Lucha Underground Mid-Season Premiere Recap (5/31): 'All Night Long', Johnny Mundo Vs. The Mack

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Tonight marks the return of the most original and perhaps most unique wrestling company that's ever been produced. So much so that the series has now become a fixture on Netflix. A bizarro world comic book like tv show, that is produced like a feature film with wrestling as it's backdrop, and the history of Mexican culture and the art of Lucha Libre at it's core. Tonight's show is headlined by an "All Night Long" match with Lucha Underground Champion Johnny Mundo defending his title against The Mack. When we last saw this show, The maniacal Dario Cueto was forced to shut down his own temple because of Rey Mysterio's actions.

Here are two videos below, The first being the mid-season return trailer and the next being a highlights package from the mid-season finale to get you caught up.

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LUCHA UNDERGROUND MID-SEASON PREMIERE
* Season 3 Episode #20 "All Night Long... Again"

The show opens with a video package that chronicles what took place in the first half of Season 3. The main highlight being the journey of The Mack, and his quest to become the Lucha Underground Champion, that leads into tonight's 'All Night Long' title match.

The Temple is back up and running and the mariachi band plays us into the start of the show. Matt Striker and Vampiro are at ringside. They intro and hype this week's show. Striker goes through the rules of the Lucha Underground title match. The luchador with the most pinfalls and submissions by the end of the show will be the champion. Melissa Santos introduces the two contestants.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
'ALL NIGHT LONG'
Johnny Mundo (c) vs. The Mack

Matt Striker starts off things on commentary by being just like....... Matt Striker.... He goes over The Mack and Mundo's finishers. He calls Mack's stunner, "a closed quarters move"..... The Mack takes the fight to Mundo early and corners him with strikes. The crowd is red hot during this. Mack floors Mundo with a stiff lariat. He follows it up with a gut buster and attempts the matches first pinfall. Mundo kicks out but takes more punishment from Mack afterwards. Vampiro on commentary starts being like....Vampiro... He uses an analogy of The Mack being a gas station attendant who makes minimum wage...... Johnny Mundo starts to rally and hits the moonlight drive for a near fall. Striker and Vamp are now talking about Lex Luger and the conditioning needed to wrestle this match.....

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Mundo and Mack battle to the top rope. They trade blows and Mundo uses cool evasive tactics to scale the ringpost. Moments later, Mundo strikes Mack off the top and hits the end of the world for the matches first pinfall decision.

Johnny Mundo pins The Mack to go up 1-0

The action returns after the break. Mundo goes for a leg lariat but gets hit with a modified urinagi by The Mack for a near fall. Mack stays on the offensive and hits a running cannonball in the corner. Johnny and Mack get into a battle of striking and Mundo wins out with a stiff martial arts kick. It grounds the Mack and Mundo takes to the air with a springboard leg lariat. Vamp and Matt are talking about mortgages now..... No wonder Vince was always in Matt's ear..... Mundo gets a beautiful magistral cradle on Mack and uses the ropes for leverage to score another pinfall victory.

Johnny Mundo pins The Mack to go up 2-0

Moments after the second fall, The Mack rallies. He sends Mundo to the outside and dives over the top onto him. Mack then hits a real nice looking hanging neckbreaker off of the apron. Mack takes Mundo inside the ring and attempts to pin him but is unsuccessful. Mack hits a release exploder suplex on Johnny. Mundo rolls to the outside and tries a springboard cross body but gets caught in mid-air and powerbombed for The Mack's first score of the match.

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The Mack pins Johnny Mundo to make the score 2-1

When the show returns, Johnny Mundo retakes control of the match by sending Mack into the corner turnbuckle face first. Johnny starts to taunt and mock The Mack and the believers in the Temple. Mack reverses a suplex and covers Mundo for a near fall. Rocky IV references by Striker, something to do with Drago and Rocky's training, in reference to this match..... Mundo hits a great looking Spanish fly for a near fall. Both men battle to the top rope moments later. Mack suplexes Mundo off the top rope. Both men struggle to get back to their feet and eventually end up going back to the top rope. Mundo pokes Mack in the eyes and it sends him to the outside. Mundo then hits a great looking corkscrew plancha but lands badly on his leg and reaches for his ankle. Officials come out to check on Mundo's injury. The match looks like it may be called off but The Mack isn't going for it. He throws Mundo back inside the ring, Officials get Mack away from Mundo and check on his injury, as the show heads to break.

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The show returns with the crowd chanting "Johnny's crying". Some fans are chanting "No, he's not". The officials are still checking on Mundo and have a stretcher ready to take him out, but as it turns out. Johnny was faking the injury, he gets up, lowblows Mack and pins him. He then does jumping jacks in the ring after scoring another pinfall victory.

