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| GCW/DDT |
Good Morning!
Howdy! Welcome back to Project Lucha Underground Season 1. I had to take a little break there, what with a million wrestling shows last week, my wife’s road trip to Portland for Phish, and Triller+ dropping a free trial combining to take up all of my free time. And speaking of ‘Mania Week: I don’t know about you, but I got to watch some great stuff!
A brief aside for ‘Mania Week!
I watched a lot of stuff last week, as I’m sure a lot of you did. And before we dive into episode three of Lucha Underground, I just wanted to mention a few of the matches I saw, in case you might have missed them. Before we dive in, I should point out that I’m in no way an authority on these performers, as I’m just dipping my toes into the worldwide scenes that so many people make a living talking about. But if you’re here reading this, you probably know what I’m about, and you’ll know that I went into all the shows I watched this week with an open mind, a blank notebook, and high hopes for everyone to put on some great matches in what’s probably the biggest event of their year!
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| DDT/GCW |
GCWxTJPWxDDT
The silliness continued for much of the DDTxTJPWxGCW card on the 19th, in a triple-promotion crossover show that included Yoshihiko in tag team action, Takeshita teaming up with ‘Mania week workhorse Masha Slamovich, and a tag team match involving mini superstar Microman teaming with the giant Yukio Naya against our second favorite murder cowboy 1 Called Manders and beloved pop princess turned murder aficionado Maki Itoh.
I caught the main event of Joey Janela’s Spring Break that featured the legendary Sabu, and it was definitely hard to watch. That being said, I’ve never been a big deathmatch guy, but I am old enough to have been the target audience for ECW in its heyday, and Sabu absolutely got the sendoff he deserved.
I stayed up way too late to watch the Clusterf*ck show on the night of the 19th/morning of the 20th, and while it was a blast it had WAY too much dead time setting up and taking down a steel cage. Respect your audience, man. People are tired, drunk, and ready to head home! It was a fun show, as you’d expect from a Royal Rumble style match that included basically every performer that showed up in Vegas for the weekend.
I had some trouble streaming Effy’s Big Gay Brunch, a staple of ‘Mania Week for years now, but I was able to find the lauded Kidd Bandit vs Zack Sabre Jr. match from the show. It was everything I read and more, a real credit to both Kidd Bandit’s growth as a performer coming back from a long injury, and to ZSJ’s ability to work with a talented partner in a match I don’t think a lot of people expected to be as good as it was. Great stuff, definitely one of the best of the week.
What else…what else…oh! Bloodsport! I watched this one tip to tail and it was decidedly not my stuff. I did appreciate what they tried to do on the show, and I enjoyed ZSJ vs Jonathan Gresham’s technical work a lot. I heard a lot of chatter after the fact about Natalya vs Miyu Yamashita, but I didn’t think that match really stood out above anything else on the card. To be fair, I’m not high on Nattie in general, so I may be biased.
I saw two awful matches on the WrestleCon show. Mickie James cut a weird promo on Dave Meltzer’s rating system and proceeded to kinda force a sing-off on a seemingly unsuspecting Maki Itoh? I felt really bad for Maki and cringed through this one, only to flip back to see Minoru Suzuki fight Butterbean for about a minute before turning it off. No thanks, this show!
I did not make time for the Deadlock Pro Wrestling show, and I’m regretting that now that my Triller trial has ended. Hopefully some of the matches pop up on YouTube soon; I’ve heard good things about both the Grizzled Young Veterans/Violence is Forever street fight and the lucha tag match that featured THE BEAST MORTOS and Rey Horus.
The Fourth Rope show, Heels Have Eyes, was another one I stayed up way too late to watch, but really enjoyed. Kazeem Famuyide from the Masked Man Show podcast was fantastic on commentary, and his booth with David Otunga and Ernest “The Cat” Miller was a blast to listen to. The card on this one wasn’t stellar and featured some, um, questionable performers, but it was still a decent time and I’m hoping promoter Westside Gun continues to improve and develop as a wrestling showrunner, because he seems like a cool guy who’s genuinely interested in pro wrestling.
Is that everything? Dragon Gate had a number of shows, but the one I caught, a cross-promotional show between Dragon Gate USA and Pro Wrestling Revolution, featured two great matches and a handful of good ones. The main event was a fantastic six man tag match, but the tag team title match featuring the Lucha Solos and Los Hermanos De La Jungla was probably my favorite match to come out of the weekend. Just dudes flying into the seats in a small venue, dangerous but never worrisome spots, incredible speed and athleticism…a great watch from start to finish. I didn’t think the Lucha Solos had it in them from a purely visual perspective, but they proved me VERY wrong!
