Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 33: Havoc Running Wild

TL: Really enjoy when Dario can show off the acting chops, as he gets all into making Rey vs. Matanza finally happen. As well he should.

Son of Madness vs. Mascarita Sagrada

ER: Quick match to set up the main event, which is fine as I don't have tons of interest seeing Sagrada face guys in a singles match. Havoc runs out to jump Madness, which isn't very honorable. Madness wasn't unprofessional during or after the match, feels weird for Dario to give Havoc a chance at an Aztec medallion. And they clearly had tons of ideas for Madness, as they brought him in, immediately had he and Havoc fight...then nothing until bringing him back a couple months later to fight Havoc again. We don't really know WHY Madness has it out for Havoc, other than they dress the same and he's the only guy we've seen him against. This is pretty dumb.

TL: Mascarita Sagrada wearing a biker vest is one of the most Lucha Underground things ever. Very happy they didn’t have him come out on a Big Wheel, which is something I would have 100% expected. Madness needed a win somehow, and a regular old vertical suplex (it was supposed to be a brainbuster, but it looked like a damn suplex more than anything else) gets the job done. I GUESS there had to be a blowoff between Madness and Havoc, but did anyone really want it?

Marty "The Moth" Martinez vs. Argenis

ER: I really liked the Argenis/Pentagon Dark match (from Ep. 22, the last time we saw Argenis), and especially like Argenis in that match. His stock continues to rise as he works another match that - just like that Pentagon match - could have been a squash match but instead was turned into something more memorable and meaningful due to Argenis. Here he bumps big for all of Moth's big slams, and I loved his comeback, snagging Moth's foot during a leapfrog to make him faceplant, then kicking him in the chest while he recovers. Argenis hits a big flip dive (and I still get scared thinking someone is going to bust open the back of their head on those temple steps) and a nice rana on the floor. Mariposa throws him into the post, and he takes a nice post bump, and comes up bleeding. We don't actually get a lot of blood in this fed (or wrestling in general anymore), so it really made the match feel like a bigger deal to me, and made Argenis look tougher for lasting as long as he did. I'm game for a Fenix/Moth Mascara contra Caballera.

TL: I don’t know when Argenis became one of the better transition guys in Lucha Underground, but he wrestles the way I want guys to transition on offense. He comes up with nifty ways to get back on offense from basic things (huge sucker for a trip off a leapfrog attempt) and then, as Eric says, he’ll bump HUGE to feed the heel. It’s really basic stuff, but he does it in really great ways. I mentioned Dario’s acting chops earlier, but the cutaways to Melissa saying, “Marty! What are you DOING?” is cringe-inducing. Argenis bleeds buckets because he just wants us to like him that much more before Marty finishes him off. Really happy to see Marty booked like an honest-to-God rudo and actually make him bleed and take a mask. An apuestas match I can really get behind.

Joey Ryan vs. Sexy Star

ER: How does the sound effects guy sleep at night after adding those ridiculous sounds to Sexy Star's slaps? She knows her way around some awful offense (I cannot think of someone with a worse legdrop), but I did really like her throwing Ryan by his chest hair. Striker gets all giddy talking about areolas, but the joke was her clearly throwing Ryan by grabbing clumps of his chest hair. I didn't hate this. I expected to hate this. That has to count for something.

TL: So Sexy Star gets 80% of the match, and then eats a superkick and loses. And when Joey DOES win, Striker calls it “The biggest win of his LU career.” I also expected to hate this more, but it was just there. That’s better than most Sexy Star matches I can talk about.

