Season two of Lucha Underground looked good on paper, with the acquisitions of Rey Mysterio Jr. and Dragon Azteca. Although Mysterio is past his prime, he still has some things to offer, and seeing that this season came down to Mysterio vs. Puma, the future looked bright. Unfortunately, Season 2 saw Lucha Underground go downhill faster than Ivan Origone. If we look at everything they did right in season one, the opposite was more or less true in season two. The quality performers were poorly utilized, the title was no longer delivering good or competitive matches, the booking was getting in the way at every turn, trying to force storylines that both hurt the in ring product and reduced the value of the actual stars. Meanwhile, if we look at everything they did wrong in season 2, they just magnified it, particularly building around plastic divas who would even be marginal in a Carmen Electra endeavor. Rather than just having a bad side show attraction, they insisted on going to excruciating extents to pretend they were serious high caliber performers, killing matches that otherwise would have been good by having some of the best athletes in the sport just stand around not fighting back, waiting for the divas to finally stop tripping over their own feet long enough to get into position and feebly perform something that resembled a strike, though even then Taya seemed to have been trained by a swimming instructor who favored the dog paddle. Lucha matches are supposed to be fast and fluid, there's nothing worse than slowing the athletes down to 1/5th speed. The shifts in the pace when the women left the ring, and the actual wrestlers were thus able to turn themselves back on and start actually wrestling again, were really jarring.

Valets may arguably be useful in getting over wrestlers such as Tommy Dreamer and Taichi, who can't wrestle their way out of a Victoria's Secret catalog, but you don't want to make the stars of your promotion secondary to their seconds, especially when they are stars based on being exceptional workers. The decline of Johnny Mundo by making the matches instead about Taya, with Mundo doing all the selling if Taya was an official participant or building the matches around her interference if she wasn't, was really detrimental to a league that had seemed poised to be built around him now that Puma's reign was over.They did finally get a real woman, rookie Kobra Moon (aka Thunder Rosa), but, of course, they never used her even though she already worked circles around the others despite being strapped with having to slither around and pretend to be spineless.

Having an unstoppable zombie champion might work in the very very short term, but doesn't provide many options. Season two started off fairly well, but the introduction of The Monster Matanza Cueto killed this promotion dead. Yes, they immediately got Matanza over huge, but at the expense of the rest of the promotion. It's one thing to have him dispatch of jobbers, but he defeated current champion Fenix, inaugural champion Puma, top aquisition Mysterio, longest AAA champion Texano, and several others literally within his first few minutes in the promotion. That didn't leave much for the future, and more importantly didn't do wonders for the morale in the locker room, with no good matches for the next nine weeks. That's just an insane stretch in a promotion that normally has a good match about every week and a half. The long term effect of Matanza was that only other monsters could challenge him, which eliminated many of the promotion's stars, not to mention their most interesting performers, from the title picture. There's still a decent amount here to enjoy, but whereas most matches to in season one were at least watchable and somewhat entertaining, picking your battles is very much advisable here.

S2E3: Last Luchador Standing Match: Fenix vs. King Cuerno 11:20. While the list of pro wrestling concepts MMA has rendered passe is too numerous to count, the last man standing match has to be at the top. I mean, the unstated goal is almost for each guy to suffer double figure concussions, and can you name me one MMA match in history where someone was actually out for 10 seconds? This isn't one of those situations where the illusion makes for better pro wrestling either because it encourages the thing that most ruins matches, standing/laying around doing nothing. That being said, this was better than their match two weeks ago because the gimmick matches are treated as events, and thus get more time, effort, and have more stunts. Cuerno also wrestled a much better match this time, doing a better job of using his high impact moves and strikes to present an alternative style and actual path to victory over an opponent who is far superior athletically. Fenix was again fantastic, doing so many different rope walking, balancing, and springboarding flying moves I lost count. Obviously, there was a huge difference in the quality of the offense, but also Fenix kept things moving by not looking to give the ref opportunities to count, while Cuerno would land 1 kick and then just wait for Fenix to get up at 8. Cuerno took a big bump off the ladder through a table for the finish. ***