Alright, I think that’s everything I can remember! Oh, and John Cena won a belt in a wet fart of a ‘Mania ender. At least night one ended with a flurry of wiener punches and some interesting story directions. The women’s triple threat between IYO SKY (best music in wrestling), Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley was by far the best match of that whole event, although these days the less we talk about the Fed the better. BUT I DIGRESS!
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| El Rey Network |
Last Week On Lucha Underground
Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma got jumped by the new faction consisting of Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco, and Big Ryck! Debuting monster Mil Muertes destroyed Blue Demon, Jr. in the main event, and then Chavo Guerrero was shamed into turning heel after his episode one loss to Blue Demon, Jr., attacking both Demon and Sexy Star at the end of episode two! Truly, the drama never ends in the Temple. Let’s go Underground!
*One last note: I’ve always read wrestling reviews written in present tense, but that feels really weird for a show that aired like a decade ago. So I’m going to try my best to keep these reviews/recaps in the past tense, and I’m sorry for any errors that slip through. Also, although this might not come through in my writing, I’ll hold off on checking Cagematch scores until after the episode is over, to keep myself from seeing spoilers and to keep my review numbers more honest. I’ll go back in during my edit and pop the scores in then.
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| El Rey Network |
Lucha Underground: Season 1, Episode 3: “Cross the Border”
We returned to the temple to an empty ring and an excited crowd, but then we cut to Konnan peering through the blinds in Dario Cueto’s office. Konnan promised Cueto that he was bringing some big names to the arena: Fenix, Pentagon Jr., and Drago. Cueto liked it, but he wanted these three to face each other, and I’m inclined to agree!
We then cut back to ringside, where Matt Striker and Vampiro updated us on Blue Dragon Jr.’s condition after the attack by Chavo Guerrero, Jr. the week prior. Melissa Santos then introduced Dario Cueto to the crowd, and he emerged from his office -- a thing I love about this show -- before grabbing the mic as a real big guy in a mask ran around the ring. Cueto introduced said guy as El Mariachi Loco while addressing complaints he’d heard about a lack of lucha libre on his lucha libre program. Cueto also promised that El Mariachi would play a song after he won his upcoming match, and then he left as Mariachi’s opponent arrived -- “mini” wrestler Mascarita Sagrada!
Before we get into the match itself, we probably need to talk about minis. While little people have been involved in wrestling for almost as long as carnie wrestling has existed, the “mini-estrellas” of Lucha Libre are largely credited to one man. Antonio Peña came up with the idea for smaller versions of popular wrestlers while he was with Mexican wrestling promotion CMLL in the 1990s; hence, characters like Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito playing off of Mascara Sagrada and Octagon. When Peña left CMLL to create rival promotion AAA in 1993, that idea went with him, and since Lucha Underground is a AAA project, here we are. There’s a LOT of baggage and history to go through around this subject, and I’m sure more knowledgeable people have tried to parse through it. I’m not that guy, so we’re just gonna treat this as a wrestling match (to the best of our ability). Oh, also, AAA got bought up by WWE over WrestleMania weekend, so that’s a thing we’ll probably see some fallout for over the coming weeks. But I digress…
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| El Rey Network |
El Mariachi Loco vs Mascarita Sagrada
El Mariachi Loco started off by laughing at his competition, and after some taunting Loco ate a quick shining wizard from his opponent. Mascarita’s moves are lightning fast, and he turned the tables on his taller opponent pretty quickly! A couple rest holds after a dive by Sagrada led to Mariachi getting the upper hand to the boos of the crowd, with some backbreakers and slams to his opponent. A Jericho cocky pin led to a two count, and then Mariachi went up for a dive but Mascarita Sagrada rolled out of the way and absolutely planted Mariachi Loco with a tilt-a-whirl DDT. That led to a two count, and a second tilt-a-whirl ended with a choke that slowed the Mariachi down and got him on the mat. That led to a quick roll-up victory for Mascarita Sagrada!
I would go 4/10 for this just because it was more of an angle than a match, as we’ll soon see. It did establish that mini-estrellas aren’t going to be treated as a complete joke in the Temple, and El Mariachi Loco wrestled a simple heel match to put Mascarita Sagrada over. [Cagematch gave El Mariachi Loco vs Mascarita Sagrada a 5.14]
As I said, this match was all about the post-match angle, in which Chavo Guerrero, Jr. rushed into the ring and attacked a celebrating Mascarita Sagrada from behind. I didn’t mind the attack as a way to further cement Chavo’s heel turn, but Vampiro deciding to play “heel commentator” and celebrating Chavo “kicking that little guy in the head” seemed out of character. I mean, unless Vampiro’s character was just a dickhead, in which, well played.