Boyle Heights Biker Brawl: Son of Madness vs. Son of Havoc

ER: The feud that continues, for reasons we might never know! I really liked the first half of this, both guys took dangerous bumps to the floor, stiff trash can shots, Madnes hits an insane slingshot double stomp to the floor (and Havoc was not lying close to the ring, Madness really went a long way to stomp a hole in him), Havoc getting shoved into the crowd, Madness bumping down the riser seating, big dive from Havoc. All of that kind of stuff has contributed to the best kinds of LU brawls. So I really loved all the stuff that went to the floor, but I didn't love a lot of the stuff in ring. Havoc has really weak offense, which tends to look weaker - and sillier - in the middle of a wild brawl. The driver on the trash can was pretty rough, but the stuff with a hammer and beer bottle just comes off ridiculous. If they had given me some more reason to actually care about why Havoc was willing to hit another guy in the face with a bottle, it could have been a major moment, but other than knowing that these two likely have some kind of a past, that's all we know. They've had two matches, the second one ending with a bottle to the face. It feels like I should know more about those motivations.

TL: That double stomp over the top to the floor made my eyes wide. That’s a ridiculous idea and it looked absolutely rough as all hell. A lot of this stuff looked reckless, which adds to the fact that it’s a street fight. The footprints on the back from the Havoc double stomp was a cool aesthetic. The back body drop into the steel grating was sick. It does lose a lot going back into the ring considering what the first part of this match brought on, and Havoc bouncing around as if he didn’t take a bunch of punishment is par for the course for him. At least the Mushroom Stomp looked good this time. This ended up being a good match, but they could have done a lot more if they made the end of the match look more like the first half of the match.

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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 25: Left for Dead

ER: Despite not being excited for the eventual match, I really enjoyed the Dante Fox package. The torture room stuff after Killshot left him behind was straight out of Syriana, dudes just punching and kicking him in the face, even going so far as to have him about to be beheaded! Am I just forgetting, or is this the first actual time they've explained why Fox has a problem with Killshot?

TL: It was definitely well done and told a better story than most have been told this year. That is, except the Power Glove. ALL HAIL THE POWER GLOVE. I really don’t understand why there aren’t more packages like this to get you involved in storylines. This told you everything you wanted to hear and hardly any words were said. Plus, yet another guy on a rooftop in Boyle Heights, so they have that going for them. Having it be Killshot in an elevated position is pretty damn good, though. Nice little add on.

TL: Update on Vampiro not saying Sergio Arau’s name correctly: Still can’t say it correctly.

1. PJ Black vs. Sexy Star

ER: Normally it could be written off as an annoying Matt Striker quirk to bring up Jim Breaks in a Sexy Star match, but now it's appropriate since they are both documented piles of shit. PJ is far too generous here and it was probably his best LU performance. He launches himself 2/3 the way across the ring on a rana, takes her flimsy armdrags, gets shoved off the top to the floor and crashes spectacularly. He also drops her with a brainbuster that is nastier than any move she has ever performed. So of course if keeps her down for just a couple seconds. Thankfully for PJ, Taya comes out to interfere, or else PJ would have had zero chance against the bravest woman to ever enter this cruel world. Star hits him with brass knux for the rarely seen LU DQ, but I care not about the stupid finish, as it means I no longer have to see her in the tournament.

TL: Sexy Star has a staff for some reason now. An even better line than the Jim Breaks is Striker saying “Sexy putting her ego aside!” before hitting a plancha. I also wonder how Borden can be outsmarted by ANYONE given he’s got all those degrees. AND THEN SHE HITS BORDEN WITH THE KNUCKS? Good lord was that unnecessary. Much like this match. Because Sexy Star, even in defeat, has to look this strong. Unreal. I’ll never get this.

TL: I fast forwarded through the Real Fight Rey/Johnny package but got a still screen of Mundo on a rooftop training, which makes me wonder why LU doesn’t just open a rooftop dojo.

