ULTIMA LUCHA: Night One
July 29, 2015
Los Angeles, CA
The Temple

The current Lucha Underground champs are as follows:
Lucha Underground Champion: Prince Puma (1/7/15)
Lucha Underground Trios Champions: Angelico, Ivelisse & Son of Havoc (4/22/15)
AAA Mega Champion: Alberto El Patron (12/7/14)

Dario Cueto is looking sharp tonight in his tuxedo as he heads over to see Black Lotus whose stuck in a cell next to Dario’s Elephant Man brother. Dario reveals to her that it was in fact El Dragon Azteca who killed her parents. Since the Black Lotus people and El Dragon Azteca’s family were at war, El Dragon Azteca thought he would have the last laugh by blaming Dario’s brother for their death instead. Once Dario leaves to start the show, Black Lotus starts punching the wall to try and break loose. This thing is getting so convoluted with all this backstory, I’m starting to lose interest.

HIPSTER BAND OF THE WEEK: Sergio Arau

Your hosts are Matt Striker and Brother Vampiro.

• Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage
  

These two never make it to the ring. They fight on the rooftop that Fenix took a dive through thanks to a powerbomb by Mil Muertes. Striker points out that the roof has been specially reinforced now, which is a great old school commentary line. When they make their way to the floor, Cage SPEARS Cage through a door in a great looking spot. Cage comes back out with a fire extinguisher and sprays Mack. For some reason, there’s a stop sign that gets used over Mack’s head. Mack finds a definitely gimmicked 2×4 and breaks it over Cage’s back. A cooler appears full of Miller Lites, which triggers a Stone Cold Steve Austin impression from the Mack. Even though it’s a fight, you can still have fun. Mack breaks a glass bottle over the back of Cage’s head, but he NO-SELLS and clotheslines Mack down. Time for a table spot. Cage wants to superplex him through, but Mack kicks him up top and puts him through the table with the Demon Bomb off the apron! That only gets two. They fight up to the rooftop of Dario Cueto’s office. Mack gives Cage a Spinebuster on a garbage can, but it only gets two as well. Cage delivers a spinning lariat that takes Mack over a guardrail and then brings him back over with a Cesaro Superplex. Cage covers for 1-2-NO! There’s some cinder blocks up on the roof as well. Cage gives Mack a Super Dragon Curb Stomp THROUGH THE CINDER BLOCK and the three-count is academic. (7:44) Completely over the top, but it works very well in the Lucha Underground universe. After you have done a powerbomb through a table spot, the finish has to be something bigger than that or else it will clearly seem anti-climactic, and I think they achieved that here. ***½

• Lucha Underground Trios Champions Angelico, Ivelisse & Son of Havoc vs. The Disciples of Death (w/Catrina)
  

Tornado rules apply here. The DOD get some different color masks now to make them more easily differentiated. Ivelisse still has her ankle in a boot and her hair is braided all weird now. The DOD attack to start, but they pair off and head to the floor. That’s Son of Havoc’s opening to start busting out tope suicidas everywhere. Angelico does a big somersault plancha of his own. Back inside the ring, Angelico knees one of the DOD guys down and Havoc hits the standing SSP for the only nearfall the champs can get. Ivelisse nearly gets tapped out by a stump puller on her good leg. Havoc breaks up the hold and hits the handspring elbow on two of the DOD guys. Meanwhile, Angelico and the other DOD guy fight up to a rooftop. As Havoc fights off the other two on the floor, Angelico flies down on top of them for his big money spot of the match. Seeing that her boys are in trouble, Catrina gets in the ring and raises the Aztec stone as high as she can without climbing the ropes to reenergize her freak show. Ivelisse tries to stop her, but gets blasted with the Aztec stone. One of the DOD guys slither in and cover Ivelisse for the win and the trios titles. (6:21) Afterwards, Catrina gives Ivelisse quite the lick of death. Felt a little rushed as it didn’t have the dramatic storybook ending that it should have had considering the level of drama in the way the Unlikely Trio won the belts in the first place. Nevertheless, the finish made sense considering the issues between Ivelisse and Catrina, so there’s some closure there. **½

• Believers Backlash: Drago vs. Hernandez
  

So a Believers Backlash match is essentially a lumberjack match with fans where they get leather straps to whip whoever they want. Now you obviously can’t have the rubes armed with straps, so some carefully selected smartened up plants (Striker calls one of them the Hot Tub Guy?) will have to do. Some guys know how to snap the strap, some of them don’t. Basically though, this feud is happening because Hernandez told everybody that dragons don’t exist and that they are stupid for thinking otherwise. Onto the match, the fans whip only Hernandez as you might expect. Not very convincing whips either. Hernandez should sell this like they are annoying more than they are painful, but he doesn’t. It’s not like he’s being whipped by another wrestler. I will say Hot Tub guy does manage to crack the strap one good time on Hernandez. Whether the sound was added in post, I’m not sure. Back inside, Hernandez lands the slingshot shoulder block and catches Drago for an Alpha Bomb. Brief comeback by Drago culminating with the Dragon’s Tail rollup that has beaten lots of smaller guys, but not Hernandez. He gives Drago the BORDER TOSS onto three of the ringside believers. Oddly enough, Striker doesn’t really sell it like he probably should have considering they are just “civilians”. Hernandez tries the no-hands plancha, but takes some YELLOW MIST to the face on the way down! Hernandez crawls under the ring and meets some other believers who are there waiting with their leather straps ready. Meanwhile, Drago sets up a table and finds some nun-chucks, which is definitely a step up from a leather strap. As Hernandez retreats back over to Drago, he gets whacked with the nun-chucks a few times. Drago lays him on the table and gives him a good splash from the top rope. Back inside, another flying splash gets the win for Drago. (8:47) I didn’t really feel like this delivered in a big way like it needed to as the first main event of your big two part show. For the last couple weeks, they have been billing August 5 as the big show, so it may not matter all that much. I didn’t really buy the fan interaction with Hernandez and it hurt the match for me. Plus, Striker essentially no-selling some fans getting wiped out was a bit odd to me. Even though he expressed that the “insurance papers have been signed”, it still should have been a bigger deal than it was treated. **½

Before we go, we see El Dragon Azteca approaching the Temple trying to help Black Lotus escape. A Mexican in a gray hoodie tries to stop him because if Azteca enters the Temple, he will die according to a prophecy. The hoodie guy offers to tell Prince Puma to see if he can help, but El Dragon Azteca feels it is worth the risk. He may die, but El Dragon Azteca will live on forever. So the gray hoodie man lets Azteca pass.

WILL THE BLACK LOTUS ESCAPE FROM THE EVIL CLUTCHES OF DARIO CUETO? FIND OUT DURING THE 2-HOUR LUCHA UNDERGROUND FINALE NEXT WEEK!

Final Thoughts: If I were in charge, I would have switched the order of the matches. The trios title match should have been the focal point with Cage/Mack smack dab in the middle and Drago/Hernandez as the opener. Cage/Mack kicked the show off with a bang, but it never fully recovered in my view. The show didn’t take a nose dive, but it never reach that level of awesomeness again. At least with the trios title match going on last, you would have understood the importance of the title switch.