After a break, we showed some of Chavo’s lowlights over the past two shows before we cut to a pre-taped sit-down interview between Vampiro and Chavo in the middle of the ring. Vampiro went right after Chavo, but not for the attacks -- he went after Chavo’s reputation for riding the coattails of his family. Chavo acknowledged the Guerrero name, but claimed that this would be his chance to strike out on his own apart from his family. Chavo said that Blue Demon Jr. was the one riding his dad’s coattails by inheriting his mask, and that the Guerreros were known for taking people they didn’t like out, so we shouldn’t have been surprised by his actions. Chavo claimed Blue Demon Jr. was the big deal that El Rey Network wanted to draw viewers, while Chavo was an afterthought. (In hindsight, that seems a little funny to me, as American wrestling viewers at that time and even now would be more familiar with Eddie and Chavo than they would Blue Demon Jr.) Long story short, Chavo would put legends of the hospital to win a title in the Temple. So, you know, pretty standard post-turn heel promo.
| El Rey Network |
After the break, Konnan met Chavo in the extremely poorly lit hallways of the Temple. Chavo thinks they’re cool, Konnan thinks otherwise. La Raza in Mexico already knew what happened to Blue Demon Jr., and they would soon know what Chavo did to Mascarita. Konnan advised Chavo to disappear, and as he walked away, the already shitty lighting began to flicker, and Mil Muertes appeared in front of Guerrero. Just a jump scare, but Catrina was next to pop up after another light flicker. She told Chavo that he took something that belongs to Mil, and that someday “you two” will belong to Mil Muertes. She licked Chavo on the cheek, as is her wont, and that was that.
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| El Rey Network |
Ricky was already in the ring when we cut to his announcement, which is never a good sign for a wrestler. Mil Muertes got an incredibly dope backstory video narrated by Catrina, explaining that Mil was buried in the very real 9/19/85 earthquake that hit Mexico City. When he, a little guy at the time, emerged from the rubble, he brought death with him. The kid they got for this vignette was comically out of his acting depth, but I digress. Catrina held out the stone in the velvet cloth that she’s shown him before -- I think it was implied that the stone was one from the rubble he crawled out of.
Match 2
Mil Muertes vs Ricky Mandel
Ricky actually got a little offense in, hitting a few lariats that made Mil shake his head, but Mil Muertes took over quickly with a spear and never looked back, dragging Mandel around the ring and slamming his head into the turnbuckles. Ricky tried to fight back but was clearly overwhelmed, and even a dropkick led to a little hope. That hope was quickly quashed when a top rope attempt got Ricky uppercutted in the mouth. Flatliner, pinfall, Mil Muertes wins. Catrina followed up with a lick to the corpse of Mandel, and a smooch to her partner/client/pal Mil Muertes.
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I mean, it was a squash. Meltzer doesn’t rate squashes, Cagematch doesn’t rate squashes. I, a brave wrestling blogger, will rate this squash a 7 for its effectiveness in showing Mil Muertes’ power. He took a bit of offense early which -- in the hands of a good booker -- could show that an early barrage by a faster opponent might give said opponent hope for a quick victory over Death himself. The Spear could have ended things, but dragging Ricky around showed Mil’s confidence and rage at allowing himself to be hit, and the Flatliner is a solid power finisher, although I could see a Tombstone being fun too. Anyways, yes, 7 star squash -- which is different from a 7 star match, for sure.
| El Rey Network |
A cut to the cinematic cam for some hallway waiting with Cortez and Sisco. They were guarding the door to Dario Cueto’s office until an absolutely shredded Johnny Mundo walked over. Some threats were made, Mundo replied with a superkick to one man and a full on beating to the other, eventually leading to Johnny tossing the goon through Cueto’s door. Johnny was surprisingly mellow after getting in, considering Cueto stiffed him on the briefcase o’ cash and sent his goon squad after Mundo. All Johnny wanted was to provide the violence Dario said he wanted, in a match with Big Ryck. Cueto said sure, you got it, main event. Johnny thanked him and on his way out said after Ryck, Cueto would be next.
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More drama after the break, as we saw money exchanging hands. Cueto said he didn’t care how much it cost, but after next week Cueto wanted Mundo in the hospital.
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After that, we saw another video package for Prince Puma that was pretty similar to the week prior, with Puma training while Konnan talked up Prince Puma’s ancestry.
Main Event Triple Threat
Drago vs Pentagon, Jr. vs Fenix
Let’s get this out of the way first: I am a HUGE mark for Drago’s mask and gear. I don’t understand how it all works together -- there’s a jaw part that comes off, and then he’s got a long black tongue that flops around…the whole presentation is just cool as all hell. I mean, look at this:
| El Rey Network |
IT’S SO COOL! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!