S2E4: Prince Puma vs. Pentagon Jr. 7:54. A great matchup for both due to Penta being an excellent rudo who actually supplies interesting offense rather than crappy brawling, and one who can fly and do enough athletically to keep the sequences unpredictable. These guys worked really well together, and were a pleasure to watch, doing a nice job countering one another, with Puma striking or countering enough to get his flying off, and Penta finding some nice power counters for it. Unfortunately, the match was way short, with a cheesy unbelievable finish of Penta not realizing he pinned himself in the Romero special. They are trying to do some silly story about Penta undermining himself by being too concerned with injuring people to just win the match, but way more than the brevity, it was precisely trying to get over that unnecessary concept with the ill conceived finish that kept this from being anywhere near the match it could have been. ***

S2E6: Gift Of The Gods Title Ladder Match: King Cuerno vs. Fenix 16:41. One of Cuerno's most effective performances, as his methodical pace actually worked to an extent as both an effective strategy, slowing Fenix down with big slams onto the ladders that Fenix could sell while Cuerno stalked, and a logical, winning one because the brutality factor was cranked up so high. Fenix had a hot start, but after that Cuerno took over with violence, and more violence, not only slowing Fenix with his brutality, but also, as Vampiro described, "breaking his ass" pushing him off the guard rail onto a ladder. While I don't like Cuerno's gimmick in general, his style was reasonable for a match that was mostly gimmick spots. While he didn't do a lot of climbing, that's a good thing in a ladder match, removing as much of the most contrived aspect as he could, and it generally felt a lot less like he was screwing around rather than trying to win tonight. As Cuerno matches go, he made good contributions and it was his best singles match so far in Lucha Underground by a wide margin. Of course, it's mostly Fenix, who did a sweet tope con giro off the stage and took all sorts of crazy bumps. There are high flyers who can get more rotations on a flip, but Fenix incorporates his flying with such fluidity. He's got such great balance, as seen by all his rope walk moves, but no matter what he's doing, he's doing it fast and totally in step. Fenix won after putting Cuerno through a table with an avalanche style Frankensteiner. ***1/2

S2E7: Lucha Underground Title: Mil Muertes vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Prince Puma 11:57. Pretty much everything here was impressive, if not amazing, and they packed a lot into 12 minutes, but the action rarely transcended beyond spectacle. I liked Mil better in this 3 way because he could be the total wrecking ball, without the entire match just being his powerhouse offense. Penta & Puma sort of ganged up on him, but in an interesting way where they would take him out momentarily then commence trying to beat each other, and these were, of course, the best portions of the match. Though partially because Mil is the indestructible force, what I liked better about this match than the typical 3 way is there was a lot more of all 3 guys going at it at once, which forced them to be a little more creative, rather than just having someone randomly lie around for minutes at a time trying to hide. Puma did a better job of countering Mil than Penta, so it was easier for him to get his offense in. The pecking order was basically, Mil, Puma, than Penta, but Puma did sell for Penta, and Penta made the most of his offense with 3 dives. Puma had the big highlight with a shooting star attack off the guard rail. They continued the goofy idea that Penta was too concerned with injuring opponents, with Penta taking too long getting around to trying to break Puma's arm rather than just pinning him after the package piledriver, which allowed Mil to take him out with a spear, and soon pin both with the double flatliner. ***1/2

S2E8 Lucha Underground Title Match: Mil Muertes vs. Fenix 13:39. These guys are really developing their chemistry, and this was the best they've worked with one another, really seeming on the same page, & doing a nice job with the transitions and counters. I liked this more than their Grave Consequences match, partially because the casket mainly just deterred from that match, but it also felt they reached a slightly higher level here in their interplay. They did a better job laying this match out to build up to landing big spots than we see in Lucha Underground. Fenix, in particular, would try to stun Mil with a strike to provide the opening for one of his flying moves, which was still almost always countered early on, often in brutal fashion, for instance his tope being greeted by a chair. The match found a nice balance between being a brawl & being a spotfest, partly because many of the spots fit in both categories, but also because it was an intense grudge match that they really went out of their way to put over as a war. Mil busted Fenix up early, but this was a very back & forth match. Even though Mil was doing a lot more damage with brutal spots such as the spear off the apron, he wasn't going on runs either, which made Fenix seem more competitive than he probably was. Fenix eventually ripped Mil's mask, prompting Striker to scream "And the face of death has been revealed!", though all we really saw was his hair. In any case, this mostly just pissed Mil off, and he promptly mauled Fenix with ground and pound. Fenix got the chair away from him, using it to set up his big near fall with a double jump 450 splash. Fenix is always the underdog who refuses to give up in this series, and here it paid off as when it looked like Mil had him dead to rights, he managed to counter the flatliner into a flash pin to take the title. ****

