Welcome to the Over/Under of Lucha Underground for season 3 episode 7, where we get toward the 1/3 mark of the season and ask, “are you interested yet? Come on, seriously?” If you need to catch up, you can read about season 1 here, and season 2 here. Season 3 episode recaps can be found here.
Re-post: If you’re still wondering how to watch the show, it airs every Wednesday night on El Rey Network. If you don’t have El Rey on your cable system, you can get it on Sling. If you can’t do that, you can download the episodes on iTunes. They’re selling a “season pass” right now where you can get every new episode right after it airs. If you can’t do that, and you demand viewing information without just being a cheapskate and googling “watch lucha underground online free,” I don’t know what to tell you. Watch the show.
And now, the Over/Under on Lucha Underground season 3 episode 7, originally aired on October 19, 2016.
Over: Vampuma
This week’s A-story is the continued upside-down redemption of Prince Puma, a lost protagonist being passive-aggressively convinced by a dark vampire lord’s affable alter-ego that he won’t be himself unless he defeats the personification of death itself in a wrestling match. We open with Vampiro backstage being like, “let me help you out, I got this cool goth pope costume and I just bought like three gallons of gasoline,” and Puma assures him that he’d rather die by Mil Muertes’ hands than live by Vampiro’s. Spoiler alert, brother: if a vampire lord is already shadowing you in the locker room every week, he’s Nosferatu’d his way into your life. You might as well let him attack your opponents with fire.
That’s (eventually) followed by a GREAT main event, which you should come to expect from these two. Prince Puma is the show’s understated protagonist for a reason, even if he’s being ordered around by a blood-drinking drug-fueled cultist murderer, and nobody in Lucha Underground performs in big time matches like Mil Muertes.
The physical story of the match is that Puma GETS Mil Muertes. He knows that you can’t just stand there slugging it out with him, and he doesn’t have Fenix’s regenerative powers and can’t die 10 times to kill Mil once. I love that that’s an actual analysis I can provide for a pro wrestling show. To beat Mil, you’ve got to DODGE Mil. When he runs at you, you have to move, and when he stumbles, you have to run at HIM. That’s Mil’s one actual weakness … he can get violently overconfident and let his anger turn him into Doomsday, where he just screams and runs at you a bunch. He’s like a boss in a video game. Dodge roll and start striking.
That pays off on an early dive to the outside, and comes back for the ending, where Puma dodges a Mil Muertes spear in the corner and starts kicking his head into the post. That’s enough to get Mil on the ground, and a 630 senton puts him away for (if I’m not mistaken, which I might be) Mil’s first non-Fenix, non-schmozz singles loss.
Knowing Mil Muertes, this isn’t the end of the story. But it’s fun to see the show’s top babyface dip his toe in the same waters that turned Pentagon Dark to avenge his dead mentor, ain’t it?
Over: (St)ar Fox
Dario spins his Dial of Doom to find another opponent for The Monster Matazna Cueto. That wheel only exists so someone can get thrown through it eventually, right? Or so I can be like, set on fire? I don’t know. Anyway, the wheel lands on Kill Shot, and we get another great instance of a lower-tier but popular tecnico having a scrappy, yet ultimately hopeless title challenge. Nobody’s gonna beat Matanza off a wheel spin, but the matches are a lot of fun. It’s like the John Cena U.S. Open Challenge, except with a demonic Price Is Right wheel and a God-inhabited Splatterhouse monster.
The money here is the post-match, when this dude shows up:
If you aren’t familiar with the face, that’s independent wrestling star AR Fox, playing the as-of-this-episode unnamed fallen brother in arms that Kill Shot apparently “left for dead” during his military days. Shot’s happy to see him and they share a one-sided hug before Fox is like, “yeah, no,” and attacks him.
I liked Kill Shot’s acting a lot here, because it’s hard enough to convey, “I thought you were dead, and I’m suddenly so happy you’re not,” without having to do it through a mask. A lot of gentle sincerity to it. Fox pulling the Stone Cold Steve Austin/Vince McMahon hug was also pretty great.
