We open with Dario Cueto bringing his brother, a chained Matanza, a plate of food. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the first time we’ve seen Matanza since he was pinned for the first time by Rey Mysterio. Dario gives him a scolding
Back in the ring for the Cueto Cup, Fenix takes on Pindar for Round 2. Throughout, Pindar holds the advantage due to his strength and interference from Cobra Moon. However, after taking a brunt of offense, Fenix makes the ideal underdog comeback. After a double knee to the chest from the top rope, Fenix wins and advances in the tournament. Not a bad match. Not a particularly thrilling one, but it is the opener. The show can’t go all crazy until the second match, and boy did that match get crazy. More on that later, but as for this opener, the match was fine. Not bad and not great, but fine.
Next, Worldwide Underground meet with Dario Cueto backstage. He points out that no matter how many opportunities he gives them, they always fail. So tonight, in Johnny Mundo’s main event with Dragon Azteca, they are all banned from ringside. If any of them interfere, they will no longer be in consideration for a shot at the medallions for the Gift of the Gods Championship. They all reluctantly agree.
In another Cueto Cup bout, Prince Puma wrestles Dante Fox in an eye popping encounter. Neither man gives the other a moment to breath as these two fly at each other every second they get the chance to. From the get-go, these two are constantly turning each other inside out with counters galore. With Fox being heel, he wrestles a much more aggressive style than Puma even though the commentary wanted us to believe Puma was more aggressive than usual. Seemed like same old Puma to me, though he did pull out a few more lethal moves. One being an overhead suplex from the top rope. It was the same kind of overhead suplex that nearly broke John Cena’s neck last night in his Smackdown match with Shinsuke Nakamura. You can understand why I cringed hard seeing it. Anyway, an exciting match ends shortly afterwards when Puma hits his signature 630 Splash for the win.
After the match, Fox’s longtime rival Killshot hits the ring and attacks Fox, capping it off with a One Winged Angel kind of move. Killshot grabs a match and reminds an unconscious Fox that he was right: this isn’t over between them. Killshot attacking a fallen Fox while he’s down could be interpreted as him just getting revenge, but I’m wondering if it counts as a double turn. Dante Fox has been growing on the audience as of late and they booed Killshot mercilessly for attacking Fox. Regardless of who is heel and who is face, given the work these two have put on in the past, I’m excited to see where they go from here.
Elsewhere, Officer Reyes is investigating Cage and his murderous gauntlet. His police chief orders him to get that gauntlet from Cage. He tells her that there is not a man on earth who can take that gauntlet away from Cage. She pulls out a broken half of a medal and says “You’re right.”
For the main event, as we were alerted earlier, Lucha Underground Champion Johnny Mundo takes on Dragon Azteca Jr to settle their beef from last week. At first, I was a little disappointed in the match. Maybe it’s because a Mundo win seemed like a foregone conclusion. Maybe because I’ve never found much reason to care about Dragon Azteca, but I struggled to get invested into the match. Thankfully, in the last 5 or so minutes, the match really found its second wind. Azteca pulled out some wild moves and managed to win me over for the most part. Despite this, Mundo still pulled out the win after hitting the End of the World.
After the match, Mundo attacks Azteca with a chair and nearly breaks his neck before Mysterio makes the save. When he thinks Mundo is gone, Mysterio walks to the back. Mundo approaches Mysterio’s family, who have been sitting at ringside this whole time, and badmouths them. Mundo has a staredown with Mysterio’s son, Dominic, and mushes his face in. This prompts Mysterio to run back out, but it turns out this is a trap. Worldwide Underground come out immediately and beat down Mysterio. For extra icing on the cake, Mundo crushes Dominic in the face with his title belt. When the heels leave, Mysterio clutches his fallen son in his arms. This feud just got personal and this match is only a couple weeks away.
To end the show, the lovey dovey pairing of Fenix and Melissa Santos are in the parking lot. He walks her to her car while her stalker, Marty the Moth, looks on. Marty promises to rip that mask off of Fenix’s head to show her how ugly Fenix truly is.
Tonight wasn’t one of the best episodes of Lucha Underground, but it certainly was a watchable one mostly due to Fox vs Puma. The first match was fine at best and the main event was decent at best, though it was made up for due to the post match beatdown intensifying a hot rivalry. Above anything else, tonight laid the groundwork for some intrigue going into future Lucha Underground episodes.