Lucha Underground S4

[Alucard]

On 11/2/2018 at 10:01 AM, El-P said:

I was almost expecting him to walk off in the sunset to the sound of "Ain't Nobody". Now, I would have marked out for that.

That actually crossed my mind too ha, have become accustomed to that epic entrance music part of him when he's without mask. Thought it was a nice sendoff for the character if that's the end for him.

[Blehschmidt]

If there is no season 5 after THAT ending, it will be a god damn shame.

[El-P]

You don't say. I marked the fuck out for these last five seconds.

And really, this final episode of S4 was everything great about Lucha Underground ever. The only missing part was Catrina (nothing will ever be able to replace her). Apart from that, terrific, purely LU matches at their insane, absurd in some case (the Mundo vs Matanza match), best. Marty Martinez bringing back the Hase/Mutoh scale was something else. The short Famous B bit with some unexpected guests was fantastic (as always with B.). And the final vignette, although rushing to tie up some loose ends as it has been the case in this season, was still a whole lot of insane fun. Especially those last five seconds...

Do a S5, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase !!!!!!!!!!

[Alucard]

Agreed x2. Great show, matches and scenes, total Lucha Underground and was a phenomenal finish to the season making it all worth it. Bring on season 5!

[Mrzfn]

I have so many thoughts...

I’ve read some people were disappointed with Fenix/Azteca, but I think I liked it more than most. I’ve heard they intended for the finale to be 3 hours and had to edit this match down due to needing to fit it in 2 hours, but I think they still got where they needed to go and worked a lot of awesome stuff in there. Fenix DARK is awesome, and Azteca impressed too, that Victory Bomb (don't care if that's not the real name) off the top through the table looked spectacular. The Melissa stuff was a bit melodramatic in the timing, but I think it worked for me. Even though she knows Fenix may be lost, she can't bring herself to accept it. I wonder if Melissa might try to make some dark deal with some of the more powerful forces on the show to bring him back? Really feel like she's being driven to the point of desperation, and I'm loving it.

Didn't mind the Shaul Guerrero stuff but I do think it took up a bit more time than it should have at such a big show. I love Famous B as much as the next person and it was a good segment, so it didn't bother me much, I just wish there was more time. Shaul actually did 3 Amigos better than most, but does she actually have any aspirations to wrestle still? She did a few FCW matches in 2011/12 but literally nothing since, and she's getting close to 30 now. That's awfully late to make a go of it in the ring, though definitely not impossible.

Mack/Muertes was AWESOME, rolling out the coffins, trying to AX each other in the face, and that damn ice pick!! Both guys were awesome here but Mack once again especially proved his enormous star potential, and finally got the big win to cement that fact. I admit I was a little thrown because previous deathmatches have been LMS style (if I recall right?) but that didn't really impact my enjoyment at all. The energy of this was awesome. This show delivered in such a big way.

Matanza looked AMAZING in his new gear, as others have said! I feel that people may underrate this one due to its unique story, but I absolutely loved it. I hardly noticed the sound effects (expect at the end) so that wasn't a factor for me, and I absolutely loved the creative psychology and the phenomenal use of the Temple. The people I was watching with were literally shouting for Johnny to bust through the door and take down Matanza after he got thrown through the roof, and when he kicked out of Wrath of the Gods, holy crap. So awesome. One weird thing, I just assumed that whoever lost a Sacrifice Match would be automatically raptured up to Aztec Heaven, but seemingly not. Felt like a bit of a copout at the time, if a Sacrifice match doesn't end in a Sacrifice then it's just a normal match, no? But of course, they had other plans for Matanza...

Legitimately surprised Mundo gave the Gauntlet back willingly. I've struggled with Mundo's face turn in general this season. I think I can buy this more than the free Drago thing, since Mundo loves himself more than anything and must have been getting a sense that he was being overtaken by something else. Also, ALTERNATE THEORY!! Is it possible the gauntlet had ALREADY inhabited him, or at least left something inside him? Cage didn't seem quite the same even after the gauntlet was gone, and if whatever was in the gauntlet already left a seed in Mundo, then that could be why it let him give it up so easily. More on that in a moment...

Penta/Marty was the match of the night and probably the best match of the season. Marty is such a gem, it's nuts that he doesn't have offers pouring in from every indy in existence. Penta had his best showing in quite a while too, chucking a chair into Marty's face at the start was a thing of beauty and it just escalated from there. Marty bleeding buckets was an incredible visual. I can't quite rate it as high as the first Cero Miedo match but that's one of my all time favorites, and it wasn't all THAT far off either. This one was a thing of beauty, and Marty should be a major player forever and a day.

