Lucha Underground – April 8, 2015: That’s Not Good

Lucha Underground
Date: April 8, 2015
Location: Lucha Underground Arena, Los Angeles, California
Commentators: Vampiro, Matt Striker

The tournament continues tonight as we try to find the first Trios Tag Team Champions. I get the idea behind doing this instead of having a regular set of Tag Team Titles but it’s not really winning me over just yet. If nothing else, it doesn’t help that the matches usually break down into insanity too quickly, though that can be said about a lot of things on this show. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s tournament match and Prince Puma successfully defending his title against Cage.

Konnan and Puma are in Cuerno’s office. The boss wants Puma in the tournament to make it mean more, so he needs to get some partners because next week he’s facing King Cuerno and two partners who will be ringside tonight for Cuerno’s title shot.

Trios Tag Team Titles Tournament First Round: Son of Havok/Ivelisse/Angelico vs. Aero Star/Fenix/Drago

Well that’s different. Fenix and Angelico slap hands to start but Fenix counters a monkey flip with a double stomp to the back to take over early. Off to Ivelisse who gets thrown into Angelico, only to have him flip her over to the apron and come in instead. Fenix kicks Angelico in the face and it’s off to Drago for a DDT as Vampiro goes into fanboy mode. Now we get to the problems as Fenix goes to the middle rope and Star climbs onto his shoulders for an elbow, but Drago wants the pin.

Off to Havok vs. Star with the fans behind the former as he gets two off a standing shooting star press. Ivelisse comes in off a slap but Angelico tags himself in and gets spun around by Star, allowing Drago to come in for a tornado DDT. Angelico is sent to the floor so Fenix can launch Drago onto him, but Fenix’s corkscrew dive hits his partner by mistake. Back in and Ivelisse hits a running DDT (Think Dolph Ziggler) to stun Fenix before Havok hits a flip dive on Drago.

Fenix dives on everyone so Ivelisse dives on everyone not named Fenix (he only got a rope kicked between his legs). Fenix walks the ropes to drop an elbow on Angelico, leaving Drago to kick Havok back inside. That’s fine with Havok as he springboards off the ropes into a double back elbow to Drago and Star. Ivelisse short arms Havok on a tag attempt and walks out, so Havok kicks Drago in the head and hits the shooting star to advance to the finals.

Rating: B-. This fits into the category of a match that isn’t really good from a quality standpoint but man alive was it fun. They were flying all over the place and hitting dive after dive, which is all you need for something like this. It doesn’t hurt that Ivelisse looks great and can back it up in the ring. Fun stuff here.

Konnan has found Puma a partner with Hernandez. Johnny Mundo pops up and says Puma already asked him to be his partner because he wants a piece of Cuerno. Konnan isn’t pleased.

Sexy Star vs. Super Fly

This is mask vs. mask, which really should be a bigger deal than it is here. Cueto set this up because Star saved Fly from having his arm broken and Cueto is kind of a jerk. Star works on a wristlock to start before they fight over a top wristlock. They hit the mat and come up in a standoff before Fly just pops her in the face to take over. Back up and Star kicks him in the ribs and nails an X-Factor (modified version of an old Konnan sequence) but Fly slaps her in the face again.

A middle rope hurricanrana drops Fly to the floor and Star hits a big dive for good measure. Striker is doing play by play a mile a minute here, which is FAR easier to sit through than his fanboy stuff. Back in and a Codebreaker gets two for Star but she grabs a running DDT for the same. Fly powerbombs her down and goes up for a moonsault but Star rolls away and grabs La Majistral for the pin.

Rating: D. Uh….what the heck was that? They set up a lucha de apuesta and blow it off in the span of eight minutes? That’s totally out of character for this promotion and I’m really surprised they did this. I know it’s because Super Fly recently lost his mask in Mexico and they had to get rid of it here too, but they could have built this up for weeks given their taping schedule. One good note here: Star looked like a wrestler who happened to be a woman. That’s a good sign.

Post break, Fly kneels so Star can unmask him in a pretty emotional moment. Pentagon Jr. comes in and snaps his arm.

Lucha Underground Title: Prince Puma vs. King Cuerno

So is Cuerno Puma’s father or are they from different countries? The champ has Hernandez, Konnan and Mundo in his corner but Cuerno’s partners are revealed to be Cage and Texano. Feeling out process to start with both guys grabbing wristlocks but Cuerno bails to the floor. Puma dives on the partners but they throw him to Cuerno for a neckbreaker. Mundo and Hernandez come over for a save but the sandpaper snake stops them.

We get a….oh you don’t know what Striker means when he mentions a sandpaper snake? It’s Texano’s bullrops. How did you not get that connection? Back in and Cuerno stomps away before kicking Puma hard in the ribs. Texano gets in some cheap shots on Puma’s leg as the referees around here continue to be kind of worthless. Puma comes back with a Superman Punch but eats an enziguri from the apron.

A big flip dive over the top takes Cuerno down (why he was on the floor isn’t shown as we were looking at the commentators) and Mundo follows with a flip pf his own. Striker: “Arguably the best athlete on the planet!” WHAT PLANET IS HE TALKING ABOUT???? Mundo is good but dude, come on. Back in and Puma gets two off something like a Blue Thunder Bomb but misses a springboard 450. Cuerno rolls some Germans for two but the partners get up on the apron for some cheap shots but Puma wants Hernandez to get down (Puma didn’t see Hernandez interfere). The 630 retains Puma’s title.

Rating: C. Uh…why was the title on the line here? Tell me, what does this add to this match? Cuerno lost his last match against Mundo in the cage but for some reason he gets a title match here? That’s the kind of bad logic that Lucha Underground usually avoids but this felt like throwing a title match on the show so they could say we have a title match tonight. The wrestling was your standard fare here but I never got into it with all the other moving parts at ringside.

Hernandez tries to raise Puma’s hand but the champ doesn’t want his praise. Everything breaks down into a big brawl to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. They’re entitled to a misfire every now and then. The problem with this show was the lack of patience and wanting to just hotshot everything at once. Instead of letting something build up over a few weeks, they announced a mask vs. mask match and a title match on one show. That’s the kind of low level mistake that you don’t expect from these guys and I hope it’s not something that continues in the future. Not much to this week but it’s hard to get too upset in 45 minutes.

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