S2E9 Lucha Underground Title Aztec Warfare Match: Fenix vs. The Monster Matanza Cueto vs. Aero Star vs. Argenis vs. Cage vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Drago vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Jack Evans vs. Joey Ryan vs. Johnny Mundo vs. King Cuerno vs. Marty Martinez vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Mil Muertes vs. PJ Black vs. Prince Puma vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Taya vs. Texano vs. The Mack 35:37. Aztec Warfare would have been a great way for Muertes to lose the title without tarnishing his undead gimmick, but it's silly to have the title on the line here a week after Fenix won it from him. Nonetheless, this was the match of season 1, and season 2 was off to an amazing start with the debut of the legendary Rey Mysterio Jr., the best flyer of the '90's generation starting off against the best flyer of the current generation, Fenix. Rey was really motivated for this match and matchup, and this was a fantastic pure high flying lucha start with some nice sequences including Fenix having an answer for the 619. What was dumb was bringing Argenis back to lose almost immediately to Rey, who rightfully scored many pinfalls throughout a match that was rightfully largely about him, until it wasn't. They really frontloaded the match with Mundo & Puma also in early, and Joey Ryan being the only inferior performer, though he didn't actually even participate since he handcuffed himself to the guard rail so he couldn't be eliminated. Even though there was a lot more talent involved this season, the actual match wasn't nearly as good as last season's, as it was way too overbooked, even in the early portion before things became patently ridiculous. It wasn't allowed to evolve organically and just have good action in most portions because there were so many specific angles to get over that it was really just going from one overplotted point to another, with some crazy high spot in between, maybe. This really handcuffed performers such as Evans who are never given any reason for being. Evans did take a great bumb off the bleachers from a Drago arm drag, and an amazing avalanche style Canadian destroyer when Aero eliminated him. Overall, one of the big problems is no one was getting eliminated, so there were actually different pockets of action, but we only saw what was "important" to the storylines. That's an exaggeration, but it felt that way because the storylines were increasingly so overwhelming. Puma quickly made his presence felt with a springboard shooting star attack to the floor. Predictably, Taya, who sucks at least ten times more than even Star & Ivelisse, got a hero's welcome, but then Mascarita entered, and Striker, of course, couldn't resist immediately making him seem foolish and irrelevant doing his best Pacino "Say hello to my little friend" immitation. Rey tapped Cuerno to an armbar just as Evans was entering #8, but then Mundo began turning it into a gringos vs. locos match, until Cage came out and spoiled his fun going right after him. Mundo seemingly won that battle though, using Cage's head to shattered Dario's window. Surprisingly, Cage recovered and took Mundo out with weapon X, allowing Puma to eliminate Mundo again this year with a shooting star press. Mundo came back and turned a "cement" block into powder on Cage's head, allowing Taya to pin him, because obviously Taya is the one who should be getting a huge win over the machine, however dubious, and when Vampiro described this as giving a whole new meaning to the word blockhead, I really wanted him to mention the booker. Mysterio's protege Rey Horus made an impressive debut at #18 under the gimmick of Dragon Azteca Jr, getting a minute and a half to shine with some actual uninterrupted wrestling. Muertes entered last, but Penta, who Catrina snubbed from this 20 man match for the title even though he's inarguably a top 5 contender, took Mil out with a chair, leading to Rey already getting a pin on him, with the help of Puma. Catrina then blamed "master" Vampiro for his protege Penta taking Mil out, slapping him and banishing him from the broadcast booth. However, Dario Cueto made his first appearance of the season, adding his brother, The Monster Matanza Cueto, aka Jeff Cobb, as a special 21st entrant. I'm not sure I've ever seen a match or a promotion go downhill so quickly by including a guy who is actually a reasonable performer, but his monster gimmick was so detrimental to everyone that'd spent a season and a half promotion. Cobb is a strong, wide guy, but he's definitely shorter & lighter than Mack, who isn't a tall guy himself, yet Mack is never portrayed as, well, anything really, he's another guy that's just there waiting to be given something to do in a league where Muertes & Cage are the resident monsters. Six of the remaining combatants immediately ganged up on the Jason Voorhees wannabe Matanza, and a previously serious, if over the top, match immediately turned completely cartoonish as Matanza threw them all off like Kong breaking the chains. Matanza then ended Fenix's title reign out of nowhere with a powerslam. Before we could take a breath and even comprehend that were were going to get a new champion, Matanza pinned Mack and Aero with German suplexes & Texano with a Ligerbomb. Matanza then broke the steel that Ryan was handcuffed to, which at least put up slightly more resistance than Ryan himself. Azteca's big impression was quickly by the wayside, as he also failed to even get Matanza off his feet, and fell to a chokeslam. Chavo tried to pal up with Matanza, but lost to a lariat and standing moonsault. The final members of the feeble resistance, Rey & Puma, tried to gang up on Matanza, but Rey was dispatched to the outside, and Puma was pinned in a German suplex before Rey was even up. Rey got Matanza down to his knees twice, and actually connected with the 619, but then Matanza turned his diving hurracanrana into a powerslam to take the title. There were a lot of good performances including Puma, Rey, Fenix, Evans, & Azteca. I would have given the match ***1/2 had it ended literally with no end at the start of the 20th entry, but basically everything that happened after that was so retarded that I'm wondering if I should even recommend it at all anymore? ***

