We kick off Round 2 of the Cueto Cup right away with Jeremiah Crane vs Taya. It’s clear from the get-go that Crane won’t let Taya being a woman slow down his offense. As per usual, Crane fires shots like a freight train and charges like a wrecking ball. This includes a spot where Crane launches himself at Taya as a senton into a sea of chairs. Still, the two prove to be evenly matched and Taya gets some hard hits of her own in. Near the end, Taya climbs to the top rope but before she could jump, she’s distracted by Sexy Star coming down to the ring. The distraction allows Crane to comeback with a cheeky nandos kick, a buckle-bomb, and eventually, a Cranium Contusion for the win. Then, after the match, Sexy nails Taya with brass knuckles. You can argue that this is just Sexy getting payback for Taya costing her a shot to advance to the next round with brass knucks of her own, but there’s something heelish about seeing Sexy Star hit a defenseless Taya right after the match, especially when she just got done holding her own against a mad man like Jeremiah Crane. I feel more sympathetic towards the heel here, but whatever.

We cut to the back to see Fenix training until he’s approached by Aerostar. Aerostar says he predicts Fenix to win the tournament, but Fenix finds that funny considering that Aerostar is from the future and should know who wins by now. After giving his sympathy to Aerostar about about Drago betraying him, Fenix asks Aerostar if he’ll win his tournament match tonight. Aerostar cheekily shrugs his shoulders.

In our next tournament match, it’s Mil Muertes vs Paul London. In a battle of speed vs strength, London actually puts up a good fight. While he does more ducking and running than fighting, he spends much of the match outsmarting his behemoth of an opponent. But every time he managed to evade Mil’s offense, all it does is piss Mil off. Every time he gets his hands on London, he just ragdolls the guy. At one point, thanks to a distraction from the Rabbit Tribe, London nearly wins the match after two straight Shooting Star Presses get him a near fall. Quickly after, Mil hits a Flat Liner for the win. Good match. Much better than I expected. Loved the dynamic between these two and I was surprised how the set-up made London out to be someone who could believably beat Mil. My mouth dropped when I thought he won off the near fall. Kudos to this match.

After that, we get a segment at a bar between Texano and Famous B’s girl, Brenda. Texano already rejected Famous B’s offer to manage him, but since B is hiding in the background peeping on these two, Brenda might be silently manipulating Texano to come onto her side. This should be interesting.

Finally, we have our main event and final Round 2 match of the night: Marty the Moth vs Fenix. With a rivalry renewed, the two are able to find a good balance between high speed action and hard hitting fury. As with all of Fenix’s matches, he plays a perfect underdog. If Rey Mysterio wasn’t already in Lucha Underground, Fenix would be the best Mysterio that Lucha Underground could offer. And Marty the Moth is the most convincing creep I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling. I can’t even compare him to anybody. He’s just a one of a kind creepy little bastard. The two work well together and make a compelling contrast of styles. To add fuel to the feud, Marty tries relentlessly to tear away at Fenix’s mask every chance he gets. As far as aggresive action and good chemistry goes, the two had a good match.

For the finish, Mariposa tries to bring Marty’s lunchbox into the ring, but she’s stopped and pushed away by announcer Melisa Santos. Marty is distracted long enough for Fenix to get a fancy roll-up win. Immediately after, Marty grabs his lunchbox and clocks Fenix upside the head. He starts eating his lunch in the middle of the ring until he comes across his fork. He jams Fenix in the head and bloodies him to close out the show. I’m just really curious to see where this Marty/Melissa/Fenix triangle goes. The only way I can see this going is a mixed tag finale between Melissa/Fenix and Marty/Mariposa, but I can’t see Melissa Santos getting into the ring. Then again, anything can, will, and has happened in Lucha Underground. Overall, another good episode. A few gripes here and there (mainly concerning the first match) but other than that, tonight was solid.

By Joe Anthony Myrick

A photographer/journalist working out of Detroit.

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