Lucha Underground S03E07: Payback Time

Payback Time

PRINCE PUMA & VAMPIRO BACKSTAGE- mostly good, but I thought that Prince Puma came off as overly hostile towards Vampiro. Maybe Vamp was right about Konnan poisoning his mind back in season one?

DARIO’S DIAL OF DOOM- the title shot goes to… Killshot. But it missed Johnny Mundo by one or two ticks. That was a nice little touch.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND TITLE MATCH: �"The Monster” Matanza Cueto(c) (w/Dario Cueto) vs. Killshot- 4.25/10
Short but action-packed. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that we got a clean finish here because I was sure that during this match, we would get what we got in the post-match segment, which was…

KILLSHOT’S EX-SQUADMATE SHOWS UP- Killshot is happy this guy is alive, but the guy assaulted Killshot. Props to Killshot for his body language here, getting all of those emotions across without the benefit of facial expressions or words.

TICK TOCK. THEY’LL BE HERE SOON- �"They?” That seems to invalidate my first guess that this would be Minoru Suzuki. Upon being presented with this new evidence I have reanalyzed the situation and have come to the following conclusion. It’s going to be TWO MINORU SUZUKIS! Best. Tag Team. Ever.

DARIO MAKES SOME ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1. Aztec Warfare III is in four weeks.
F*CK YES!

2. Matanza will be defending the Lucha Underground Title in this match.
Okay.

3. Matanza will enter from #1.
The idea here is that Dario is doing to have Matanza prove his dominance by stacking the deck against him, but this seems out of character to me. Yes, Dario is a prideful man, but Dario has always shown that maintaining power is more important to him than his pride, so this seems like an unnecessary risk.
My theory on this (and it is purely theory) is that Dario’s motive for doing this is that it will test how powerful Matanza really is, so Dario will know if Matanza will be able to take out Dr. Claw if necessary, allowing Dario to take over his empire.

4. Some stipulations for this next match…

WINNER ENTERS AZTEC WARFARE AT #20, LOSERS DON’T ENTER AT ALL: AeroStar vs. Drago vs. Fenix- 5.5/10
There was time when this was really great and times when it was a total mess. Whatever they were trying or in the beginning with one guy always staying on the apron as if it was a tag match was extremely awkward, and that big series of spots out of the corner felt horribly forced.

KOBRA MOON FINALLY MAKES A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE SHOW- She approaches Drago in his bathroom lair. She tells him that he must win Aztec Warfare for their tribe. Drago tells her that he left their tribe long ago and will never return.

JOHNNY MUNDO MAKES DARIO CUETO AN OFFERING- he returns the money from that briefcase early in season one and says he wants a title shot against Sexy Star. Dario books the match for next week. By the way… those were NOT normal $100 bills in there.

PRINCE PUMA vs. MIL MUERTES (w/Catrina)- 7.75/10
Striker twice gave the bullsh*t �"we want clear-cut winners” excuse for why there wasn’t a DQ or a count-out when one was clearly warranted. A DQ and a count-out ARE clean finishes. You book a rematch if you want to (and I’d argue that you should), but don’t tell that, from a kayfabe point of view, a count-out or a DQ is a BS finish. It’s only a kayfabe BS finish if it’s someone getting DQed/counted out intentionally to avoid losing a title or to try to get out of a match. What we had here was simply Mil Muertes breaking the rules by using a weapon, and thus he should have been disqualified. If it’s not supposed to be a No DQs match, tell the wrestlers that! This is Lucha Underground! This stuff has been in the can for a year or so. There is no reason they couldn’t have either edited the chairshot out or added in an announcement that this was a No DQs match.
Other than that, this was pretty darn great, with Puma playing the underdog babyface fighting from behind. He fought through everything and picked up the clean win, and as the credits rolled, Vampiro nodded approvingly.

REY MYSTERIO JR. MEETS WITH CHAVO GUERRERO SR.- they’re setting up for a Loser Leaves Town match between Rey and Chavo Jr.

A good show from Lucha Underground.