Once again, our friends at El Rey have hooked us up with another exciting sneak peek at this week’s Lucha Underground, featuring the one and only Sexy Star stepping up against Pentagon Jr.!
We’ve got exclusive stills from the episode at the bottom of this post, along with the clip right below.
Following the awesome Mask vs. Mask match against Super Fly, Sexy Star finds herself pitted against the monstrous Pentagon Jr. — with poor Melissa, the beautiful ring announcer of Lucha Underground still recovering from an attack sitting ringside. You can see the stress in her eyes.
This isn’t the first time it’s ever been done, and definitely not the first time on Lucha Underground, but you’ll notice that this particular match features a woman up against a man — an awful man, Pentagon Jr.
But I wouldn’t worry. Besides the fact that Sexy Star is more than capable of standing on her own, intergender wrestling has had a long and varied history.
Although rare, intergender wrestling became something of a novelty in the 1970s. It wasn’t mainstream because, I mean, obviously, but legendary funny man Andy Kaufman adopted intergender pro wrestling as one of his comedy gimmicks and became the “Intergender Champion,” a title he gave himself. After a string of staged segments where he’d wrestle women, Kaufman would go on to the now-classic feud against the Memphis legend, Jerry “The King” Lawler. You can find these segments on YouTube if you care to look.
For reasons I shouldn’t even have to flat out state, intergender pro wrestling never took off and became a part of the mainstream. They happened, but usually in extreme, absurd or chaotic storylines. It’s really not hard to see why either, the image of an intergender match can be extremely jarring and visually uncomfortable when taken too far — and this is wrestling, where everything is a few steps from too far.
But that’s what makes Lucha Underground so damn incredible. I reiterate, intergender matches have happened to varying degrees of seriousness, but in this week of Lucha Undergound it is entirely refreshing to see an honest-to-goodness battle between two stars no matter their genetics. This isn’t a trashy storyline involving baby mamas or infidelity. This is a blood feud, something that is truly inherit to pro wrestling and lucha libre.
I’ll never advocate violence against women, but in this week’s episode we see Sexy Star combat Pentagon Jr. in a genuine struggle of good versus evil. This is a contest of moral one-upmanship, the heart and soul of all of lucha libre. I can’t wait to see it.
Enjoy the exclusive gallery below and tune in to Lucha Underground tonight at 8:00 PM ET/PT on El Rey Network. Check your local listings.
Oh, and as a bonus, here’s Johnny Mundo getting a talking-to from a certain Alberto El Patron. I saw these guys wrestle at Madison Square Garden in 2011. I’m so excited to see them flourish in Lucha Underground!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OOgCMhY_00&feature=youtu.be