Lucha Underground Episode 2: Los Demonios Workrate Report

1. Johnny Mundo/Prince Puma v. Cortez/Cisco

PAS: I enjoyed Zeke as Suge Knight, I think it is a fine wrestling role we haven't seen much of. He really needs to get some double breasted suits. This was better then the Puma/Mondo match the week before, we had some tag structure to build the big spots around, and the heel time was a fine bumping stooging, hard hitting squad, and did a nice job letting the flashy babyfaces shine. That missed tornillo by Mundo was lunatic, and I liked the finish. Great opener which the gave some time too.

ER: Agreed about Zeke needing some double breasted suits. The cigar is a nice touch, but a tight black t-shirt and jeans just makes him look like a bouncer. And yeah, this was a better match in every way than the hyped main event from last week. I really liked everybody here, the tag team format suits Reyes/Cholo much better than singles matches as Cholo can bump (loved his corner Psicosis bump) and Reyes has crisp looking offense but no real good way to string it together in singles matches. Both guys complement each other nicely and the team makes them greater than the sum. Mundo has really impressed for a guy who took tons of time off the last few years. From simple things like his nice forearm shots, to stuff like the crazy high speed tornillo to nowhere, he really comes off like a star in this show so far. Match a lot to like, with plenty of cool spots strung together nicely.

I was also amused how during this match Matt Striker would babble on with some cliches and/or bullshit, and Vampiro would call him out on it using 4 words. At one point Striker was making a big deal over what a large "style clash" this was, and Vampiro just goes "And what style is that?" forcing Striker to actually explain and think out his babbling. At another point he's just talking for ages about bar fights and saying hack stuff like "it's always the guy you least expect in a bar fight who punches you in the nose, and I've been in countless bar fights" and Vampiro just goes "Well I've never been in a bar fight, so…I wouldn't know." Also how lame is it for your announcer to casually pretend he's been in "countless" bar fights?

PAS: Liked Konan as grizzled trainer again this week, and I thought they did a nice job slowly working a heel turn, Vampiro needs to stop overselling Konan as evil on commentary though.

2. Sexy Star/Chavo Guerrero v. Son of Havoc/Ivelisse

PAS: Served it's purpose by giving Sexy Star a win, and shorthanding a relationship between Sexy Star and Chavo for the final angle. Liked Evalise's super kick.

ER: Fun little match. Chavo has looked really good the last two weeks, loved him yanking Son of Havoc's beard and breaking out the corner kappa kick. Also impressed by Ivelisse, someone I haven't seen since she was on Tough Enough. The wrist clutch superkick looked great and kind of surprised I haven't seen it before (though it was similar to one of Booker T's old kicks that never looked good). Camera crew seems to know what they are doing and the directing is really good at covering up sloppy spots. Havoc looked like he somewhat whiffed on a running knee and they really picked the best angle to cover that up, without looking like they cut to an awkward long shot. They did this on another spot that looked somewhat off. I don't like their use of the random sky cam cutaway, but they actually seem further ahead of any other wrestling promotion at blown spot coverage. That's a huge feather. I also loved the need for Vampiro's analysis of Striker calling him just "Havok" during the match: "Technically Matt, this is not Havok. This is Havok's son."

3. Blue Demon Jr. v. Mil Muertes

PAS: Liked Mesias's new gimmick, but I think he needs a cooler mask. You only get so much out of a Demon match, but if this is it for him I think he served his purpose. Pretty surprised he did a clean job, El Ray must be paying real money. Muertes had his moments, his knock out punch was pretty cool, but man spear into a flatliner has got to be the most played out finisher combo ever.

ER: Phil brings up the Muertes mask needing some work, but somehow completely misses those total disaster tights. Pin stripe blue? It looked like he was sporting the bottom half of a seersucker suit southern lawyer gimmick. I never thought I would want somebody to go back to a corset wearing goth gimmick. This match was pretty bad, but it had some elements I liked. I like Demon's short right hand, like the sound sweetened chops, especially when saved for their heavyweights, and I really dug the interference of Katrina. I'm not sure who she is but she had real presence and a good look. Loved the short kick to Demon's face and the drop down choke while wearing heels was impressive.

PAS: I thought the ending angle came off better in execution then it read on paper. Chavo was a great hateble sleaze, and the chair shot on Sexy Star looked nasty, and I imagine was pretty safe. WWE doing no man on woman violence, and no chairs to the head for so long, really helped this angle seem like a step too far. I hope this is it for Blue Demon, and as a Chavo fan, I want to see what he does with a top heel role.

ER: Again want to give it up to the direction/camera crew as I think they shot the chairshot to look really devastating. Sexy Star fell really well for it and I think the low camera shot was really best for it. Really impressed by the technical work so far on this show.


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