Lucha Underground Episode 25: The Way of the Drago Workrate Report

ER: Dario talking down to the Crew was great. "Do you know what a lay up is!? A 'gee-mee', if you will." And also apparently the caged beast is Dario's brother?

1. Fenix vs. Killshot

ER: Vamp trying to put Killshot over as versatile because he has "MMA style shorts". This match was probably the most you could hope for in a 7 minute Killshot singles, and what that means is a couple things look cool and many things did not look like a total abortion. Killshot...is not good. His facial selling is horrid. He sells a move with this wide eyed scream, like Chris Tucker selling a punchline. All of his offense involves spinning his opponent. He's always grabbing a guy by the shoulders, spinning them around, grabbing a guy's arm, spinning them around. He threw a nice spinning superkick here (probably his best looking thing in the match, so of course Fenix immediately does a kip up). I liked the opening rolling wristlock stuff. I'd always love when guys like Regal would grab a wrist and roll through with it. Killshot doesn't do it very well, but at least imitating Regal is better than imitating Ric Blade. I liked moments of this, like Fenix snapping and slapping the shit of Killshot, but most of this felt like one guy doing a finisher, kickout, other guy doing a finisher, until one of the finishers finished. Having a super competitive match with a guy like Killshot seems like a big step backward for Fenix. Killshot needs to be the first guy to have all 4 limbs broken by Pentagon.

PAS: Yeah this wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good. I have no idea why they would give Killshot a singles match (or employ him at all, but at least keep him to trios) and Fenix is far from the guy you want trying to carry someone. Lets hope he is the victim of a Dario scheme soon.

2. Famous B vs. Ricky Mandel vs. Vinny Massaro vs. Argenis

ER: Oh awesome!! I joked about them matching up all of Pentagon's victims, and my dream has come true! Oh, bummer, it was just a set up to put Texano over. Cheap trick, LU. I liked Vinny immediately going for a lariat but then holding his injured arm "oh shit that's right all of our arms are fucked!" Vinny also bumped better than the others for Texano. Really wanted to see this 4 way. I like when guys who have kinda been established as jobbers get a shot at moving up the ladder on each other. Like when Renegade would face Sick Boy on Saturday Night or something.

PAS: They should have had them all out there with casts on their arms like four 80's Bob Orton's. I thought Texano looked pretty violent, and I am looking forward to him brawling with Davari

ER: Marty "The Moth" Martinez? Ok. I liked Dario blowing off some weirdo fan.

PAS: This felt very Chikarish in a wink about wrestling kind of way. Keep that Colt Cabana shit far away from my lucha.

3. King Cuerno vs. Cage vs. Hernandez

ER: Match was going really fun until the poorly handled Marty the Moth run-in. I have no idea who the guy is (apparently was a guy I don't remember on Tough Enough) but the run in was lame. Cuerno annihilates him with his awesome dropkick, but it's the first move of the beatdown so the Moth has to keep popping up for other stuff. Then since it was just a quick run in he bumps to the floor and runs out swearing vengeance. Came off bad as the dude took Cuerno's awesome kick and some other stuff, but just acted angry as he went to the back (instead of like a goob who got his stomach kicked in, as he should have been). The match was a fun X-Division match with heavyweights. I thought Cuerno looked great through all of this. Cage seems to excel in multi-man matches which is kind of a unique skill. I always find myself disliking him in singles or tags, yet he somehow seems to thrive in triple threat or 4 ways. Triple threats especially seem difficult to thrive in, but he genuinely seems better at them. Everybody got some nice stuff, Hernandez made some questionable faces, Cuerno took about 12 bumps right on his shoulder, and this was rocking....until a run in that led immediately to the ending. Reallllly not loving how much Cuerno is just getting beat clean. This guy seems like he should be the top star in the fed.

PAS: Cuerno really seems to be floundering lately, don't see any reason for him to be in this match and they really should do something with him. I liked Cage v. Hernandez as a battle of high spot heavyweights, would like them teamed up as a kind of a roided Steiners team. Marty the Moth feels like he is quickly going to move on my Sexy Star/Killshot list of things I don't like.

4. Drago vs. Prince Puma

ER: This was really fun, both guys were on point and and hit all their complicated things really effortlessly. And these are two guys with a bunch of fun complicated stuff. I am starting to think the fed is really tossing out too many very serious stips lately without announcing them in advance. Having a loser leaves the fed and mask match are two things you can really build to. It seems like they're going too over the top with Dario manipulating outcomes, like they're doing it so often that it's all starting to feel like things are meaningless. Last week we have the culmination of a tournament that sees a surprise entrant after the tournament ends. If he wanted Angelico's team taken out that badly, there were tons of opportunities to do that instead of waiting until after they won. So now Drago is gone which is a real bummer, especially on the same show that Killshot got a featured match. Drago is one of the most consistent performers on here so if he is actually gone that's a real blow. This was a heck of a performance to go out on. I can hardly keep up with either guy here, and they blow through some neat submissions, each gets dumped on their head with some wild stuff (loved the reverse rana bump) and this was just really really fun.

PAS: Yeah this was a really good match, fun highspot wrestling with some very cool counters and an especially awesome rolling submission by Drago. I am with Eric about the booking though, I think we are forgiving a lot of horseshit because Dario is such a good actor and the production is cool. This is the second time in a month they have burned through cool heated gimmicks on face v. face matches with no build and no hate, just so Dario can smirk evilly. I was really sick of heel promoter before this fed, forgave it for a bit because I liked Dario, but now it is the same tired shit we have seen in wrestling for the last 20 years. For a fed with a lot of cool different ideas, it sucks that this is the one they are still clinging too

ER: And then after we get some weird dragon stuff...


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