People try to paint Lucha Underground as being something truly revolutionary, I'd say it was mostly notable for being a quasi lucha league that broke away from the 6 man tag format with the rudo ref who conveniently missed the match ending low blow or mask tug and set a bunch of talented workers on a path toward doing a more international style junior heavyweight singles match that they would go on to use as they travelled the world. Lucha Underground is worth watching, often in spite of itself, because there was a ton of talent at their disposal. They had access to the entire AAA roster, which for argument's sake we'll say is close to half of all the known workers in a country that still takes wrestling seriously. They also had much of the US indy scene to work with, at a time when everyone of note wasn't exclusive to a major promotion, with the money to actually sign guys, and then the west coast indy workers to basically fill in as needed. When you have enough good workers on your roster, you will wind up with good matches, even when you do a lot to sabotage them.

The quality performers are a lot better utilized than you'd expect in a promotion that only runs shows in the US. Prince Puma is the champion almost the entire 1st season, defending against 6 good challengers - Fenix, Cage, King Cuerno, Drago, Johnny Mundo, & Muertes to two subpar ones - Hernandez & an over the hill Chavo Guerrero - which is a pretty reasonable list of who is good here. Aero Star is also in the mix, falling short of the title show when Drago finally wins their series 3-2. The notable missing names would be Pentagon Jr., Angelico, & Jack Evans, probably the top 3 misused performers, Penta mostly "breaking arms" of wrestlers who show up 100% next week, Angelico weighed down by the obnoxious anchor Ivelisse, and Evans showing up late & never really being given a role. While there are way too many short matches in this promotion, it feels like they do a good job of managing to juggle things so everyone had a number of featured matches and opportunities to impress.

The booking in season 1 of Lucha Underground was not yet terrible. There's a lot less screw jobs, run ins, general silliness & shenanigans then in later seasons when they start to believe they are oh so clever. Though there's still plenty of waste, at least it feels like they are trying to put their own spin on wrestling, unlike current New Japan which may claim to still be the mythical Strong Style, but feels a lot more like Gedo just following in his departed mentor Kodo Fuyuki's footsteps by incorporating more & more of the bad aspects of American wrestling. It's beyond the point in New American Entertainment Wrestling where one can care about any of the near falls before the requisite outside interference, some Unno undermining, or the 30 minute minimum big match length (which, I guess, would be Gedo's claim to uniqueness had '90's All Japan not actually told useful wrestling related stories, had quality wrestling going on throughout to warrant that length when it made sense, and known that say Taue was more effective in a sprint, hence his title matches needed to be shortened to 20-25 minutes).

The gimmick matches, while variations on things we've seen before, mostly felt unique to Lucha Underground due to the twists they put on them as well as the Temple setting that allowed for several crazy dives of high ledges. These matches mostly delivered, as they got time from the bookers & big efforts from the performers. While the top match of the season was a 10 way that was along the lines of CMLL's cibernetico and reyes del aire matches, where they really improved upon a match was the 20 Man Aztec Warfare Match that was a no rules Royal Rumble variation where the eliminations instead came through pinfall or submission, which, as with the 10 way, allowed them to just have 1 fight going on and cycle the workers in and out of that, with dives being viable given you didn't automatically eliminate yourself.

One of the biggest issues with Lucha Underground is the promotion tried to do too much rather than just focus on what they did well, which is deliver spectacular athletic matches, with some major violence when it was necessary, or because they could. The vaunted cinematic segments mainly consisted of wrestlers walking around a warehouse scowling and/or trying to look cool. A massive amount of money was likely wasted trying to make these look like something out of a movie, and while these beat Scheme Gene holding the microphone while Hogan claimed his muscles were vitamin based, the lighting was a lot better in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is 100 years old and actually had a point. Very few of these segments even had enough going on to warrant watching just for the cheese factor, the way the old Dungeon of Dumb segments did. One of the big problems with Lucha Underground is they often tried to cram 4 matches plus some of this expensive walking or meeting with Dario Cueto in his office into 45 minutes, thus robbing a match or two of the 3 more minutes it needed to be good.

While many of the workers were pretty similar, that was more a good thing than a bad thing. Where they actually went astray was with the outliers, who served no useful purpose because they didn't commit to expanding the roster in a manner that would make them potentially useful. You need very specific women that are totally badass such as Kana or fight huge such as DASH Chisako to take on men successfully. Having guys that are 5 times as big & 20 times as athletic stand around waiting while the woman gets around to fumbling through the same clumsy no impact spots every week does nothing for anyone. Similarly, while I like Mascarita Sagrada, having one mini doesn't make sense. Unlike the women, he's an actual athlete who can work with the guys 10 times as big, but in his case the announcers totally undercut him by passing even the spectacular flying that was at least well done for what it is off as comedy. Matt Striker generally does a good job announcing, while Vampiro is mostly hard to swallow other than when he's railing on Ivelisse, but whereas the stuff with Star or Ivelisse that always looks terrible when it finally happens is portrayed by them with the utmost sincerity, they always clown on Sagrada, and he gets no push, while Star & Ivelisse always manage to be the center of attention, with Star being allowed to be on offense a higher percentage of the time than almost anyone in the league, and Ivelisse somehow hanging in title matches despite not being able to walk without a crutch. Whether she's in the match or not, every match with Angelico or Havoc has Ivelisse stealing attention by constantly shreiking at the top of her lungs, with endless cutaways. Other workers that need to go include Marty the Moth, who flaps his arms & makes ridiculous faces. Everything he does seems so ridiculously forced it gives "Hi Mom, I'm acting" a bad name, and he succeeds only at displacing Marty Scurll at the top of the most cringeworthy wrestler even list. Famous B's role seems to just be killing 2 minutes however they see fit this week, generally killing Texano's match in the process, surely time & money could be better spent than on his commercial. Big Ryck might be passable as a straight 911 ripoff, but having him stumble through matches kills off whatever aura being considerably larger than everyone else is supposed to grant, as does working with Star. He's also redundant given actual useful big men such as Mil Muertes, Cage, & The Mack are here, with Mack essentially not even being pushed as a big guy because Mil & Cage already have the monster roles.

