Santo Baby, Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight

ER: One of the finest luchadors in history came back from retirement a couple years ago and began working matches again (many with his son, which is what likely made him start working again), but I hardly saw anybody writing about the matches. It felt like it was treated as a non-event, as opposed to an exciting event that we now have more footage of a legend who never deteriorated. I decided to run through several of the matches from his most recent active year on file and see what we seemingly collectively missed.


El Hijo Del Santo/Rey Mysterio Jr./Discovery vs. Dr. Cerebro/Super Crazy/Yakuza LLT 9/17/17

ER: This was plenty fun, but when a match has 2 of the 10 biggest lucha legends of all time in it, you hope for a bit more. The rudo control segments were a little underwhelming, and Yakuza kinda stinks and looks like he's mailing it in the whole match (or maybe that's just his operating speed; I assume if you're across the ring from Santo, Mysterio, and the top local lucha tecnico that you would be going your hardest). The early pairings are fun with the tecnicos all getting to show off their arsenal of armdrags and headscissors, but the rudo beatdown after gets a little tedious. We have two short and chubby refs in the ring, one indifferent and one a rudo. I know if I were in the crowd watching a match with Santo, Mysterio, Cerebro (in the states, so wearing his all time great mask), Crazy, I'd personally be interested in some spots where a referee is front and center. It's arguably the worst trope in any style of wrestling. But the home stretch is a solid burst of lightning, with Crazy taking a great bump to the floor off a Mysterio headscissors, Santo hitting his rolling senton off the top (and weirdly barely getting a reaction for a dive onto Cerebro that sends both of them to the guardrail), Yakuza takes a lazy bump to the floor but Discovery hits a nice flip dive onto him (which Yakuza doesn't really catch, moreso lets Discovery bounce off him onto the floor), and then the crowd of course explodes for the 619. Santo was super engaging throughout, really active from the apron, not going through any motions (I thought it was cool when his guys were on offense that Santo was always watching the loose members of the rudo side). But out of all the available 2017 Santo this one was the on paper champ, and didn't really live up to that billing.

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Silver King vs. Alberto el Patron MDA 10/1/17

ER: You might have guessed, but this would have been much better had it been a singles with either of those two opposite Santo, as this had too many moments of three guys in the ring where one guy is just in the way. The money match here is Santo/King, and it's not really that Patron is bad, more that the match would have worked far better as a singles and he's clearly the odd man out. Silver King works the match as a kind of upsetter, like LA Park or Rush, first guy to go looking for weapons, first guy to go for ball shots, just trying to cause chaos. He also lands stiff and takes big bumps, so I'm all for it. Santo works all of his majestic spots off these two, hitting a headscissor and flipping armdrag on King, vaulting off King to hit a dropkick on Patron, and late in the match hitting his rolling senton into tope past the ringpost. Is there a man with a crazier "signature spot" that he's executing into his 50s? Santo is great when a match turns into a brawl, as he has awesome shots and takes Lawleresque bumps into furniture and metal. He even moves a lot like Lawler as he bumps, so seeing Silver King throw him hard into a chair is gonna look great. King comes out with a couple full containers of empty beer bottles and bounces one off Santo, a mere foot away from a man holding his infant. King smacks Santo around with a bottle, then jabs the ref with it, and later blasts Patron with a serving tray.  Finish felt like a good brawl finish, with King bringing in a super heavy looking container of empties (and if it wasn't actually heavy, let's credit Silver King with his John Cena-like ability to make things appear heavier than they are) and looks like he's about to crush Santo's head with it, but Patron throws beer in his face to allow Santo to lock on la caballo. This was very clipped, although I don't think we missed anything, and probably just helped with flow. The performance of Santo and King certainly made me excited for the following tag.

El Hijo Del Santo/Garza Jr. vs. Silver King/Silver King Jr. Auditorio Municipal 11/17/17

ER: This starts out feeling like it's going to be really good, until the back half of this gets plunged into the murky waters of the worst lucha tropes. This started fine, with Santo squaring off against King Jr. and working through some Santo-y mat spots, and then King Sr. and Garza squared off with Garza doing a lot of mincy movements and teasing all the ladies by showing skin, a flash of an ab here and a flash of a left buttock there, all culminating in him missing a big avalanche to get hung up butt up on the top rope, allowing Silver King to expose full butt. The squeals mean it's working. Garza does fully seem all the way into Buddy Landel no kneepads work, but shtick works fine when used properly. There's a FANTASTIC spot where King Jr. gets a cheap shot in on Santo, and King Sr. cheapshots King Jr. to tell him to knock off the cheapshots. Brilliantly timed. Santo comes in and rips off a bunch of classics, big flying headbutt off the top, some victory rolls, big flipping armdrag, a couple nice alley oop headscissors, stuff that looked like good Santo. This didn't appear to be that big of a gymnasium crowd, but Santo is clearly still a guy who busts ass no matter the crowd. And then everything goes to absolute hell in the tercera. The referee turns on Santo for some stupid ass lucha reason and starts putting the boots to him with the Kings. Then Garza also turns on Santo but keeps avoiding taking bumps so he's just a guy who turned and then ran around the ring taunting all match. If I was Silver King Jr. and was paid less than Garza for this match, I'd be pissed. Garza worked this match the way a guy would work if he had found out just before the match that he wouldn't be paid. But then even though Garza turns on Santo, King Jr. still treats him as an enemy and keeps trying to attack him. Maybe King Jr. really *was* pissed about Buddy Garza goofing off the whole match. It was just really weird that Garza wasn't trying to harm the King Family, and was trying to lie down for pins, but King Jr. kept going after him like they were in a fight. None of this made any sense. Santo does still manage to hit his rolling senton and tope past the ringpost into King Jr., but we get nothing but fast count cheating, Santo eating a huge kick to the balls for the finish, and just a final 10 minutes that nobody could possibly be happy with. The one saving grace in the last 10 minutes was Santo still breaking out big spots when allowed, and him finally slapping both Garza and the ref. The fans responded to Santo finally snapping as a big deal, and the ref took a great floppy oversell off Santo's punch. But damn, guys, knock off the horseplop.

