[2014-10-29-Lucha Underground] Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma

[Superstar Sleeze]

Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma - Lucha Underground 10/29/14

The inaugural Lucha Underground main event pits John Morrison vs Ricochet. Johnny Mundo looks and acts like John Morrison so dont expect a gimmick change. In my WWE rewatch, Morrison's stock went up huge: hard-hitting, sound psychology and great escalation are the themes of his matches, this aint no spot monkey, folks. Lucha Underground was smart but ballsy in pushing an unproven commodity to the top, but I have said it before and I will say it again, Ricochet is a once in a generation high flyer. In a world where there are too many, Richocet stands out because of his grace, precision and velocity. If you are going to be a highspot artist you need to be as good as Ricochet, the dude is sublime and breath-taking. 

They played this down the middle, babyface vs babyface with a very symmetrical match. A great first main event to introduce the two main heroes to the crowd and have them put on a great workrate, athletic match without giving too much away. Like I said very symmetrical, each man is given a chance to shine then the next. Ricochet gets the first two highspots, a back handspring rana and then the All Around The World Rana before hitting his signature Superhero Pose which is cool as fuck. Morrison is a little more hard hitting, he does a hotshot and a kick to the head. Then strikes a pose, vogue, vogue, vogue. Morrison does pose a little too much and this leads to Puma getting a dropkick in and a knee springboard senton splash in. Mundo does a cool table flip and then posts Ricochet who takes a massive bump. They each do a standard comeback run up. I like Morrison's a little more because it more strike-oriented and his uppercut knees look good. Puma is focusing more on a cool highspots. Puma gets a nearfall from a Meteroa. Puma crashes & burns on a Springboard 450, high risk leads to big mistakes. They toss Puma a bone by letting him kick out of Moonlight Drive but a Standing Spanish Fly->Starship Pain puts him away.  

The match does exactly what it is supposed to let you get a glimpse of the two big stars of the new promotion, some of their cool moves. The young upstart falls short which is fine for the first episode, it gives him room to grow. Mundo is a perfect first star as he had national exposure and his style fits well. They do an angle after the match where the Promoter had promised to give the winner $100,000, but he reneged on the deal and his thugs, Ricky Reyes, someone else and Ezekiel Jackson beat up our heroes. A tired angle if there was ever one. Good little match. ***

[dawho5]

I actually enjoyed this match as a respectful cruiserweight babyface match.  They did flippy stuff, but did it in a way that didn't make it seem dumb or like that was why they were doing it.  They teased a lot of spots (some that never came) with a few of them not coming for multiple teases.  The post-match angle was...okay, I get it.  You just had two guys put on a really good show with a pretty style, so have some thuggish looking dudes come in and brawl ugly, bring in a big guy to do a big guy thing and look brutish.  Now your two small, athletic guys have to use technique, speed and guile to overcome great odds.  But still, if that's where you go right away I am a little suspect of your storytelling chops until some other ways of getting the main story across come into play.