S1E1: Johnny Mundo vs. Prince Puma 12:33. Ricochet made his debut as Konnan's spectacular new protege Puma here, with the announcers lying about Mundo having taken a 3 year hiatus (since leaving the EWW), when in fact he worked for at least a dozen promotions in each of the following 2 years. Though Johnny had a new last name, as always, you were supposed to recognize him as Morrison, and the match was wisely designed to get Puma, who you somehow weren't supposed to recognize as Ricochet despite the tattoos, over as this generations Rey Misterio Jr. It was a good straight match, with ample time devoted to displaying Puma's athletic counters, a bit of brawling on the outside to show how the LU style is "different", or actually the same as all the Lucha Konnan has been associated with since he discovered ECW, and obviously spectacular flying including Puma's swandive 450 splash. Mundo is at once the most interesting wrestler in the promotion because he is able to alter his style based upon what the opponent brings, but can also be frustrating at times, and this was one of those cases. Half Mundo's offense was quite impressive, and he wasn't particularly outshined by Puma when he was doing things, but the other half was WWE filler 101, and this is where he just seemed like a relic. The match was definitely short enough that a better wrestler would have excised the chinlock and other useless holds, but while it never seemed like the blowout match that was really trying to sell people on LU & get them tuning in every week, they at least did enough to make you tune in next week. I was surprised that Mundo got the victory, it seemed obvious if you're going to create a new Tiger Mask to not job him immediately, but otherwise this was one of the better booked LU shows with no outside interference or screw jobs, saving the angle of the double cross on the promised cash & Cueto's thugs beating down the main eventers for after the contest had been decided. ***

S1E3: Fenix vs. Drago vs. Pentagon Jr. 7:47. It took 3 shows, but Lucha finally arrived on Lucha Underground. A crazy, wild, all out high flying spotfest that probably could have been something truly special if not for being less than 8 minutes. The lack of actual wrestling on this show was crazy, after starting with 2 jobber matches, this surely could have gone 15 minutes, but that's about how much actual wrestling than we got in the entire 45 minute program. I always prefer quality to quantity though, and given what they had to work with, they did as much as they could, just overflowing the match with awesome sequences full of risky spectacle. It was totally in Fenix's style, never slowing down & not wasting time on pedestrian maneuvers. Penta did a few strikes & power moves, but was definitely trying to fit in with Fenix & Drago's style than be the change of pace. This could have been a 2 on 1, but I love how the Lucha Bros approach these situations. They make their work against each other often be their best by simply taking it to the opponent & not thinking about who that opponent actual is, as you would in a real fight where protecting yourself & winning are what's important. The highlight of a match full was Fenix doing a plancha from the balcony, a "30 foot drop" according to Vampiro. Fenix pinned Penta with a reverse Frankensteiner. ***1/2

S1E4: Fenix vs. Pentagon Jr. 7:56. While technically longer than last week's 3 way, it was nowhere near as spectacular or all out without the switching off to keep the insane pace. This felt more like they knew they weren't going to have a match of the year because the promotion insisted on trying to cram 2 other matches plus the displaced pole dancers into 45 minutes, so they just had fun. They tried to ease into things & do some actual lucha sequences rather than just blow through their dives because that's all they truly had time for. Their chemistry is great, and it was all very well done, a great success toward continuing to get both over as two of the must see performers in the league. Looking at it from that perspective, they were new to the US, and this match won over a lot more fans, but from a current perspective obviously they've had a lot better matches here & everywhere else since. My favorite spot was Fenix doing the missile kick to the floor with Penta on the apron, as while he has a couple better dives even in this match, it was one of those unique, crazy, I just want to win even if I cripple myself in the process kind of spots that separate Fenix from sane high flyers. Fenix got the victory with an avalanche style Spanish fly. ***

