Post by Slade on Jan 2, 2019 14:02:27 GMT -5
Season 3, Episode 8
From the Temple in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
Commentary Team: Matt Striker and Vampiro
Ring Announcer: Melissa Santos
***
The show opens with a scene of Matanza Cueto holding onto the bars of the cell that contains him and shaking them. He stops when the metal door to the room opens. His brother Dario enters the room, holding the key to his cell out to show him that it is back in his hands. He proceeds to tell his brother how he got the key back and why Matanza hasn’t seen Nikki Cross in a long time – because Samoa Joe eliminated her. He tells Matanza that he forgives him for what he did to him 6 weeks ago. It doesn’t matter that Matanza put him in the hospital. All that matters is that they are brothers, and blood is thicker than water. Dario goes on to say that he has always tried to protect him from the hurt in this world, starting from when they were children and their mother would do unspeakably cruel things to them. He has only ever had Matanza’s best interests in mind, which is why he is going to let Matanza out of his cage tonight to get his revenge against Samoa Joe, for destroying the woman he loves, in an Anything Goes Match!
***
VS.
Prince Puma, Ultimo Dragon & Awesome Kong vs. Mr. America, The Patriot & Sgt. Slaughter
Prince Puma, Ultimo Dragon & Awesome Kong vs. Mr. America, The Patriot & Sgt. Slaughter
Prince Puma, Ultimo Dragon & Awesome King defeated Mr. America, The Patriot & Sgt. Slaughter by pinfall in this hotly anticipated atomicos match. The action mostly stayed inside the ring, except that the tecnicos – especially Prince Puma and Ultimo Dragon – used their superior speed advantage to overwhelm the Real Americans in the opening minutes. They defended against the quick running and high-flying attacks in the early minutes and all left the ring to regroup. The tecnicos didn’t let up. Prince Puma took them out with a springboard shooting star press. Ultimo Dragon followed it up with an Asai moonsault that knocked everyone down. Then, Awesome Kong took everyone, including her teammates, down with a plancha from the top turnbuckle, which earned an instant “Holy shit!” chant! Once everyone was back on their feet, the Real Americans won the brawl on the outside. They took control of the match, slowing down the pace, and isolating Ultimo Dragon from his corner. After several minutes, Ultimo Dragon was put down with a big boot and given a running leg drop from Mr. America. His pinfall attempt was broken up by Prince Puma, and this precipitated the breakout of a brawl inside the ring. Eventually, Ultimo Dragon was able to tag out, making Prince Puma the legal man, and therefore allowing him to make the surprise victory roll on The Patriot for the win.
However, winning the match for his team doesn’t mean that Prince Puma got to walk away from the ring. Immediately after having his hand raised by the referee, he was struck with a steel chair by Mr. America, who then hit him two more times before wrapping the chair around his head and giving him a running leg drop! Mr. America quickly fled from the ring when Awesome Kong entering the ring, but it was too late to make the save. The damage had already been done.
***
The Miz came to the ring and began to cut a promo arguing that it was an utter disgrace that this so-called A-List card was missing the Hollywood A-Lister. He said he was angry and upset with the way that Dario Cueto has treated him this season and argued that he deserves way more respect than he has received from both Cueto and the ungrateful Believers. Finally, he demanded a match right now.
Dario Cueto came out of his office and told The Miz that he was left off the card because a luchador with a 0-3 record this season is hardly anyone’s idea of an A-List luchador. However, seeing as how he is in the ring and won’t leave until he gets what he wants, Cueto invites any other luchador who wants to receive another paycheck to come down to the ring for this match. Oh, and by the way, if The Miz extends his losing streak to 0-4, Cueto says that will prove that he isn’t good enough to compete in the Temple ever again!
And then The Miz’s challenger appeared…
“Classy” Freddie Blassie
VS.
