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 12/21/16)

Cage Carnage 

– The opening video decently meshed together current storylines like the Battle Of The Bulls Tournament, Kobra Moon and her reptile tribe mates’ abduction of Drago and how Sexy Star earned her rematch against Lucha Underground Champion Johnny Mundo as she defeated “The Darewolf” PJ Black.

– The Battle Of The Bulls Tournament Finals Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match to determine the new Lucha Underground Championship #1 Contender between The Mack, Black, Cage and Jeremiah Crane looked fine on paper. Hell, they went with this “Battle Of The Bulls” thing for so long that we didn’t even realize this would be the end. Not sure if that’s good or bad, but what mattered was that we were here now. As we expected, there was a fast, chaotic pace with a good dash of hard hits. Any of these four (maybe except Black) had a believable chance to win, but what was smart was the way they utilized the eliminations to build to other things. There was a cool sequence of kicks between Crane and Black. Mack and Cage also performed nice planchas. The muscle men can also fly. Black hit a springboard moonsault to the floor. Crane attempted a lariat on Cage off the apron, but got caught in a brainbuster onto the floor. At this point, they began with the eliminations (kind of funny how LUG and NXT had similar match styles on the same night albeit taped material) as Texano clocked Cage with a fistful of rope that began his downfall. That was good because those two were entangled in a Best-Of-Five Series that continually grew more personal. Crane shined towards the latter half and the crowd was on his side, but a top rope Stunner by Mack eliminated him. Crane could use a win, but we didn’t truly expect it here. At this point, we figured Mack would win since it was him and Black alone, being that Mundo was Champion and tied in with Sexy Star. They played it nicely as Black’s many taunts opened the door for a Mack Stunner to end it. Bam, Mack’s the #1 Contender. Good time to push Mack to the top of the card.

– The Fenix/AeroStar/Kobra Moon/Pindar/Buerla bathroom cutscene was nice advancement of the “Where’s Drago?” storyline, as Moon informed Drago’s eager partners that he “came back home.” His buddies knew something was up since that was something he’d never do, as we saw Lizardman and Luchasaurus come from behind Moon. Commence epic bathroom fight scene. Cool visuals, especially where AeroStar was smashed into the mirror. In the end, AeroStar was flipped onto his back and left looking up at the ceiling. What was most telling was that Moon repeatedly referred to Drago as “hers.” Good stuff, but all the norm if you’ve seen LUG before.

– The Sexy Star/Mack cutscene played up the possibility of a friendly Title match, as she was happy he got the chance to prove everyone wrong and he wanted her to beat Mundo. Their friendship has been intriguing and has elevated them to a degree. The live spider crawling around the lockers to close it out looked fake and lame.

– The Cueto/Crane/Catrina cutscene in Cueto’s office hyped the Crane-Mil Muertes match to come. It was apparent that Cueto was pushed into a corner by Crane to book the match. The most interesting of it all was that Crane had a tablet stored in one of the ceiling panels, something he played with since he was a kid. The tablet was a visual aide for the Catrina-Crane history, so we’ll need to see more to form a better opinion, but so far, so good. They tease more about Crane and Catrina’s past romantic history.

– The Steel Cage for the Lucha Underground Championship between Champion Mundo and Sexy Star had a stipulation where the Worldwide Underground was banned from ringside. Did they need to announce that? That was the whole point of this cage match, right? Anyways, we were curious to see how they’d fare with an intergender cage match, but it worked with Cage’s athletic overconfidence and Star’s perseverance skills. Shocking start as Mundo spit directly in her face and she slapped him in response. Mundo dragged her face across the mesh as they utilized the cage nicely. Sexy fought back later with a turnbuckle-assisted sit-down powerbomb for a near-fall. By far, the highlight was Sexy’s cross body off the top of the cage. That looked grand on so many levels. Nice drama late, but Mundo won in the most heel way possible as he took off her mask and used the time she covered her face on the canvas and put it back on to escape. What we loved most was the way he climbed down to the floor as Star glared at him through the mesh. We assumed that wouldn’t make Mack happy, so that set up the post-match angle perfectly. Mack hit Mundo with a Stunner at the top of the stairs and posed with the belt as he motioned a thumbs up to Sexy. Awesome tease.

– The Moon/Drago cutscene was fine, as she taunted Drago upon holding him hostage with the idea that he could “gnaw on some bones.” He responded that he’s rather starve and she noted that eventually, he’d have to eat. The fireball Drago let out was badly animated, but we get what they were going for. Moon does make an entertaining captor. We’ll give her that. How long before Drago’s partners find a way to save him? Place your bets.

Quick Results

• Lucha Underground Championship #1 Contender Battle Of The Bulls Tournament Finals – Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match – The Mack def. Cage, Jeremiah Crane and “The Darewolf” PJ Black 
• Lucha Underground Championship – Steel Cage Match – Johnny Mundo (Champion) def. Sexy Star via escape to retain