S1E7: $100,000 Dollar Ladder Match: Prince Puma vs. Johnny Mundo vs. Big Ryck 19:35. While mostly just chaos, they rolled out enough interesting & uncommon spots to keep it entertaining if you could suspend disbelief. Mundo gave one of his better performances here because the props brought out his creative side, even doing a ladder assisted corkscrew. Puma & Mundo did their best to work around Ryck to have a good match, leaving him on the outside as much as possible. Ryck is so inept he even needed Cisco & Cortez to climb the ladder for him, and before long this was a 4 minus 1 man. Mundo leaned a ladder on the ropes & climbed up for a tope con giro, which was one of the spots that was kind of cool for being different even though it was actually a lot slower than the regular version because you have to be careful climbing a ladder that's not upright & not being held. I liked Puma's tope con giro through the ladder a lot more. Puma took a ridiculous bump when Ryck press slammed him through a ladder drapped across the apron & guard rail to the floor. Unfortunately, this left Mundo to finish against the assorted minions, resulting in a different but rather anticlimactic finale where Mundo did a springboard onto one ladder & kicked down the ladder that Cisco & Cortez were on for the win. ***

S1E8 10 Way Match: Fenix vs. Big Ryck vs. Drago vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. King Cuerno vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Prince Puma vs. Son Of Havoc vs. Super Fly 10:49. They split the night up into two 10 man matches with the winners meeting, loading the 1st one which ended in a pinfall (so they could do all their dives) with all the guys that can actually go and the second, which was over the top to the floor, with all the guys that should go, like home & stay there. It was an amazing aerial spectacle with literally everything that didn't involve Ryck being a highlight. Sure, this was contrived because they avoided the downfall of these big matches where the ring is overloaded with guys who thus have no room to do much beyond throw their lame punches by just isolating two or three performers, essentially doing a Michinoku style 5 vs. 5 except it was every man for himself. Basically one luchador would do a flying move to the other then a new guy would do his flying move to the guy who hit the last flying move (thus eliminating the opportunity for the pinfall) until everyone ran out of cool things they wanted to do. This format meant that you had 7 or 8 guys just standing around on the outside ready to dart in for their sequence, but it maintained the feel of a lucha match, & being a crazy high flying extravaganza, the skill, timing, and athleticism are probably what you want if you are watching this league, not the usual unwatchable dopes hanging on the ropes that we got in the second match. Even if this was sort of the personification of purolucha style US indy wrestling in theory, it was several steps above in that it was extremely well executed & it felt like they were doing their own thing & being creative rather than just rehashing what they saw on the last DVD they watched. It was annoying that the announcers once again laughed off everything Mascarita did (especially when they then put over Star who is about the same weight with none of the skill), as he was doing great stuff such as a rana to the floor, and even if he wasn't totally serious, they were really accentuating the wrong tone. Overall though, the pace was tremendous & everyone had ample opportunity to shine. Fenix & Puma have the most to offer in this match, and Fenix got to break out from the pack here with the pin on the Prince. ****

S1E9 Lucha Underground Title 20 Man Aztec Warfare Match: Prince Puma vs. Bael vs. Big Ryck vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Cortez Castro vs. Drago vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. Fenix vs. Ivelisse vs. Johnny Mundo vs. King Cuerno vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Mil Muertes vs. Mr. Cisco vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Ricky Mandel vs. Sexy Star vs. Son Of Havoc vs. Super Fly 39:50. Dario Cueto's no rules Royal Rumble variant allows for actual wrestling by making elimination by pinfall or submission, thus making this more of a 3 way type of match where they cycled through which 2 or 3 guys were going to be involved at the moment, with the rest twiddling their thumbs on the outside than the typical battle royal where they either get rid of guys as quick as they enter or the ring just fills up & there's no room to do much beyond the typical phony flatfooted pulled punches. Fenix & Mundo started, and they got Cuerno, Havoc, Puma, & Drago in early, so the spectacular spots just kept coming. The better wrestlers were also going way out of their way to do as much work for the lesser ones as possible, taking great bumps for them in particular to make their offensive segments more passable. That being said, the Pimpinela's & Ivelisse's of the world have no business ever being in the ring with the Fenix's & Puma's, so the match was going to be up & down, as virtually any big match is likely to be. The first half was a lot better than the 2nd half because the match got bogged down with brawling between all the crew guys, and then lazy Chavo just one shot eliminating a bunch of guys with the chair, including Fenix, who stole the show as usual, until Star eliminated Chavo with the chair. Things finally picked up again with the final entry Mil going against Puma & Mundo, and even with that huge advantage, Mil was eliminated almost shockingly quickly, especially given his monster gimmick, giving the two biggest stars in the promotion, Mundo & Puma, a nice stretch run where Puma survived the end of the world & took Mundo out with the 630 to become the first ever Lucha Underground Champion. ***1/4

S1E10 Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Fenix 12:09. The two best workers in the league met in the first ever defense of the title, and while they went all out, it was a bit disappointing. Both showed great flying, but they didn't quite have the timing & chemistry with one another that they normally have in their better work. Between their cooperation being a bit awkward & the match largely being an exchange of really difficult to perform gymnastic moves, it had more of an exhibition feel than a do or die for the gold feel. This was still very enjoyable, but I know their styles can mesh a lot better than they did here. Despite all the crazy flying, maybe the most interesting spot was Fenix rope walking from corner to corner thinking he could hit an avalanche style move, but Puma knocking him off the ropes with an enzuigiri. Puma then won with the 630, and Cage came out & left him laying. The match definitely got better as it went along, but I'd like to see a rematch, or better yet, a series. ***