Vamp betraying Penta could be seen a mile away but that's ok, they clearly intended the audience to know more about Vamp than Penta did, since his mysterious master has been known about for a full season now. I had faith they would come back to this, and sure enough they did! The character's name is apparently Hexagon Dark, and he's played by an AAA wrestler named Australian Suicide. I'm all for it, his look was great and he's got the ring skills to pull his weight and more.

Jake Strong... well, I'm still not really a fan of the guy, and probably never will be, and I really hope his title reign doesn't go on too long in season 5, but I'll give credit to LU to doing pretty much everything in their power to make me ok with it. Penta being devastated and STILL not giving up was a great touch, as others have mentioned. I just wish they had picked up someone different for this role, there's no shortage of guys who could have pulled it off. Brody King probably would have been my pick, a So Cal guy with enormous upside, but that's neither here nor there. They've got Jake and they're making the best of him, for now at least. Nice to know gods can jump bodies, just in case they do decide to switch tactics down the line! I really hope they scrap the MITB style GOTG cash ins though, they've basically done in on the last three GOTG exchanges and I think they were better off without it.

And yeah, HOLY SHIT that final scene! As hoped, it was amazing. Cuerno, Aerostar, and Azteca meeting over the Gauntlet... should Aerostar have known better? Perhaps he knew what would happen anyway? Always tricky, is that guy. Bringing back Black Lotus to finish her arc was beautiful, and a testament to the quality of LU storytelling. She finally offs Matanza, and it's an ending to the character that I can accept (if it is the ending, of course!! ZOMBIE MATANZA PLEASE!!). Strong brutalizing Azteca was probably the best he's looked all season, the more they lean into this inhuman god thing the easier it is to accept him. His eternal deadpan makes more sense if he's a god devoid of human emotion! And that's called accentuating the positive!

Possessed Taya... did not see that coming! Mundo vs. Taya is gonna be a heartbreaker but holy crap, what an amazing angle if Mundo has to try to rescue his wife's soul, or else destroy her to save her from a life of possession. Holy crap, there's so much potential there. Could be an extra layer if Mundo does have a god seed inside him from the gauntlet and has to decide if he wants to let it overtake him so he can join his wife in godhood. Even if he doesn't have the seed, I could see Mundo finding a way to join the evil god side if he can't win Taya back. Enormous potential right there!

Here’s a question, do we think Dario intentionally sent Ricky to bring back a demon doll god? Early in season, 3, Dario received creepy pictures of doll island in Mexico (a real place, creepily enough) but seemed annoyed that the pictures showed up, and tried to first throw them in the garbage before they teleported back to his desk and he pushed them off on the first person he saw. Could be that he knew their god connection and didn't want to get involved directly, but my initial read was that he didn't know their significance. Could see it either way.

And YES, the masters of evil! BIG talking point from this scene, Antonio clearly said "all the gods have taken human form". I HAVE to assume there are seven gods total, to eventually match up with the seven tribes, so who are the gods? Hexagon Dark, Jake Strong, and Wade Barrett (GREAT TO SEE HIM!!) are obvious, and now we know Taya for sure too (assuming she's one of them and not a rogue force). Matanza was another, and I assume whatever was in him will have to find another host. That's five, potentially. I don't think Vamp's a god, though obviously he's become an ally. I wonder how much Vamp actually knows though, and whether he may eventually turn on his masters. Is Agent Winter a god? I didn't think so initially but now I'm really not sure. Could Fenix have somehow got some god in him?? Is Killer Kross a secret god sent to fuck up the Rabbit Tribe and destroy the possibility for the tribes to unite?? Regardless, there may be more unknown gods out there... assuming my theory of seven gods is correct. There could be less, or even more!

Really, REALLY hoping LU gets a proper ending, and the final match is a full show length Cibernetico style bout to decide the fate of this crazy Aztec Ragnarok they have going on. Seven tribes against seven gods... so much bloody potential there, my god!

And the coup de grace, the resurrection of the true protagonist of Lucha Underground!

Ok, time for my CRAZIEST THEORY YET!