Johnny Mundo pins The Mack to take a 3-1 lead

When Mack gets up. He is ticked off. He grabs the stretcher that was left behind by the trainers, and starts to use it as a weapon against Mundo. Mack chases Johnny up the stairs of the temple. Mack takes down Mundo and slams him on top of the stretcher. He then straps Mundo to the stretcher and sends him down the entire flight of stairs... Great visual.

A pretty cool Melissa Santos beer commercial aired during the last break. It was tied into promoting LU but I forgot what the beer was. I blame it on Melissa Santos.....

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Johnny Mundo is trying to get himself out of the stretcher at the bottom of the stairs, Mack flips him over face first. Mack throws Mundo into the ring. Mack hits the stunner and pins him to get his second decision of the match.

The Mack pins Johnny Mundo to make the score 3 falls to 2.

The believers in The Temple start up a "Return of The Mack" chant in the famous song's tune....... Johnny Mundo crawls under the ring to avoid more damage from The Mack. A man who appears to be Mundo, crawls out and runs to the back. The Mack chases after him. The real Mundo crawls out from under the ring. The Mack happened to be chasing WU member PJ Black. When he returns, Mundo greets him with a kendo stick. Black and Mundo start to double team Mack but Son of Havoc shows up with sticks of his own and he goes after Worldwide Underground. Havoc lays out Mundo and Black.

Son of Havoc ends up going to Dario Cueto's office and asks him for beer. Cueto grants Havoc his request to the fans delight. Havoc uses the beers to revive a fallen Mack. The Mack has returned and he gets to caning Mundo and Black with the kendos. The Mack and Havoc set up tables at ringside. They play to the crowd and this leads to Mundo and Black recovering. They attack Mack and Havoc and lay them out. Johnny Mundo then gets on the mic and asks the in house mariachi band to play a victory song. One of the band members ends up leaping off the stage onto Mundo and Black. It turns out that it's Sexy Starr. She was playing the maracas in the band.

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The Mack has now recovered and time is ticking away. He has two tables set up, side by side at ringside. He ends picking up Mundo and hitting a leaping thunder driver through the tables. The Mack pins Mundo moments later to even the score.

The Mack pins Johnny Mundo to tie the score at 3-3

After both men attempt several pinfalls. Mundo and Mack go to get weapons, to help them finish the match. The Mack gets himself a steel ladder. A table is set up inside the ring. Mundo manages to take down Mack in the ring. He grabs the steel ladder and drapes it across the ropes in the corner. Mundo then slams Mack onto it and covers him for a near fall. The Mack rallies and ends up slamming Mundo into the ladder. 3 minutes are left on the clock. Mack covers Mundo but he gets his hand on the bottom rope. Mundo Russian leg sweeps Mack onto the ladder. Johnny then sets up Mack for his end of the world finisher but he misses. 2 minutes left......

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The Mack sets up the ladder while Mundo is clutching his left leg after the fall. Mack puts Mundo on the table and then heads to the top of the ladder. 1 minute left as Mack slowly climbs to the top. Ricky Mandel comes out and grabs Mack's leg to prevent him from climbing. Havoc and Star return to go after Mandel. Havoc does a springboard moonsault onto him.... With 30 seconds left, The Mack gets to the top of the ladder. He frogsplashes Mundo through the table. He hesitates to cover Mundo. When he does, time runs out on the match as the ref's count reaches two.

The All Night Long match ends in a 3-3 draw

Johnny Mundo retains the title as a result of the draw. The crowd chants BS..... Dario Cueto makes his way out of the office. Cueto compliments both men but states that there are no ties in his Temple. Cueto says that next week, this match will be restarted and the very next pinfall/submission will determine the winner. Cueto says that the match will once again be all night long to determine a winner.

Mack and Mundo barely get to their feet as the fans chant "That Was Awesome".... Matt Striker and Vampiro went overboard in a good way during the final sequences and after the match ended. They did a great job selling the emotion of the match..... As the show is winding down, Mack returns inside the ring and stuns Mundo for extra measure. He poses with The LU title, as the show comes to an end.......

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Show Closing Thoughts: That was a fun show. I forgot how much, I actually missed Lucha Underground. It's kind of a guilty pleasure for some. If you didn't watch the show. You should go out of your way to check it out. It's worth it. The show has it's detractors and sometimes for valid reasons. It can be over the top and tough to stomach for some traditionalists but tonight's show is a reason, why Lucha Underground has it's loyalists.

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