Hello Lucha fans!
It is Jack here and I welcome you to a Lightning Lucha edition of the Lucha Underground Analysis! An exciting way of saying that we’re going to have a speed run of this week’s action. You have to jazz it up a little though don’t you?!
This week, we first saw Catrina (fresh off her promo discussing the resurrection of Mil Muertes two weeks ago and her teasing of Fenix last week). I have no idea what is going on with Catrina and why she has played the games she has, yet as we know that she was only using Fenix to light an even bigger fire (pardon the pun) under Mil Muertes, it is safe to say that she is a total wackjob.
Catrina is up to her old mysterious tricks in Dario Cueto‘s office and she says that she wants him to allow Mil to “end the man who cannot die”. Following her request, Cueto sets up Fenix vs Mil Muertes for next week in a Deathmatch. Catrina mysteriously vanishes into thin air to close the segment.
Holy voodoo, crazy, awesome, enigmatic magic! Whilst Catrina’s reasoning for wanting to make Mil suffer so he can come back stronger is pretty strange, you can’t knock how Lucha Underground are booking Catrina. She is unearthly unhinged whilst also being supernatural sexy and I am all here for it.
We are next treated to an update on Black Lotus, a woman who I think has the most interesting backstory of any wrestling character this century. However you know when you totally love something and then something you cannot stand is introduced to it and it makes you want to pour sand into your eyes? Yeah, that happened this with story. None other than Chavo Guerrero is now involved. Urgh.
After Black Lotus leaves the training ground of El Dragon Azteca, we see that somehow Chavo is aware of this and says that he will protect Black Lotus so that she doesn’t die. Tapping into El Dragon’s worry over Lotus, Chavo – ever the dirty sleazeball – says that he will protect her if El Dragon pays off the debt he has gotten himself into. Azteca agrees, so it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Chavo. Christmas come early.
Finally in the main event of the broadcast, Ivelisse (still with her dodgy, snapped ankle) is forced to defend her Trios Tag Team Titles alongside Son of Havoc and Angelico in a rematch against The Crew. The twist? This is a ladder match. If The Crew lose, Dario Cueto threatened to re-introduce them to his brother locked in the cage. Nice brotherly bond they have.
The match is essentially a three-on-two handicap match due to Ivelisse’s injury severely limiting what she can do. However, through the carnage of being hit with wood that once boarded up Dario’s office windows, dives from Dario’s actual office to the ringside area and missile dropkicks from OFF THE ROOF (good god Angelico!), it is Ivelisse who hobbles through the carnage to retrieve the belts and retain the titles.
Thoughts: Another week, another stupendously strong showing for the three women involved this week.
Black Lotus continues to be a total badass yet I am worried about Chavo Guerrero being inserted into this storyline. If however it leads to him putting her over, I’m ok with it. I did however like the storyline element behind Chavo getting involved, and El Dragon’s reluctance to say yes to the plan. At least we have substance behind Chavo’s motives.
I dislike Chavo so much by the way as I don’t like his voice and find his in-ring work incredibly bland and generic. He just does nothing for me. Kerwin White on the other hand…
Catrina’s reasoning for wanting to destroy Mil Muertes in the first place doesn’t make sense to me. Just because he lost once, it doesn’t mean to say that friction (or should that be ‘friction’?) should have to start between them. I am intrigued to see Mil back “more powerful” than ever plus I liked Catrina with him and it made way more sense than for her to be with Fenix. Now we finally have the story element to back it. Again, not sure on the character’s motive, yet if the Deathmatch next week is as good as their Grave Consequences match a few months back, I’ll let it slide.
Finally, despite Ivelisse’s injury really hindering her ability to showcase what she can do, I am so glad that Lucha Underground are still putting her in the spotlight and seemingly billing her as a difference maker in her trios team. The three of them are really starting to gel as a unit, and hopefully we can see more of that chemistry and partnership in the ring once Ivelisse’s ankle is healed. Such a shame her injury occured at such a crucial time yet at least LU are making the best of it, and then some.
