Lucha Underground Season 2 Episode 6: Gift of the Gods Ladder Match

1. Sexy Star vs. Kobra Moon

ER: After a few weeks of poor shows the words I definitely want to hear to start off a show are "She is...Sexy....STARRRRRRR". Good grief. But at least it's against another person her size and not against Cage or something. Although I have no fucking clue who they think they're talking about when describing Sexy Star; not only is she amongst the biggest female role models in history, inspiring, courageous, incredible, but she's also the spirit of Selena and Celia Cruz all rolled into one! What the fuck does any of that mean!? And really for what this was, it was totally fine. It was kept short enough that Star didn't botch anything, Moon looked better here than in her debut, and they did some cool stuff. I really liked Moon's clubs to the back, and especially liked that nasty forearm across Star's throat during a pinfall.

PAS: I think Eric is being overly generous here. I thought both ladies looked tentative and untrained. Sexy Star has been wrestling forever, so there is no excuse for her looking like a fitness model John Laurenetis tried to fuck being thrown in a four minute Smackdown match. Poor Willie Mack getting dragged down into this. It is a shame to go from The Mack to Captain Save a Ho.

ER: We get a trio of fun vignettes, and I'm loving the Famous B late night ads. "After dominating the world of underground fighting..." and "Pick Up Yo Fone!" No clue where it's going but it's entertaining me so far. Rey as Pai Mei is amusing so far, although I'd rather just see Rey in the ring. But then we end on Cuerno in his dope tejano hunting lodge and I am totally sold. This was all good stuff.

PAS: Cuerno in the hunting lounge was super cool, I am loving the focus on him this year. Rey doing the training montages isn't as cool as Konan doing them last year, and a pretty big waste of Rey

2. Prince Puma vs. Pentagon Jr.

ER: Not as good as their match a couple weeks ago, but with a better bullshit finish than that match. Both guys went into epic death selling we're in a war mode about 3 minutes in. Maybe Pentagon's overhand chops always got sound sweetening, but now that the fed sweetens the sound on 80% of the strikes it kind of lessens the impact of Pentagon's. I liked the drop down code red, Pentagon's dropkick to a handstanding Puma always looks devastating (both guys do this spot better than anyone), thought Puma looked silly doing his little do-si-do into a soccer kick after his senton. If this match was made to put over Muertes, however, he looked like a total murderer post match. I loved him disposing of Pentagon and then wheeling around and just brushing off Puma with a straight right hand. But jeez twice now in a couple weeks that they've run what should be a marquee built-to match and just rushed through it before ending it with the focus on something else. I get that it's building up a 3 way (even though a singles match with any combination of the three guys is infinitely more appealing), but a Puma vs. Pentagon match should ALWAYS be a big deal, not just tossed off twice with minimal prior warning.

PAS: Yeah I loved Muertes coming down and wrecking fools, but this felt like less of a match and more of a time kill for a run in. It felt even more like a Nitro main event then their last match. I really want to see what these guys can do against each other in an actual match. It felt last season that this was the big showdown they were building towards, and it is a shame it is being blown off in such a lam-o fashion.

3. Gift of the Gods Ladder Match: Fenix vs. King Cuerno

ER: We've talked about how creative seems kind of bankrupt so far this season, and you can look no further than the episode titles we've been getting lately. I mean at this rate the episodes are going to just be called "Some Guys Will Try to Win Wrestling Matches". This was a match that had several cool spots, but didn't really add up to anything substantial. It also appeared to be approximately 70% climbing. Climbing ladders, climbing barriers, climbing up things at ringside, climbing to get into position for moves that may or may not happen. There was ample set up time throughout this match, and it was often kind of lazily done and misguided, or spent setting up things to not get used. Nothing really seemed to hurt either guy, and we got weird little spots like both men climbing and then just hanging onto the belt rack, and then falling. The way they set it up made them both look like they were climbing for the sole purpose of hanging from monkey bars. The rana through the table looked nice, a couple spills on the floor looked good, Cuerno getting tossed into a ladder only to leap up and hit a clothesline off it was cool, dug Fenix' full extension superkicks, I liked some of the crowd brawling...but it felt like they were always just walking or recovering or climbing, without it adding up.

PAS: This did feel more like a construction challenge at a team building retreat then an actual wrestling match. Lots of setting up of contraptions to get everyone over the wall. It was weird how much was set up and never used. The big bumps were pretty big, but the match itself felt weirdly small. Have no idea what the booking point of Cuerno winning the Gift of the Gods, never cashing it in, and then just losing it again. Felt like a bit of a time kill. Fenix's big dive was bonkers though.

ER: Not a total miss this week, but still not approaching anything close to what we got in the first episode. I'm confident things will pick up eventually, but as I don't check spoilers for this fed I have no clue WHEN exactly that pick up might come.

PAS: I am getting less confident every week.


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