#324: Pentagon Dark vs. Black Lotus Triad, Lucha Underground: Breaker of Bones (11/30/2016).
This is a 3 on 1 Handicap Gauntlet Match.
When speaking about Lucha Underground, this match in particular is considered one of the high points of the entire series.
Black Lotus, the leader of this group, was mostly a character who appeared in the cinematic backstage segments of the show. She was looking for Matanza, the brother of LU owner Dario Cueto, and the man she claimed killed her parents. At one point, Lotus was imprisoned by Cueto, and he revealed that Matanza wasn’t the one who killed them, but it was actually El Dragon Azteca. Matanza was framed for the murder. This would later revealed to be a lie, but Lotus found herself as an ally for Cueto.
She would turn her attention to Azteca, and she would have her first televised match in LU against Azteca. In the midst of getting her revenge, the match was thrown out, when Pentagon Dark showed up and broke both of their arms. He didn’t feel like waiting for his Lucha Underground Championship match against Matanza, so he took matters into his own hands. Black Lotus wouldn’t be seen again until Aztec Warfare III, where she, along with three members of her Triad, attacked Pentagon and cost him a chance to win the LU Title.
Now, the stage is set for both sides to get their revenge, but in order for Pentagon to get to Black Lotus, he must beat her three fellow Triad members. Who were these women? Their names were Doku, Yurei & Hitokiri. You, however, might know them better as three of the greatest wrestlers in the history of STARDOM: Kairi Hojo, Mayu Iwatani, and Io Shirai. Yes, this intergender gauntlet match was possibly America’s first exposure to the three golden stars of STARDOM. Let’s see how it goes.
Penta makes his entrance, and it’s crazy to think that around this time in North America, Penta was one of the hottest wrestlers going. Remember, this is a TV show about an underground fight club, and Penta had more momentum that wrestlers in actual promotions. Up first against him in the gauntlet is Doku, aka Kairi Hojo from STARDOM, aka Kairi Sane from WWE. The bell sounds, and here we go! Doku asks for Penta to bring it right away.
They lock up, and Penta forces Doku into the corner. Doku reverses, and unloads with slaps, followed by a kick right to the dick! Penta responds with a huge dropkick that sends Doku flying into the turnbuckle. Penta argues with the ref, and Doku fires back with a stiff kick to the thigh, and a spinning back fist. She rushes at Penta in the corner, and lands a forearm. She goes for it again, and Penta superkicks the shit out of her!
Penta lifts her up, and kicks the holy hell out of her thigh now. He places her against the ropes, and dishes out one nasty chop to the chest. Penta sends her to the outside, and kicks her right in the face. He follows up by sending her into the wall. He drags her back to ringside, and tosses her into the ring post. Another hard kick to the midsection by Penta, and now he lifts her up for a gorilla press. He throws her with ease into the ring apron.
Penta irish whips Doku into to the wall of Dario Cueto’s office, and follows up with a superkick. They go back into the ring, and Penta connects with another hard thigh kick to Doku. She goes for a spear, and Penta catches it. Kick to the gut, and Doku runs the ropes for a spear out of nowhere. She goes to the top rope, and hits the Insane Elbow Drop! The crowd loves this, as she goes up again. The elbow drop is countered, as Penta traps her, and breaks her arm! The match is over. Doku can’t continue.
Yurei is up next, but of course, she’s more known as Mayu Iwatani, the Heart and Soul of STARDOM, and the newest signing to the Marigold promotion. The bell sounds for the next part of this gauntlet, and Penta kicks low right away. Arm drag by Penta, and one by Yurei. Nice springboard arm drag by Yurei, and Penta goes to the outside. She runs the ropes, and Penta is able to avoid the offense. Yurei scales the top rope instead, and lands a nice crossbody to the outside onto Penta.
She sends Penta head first into the ring post, and then into the ringside wall. Penta wants more, so she gives him several hard kicks to the leg. Yurei smashes his face off of a ringside chair repeatedly, and then sends him into the announce table. She grabs the ring bell, and decks him directly on the head. They fight into the bleachers, and the fans smartly stay out of the way. Penta fires back with some leg kicks, while Yurei lands some good slaps.
She rolls him back into the ring, and lands a running knee to the jaw. Penta catches another knee, and traps her in the Half Crab. He falls to the mat, and torques at the leg in a nasty position, almost like a heel hook. She’s able to get to the ropes to break the hold, but Penta continues to focus all his offense on the now injured leg. Penta places her against the ropes, and lands a nasty chop to the chest. Yurei fires back with a top rope hurricanrana to Penta, and she follows with a double stomp to the chest. She covers, and Penta kicks out.