El Hijo Del Santo/Santo Jr./Hijo de Black Silver vs. La Mascara/Bandido/Black Silver Jr. LLA 11/19/17

ER: This was nice condensed fun in a neat outdoor soccer field venue. Mascara works as a decent rudo stooge throughout, Bandido is a rudo with excellent fringe on his tights so I am beholden by law to give him positive marks, and apparently the sons of Black Silver are having a row. Black Silver Jr. appears to be the better of the brothers (and sadly passed away in a car accident a few months after this match), and we get more of a look at Santo Jr. Santo Jr. is not that good, but he can blend into a trios well enough and hits a nice dive off the top to the floor late in the match. But you have to sit through sloppy headscissors to get there. He bumps well enough and it's kind of weird because sometimes he tries to almost mimic his father's movement. He can't pull off the execution, but he sometimes moves like him and it's kind of weird. Santo obviously looked like a star here, with a big rana and high knees and slick headscissors, brawling through the crowd with Mascara, and hitting his rolling senton/tope combo. Seriously, Hogan has severe hip pain from doing the legdrop too long, Santo's still out here diving onto soccer fields. Match was a nice crowd pleaser.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki v. Patron

86. Alberto El Patron v. Low-Ki House of Glory 2/18 

PAS: Low-Ki returning from semi-retirement is my favorite thing in 2017 wrestling, this was a first time showcase match and it felt like two big stars facing off. Opening part of this was relatively perfunctory, Patron isn't really going to mix up what he does, and first 8 minutes or so felt like a Smackdown Alberto Del Rio match. Kicked into gear during the end though. I loved how Ki got caught with the press slam german early in the match and then countered it with the double stomp when Alberto tried it again. I also liked how both guys went for top rope hanging double stomps, only to get countered. Finish was kind of nuts, Ki tapping out clean? What the fuck? I like the old Low-Ki who didn't do jobs, has he gotten professional in his old age? Lame.

ER: Ugh, noted shitbag Alberto el Patron comes out to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", really taking his time and letting that song play through, as if he's specifically marketing himself to drunk 20 year old college girls doing cruise ship karaoke. I've never wanted Ki to go stiff unprofessional on somebody more than I do right now. It does not get to that point, but it didn't keep me from really enjoying this match. Low-Ki is really generous here, and generous Ki is always a great things as I don't know if there's a wrestler out there who can make offense look more devastating. He's super smart about finding new and logical ways to set up opponents' signature offense, and that's helpful with a guy like AeP whose match we've seen a couple hundred times. Even something like putting AeP onto the top rope, then turning to tell the ref to back off, allowing AeP to lock on his armbar over the top rope; we've all seen dozens of matches where an opponent puts AeP on the ropes just to get armbarred, with no sort of lip service paid to doing anything else. Ki is a good details man, one of the best. Phil also pointed out the press slam German that AeP hits, but later when he goes for it again Ki flips out and double stomps him right to the sternum. Ki lands things so great, even a corner avalanche makes him appear way bigger than he really is. But then he'll take a move you've seen way too much like the backcracker, and he'll spring up and fold violently, gives new breath to a played out move. Both fights on the buckles were really good. Ki is unsurprisingly really great at occupying himself while either tied up in the ropes or fighting on the ropes. Them trading blows, before Ki gets knocked to the apron, leading to him leaping up and catching AeP with a rana, was incredibly well done. This whole thing did feel like a very good Smackdown match, and just made me think what a shame it was that we didn't get a longer run of Low-Ki TV matches.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Underground Episode 39: UltimaLucha - Part II Review

Tomk joins us again for the season (and hopefully not the series) finale.

ER: I hadn't thought about who would be replacing Vampire since he'd be wrestling tonight, but my heart dropped when I saw Schiavello sitting there. He's a guy who I think can be decent but gets too blustery, wrapped up in shoehorning his awful catchphrases, and never builds to anything because from the beginning bell he's already screaming at 10. He comes off like a horrible Hawk Harrelson type.
TKG: This was first time listening to English language commentary and yikes, I’m sticking with Hugo. I did eventually re-watch the show with Hugo commentary and they should just really have Hugo comment the shows and then use some sort of translation bot for the English version. Hugo did an exceptional job calling Mundo v Alberto which was a real old school match and plays to him being knowledgeable about that type of match and match strategies. He really got over the Alberto blindness and how that would allow Mundo to do stick and run offense and meant that Alberto had to work more close range stuff, did a bit on how the potential of a tweaked leg would effect Alberto’s work and another bit on how a weakened arm might effect Mundo’s strategy. I don’t know if this reflected any of the actual in ring work but it made the details of work seem important, like you should pay attention to nuance that may not actually be there. Also Hugo understood the whole old school psychology of face spanking heel girl. Matt Striker called that spot like a guy raised on ECW. Hugo understood the Dusty trope where spanking a woman is understood as being an appeal to audience not to engage in domestic violence. Even if a woman slaps a man multiple times, a true man should never strike a woman…a “gentleman” knows to spank her instead. Hugo tearfully pointed to Dusty in the sky and said that Alberto spanked Melina like a “caballero”. 

1. Johnny Mundo vs. Alberto El Patron 

 
ER: I really liked most of this match, but the ending was a pretty loud fart noise. I don't think anybody wanted the return of Melina, and he's never able to hit The End of the World very well. He always lands really hard on his hip while his shoulder sort of grazes his opponent. So Melina with a weak belt shot combined with finishing on the least impactful move of the match, made for a pretty sour note. Still the first 90% of this was really good, with both guys taking turns getting tossed into railings and tables, Mundo tightening up his punches more than normal, AeP trying to rip Mundo's arm off, AeP getting dirt thrown in his eyes, tons of fun stuff. After the horrible finish we at least get more of Mundo getting tossed violently through things, with a nasty spill through chairs and then the payback revenge shot through a window. Melina was terrible throughout as Mundo bumps through chairs and she screams "No! Nooooooooo!" through tears, as if Mundo hadn't just been taking nasty bumps like that over the previous 20 minutes. Then we get that played out wrestling spot of a man spanking a naughty misbehaving woman, and Striker ups the ick factor with "I'm gonna rewind THAT on my DVR I can't TELL you how many times!" Yeesh. Coulda cleaned that one up in post.

PAS: I thought the handful of dirt as Mr. Fuji's salt was pretty great. I thought all of the wrestling exchanges in this were pretty good, feels like the kind of thing which would steal a WWE PPV if they were given some time. I didn't care for Mundo as a face in this fed but he has been pretty strong as a heel. Thought it was weird for Patron to immediately get his comeuppance after losing, felt like that could have been saved for a hypothetical next season. Also not sure why Mundo is squirting blood like that right before your garbage match. 

TKG: I really dug this. I’m so used to current generation of workers only knowing how to do heel runs from face WWFSNME style, that really cool seeing these guys do more of a Memphis thing which less about face giving chase and more about face standing off semi amused but wanting to get things started. The whole use of blindness to set up heel run and the slow recovery from that blindness, also felt super Mempho. I think I accepted flimsy chain being sold as death as being Memphisy too. I have positive feelings about Melina as being useful. I’ve seen Melina enough times live where she seemed to have real sense of when match had crowd and when was losing crowd that she knew when to lay back and when to egg on fans. I’ve also seen her Puerto Rican role as second to Davey Richards where she was kind of an Albano style manager who did both the mic work and the actual emoting for worker who couldn’t do either. That said, Mundo isn’t a Wild Samoan or Davey Richards, he needs a more Grand Wizard/JJ Dillon type second and not sure if Melina is up to that.

