Good day everyone! And welcome to your new Lucha Underground Analysis covering the weeks of February 11th and 18th.
February 11th brings us some additional advancement in Catrina and Ivelisse’s respective stories, but the 18th is absolutely filled with every woman you can think of!
Yes, yes, Catrina… Ivelisse… Black Lotus… Sexy Star… Melissa Santos, they’re all there! And they all (okay sans Melissa) have storyline advancement that leaves me clamoring for more so let’s get underway!
In the midst of Fenix taking on Argenis in a hard fought battle, Catrina suddenly emerges from up the stairs and climbs down to scout the action at ringside. Ruh roh…
Fenix goes on to emerge victorious, as Catrina crawls inside the ring and seductively licks the face of Argenis while keeping her eyesight locked on Fenix. I’m honestly not sure anyone gives a better seductive glare than Catrina.
From there, we head backstage to hear Catrina speaking.
You need to –”
Mil grabs her by the neck and screams that he needs absolutely nothing! From there, he sets her back on her feet and walks off, leaving her a little unsure of what to do next.
Also check out Ivelisse as she manages Son of Havoc for a singles match dedicated to her against Johnny Mundo below:
As Mil Muertes takes on Chavo Guerrero, Catrina, again like the preceding episode, makes her way down the steps… only this time, she seems to also have his stone in her hand. She seems to be dragging the stone as a sort of control mechanism over him, but this just provides a distraction for Chavo to whack him with a steel chair and get the DQ. Mil isn’t fazed though, as he drills Guerrero with the flatliner on the chair.
He orders Catrina to come lick Chavo, but she refuses. This sparks Muertes to drag her in by the hair and push her down. She continues to resist, and he grabs her by the neck! Mil sets Catrina up for the flatliner! Psyche! Fenix leaps into the ring and saves Catrina from harm’s way with a missile dropkick to Mil. The two head outside the ring as Catrina applies a lip lock on Fenix right in front of Mil!
Following this, we head backstage to see Black Lotus! She opens a door in the temple and ascends up a staircase as we head to a commercial break.
Also watch Dario Cueto set up a trios no disqualification match involving Sexy Star below:
Following this, it’s singles match time!
Out to the ring we go, as Ivelisse and Son of Havoc step inside the ring. She has a microphone in hand, and announces that tonight, Son of Havoc was supposed to face Angelico. However, she’s watched him lose week after week, and so tonight… she’s handling his battles for him! Ivelisse orders Angelico to get his ass down to the ring and fight the baddest bitch in the building!
I live for this.
Angelico’s oddly addicting theme song hits, as he steps inside the ring and we get ready for some intergender action.
A sharp kick asap, as Ivelisse tries to capitalize on Angelico’s apprehension to fight a woman. Drop toe hold by Angelico, as he offers to help her up. She kicks him a few times, but then misses a few. She scores with a knee, then slapping him in the face for trying to disrespect her. Another kick connects, with her then leaping onto the second rope. He tries to extend his hand, that of which she takes. Her other palm then goes to smacking him in the chest as she leaps off with a hurricanrana from the ropes! Nice!
Angelico starts to get serious now, as Ivelisse nails a nice kick, followed by a sharp one! She runs off the ropes, but gets lifted into the air and slammed down. Son of Havoc now on the ring apron, nailing a kick to Angelico which allows him to stumble back into a roll up victory by Ivelisse.
Angelico now has a microphone and says it’d be his pleasure to go one on one with her without Son of Havoc around. He then shoves Havoc off the apron as the two head out to the back.
Black Lotus! She bursts in through a door as we return to the scene, spotting something rattling around.
“When I was a little girl… the only thing I wanted to be when I grew up, was to be the woman who killed you with my bare hands.”
What. I think someone just put a black bag over her head and swept her away. Color me intrigued…
Match time again! Melissa Santos introduces the following no-dq trios match as The Crew stands in the ring already. Their opponents, Mascarita Sagrada, Pimpinella Escarlata and Sexy Star step out from the back to Sexy’s theme! The crowd goes crazy for all three, and the match begins with all members of The Crew taking out their opponents. Outside the ring, Bael and Sisco slap Sexy Star in the chest as Castro beats Pimpinella down in the ring with a kendo stick. Mascarita and Sisco go at it inside the ring as Star continues to recover on the outs.
