Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 8: Gift of the Gods

Welcome once again to another exciting episode of Lucha Underground, a very special episode for two reasons. 1. The episode features a Gift of the Gods Title main event and 2. The episode aired on my birthday. Anywho, we open in Dario Cueto’s office. This time, he’s visited by Sexy Star who proclaims that she isn’t afraid of Dario or his brother, and wants to cash in her Gift of the Gods title. However, Dario reminds her that before she can do that, she needs to successfully defend that title against Johnny Mundo in tonight’s main event. Dario also reminds Sexy that if Drago, Fenix or Aerostar interferes, they’ll be banned from the temple, but noticeably does not say the same of the World Wide Underground. Still, Sexy is confident that she can pull out on top and leaves as we go to the ring for our first match.

Match #1: Ivelisse vs. Marty “The Moth” Martinez

If I haven’t made it abundantly clear that Marty is a creepy son of a bitch by now, at the opening of this match, as he has done so many times in the past, Marty is standing in ring announcer Melissa Santos’s personal space and smelling her like a pervert. Fortunately, Melissa is above all else, a professional and does her best not to let Marty’s creepiness deter her, even when he tosses his nasty and probably unwashed shirt in her face. In Mary’s corner as always is his twisted sister, Mariposa, who’s nearly as creepy as her brother.

Ivelisse came into this match looking for a measure of revenge for what the moth siblings did to her last time they crossed paths. The self proclaimed baddest bitch in the building put up a valiant fight and pulled off a lot of impressive looking moves, but as we all know, the Moth Tribe doesn’t like to play fair. Anytime the referee was distracted by Marty, Mariposa would go on the attack. At one point, Mariposa even took a bite out of Ivelisse. Eventually, Marty hit an impressive looking full nelson power bomb on his opponent for the win.

Winner: Marty “The Moth” Martinez

After the match, as Marty celebrates with his sister, Jeremiah, Ivelisse’s new boyfriend charges into the ring and starts cleaning house. However, the numbers game seems a bit too much for the newcomer and the sinister siblings hit the double team. Ivelisse recovers and, with a look on her face that reads “great, now I have to save this idiot” Ivelisse reluctantly jumps into the ring to help even the odds. The four brawl for a while until the Moths eventually get away. Afterwards, Jeremiah tries to embrace Ivelisse but she’s clearly not happy about Jeremiah’s actions and brushes him off.

Following the match, we get yet another “Follow the White Rabbit” vignette, only this time, we get to see the person behind them, and it’s none other than former WWE wrestler, Paul London, sporting an outfit that reminds me a lot of the one worn by Tom Petty in the “Don’t Come Around Here No More” music video. Seeing as how both that video and this Rabbit Tribe are both meant to invoke Alice and Wonderland, I guess that’s kind of the point. In any case, I don’t know when the Rabbit Tribe is making their debut, but I know I can’t wait.

Later, we see Ivelisse and Jeremiah in the parking lot, Ivelisse chewing out her boyfriend for not respecting her wishes. Jeremiah says that Dario’s offered him a spot on the roster and while it takes a while, Ivelisse reluctantly comes around to the idea, proclaiming that if Dario puts them in a match against each other, she’ll kick his ass.

Speaking of Dario, elsewhere in the parking lot, we see El Jefe getting into a limo with Los Angeles City Councilman Delgado, someone often seen in season 2 who apparently works for that Dr. Claw looking guy from the first episode of season 3. It’s not clear exactly what they’re talking about, but with the mentions of gods and host bodies, it’s clear that they plan on transforming someone into a vessel for a dark god, just like what was done to Matanza. Delgado asks if Dario has chosen a host body and Dario says he has two in mind. This is where we get the big reveal. Texano and Cage aren’t competing in a best of five series for a shot at the Lucha Underground Title, but rather, they’re competing to become the host body for a dark god. This adds a whole new dimension to this series and I love it, but I’ll go into detail once we hit the wrap up. Delgado gives Dario a box. While we never see what’s in the box, we know it has something to do with this business of gods and possessions.