S2E18 Lucha Underground Trios Title Match: Dragon Azteca Jr. & Prince Puma & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Jack Evans & Johnny Mundo & PJ Black 11:30. It's amazing how badly Lucha Underground has screwed up the trios division given it's the staple match of lucha libre. Finally, we got something that didn't revolve around Ivelisse finally managing to get off a feeble kick where the top of her kick pad grazes some dude that has 100 pounds on her, yet is still 10 times as fast. While Taya is an even more unbearable look at me & pretend I don't totally suck type, at least we were spared her playing at being a wrestler. Still, she had to distract the ref in order for Mundo to finally win something, and as much as I've been complaining about Matanza, when you want to figure out reason why heels aren't at the level of stardom they should be at, it's usually that no one really respects guys who are winning through runins and outside interference. In any case, the lights went out on this promotion when Matanza showed up on episode 9, and now more than 2 months later, we're finally seeing some sparks, though a lot of the quality here came from Azteca & Rey, who weren't around for the 1st season and a half when this was a good promotion. Puma also can't be too salty about Matanza given he had the title for most of a season, and he was spectacular, as expected. This was basically a big, empty spotfest, but that's the sort of thing Lucha Underground used to do well, and it was going to be hard for this to fail where the usual 6 man does given we finally had 6 good workers instead of everyone standing around watching and waiting for the one who has no business being in the ring with them. If there was an issue with the match beyond Taya, it was more that the rudos didn't really do that much since they were winning, to the point the result was obvious because they'd never sell that much otherwise. The highlight was Puma landing on his feet for Mundo's avalanche style German suplex. ***

S2E19 Lucha Underground Title Match: The Monster Matanza Cueto vs. Cage 13:30. Cage was really fired up here, and managed to make this match through effort and determination. He decided to beat Matanza with lucha rather than match him power for power, and came out with armdrag & headscissor counters, a tope con giro, and a moonsault to the floor. Though Matanza came back with a series of gutwrench suplexes on the floor, and it reverted to more of the expected monster battle, it felt like a big match throughout, and Cage was still digging deep & making an effort to counter by being quicker & more agile. Cage did his best to be unpredictable, pulling out a lot of moves he rarely if ever uses, and coming up with some timely counters such as a small package for a powerslam. This wasn't the most fluid or graceful match you'll ever see as they're still huge powerhouses, but it wasn't the predictable flatfooted hammering in between a couple of random suplexes we usually get from big guys, largely because Cage gave his all and forced it to be something different. This was a spotfest, but they put some thought into it and told a story rather than just standing there no selling one another. Matanza wasn't great, but he can throw people around well enough to keep things interesting on this rare occassion when the outcome was actually in doubt. They've pretty much eliminated anyone but Cage & Mil as actual opponents for him, but this was better than Matanza vs. Mil because, while Mil is better in a vacuum, he's a head on brawler who lacks Cage's diversity. The match had the same main problem as Matanza/Mil though, in that it's so painfully obvious that Matanza is nowhere near the level of the other two that one can't really find any justification for him winning, given he's smaller. The finish here was really random, and not particularly believable, though the league has devolved so much that any finish that doesn't involve someone interfering almost seems "good". ***