2. Pentagon Jr. vs. Vampiro 

ER: Vampire looks exactly like the fat bald bloated zombie on the boat, from the opening scene of Zombi 2. I assume that just shows Vampiro's loyalty and dedication to being on the El Rey network. I thought this was awesome, blew away all expectations for it. I'm not going to get into the Master reveal because really I don't care, because the match itself delivered for me in ways I wasn't expecting. This was a nasty violent W*ing brawl and Vampiro as immobile gorehound worked great opposite the vicious Pentagon. All the garbage spots built nicely, the spills into tacks and light tube remains were nasty, Pentagon punching Vampiro in the side of his bloody head was a helluva visual, and Pentagon did other neat things like just ignore Vamp's punches that whiffed. Pentagon gushing blood through his torn mask was crazy (maybe not as crazy as Striker ranking Vamp ahead of Terry Funk in terms of brawling. His comparison to Abdullah was at least physically accurate), and then the flaming table spot with Vamp on fire for way too long while the extinguisher guy was way out of position, just a nutso appropriate finish.

PAS: Pretty shocked that they would go full IWA KOTDM on TV like this, I like Vampiro theoretically but I have never enjoyed him in ring, and the fact he is willing to take this level of beating after multiple neck surgeries is pretty nutty. I would have liked to see this be the only brawl on this show, but if you are going to take it to the next level this is how you do it. Add Vampiro to Cage, Mack and Hernandez to guys who had career performances on this show

TKG: I don’t understand people’s confusion or surprise about the finish. I think I texted Phil several weeks earlier predicting that Vampiro was Pentagon Jr’s master, it seemed obvious to me. I’ve watched a lot of Kevin Sullivan/Raven/Who is higher power wrestling angles, this is how those end. I’ve watched plenty of Golan-Globus action movies, this is how those end. My wife watches the Steven Moffatt Dr Who episodes, this is how those end. It seemed obvious that they were doing the master makes student bring the monster back out of the domesticated master in order to beat the master at his most monstrous. I’ve always thought of Vampiro as second rate Chris Champion and whole angle probably makes a lot more sense if you think of it as Yoshi Kwan forcing student to transform Kwan back into Sinn. Champion also has time travel experience which would maybe add more depth to child is the father of the man stuff. Vampiro coming out looking that bloated also screamed “this match is setting up Vampiro with Penagon Jr v Vampiro’s evil twin Pogo the Clown with The Altar Boy in a no-rope Caribbean spider-web tag-match on some California XPW tribute indy”, so of course they were coming out as partners.

3. Aerostar vs. Fenix vs. Big Ryck vs. Jack Evans vs. King Cuerno vs. Bengala vs. Sexy Star

ER: Plenty of fun spots in this one, and I didn't have to flip out over Sexy Star winning. I really would have bet on her winning this thing. She looked predictably terrible here, but she wasn't in tons so it wasn't much of an issue. But that does highlight the main problem of the match, which was almost immediately they went to 5 people disappearing all at once, while two people work in the ring. That means at some times you had people selling on the floor for 5+ consecutive minutes, which is just ludicrous. I know a lot of it won't be captured on camera, but at least brawl around the floor. So there was a lot of stupidity wrapped around having 7 people crammed into something essentially worked as a singles match. But a lot of the spots worked and overall that's what counts. Evans took a couple of bumps to the floor, Aerostar hit his enormous cliff dive splash onto everybody, Cuerno just annihilated Bengala with his tope, Ryck crushes Sexy Star with a urunage (not long after taking one of the uglier and improbable ranas from her), and yeah this delivered about what I was expecting. They could have had more false finishes but they decided early that they were mostly gonna have 5 people selling around the ring and less dramatic saves, but whatever.

PAS: Some big spots here but didn't flow as well as some of their better multi man matches, I think 7 guys is just too many, and Sexy Star is the poops. Also Fenix, Aeorstar and Bengala all fill the same role in a match like this,there is a certain number of spots for your face high flyer and having three of them in the same match makes it hard for any one of them to stand out.

TKG: I guess this was fine Xdivision/WWA cruiserweight multi-person clusterfuck. I think it was hurt by them working little guys v Andre structure with Big Ryck instead of working any face/heel structure. And for the most part you had heel King Cuerno matched up with heel Evans, face Bengala matched w face Sexy Star, and face Aerostar matched with face Fenix. It felt like it weakened everyone’s character.

4. Texano vs. Blue Demon Jr. (No DQ) 

ER: "Everything you've ever known about lucha libre comes from this guy", Matt Striker, when talking about Blue Demon. Yeesh, what fucking lucha do you watch, Striker? Well, at least all of this was kept short. This had some pretty weak weapons shots considering what we saw earlier in the night. Nothing in this was memorable or interesting. 

PAS: Blue Demon is the wrong guy for this role, Santo would have been awesome as a the delusional lucha legend who refuses to believe his time is past, Universo 2000 would have worked, or hell use a Villano. Demon just can't deliver anything in the ring, and can't pull off this match. Still I do like Chavo and the idea of lucha families joining, just wish it was Chavo uniting with Brazo De Oro.

TKG: So I guess if I want to say the first match was Memphis tribute, second W*NG tribute, third WWA tribute, then this was an attempt to do an Antonio Peña AAA one. Maybe that’s the genius of Peña, it’s not so easy to do a watchable “overbooked immobile old guy v semi mobile roided out youngster with a couple of hungry local indy guys doing interference & bumps” match. Or maybe it’s just that Blue Demon sucks. Weren’t the guys from Lucha Libre USA involved in this thing? They used Tinieblas Jr as a fun chickenshit heel. Tinieblas Jr would’ve also been perfect in this role and I imagine would not cost much.

5. Mil Muertes vs. Prince Puma

ER: Awesome match, easily the best non-gimmick singles match in the promotion's history. If they end up never coming back for a second season they will have at least gone out with a bang. Both guys brought out the big guns and hit some pretty spectacular stuff. Puma was nuts in this, taking so many of Muertes' things right on the side of his face, crashing spectacularly on the missed dive into a chairshot, blasting through rows of chairs, but then also hitting all sorts of quirky kicks from impossible angles, and at one point managing to deadlift Muertes up into a big suplex. A real pull out all stops performance from Puma. Muertes leaned face first into everything, hit a couple wicked powerslams, delivered one of the best spears you'll see, really played off Puma nicely. This was just a real high end main event that really did feel like a big deal. Great way to go out on Season 1. 

PAS: Yeah this was what you would hope a clash of the titans main event would be. Both guys were kept super strong and Puma dies in this match, if he was going to lose his belt he was going to go down hard. I am not sure about Puma throwing suplexes when he is working monsters, but that deadlift was nutty strength so I bought it. Muertes might be top five wrestler for 2015, would hope Mesias will do something cool in AAA if we don't get a season 2 this year.