2. Son of Havoc vs. Son of Madness

ER: If they never build to a Loser Shaves Beard match then they have truly failed. With his black mask and dark beard, Madness looks like Phineas of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and he's clearly a bump freak as he takes a hip toss from the Temple steps to the floor. They do a pretty stupid missed clothesline spot in the corner, just dancing around and missing clotheslines over and over, but Madness hits a cool spear through the buckles and kneels on Havoc's throat, so whatever. I don't really like Havoc's offense, but the two do a nice job of exchanging their respective offense, and regardless of the offense the nearfalls were effective. Madness has a cool jackhammer, Havoc takes his nice back of neck ropes bump into a cutter (far more decent than that stupid cutter set up from Jay Lethal) and we build to a fast dive from Havoc. So we get a nice, effectively built match with a skin of the teeth win from Havoc, which is all perfectly acceptable. I probably would have felt a little more throughout the match if we had a little backstory on Madness. We know that his father or mother is Madness, and that he wanted to take out Havoc. And I kinda hate that some kind of biker doppelgänger wanted Havoc's blood, and Havoc responded with handsprings.

TL: Wish that Madness would have kept the vest on the entire time just so folks could tell the two apart better, but then you could really tell the two apart after a while via the glorious beard. This was a pretty good match in a lot of ways. Madness had some cool spots and did a good job of being a foil for Havoc’s offense, and this was actually one of the better matches of the first round when it’s all said and done. We now have a vest stealing storyline, which is probably a mid-tier sartorial storyline in the annals of wrestling. To be honest, I’m not topping Eric’s line about the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. And you probably skipped this to go on to the next match.

3. Prince Puma vs. Ricky Mandel

ER: This ended up being pretty rewarding for a 90 second match. Puma pump kicks him at the bell and plants him with a rolling brainbuster, and we get a nice unexpected kick out from Mandel. The match easily could have just ended there, but I like that they gave him a little something with the kick out. He also gets to hit a nice superkick, although Puma just kind of cracks his neck, hits another pump kick, and then a sick driver to end it. I appreciated that Mandel kept his sunglasses on the whole time.

TL: There’s a Phoenix Pro Wrestling regular named Kenny K who wrestles with his sunglasses on and he’s one of the best workers in the company, pretty easily, too. So I thoroughly enjoyed Ricky being such a schlub he kept the glasses on the entire time. I can get behind Hoodie Puma big time, much like people got behind Hoodie Melo. Fun squash right here.

4. Dante Fox vs. Dragon Azteca Jr.

ER: These matches always leave me hollow. Some of the stuff looks good, none of it means anything. Fox takes a couple of great bumps onto his head (including a great one on the floor), but who actually cares, because he sells his jaw more after a few weak Azteca forearms than he ever sold his head. We get big moves and small moves, and moves where you're not totally sure who took the move but it doesn't matter anyway because both guys sell it the same. Both men lie on the mat, surely unable to go on for another second, but then they are able to!! They get up and then the other one does a move that also looks like it hurts both of them! They're both so tired, but then they're both not that tired! This was a backdrop for a Worldwide Undergound attack on Rey, which was a fine beatdown and more interesting than the sexy dance fighting happening in the ring. I was fully expecting a Killshot run-in, and it never happened. But we did get ample thigh slaps and that one sound effect that LU uses.

TL: I’ve always liked AR Fox, as he was one of those just insane athletes that made things look good and he emoted well, but in context against another guy that’s similar to him, it doesn’t stand out. I do think it’s funny that guys are gonna sell elbow strike exchanges like they’re the most important thing in the match, but can’t be bothered to sell anything else even for a few seconds. And then Azteca sells his back being out during the run in only to hit the tope to clear everyone out. I’m kinda trying to find logic here, but it ain’t there. So we’re gonna move on and let this be.

TL: I'm running a bit short on patience with the LU style in a lot of ways. It seems like the worst possible super indy/PWG-style matches for a majority of this, and even plodding matches, if there's a bit of selling, I'm way more of a fan of than the style that has kinda permeated most of the matches I've seen this season. I hope this changes up the rest of the tournament now that there is less riff-raff, but there's a couple matchups that I'm probably not gonna be looking forward to that are going to definitely live up to these expectations.

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