling around was brilliant.
Matt Striker tells us that “the story being told is in the ring,” and then the camera immediately cuts away from the action in the ring to show us Fenix and Aerostar standing on the apron. I’d say I feel sorry for Striker, but he deserves it.
I thought they did way too much comedy in this match. It was short and mostly comedy, and thus it didn’t feel like a main event, never mind a main event title match. The one that annoyed me the most was the stuff with Fenix and Taya, simply because Taya had wrestled most of the match so far for her team in a completely serious manner, and then, all of a sudden, for that one tag, she was a comedy goof.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Mundo comes out after the match and attacks the babyfaces, taking out two of them at once because he’s not a goofball. Taya joined in, and together the two of them beat down the Lucha Underground Trios Champions while Jack Evans stood on the outside, pouting. It felt like a rather dull forever until Sexy Star finally came out to make the save, almost completely missing Mundo with her first big dropkick. The heels were chased off, building to the inevitable eight-person tag. The destination is good and the overall story is solid, but the execution this week left A LOT to be desired.

DARIO & REY IN DARIO’S OFFICE- good stuff happened. The end result of this (and Chavo’s earlier visit) is a match next week with Dragon Azteca Jr. facing Chavo, with the winner earning a chance for revenge against Pentagon Dark… and Dario has decided to make Rey the special guest referee. I normally HATE special guest referee gimmicks, but LU has earned my trust enough that I am interested to see where this could lead.

A very mixed show from LU. The stuff in the ring was one of the worst shows they’ve ever done, but the stuff outside of the ring was all pretty great.

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