TKG: LuchaUndergound has kind of quietly found a way to make their title matches feel like a big deal. They’re not “lucha title” matches, these are matches filled with outside brawling. It’s also a fed where every match has outside brawling, so they can’t do the easy WWF move of having irish whip into steps be a way to make title match feel more important than undercard. But they manage to make the title match feel like it’s a different thing than rest of card. This is a card where lots of matches were about the violence, Alberto trying to get revenge and hurt/humiliate Mundo, the “cero Miedo” match was about the violence. The title match wasn’t personal, felt like it was about winning the title. Match with three sections. You had early floor brawling section with the idea that Muertes is more dominant on the floor and then the in ring section where Puma is the more dominant, and the post table spot section where Muertes better able to hold his own in ring. I liked all three sections and the face/heel as well as big/ little stuff that they were able to pull off in all of them. Also liked how the sections were connected/flowed together. Often with matches with clear sections you can make up fake falls in your head, ie “this is mat section, this is where mat section now over, this is the section where they’re working a body part and now that’s stopped”. That wasn’t the case here, really some of the cooler stuff in the match was the way they transitioning from one section to the next. I really liked the big table spot being used as a NOAH dome show title match apron spot instead of as a finish. I don’t think ever seen that done before. It’s a match I’ve now watched several times and enjoyed a little bit more each time. And while yes it is a real satisfying match for a promotion to end with, this was a wrestling supercard that really felt like it built up a bunch of strong faces to challenge new heel title holder. Muertes has to give Puma a rematch, has to give Drago a title shot, Fenix has the one win over him and the gift of the Gods, Alberto is done with Mundo, and of course what happens when the Mil Muertes the king of death meets the man with zero fear. It was a satisfying ending and teased a neat new season.

ER: Final video package was really good, although earlier Dario unlocked Matanza so casually that I'm wondering what suddenly made him rush and scramble away. I love the little coda it gave to all the major players. 

TKG: I loved Fenix driving off in his Pontiac Firebird. Immediately wanted buy the whole set of non-existent Lucha Underground Matchbox toys and then to take son to local hobby store and ask him if he wants to work with me on the non-existent” Drago Dragster” or the non-existent “Mil Muertes Hearse” Kustom Model Car Kits. Or more likely buy the hobby kits first, get frustrated with glue and tiny parts and then buy the matchbox ones to make up for it.


PAS: I liked the finishing video package too, although I think the entire Matanza, Dragon Azteca, Black Lotus stuff is super dumb. Cueto is a fun enough actor to mitigate it a bit, but the whole thing is super corny, Black Lotus is sub-porn acting level and the angle makes no sense if you think about it for more then a second.

COMPLETE LUCHA UNDERGROUND REVIEWS - WE COMPLETED A PROJECT!

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Lucha Underground Episode 35: Fuel to the Fire Review

ER: Loved Pentagon meeting with his Master in the dojo, but really this Master sounds like a tough customer. You think he would be more unhappy with his slave looking like such a weenie against Sexy Star and a tubby commentator.

1. The Mack vs. Cage

ER: Oh man Striker calls Mack "lucha Ron Funches". That's awesome. Funches is a huge wrestling fan so I bet that tickled him. And this match was awesome. Two big guys who can move, simultaneously working a fast spot match and a power offense match. Right out the gate they slam into each other with double clotheslines and it makes this crazy sound, just two slabs of meat slamming into each other (oh man picture Kal Rudman saying a sentence like that...). All their power moves looked great, Cage holding a long vertical suplex, Mack doing a running vertical suplex, Mack hitting a nasty shin kick to Cage's jaw, Cage laying Mack the fuck out with his awesome discus clothesline (I've been critical of Cage in the past, but his discus clothesline ALWAYS looks great). These guys have been perfect foils for each other in LU, and they left me wishing the match was twice as long. This was about as much fun as you can cram into 5 minutes.

PAS: Yeah this was an awesome short Nitro match, I loved them coming out and slamming each other with clobbering lariats early. I have no problem with this going short as it was clearly setting up a big Ultimo Lucha match, the show is much more like a pre-PPV Raw then it ever was before, although it is a fine pre-PPV Raw.

ER: Vampiro was a bit too scripted in the Pentagon interview, but overall I liked it. I liked the humble approach Vampiro attempted to take, and liked the subtle reveal that Pentagon has the psychic power to magically place his chair back in a seated position.

2. Mil Muertes vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Damn, Muertes waiting in the ring and freaking Son of Havoc gets his entrance shown?? That shouldn't be. And I have no godly reason why they felt the need to make Havoc look so strong against Muertes. They needed to give Havoc a knee injury, and then have him distracted by taking out the Disciples of Death, and THEN Muertes was able to gain an advantage over him. It's structured really poorly as Havoc goes on his big offensive run after getting powerbombed meanly on the announce table and thrown through dozens of ringside chairs. I don't dislike Havoc, and I like him as part of their trios. But Muertes needed to just steamroll him here. What's even more odd is it was never pushed as Havoc having a chance. Striker said once that it would be maybe the biggest upset in LU, but even when Havoc was controlling things they were talking about how Muertes was going on to face Puma at Ultima Lucha. So we have Havoc looking really strong against Muertes but not really getting credit for it, and your big monster working underneath in a match against him. It just did not make sense to me.

PAS: It does seem weird that Havoc has gone from a jobber to a guy getting so much offense against the biggest killer in the fed. Muertes is really good at working in these type of matches killing flyers and I though this had some cool moments, but this did need to be closer to the second Fenix v. Muertes match.

ER: Didn't see the Blue Demon heel turn coming but that makes me infinitely more interested in Demon than I've ever been. So that counts for something.

3. Albert El Patron, Aerostar, Drago & Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo, Jack Evans, Super Fly & Hernandez

ER: Man this fed is good at multi mans. This had everything you could possibly want, with Alberto looking like a big deal, Aerostar hitting this loony springboard reverse frog splash type thing to the floor....I mean good lord it looked weird and awesome. Drago brains himself on a tornillo, Sexy Star hits her own tornillo after setting it up for what I can only guess was several minutes edited down to still feel too long. Evans bumped all over the place in equally humorous and awesome fashion, and then was outbumped by Super Fly who took a big hiptoss over the top to the floor. Splat. Finish got a little silly with Evans having to move himself away from the ropes on the Patron armbar to stay in it longer, and then Mundo beating Sexy Star by holding the tights. The level of protection SS gets in this fed is flat out absurd.

PAS: This is the perfect kind of match to set up a big show, throw everyone in the ring and let them go after each other. I did think parts of this looked bad, especially the Sexy Star parts. Jack Evans is a loon and just takes everything in the worst way. Aerostar is a guy with a bunch of really pretty dives, although I did wish we got to see him and Super Fly go at it a bit, I know their feud isn't LU canon or anything, but I did love stuff like Piper and Valentine going after each other in Royal Rumbles.

