It’s the time of the week again where we take a trip to Boyle Heights, Los Angeles – Lucha Underground is here!
How is everyone? Ready to get your teeth into another phenomenal week of Lucha? Following on from last week’s tag team drama with Sexy Star and Pentagon Jr, Sexy will be in action this week as she takes on her other tag team partner from last week, Super Fly. Dario Cueto has one messed up sense of humor! On top of that, the Lucha Underground Trio Tag Team Championship tournament continues as the flirt triangle of Ivelisse, Son of Havoc and Angelico are in action!
That aforementioned trios match kicks off this week’s proceedings and the dysfunctional connection of Ivelisse and co make their way to the ring. Ive is showcasing all kinds of attitude in their entrance. She is making all of this about her!
Their opponents are the Lucha dream team of Aerostar, Drago and Fenix so it will be a massive task for Ivelisse’s team to overcome. Sadly, Catrina is not accompanying Fenix which begs the question: was she just playing with Fenix and using his capable arsenal to take down Mil Muertes?
Shoutout to Melissa Santos. She was looking mighty fine in jade and I am a major fan of her announcing.
Ivelisse tags into the match around 30 seconds in, blind slapping Angelico so she can prove what she is made of. Ivelisse chops Fenix yet is then soon taken out of the match when Angelico makes his way back in.
Later in the match, Ivelisse show her devilish side as she cracks Aerostar with a knee to the back, allowing her team to take advantage. Some backhand cohesion here from Ivelisse; is it weird that I really love the one-upmanship of this team?
Ivelisse makes a major impact on the match shortly after this as she gives her ex-boyfriend a good whack to tag herself in. The ‘Baddest Bitch in the Building’ mounts Aerostar and beats him down with punches. She manages to garner a near fall after hitting a crisp wheelbarrow DDT before she begins to trash talk her own tag team partner. Annoyed at being the third wheel, Angelico tags back in.
A series of high-flying offense to the outside commences not too long after this, and Ivelisse makes sure that she is part of it. She throws a really unique bicycle kick and stunning DDT into Fenix’s face and she also hits a lush crossbody onto several combatants on the outside.
The match begins to come to a close when Son of Havoc looks to make a tag to Ivelisse. She removes her outstretched arm and walks off, leaving her former beau to suffer alone. Unbeknownst to her as she has her back turned, Havoc laps up the loud crowd response and takes advantage of dissension in the ranks of Aerostar and Drago. Havoc hits a picture perfect Shooting Star Press and gets a second successive victory to the shock of Ivelisse!
Our second and final lucha of the evening sees partners turned opponents Sexy Star and Super Fly square off. Just as the two are about to being, Dario Cueto interrupts and walks out from his office. He decides to up the anti for this match – it will be MASK VS MASK!
Everyone in the temple is in total and utter shock, as was I when I first saw this clip! Matt Striker and Vampiro hype this perfectly, explaining that matches with this caliber of stipulations are normally years in the making, where as Dario is simply desecrating the Lucha Libre traditions behind throwing a stipulation so monumental around on a whim. He tells Sexy and Super to forget they were ever friends!
Super Fly starts the match with a waistlock that Sexy reverses into a hammerlock. The chain wrestling continues with a headlock and wristlock reversal exchange. Vamp makes it clear how important Sexy’s mask is to her and that it once saved her from committing suicide. With anecdotes like that thrown in, it highlights the severity of this match.
After another sweet selection of back-and-forth moves, Super Fly shows his desperation to keep his mask and he throws camaraderie out of the window, landing a big slap to Sexy. Unfortunately for Super, Sexy wouldn’t have it any other way, If he wants to bring the fight, she will bring it back harder!
Sexy showcases some nice offensive via a matrix move, thrust kick and facebuster before getting rough and ready with kicks and hairmares. Super Fly retaliates with another astonishingly loud slap and some hairmares of his own. Super Fly slaps the spit out of Sexy’s mouth yet again yet in her true never-say-die fashion, Sexy comes back strongly with a hurricanrana from the second rope. She then hits a shoulder thrust, top rope armdrag and diving crossbody in an “encyclopedia of lucha” as Vampiro so epically describes. After a flush Codebreaker, Sexy only manages a near fall and I was pretty shocked at that!
A slugfest follows Sexy’s barrage of offense as the two trade blows on the mat and in standing positions. Super Fly hits a hard elbow and leg drop that the crowd are not happy with. Amazing how quickly they have turned on a lesser popular face! The pair swap stiff shots once more and then Sexy takes a page out of Ivelisse’s book, this time hitting a corner-climbing variation of a DDT.
That move doesn’t get the job done for Sexy and Super hits back with a kneeling powerbomb. Super tries to hit a moonsault off the top, yet Sexy manages to avoid the contact. She then hits a La Magistral roll and…
SHE HAS DONE IT! Sexy keeps her mask after possibly her best showing yet! The crowd go wild as we roll to commercials.
After the break, we return to see an emotional Sexy Star and Super Fly in the ring. They embrace and Sexy reluctantly unmasks Super Fly. I expect that the character will now be written out due to Matt Striker’s commentary yet all of a sudden, Pentagon Jr cements my expectatons. Pentagon decks Sexy off the apron and then hits Super Fly with a devastating package piledriver. Super is laid out, as is Sexy and Penta proceeds to snap Superfly’s arm! Penta crotch chops at Sexy as he high-tails it from the ring. This one just got so personal!
Thoughts: I may sound like a broken record yet how amazing was this week’s show?! At least my repetition in this Thoughts section is positive praise and not moaning!
I am LOVING this Sexy Star and Pentagon Jr feud! If we ignore the fact that they are actually Mixed Tag Team Champions together in Mexico (LOL), I cannot wait to see how this feud transpires. After such a heartwarming display took place when Sexy unmasked Super Fly, it was totally heinous for Pentagon to come out and be as barbaric as he was. This was storytelling at its finest and I loved every second of the aftermath.
As for the match, it received ample time and I was impressed on the whole. Sexy using an intricate pin to get the win cheapened her win for me slightly, yet for her to be involved in the first ever Mask vs Mask match and to come out the victor was awesome. I just wish she could have used an impactful move to get the job done. Sexy seems to win after distractions or with quick pin attempts and I really wish she could get a clean win with an authoritative maneuver. Other than that though, I loved the rest. The physicality was tremendous and Sexy’s DDT and dive to the outside were really good.
I definitely think Super Fly won’t be seen again and unfortunately, I cannot say I’m too bothered. The character was always practically a jobber so I won’t be sorry to see the back of him really. Harsh but true. He was a pawn in other feuds and is so for the Penta/Sexy rivalry too.
As for the Trios match, this match was the match of the night. I only recapped Ivelisse’s impact on the match yet I would strongly recommend watching the match in its entirety. I am a little perplexed at the lack of Catrina, yet Lucha Underground are A+ storytellers so I’m sure we will get a perfectly good reason for her absence.
As sad as it may be to say, I now not only live for the weekend, yet I also live for Lucha Underground and what another awesome week of action we got to witness. If you are reading this, please share this article and the videos to your friends and spread the word of Lucha Underground! On top of that, keep commenting below as I would love to talk some Lucha.
Can Ivelisse become one third of the first ever Trios Tag Team Champions? Having a woman in such a position is truly fantastic and fingers crossed that Ive can get the job done in a fortnight’s time!