I’m excited to see these two go at it on the Lucha stage, although I’m kinda sad they did the THERE ARE GUNS EVERYWHERE AND ONE OF THEM HAS A GUN match with Marty. Maybe they’ll do another one. I want a table spot where someone like, forward rolls behind a table and props it up to avoid being shot.
Over: Three Important Backstage Segments
1. We get another video for what I’m assuming is the Rabbit Clan that reveals the idyllic forest we’ve been seeing is actually IN THE SKY, and that the bunnies (or whoever) travel to our plane (Boyle Heights) via Heavenly Rabbit Hole. The only way they can top this is by, like, having all the reptile characters on the show be related.
2. ALL THE REPTILE CHARACTERS ON THE SHOW ARE RELATED.
During an outstanding backstage bathroom segment — always bulletproof on Lucha Underground — Kobra Moon sliters up behind Drago and establishes that they’re FROM THE SAME CLAN. Drago says he left the tribe “a thousand years ago,” and that he’ll never join them again. Drago’s the reincarnation of a dragon that lived in the Dark Ages, right? So was he in the clan as Drago, or as the dragon? Or as whatever the dragon was before it was a dragon? Are they all just the same thing? Does Aero Star time hop his friends around and muck with the timeline?
Additional supplementary Over for the return of Vinny Massaro, who emphasizes his “I thought this was the men’s room” line by eating pizza. IN THE BATHROOM.
3. Finally, the most important moment of the episode. Johnny Mundo wants the Lucha Underground Championship, and he wants to get there by defeating Sexy Star for the Gift of the Gods Championship. Dario Cueto hates Johnny for blackening his eye in season one (and probably for a lot of other reasons), so he keeps dicking him around. Johnny cuts through the bullshit with a bribe, and it’s not just any bribe …
… it’s the $100,000 Johnny won back in episode 7 of season 1, and the reason Johnny punched Dario in the face in the first place. Cueto’s super pleased to have his money back, and Mundo mentions that it’s a few thousand dollar short, because he had to pay someone off over “internet photos.” I’m guessing they’re referring to this, which means they not only referenced stories from way back in season 1, but found a kayfabe excuse to explain Melina’s absence. I love you so much, Lucha Underground.
Over: The Superfriends Explode
Dario Cueto doesn’t think anyone can beat Matanza, so he announces the return of Aztec Warfare (yessss) and puts Matanza at #1 and Fenix at #20. The catch: Fenix has to wrestle his best friends and Trios Championship partners, Aero Star and Drago, with the winner getting Fenix’s spot at #20 … and the losers being out of Aztec Warfare completely. That’s exactly the kind of manipulative act a truly evil person pulling the strings would pull, as it not only gives these poor tecnicos the illusion that they’re getting a great opportunity, it has them figuratively ripping out each other’s throats to get it. And I love that I have to type “figuratively” here because they might actually be throat-ripping on LU.
The match itself is a hell of a lot of fun, featuring the Superfriends going a little too far with the violence as the match progresses and Drago pulling out a surprise win to knock his friends out of Aztec Warfare. Now there’s gotta be some dissension in the group, which can’t be helped by that snake lady crawling around tempting her fellow lizard folk.
Over: Chavo Classic
The final segment of the week pops John Darnielle and pays off the vintage event poster from last week by introducing Chavo Guerrero Sr., aka Chavo Classic, into the Lucha Underground universe.
Rey Mysterio Jr. goes to Chavo Sr. and asks him if the Guerreros will be cool with him straight-up murdering Chavo — or like, kicking him out of Lucha Underground, you can never be sure with this show — and “The Legend” is like, eh, I guess. It’s dramatic and great, and Rey is Sting in a mask if he thinks a Guerrero’s being straight with him. If it’s just a cameo to set up Chavo vs. Rey with big stakes, I’m all for it. If it leads to Chavo Classic getting back in the ring and like, fighting dragons in 2016, I’m SO in.
Great show this week. Season 3 is finding its footing, and you’d think we’d have learned after two seasons to not worry about where stuff’s going until Aztec Warfare.
