Hello guys and gals, and welcome to this bi-weekly edition of the Lucha Underground Analysis!
When we last left you, Sexy Star emerged victorious in some trios action over The Crew with a minor assist to Big Ryck, Catrina looked to be finished with Mil Muertes and onto Fenix, Ivelisse defeated Angelico and began to show who wore the badass shredded pants in the relationship with Son of Havoc, and Black Lotus was mysteriously taken as she inched closer to uncovering the mystery of the temple.
Where will we be at with these two episodes? Let us find out!
We first travel down a road, when suddenly a car comes into motion. Through the trunk of this car, we see Black Lotus tied up in the trunk. Excuse me?!
Backstage, we head to Dario Cueto’s office where Sexy Star is there. She’s sick of men jumping into her matches to save her! Has Sexy been reading these reduxes? Because she’s not alone on that. She explains to Dario that she is capable and strong enough to go at her business with no assistance. He asks if she has a problem with Big Ryck for assisting her last week, but she disregards that and says that her problem is with The Crew.
The Crew are the ones who sent not just her partners, but her friends, to the hospital last week. She promises they will meet the same fate at the hands of her, and Dario asks if she wants Big Ryck instead. Sexy Star reiterates that she doesn’t want to team with anyone, but Dario lets her know that he meant as an opponent. Oh??
He adds that Ryck has a problem with The Crew as well, and so whoever wins between the two of them would get to fight The Crew. He adds that no man will come to rescue her during this, and she nods approvingly at the announcement. Yes Lucha Underground! Yes!
Right at the end of the episode, we return to the car carrying Black Lotus. Dear god this music is giving me the creeps. Suddenly, the trunk opens and she tries to gain a sense of her surroundings as a voice asks what she knows about Lucha Libre. He then says “Come with me” and bends down to grab her as I contemplate how I’m going to survive the impending nightmares to come with that final shot. Good lord.
Mid way through the rubber match between Fenix and Mil Muertes, Catrina walks out and surrounds the ring to do a little scout session. She watches on as Muertes emerges victorious after a vicious beating that culminated in the flatliner while eylocked with her. The two of them have an intense stare off post match, as he summons her inside the ring and she hops up onto the apron. Mil approaches her and the rock, with him ordering her to lick Fenix.
Catrina stands up to him! She shakes her head no, and he grabs her by the throat! The rock drops to the ring canvas as he hoists her inside the ring by the throat and shoves her into a corner. Fenix then grabs the rock and clocks Muertes right in the head, proceeding to nail a sharp kick and save Catrina. Gasp! Catrina proceeds to grab the stone herself, crawl over him and lick his entire body from stomach to head. Fenix looks kind of concerned, but stumbles a bit as she then pulls him in for a huge kiss!
This perfect woman.
In Dario Cueto’s office, Ivelisse claims she deserves to be #1 contender for defeating Angelico two weeks ago. She is the baddest bitch in this – Dario cuts her off. He says no offense, but defeating him doesn’t make her #1 contender for anything. Son of Havoc and Angelico both stand behind her, as he claims her win was only due to interference. Because of this, if she wants to prove herself, she gets a rematch next week. And to make sure there’s no interference, Son of Havoc will be special guest referee! She grabs him by the beard and they make their way out, as Angelico closely follows behind.
We head to the ring as ring announcer Melissa Santos introduces the following lucha. As if we needed any further proof Lucha Underground is breaking gender barriers in wrestling, a male wrestler gets the non-televised entrance and the woman doesn’t. Vindication!
Ryck stands ready to fight, as Sexy Star’s music hits and out she struts from the back. She removes her coat and poses for the fans as Ryck hands off the cigar and stands toe to toe with her. The crowd is firmly behind Sexy Star, who gives him a small shove and some shots to the chest. He stands unaffected, but she goes for the knees and lands a front dropkick! Irish Whip attempt to no avail, but she scores with a kick to the face. Star dodges out of the ring and heads up top, taking him down with a crossbody! Ryck yells at her to take the countout, but the crowd wants Sexy back in.
She slides back in! Sexy Star continues to try and do anything she can to take him down, but Ryck lifts her up with a nasty chokeslam attempt… before gently dropping her and forcing her shoulders to stay down for the three count. Welp.
