Lucha Underground – January 14, 2015: The First Cage Match
Lucha Underground
Date: January 14, 2015
Location: Lucha Underground Arena, Los Angeles, California
Commentators: Vampiro, Matt Striker
We’re kind of at the start of a new time for Lucha Underground as we have a champion for the first time ever. Last time, Prince Puma won Aztec Warfare, lasting nearly a full hour, to become the first champion. The questions now are who challenges him and what about Puma’s evil mentor Konnan. Let’s get to it.
We recap Mil Muertes taking out Blue Demon Jr. after Chavo couldn’t do it. This led to Chavo going nuts and destroying Sexy Star with a chair.
Recap of Prince Puma winning Aztec Warfare and the Lucha Underground Title last week.
Cueto is in his office and tells Fenix that he’s impressed the boss. Fenix started at #1 in Aztec Warfare and nearly won the whole thing. It’s Fenix’s destiny to be here and tonight, Fenix has a chance to rise from the ashes. Fenix says he fights for himself rather than Cueto, but the boss says seize this opportunity before someone else does. The mystery woman is seen looking in through a window.
Aero Star vs. Cage vs. Argenis vs. Angelico
Star is a superhero, Argenis is a standard luchador who looks like a taller Rey Mysterio, Angelico is from South Africa and (Brian) Cage is a fairly well known indy guy who looks like he should be a WWE musclehead, making him completely different from anyone else in the promotion. I don’t know any of the other three and can’t find anything significant from any of them. This is under elimination rules.
Cage throws all three opponents around to start so they triple team him against the ropes. Angelico hits a nice running knee to the face but the three not named Cage start fighting amongst themselves. Argenis kicks Angelico low, leaving us with Aero Star vs. Argenis with the superhero hitting a hurricanrana. Star tries a Tajiri elbow but gets countered into a release German suplex. You would think someone else would have tried that before.
Angelico kicks Argenis off the top rope but Cage takes his head off with a running clothesline. A torture rack neckbreaker puts him down as well and a superplex sends Argenis flying. Star goes up top but dives into a Jackhammer (another move that needs to be adopted as a finisher) but it’s Argenis knocking Cage to the floor. He takes Cage out with a huge springboard moonsault, followed by Star hitting a huge Stardust Falling Star to take both of them out.
Angelico dives on everyone and stops to take some bows. With Striker talking about popping the ratings like the tool he is, Star spins around Angelico into a headscissors, only to have Angelico slam him down. All four get back inside with Cage planting Argenis with a pumphandle faceplant for the elimination. Cage powerbombs Star but picks him up and throws him at Angelico in the corner, setting up a discus lariat to eliminate Star. It’s Angelico vs. Cage now with Angelico kicking him from the mat, only to take a big old clothesline to give Cage the final pin.
Rating: C+. Cage didn’t have to do anything other than power moves here and the match worked as a result. Let the other three do the high spots and then give it over to the muscle guy for the other kind of impressive looking offense. Other than Ryck and maybe Muertes, there really isn’t a big power guy in the promotion so this works well for a change of pace.
Cage calls himself an animal.
Back from a break with Chavo Guerrero Jr. sitting in a chair in the ring. He made a mistake a few months back by ruining the friendship between the Guerreros and Blue Demon Jr.’s family. He asks Demon to come out here for a face to face (mask?) apology. There’s even a chair for Demon to sit in. Demon is skeptical as he should be but eventually sits down.
Chavo apologizes but turns his back, revealing a pair of brass knuckles. He swings at Demon but the old guy takes him down for some horrible looking right hands. Demon picks up a chair and weakly hits Chavo in the head for revenge. The fans chant OTRA VEZ (one more time) and that’s exactly what they get. Demon, ever the hero, flips Chavo off.
Drago vs. King Cuerno
Drago scores with a quick hurricanrana and Cuerno stays on the mat for a bit. Back up and Drago just smacks him in the face before sending him to the floor for a big dive. I’ll give them this: they can hit some good looking dives. Cuerno pulls out a table but can’t hit the Thrill of the Hunt off the apron. Instead Drago sends him out to the floor and hits another big dive, which seems to be the basis of his offense. Again Cuerno pops up and grabs a chair, only to get knocked onto the table. Drago goes up to the top of a balcony and hits the biggest dive yet to drive Cuerno through the table for a double countout.