S2E23 Prince Puma vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. 8:45. The aquisition of Azteca has been the biggest bright spot of the season. He's always motivated, and the opposition is forced to step it up to avoid being outshined. This was the best match we've seen here in a while, though the downgrading of Puma has been one of the biggest detriments to this season. This was one of Puma's only singles matches of the season after having regular main event title defenses in season one, and the fact it wasn't a main event was a problem not because the workers didn't give that level of effort, but just because that made it even easier for them to justify not giving it enough time. This wasn't any old Puma match, it's the closest we've seen in ages to both Ricochet's athletic counter laden style and a well choreographed traditional lucha ballet. They did a nice job of escalating the match, despite it being rushed. Beyond the time, what held the bout back a bit is the outcome was a given because they were building to Puma/Rey at Ultimo Lucha, so there was no chance Rey's acolyte, although currently superior, was going to win unless there were shenanigans (which granted there unfortunately usually are). ***1/4

S2E24 4 A Unique Opportunity Tournament Semifinal Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage 10:12. The best match of their program. It mostly took place on the floor, but they surprisingly didn't have to sacrifice much of their wrestling due to the setting, as they just did their flying & slams on the outside. It was, of course, more of a violent match with the powerslam now being onto a garbage can, and Cage breaking a glass frame on Mack's head. Basically this was all big spots, whether the usual ones but accentuated by the cement block and various weapons or the outright gimmick spots, some of which were rather odd & humerous, such as pinatas & a stop sign. What I like about these guys is they are able to do something of a junior/lucha style match where they simply come off as much more powerful & imposing, rather than the usual big guys that just want to plod around no selling and doing the occasional tombstone. One of the highlights was Mack doing a splash off the guard rail through a table. The one disappointing aspect is whereas they were able to make some some things that probably should have came across silly work during the match, the finish was the too clever for his own good bookerman special where Cage tried to stomp Mack's head through a cement block again, but slipped in the beer & lost to a schoolboy. ***1/4

S2E25 Death: Mil Muertes vs. King Cuerno 13:49. Fighting a monster, and in a gimmick match, forced Cuerno out of his repetitive box. Cuerno is no Fenix, but this was one of his best matches because he was allowed to stand up to Muertes. While it wasn't nearly as spectacular, the match was back-and-forth and competitive. It was incredibly violent, including both putting each other's heads through windows. This was a match where they had to incapacitate each other, and Muertes ultimately did that when he powerbombed Cuerno through a table three times in a row, then brought out a crowbar and came off the top rope with it, following with a tombstone to finally get the win. Although Muertes gave me a big performance, the match was a much better than expected due to Cuerno giving his best performance. ***1/2

S2E26

Lucha Underground Trios Title: Jack Evans & Johnny Mundo & PJ Black vs. Aero Star & Drago & Fenix 11:50. Taya wasn't there, so they had an actual match that was about actual wrestlers where Mundo reminded us why he was one of the highlights of the pre Taya era. This was the expected spotfest, except Evans did some awful Don Arakawa goose variants. The near-falls felt a more plausible than usual, I suppose, because you expected a highlight reel opener to be short. Aero did a plancha off Fenix's shoulders. Angelico came out on crutches, and mauled Mundo until Fenix pinned him with a Fenix driver. Even if there's an expense, getting the trios division right has been one of the lone bright spots of season 2. ***