“Classy” Freddie Blassie vs. The Miz
“Classy” Freddie Blassie vs. The Miz
“Classy” Freddie Blassie defeated The Miz by submission in his Lucha Underground lucha libre debut. The Believers, The Miz, Matt Striker – although not Vampiro for some reason – and everyone else in the Temple was in shock that Blassie answered the challenge. What’s even more shocking is that it looked like he was 25-30 years younger. It was as if he had somehow found the fountain youth. The Miz was not ready for this match whatsoever and it showed. Blassie used every dirty underhanded tactic in the book and the Believers cheered him on. The Miz had a few moments of offense, like when they brawled outside the ring and he reversed a whip sending Blassie crashing into the third row of wooden seats at ringside. The closest he came to beating his old manager was after he executed his signature backbreaker-neckbreaker combo. He attempted to execute the Skull-Crushing Finale, but Blassie blocked it and slammed him to the mat with a couple of hands full of The Miz’s hair. The ending came when Blassie executed an Argentinian gutbuster followed by a stomach claw. The pain was too much for The Miz to handle and he tapped out about five seconds later.
***
We enter the Lucha Underground locker room, where we see Samoa Joe unrolling a compression bandage from his arm and elbow. As he begins wrapping it with a new one, Rey Mysterio Jr. appears. He tells Joe that he’s happy to see him back and asks him if he has fully healed from his battle against Braun Strowman in our Season 3 debut. Joe acknowledges that he hasn’t fully healed, but says that if Mysterio tries to talk him out of competing against Matanza Cueto tonight, then he had better move on as it doesn’t matter whether he’s 100% or not, he won’t back down from an opportunity to become the Lucha Underground Champion. Mysterio says he knows better than that. Instead, he wants to caution him against getting too close to Dario Cueto as he’s not a man that should be trusted. Joe tells Mysterio that it would wiser for him to worry about his own business, like trying to win the Gift of the Gods ladder match, than to worry about Joe’s business. Mysterio shakes his head and leaves as Joe pulls his knee brace on.
***
VS.
VS. VS.
VS.
Gift of the Gods Ladder Match
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Johnny Mundo vs. Paul London vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Mil Muertes vs. Randy Savage vs. Pentagon DARK
VS. VS.
VS.
Gift of the Gods Ladder Match
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Johnny Mundo vs. Paul London vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Mil Muertes vs. Randy Savage vs. Pentagon DARK
The Believers were treated to an intense ladder match in which there was plenty of high-flying and hard-hitting action. High risk offense was on display early on as Hijo del Fantasma was like a bullet shot out of a gun when he launched himself through the ropes at Mil Muertes with the fastest topé suicida anyone’s ever seen. Johnny Mundo took the two of them out with a corkscrew topé con hilo. The Macho King went to the top turnbuckle and knocked them all down with a plancha. Pentagon DARK went crashing into the pile of humanity on the arena floor with a diving somersault senton bomb. Rey Mysterio Jr. was knocked off a ladder by Paul London, and sent over the ropes where he landed into the pile outside the ring. London decided to mount the ladder a few more rungs to the top and perform a shooting star press from the top of the ladder, inside the ring, onto the pile of his opponents on the floor.
As the match went on, the highlight reel came into form. First there was Mundo slamming Pentagon onto a ladder with a C4 (standing moonsault side slam). Then, there was Fantasma dropping Mysterio onto a ladder with a running powerslam. Later on, with the Macho King laid out on a ladder bridging the ring apron to a section of the high-rise stands, London went off the top rope to go Down the Rabbit Hole onto him! Pentagon lifted a long ladder into a fireman’s carry and spun it around the ring hitting every luchadore in sight until Mysterio performed a missile dropkick into the ladder, thus toppling Pentagon over and smashing his neck inside the rungs of the ladder. And in what must have been the most brutal spot of all, after giving Mundo a superkick that knocked him off the ring apron, London was sent crashing through a table propped up against the side of a ladder, and slamming into said ladder, which was leaning against the turnbuckle, when Mil Muertes gave him the Reaper’s Trident spear!
The sequence of action at the end of the match saw the Macho King deliver a diving elbow drop into the heart of El Hijo del Fantasma, who was laid out on a ladder in the ring. Then, he proceeded to climb a ladder in the centre of the ring. Mysterio jumped onto the ladder after springboarding off the top rope. Mysterio made it to the top of the ladder as Savage was trying to unhook the belt. A fist fight ensued until Mil Muertes used his power to tip the ladder over, sending both Mysterio and Savage flying over the top rope and crashing through some tables on the outside. Mundo attacked Mil Muertes with a series of kicks to momentarily stun him. Mundo placed a ladder in place, but before he could climb it, Pentagon DARK climbed the turnbuckle and gave the hand signal that he has CERO MIEDO! Then, he jumped off the turnbuckle and executed a Mexican destroyer on Mundo into the rungs of a downed ladder! However, Mil Muertes’ recovered and gave Pentagon DARK the last act of violence in this match by executing a Flatliner on him. After that, he went up the ladder and unhooked the belt hanging from the ceiling.
