Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[2016-07-20-Lucha Underground] Prince Puma vs Rey Mysterio


Superstar Sleeze

Recommended Posts

Prince Puma vs Rey Mysterio - Lucha Underground 7/20/16

The Dream Match of Lucha Underground. They did a great job building Prince Puma as their Ace Babyface and with Rey Mysterio leaving WWE to work Lucha shows this was a huge score for Lucha Underground. What's funny is this match feels a lot bigger here than lets say Rey vs Ricochet going 20 on a random RAW. Really shows how much promotion, build and context matter in pro wrestling. 

I thought they did a fabulous job working this Lucha Dream Match. Lots of great symmetry (the opening classic Lucha Libre sequence was just awesome!) that one would expect given this is babyface vs babyface but they added a lot of scouting wrinkles. They brought up that Puma was a big fan of Rey growing up and that's plausible, give that Ricochet is only 6 months older than me so he could have been watching Rey since he was 7 years old. With Rey being his idol, Puma knows his offense and has seen zillion hours of tape. We see that a lot with how Ricochet counters the around the world hurricanarana, the bodyscissors bulldog and the 619. All staples of the Mysterio repertoire that were converted into high impact offense for Puma. Rey is one of the best counter-wrestlers of all time himself and was no slouch in this match.   I loved the Hurricanarana over the top rope, managed to hold position on the floor and then hit the rana proper into the apron. Sick move. Anyone familiar with Rey knows his classic belly slide into a belly flop bump onto the floor. I love he turned that stock bump into a offense in his later years. We see Rey slide on his belly and hit a splash on Ricochet. I feel like Rey dropped a lot of muscle mass when he left WWE and he looked leaner and quicker than ever now. There was a great Tornado DDT counter by Rey. They teased the Splash Mountain/Rana Reverse that was a staple of 90s Rey but ended up with a Dragonrana. Weird that Ricochet landed on his feet but still sold the move. It took a little starch out of the nearfall. 

I thought the 619 into a Springboard 450 was a terrific nearfall for Ricochet. Ricochet following up with a missed 630 and he CRASHED AND BURNED! He ate it fully on that miss. It was cringing to hear Matt Striker call Ricochet's pause the "Im sorry, I love you" moment. I get the need for the pause because he did need to miss that move but alluding to Shawn/Flair I didnt like. I LOVE that Rey brought the Spike Hurricanarana back. WCW fans will remember that's how he won most of his matches. I love the snap and how compact the the final pin is. They did a great job building to the eventual winning 619. Puma catches the second attempt and Tries for a Tombstone but Rey hits another Spike Hurricanarana! Ricochet was BUILT for these bumps. He doing a great job making these Ranas and that one DDT look gnarly! Hats off! 619, Spike Rana into that tight package pin! 1-2-3! Excellent. This is a dream match that delivers in spades! ****1/4

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • paul sosnowski changed the title to [2016-07-20-Lucha Underground] Prince Puma vs Rey Mysterio

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...