Lucha Underground recap (Oct. 19, 2016): Back on Top

Lucha Underground returned last night (Oct. 19, 2016) with the Mil Muertes/Prince Puma match they’ve been building to!

You can find the full results at the live blog here.

Redemption

Prince Puma finally got his win against Mil Muertes tonight, avenging his loss at Ultima Lucha Uno, when he lost his title to Mil. Ever since that, the Prince hasn’t been living up to his potential. Last season felt like he was just meandering around, not replicating his season one success. Was it because he lost the title to Mil? Was it because Konnan was gone? Was it a sophomore slump? We don’t know. But now, the white whale has been slain. We’ll soon find out if that’s the medication that Puma needed to cure his ills.

The match itself was really fun, but I wish they had more time to even build up another classic. That’s no major complaint though. It was a fun match.

The big question I have is where Vampiro fits into all of this. When Vamp offered Puma good luck backstage prior to the match, Puma made it as clear as Crystal Pepsi that he wanted nothing to do with Vampiro. That he would rather get mauled by Mil Muertes than have Vampiro help him.

Vampiro then told Puma something interesting. He said that he predicted that Mil Muertes would be murdered by Puma’s hand.

Clearly that wasn’t the case tonight, but is that something we’re going to see in the future? What is Vampiro’s plan? Does he have something in mind for the face of Lucha Underground? Or is he just lonely after losing his last student? (I can imagine Puma agreeing to work with Vampiro and then Vamp insisting he dress up in a Pentagon outfit.)

As for what’s next for Puma... Well there’s a big title match coming up in a month...

Get ready for Aztec Warfare!

Aztec Warfare is back, baby!

Dario Cueto announced that Lucha Underground’s version of the Royal Rumb.e (but with pinfalls and submissions instead of over the top) is back! Last year, Aztec Warfare was one of the best episodes of the season so there’s plenty of reasons to get excited.

Another reason? Dario decreed that since no one can step up to his brother, this will be Matanza’s challenge. The Lucha Underground champion will defend his title in Aztec Warfare. Oh, and he’s going to be #1 as well. Clearly Cueto has supreme faith in his brother.

And we also learned who’s going to be #20.

The Trios champions of Drago, Fenix, and Aerostar were all in the ring expecting some opponents. Then their boss told them that they’d actually be fighting each other. The winner gets to be #20 in Aztec Warfare, which is the last spot. The other two? They wouldn’t be allowed in it at all. Typical Dario with his douchey dealings.

After a match that was straight up back and forth action, Drago pinned Aerostar to earn the #20 spot and deny his friends a chance at all in the match.

Backstage after the match, Kobra Moon slithered up behind Drago and said she expects him to be bring the championship to their tribe. Drago said that he has left that tribe a thousand years ago and doesn’t plan on coming back.

Yup, yet another person who’s over a thousand years old. At this point, may as well make a list of people who aren’t a millennia old. Damn, millennials.

This is good for Drago. He’s always seemed to be a background character. Hopefully the other two of the Super Friends don’t fade into the background. At least they’re all still Trios champions, but it remains to be seen if this match is going to cause any problems with that.

The past returns

Killshot lost a title match against Matanza in another Dario’s Dial of Doom match. But that’s not what was interesting here. (Honestly, I’m not a fan of these random Matanza matches, though those should be ending soon with Warfare around the corner.) The interesting part is the mysterious man (AR Fox) from Killshot’s past who came out after the match.

Killshot was shocked to see the man, absolutely beside himself that this figure from his past was actually standing before him. He embraced him but the mysterious man did not reciprocate. Instead, he attacked Killshot shouting “You left me to die” at one point.

This was the man who likely sent Killshot the note reading the same message weeks back. Now we get a chance to have a layer of Killshot’s past peeled back. In season one, he was just there. In season two, they started his issues with Marty ‘The Moth’ Martinez that gave him more prominence in the LU world. But while we learned that his dog tags mean a ton to him, now it looks like we will find out why.

This should be good.

Other awesome things:

Chavo Classic!

After Rey Mysterio’s brutal beat down at the hands of Chavo last week, Rey went and spoke to Chavo Classic (Chavo Jr’s father) to get permission to beat the snot out of Chavo!

Chavo Classic asked if this was the only way, to which Mysterio said that the Temple wasn’t big enough for both of them. But he wanted to see where that would leave him with the Guerreros.

I mentioned last week that this Rey/Chavo feud is not something new, but it could feel new in the Temple. This brief closing scene shows that. Bringing Chavo Classic and having Rey ask for his blessing and continuing playing up the almost royal families of luchadors? That feels unique to Lucha Underground and their specific atmosphere. It’s what could make a feud we’ve seen before feel fresh.

Johnny paid up

Johnny Mundo is sick and tired of not getting a title match. But he doesn’t want to deal with Azteca Warfare, given the crummy numbers. So he gave Dario something he couldn’t say no to: A ton of money.

It wasn’t just any money. It was the money Johnny Mundo won on the first episode of Lucha Underground! Sure it wasn’t all still there. He needed some to get some questionable photos off the internet (because of course). But it was enough.

He’s got Sexy Star next week in a match for the Gift of the Gods championship.

And while we wait for that, feel free to speculate what these photos contained in the comments.

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This was a really fun episode tonight. They are setting up Azteca Warfare and the big Mundo/Sexy Star match. Lucha Underground is heating up as they head into the middle of the season.

As usually, we’ll be back next week for the big Sexy Star/Johnny Mundo match!