Lucha Underground Episode 19: Grave Consequences

1. Aerostar vs. Drago

ER: Jeez Louise man. Aerostar. You guys are lunatics. Were parts of this rehearsed as hell? Yah. Do I care? Nooope. Aerostar hits the wild reverse cannonball off the top to the floor, one of the crazier spots I've witnessed. Everything after that is sweet cream cheese frosting. Aerostar sticks the springboard dropkick and then breaks out some Crouching Tiger ropewalk action. Drago pulls out a wild corkscrew moonsault over the top, Aerostar ends it with a great hands-at-side springboard splash. These two continue to innovate, and it's a blast to watch.

ER: Konnan as Hoy Quarlow vignettes continue to rule as this fed has somehow made me interested in seeing Konnan get some sort of vengeance. And nobody with a brain should have interest in anything Konnan. But here I am lord, I'm interested in Konnan!

2. The Crew vs. Big Ryck

ER: This is a 3-on-1 elimination match with no DQs according to Striker. And it's kind of disappointing. The dude gets his eye burnt out, and really comes back and everybody wrestles the same as if these three guys hadn't burnt his eye. It's fairly short for an elimination match, and really aren't they all? Always frustrating when elimination matches get the same length as singles matches, not accounting for the extra bodies that have to believably be pinned. I do like Ryck going wild with weapons, crashing Cisco's body through a chair, violently beating everybody with a busted cane, but for three men Ryck was made to look way too unstoppable. I mean if he tore through these guys this easily what's really stopping him from ripping Cueto's office door off the hinges and gutting him!? I still like The Crew's corner dropkicks but really they looked like total weiners here.

PAS: That was some great looking pomp and circumstance to set up the casket match. Having it brought down by spooky Day of the Dead mimes really added to the match. So much cooler then any of the fancy Undertaker entrances.

ER: Totally agree with Phil there, usually wrestling doesn't get these kind of cool visuals. These days we just get 80 shots of guys standing in the same frame as the Wrestlemania sign.

3. Mil Muertes vs. Fenix

ER: Casket match time, baby! Muertes starts things with a big ass dive and eventually attacks Fenix with a respectful funeral arrangement (I predict Phil will make a joke about Bodie buying flowers for Deangelo Barksdale's funeral. Don't let me down buddy). Fenix goes for a dive and Muertes throws the fucking casket into his face. Was not expecting that one. Fenix gets busted straight open and Muertes chokes him with the ring rope support eyelet. Back in and Fenix gets hurled recklessly into the coffin (propped up in the corner) and leaves a spectacular dent in it. This match really got special when things moved into the crowd, and there was honest to god competent crowd brawling. Not just one guy walking while loosely holding the other guy by the hair, these two were fighting all around, taking mean spills; the fist fight at the top of the arena looked great with both men throwing bombs while standing on the edge of a steep fall. Fenix gets launched headfirst into a heating duct, and really Fenix made this section by bumping around painfully into everything, flying into rails, going headfirst into surfaces, getting splatted by a powerbomb. Mil beat him around the arena and Fenix engaged, and it was beautiful. The double stomp finish into the coffin was great, and while I wish they would have figured out the ending a little better so Catrina didn't just immediately get up from the lariat, that is a minor complaint and this whole spectacle was wonderful. Best LU match so far.

PAS: This was really awesome, I haven't particularly liked either guy a ton in Lucha Underground before (have loved some AAA Mesias), so I was really surprised at how great this was. This was the first time that Muertes has looked like a real killer, all of his little stuff landed with real force, and the big moves like the throw into the coffin were awesome looking. There is this great moment where Muertes is just smashing Fenix's head into the guardrail, like he is trying to open up a coconut. Bloody main even spectacles are one of my favorite kind of wrestling matches, and we haven't had one as good as this is quite a while.

PAS: One of the cool things about Lucha Underground, is the because they have access to the entire AAA roster, they can have guys come in, work a story and leave. One of the big problems with the WWE is that they have the same guys every week, and they only leave if they get hurt or join the UFC. Muertes can be buried alive, disappear for four months and then come back as a bigger deal. It is the kind of thing that the territory system allowed, which is missing in wrestling otherwise.

***ER: We've added the casket match to our Match of the Year list, and decided that for now it's the #1 match that we've reviewed this year. Will it stay #1 all year? No way to be sure, but we've already watched a lot of wrestling in the first 3+ months of the year so it landing at #1 at all is a feat in itself, and we're confident that at the end of the year it will still stand out as being one of the most unique, memorable and great matches of the year.***

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