Sexy now in the ring! She chops Cortez in the ring, but he slams her back. Huge kick to the head and then a sliding pair of boots to the face. Womp womp. She slides outside again as Mascarita becomes their target. Mascarita looks to be done, as Pimpinella already is… leaving it 3 on 1 as Sexy must fight the three men on her own.
The fans chant for her as she gets cornered, but she slides in the ring and tries to fight them off. Wheelbarrow armdrag! Kick to the groin! Ow, Sexy gets a big right hand and a HUGE DDT off the ring apron! Yesss!
She gets grabbed by the hair and hoisted back inside, but she escapes and lands a few chops/kicks. Unfortunately, she then gets taken down. Sexy escapes a maneuver attempt and hits a rolling suplex. She’s then bodyslammed down to the canvas as Cisco heads up top… but she fights back! Top rope hurricanrana attempt, but Cisco catches her and goes for a powerbomb. She fights off and lands the rana! Just a nearfall.
Now they all beat her down and look to go for her mask, but Big Ryck appears and distracts them long enough for Sexy to get the roll up victory for her team! Big Ryck and Sexy Star stand tall as The Crew must come back another day to mess with these two.
Thoughts: I’m loving that each of the four women looks to have a substantial role moving forward, especially Black Lotus who is probably intriguing me the most right now just because I have absolutely no idea where this could be headed. Her storyline is something I’ve never seen a wrestling show do before, and I can’t wait to find out what they have in store. Who’s in the cage that she wants to kill? And who put that black bag over her head (unless I completely saw that scene wrong)? These are questions I can’t wait to see answered, but as for now I’m loving the little twists and turns we get to see her character make on this journey.
Catrina’s story is something I think plays much better on screen than it did when I first heard about it. I still think it’s a little too soon for her and Mil to split. I mean the show has only been airing for a few months and they were one of the first established duos with a legitimate backstory that stemmed years upon years, so it feels kind of weird that they’re already being split up this early on. I do enjoy the story, however, and I think Lucha Underground shines in presentation. Reading spoilers for this show does it no justice, because the segments and the abilities these people have to carry their stories needs to be seen to fully be experienced in the way it’s intended. Fenix and Catrina’s chemistry is completely there so far, and I loved the aftermath spot of Mil dragging her inside only for Fenix to save her and get planted with a lip lock for his service. It’s not a story we’ve never seen before, but it’s one that can continue to work when you’ve got people involved who now how to play it and put a different spin to it. Great job!
Ivelisse’s story finally makes Son of Havoc’s losing streak get put into perspective. Over the course of the first taping, I was concerned with him losing so much… but now I get that they were going for establishing them as a duo where she’s supposed to be disappointed in him. It’s a story I feel like I’ve seen before, but again, this time it has a modern day spin that I appreciate so much where it’s the woman in control who is mad at the guy for constantly being the weaker member of the team. As far as the match itself goes, I’m kind of mixed. I just want to have faith that a woman can get a victory over a man without needing distraction from another man, but I actually think the finish worked here because Son of Havoc can now say he’s the reason she won, which will go on to cause more tension between the two. Like the other two stories, I’m very excited to see what Lucha Underground has in store for this, because the new aspect of Ivelisse being the dominant, in control half is something I want to see far more of before it disappears.
I loved everything about the main event, to be honest. They could’ve easily had it be Mascarita in Sexy’s position, being the one to outlast the other two until Big Ryck saved him. The fact they chose Sexy and had her put into this big storyline that closed the show is just great, and I liked that she got to constantly fight back against the men without showing any signs of weakness. Was she beat down at times? Yes. But she got right back up and countered their attacks every chance she got. Like I said before, I do want to eventually see a woman cleanly beat a man with no assistance or roll up needed, but also like Ivelisse’s, I actually think this worked perfectly because it established a feud that we can engage with moving forward in seeing Ryck and Sexy team up against the three. Ryck’s massive size basically counts as two people anyways, so I feel like the sides seem fair even if they’re numerically uneven.
Overall, another fun two weeks with Lucha Underground and I especially loved seeing everyone get featured and everyone’s stories advanced on the February 18th episode. I’m not sure how I’ll handle the reduxes moving forward as I think we get a little bit more match heavy in upcoming weeks, so we’ll likely go on a case by case basis and determine if there’s enough to cover.
Until next time!~