ER: I think the Pentagon beatdown crossed a line for me. Not a moral line, but more just taking something so far that it gets eyeroll-y. Him ambushing Vampiro was awesome, kicking him hard in the back of the head, kicking him around at ringside. But then he gets a can that actually says "GASOLINE" all around it (I imagine he also keeps his money in burlap sacks with $$$ printed on the side) and douses Vampiro with it, threatening to light him on fire. Can you imagine if somebody did this in Vince Russo WCW? It would be getting mocked to this day. I really don't see how this is any less stupid than Tank Abbott holding a knife to Big Al's throat and threatening to kill him. The beatdown on Vampiro looked SOOOO good. But threatening to light a man on fire? My god that is just so stupid. Several weeks ago Pentagon went after Melissa Santos and it was shocking, over the line and within the realm of believability. It made Pentagon come off like not only a loose cannon, but a real scumbag, and a man with no code who is completely unpredictable. Now I know this promotion is clearly not going for believability. They have ghosts and the living dead and a dragon, and - maybe the most unbelievable thing possible - they attempt to make Sexy Star appear like a credible pro wrestler. But to expect anybody to get emotionally invested in a real person getting lit on fire in front of an audience...that's just so silly. At this point why didn't Pentagon just drop an anvil on Vampiro's head?

PAS: This fed does a bunch of goofy shit which irritates me, but honestly lighting a guy on fire is part of the narrative world of pro wrestling. This wasn't that far off from the Sheik, Lawler and virtually the same as the kind of stuff that they do in Big Japan. As a crazy threat it was fine, and I did like the out of nowhere attack. I have way more problems with all the goofy Black Lotus stuff then I did with this.


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Lucha Underground Episode 34: Gold and Guerreros Review

1. Delavar Daivari vs. Texano

ER: These two always manage to do some of the absolute worst phone booth fighting that I've seen. Daivari especially just throws the most mournful strikes. Things get a little better with the knee work portions, as I liked Daivari's repeated dropkicks with Texano tied up in the ropes. But it's all a fairly big waste of time as Texano just brushes it off to do a bunch of moves that involve lifting with the legs. Daivari is dead in the water as a character and even worse as a worker, and Texano going over even with Ryck's interference should hopefully spell the end of him in LU.

PAS: I liked some of the chops and Texano's powerbomb but otherwise this was a big batch of nothing. This feud started out with some real promise and ended like a wet fart.

2. Hernandez vs. Drago

ER: Weird running this the week immediately following Drago's brutal beatdown from Muertes. I mean he really got the piss kicked out of him, and then he's just back to normal and getting revenge on Hernandez the next week? They tape this shit months in advance, just bump the match back a week. He certainly didn't work the match any differently than he would normally work. I'm not expecting him to do Kikuchi levels of selling long term damage, but Hernandez jumped him last week, causing him to take a nasty beating from Muertes, and here he is like nothing happened. Pretty poor. He looked really good, his tornillo was incredible, but within context this was all just dumb. Hernandez really does not hold back on him here though, with the apron powerbomb really smarting and then then cool spot with him stealing a belt from a ringside fan and whipping/choking Drago to DQ. I really dug the match in a vacuum, but within story it was foolish.

PAS: I don't have a huge problem with Drago not selling for a week like Eric, it's wrestling, you usually don't see long term weekly selling. Match itself is clearly just setting up the fans strap match, and I think they did a nice job making me want to see that. Hernandez does a nice job as a smarmy prick, and I want to see a bunch of fans strap the shit out of him

3. Marty The Moth Martinez vs. Alberto El Patron

ER: This was exactly what it should have been. Moth has got kind of a surprising amount of offense in his other matches, but really AeP needed to steamroll him here and I'm glad they let it happen. And then he follows it up with arguably his best ever promo (his promo work in LU has really been high end). I mean this was really one of the best wrestling promos you will hear. It was simple, well worded, got over his motivations perfectly, had nice little touches ("Juanito Mundo"), really just all you would want out of a pro wrestling promo. Awesome stuff.

PAS: Yeah this was an asswhooping. I am surprised they used Martinez who they seem to be pushing as the squashee rather then Vinny Massaro or Famous B, but it does make Alberto looking like a bad motherfucker that he cleaned a semi-pushed guy out that quick.

4. No DQ: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Prince Puma

ER: Well this wasn't much. Chavo looked like he hyperextended his knee pretty early in the match, then we had The Crew and Texano coming in to essentially work their own match for the next couple minutes, leading to the 630. Seemed like this could have been edited down, not sure. If the knee injury was not planned it certainly looked legit.

PAS: It was a bummer Chavo got hurt as this was building to kind of cool match, and Chavo hurting himself kind of blew any future angle with Texano. Mess of a match, and kind of weak sauce show.

ER: The closing segment with Chavo and Blue Demon was bittersweet, as I actually really really loved it. Demon actually came off like a badass, had some nice lines ("I don't attack people who are hurt...I'm not like you"), Chavo got to laugh him off and call him a has been, Demon lifted him up in the air with a choke like he was fucking Darth Vader. Loved all of this. Buuuuuuuuuuut it means that there is still a Chavo vs. Demon feud. It means Demon is still here. It means we have to see more Demon in the ring, still vs. Chavo. This promotion does a good job of getting me psyched to see things that are certainly going to be horrible.

PAS: I dug it too, it isn't setting up a Chavo v. Demon feud, it is clearly setting up Demon v. Texano as Chavo was using mind games with Demon to get him riled up, which is why Chavo was smiling. I liked Demon saying "I am a good man" like every shades of grey protagonist in a cable drama. Low Winter Sun would have been a lot more watchable if all the cops were wearing lucha masks.



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Lucha Underground Episode 27: Ancient Medallions Workrate Report

1. Aerostar vs. Jack Evans

ER: Vampiro informs us that Jack Evans literally worked 385 dates in past years, by working Japan and Italy as well as Mexico. No doubt Jack Evans has access to Hulk Hogan's magical space time continuum machine. I enjoy Jack Evans, even though he does focus so much more on spins and twists than on actual landings or selling or the point of it all. But really this fed has some guys that do flips and flops, and while his actual flips might be more impressive, and flops are often to far up his own ass. There's a hesitance, a disconnect. Moves rarely look like they are causing him to flip, rather, he often looks like he decided to do a bunch of flips after he happened to receive a move. There was some neat stuff here, the Evans 450 off the raised seating railing, Aerostar selling his knee fairly convincingly, but it was pretty jerk-offy. Every person watching thought the flipping piledriver from the top was going to get kicked out of. That it ended the match, was a pleasant surprise.

PAS: I agree with Eric about Evans selling, his fall to the floor was disconnected from the move, it almost looked like one of those awful Bob Backlund bumps. Still a lot of crazy shit, in a match designed for crazy shit. I think Jack will end up being big in this fed. Also this match ended when it should have, that means a lot to me in these spotfests, knowing when to take it home.