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Prince Puma 16:37. This match best exemplified how terribly booked the season was. Rey was the big aquisition, but from the 1st, he was always an afterthought to Matanza & Taya. He really did nothing of note all season, which is not to say he was bad but just shockingly a non factor as he's no longer going to stand out in 6 mans with a bunch of flyers from the next generation or two, and Puma's push, or lack thereof, was totally bungled as they did the Gedo trick of just tossing a meaningless undercard title on him after he lost the big one, rather than figuring out how he could still be a main event player who remained a primary focus of the promotion. In some sense, this was the match they built to all season, but when the road to the finale was Rey never wrestling any singles matches, and both mainly just taking part in rushed big tags they weren't usually even the standout or featured performers in, nothing that came before this built up the epic match they deserved and sort of tried to have. Rey can still go, but this isn't 1995 where he was arguably 10 notches above the other fliers, now all these younger guys have surpassed him, and while he's wisely altered his style to something more sustainable and doable, it was incredibly obvious that Puma was miles ahead of him as an athlete and a flying wrestler. The purpose of this match needed to be showing that Puma, who had been the top star in the promotion, was the #1 flyer in 2016, but Rey won, so it was all kind of useless. While it was a dream match, and the action was good, beyond a couple key answers, it was mostly you do your moves & I do mine, without even Puma's usual level of interplay, or really anything beyond the forced "epicness" and actually getting time to make it unique or more interesting than any other random good action match we see every week. The effort was certainly there, but for all the hype about Puma idolizing Rey, mastering & adding to his style, ultimately they didn't show a ton of chemistry or find many ways to enhance each others performances beyond their usual good level. Actually, it really felt like Puma was slowing down and selling a lot more to put Rey over extra (as if it was a match Rey was jobbing in) just out of respect as a way to not totally outshine and overshadow him. I enjoyed it, and the league would be 1000 times better if this was the sort of main event we got show in and show out, but at the same time, I was never really awed or impressed by anything here, or rather, this felt as unimpressive a match as 2 guys who were arguably the best fliers of their time could have when they were actually trying. All that being said, when you give talent time, good things usually happen, and certainly this was a good match even if it wasn't the match we dreamed of it being. Puma has always impressed here when given the chance, but Rey positively answered a lot of questions about his current state by doing a long match where he dusted off his actual move set after a long tenure of formulaic 619 laden affairs in the morgue. ***1/4

1. Fenix. Fenix started strong with a good program against Cuerno and the match of the year against Mil, but had his wings immediately clipped just when he should have been peaking with the start of his title run. Jobbing him to Matanza in less than 5 minutes totally derailed his season, which only consisted of one more rushed singles match against Johnny. He was nonetheless great, even though they didn't give him much chance to be.

2. Prince Puma. Puma made the most of his lack of opportunity, somehow managing to have the most good matches, although they were the lower end of the high quality spectrum. He's an A + + athlete in a league that's mostly about athleticism, but also deserves credit for maintaining a positive attitude despite the booking no longer doing him many favors.

3. Mil Muertes. Mil was the worker who seemingly didn't belong in the top five in season 1, but his ability to deliver in the big matches has allowed him to further distinguish himself in a promotion that's now less consistent on the undercard. He further raised his status by leading Cuerno to the third best match of the season because one can't just write that off to the greatness of the opponent.

4. Dragon Azteca Jr. Dragon was one of the best performers week in and week out, even if he lacks the signature matches to prove it. He worked hard every time out, and was someone I always looked forward to seeing, even though he was usually in random six man tags that were about other performers.

5. Cage. This spot could go to any number of workers, most of whom I'd rate higher than Cage in a vacuum. Pentagon Jr. was rarely given a chance to actually deliver. Cuerno had several opportunities and managed to capitalize a few times, but he's too repetitive to really get excited about. Mundo was hidden behind Taya. Evans, Rey, Mack, Aero, & Drago were just kind of there, toiling in six man tags. Cage's work was more on on point this season, and he brought something different to the table. He really didn't get the opportunity to work with the great athletes, but he made the big man matches work. Actually having a good match with Matanza really helped turn the season back around, and allowed them to salvage things after a terrible patch in the middle.

1. S2E8 Lucha Underground Title Match: Mil Muertes vs. Fenix

2. S2E6: Gift Of The Gods Title Ladder Match: King Cuerno vs. Fenix

3. S2E25 Death: Mil Muertes vs. King Cuerno

4. S2E7: Lucha Underground Title: Mil Muertes vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Prince Puma

5. S2E24 4 A Unique Opportunity Tournament Semifinal Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage