Stampede Bulldogs vs. Bobby Quance &
Puma
A fun back and forth match between two
good teams right here. Puma plays the face in peril and Quance gets a
nice hot tag. Puma and Quance get a close near fall with a tombstone
from Puma and a follow up shooting star press from Quance before
Harry Smith makes the save. The Bulldogs end up with the win after a
springboard blockbuster sitout powerbomb combo for the pinfall. An
exciting way to open up the show.
Shane Twins vs. Criado & Chad Hart
Then we get this where the Shane Twins
use their power to dominate the match until one of the Shane's misses
a running clothesline in the corner and Chad Hart rolls him up and
has his feet on the ropes for the three count. Quick match, not much
too it, and not much fun to watch.
Chayson Rance vs. PJ Friedman vs. Matt
Martel
Really short match between these three,
but it had some nice comedy of Friedman and Martel beating up Rance
and pulling each other off from making the cover. Friedman hits
Martel with a sick exploder suplex and then Persephone gets on the
ringside and hits Friedman with her heel and Rance rolls him up for a
quick pin. Super short match, but had some nice spots.
Roderick Strong & M-Dogg 20 vs.
Dark Fuego & Pete Wilson
A back and forth match between these
two teams that gets a lot of time. Wilson looks pretty weak on
offense, like he doesn't really know what to do, but when it's Strong
lighting him up with chops and throwing him around it is glorious.
They do some brawling on the outside which is highlight first by how
Wilson ends up out there which is Strong nailing him with a powerbomb
then picking him up and flipping him out of the ring and onto Fuego,
and then after some brawling Fuego and Wilson go up on the second
level and moonsault off onto Strong and M-Dogg. The ending is a
little weak as Strong and M-Dogg go for a big boot on Fuego, but he
ducks and they kick each other then Fuego and Wilson hit 450 splashes
for the win. Good work from all these guys taking a match where the
crowd was booing some decent back and forth technical stuff from
M-Dogg and Wilson to the beginning to making the crowd super hot for
everything they were doing. Lots of fun to watch.
Chad Collyer vs. Chris Hero
Wrestling! Exactly the kind of match
you'd expect from two awesome technical wrestlers and they do some
smooth chain wrestling at the beginning before kicking it up a notch.
Everything is crisp and just looks really good. Hero picks up the win
when he counters a vertical suplex into the Hero's Welcome. Chad
Collyer is a wrestler I love to watch and I wish he had gotten a big
break in one of the bigger indy promotions.
Sonjay Dutt vs. Jack Evans
We get a flippy spotty match from these
two and it's one of those nights where Evans isn't on his game and
it's pretty sloppy. Even the ref gets in on botching the rollup
finale so Dutt hits a standing shooting star press to get the three
count. Not a bad match, but nothing that good either.
Havana Pitbulls vs. Los Maximos
Solid match from these two tag teams as
Los Maximos were on their game and didn't mess up any spots, but they
didn't go for any high spots so that definitely helped them out.
Finish comes by way of Reyes hitting a Maximo with a backbreaker and
then Romero comes off the top with a knee drop for the three count.
American Dragon vs. Teddy Hart
Oh God! Teddy Hart beats Bryan
Danielson by submission, I'm so sad. Still it's a good match between
these two and it's really intense from the get go with awesome back
and forth chain wrestling and Danielson laying in some stiff looking
shots. Danielson controls the match until he rips off Teddy Hart's
stupid pants and then Hart starts a come back and hits a corkscrew
plancha followed up by the shooting star DDT that Danielson avoids
into the cattle mutilation, but Hart escapes and gets the submission
by armbar.
Jerry Lynn vs. Mike Modest
Decent back and forth between these two
before Homicide interferes and distracts Lynn so Modest can roll him
up and get a pinfall with a handful of tights.
Steve Corino & Sabu vs. Raven &
Vampiro (#1 Contender Match)
This is the dumbest fucking match ever.
So Corino is the champ and whoever gets the pinfall gets a title shot
except for Raven because Corino used his stroke as champ to stop him
from getting that. And whoever gets pinned can't fight for the belt
for six months. Corino keeps laying down for Raven and the tag
partners keep fighting each other. The match ends when Sabu legdrops
Corino through the table and then Vampiro DDTs Raven and puts him on
top of Corino so Raven wins, but doesn't get a title shot and then
Vampiro beats the shit out of Raven after the match and demands they
go one on one at some point in the future. Just a bad concept for a
match, although everything is done well it's just too convoluted and
takes away from the wrestling.
Homicide vs. Low Ki
And then we get to the main event and
these two do what they do which is good stuff. They bring the
physicality and go all out for this match. Homicide hits his tope con
hilo and kicks a fan as he goes over the guardrail, but it's cool he
gives her a hug before going back to beating up Low Ki. Ki escapes
the cop killa a couple of times and the second time locks in the
dragon sleeper, but Homicide rolls him over to get the three count
while still in the submission. After the match there are shenanigans.
Jerry Lynn comes out for revenge, but Low Ki stops him because he and
Homicide and buddies and just wanted to see who was the better
wrestler. But then Gary Hart comes out and has Homicide and Ki beat
the shit out of a 'fan' and then Homicide hits Court Bauer, the
promoter, over the head with a broom and then they spit on him a bit
and talk about how they don't care what he wants he's bringing
violence to MLW.
Overall it's a pretty solid show from
MLW. In general every MLW show has way too many matches for the
amount of time the show lasts, but this time it cut short the matches
that deserved to be short and the good matches got enough time
although I would have liked to see Danielson vs. Hart and Collyer vs.
Hero go for a bit longer. So if you can find this bad boy for cheap think about grabbing it. It's worth the time spent watching it even for an almost ten year old indy show.