2. Pentagon Jr. vs. King Cuerno vs. Cage vs. Killshot vs. Sexy Star vs. The Mack vs. Fenix

ER: Maybe it's not this way, but I've been conditioned from decades of wrestling TV that the big stars get the entrances, and the losers are just waiting in the ring when we come back from commercial. So not only are Pentagon and Cuerno tossed into a random 7 way, but they're waiting in the ring with a scrub like Killshot while Sexy Star of all people gets an entrance. This is for one of Dario's "Aztec medallions" which is really getting a little too close to Legends of the Hidden Temple. Will Pentagon win a trip to Space Camp or an Eastpak backpack? Also, WHY IS KILLSHOT ON TELEVISION SO MUCH!? Who is going to the wall for this guy for him to be getting so much damn screen time!? He is completely dreadful through much of this, with his trademark offense that always ends with him taking a bigger fall than his opponent. You've never seen worse waistlock go behinds during a mat sequence. It was stunning. It looked like an uncle wrestling with a nephew he hadn't seen in a couple years. BUT, I will give him credit for two things later in the match, as even though he landed on his face his wild dive into Cage (who was suplexing Fenix) was a glorious sprawl, and after that he manned into Cuerno's tope. I fully expected him to wuss right out of the way. And he didn't. Sexy Star also existed horribly in this match. Every time things reallllly got going there she was, trying her damndest to muck things up and slow things to a crawl by falling over when she was supposed to land on her feet, making others futz around while she tries to gain her balance before hitting a trademark sloppy rana, and somehow always managing to sell offense less than any other person in a match. So those two are horrible. But 5 out of 7 ain't bad! I mean, if it were a test you'd have a C-, but here you can mostly work around it. I thought Fenix looked GREAT. All his kicks looked cool, his flying was crisp, he leaned into everything, really came out looking like a big deal in every exchange. It's easy to get shuffled over in this type of match, but he managed to stand out. The booking was tough as there were guys in this (Pentagon, Cuerno) who should really be kept separate and not tossed in with a bunch of guys, as Cuerno especially seems generous to a fault and really gives guys tons while kind of disappearing. We will see where the booking goes with this. For all of my complaining, the match was a real blast. There were tons of great spots, tons of neat sequences, and while a couple of duds hogged too much time, there was more than enough great stuff here.

PAS: I thought the guys that are good, were really good in this, Pentagon and Fenix looked awesome, Cuerno got to shine a bit and Cage hit his big spots and looked cool. The Mack was a little subdued for a guy who had been a world beater in his previous outings. Killshot and Sexy Star sucked but this kept moving enough to hide them a bit, and Pentagon trying to kill her does add a craziness to his character. Fenix has had a hell of a 2015, he seemed like an overpushed dude when this fed started, but he has been killing it this year, along with some fun indy stuff he may be growing into his push.

ER: Dario slapping Ivelisse down with some logic was awesome. "I only need my arms to beat their punk asses." "Yes...well, you will also need your legs if you want to retain your trios titles."

ER: So Catrina's plan was for Fenix to bury Muertes...so that he can come back stronger than ever before...I'm probably going to need more of an explanation. I am fairly clueless to the restorative powers of losing casket matches. Although I guess within wrestling Undertaker *did* always come back stronger, so....is this like the Reviving Elbow Logic or something?

3. Hernandez vs. Albert el Patron

ER: I figured something was up when the match went on with just 5 minutes left in the program. My Nitro Main Event red flags were going up. Match really wasn't much until Mundo comes out and launches AdP through Dario's office window. The move got actual heat and it looked awesome. Dario played it unexpectedly, but awesomely, laughing at AdP before walking over to his bar to pour a drink. Awesome segment to end the show. Plus Mundo's excessiveness works better as a smirking asshole than as a giving it all he's got babyface.

PAS: I thought the match was fine before the angle, I wouldn't mind watching those guys hook up for a real match. Angle was pretty awesome, looked super brutal, and I loved Dario in the office. Just basic wrestling booking at its best and it got me really excited to see a Alberto Del Rio v. Johnny Mundo grudge match and I wouldn't have guessed that a month ago.


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Lucha Underground Episode 26: The Best in the Business Workrate Report

ER: I liked Mundo calling him "Fernandez" and Dario casually correcting him. Still seems odd for Hernandez to be a guy instantly pushed over most guys upon debut. I know most of these things can be explained by "but Dario!!" but sometimes it just feels like a weird choice for the fed.

1. Mr. Cisco & Cortez Castro vs. Angelico & Son of Havoc

ER: Everything in this match was just...off. It seemed like every move by every wrestler *just* missed. Angelico flies over the Crew with a flip dive, Havoc whiffs completely on a split legged moonsault to the floor (taking a way more painful looking spill into the seats), most of Angelico's knees squirt off to the sides, Havoc breaks out all sorts of feather light leg sweeps, even Cisco's spill to the floor sees him going through the wrong ropes...everybody just seemed to be working on different pages. Some of the Crew's double teams looked decent, but this was arguably the worst Havoc and Angelico have looked, and it came in the same match at the same time. Poor showing. It is impressive how over Havoc has gotten, although in this match the crowd seemed mostly interested that Ivelisse was sitting with them.

PAS: I liked this better then Eric did, I thought the Crew looked really good, and had less problems with Havoc and Angelico. I really liked Angelicos kick combos, the leg sweep enzigiri was cool. Mr. Cisco is one of my favorite guys in this fed, he is such a great combo of violent and stoogeish, kind of a short hispanic Arn Anderson.

2. Delavar Daivari vs. Texano

ER: Boy any of the viciousness these guys showed during their trios altercation was out the window here. That was some bad looking brawling. Like Abyss level strikes lobbed a foot past each guy's head. Cow bell shot look decent, but man. This looked bad. I did like Melissa Santos' scrambling "oh SHIT" while Texano rushed the introductions.

PAS: Yeah this sucked, I loved the brawling during the trios match but this was some weak shit. I like the Shah of Sunset gimmick Davari is working, but this was weak shit.

3. King Cuerno & Cage vs. Prince Puma & Hernandez

ER: Hey this was amusing even though it didn't get much time. Cuerno and Cage are good at feeding Puma, Cuerno hit his big tope which we haven't seen in a bit (even if it had a pretty dumb set up since  it required Hernandez to push Puma into the tope, meaning that when Cuerno started setting up the move there wasn't anybody there to actually do the move to). Cuerno is really great at putting over Hernandez. His bumps all look super painful, and speaking of painful bumps how about Puma getting powerbombed on the apron? Yikes. Also, Vampiro needs to stop trying to feud with Konnan.

PAS: That apron powerbomb was nasty, super happy that Cuerno got his tope back. Would like to see him actually have something to do in this fed. Isn't there someone else he can hunt? Do they need to bring in Los Thundercats?

