Welcome to this week’s Lucha Underground review, Believers! We’re back at the Temple this week for some interesting action.
Last week LU celebrated a huge milestone, its 100th episode! In preparation of Ultima Lucha and the season finale, tensions ran high and stakes were elevated.
The feud between the Martinez siblings and Fenix and Melissa Santos is kicking into high gear as the ring announcer steps into the ring for the first time.
We start the show off with a training montage for this week’s match up.
Melissa does well but at the end of their sparring session she tries to unmask him. This leads to Fenix explaining the importance of his mask: it allows him to be reborn as someone who matters.
Melissa says it doesn’t matter whether or not he has a mask, he still matters to her. He grabs her as she walks off and they kiss, aww (as someone not fully into Fenix, this romance angle is really sweet).
As the show rolls on they really hype Melissa’s debut as a competitor, very welcoming and refreshing, she is the voice of LU after all.
We get to our match and Famous B, stepping in for Melissa, and Beautiful Brenda announce each team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWtMNMAGVjI
one of the most anticipated debuts for the #LuchaUnderground fanbase. @ThisIsMelSantos enters the Temple for the first time as a fighter! pic.twitter.com/LnNbZ1QgoJ
— Andrew (@TypeAndrew) September 21, 2017
The match begins with Fenix taking on Mariposa. They tie up and Mariposa works Fenix over as they go into a series of reversals and mat wrestling. Mariposa poses before slapping Fenix. He hits her hard back. She comes back with a mat slam and elbow drop.
Fenix comes back and hit Mariposa with a kick. Mariposa tags out and in comes Marty “The Moth” Martinez. Fenix continues to control the match with high risk maneuvers. He uses the ropes to tie up Marty and continues his dominance.
Fenix hits a tope suicida move to ground Marty. He tosses him back in and eggs Marty on. Melissa tries to tag in but Fenix hesitates. Marty capitalizes on this indecisiveness as Melissa just looks on.
In comes Mariposa and she bites Fenix’s mask before elbow dropping him. She starts working over Fenix’s legs before tagging in Marty again. Fenix is able to hit a super kick on Marty and he starts crawling over to Melissa. Marty tries to dominate Fenix but Fenix reverses him and Marty goes right into a stiff kick by Melissa.
Melissa comes in with a sitting cross body. Fenix and Melissa work together as Melissa punches Mariposa in the face. They both kick Marty in the gut and then in the jaw. They do the same to Mariposa as Mariposa falls down and hits her brother in the groin.
Fenix helps Melissa into a body scissor and then wheel barrow as she goes for a pin. Both the siblings kick out of the cover and the match continues. Melissa grounds Marty in a rest hold while Fenix goes up to the top but Mariposa hits Fenix off and he goes tumbling down. Melissa scrambles to see if Fenix is OK. Marty drags her away. Melissa smacks him in the face while Mariposa ties Fenix to the ropes. Melissa scrambles away but Marty continues to stalk her.
Melissa gets back into the ring where both siblings corner her. Melissa screams and tries to fight but both siblings corner her and perform a pedigree type move on her to win the match. The siblings continue to toy with Melissa as Fenix tries to ward them off.
After the match commentary runs down some of the card for Ultima Lucha Tres.
@RealIvelisse vs the beautiful Goddess of Darkness @KarleeLeilani ? a Ultimata Lucha Tres can't wait to see this match #LuchaUnderground pic.twitter.com/ObAwM7TZ4t
— DECAY Jovan Mailk? (@JovanMailk2) September 21, 2017
Thoughts: This week’s story was simple and made very clear from the outset, this is the rise of Melissa as she steps into the ring for the first time to face her stalker. With Fenix by her side she did well enough but sometimes love is not enough. This is an interesting angle.
We have greatness, goodness, and virtue represented by Fenix and Melissa Santos, a budding young romance as well. And on the other side is sadomasochistic, perverted, twisted siblings that want nothing more than to watch pretty things burn. I was hoping all along to see more of Mariposa but ring work is secondary to the world building and story telling LU strives to make meaningful.
Wrestling can be anything you want and LU continues to push the boundaries of what it can be.
My criticisms of this half of the season still remain. It’s as if the show wasn’t sure what it wanted to be when it returned and our luchadoras took a back seat, which was strange since the promotion has always been fantastic when representing its women. That representation was seen strongly here by how much commentary and the show tried to hype Melissa’s appearance as a competitor.
Now, we have two match ups slated for Ultima Lucha Tres. One of which I hope is the end of Sexy Star’s stay in the Temple. It’d be fitting for Taya to see her out and ironic in a way, especially after all the controversy surrounding AAA.
I’m very excited for Ivelisse to return! Last week Catrina got a hold of the gauntlet but it didn’t last, now Ivelisse is back and that love triangle story can get all sorts of development since it also looks like Mil Muertes may face Cage and Jeremiah Crane at the Ultima Lucha event. This should be a great one!
Side note: for those concerned about Melissa, since she just announced a pregnancy, this episode was taped almost two years ago, so don’t worry, she did not wrestle pregnant.
What did you think of this episode? Do you want to see more of Melissa in the ring? What do you think of the two matches that are so far set for Ultima Lucha? Sound off in the comments below.
