Previously on the over/under on Lucha Underground: Season one character Cortez Castro was killed off like an afterthought, Paul London murdered Mascarita Sagrada with a stick to obtain darker, stronger rabbit powers (?), and Pentagon Dark hilariously disguised himself by putting on sunglasses over a mask.
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And now, the Over/Under on Lucha Underground season 4, episode 6, originally aired on July 18, 2018.
Over: Paul London’s Rabbit Tribe Taunt
Congratulations on a Lucha Underground-related taunt or mannerism finally replacing the Johnny Mundo/Prince Puma Predator handshake (and probably Cero Miedo) in my heart. Paul London makes little bunny ears, then SUPER bunny ears, then FLOPPY bunny ears. None of it’s threatening, but now he’s got a BLACK JUMPSUIT that has altered his power levels … [checks notes] NONE, meaning he murdered his little friend to gain the proportionate strength and speed of a guy who can’t beat Desmond Xavier.
That’s match one this week: Paul London Dark vs. “Desmond X” (as seen on Impact Wrestling) for the final ancient Aztec medallion. I’m giving the section an “Over” for the taunt, but man, this is one of those booking decisions Lucha does I don’t even begin to understand. London’s a recurring character with a back story, so you have the big cinematic stinger of your episode be him murdering a dude and going to the dark side. Then the next time we see him all that’s happened is he’s changed his clothes. Not even that really, he just put on a different color of the same outfit. He’s still just Paul London, and the Rabbits are still just the rabbits, and they lose to a guy we’ve never seen before with zero (0) evident personality.
Not that there’s anything wrong with Desmond Xavier … he’s just that cookie-cutter WWE Cruiserweight/Ring of Honor standout type who is young and ripped and super athletic and does a bunch of cool moves, but he’s also 5-foot-8 in lifts and there’s like 15 of him. At some point everybody on the indies became Finn Bálor. “My character is that I wear trunks and I do a bunch of kicks and stomps!” That’s fine, but this is Lucha. Let’s prioritize the murderous Mad Hatter and his friends the Luchador Chicken Man and the Living Morphsuit Chessboard so we can see how their legendary mini murder pays off in regard to the evil tree-themed Big Boss and his pet stump dwarf they met in a psychedelic Alice in Wonderland nether-realm, you know?
Over: Grift Of The Gods, Redux
Like father who’s probably the son in disguise like son.
In the style of Dario, Antonio Cueto makes a big ceremonial deal out of having everyone with an ancient Aztec medallion come out and put their prize in the Gift of the Gods Championship ahead of next week’s multi-person match … but since everyone’s out here and violences must be had, Safari Dario makes an impromptu over-the-top-rope battle royal for a Unique Opportunity™: the ability to eliminate any one (1) participant from the Gift of the Gods Championship match.
My only beef here is that the show’s only an hour long, so the belt ceremony lasts five minutes, and the battle royal’s over in like 90 seconds. It’s all angle — Mack wins thanks to Son of Havoc observing the buddy system, and chooses (smartly) to eliminate Mil Muertes from the GOTG match — but it did give us this great GIF of a Son of Havoc dive that makes it look like King Cuerno fell out of his butt.
Over, But Also Too Much Under: It’s Vibora’s Yard
First, the good: I like the core of the Reptile Tribe vs. Worldwide Underground feud, where a seemingly innocuous run-in during the season opening Aztec Warfare kept escalating and escalating until everybody’s fighting. Johnny Mundo tries to use a distraction from Taya to get a leg up on the Undersnaker, who apparently turns the entire Reptile Tribe babyface by proxy of WWU being such shit-bags. He’s out here at 6-foot-5 doing Kota Ibushi moonsaults off the second rope to the floor, picture-perfect, and doing big overhead chokeslams and shit. When Worldwide Underground ends up attacking en masse after the match, Daga and Drago run down to even the odds and make the save. Please recall that Drago is a prisoner of war who has been starved and brainwashed into following Kobra Moon, and Daga literally cut off his friend’s head with a sword at the end of season 3.
I guess it’s more rudo team vs. rudo team than rudo vs. tecnico, which is maybe why the “pull-apart” brawl doesn’t connect like it should. It’s a team vs. team brawl where the crowd’s just kinda sitting on their hands watching people punch, and then Matt Striker throws it to commercial without resolution. The wrestling and angles on this episode were fine, but that’s all they were … fine. It’s a watchable show as always, but nothing’s sending me happily prancing to the Internet to type in all caps about how you’ve gotta see it.
That said …
Over: That One Backstage Segment
The matches have been hit or miss for me so far this season, but the backstage stuff is on point as always. There’s one backstage vignette this week, and they make it count: Jack Evans, dressed like a depressed blogger (not that I’d know), spies on his new rival XO Lishus working out in the back. When I say “XO Lishus working out,” I need you to know that it’s in full neon aerobics gear with full-on Flashdance homages and his own happy soundtrack. It’s wonderful.
Then the very next scene is Ricky Mundo and his haunted Mexican doll revealing that (1) they hate Jack Evans, and (2) they have apparently killed Angelico off-screen. The one multimedia failing of Lucha Underground is how often they have to write these characters off without actually getting to write them off, from Rey Mysterio disappearing into Matanza’s meat locker to Sexy Star being vanished by some spiders (apparently?) to Big Ryck dying in a comic book to Angelico getting got by a Satanic collectable without any cameras around. These are important characters!
Still, not gonna give anything but an Over to aerobics steps closeups into CLANDESTINE SUPERNATURAL MURDERS.
Over, But Not Enough: Five Sides Of Fury
Finally there’s the main event, and best match of the night, Pentagon Dark defending the Lucha Underground Championship against Cage, who according to this episode is not in actuality a man; rather, he is machine masquerading as man. Crazy stuff. Anyway, they only get about six minutes, which is about three minutes less than Mundo and Vibora got but longer than everything else, and they make good use of it, culminating in Pentagon getting another strong, defined win over a top-level opponent using his signature moves. It’s a good build for him.
At the same time, the post-match angle made it feel a little more WWE than I’d like. Cage attacks Pentagon to set up a Championship match. They have it, and Pentagon wins clean. Then Cage attacks Pentagon again to … set up a Championship match? Or not? It’s hard to say given this season’s odd-even-for-Lucha pacing, but at least our pissed-off ninja skeleton master is staying strong from bell to bell.
That’s it for this week’s show. Not a heck of a lot to say, as it’s probably the least eventful episode of the season so far, and a lot of the stories just kinda looped around in a circle waiting for better payoffs in the future. I’m still excited to see where it goes, and I hope Angelico barges into Ultima Lucha Quatro and has to have a match with Dancing Calbrena.
