I’ve been looking at some wrestling television shows to see if the debut episodes could be found. Guess who stumbled upon all of Lucha Underground on Tubi, folks.
It’s “First Month Fire” and we’re taking it back with episode one, season one: “Welcome to the Temple”!
The Sizzle
In the opening, we have an unnamed luchador saving a youngster from beat down using the skills of lucha libre. He then tells him about lucha libre’s roots in Aztec warfare and tradition before offering to train him.
That feeds into the roots of Lucha Underground with Dario Cuerto showing up at AAA TripleMania XII. He announces that everyone is welcome to fight in his Temple and the fighter that wows him gets $100,000.
Matt Striker and Vampiro welcome everyone to the Temple—this is one of my favorite commentary teams of the 2010s, by the way. Cuerto greets the audience in the Temple and mentions the $100,000 prize for the best fighter of the night.
Following the opening bout, we have Konnan hyping Prince Puma in Dario Cuerto’s office. Cuerto pays Konnan to have Puma teach the recently signed Johnny Mundo a lesson.
Mundo is working out somewhere in this grimy, cool as hell arena. Then we get Konnan hyping up Prince Puma again even going into his unique Aztec warrior roots.
He delivers both times and the second time features Puma’s training. This Prince Puma is obviously on the bubble plus he’s the main event, so we should get more on him and Mundo than anyone else really.
After that is a Sexy Star segment where she talks about coming from an abusive background, lucha libre saving her, and making her stronger. Following the Sexy Star-Son of Havoc bout, Dario Cuerto walks into the locker room where he runs down Chavo Guerrero Jr for losing to Blue Demon Jr.
Listen, we’ve had a few opening segments, his match against Demon, three segments, and a brief match. Chavito should’ve already bounced out of the Temple instead of hanging around to get roasted by Cuerto.
Dario ends by saying that sense Chavo Jr couldn’t get the job done, he’ll have to get someone unstoppable who can, and that “one thousand deaths” would be arriving soon.
Actually, the way he said it was dope but I’m going off my notes, folks. Following the main event, Mundo is awarded the briefcase of cash by Cuerto who keeps him from taking it.
Two ruffians—B-Boy and Ricky Reyes—come out and attack both Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo. An even bigger ruffian—Ezekiel Jackson from WWE—comes out and joins the attack.
Well, to a degree I suppose. This was mostly B-Boy and Reyes beating them down. Jackson does take the money from Cuerto who makes sure to stress that he said that the money was going to the best fighters and that they worked for him.
The Steak
After the opening segments, we get a battle of generational wrestlers with Blue Demon Jr beating Chavo Guerrero Jr. It was a see-saw match with both men getting in even offense.
Even though I’ve seen Chavito for years and you rarely see an American-produced cable television lucha libre show without Blue Demon Jr, I was impressed with how these two got all their stuff in and it didn’t look like a get-your-sh** in kind of match.
It was just a brief intro to the fundamental lucha approach Lucha Underground was presenting.
In an intergender bout, Sexy Star pretty gave Son of Havoc the business for over a minute and a half before taking a backbreaker and getting pinned. That was the match.
Prince Puma—current WWE superstar Ricochet—debuts against current WWE star and veteran Johnny Mundo (now John Morrison). This is where all that training under Konnan is shown to the world!
Sure enough, he keeps pace with Mundo and is actually faster. You’d think Mundo would have the advantage as a veteran early on but he was working with some ring rust according to Striker.
Prince Puma was bombing Johnny Mundo from the skies and with his speed and athleticism. Meanwhile, Mundo was bombing Puma with his athleticism and precision strikes.
Like at this point most fans have seen Mundo on television via WWE and we knew his offense but his assorted bag of kicks was effective here. There were plenty of near falls but eventually the End of World—Starship Pain—puts an end to Puma’s run.
Lucha Underground S1E1 “Welcome to the Temple” Verdict: Silver Medal (3/5)
The first episode isn’t as great as I remember from the wrestling side. Actually, I remember that the main was really good and exciting, the opener was fine, and that Sexy Star was on the show.
Re-watching this episode, the main event still holds up, the opener is still fine, and the Sexy Star-Son of Havoc match was there. As for the vignettes, those are still as good as I remember.
Very cinematic and well shot. They perfectly fit the atmosphere and approach of the show mixing grindhouse thriller, horror, and lucha into one digestible package.
It’s a product that will have you coming back next week! Match of the episode was obviously the main event, no question.
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