Yurei kicks Penta out of the corner repeatedly, and then hits a beautiful tilt a whirl DDT. She’s back on the top rope, and she goes for a senton, but Penta catches her mid air and lands a package piledriver! He traps her left arm, and snaps back on the right arm! Yurei can’t continue, and the match is over. Penta has now taken down two of the Triad, and there’s only one left to go. Up next is Hitokiri, who WWE fans may know better as Iyo Sky, the reigning WWE Women’s World Champion.
She sneaks up behind Penta, and jumps off the top rope with a nice shotgun dropkick! She leaps up to the top rope again, and lands a nice moonsault to Penta on the floor! The crowd approves. Hitokiri is back in the ring, and immediately lands a Tope to Penta! She grabs a chair from under the ring, and throws it right at Penta’s head. Hard chair shot to the back follows, and now she uses the handles to choke Penta on the ground.
Hitokiri grabs Penta, and sends him head first into the announce table, then she slaps the shit out of him. She whips him into the wall at ringside, and then into a row of chairs. She lifts up the protective mat, exposing the dirty concrete underneath. She lifts Penta up, and drills him down with a powerslam. Hitokiri gives Penta repeated kicks to the back, and the camera zooms right in on Penta as he’s saying “one more.” Wrestlers calling spots – a tale as old as time!
Back in the ring, Penta lands a hard kick to Hitokiri’s chest, but she won’t budge. She goes to hand spring off the ropes, Tajiri style, and Penta cuts her off with a dropkick to the chest. More light kicks by Penta, and a snap mare into a hard spine kick. Just like the last two matches, Penta places Hitokiri against the ropes, and gives her a knife edge chop straight from hell. Penta drags her back to the middle of the ring, and just Penalty Kicks her right in the fucking face.
Penta tosses her to the outside, and then irish whips her into the row of chairs! He grabs a camera cable, and uses it to choke Hitokiri out. He drags her around ringside, and uses the ring post to add more pressure to the neck and face. Penta grabs a chair, and hits her in the ass with it. Then, he licks the chair. How weird! He sets the chair up on the floor, and then lands a kick to the midsection. He whips her into another row of chairs, and the crowd are losing their minds.
Now Penta exposes a part of the ringside area, and gives Hitokiri an AA on the concrete! He grabs her hair, and drags her around ringside some more. Another hard thigh kick by Penta, and Hitokiri is able to counter an irish whip and land a drop toe hold to Penta into the steel chair. Hitokiri then runs up the stairs, and goes to the balcony. Huge crossbody all the way to the floor by Hitokiri to Penta! That was absolutely insane!
She’s up first somehow, and sends Penta back into the ring. He recovers, and goes for the Package Piledriver, but Hitokiri counters out of it and lands a Canadian Destroyer! She covers, and that’s the win for the Triad! Post match, here comes Black Lotus, along with Doku and Yurei, and she looks pissed. Big “break his arm” chant from the crowd, as Lotus attacks the referee. She beats the hell out of him, and then breaks his right arm!
Up on the stairs, here’s El Dragon Azteca! But, who’s side is he on? He has beef with both of these individuals. He enters the ring, and removes his hood. He stares a hole at the Triad, who calmly leave the ring. Azteca stands on Penta’s broken arm, and snaps back on the left arm! Both of Penta’s arms have been broken!
This is a super fun match, and one that’s easy to watch. Lucha Underground had some of the best intergender wrestling, and this is a textbook example of why. Each match Pentagon had here felt different and inspired, and each one gave wrestling fans a taste of what STARDOM was all about, even if they had no idea who these three women were. The first match with Doku, or Kairi Sane, was a good starter, as she took it Penta right away, and he responded by superkicking the fuck out of her. That’s the meme moment of this match that everyone talks about.
From there, he had a more even bout with Yurei, or Mayu Iwatani, and she was able to showcased many of her “Mayu-isms” throughout, including her zombie face. She brought some awesome high flying Joshi offense, and it was a breath of fresh air to see at the time. Of course, the one everyone remembers from this gauntlet is the final match with Hitokiri, or Iyo Sky. An absolute war where neither competitor held back, her crossbody from the balcony is a moment that will live on forever.
It was the stiffest and most violent of the three matches Penta had here, and that made it the most entertaining. This wrapped up the story thread with Black Lotus and El Dragon Azteca nicely, and Penta got his just desserts for all the arms he had broken thus far in the series. All in all, a very thoroughly entertaining match, featuring a wildly popular Luchadore, and three of the most influential women to ever wrestle in Japan.