August 5, 2015 – Los Angeles, California
Michael Schiavello replaces Vampiro on commentary, and it’s such a massive improvement that I wish they’d made it permanent. Sure they’re both play-by-play guys, but Vampiro sounds half the time like he just wasn’t paying attention.
Johnny Mundo def. Alberto el Patron
This match featured the first cheap ref bump that I can remember in Lucha Underground, and I didn’t care for it. What I did care for was the stalling and dope brawling that started this match, and all the good in-ring action that followed. But Mundo tapping while the referee was out and Melina debuting and hitting Patron with the AAA Mega Championship belt felt like a political tool to give Patron an excuse to lose. Mundo followed up Melina’s interference with the End of the World at 13:37. After the match, Matt Striker tries to shoot down the Melina-Batista rumors because she and Mundo are all makey-outey here. Patron beats the crap out of Mundo after the match and puts him through Dario Cueto’s glass door. Mundo bleeds like crazy from the bump. Patron also spanks Melina. If Mundo couldn’t just go over then they shouldn’t have had him go over. The last few minutes of the match really ruined the whole thing for me. ***¼
El Dragon Azteca approaches Black Lotus’s cell. Dario Cueto arrives and says that Azteca has broken a treaty by entering the Temple. Was it a treaty or a prophecy? Cueto says the punishment is death. It looks like Cueto is going to let out Matanza, but Lotus grabs Azteca from inside her cell and kills him. Cueto lets Lotus out of the cell, and tells her that she’s started a war and only he can protect her. He’ll have to build a new Temple, and he’s bringing Matanza. All this to get a new venue for season 2, and none of it ever led to anything in the ring in season 1. Assuming it does lead to matches in season 2, it’s the kind of long game planning you really don’t get in wrestling
Pentagon def. Vampiro {Cero Miedo Match}
Vampiro has the whole getup going, face paint and weird, satanic entrance gear included, which is nice. Cero Miedo is just another of the hundreds of ways of saying hardcore match. It was also falls count anywhere, but I think that may have been an on the fly decision out of necessity. Why? Because this ended when Vampiro, who was on fire, rolled to the floor to try to get the flames put out. This displayed a kind of violence that makes me really uncomfortable. There was a ton of blood and dangerous looking gimmicks. But all the spots were clearly meticulously planned out, probably mostly to cover up for Vampiro’s limitations. Some of them were terrific, like Vampiro ripping open Pentagon’s mask, and then moments later Pentagon bleeding like crazy through the open slots in the mask. The only time I really cringed was when Pentagon gouged at Vampiro’s face with a broken light tube. Anyway, despite being uncomfortable, I quite liked this, and thought it felt like a gnarly fight in a really violent action movie. Pentagon won with a slam through a flaming table at 11:09. After the match, Vampiro demands that Pentagon break his arm, so he does. Pentagon calls for his master, and Vampiro reveals that it was him all along, and that he’s ready. Does it make sense? Nope. Is it fun and campy and weird? Yep. ****
Fenix def. Sexy Star, Aerostar, Bengala, Jack Evans, King Cuerno, and Big Ryck {Gift of the Gods Championship Seven Way Match}
Whereas the last match was a graduated version of the Mack vs. Cage match from last week, this is more or less a graduated version of the trios match from last week. This had a giant dive off of a balcony too, and it was even more wild than Angelico’s. It also had weird interference from Marty Martinez on Star, and I don’t get why they were so intent on using him. It also had interference from DelAvar Daivari, who turned on Ryck and attacked him with a chair. I’m glad that’s the extent of the storyline stuff they tried to do here, because any more and it would have all started blending together. Fenix picked up the win after a wild spotfest with a Fire Driver on Evans at 12:14. ***¾
Blue Demon Jr def. Texano {No Disqualification Match}
Demon is with the Crew, looking kind of dope in blue-accented suits. This is basically a handicap match and a real short one at that. Chavo Guerrero runs out with a chair and looks like he might save Texano, so of course he just joins in on the beating. That chairshot gave Demon the win at 3:02. Barely a match. The commentators speak about this alliance in foreboding tones, saying that the Guerrero and Demon families together could control Mexico… but the whole gimmick is that neither of them actually live in Mexico and that’s why Texano represented the country. This is dumb and I can’t imagine it was getting anyone excited for season 2. ½*
Mil Muertes def. Prince Puma {Lucha Underground Championship Match}
Here we see why it’s clever that Muertes’s only loss came in a casket match, as he’d still never been pinned. Every time Puma went for the win, it felt both hopeful and futile. Puma got to kick out of a Flatliner, but Muertes totally killed the 630 Senton here. In fact, it was Puma’s insistence that the 630 might eventually work that cost him the title, as Muertes ran up the turnbuckle and hit an avalanche Flatliner for the win at 17:40. This was a pretty dope main event style match, with a bit of big man-little man fighting thrown in. My only beef, and it’s really nobody’s fault, is that the crowd was split and at times very pro-Muertes, which made the match dynamic feel a bit cheapened. ****
Cueto and Lotus clear out of Cueto’s office as fast as they can. They get in his SUV and drive away from the Temple, and we get our first look at Matanza in his trailer. Fenix leaves with his new strap in a muscle car, tailed by Cuerno (I think) in a truck. Martinez has kidnapped Star, and he rants about his sister. Son of Havoc says goodbye to Angelico, and then seemingly gets back together with Ivelisse. Drago and Aerostar say goodbye to each other before Drago turns into a fireball again and Aerostar turns into a rocket. Vampiro tells Pentagon that they’re going to a much darker place. The hooded figure takes up the mantle of El Dragon Azteca. Finally, Cueto shuts down the temple. This shit gives me life.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
