By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/3/16)

New Battles Brewing

– Lucha Underground’s second season has brought us the same elements that continue to make it can’t-miss television; cinema-esque cutscenes, notable names and logical storylines yielded in a believable “universe,” this time with a “darker” temple ruled by the age of death – Lucha Underground Champion Mil Muertes, Catrina and the Lucha Underground Trios Champions, The Disciples Of Death. The opening video to the show seamlessly recapped how we got to this point, with big emphasis on Ultima Lucha highlights, tying in the original El Dragon Azteca’s death.

– There was an immense focus on the ill-fated relationship between Prince Puma (consumed with thoughts of being beat down and humiliated by Catrina/Muertes) and Pentagon Jr., who broke Muertes’ arm on the previous episode. Pentagon stayed true to his character in mentioning how on this night they’d work together to take down a common enemy, but he wouldn’t hesitate to throw down afterwards, making it obvious that Puma was his next target. We then saw some nice, Kung Fu-esque back-and-forth brawling.

– Killshot has begun to get our attention with his athleticism, based on his performance in the opening match with Johnny Mundo, but we don’t know about his character’s motivations other than his past relationship with Big Ryck. Actually, this was the first time we had the chance to get to know Killshot for his in-ring skills and the crowd was all for it. Mundo, on the other hand, has only refined his skills as an antagonistic heel, making you hate him and impress us with harsh strikes and loud chops alike. The match’s finish played well to the clash of styles, as Mundo took advantage of Referee Rick Knox being blinded and hit an athletic low-blow to say the least, leading to his End Of The World finisher for the win. What we truly remembered though was the solid interaction between Cage and Mundo. Cage came out through the crowd and put himself over as a machine at 100% unlike Mundo who deserved a Title shot above anything else. This appears to be the right time to turn him babyface, since he’s over with the crowd. This also creates a different rivalry that revolves around the Lucha Underground Champion, making it come across even more important. Both Mundo and Cage made threats towards Muertes, who sat on his epic throne sporting an arm sling, atop the Temple unfazed. The physical interaction between Cage and Mundo was also well-booked, with Cage able to overpower him, while Mundo outran him to escape unscathed.

– The segment between Marty “The Moth” Martinez and Sexy Star continues to allude to the upcoming debut of Martinez’s “sister,” whoever that might be and made us sympathetic towards Sexy Star, who has obviously been trapped for six months with this delusional weirdo wielding a moth in his grasp.

– The debut of “Darewolf” PJ Black was well-covered here, with your classic Robert Rodriguez thriller video package that got him over as a pure thrill seeker with apparently keen skills for knocking out random thugs in front of a hotel with shots of aerial in-ring maneuvers mixed in. Basically, he was here at Lucha Underground to get his next thrill, and it wasn’t about the money, fame or recognition.

– Black had a mountain to climb in his debut, taking on the heavyset yet sturdily athletic Mack. Black was well-received by the Temple crowd, who deemed it a necessary “Holy Shit!” moment before Mack seemingly stole their affection. This was a solid, back-and-forth match that actually “flushed the format” since we saw Mack finish off Black with a crazy finish. All in all, Mack continues to stay hot while Black looked sleek flying around the ring, putting in a great performance that was designed to impress.

– We’re intrigued to see what Kobra Moon, the new sexy, cold-blooded, evil, venomous female luchador brings to the table. She looks like a black-haired Sexy Star, so we’re looking to see what they do to differentiate her from the heart Sexy Star.

– The 3-On-2 handicap main event between The Disciples Of Death and Pentagon Jr./Prince Puma was a fun way to play off the show’s beginning, diving into the intrigue of seeing how Pentagon and Puma would work together while still rivals gunning for the same thing. We liked the storyline continuity of Vampiro’s commentary work, refusing to comment on Pentagon’s actions/strategy due to “doctor’s orders.” The Puma-Pentagon team deteriorated into the finish, where we saw Puma hit his 630 Splash finisher, only to be upstaged by Pentagon getting the pinfall, which was allowed since he blindly tagged in before Puma hit it. It wasn’t long before Pentagon and Puma came to blows, climaxing with the tease of Pentagon nearly breaking Puma’s arm and Puma being the first to escape. A nice little rivalry that is brewing here, as seemingly everybody wants a shot at Muertes’ Title.

– The “talking point” of this episode had to be the Rey Mysterio/El Dragon Azteca II hype video, which automatically sets up Mysterio for big things in the Lucha Underground universe. The shot of a hooded figure with a “?” symbol on the billboard was a dead giveaway, but this tied well into the Black Lotus/Dario Cueto storyline, as well as Mysterio’s past AAA affiliations with his previous character. We’re stoked to see what happens here.

Quick Results

• Johnny Mundo def. Killshot via pinfall
• The Mack def. “Darewolf” PJ Black via pinfall
• 3-On-2 Handicap – Prince Puma/Pentagon Jr. def. The Disciples Of Death (w/Catrina) via pinfall