4. Alberto El Patron vs. Johnny Mundo

ER: This was fine, probably the best possible non-gimmick Mundo singles match. Vampiro really needs to stop pushing "knee injuries" in Mundo matches, as he's never going to listen. I get the temptation as Mundo took a nasty spill to the floor, his leg crashing off the wood ring steps in a loud way, even breaking through and splintering one of the steps in a great visual. I loved AdP capitalizing and immediately smashing him with a tope. AdP brings back the Finlay ring skirt spot, and it's crazy that nobody immediately stole that once he retired. Also loved the AdP arm bar after he was playing possum. Mundo actually sold that surprise armbar nicely as it continued to play into the rest of the match (even while Vampiro just kept bringing up his blown out knee. Seriously every single match Vampiro thinks Mundo's knee is just blown the fuck out.), and the match was capable. They filled the allotted time just fine.

PAS: I liked this more then Eric too, what a grump. This felt like the kind of undercard match which would steal a WWE PPV. Nothing remotely lucha about it, but a bunch of cool little additions which put it over the top. Don't know if the ring steps thing was planned, but that into the tope was an awesome bit of wrestling improv if it wasn't. Also really enjoyed the possum armbar and ring skirt spot. Patron is just killing it this year, loved all of his LU stuff and he had a stone cold classic with Roderick Strong in ROH. Totally reinvented himself, makes me think about what similarly misused WWE guys could do with a release. Is there a big time Carly Colon run waiting for us?

ER: Hopefully they explain why Katrina is back with Muertes, or what her plan was from the beginning. It's a little convoluted if we end up getting "it was her plan all along to latch onto a guy and have that guy kill Muertes....so she could then bring him BACK".


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Lucha Underground Episode 20: The Art of War Workrate Report

1. Angelico vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Boy, they really went to put Son of Havoc over, and this felt like they did a really good job of putting Son of Havoc over. He gets basically a 10 minute squash win over Angelico, with Angelico hitting a massive flip dive and the rest of the match being all Havoc offense. A lot of Angelico's stuff did not look good; the camera should really cut wide whenever he's in the middle of a punch exchange. But that flip dive over the corner was great, one of his flying knees looked good, and he bumped big for Havoc (big rana bump into the corner off a splash mountain attempt). Havoc really got the crowd behind him, got to tell Ivelisse off something good (with Matt Striker awkwardly screaming for him to punch her...Eeesh) and I'm really curious to see where this goes for him.

PAS: 3 years ago Matt Cross v. Angelico would be a high on my nightmare match list, but this was pretty fun. Angelico has developed some nice douchey charisma, and mostly hit his stuff well. That dive was nutso. I think the Son of Havoc booking has been pretty goofus, but I do admit he has gotten pretty over.

ER: When Dario was talking all deviously to a mystery man, I'm pretty sure part of my brain said "Don't be Hernandez". I can't really see this man in his early 40s being anything that could benefit this promotion, yet he's been a guy I assumed was going to be a part of things since the fed was announced. How many large muscular dudes is Dario going to bring in to have sneaky underhanded meetings with?

PAS: I wouldn't hate Homicide being brought in for an LAX reunion, the TNA booking of that group was stupid and racist, but they were a fun tag team.

2. Texano vs. Alberto el Patron (Bullrope Match)

ER: I already love right at the start where they explain that this is not a "touch 4 corners" bullrope match. Bullrope or chain matches always benefit WAY more from it being a fight, and the 4 corners stip always makes the fight seem tantamount to a potato sack race. But this was a fight and a real good one. The bull rope was attached to both men but it was always used in violent ways instead of "I'm dragging you by this rope!!!" Instead we get both guys smacking each other in the temple with a cowbell, Patron whipping Texano, Texano dishing some great punches, Patron getting dumped through a table, Patron hitting a fucking awesome rana off the apron to the floor, and a nasty finish with Patron bending Texano's arm in the nastiest way. This was really good although kind of felt like something that happens at the end of a feud, not a couple weeks after the guys show up. It's odd how much more build the Son of Havoc/Ivelisse angle got, yet they rushed two big stars right through things. It is possible they weren't sure how long they were get to use Patron.

PAS: This was really fun. Patron looks so motivated now that he is freed up from WWE meat grinder booking. Texano Jr. never did a ton for me, but he is fine as a brawny foil for Patron to play off of. All of his brawling looked good, and played the outshined frustrated veteran really well.  I love a good cowbell shot, and the finish was great with Texano running headfirst into a fight and getting caught sleeping with the armbar in the ropes.

ER: Okay Hernandez being used as Konnan's muscle and Puma's paid back-up isn't that bad. I'm okay with that, but still really don't know what Hernandez has to offer this fed.

3. Cage vs. Prince Puma (Boyle Heights Street Fight)

ER: Well this was really fun. Puma does just some ridiculous things that all come off so simply. Even missing his 630 is something my brain can't comprehend. But then you throw in an effortless shooting star to the floor (that they filmed to make it look like he was flying 12 out of the ring) and an incredible 450 from the top to the floor putting Cage through a table, and at that point I just want LU to take my money. I loved all the garbage spots, like Puma's standing shooting star with a garbage can lid, and Cage's powerbombs all looked completely devastating here. The ones to the mat looked more brutal than the one through a trash can! Also I'm not sure if there is a man who takes Cage's discus clothesline better. These two really gel in a lot of ways. The Konnan/Hernandez stuff was handled in a really clunky way. I liked Cage roughing up Konnan at ringside, but then Cage demolishing Puma and then just casually walking over to yell at Hernandez was dumb. Him having to jaw long enough to allow Konnan to hobble into the ring was worse. Poorly handled finish to what had been an awesome match.

PAS: This was the best match these two have had with each other, Cage stayed in wrecking ball mode and Puma was just stick and moving. I am not sure I liked this as much as the Big Ryck Boyle Heights Street Fight, but Puma is two for two in great matches with his signature gimmick. I like the idea of Cage pounding a guy into submission instead of a pin, but he needs to lay it in a little more, that and the awkward Hernandez stuff was my only really complaint about this match. Pretty great show

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Lucha Underground Episode 17: A War Started in Mexico... Workrate Report

ER: Loved Dario in the opening with Patron, especially the faces he was making after Patron swept everything off his desk. I hope this guy gets more exposure for his work, excellent casting job.

1. Mil Muertes vs. Fenix

ER: So let me get this out of the way, but jeez I was so distracted by Fenix pulling up his tights the whole match. It has to be some weird nervous tick, because he would only do it after taking offense. He would never do it when he was in control, instead he would take a devastating bump and then immediately hike the back of his pants up while he was KO'd. It drove me bonkers by the end of this thing. Outside of the constant gear adjusting I liked the way Fenix bumped for Muertes (especially the way he kept banking his head off the apron when Muertes was slamming it), and Muertes had some pretty great moments too. I loved Fenix gearing up for some rope running offense and everybody else seeing a massive Muertes right hand coming a mile away. They try some things here and not all of it works, but mostly I thought they filled the time well.