Rating: C+. The match was fun enough but Dragon is clearly just a spot monkey. Unfortunately he’s a spot monkey in a company almost entirely based on high spots. He does well enough, but Cuerno needs to knock him off already to get him a better opponent. Cuerno is too good to waste on a guy as generic (for around here) as Drago.
Video on Fenix.
Lucha Underground Title: Fenix vs. Prince Puma
Fenix beat the champ a few months back. Striker says this is the first time the title has been on the line, just a week after it was won in the first place. He doesn’t seem to think before he speaks a lot of the time. Feeling out process to start with Fenix diving over a monkey flip and Puma diving over all of Fenix. A headscissors sends Fenix to the floor but he blocks a dive with a kick. That’s becoming too common of a spot.
Back in and Puma hits a springboard missile dropkick to knock him back to the floor, setting up another big spinning dive. Fenix says my turn and runs inside for a dive of his own. They really don’t care much for selling in this company. We see AAA boss Dorian Roldan in the crowd. Back in again and Fenix kicks him in the back for two, only to get kicked in the back of the head for the same. The champ takes over with a kick to Fenix’s back followed by a standing moonsault for two.
Off to a torture rack over the back before he slams Fenix down for another two count. Fenix pops up with a spinning enziguri and the Tajiri handspring into a cutter (which still looks stupid) to make Puma hold his neck. A TKO (that’s a better move) is countered and Puma hits a quick enziguri to take over. They slug it out from their knees with Fenix getting the better of it, only to have the handspring cutter countered into a pair of suplexes.
Puma totally misses the Phoenix Splash and gets caught in a half nelson suplex for two. Fenix’s 450 (stolen from Puma) gets two so Puma uses Fenix’s piledriver for the same. The champ loads up the real 450 but gets crotched down. In a REALLY stupid move, Fenix goes to the adjacent corner and tries to walk the ropes for some reason, allowing Puma to kick him in the head and nail the 450 to retain the title.
Rating: B-. I remember hearing a Sean Waltman interview where he says there is very little to no psychology in lucha libre. Based on this match, I can’t say I disagree with him. This was one of the biggest spotfests I’ve seen in a very long time and it gets dull after a few minutes. A lot of the stuff they do is just stupid with that rope walk among the worst. I mean…..WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???
Post match Cage runs in and jumps Puma. A spinebuster and double powerbomb leaves Puma laying. The commentary here is horrible though as they’re going over the points of how Cage doesn’t need any history or Mexican blood to make an impact around here. This is being said as Puma is bouncing off the mat. Stop getting your talking points in and pay attention to what’s in front of you.
Overall Rating: C+. This show isn’t there for people who like in depth stories and that’s a nice change of pace from some of the other stuff you get. Cueto sending in Cage (assuming he did) is a good idea and Puma facing off against every heel he can find is a good thing and makes whoever takes the title off of him look like a monster. The other than I liked here is that they’re splitting up the roster, as we don’t have the same guys every week. Mix it up and give us something to look forward to.
On the other hand, they need to mix up the style a bit more. There are too many high fliers around here and some ground guys would help a lot. That’s why I like Cage: he’s the polar opposite of what we get from most of the rest of the roster and he stands out as a result. It’s still a good show but it needs some adjustments.
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Off topic but im really glad you dont review puro or that kind of stuff often. I shudder dragon saga coming on here and threatening to burn childrens hospitals because someone supposedly doesnt “get it”.
That’s one of the main reasons I don’t. I really don’t feel like watching a four hour show then being yelled at for not doing enough research on it.
It was the one time Vampiro should’ve complained about someone showing off like he does for Johnny Mundo and he didn’t. Fenix is known to do senseless shit.
Lucha Libre has always been more about the crowd cheering it on than some intricate story about an injured arm.