And just like that, Mil Muertes defeated Rey Mysterio Jr., Johnny Mundo, Paul London, Hijo del Fantasma, “Macho King” Randy Savage and Pentagon DARK to become the new holder of the Gift of the Gods.
***
VS.
Anything Goes Match for the
Lucha Underground Championship
Matanza Cueto vs. Samoa Joe
Anything Goes Match for the
Lucha Underground Championship
Matanza Cueto vs. Samoa Joe
As the main event was set to begin, Melissa Santos announced that this title match would be an Anything Goes Match, a stipulation that seemed to favour the champion, which was odd considering that Dario Cueto had been put in the hospital by his brother. Dario sat at ringside and did not get involved in the match.
Matanza went right at Samoa Joe before the bell even began. He overwhelmed Joe with his attack, beating him down into the corner before throwing him across the ring with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. He stayed right on Joe, sitting down on him and throwing big meat hooks at him, but Joe somehow turned that into a Coquina Clutch. He couldn’t get both his legs around Matanza to lock in the body scissors, and Matanza was able to break away by crawling to the ring apron and going out to the floor. Joe didn’t chase. Instead, he showed ownership of ring and urged Matanza to come back for a fight, which earned a “Joe’s gonna kill you!” chant from the Believers. Matanza got angry and sought help from his brother, who appeared to take no pity on him. He shouted at him to be a champion and go fight, so he did.
The match began in earnest and it was quite technical to begin. Both luchadores were similar in style. Athletic big men with considerable power, submission wrestling ability, and more speed than what you would see from most men of their size. The speed and athleticism was shown at times when Joe nailed Matanza with a series of three consecutive suicide dive forearm smashes, and when Matanza climbed up to the top turnbuckle and dove out of the ring onto Joe with a moonsault! Power came into play when they threw each other around with suplexes. One memorable moment, already 15-minutes into the match, saw Matanza give Joe a release German suplex, which he immediately got up from and ran over to give Matanza one. Matanza immediately came over and gave Joe another one, but he got up and instantly struck with his second one. This went on until they had each executed five release German suplexes. The sequence ended with Joe blocking a sixth and countering into a bridging dragon suplex for a long 2-count.
Whereas the match was contested under Anything Goes rules, foreign objects came into play, but not until much later in the match. A brawl within the first 10-minutes of the match saw Matanza rip up the ringside mats and give Joe a side belly-to-belly suplex on the floor. It also saw Joe give Matanza a Samoan drop onto the hardwood bleachers while they fought their way through the ocean of Believers. Frustration at his inability to put Joe away, led to Matanza bringing chairs and a table into play. Matanza walloped Joe with multiple chairshots. Later, Joe gave Matanza a powerslam into a bed of chairs. Later still, Matanza put Joe through a table with a spinning leg-hook belly-to-back suplex off the ring apron to the floor! Back in the ring, Joe gave Matanza the gutbuster onto a chair and pinned him, but Matanza miraculously kicked out!
Later on, Matanza brought and one of the ladders from the previous match into the ring. Not long thereafter, Matanza gave Joe a gutwrench suplex onto a ladder and then a standing shooting star press while he was laid out on it. He tried to pin Joe for the win, but Joe shouldered out of it. Sensing he needed to do something drastic, he placed Joe back onto the ladder and began to climb the turnbuckle. Joe got up and lunged into ropes, causing Matanza to get crotched on the top turnbuckle. They exchanged blows and headbutts until Joe got the better of Matanza and gave him another gutbuster, this time onto the rusty ladder in the center of the ring! Joe covered Matanza. 1…2…3! Samoa Joe did the unthinkable in defeating Matanza Cueto by pinfall to become the new Lucha Underground Champion!
After the match, Dario Cueto takes the Lucha Underground Championship from the timekeeper’s position and personally hands it to Samoa Joe, who raises the title high into the air to signify that the Samoan Submission Machine is not at the top luchador in all the land!
***