S1E12 Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Cage 10:18. This was basically the match Fenix/Mil could have had if they got time, with Puma taking massive bumps & showing some great flying. Puma did a great job adding a ton of urgency to his speedy aerial attack because there was no margin for error against The Machine. He got off to a quick start only to have Cage counter with a devastating shoulderblock when Puma was in midair. Cage was really rolling from there, thwarting most of Puma's attempts to comeback with some kind of big power move. Cage used a lot of energy constantly hoisting Puma, and was sucking wind in the 2nd half. The finish was super lame with Cage getting himself DQ'd when Puma was ready to hit the 630. Isn't that the tactic of the cowardly heel rather than the fearsome one who leaves them laying & rips the belt in half? ***

S1E18 Cage Match: Johnny Mundo vs. King Cuerno 13:41. Mundo's best asset is his diversity. While he's a master of no styles, he can adjust reasonably well to whatever opponent, stipulation, or situation the bookers throw at him. Cage matches outside of AJW will never be my favorite, but thankfully this was a lot closer to a Japanese (non Dragon Gate) cagematch than to a Mexican tight pulling contest. It had a reasonable amount of wrestling, and while there was brawling, it didn't just devolve into a bunch of skillless ramming. I'm kind of in the middle on this match, it wasn't boring, but at the same time it was mostly less captivating than a regular match would have been. It's almost as if Mundo knew this as well, he had the match won via escape, but decided to instead leap back in with a corkscrew moonsault attack off the top of the cage for the pinfall to try to put it over the top. ***

S1E19 Grave Consequences Coffin Match: Fenix vs. Mil Muertes 14:45. They did a good job building up this convoluted rivalry to give these two something to work with for their climactic death match of sorts, and these two really ran with it, doing a hatred filled, aggressive grudge match that just got more & more violent. Though Fenix was already an excellent worker who would go on to be in the conversation for best in the world, Mil stepping it up in a big way is really what made this match. He's had moments so far, but this was the first time his undead gimmick didn't just feel cheesy & second rate (even though he doesn't actually suck like other zombies), the gusto he worked with tonight made you feel like he was the Boricua Butcher. He was pretty creative here, constantly turning the surroundings into his weapons. Catrina coming out with Fenix had Mil so fired up he started with a tope. Fenix tried one later, but Mil blocked it with the coffin. Mil ripped Fenix's mask then disassembled the bottom rope (to his advantage, this helped keep it from ever turning into a wrestling match), busting Fenix open with the piece that connects the turnbuckle to the post. There were big moves & spectacular flying spots interspersed, but mostly this was a purposeful, well set up brawl. Fenix puts his body on the line like virtually no one else in the history of the sport, and tonight he took a vicious powerbomb onto the near side of the announcers table, which was never meant to breakaway, and an overhead belly to belly into the coffin set up in the corner, among other stunts. Fenix kept trying to comeback, hitting both a forward & backward flip off the bleachers, but Mil would cut him right off bouncing his head like a ball. One thing that really elevated the match is they didn't bother with near finishes. Had this taken place in the EWW, they would have done one move if we were lucky then spent a minute doing the slowest, most overdramatized hokey attempt to place the opponent in the casket, wash, rinse, and repeat. These guys seemingly had no interest in cheating death, which is why I hated the finish. For almost 15 minutes, they just wanted to kill each other, outside of being an occasional weapon, the coffin was no more than the final resting place once the deed was done. Finally, Catrina opened it, and that was basically that. Really, the only thing I didn't like about the match was this finish. While I'm glad they brought Mil back because he's an actual useful big man, I would have preferred any sort of nonsensical Voorhees reincarnation shenanigans to the very unconvincing falling off the apron into the casket after Fenix did a rope walk footstomp, especially waiting around for Catrina to lick the medallion and toss it in. Basically, Mil dominated the whole match, then was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, which really seemed cheap & defeated the whole purpose of trying to kill each other rather than simply trying to get the win any way they could. I think this match really needed another 5 minutes and, as much as I love Fenix's flying, he still needed to instead come up with some kind of bomb/driver or gimmick spot that could reasonably incapacitate Mil rather than Mil, to my mind, just winding up being "buried alive". Still, when I think of coffin matches that are actually worthwhile, this is the one that comes to mind. ***3/4

S1E20 Boyle Heights Street Fight, Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Cage 12:13. Easily the best of their matches so far. Cage stepped it up here, wrestling more confidently & competently. His execution was on point this time, and with Puma now healthy, the match was more back & forth, so Cage didn't blow himself out using Puma as a dumbbell. Puma took some ridiculous bumps, including an amazing shooting star bump off the apron when both charged from opposite sides but Cage caught him with the lariat. Puma tried to comeback with a rana off the apron, but Cage caught him in midair & hoisted him into the post. My favorite of the many highlights were Puma hitting a shooting star attack to the floor and putting Cage through the table with a swandive 450 splash to the outside. Unfortunately, as is always the case, the more they tried to find purpose for the obstructive hangers on, the more it just felt like forced hokem. There was a whole series where Cage had Puma beat, including a series of mount punches & a powerbomb on a garbage can, but refused to cover & pro wrestling refs refuse to actually ever do the job of a ref & stop a match. Lucha Underground presumably wants their new title to mean something, but rather than put everything into winning it, they prefer Cage to be so completely indifferent he instead picks a fight with Hernandez? This led to the predictable lame outside interference, with Konehead using his geriatric weapon, then a newly reincarnated Puma hitting the 630 for the win. Even though Puma is the guy we want with the title, I'd rate this higher if Cage just won the match when the victory was there. ***1/4