Match #2: Texano vs. Cage: Match Three in the Best of Five Series

I have to say, so far, this is easily the most engaging match so far in Cage and Texano’s best of five series. There was a lot of great back and forth in this match. Both Texano and Cage seem to specialize in moves that look downright painful. This was a brawl, pure and simple and from bell to bell it was awesome. After a very hard fight, The Blue Collar Brawler, Texano, scored his first victory over the Machine in the series with a small package

Winner: Texano

Next, we once again go to Dario Cueto’s office where Dario is admiring whatever it is that’s in that box. This time, it’s Rey Mysterio who enters the office. Rey says that he wants to face Chavo in a loser leaves the temple match next week. Dario happily agrees and Rey makes it clear that as much as he respects Chavo, sometimes, you just have to put a dog down.

Main Event: Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo: Gift of the Gods Title Match

We’ve essentially been building to this match since the beginning of the season and Johnny and Sexy gave us one hell of a payoff. Both Johnny and Sexy were t their best in this match, showcasing some incredible athleticism. I particularly liked Sexy hitting a code breaker, causing Johnny to stagger backwards, allowing Sexy to immediately follow up with a lung blower. Also, Johnny’s heel-work was definitely on point, mocking Sexy Star throughout most of the match and fighting dirty when the ref is knocked out.

Speaking of, as predicted, when the official got knocked out, Johnny Mundo’s buddies in the World Wide Underground came down to the ring and started ganging up on Sexy Star. But before the beatdown started, the group took a moment to pose. Which means: LIVE FROM THE TEMPLE IN BOYLE HEIGHTS CALIFORNIA, PJ S. BLACK ESQUIRE AND JACK THEODORE EVANS! THEY ARE, WILD STALLIONS!!! *guitar riff* Yes, so much do I love Jack and PJ’s penchant for air guitar that I could not help myself. Anywho, this trio started triple teaming Sexy, when Sexy’s old friend The Mac stepped in to even the odds. Johnny tried to finish Sexy off with a steel chair, but by that point, the official had regained consciousness, leading to a funny moment where he and Johnny have a brief tug-of-war with the chair. However, Johnny is smart and always has a back up plan. In this case, Johnny had brass knuckles hidden away in his pants and he uses them to rock Sexy across the Jaw, stealing both the win and the Gift of the Gods Title

Winner and New Gift of the Gods Champion: Johnny Mundo

Our show draws to a close with Puma working out in the back. Once again, he’s confronted by Vampiro who tells Puma he’s not done with Mil Muertes just yet. After all, Muertes murdered Puma’s mentor, Konnan by shoving him in a casket way back in season one, so if Puma’s ever going to move on from Mil, he’s going to have to do the same to the man of a thousand deaths.

Match of The Night: I really wanted to give this to Texano vs. Cage. I love both wrestlers and as of right now they have yet to score any points and their match this week was nothing short of incredible, but I have to be impartial, and as such, I have to give it to Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo. This match was amazing, intense with great athleticism, great heel work, and a finish that pays homage to one of my favorite wrestlers, William Regal. In short, it is the total package for a Lucha Underground match. What really puts it ahead of Cage vs. Texano however, was the epic mark out from John of Twitwow. Speaking of, if you haven’t heard of Twitwow, I highly recommend checking them out, they do great reviews and live reactions to the various wrestling shows throughout the week. If you’re interested, here’s a link to their youtube page.

Spot of the Night:

For the spot of the night, we go back to the Marty vs. Ivelisse match with Marty’s full nelson power bomb finisher. I don’t quite know what he calls it, but it looked awesome.

Segment of the Night: Definitely giving it to Sexy Star in Dario’s office and again, it’s all because of how charismatic and unapologetically sleazy Dario is. I especially liked Dario’s line as Sexy left: “As my mother could attest, women don’t fair too well against my brother” which is obviously alluding to the fact that Matanza violently murdered his and Dario’s mother after years of abuse.

Final Thoughts:

This episode was awesome from start to finish and for so many different reasons. Obviously there was the great Sexy vs. Johnny match as well as our first glimpse of the Rabbit tribe. I’m not really a fan of Jeremiah right now, but it was pretty cool to see Sami Callahan kicking ass in the ring outside of NXT. However, the thing that really got my attention was the twist added to the Cage and Texano series. Lucha Underground has managed to turn a storyline that frankly had a vibe of “these guys aren’t doing anything else, let’s just put them against each other” and turned it into the most intriguing storyline of the season thus far. There’s so much to think about. Will the eventually winner accept the god-like powers and what’s more, will they even be given a choice? And given what we’ve seen of Matanza, is this something that either man would fight for so vigorously if they knew the true nature of this so-called Ultimate Opportunity. All of these are questions to ponder as season three of Lucha Underground continues.