ER: I'm not sure how to feel about this Konnan vignette. A) I thought it was awesome, looked amazing, totally badass. B) It's for Konnan, who can barely walk and is one bump away from having to Kickstarter a new kidney. Now one of my all time favorite wrestling matches is "old broken man vs. young punk", but in most of those matches the old broken guy was a guy who was an excellent wrestler in his prime., which would never apply to Konnan (unless you read the Hall of Fame bio he wrote for himself in the Observer). Still, the vignette was good enough to make me interested.

2. Big Ryck vs. Sexy Star

ER: This was about what was expected. Even then it looked silly that Ryck sold any of Star's offense even slightly. The fact that he bumped for a crossbody looked silly. The size difference was just too much, and Star's offense looked like it wouldn't move Ryck an inch. I did like how Ryck went through the motions of doing his finisher, but instead just held her shoulders down. Still not really sure how this helped either of them, but we'll see where things go with The Crew.

3. Alberto el Patron vs. Texano

ER: Well, this got a lot of time, but it felt pretty aimless and definitely didn't show the same kind of hate and wild passion that Alberto was showing in Dario's office. This was kind of worked like a TNA main event that got some time, with Alberto throwing out a bunch of finishers and Texano kicking out of them, with Alberto eventually drawing the DQ. I was amused that they started a "This is Lucha" chant when the guys were basically doing superplexes and arm bar teases. The crowd was pretty noticeably annoying during this episode, now that I think about it, with a bunch of dumb chants. Usually they've come off like everybody is really into the show, this was the first time I noticed that it felt blatantly "getting ourselves over!!!" There were chants for the referee, a "She's so Sexy" chant during the Star match, annoying little things like that. Both men looked fine enough in this, just felt like they didn't know how to fill time, and kind of worked the wrong match for their first big (rushed) fight. Some new stuff Alberto tried didn't really work. In WWE he was always good about hitting a smooth arm bar. Here he did this dorky thing where he called for it from the corner like Edge calling for the Spear, then sprinted across the ring to a downed Texano, came to a complete stop, and then tried to lock on the armbar. He did hit a nice dive, and the bull rope whipping looked good, but this was kind of a flop for me.


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Lucha Underground Episode 14: A Shot of El Patron Workrate Report

ER: Liked the Alberto/Dario interaction, loved the way Dario just changed the subject when Alberto asked him about the key.

PAS: Not a ton about Matanaza this week, I had some suggestions last week, but if what the WON says is true, the only real use of Vince Russo would be as a monster kept in a cage. Dario said he liked to destroy pretty things, and Vince Russo is the one guy wrestling fans would truly look at with terror.

1. Argenis vs. Fenix

ER: Total spotfest, but I dug it. Argenis didn't really look that good, but his two rana variations did and I'm a sucker for a smooth rana. This was one of the better Fenix performances, his rope assisted flip dive was crazy. There was no selling or transitions to speak of, but they never made any allusions to those things so it didn't really bother me. I think that's the key with me, no selling really bugs me when it's sporadic throughout a match, but if they establish right out of the gate "this is just going to be 5 minutes of our highlight reel" then I can just enjoy it like junk food.

PAS: Sure, this was a nice job showing all of their stuff,  Fenix needs to never throw a punch or kick again, still some cool dives, and they didn't make either guy do more then they need to do.

ER: Damn the Mil Muertes and Big Ryck vignettes killed it. Muertes lifting up Catrina by the throat like Darth Vader, Ryck still cool smoking cigars because he recognized the cigar didn't hurt him, people did, Muertes walking down the dimly lit hallway like Maniac Cop, loved the way Ryck was filmed and loved the cigar smoke as his face comes into light. Great stuff here.

PAS: Yeah those were both awesome, coolest Muertes has ever looked and Ryck as Man on Fire Denzel bent for vicious revenge is going to rule.

ER: I also love how they use Mariachi El Bronx. That's a sweet little bonus for a house band. Usually when there's a wrestling show with a band playing it's some lousy metal band that are friends of the promoter.

2. Son of Havoc vs. Johnny Mundo

ER: Not my thing. It's funny I just mentioned a spotfest that pretends there's going to be selling vs. one that just goes for broke with spots, and here we have the other side of that. We get Mundo screaming about his knee about one minute into the match, and then never see that injury again, yet we get to hear Striker and Vampiro talking constantly about his blown out knee, how Havoc is hooking that bad knee, how "that's not good for the knee" every time Mundo does a backflip and lands on his feet. It's like enjoying a B movie that knows exactly what it is, as opposed to a movie with big aspirations that just falls on its face. There were a couple cool spots in this, my favorite being Havoc running away from a Mundo dive but Mundo using his parkour (on a BAD KNEE!!) to flip back through the ropes and dive diagonally out of the ring to grab him anyway. But this was one of those matches where I just keep hoping for it to end after awhile.

PAS: Big mistake to book Mundo with a knee injury. He is a guy with some real limitations, and selling is one of them, I imagine if he had a hurt arm or neck, he wouldn't need to limit his offense, here he just ignores it and does all of his stuff anyway. The announcers go on and on about his blown out knee, but if this match was on mute, no way you would know it. I enjoyed Havoc in this, seems weird to have Barry Horowitz have cooler spots then your pushed highflyers, but he really hits some cool stuff, that fake where he topes the ring rope is awesome looking.

3. Ricky Mandel vs. Pentagon Jr.

ER: Feels like they should have shown highlights of Pentagon breaking Famous B's arm the other week, but I suppose it makes sense they didn't with him doing the same thing to Mandel. Although this promotion doesn't really do replays which is odd. They show a bunch of "last week on" at the beginning of the show, but there are a lot of times when a guy is walking to the ring and we hear "we remember last week when…" but there's no clip of the thing they're talking about, just the guy walking to the ring. But they are going in the right direction with Pentagon, feeding some lower tier guys to him and letting him walk circles around them. I wonder if this is going to lead to a bunch of one armed men coming back to haunt Pentagon?

PAS: Man Pentagon is a nasty fucker, I loved the counter into the backbreaker and the kick to the spine. I don't know who the Master is going to be, I think Vampiro is too genial at this point, LA Park would be perfect, but I am not sure how the lucha politics would work.

ER: I don't know the details about this, but Alberto feels like a pretty big "get" for them. I also don't know the details surrounding him leaving WWE, but hopefully this isn't one of those things where Vince decides to buy up a bunch of LU guys and then never use them. I mean, it would be amusing to see Vince buy Son of Havoc or other guys that have gone through developmental that they didn't originally want.

PAS: Promo was really good, Alberto really felt almost Eddieish, although if Russo is really coming in, he better get used to neckbeards making unfunny Mexican jokes behind his back, maybe Alberto will slap the shit out of him too. Think they hotshotted the Texano Jr. arrival, feels like that could have waited a week. Nothing great in the ring this week, but a lot of the booking issues I had a couple of weeks ago seem to be solved.


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