The Crew is out to take Ryck down, but Sexy gets back up to fight them off! Unfortunately, she gets a knee to the face. It doesn’t stop her! She then gets thrown down to boos from the crowd, before lifted back up and sent into the ropes where they hit a flapjack into a codebreaker. Ryck then fights them off as he stands tall to end the segment.
Thoughts: Another solid few weeks of Lucha Underground. I do understand that they only have an hour of time, so I’m not going to hold that against them when it comes to wishing people could be on every episode. I am happy that they’re keeping all four women in storylines and they’re continuing at least with a segment or a match every two weeks.
The Sexy Star segment was probably my favorite thing from this, because it spoke with so much truth. I’ve mentioned before how I wish her matches didn’t have to always end with assistance or roll ups to attain a victory, and I LOVED the determination she showed when speaking the same thing. It added so much to her character that I honestly needed to see because until this, I just kind of thought she was fine with the wins as long as they were wins. That’s fine and all, but to know she doesn’t want to win with help shows her as more of a huge babyface that she can be.
When it comes to the match itself, I understand it. To be honest, I don’t think there was any believable way she could defeat someone of Ryck’s size, even if it was a roll up victory. When she’s facing The Crew, sure, but Ryck is a monster and so I understand needing him to emerge victorious in order to continue his feud with The Crew since it adds a layer of believability for him to take them on solo. I do still sort of wish the finish was a little different, but that’s just a minor complaint because so much of the match was Sexy not backing down. Ryck is literally like 3x her size and she still refused to show any fear, and I just think that’s such an important and great way to go.
Catrina continues to peak my interest, which she could honestly do by just showing up for like two seconds and leaving right after. She has so much star quality, but I have to be honest and say I want more speaking promos! The girl is a gift to the microphone, and while I think she completely sold the post-match segment (I 100% believe she nails the seductive, mysterious look better than anyone I’ve ever seen), I still want to hear her more.
Ivelisse didn’t have too much going on, but next week looks to be big for her and I cannot wait. She nails every promo she gets, whether it’s 2 seconds or 20 minutes long, and I think Lucha Underground is giving her the perfect platform to speak and show off what a great character she can be.
One big thing that I love about this trio is that Ivelisse is calling every single shot. These two men aren’t doing a damn thing to her, and even the match with Angelico is devised because of her own complaint to Dario. It feels so rare that we see a stable… well, I guess I should call them opponents, but just two guys in general that completely surrender as the female takes center stage in their feud. Next week sounds like it’s going to be a ton of fun!
Black Lotus, I honestly have no idea what’s going on but I can’t say I’m not interested to find out. That last segment was so creepy, and I think her storyline has really been the most unique thing about the show. It’s their strongest connection in terms of filming more like a television show than a wrestling show, and I think Angela is nailing this role to perfection. To be honest though, I’m kind of bummed we didn’t get anything in the second week. I mean she closed the show the week before so I assumed she’d at least be featured, but here’s to hoping for next week!
Overall, it’s been very fine. I have to be honest though and say that ever since Aztec Warfare ended, I feel like my excitement is a little below where it was in the first few months. It’s nothing against the product or the quality or anything like that; I guess I just sort of expected a lot more for the women after seeing how big they were building Sexy Star up in the first few months.
Like she was a major player, and while I still think she’s featured well, she feels a little lost to me compared to where she was before. Not in an incredibly detrimental way or anything, but I just kind of want to see her in a big feud that will elevate her towards the title as I felt the Chavo one was.
I know I’ve said it before, but I really think it’s time to bring in a division. Or at the very least, maybe one or two new girls who will wrestle actively as opposed to managing. I know people might say they only have an hour long show, but there are guys debuting still so I don’t see why a few more women can’t. It would prove to bring a bit of spice into the mix since all four women are pretty much working separately from one another and (I believe) we’ve only actually had one female singles match since it started back in October.
I’m still enjoying the ride we’re being taken on and I appreciate everything they’re doing, but I want to be honest about it. I’m keeping my patience because I understand they’re still super new, but if I had a wishlist of things to come, it would definitely involve some newer additions. Preferably Taya Valkyrie, La Rosa Negra and Jennifer Blake! And Kendall Skye if you really want to reach into my ultimate dream come true scenario.
That’s it for now!
