Lucha Underground Recap (Nov. 30, 2016): Turnabout’s Fair Play

Lucha Underground returned last night (Nov. 30, 2016) from the Temple in Boyle Heights and, boy, was this episode a doozy.

You can find all the results of last night’s action in the live blog.

Revenge

Tonight’s episode, outside a few backstage segments, was all about one story: Pentagon vs. the Black Lotus Triad. And it was sweet.

If you don’t remember, Pentagon Dark broke the arm of Black Lotus when she was facing El Dragon Azteca Jr last year at Ultima Lucha Dos. Azteca got his arm broken during that match as well.

Black Lotus retreated to her homeland to enlist the Black Lotus Triad for revenge. They made their Temple debut in Aztec Warfare, costing Pentagon a chance to win the match and the Lucha Underground championship. Dario then set up this match, a gauntlet match where Dark would have to face the three new comers and Black Lotus and he’d have to fight them despite winning or losing the prior bout.

He started with Doku, who put up a fight but Pentagon was too much for her. He soon neutralized her and ended the match by breaking her arm. It’s what he does.

Next up was Yurei. She dished out more of a beating to Pentagon, who had just finished breaking her partners arm. She beat him up around the ring, and despite delivering the weakest ringbell shot I ever did see, had control a decent amount of time.

But Pentagon is quick. Pentagon is savvy. He’s got natural talent and was trained by a dark man. So he can take a lot of punishment, find his window, and take advantage. When Yurei leapt from the rope, he caught her right into the package piledriver. And followed it up with breaking her arm. It’s what he does.

However, after that, he had to contend with Hitokiri. Be still my beating heart Hitokiri. She is badass personified.

Being a ninja, she didn’t enter where everyone else does. No, she came in from the other side of the ring and drop kicked Pentagon from the top rope. He rolled out of the ring so she flew up to the top rope and moonsaulted outside of the ring onto him. And then she unleashed fury on the outside that is reminiscent of the beatings he’s given others.

But he’s Pentagon. He was going to fight back and he was going to do it in the most vicious way. Outside the ring, he started whipping Hitokiri with a camera cable... and then wrapped it around her neck to choke her with it. In a brutal scene that had me thinking he was going to win this, he pulled her against the ring post by the cable wrapped around her neck and continued to yank on it. But when he tried to toss her into an open chair, she reversed with a drop toe hold, and sped up the stairs to the top of the Temple.

It was there that she took a dive onto Pentagon from the top of Dario’s office in a feat that’s always impressive.

Eventually, she delivered a Canadian Destroyer to Pentagon back in the ring and earned a 1-2-3. What a frickin’ debut match.

But things were only starting to go south for Pentagon Dark. He had another match with Black Lotus next. Lotus came down to the ring flanked by Doku and Yurei, still clutching their broken arms but too badass to seek any medical attention. They get into the ring and stand over the fallen Pentagon in a moment of wonderful imagery.

The match never started because Lotus doesn’t want to wait for Pentagon to stand up. So she kicked referee Marty Elias out of the ring and stood over her fallen enemy, all the work done by her Black Lotus Triad. And then she did it.

She broke Pentagon’s arm.

The crowd went wild. This is a crowd who loves cheering for the baddest man that the Temple has to offer. But Hitokiri won them over. They love violence and she dished it out in droves. So by the time that the Triad was in the ring, the Believers were already chanting “Break his arm!”

Black Lotus had gotten her revenge, but El Dragon Azteca hadn’t gotten his. He came down the steps, climbed into the ring, and stood across from the Triad with a writhing Pentagon between them. Lotus and Azteca have major issues due to the manipulations of Dario Cueto. El Dragon Azteca thinks she may have killed his master (she did). She thinks his master killed her parents. But that was all to be settled another day.

She called her ninjas off and they retreated, leaving El Dragon Azteca looming over a Pentagon almost as vulnerable as when Matanza broke his back. Azteca stepped on the already broken arm of Pentagon, and then he did it.

He broke Pentagon’s other arm.

The episode ended with the mighty Pentagon down in the middle of the ring. All of his misdeeds had caught up to him. And his former master took perverse pleasure the entire time.

But other stuff happened too in very short backstage segments that packed a ton of intrigue in short clips.

The Best of the Rest

Catrina and Crane?

Jeremiah Crane was working out backstage when his girlfriend’s nemesis Catrina comes up to him. But we learn that there’s a history between those two! Supposedly, it was Crane who brought Catrina to the Temple? And he has loved her and may still love her? And he’s wearing her stone around his neck? Seriously, what is going on here?

Wow. This was some unexpected backstory. If Ivelisse finds out about any of this she is going to be PISSED. Crane will likely need to flee the country. Because I think an angry Ivelisse may be worse than an angry Mil Muertes.

MYSTERIO!

Dario Cueto went to the cell to tell Matanza that he’s got his title rematch next week. But Matanza was defiant. He doesn’t want the title. He wants one man. Rey Mysterio. Cueto noticed the blood on his brother’s fists from punching the wall. But when he got a closer look, he realized that Matanza used that blood to paint Mysterio’s question mark on the wall and he slowly retreated.

The biggest takeaway here may be that Dario is losing control over his brother. He showed concern and maybe fear when he saw his brother’s demeanor. El Jefe may have no choice but to serve Mysterio up to his brother. And it’s not going to be pretty.

Wake Up

Prince Puma woke up in an unknown location, weeks after losing the Grave Consequences match to Mil Muertes. Standing over him is a demented looking Vampiro who told him “Come with me.” Vamp has a plan for Puma. Heaven help the Temple when we find out what it is.

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This was a straight up fantastic episode. It may have been one of my favorites and this is coming from a guy who has never been a huge Pentagon fan. But the incredible debut match of Hitokiri (give her all the titles!) and the storytelling were just off the chart.

Despite not winning the Temple’s top prize, Pentagon has been destructive as of late. He broke arms with no regard. Tonight, his misdeeds came back to haunt him all at once. Now, he’ll have to reinvent himself again in order to get revenge and until then, there’s a crew of ninjas in the Temple that can raise hell.

Meanwhile, the brief clips throughout the show set up some fantastic intrigue for the future. What’s this history between Crane and Catrina? What does Vampiro have in mind for Prince Puma? These hint at future happenings in such a way that it just whets the palate and leave us wanting to come back to find out more.

While I think the early part of the season was a bit slow, this last month has been on fire.

We’ll be back next week!