Alright, anyways, this was Drago’s first match in Lucha Underground, as well as Pentagon, Jr. and Fenix! During their entrances down the “Walk Of Faith,” the main stairway from the locker room to the ring, Vampiro mentioned that visa clearances would allow the fans to see more of these three in the Temple, which is another kinda funny thing in hindsight considering Fenix’s visa issues during his time with All Elite Wrestling. These days, you can see Fenix wrestling as Rey Fenix on SmackDown, and Penta el Zero Miedo on Raw.
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Apparently the WWE doesn’t own the Triple Threat name, or didn’t at the time, because Matt Striker called this match by that name. Or, it could just be Striker’s Fed showing, although he also called it a Three Way Dance in the ECW style. This match started at 100mph with dives, flips, and a gorgeous corkscrew drop from Fenix onto the other two wrestlers. From there, we got a lot of the “wrestling hole,” a term coined by my lovely wife. It basically means we lose wrestlers in a multi-person match to allow for one-on-one action while the spares recover, lost to space and time. Fortunately, these three absolutely had chemistry with one another, leading to some outright amazing spots that probably blew younger me’s mind when this aired for the first time. It was, however, a little sad to see Penta do the Zero Miedo hand signal to no chant along.
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Fenix got to be the first to do something insane with the unique Lucha Underground architecture, flying off the top of Dario Cueto’s office onto Pentagon Jr. and Drago. Penta and Fenix followed that spot with a package piledriver and brain buster, respectively, onto Drago, putting him out of the ring, and allowing Fenix to get a clean shot at Pentagon Jr. Fenix leapt up onto Pentagon’s shoulders, gave him some quick punches to the top of the noggin, and whipped him over with a poison ‘rana for the pinfall victory.
Man, that was so good. Like, 8/10 good. The moves were flawless, the execution perfect, and the speed of the action was relentless. [Cagematch says 7.23 for this one.] It’s on YouTube, take some time out of your day to check it out:
After Fenix got to celebrate in the ring, we got one last cinematic to close out the show. Dario Cueto was pacing in nearly complete darkness, but it was still clear he was in a cell. Cueto sat on a stool, and as he played with a key hanging on a chain from his neck, he said that he wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone -- not Johnny Mundo, and “not even you.” As he said this, a large shadow moved to cover Cueto in darkness. THIS is why I love this show! The cheese, the hamminess, the fat you could trim to just make it a bland, normal wrestling show. All these metaphors are making me hungry.
| El Rey Network |
Closing Thoughts
The first half of this show was dominated by Chavo Guerrero, with both of the matches being sorta connected to him -- the first by his attack on Mascarita Sagrada, and the second by his accused connection to Mil Muertes. I understand that, at the time, Chavo was probably one of the bigger names on the show, what with his WWE connection to American fans as well as his family and international experience. It just kinda sucked that the wrestling portion of our telenovela was so tied to one character, especially this soon in the series. But we established his newfound heeliness, and got some decent character development in the process. Chavo is probably the most interesting character on the show right now, aside from Dario Cueto, and I think he’s got more motivation than he’s letting on.
We know our main event for the next show will be Johnny Mundo versus Big Ryck. If I had to guess, I’d say that Cortez Castro and Mr. Cisco will probably get involved, with Prince Puma making the save based on Episode 2. This show featured what I can confidently say is the best match in Lucha Underground to this point, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do to match or surpass it. I’m into the Catrina stuff, liking the Chavo story, and think they’re doing well keeping guys like Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo on our radar. It’s hard to do, considering they only have like 45 minutes per show to work with!
I looked up Drago out of curiosity, as I think most of us are familiar with Fenix and Pentagon Jr. from AEW and now WWE. Turns out there are eight Dragos out there, including one that is now Dragon Lee on WWE. Actually, only two of the Dragos on Cagematch’s list have any matches on their profiles, so I guess they never transferred the character, which is a pretty common occurrence in lucha.
The guy we’re looking for, the Lucha Underground Drago, still wrestles at 49 years old. He even teamed up with Aero Star and Gravity against the Gunns and Juice Robinson on AEW Collision back in September of 2023! He goes by Dios Del Inframundo now, which translates to “God of the Underworld.” So yeah, dude went from the coolest mask in Lucha Underground to, basically, Satan. Because that was the only lateral move available to him, and he didn’t want to regress. And in case you were worried that Drago’s mask game slipped as he transitioned into the literal ruler of Hell, here’s a recent pic from his Instagram:
Instagram
Dude’s still got it.
So Long For Now
Follow me on BlueSky for updates and live watch-along commentary for AEW Dynamite and Collision (occasionally). And, if you’re looking into purchasing anything from a smart fridge to a new drill, check out the tech writing I do over at SlashGear -- my lists are heavily researched, and ranked after thorough aggregation of expert opinions, reviews, and my own experience as a professional auto mechanic, an unprofessional handyman and a somehow even less professional homeowner.
Until next time…Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!
