Previously on the Over/Under on Lucha Underground: XO Lishus debuted, Ricky Mandel revealed that he got his creepy living doll from the Island of the Dolls in Mexico, and Matanza was finally given godhood by a mystical key (which we’ll get to in a second).
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And now, the Over/Under on Lucha Underground season 4, episode 4, originally aired on July 4, 2018.
Over: Lore Have Mercy
Three huge bits of backstage lore are explored this week, so let’s break them down individually.
Up first we have Catrina, a very old ghost lady who is caught between life and death and needs either (1) the power of a mystical gauntlet that can give people God-like abilities, or (2) the life force of this one guy she knows who happens to be an immortal pro wrestler. Without one of these two things, she’s forced to cling to half a medallion given to her by her police chief mother that promises female immortality, but apparently you have to have the whole thing or it’s wishy-washy.
That led us to last week’s MMF To The Grave, which saw Mil Muertes finally bury Catrina’s two biggest adversaries and obstacles: the aforementioned immortal luchador guy, and her weird abusive secret admirer who wants you to know he thinks THUMBS UP just to set you up for what he actually thinks, which is THUMBS DOWN. This week’s show features Catrina kiss-breathing the “life” out of Fenix, bringing her back to life by … changing her clothes? She goes from goth Psylocke to the woman in red from The Matrix in a fade, and now she’s off to the proverbial races. She even stops to give Melissa Santos her medallion half as a “memento” of Fenix’s life, not stopping to think even for a second that she should hang onto that in case somebody tries to freshly murder her. LOUD COUGHING NOISES.
Tangentially from Catrina we catch up with King Cuerno, who has everybody on the Modello-approved block looking for that God-laced Power Glove. Cuerno told Catrina he gave it to somebody for safe keeping and doesn’t know where they hid it, and now he’s telling Antonio Cueto that it was stolen from him. Cuerno out here playing the long game, which involves stringing out your opponents’ expectations long enough so you can kill them and fill them with sawdust.
We set up two matches here — King Cuerno vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. for tonight due to what happened between them in Aztec Warfare, and Cage vs. Mil Muertes in a GLOVES-BASED HOSS-OFF OF DEATH — but we also get to see close-up shots of two very important Ancient Aztec Medallions: the deer (?) tribe (pictured), and what I’m assuming is a death tribe, seen here.
As far as I know (and I could be forgetting or missing something, so let me know in the comments if I am), the Aztec tribes break down like this:
- Jaguar/Cat (Prince Puma, Night Claw, presumably I don’t know, Bengala?)
- Rabbit (Paul London and his weird friends)
- Reptile (Kobra Moon, Undersnaker, Daga, Pindar from the neck down)
- Moth (Mariposa, Marty The)
- Dragon (Rey Mysterio Jr., El Dragon Azteca, El Dragon Azteca Jr.)
- Deer (King Cuerno and his deer hat)
- Death (Mil Muertes, possibly Catrina, probably Vampiro if there were any Canadian Aztecs)
Finally we have The Monster Matanza Cueto. I skipped last week’s stinger in hopes of having some more context for you this week, so here goes: Antonio Cueto revealed that the big Legend Of Zelda key Dario had been wearing around his neck was, quite literally, the “key” to Matanza’s humanity. It contained the last bit of Matanza’s human soul, so whoever wore it could more or less guilt and “control” him. Antonio accepted that now is the time for Matanza to let go of his past and become a God to either work with or combat said Gods (depending on your point of view, or what he’s ultimately doing this for), so he broke the key, destroying that remnant of soul and, in a way, setting the God inside of Matanza’s body free. No, that’s not how keys work.
But yeah, so this week we find Matanza in his big fancy Modelo® cooler murdering a guy — gonna assume this is Rey Mysterio still until somebody tells me otherwise — until Antonio summons him to compete in a “Sacrifice to the Gods” match. What does that entail, you might ask? Antonio Cueto calling Jessie Godderz “The One And Only Mr. Pecticle” and then Matanza winning so hard Godderz literally disappears.
I guess now Matanza’s like a Soul Eater from God of War. If you lose to him you don’t just lose; you don’t even just die, you are completely erased from existence for the benefit of some ancient unseen Aztec Gods. Now one of them has PECTACULAR POWER, so be careful, everybody.
Somewhere In The Middle: The Matches
While it was a great week for universe building and lore, the wrestling wasn’t any great shakes. Up first is “The Savage” Jake Strong vs. Big Bad Steve with Beautiful Brenda in a battle of who can be on national television with the worst name the longest. Strong wins, of course, and slams Steve on the floor for emphasis. You can’t put “bad” in your name unless you’re good, Steve.
Match two is better — Taya and John Mundo vs. Kobra Moon and Daga, building on the growing history and animosities between Worldwide Underground and the Sneaky Snakes — but is almost entirely about the post-match attack. At Aztec Warfare, Johnny Mundo pissed off Kobra Moon, so she brought out Vibora (aka “Baron Cobran) to beat him up. The next week, the Underground distracted Moon so Taya could jump her.
This week, they have a straight-up tag match and the Worldwide Underground (who are almost 100% tweeners at this point, which is kind of remarkable considering how reprehensible their characters are) wins. That causes Kobra Moon to once again summon Vibora to Undersnake them into unconsciousness, which he does. The “tall wrestler plus snake joke” is always fun — this right here, this is BIG ASP, and he’s SEVEN FOOT TALL etc. — but it’s almost never as fun as a crowd full of wrestling fans chanting “lucha-saurus” at a thing happening on a televised wrestling program.
Finally we have the main event of King Cuerno vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., and while Chavo is notably very good at what he does, he’s maybe not the kind of guy who should be anchoring exciting back-and-forth main event matches with El Hijo del Fantasma, one of the best and most athletically gifted wrestlers in the entire world. I was going to write up a bit about how weird it was that Matt Striker kept insisting that Chavo’s a “lucha legend” instead of like, a contemporary — does anybody think of Chavo Jr. as an old wrestler, or a part-timer, or a retired legend? — but I get it, and I cut it when I realized I’d also have to write three paragraphs about Striker not knowing how arrows work. Cuerno does his Arrow From The Depths of Hell taunt and Striker’s call is, “from the quiver comes the bow!” Did we forget object permanence between season 3 and 4? Why do we think you use a key to unlock something by breaking the key, and why do we think you shoot a bow using an arrow?
Anyway, that’s this week’s episode. To recap:
- lots of good lore
- not so much good wrestling
- Steve is both big and bad
- RIP Mr. Pecticle you were too peccy for this world
