This will be the last new episode of Lucha Underground for a few weeks as I've heard that they're taking Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off. I am not 100% certain as to whether or not I will continue reviewing episodes of Lucha Underground as it does take its toll on time and other activities, but we shall just have to wait and see. Regardless of what happens with my reviews I will continue to watch Lucha Underground and hope that all fans of professional wrestling do the same.
The show opens with about half the roster already in the ring. Matt Striker and Vampiro check in on commentary and basically say that there are ten guys in the ring but they don't know why. I feel like everyone is wearing a mask except for Big Ryck. The ring girl I never bothered to learn the name of introduces Dari Cueto. Cueto, who is wearing rather large sunglasses to sell his beating, said these luchadores would be competing in a ten way lucha match, which I assume will have nine different pinfalls or submissions rather than just one pin to win. The rules were not really made that clear though. Cueto says that there will be another ten men fighting tonight as well and each winner will have the chance for something special. Though Cueto wouldn't say what that something special was, he said it wasn't money.
Match 1: Ten Way Lucha - Big Ryck vs. Prince Puma vs. Super Fly vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Drago vs. King Cuerno vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. Son of Havoc vs. Fenix
The match began with everyone else trying to take out Big Ryck. Matt Striker noted that it only took one pinfall to win this match, a piece of information that would have been useful to know before the bell rang and I'm not sure how Matt Striker knew it since Dario Cueto didn't say anything about it, but yeah, those are the stakes now. Danny Trejo was also shown at ringside again, which I'm sure is because he got a great bulk rate on tickets and not because this was taped with last week's show. There was a lot of high flying and even power moves by Big Ryck. It's hard to call this a spotfest because of the way that everything just flowed. It was just hit after hit after hit. At one point during the match Matt Striker noted that with this and the other announced match there would be twenty competitors and he wondered what other companies might have a roster that deep. Umm... If WWE only had a twenty man roster then they'd have to fire about half of their current "superstars". At the same time though, I don't want to think too hard into whether or not there are twenty wrestlers I actually like in Impact Wrestling (since I'm going to ditch the "TNA" name now) but there certainly are in New Japan. Other promotions like ROH and PWG have a lower number though. Anyway...... I was expecting for Prince Puma to win this then go on and have Johnny Mundo win the next one, but somehow PP took a modified piledriver from Fenix and pin to make the first winner of these two matches Fenix. This was a showcase of sorts of what has been happening in Lucha Underground up until now, with the feuds and character development, and it served as that really well so I was quite pleased by this match.
After the commercial break we come back for what is announced as a Boyle Heights Battle Royal. This will most likely not have as much high flying as the previous match then because when you go outside the ring and both feet hit the floor you're done. Nine of the ten competitors were already in the ring and Matt Striker named them off one by one before the entrance of Chavo Guerrero Jr. It is also worth noting that Striker called Big Ryck's henchmen "The Crew", which also gave B-Boy his new name of "Bael" in a somewhat anti-climatic manner. Striker also didn't name Ricky Mandel in his run down because apparently even he is embarrassed by him.
Match Two: Boyle Heights Battle Royal featuring Johnny Mundo, Cortez, Cisco, Bael, Famous B, Mil Muertes, Pimpinela Escarlata, Sexy Star, Ricky Mandel and Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Sexy Star jumped off the apron onto Chavo Jr. before the bell rang so she wasn't eliminated but it's that kind of stupid thinking that does get you eliminated from these matches. I really kind of wish that had been her elimination right now. Matt Striker referenced William Regal and it was awesome. I imagine one day there being a British Invasion wrestling promotion run by William Regal featuring wrestlers primarily from the UK including but not limited to Drew McIntyre, Mason Ryan, Bram, Magnus, Doug Williams and Harry Smith. Think about it. Famous B was the first elimination by Pimpinela Escarlata and as Matt Striker said earlier about there being twenty of the best luchadores here I have to call into question these two names I just typed about. Ricky Mandel was shown just holding Mil Muertes' leg up on the ropes and it looked awkward, like some sort of video game glitch where the two characters were just frozen. The Crew (fka "The Johnsons") then dumped Ricky Mandel to the floor thankfully. Following a spear, Mil Muertes threw Pimpinela over the top rope like a bad 1980's cliche. Once again forgetting the rules and that high flying might not be the best idea, Sexy Star went for a cross body off the top rope, was caught by Chavo Jr. and dumped over the top rope for another elimination. Since Fenix won the first match I feel like this is the rudo match as it seems likely Mil Muertes or Chavo Jr. will win. Matt Striker said that everyone on social media was buzzing about last week's ladder match and I take that to mean that he reads my reviews. Johnny Mundo used leg scissors to take out Cortez and as Chavo Jr. came up from behind to push Cisco over Matt Striker chimed in with the poorly worded "Chavo dumping out the other members of The Crew". Um, no. Bael stayed in. Striker jumped the gun on that one and it looks like we're back to playing ways in which Matt Striker is wrong. Bael takes a spear from Mil Muertes who then tosses him over and it's down to the final three. Johnny Mundo held on a lot and eventually planted Chavo Jr. crotch first on the top rope then hit a shining wizard type move off of the top rope to knock Chavo Jr. over and out. After a hard fought back and forth, Mundo went for Starship Pain but it was blocked by Muertes' knees. Muertes then hit Mundo with a nasty clothesline to send him over and out. Mil Muertes wins this match in a powerful fashion.
Back from the break, Mil Muertes and Fenix are in the ring and joined by Dario Cueto, who is holding a championship belt. Cueto says that in three weeks on the first show of 2015 (and their next show mind you) there will be a match to determine the first ever Lucha Underground Champion. Cueto named the match "Aztec Warfare" and didn't really give too many details about it. He said that Muertes and Fenix would have a match right now and the winner of the match would have the advantage of entering Aztec Warfare last while the loser would have to enter Aztec Warfare first and outlast nineteen other competitors. So, from what I can gather Aztec Warfare will be like a gauntlet/Royal Rumble type match where people enter but whether or not there will be more than two in the ring at a time remains to be seen. I really hope it's like the Royal Rumble in the way that more than two can be out at the same time but also that they do pinfalls and submissions over the battle royal feel because then that makes the high flying better. Either way, it's somewhat disappointing that one of these men will have to enter first which basically says "Hey, you may have won your match before but you're still no better than Famous B".
Match 3: Mil Muertes vs. Fenix
Matt Striker just restated on commentary what I wondered about the Aztec Warfare match-- he didn't really add any new information to it. Vampiro did say what I wrote though about how it isn't really fair to the loser of this match. Through some high flying and the quickness of Fenix, Mil Muertes just managed to overpower him and pick up the victory. I'm not sure if there is some sort of prejudice term for preferring masked wrestlers over those who are not, but I'm certainly glad that the two men in this match were both wearing masks like traditional luchadores. If the first ever Lucha Underground Champion is not masked it will just seem rather... odd.
My hope for the new year in Lucha Underground is that the first show with twenty competitors for the first ever championship will have some new names in it that we didn't see in the show tonight. Not only should names like Ricky Mandel and Famous B be excluded from Aztec Warfare, I don't even think that The Crew should be in there because they're more of sidekicks to Big Ryck than actual contenders to be champion. I mean, when you look at it, you want to have twenty people in there who could be the champion. You don't want to throw in the obvious jobbers who you know don't stand a chance. At least I hope that's the case. Either way, my Lucha Underground reviews will return next year (probably) as we crown the first ever Lucha Underground Champion and hopefully things can only get better from here. These first eight episodes of Lucha Underground have had their down sides, but overall it has been a rather fun run to end out 2014 on.
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