So we've thought for a while that "Antonio Cueto" may actually be Dario in disguise. This seems to have been disproved by this episode... OR HAS IT?? It never sat well with me that Antonio ordered the hit on his own son, and Dario just happened to call his dad when it happened. It could be true, but it never sat well with me. SO, what if after resurrecting Dario, Aerostar took him into the past? What if Dario in fact ordered the hit on himself, knowing Aerostar would resurrect him and that it would allow him to hide from the forces that wanted him dead by impersonating his dad right under their noses?? I know that's a bit convoluted but I feel like it's more Nolan that Shyamalan and could work as a beautiful reveal if executed right. Now I could be totally off base and Dario and Antonio really are both who they seem to be, but then as some have alluded to, you have the pretty big issue of how to put these two guys in the same place on a show that mostly happens in front of a live crowd. There are ways of working around that sure, but not really very good ones. On the other hand, would Dario do the things that Antonio did this season? Would he be willing to break Matanza from his human side? Would Aerostar put Dario back in charge, knowing everything that would happen in this season? I say MAYBE to both... Dario's love of his brother has proved cruel and inconsistent in the past, and with Aerostar seeing the consequences of fucking up the timeline he might know that he has no choice but to close up the loop. OR, he may know that Dario is important enough to resurrect even with the consequences of this season. What can Dario do? Is he the key to stopping the Aztec Apocalypse? He must be, right? But why... that's the question I NEED to know!

It'll be so wrong if we don’t get season 5 now. Even if they made a judgment call ahead of time that it’ll be the last season, this story needs a proper finish!!

 

[Boss Rock]

Sorta stopped watching regularly but I have caught a little bit of Ultima Lucha.

Havoc-Killshot was solid and I liked the finish but it felt a little too "hardcore for the sake of hardcore" with the spots. I thought Fenix-Azteca did a better job of utilizing those spots but they felt a bit contrived as well. Nevertheless, really good match. Mack-Mil is easily my favorite match of the show so far. The violence and spots felt much more natural here. And although I sort of wish Mil didn't have to take a loss considering he's pretty much been the MVP of the entire series, I'm really glad Mack got a big win. He's a special talent and it's cool that LU recognizes that.

[El-P]

Mil should not have killed Catrina...

[Blehschmidt]

I went to a show last night with Thunder Rosa (Kobra Moon) and got to talk with her a little bit about L.U. The talent apparently has zero idea whether or not there will be a Season 5, but she said if there is, she will definitely be there. She also said that the closing vignette was a total shock and she learned about it when it aired.

On a more personal note, I feel like she must be a victim of the L.U. editing room, because while I like her, I have never been blown away by anything she has done on the show, but last night in person, she was fantastic. Working the crowd, all of her stuff was crisp and looked good. I came away with a much different opinion of her in ring work.

[SomethingSavage]

I haven't had much free time away from work recently, but I finally started watching Ultima Lucha 4. And mygoddamngod. What a fucking FUN event.

Havoc vs. Killshot was slightly overbooked, sure. But that didn't bother me a bit. There was something on the line, and this fight put over the stakes. Neither man wanted to lose or suffer humiliation, and so they pulled out all stops. Loved the way the unmasking was handled, and kudos to Striker for having the courtesy (and the common sense) to act as a guide for anyone unaware of its significance.

Fenix/Azteca was about what I expected. The right guy won. I hope this isn't the end of Melissa though. I know she's been contacted to start with Impact soon, but I hope they keep her involved moving forward.

Because there's GOTTA BE another season, amirite?! For reals though. They set up SO much interesting stuff here, and I've still got several matches left.

The doll soul deciding Taya is a superior host and possessing her is precisely the type of freaky shit I love about LU. It turns this whole angle upside down for me and actually makes me think the doll idea was worthwhile after all. Ricky was a bust, but this is an intriguing shift that could actually work.

The Death Match was a blast. It was everything I loved about their Haunted House Match amplified & turned up to eleven. Axes, ice picks, bombs, and bloodshed aplenty. Mack's Stunner is a snug looking move, too. I fucking popped HAYOOOJ for the finish and allll the post-match stuff.

This felt like a well-earned win for Mack. Even given the gap between seasons, this felt like the sort of victory that would substantially elevate him up the ladder. I usually hate to see my boy Mil eat a loss, but it felt special and totally warranted here. Fitting way to cap off this feud.

I had to stop there, but I'm definitely going to try to watch the rest before the holiday later this week.

Season 4 has taken noticeable dips and left me cold at times, but they've certainly finished strong. I'm absolutely on board for another season of this wacky, creepy, exciting, banana bonkers stuff.