Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Lucha Underground Review (S3E36, 9/20/2017): The Rise of the Ring Announcer

The opening recaps the Aztec Medallion matches and the Marty–Melissa–Fénix love triangle.

Backstage, Melissa trains with Fénix. Despite Melissa's desires to the contrary, Fénix refuses to remove his mask, stressing its importance to him. With her scheduled appearance in the ring tonight, Famous B is filling in as guest ring announcer.

Texano Jr. vs. Dante Fox: good

Texano unwisely argues with Famous B upon entering the ring; Fox takes the opportunity to jump him. Killshot ominously watches the match from the band section above, but does not interfere. Instead, the oddball finish comes when Texano gets a double underhook backbreaker on Fox for a two-count, but Famous B announces Texano as winner. The ref refuses to go along with Famous B, of course, and amidst the confusion, Fox predictably rolls up Texano for the real win.

Texano wants to take out Famous B afterward, but Dario interrupts and sets up a singles match between them for next week, with the stipulation that, should Famous B win with his broken arm, Texano will become his client.

This is a solid, above average match with a few nice highspots by Fox, and there are occasional teasing flashes of escalating into something more, but the match never really takes off, which is fine in the grand scheme of things, given that this is meant as a setup to a more weighty match. The oddball finish is a little jarring but doesn't come off as too corny or stale.



In Dario's office, Son of Havoc and Pentagón Dark, in succession, place their respective Aztec Medallions in the Gift of the Gods belt and have a tense moment with they cross paths in the doorway.

Fénix, Melissa Santos vs. Marty the Moth, Mariposa: good+

The story of this match is the contrast between the extremely agile (and rope-using) Fénix and his novice partner. Fénix gets in a lot of loco stuff before Mariposa effectively removes him from the match by tying his arm to the ringpost. This allows Marty and she to finish off Melissa with a double-team facebuster.

After the match, Marty threatens Melissa with scissors, but Fénix breaks free in time to make the save.

Paul London vs. Mala Suerte vs. Saltador vs. Cortez Castro vs. Drago vs. Son of Havoc vs. Pentagón Dark [Gift of the Gods]: very good+

This format is one-fall instead of elimination, which means that the action can be zanier up until the end. And zany it is, right from the first major spot of the match: true to his name, Saltador jumps off of Pentagón Dark's back to give his opponent a headscissors (I actually wrote an expletive into my notes here.) Dives – lots of them – and general craziness follows in short order – my kind of match. The finish comes when Pentagón hits his package piledriver on Paul London and Son of Havoc lands a shooting star press on Saltador for simultaneous pins. To break the tie, Dario books Pentagón Dark vs. Son of Havoc in a ladder match.

I love this type of match, and it's on the border of "very good+" and "great" for me. A little bit more of the insanity would have placed it solidly in "great" territory, and I'm tempted to nudge it across the edge anyway. But thinking in absolute terms across all of lucha, a large multi-participant match like this usually needs to have more to be in that range. As it is, it's easily the best match on the show, and exceeds expectations for a setup match.



In the closing scene, Dario enters the limo with the gauntlet and expresses concern about Cage's humanity and therefore his ability to be a "host". He proposes to Winters a three-way match involving Cage, Mil Muertes, and Jeremiah Crane for the gauntlet, and to prevent Cage from succeeding, he invites his "lord", seen only in silhouette, to destroy Cage in the Temple.

OVERALL: This is an enjoyable episode that sets up the remaining pieces for Última Lucha 3. There are few weak moments, and the amount of craziness is significantly above average.

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