By: E. Young
BrightNightmares.weebly.com
Does our evil champ finally break Cage? There’s only one way to find out…
But before we get to any machine massacres, we gotta deal with the fallout from last week. First match of the night is for the final Aztec medallion. Post-murder Paul London and the Rabbit tribe appear to have entered full Bad Dude territory, signaled by London now wearing a black version of his usual white outfit. London’s opponent is another debut, indie god-tier Dezmond X(avier)! This is going to be a fun time. Also, if you watch closely you’ll see that Dezmond X still has his full name on his trunks. Editing, everyone.
Dezmond is amazing and Paul is still criminally underrated but a respected veteran and this match brings out the versatility in both. Paul manages to wrestle how I imagine a Tim Burton gimmick would look, combining the psychedelic, free-flowing whimsy of the Rabbit tribe with a new vicious attack style. Notably, Saltador and Mala Suerte seem a little intimidated by him. Who can blame them? Dezmond does his usual breathtaking high-flying maneuvers in a match that shows off his and ultimately picks up the win and medallion. Debuts on this season are having a much better track record. Previous seasons usually saw debuting wrestlers get broken in by losing their first matches, but I suppose we have a lot of spots to fill now. Especially if Matanza keeps sacrificing folks!
After the match, Antonio hypes up the GotG tournament and brings the participants out to the ring to place their medallions into the belt. To recap, they are: El Dragon Azteca Jr, King Cuerno, Ivelisse, Dezmond, Mil Muertes, Son of Havoc, and the Mack. If you’re unfamiliar with the Gift of the Gods title, it works similarly to the Money in the Bank concept: the belt grants you a shot at the Lucha Underground championship. Unlike Money in the Bank however, you can’t cash the title in immediately for a shot and yet if you hold onto the title for too long you will be entered into a title match regardless.
Hey, are you thinking “this is a trap, fam” like I am? That might not be too far off. Antonio announces to the luchadores that only 6 of the 7 people present will be competing for the GotG belt. How do we decide the odd person out? By having an over the top rope match, and winner decides who gets eliminated!
This battle royale could have been drawn out a little more. Luchadores are eliminated pretty quickly until it’s just Havoc and Mack. It does get across Son of Havoc’s gradual transition from anti-hero to actual babyface and Mack’s willingness to work with his allies, which started with his friendship with Sexy Star. To think he was brought in as a villainous enforcer. Havoc repays Mack’s generosity from last episode and eliminates himself, leaving Mack as the winner. Mack smartly gets rid of Mil Muertes as he is the biggest threat in this match by far, but sad for my bracket as I had him pegged to win. Guess it’s all on Mack now. Or is it?
Next, the war between Worldwide Underground and the Reptile trial continues with Vibora versus Johnny Mundo. Vibora has a few matches under his belt by now as a former Trios belt champ, but it has been a while since he has wrestled solo. Vibora (aka Judas Devlin, OG NXT contestant) gets a great match here with Johnny; my usual complaint about the new WWU is that their matches contain too much interference. But Vibora comes out looking like an unstoppable force. Even with Johnny knocking out the referee and several chairs being thrown, Vibora plows through all of WWU and picks up the win thanks to backup from the rest of the Reptiles. I’m really hoping that Johnny will call for an All Night Long match with one of the Reptiles before the season is up. Post-match a brawl breaks out between the two camps. Later, we see Ricky Mundo in the lockers spying on Jack Evans, who is in turn spying on Xo Lishus (who gets a pretty cool GLOW-esque promo spot). Ricky demands to know what the hell Jack’s deal is and Jack blows him off. Ricky’s creepy doll Rosa subtly suggests that Ricky should… do away with Jack. Oh boy.
Onto the main event, featuring two of the most ruthless luchadores in the temple not related to any Cuetos: Pentagòn Dark and Cage! This match had a lot of great call backs to previous seasons, including referencing Pentagòn and Cage’s pre-existing rivalry and Vampiro’s pride/apathy towards his former student after they broke up in a rather nasty way. One thing I miss this season is the commentary team being more involved in the plot. But after some of the behind the scenes drama with pseudo parent company AAA, that might be a political move. Cage and Pentagòn beat the piss out of each other in what could have been an ironman match, but after a thousand package deliveries and dropkicks, Pentagòn retains his title and finally breaks The Machine. Or does he? Pentagòn goes for the arm break but Cage picks him up and slams him. I thought this was great because it still keeps Cage as a credible threat and maintains his mystique as something not entirely human.
So Pentagòn doesn’t get his arm, but he keeps his title. And the Gift of the Gods tournament is next week, and there’s a sense in the air that things won’t go quite as planned. What does Antonio have in store for us next? Can dolls wrestle? We’ll find out next time!
Tags:
Wrestling
