Ultima Lucha Cuatro Part 2
Wednesday, November 7th
RESULTS: Fenix over El Dragon Azteca Jr. in a 2-of-3 falls match, The Mack over Mil Muertes in a Deathmatch, Johnny Mundo over Matanza Cueto in a Sacrifice to the Gods match, Pentagon Dark over Marty The Moth Martinez in a Cero Miedo match to win the Lucha Underground title, Jake Strong over Pentagon Dark to win the Lucha Underground title
-The season-finale of Lucha Underground aired on Wednesday night with lots of uncertainty regarding the future of the show. There is no guarantee there will be another season following a drastic drop in its audience this season on the El Rey Network. The network has just hired Mauricio Rios as their head of programming and acquisitions and would presumably be his call as to the fate of the series. El Rey is looking to double the amount of original content, which in theory bodes well for the series.
-Lots of stories wrapped up with others teased for a possible fifth season. After defeating Marty “The Moth” Martinez in an ultra-violent match (which was the theme of the show), Pentagon Dark won the Lucha Underground title. The match saw Marty bleed an insane amount after being sent into the post in the early minutes. This was among the bloodier matches you’ll see these days. Marty was sent through a giant pane of glass on the floor and then put through six chairs with the Pentagon Driver to end the match.
[wp_ad_camp_1]
-Vampiro presented the title to Pentagon but then attacked him and his “new master” was revealed. The masked master joined the attack and hit a shooting star press off the balcony and left Pentagon motionless in the ring. This opened the door for Gift of the Gods champion Jake Strong to cash in his title shot and submitted Pentagon with the ankle in less than a minute.
-The long-term story has been a mysterious figure manipulating those inside the Temple with FBI Agent Winter carrying out his orders with Antonio Cueto reporting to Winters. The closing scene featured the mystery man’s reveal as Wade Barrett inside the limo with Agent Winter, Antonio Cueto, Vampiro’s new master, and Jake Strong. They explained that all the different Gods have now taken on human life forms and infiltrated the Temple and they have possession of the Lucha Underground title through Strong.
-They appeared to kill off Matanza Cueto’s character in the closing scenes. Cueto lost the Sacrifice to the Gods match to Johnny Mundo, who used the Gauntlet of the Gods power glove to beat Cueto. The high point of the match was Mundo scaling the rooftops inside the arena with his Parkour techniques in order to grab the gauntlet that has been tossed to the top deck. Later, Mundo reluctantly gave up the gauntlet and returned it to Aerostar, so the power wouldn’t consume him. This set up the return of Black Lotus (Angela Fong), who has been a character that was seemingly dropped. She gained possession of the gauntlet and killed Matanza as revenge for the death of her parents. Still keeping up with this? Black Lotus was led to Matanza by Dragon Azteca Jr., who took back the gauntlet and was attacked by Strong, who was the one to take the gauntlet at the show’s conclusion.
[wp_ad_camp_2]
-Mundo met with Taya in the closing scenes, Taya has now been possessed by Rosa the evil doll and attacked Mundo.
-The Mack defeated Mil Muertes in a Death Match after using a brick that he smashed over Muertes’ head and hit a final stunner to pin him. Muertes was rolled into a casket he brought to ringside and Mack did his Steve Austin celebration with a beer bash.
-Fenix defeated El Dragon Azteca Jr. in a 2-of-3 falls match. They rushed through the first two falls and then third was turned into a Falls Count Anywhere match, even though it made no difference since the fall occurred inside the ring. Melissa Santos pleaded with Fenix and Azteca to stop fighting because they are friends, and this isn’t the “real” Fenix. This caused Azteca to be distracted and Fenix nailed him with a chair, speared him through a table and won with the Fenix Driver. Fenix was spectacular throughout the match and they kept mentioning he is undefeated at Ultima Lucha.
-Since Santos was so distraught from the match, she left the building and Shaul Guerrero replaced her as ring announcer. She got a big reaction and the announcers treated this like the signing of a major star. Famous B interrupted her and led to a big exchange with Chavo Guerrero Jr. getting involved. Shaul hit Famous B with the three amigos and Chavo hit a frog splash for the crowd to go nuts and chant for Eddie.
[wp_ad_camp_3]
-If you are a fan of Lucha Underground, this was the climax with every stipulation under the sun, tons of weapons, lots of blood, and no downtime. They paid off several season-long stories, wrote out several characters and did tease more for next season. There are some fantastic performers on this show, the negative is the concept doesn’t hit the masses of wrestling fans. It feels like a show past its expiration and whether it returns or not, there are lessons to be learned from Lucha Underground’s four seasons. The show is so wild and unlike any wrestling show on the market that I typically enjoy it, it’s the proper length for its style as anything longer than one-hour per week would be too much. But, to keep the show in its current format is ignoring the message the audience has sent, that they were intrigued by the show for two seasons and then dropped out with a massive decline this season. A wrestling show heavy on storytelling and long-term story arcs can work but the heavy reliance on science fiction, murdering of characters, characters coming back from the dead, supernatural elements and a super heavy reliance on stipulation matches was not a recipe for success.
-Oh, Aerostar placed the two parts of the medallion around the corpse of Dario Cueto (who has been laying inside a casket this whole season and his body has not decomposed), and DARIO IS ALIVE!