S1E21 Angelico vs. Johnny Mundo 7:45. The most underrated Lucha Underground match of the season. While people talk about a lot of predictable & mediocre matches that took place here, somehow the one that's truly unique & progressive gets little love. Mundo & Angelico employed a completely sequence & combo laden perpetual motion striking style that is based more on martial arts movie choreography, running, jumping, & flying at one another & actually avoiding strikes then getting hit by others, rather than traditional lazy as hell pro wrestling striking choreography where they just eat single shots to prove how manly they are. This is the sort of match that, while occasionally a bit deliberate because they didn't want to actually hit each other when they weren't supposed to (or more practically in a single continuous take, you don't have the benefit of really setting up the camera angles & editing the footage), was extremely difficult to pull off, and showed what pro wrestling could be if wrestlers were actually interested in challenging themselves in the striking department rather than just standing around throwing the same strike at the same spot with the same velocity for 15 minutes, somehow connecting with more or less all of them, & calling that some kind of evolved, high end standup war because they reddened each others chests. Mundo was really on fire in the first half of season one, seemingly doing a different style match every time out until they screwed things up & made him a heel. Angelico, on the other hand, hasn't had a chance to impress so far, but we knew he had talent, it's just that he's always in the same bad situation, stuck with two many people and one unbearable distraction. Getting him in there with someone he could not only take seriously, but also experiment with, brought out the best in him, but unfortunately, he was right back to being chained to Ivelisse. While combo based striking was a large portion of the match, even when they did do more traditional pro wrestling sequences, it was more in the back & forth counter oriented World of Sport style. The match was a little short in the traditional sense, ending when Mundo countered the avalanche style Frankensteiner by slamming Angelico out of the air jackknife style then hit the end of the world, but they packed more movement into this than most guys do in 30 minute "epics". It's really disappointing that this was a one-off, as getting other people interested and involved in this style could really improve wrestling as a whole. ***3/4

S1E23 Best of 5 Series #5: Aero Star vs. Drago 10:16. I feel like the series may have helped these two get over, but it didn't really get there in terms of match quality. This would have been great for one of the earlier matches, even without the couple big spots they used to elevate it, but it shouldn't take 5 matches to work up to a full on lightning match. This was, of course, mostly a big spectacular spotfest, but in their defense, rather than seeming like midcard fun this sort of match is in Mexico, they did magage to rise to the level of the main event and make this one feel urgent & significant. Again, it was Aero going for tons of pins, trying anything he could to finally end this series, and Drago being the one who was willing to diverge from the technico battle to show some aggressive behavior, including working Aero over with mount punches. The two spots that made the match were Aero stopping Drago from putting him through a table on the floor, scoring with a climb up body press, and Aero taking a great bump on the flip DDT that set up Drago winning with his dragon's tail cradle. Overall, this series was disappointing, mostly due to the matches being ridiculously short. That being said, while neither do enough different things to really be super effective singles players, this sort of series that develops chemistry while forcing them to not just wrestle the same match is exactly what they need to help get them closer to the high level in singles that they have long been at in tag. ***

S1E25 Lucha Underground Title vs. Drago's Lucha Underground Career: Drago vs. Prince Puma 9:28. Drago made the most of his big opportunity, getting main events 2 weeks in a row. This would have been a nice way to elevate him, except he's not really a champion, and it's extremely difficult to push a guy your stupid stipulation has sent back to AAA. While Drago doesn't have the familiarity or chemistry with Puma he has with Aero, Puma makes up for it by being the top level flyer. Puma might not be the deepest wrestler around, but at least he's able to keep things interesting by variying his spectacle considerably from match to match. It's tough for Drago to really stand out here because Puma is simply a better athlete & has so many more flying moves, but both guys worked hard, and Drago was able to bust out a few different things, for instance a reverse Frankensteiner, which Puma took a great bump for him on. The stakes of Drago either winning the title or being banished from The Temple arguably added something to the match, but they really lost me with the cheesy ending, which seemingly was only lacking some Tirantes shenanigans. Puma accidentally took the ref out lifting Drago into a fireman's carry, then Drago managed to really creatively work his way into an impressive Canadian destroyer that would have won if there was anyone to count. Instead, Hernandez sauntered out as slowly as possible then charged Puma, forcing Puma to either avoid him and allow Hernandez to take Drago out with a big roidy should have been spear but instead was just a feeble push into the corner, or to bite the bullet himself & lose the title, which he should have just lost anyway, to the almighty shove of doom. Puma saved himself, and while I'm glad Drago wasn't really gone because he's one of the best, if not the best, of the second tier of workers here, the fact that Drago literally sat out 1 night of actual tapings almost reaches the silliness of Hulk Hogan "ignoring Paul Orndorff's calls for a week", even though the big breakup match was about an hour after their previous match together. Anyway, this was a fun match, but while 9 minutes of all out action is still better than 35 minutes of stalling, a nice sprint with a pitiful ending also isn't my idea of a big title or a career match. ***

S1E27

Aero Star vs. Jack Evans 8:30. I don't know why Evans didn't go further in this promotion, he seems the perfect fit because he's an English speaking guy that's not only one of the best athletes in the sport, but he's spent the majority of his career working with these guys in Mexico. He's done a good job adding a bit of striking & judo in between his amazing flying because early in his career his offense, while certainly cool, was so feathery, but now it has more credibility. Evans was completely stealing the show from Aero, though this was a good match where Aero had his moments as well. There was a neat sequence where Evans avoided a whip into the corner by backflipping onto the apron, but Aero knocked him to the floor with a triangle dropkick & hit a tope con giro. Evans did a 450 splash off the guard rail. Evans was really provoking the fans in between his athletic feats without killing the pace too much. The match was really a showcase for him, and one assumed Aero was moving further down the ranks, but then Aero killed him with a top rope Canadian destroyer for the win. ***1/4

Aztec Medallion: Fenix vs. Sexy Star vs. The Mack vs. Killshot vs. Cage vs. Cuerno vs. Pentagon Jr. 10:15. Chaotic spotfest that was more fun than truly successful. The push of Sexy is so beyond ridiculous, Cage & Cuerno double teaming her can't even keep her from doing the same few lame things she fumbles through every week. The pace was high & everyone got there spots in, but actually that felt like a problem in general because they had so many people involed that the people who actually have move sets only had time to get in their usual stuff, while 5 workers hid against the apron. In the later stages, more workers were involved because they were laying around in the ring instead, but it never felt like they really took advantage of the numbers or possibilities. They tried with Cage doing his tope catch brainbuster to Fenix, but instead waiting for Killshot to spike it with a pescado. The spot would have been way more impressive had it been more spontaneous, rather than waiting for Killshot to see it then run back & forth to get his momentum up. Penta doing a package piledriver to Fenix with Star on his back was also really slow to set up. Otherwise, Fenix vs. Pentagon was the only stuff that was really impressive. The other 4 guys added things, but it felt like they just threw them out there blind rather than really working out the setup, timing, & choreography to really make this work. ***

S1E29 Death Match: Mil Muertes vs. Fenix 9:13. Mil returned from the dead again, now dressed all in black. This was more about reestablishing him as stronger & more maniacal than ever than trying to have a great match. It was still very entertaining, but it was veering toward a jobber match as Fenix's spectacular attacks were having no impact on Mil initially, and then just a little as the match progressed. Laying this theme out right from Fenix's opening tope where Fenix bounced off Muertes like a backboard, it took Fenix hitting a spectacular quebrada for Mil to begin selling to the extent of at least going down and not getting back up instantaneously from Fenix's flying. That being said, Mil was still just savaging Fenix with everything he did, whether it be the chair shots or the powerslam, and you never felt Fenix had any real chance because this wasn't a match where you could escape with a flash pin. Fenix finally gained a little traction with a great footstomp off the guard rail, but Mil still came almost right back with a hip toss to the floor & a plancha. The ref wasn't supposed to stop the match, so they went to a commercial break after Mil powerbombed Fenix through the balcony roof. The disciples that were newly accompanying Mil & Catrina dragged a limp Fenix back for Muertes to kill him again with the flatliner. Both guys gave impressive performances given what the match was, but this was more one way carnage than competitive drama. ***

S1E32 Iron Man Match, Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Johnny Mundo 38:36. These two were friends, but the new, more aggressive version of Mundo clearly valued the title above even Puma's life. While only the vestiges of Mundo's initial babyface character remained, he thankfully went back to doing an actual wrestling match rather than constantly pausing to tell us how great he is, instead playing heel by increasingly incorporating dirty deeds. This is no surprise in the sense that what makes Mundo the most interesting wrestler in the league is he does something different every time out, and while he's not the most talented or athletically gifted guy here, being unpredictable really sets him apart. Puma got a flash in on Mundo early, and Mundo's win at all costs side began to show when Puma, who was on his back, grabbed Mundo's leg as he was going up for the end of the world & tried to counter with a kneebar, but Mundo bridged & held on to the top rope to even things at 1 fall a piece. Mundo found a wood crate under the ring, but Puma Michinoku drivered him through it. There turned out to be a crowbar inside, and Mundo cracked Puma's skull with it to go up 2-1. Granted, this should be life threatening and certainly match if not career ending, but at least they made it worth multiple falls, as Mundo proceeded to pin an unresponsive Puma after the moonlight drive & end of the world to go up 4-1. Of course, Mundo could have gotten 10 more falls if he didn't just stand around watching Puma lay on his back. Due to this spot coming so early, Puma never really got going in this match. I mean, he did some spectacular stuff, as always, but they weren't so much working together as simply doing Mundo's match with Puma lending it a spectacular spot now & again. Puma eventually made a brief comeback, but Mundo continued to crush the cranium with a reverse neckbreaker onto the apron & a charging ladder. I liked how they had Mundo doing an arm attack early, but shifted to the head when that wound up panning out instead, it just seemed less plotted than the usual didactic wrestling match. Mundo eventually decided to just ride out his lead & told the Generalissimo wannabe to strike up a tune, but given unlimited time, Puma finally tackled him off the stage through the 4 tables it took him ages to set up a while back. This spot that was supposed to be Puma's big comeback didn't really come off right, as Puma took about as much impact as Mundo did given they wound up pretty much side to side & went through simultaneously. However, in order for the story to play out the way they wanted, Puma emerged more or less unscathed, while Mundo came up bloody, & Puma dragged him back into the ring and ran off two pinfalls. Mundo continued to try to get the cheap win by running out the clock until Alberto El Jabroni jumped him & served him up for Puma to pin with a swandive 450 to even things at 4. After the contest stopped completely so Jabroni could cut a promo during a match he wasn't even wrestling in, Mundo fired up for the final 3 1/2 minutes, and this was the first time since the early portion where both, for better or worse, seemed to be at full force fighting an even, back & forth battle to get what would likely be the deciding fall. There was an interesting spot I've never seen before where Mundo set up a sort of avalanche style Frankensteiner (Puma was on the 1st), but when Mundo jumped, Puma ducked & ran out of the corner, leaving Mundo to crash on the top rope & backflip into the ring, holding onto the top rope so he really didn't even take a bump. This still might have been a neat finish had Puma gone right to winning with his 630, instead of this happening like 50 seconds later with nothing significant in between. This was written to be the match of the season, I mean it had all the we're doing a great match stuff built in, and certainly the effort & calibre of wrestling from the two performers was there, but for me it was just way too overbooked. After the early portion, they pretty much stopped having any kind of sequences, and instead just went from one big spot that was laid out for them to the other, without much useful, or at all, going on in between, as we see in every gimmicky WWE match and increasingly too many in New Japan since Naito can't be bothered doing more than a handful of things in 30 minutes. This was a lot better than the stuff I'm referencing, but nonetheless, it has the same problem of just relying on a few big things & failing to build any momentum or have any consistent action (granted this was LONG). The viewer just kind of spends the whole match waiting for the guy who is down to decide to come back, and then he'll likely be fine, while the other guy will be injured until it's his time to shine again. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of drama somehow, but It just doesn't feel very organic or interactive, and is never really surprising because you are just waiting for the comeback you know will happen any time, given there's really only two options, continuation of the plodding beat down or lead change. I enjoyed the match, but I was increasingly less invested in it, as I saw it was another of those, handful of cool stunts, stretched over 30+ minutes type of ordeals. As that kind of match goes, this was still quite impressive, but I'd rather see guys building up a match through a lot of consistent, solid wrestling than a taking some big risks & not doing much else. It was good, don't get me wrong, but this much talent given this much time should produce a lot better. ***1/2

S1E33 Ultima Lucha Next Challenger Decision Match: Drago vs. Mil Muertes 8:52. While admittedly a lesser version of Mil vs. Fenix, it was an important match for both men, Mil showing he could have a good match without Fenix to spice it up & take crazy bumps for him, & Drago doing a speed vs. power match rather than technico lightning spotfests. Drago pulled out some different moves such as the shiranui & swandive tornado DDT, and took some big bumps, though the chemistry & timing with Mil wasn't yet at the level of their better matches with other opponents. Mil mostly brutalized him, of course, including a powerbomb on a table that didn't give way. ***

S1E38 Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage 7:43. These two showed up late, but have made some nice contributions. Mack has been held back by not really having a role, but his flash pin over Cage last week helped make him relevant, and he was pushing Cage this whole match. Mack had a couple big highlights spearing Cage through a door & Ligerbombing him off the apron through a table. The fans went nuts the whole time, but it never developed into an actual match. I mean, they just brawled around the building for 7 1/2 minutes & called it a night when Cage curb stomped Mack through the most gimmicked block ever, which literally turned to powder. Cage deserves credit for selling as much as he did, and while the effort was really good, because this was so ridiculously short & had no in ring action, this again felt more like a lead up than the actual blow off. ***

S1E39 Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Mil Muertes 17:39. The first half of the match took place on the outside, which was obviously more to the benefit of Mil, as it was brawling based, with Puma getting into free space enough to keep it interesting with his flourishes. While the basic athlete vs. monster story was apparent from the get go, it was just never really that effective on the outside. Fenix was considerably better at making something out of the limited resources than Puma was, with his too dangerous bumps other's smartly avoid helping Mil seem unstoppable in the short term. Puma had one great spot where he climbed up the wall & backflipped to get free then climbed up the apron & hit a corkscrew kick. Mil cut off a tope with a chair and powerbombed Puma on the stairs, but overall, the early portion was too reliant on these few big spots because otherwise they were just kind of walking through the building aimlessly exchanging strikes like you've seen on every ECW & wannabe show for the past 2 decades. I know Konehead & the Lucha Underground bookers think this is somehow oh so amazing, but there was a reason Heyman made this the style of Grunge & New Jack rather than Malenko & Guerrero. The match really picked up when they finally entered the ring because there's really not much you can safely do on stairs, but give a gifted athlete such as Puma his proper platform, and it's no surprise when he quickly makes something happen. That being said, Mil also seemed much more formidable in his ability to manhandle Puma & toss him around aggressively with a ring to run in & throw Puma on, when Puma didn't simply free himself of Mil's clutches and outwit him with his speed & athleticism. The second half was quite good with everything done with vigor. Mil speared Puma off the apron through a table then powerbombed him through what was left of the table & dragged Puma back in for a near fall. Muertes survived a 630 & avoided another, while Puma survived the flatliner, both men's finishers finally failing. Ultimately, Mil recovered from Puma knocking him off the ropes with a headbutt in time to intercept him with an avalanche style flatliner to take the title. The fact that this actually had time made a big difference, but the promotion's insistence on forcing brawling kind of counteracted that. The match was ultimately fairly complete even though honestly almost everything of importance, intensity, and suspense took place once they finally just got in the ring & had the actual power vs. speed wrestling match they were mostly just forcing on the outside early on. While no classic, having the title finally change in the last match of the season, and having it do so cleanly to a reasonably positioned guy who, while not as talented, has been good whenever he needed to be at least keeps the league on the right track going into the second season. ***1/4

1. Fenix. Fenix best exemplifies the Lucha Underground style, he's an amazing flyer, strong in brawls, and one insane dude. He's a fantastic athlete who is highly creative. He was largely in the shadow of Puma, but while he had a few less good matches, he does the most to make his matches good. Certainly he's the best bumper in the league, and really the difference between Fenix & Puma is Fenix is a lot better at making the opponent look awesome. I think they were close, but more because Puma is in his prime, while Fenix is just taking off.

2. Prince Puma. I like the Puma mask, but Ricochet is better as himself, mainly because he uses his athleticism in more interesting ways. We don't really get many of his great athletic counters here despite a number of opponents who could work those sequences with him, though that may have more to do with the matches being so short there's no easing in. This league is about doing cool things in a brief amount of time, and that's a setting where Puma is going to excel because he always does a couple of amazing athletic feats. The promotion focusing on Puma is one of the things that makes it worthwhile, and the silent Puma comes off as that once in a generation fantastic off the charts Mexican flyer (if we ignore that he's a gringo from Illinois and Fenix might be the best flyer ever). Puma had a lot of opportunity being the champion, but he made the most of it, having the most matches I liked, more or less doubling everyone other than Fenix.

3. Johnny Mundo. Mundo is really a thinking man's wrestler. He's so adaptable that his matches are never the same, always trying to figure out how he can enhance what the opponent is bringing. Sometimes he outthinks himself, but even when I'm not thrilled with what he's doing, he's at least interesting because he keeps me guessing. His ability to keep having different, fresh, unpredictable matches is why he's actually probably underrated despite being a big star, especially in a world where the singular, paint by numbers, hokey unbelievable no credibility spot for hokey unbelievable no credibility spot repeats of Ric Flair are supposed to be somehow compelling. Mundo still has some bad habits of American wrestling that he'll fall back on from time to time, but working the more international style of Lucha Underground helped him step up his game.

4. Pentagon Jr. Penta got off to a strong start when he was actually involved in real wrestling matches with talented opponents, but then was severely undermined by the bookers, who put him in a series of jobber matches designed only to have him "break" the arms of opponents who were all in perfect health the next time you saw them, building up to jobbing to the pinnacle of toughness & invincibility, Sexy Star, then ultimately defeating an ancient Vampire, who turned out to be his almighty "master". He performed well given what he had to work with, but while he's one of their best singles wrestlers on paper, he mostly delivered in random specialty matches where they just threw enough good workers in there. This was more a league for guys who could get their couple cool flying moves in, but while Penta isn't the best spectacular wrestler, he has a lot of ability to go beyond that. Penta's ability to brawl should have been a huge advantage here, but he wasn't really used in those sort of matches, apart from the Vampiro match that was mostly the sort of brawling anyone under 75 could reasonably do. On one hand, I'm slightly underrating Penta based on his actual talent, but he could also have fallen short of the top 5 if other reasonable workers were better booked.

5. Mil Muertes. Mil isn't particularly diverse or any sort of a great pure worker. He's not as consistent as guys who can just get by on their athleticism, but I give Mil the slight edge over Drago for the last spot because he stepped it up in all his big matches, and gave some really fiery and intense big man performances. While there are actually some good big men in the league in Cage & Mack, Muertes is the one who had the big match presence & showed that extra gear to really get himself over as a dominant, fearsome big man. He's the guy you don't want to mess with, but unlike the usual stiffs such as Big Ryck, the one you do actually want to watch.

1. S1E8 10 Way Match: Fenix vs. Big Ryck vs. Drago vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. King Cuerno vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Prince Puma vs. Son Of Havoc vs. Super Fly

2. S1E19 Grave Consequences Coffin Match: Fenix vs. Mil Muertes

3. S1E21 Angelico vs. Johnny Mundo

4. S1E3: Fenix vs. Drago vs. Pentagon Jr.

5. S1E32 Iron Man Match, Lucha Underground Title Match: Prince Puma vs. Johnny Mundo