Lucha Underground Season 2 Episode 22: Fame & Fortune

ER: Having Voodoo Glow Skulls on every week really brings me back to high school. I had no clue those guys were still going. I wonder what the Pietasters are up to.

1. Daga vs. Mascarita Sagrada

ER: Striker keeps pointing out that Sagrada hasn't won a match since signing up with Famous B, but he's failing to mention that Sagrada is also getting far more opportunities than he did before. Yeah he was on the winning side of a couple six mans last season, but now he's getting into actual contender matches. I'm not sure how him losing those matches is any fault of Famous B. We might just have to come to terms with the fact that Sagrada is 65 pounds, and that *may* be holding him back. It's cute that Daga leaps way into ranas for him, but really either Striker is missing the point of this storyline, or more likely they have no actual idea what the eventual outcome of this storyline is going to be. And they probably should have picked a different fan to cut to than the girl who was laughing while Famous B was kicking the shit out of Sagrada. I know lucha cameramen are taught to look for cute girls in the crowd, but maybe there was a better time to show her?

2. Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco & Joey Ryan vs. Killshot, Sinestro de la Muerte & Marty "The Moth" Martinez

ER:  Pretty hard for the LU crowd to muster a lot of energy for this one. Even Vampiro noted how quiet they were at one point. It wasn't a bad match, but it wasn't very good. I liked Moth and Cisco in this, but they were canceled out by Sinestro fucking up every single person's timing (man is he bad) and a few brief but epically goofy Killshot spots that required every person in the match to kill time standing in position so he could do some convoluted flip fuckery. "Killshot with the tactical advantage," says Striker. It's easy to get a "tactical advantage" when Castro wanders onto the apron near no other wrestler, and all the other wrestlers start to cluster in a specific spot, just so Killshot can then vault off of Castro onto everybody, but mostly his partners. It could not have come off less organic. Striker always talks about what an inspiration Sexy Star is, so it's weird to also talk about how much he likes The Moth. "I know Hank raped Debbie, and don't get me wrong I love Debbie....but Hank is kind of cool too! He invited me to a fun BBQ, let's me use his Hulu password and....I don't know I just like the guy!" I get it, Striker likes every worker on the roster and they all get him HYPED, but maybe the fed shouldn't have run a kidnapping/sexual assault angle so every person involved doesn't look like dumb assholes afterwards. Anyway, Cisco had a bunch of cool armdrags, Castro surprised me by bringing some nice strikes, and Moth really knows how to take stupid offense nicely. But this draaaaaggggged. At one point I thought we were well around the 15 minute mark, but we were barely 7 in. After the match Moth steals Killshot's stupid fucking dogtags again, and runs away, but Killshot is faster than Moth so has to do a Barney Fife run to pretend like he can't catch him. Ugh.

3. Sexy Star & Mariposa vs. Taya & Ivelisse

ER: This match wasn't very long, just 10 minutes, but boy did it feel long. It's like they went from editing things super tight to make all the matches seem as exciting as possible, to not editing them in any way and not piping in any sort of crowd noise. These last two weeks have had more stretches of silent crowd than any other episodes combined. These all just feel like quiet, slowly worked Smackdown matches. It's kind of a jarring change of pace. Taya is good at working opposite Sexy Star, though Mariposa and Star are horrible forced tag partners considering their past. I don't need them to be at each other's throats but they didn't even seem like they had a problem with each other. This whole thing was pretty dryly mechanical until it spilled to the floor and we get a couple of awesome bumps into chairs and a big Ivelisse dive. But even then the psychology was out the window as the winning pin would advance the winner to Ultima Lucha, but nobody felt like they were trying to scramble to get the pin. It felt like the wrestlers didn't know the rules and they just added them in after the tapings.

ER: Striker is now calling Prince Puma "The face of the franchise" which is weird since a few weeks ago he screamed "A new star is born!!!" after Puma got the pinfall in a six man. Both comments are weird, as Puma was clearly already a star, well before the 54th episode of the show. But saying he's now the face of the franchise doesn't sound right either, as up until this interview challenging Mysterio he hasn't felt like much of a focal point this season. Mysterio comes out and accepts the match, and I cannot deny that I'm excited for those two matching up in a singles. Curious if they'll work it tecnico/tecnico or if Puma will work subtle rudo. Actually, I'd flip out if Rey worked subtle heel, like a couple moments of Puma working faster than him leading to Rey landing an untoward kick or something. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I assume it will be tecnico/tecnico.


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