Underground TV 2004-01-16 (Matches taped Reloaded Night 1 2004-01-09 from Tabu Night Club in Orland, Fla)
Champions
World: Steve Corino
GTC: Simon Diamond & CW Anderson
Junior Heavyweight Champion: Sonjay Dutt
The Stampede Bulldogs beat Puma and Bobby Cross in an exciting opening contest. This was the first match of the GTC Carnival. That took place over the 2 nights of Reloaded.
During commercial we get hype for the next two TV Tapings. February 13th War Memorial will feature a six sided ring and February 14th Tabu Nightclub.
PJ Friedman talks about how he has sacrificed everything in his life for wrestling but has nothing to show for it. He challenges Vampiro and says he will make a name for himself by taking out Vampiro.
Teddy Hart joins Eric Gargiulo on commentary for the next match. Junior Heavyweight Champion Sonjay Dutt was successful in his first ever title defense against Hart Foundation 2.0 member Jack Evans. After the match Hart and Evans attacked and laid out Dutt.
Dutt is backstage and he trash talks the Hart Foundation 2.0 and their friends Los Maximos calling them the “worlds greatest scrubs”. Maximos show up and tell Dutt to go get two partners to take them on in a six man.
In the main event Homicide beat Low Ki but after the match both men joined forces to beat on Jerry Lynn. Gary Hart came out to join with them and Homicide and Low Ki attacked a fan and MLW owner Court Bauer.
My thoughts on the show…
For sure check this episode out. Great main event really good opening match. Hart Foundation 2.0 looks to be a big part of MLW based on the two TV tapings and the backstage stuff they aired tonight.
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Underground TV 2004-01-23 (Matches taped Reloaded Night 1 2004-01-09 & Reloaded Night 2 2004-01-10 from Tabu Night Club in Orland, Fla)
Champions
World: Steve Corino
GTC: Simon Diamond & CW Anderson
Junior Heavyweight Champion: Sonjay Dutt
We open up with The Extreme Horsemen in the ring posing after Champion Steve Corino defeated Terry Funk at Reloaded Night 2. Gary Hart comes out and kicks Funk for having too much pride to give up now but not 15 years ago. Hart’s bodyguard Mr. Woo puts the boots to Funk. Hart nails Funk with a chair and they leave.
Opening video.
We get brief clips of last weeks GTC Carnival Match and then see the end of Dark Fuego & Pete Wilson beating Roderick Strong & MDogg 20 Matt Cross in non-televised action.
In the opening match The Havana Pitbulls beat Los Maximos in the final match of the opening round of the GTC Carnival.
Los Maximos are backstage freaking out on the MLW webcam. Hart Foundation 2.0 show up and they all get into a heated argument and have a little scuffle. Maximos challenge them to a match in February at the six sided ring.
We go to breaking news and are told the Champion Steve Corino has challenged “The Franchise” Shane Douglas.
“The Natural One” Michael Modest beat Jerry Lynn after some help from Homicide.
Back to the breaking news guy who still hasn’t told us his name. He lets us know that Douglas is in talks with the MLW office. Maximos show up and say they were screwed over in the GTC Carnival. Then they start yelling about Hart Foundation 2.0, Sonjay Dutt and Dark Fuego. PJ Friedman says that on the War Memorial on the 13th he will be taking on Norman Smiley and he will be there to break the neck of Smiley and finish him. He will be sending a message to Vampiro by destroying Smiley.
JJ Dillion is on the phone. Dillion is officially issuing the challenge for the War Memorial to Shane Douglas.
Breaking news guy brings in Matt Martel. Martel hypes his new column on MLW.com. Breaking news guy gets word on his ear piece that Douglas has said yes to the challenge and it will be the main event at the War Memorial. The following night no DQ Samoan Island Tribe against the Extreme Horsemen.
In the main event Vampiro beat Raven in a Screwface Match.
My thoughts on the show…
I’d say skip this one. None of the matches were very good.
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Underground TV 2004-01-30 (Matches taped Reloaded Night 1 2004-01-09 & Reloaded Night 2 2004-01-10 from Tabu Night Club in Orland, Fla)
Champions
World: Steve Corino
GTC: Simon Diamond & CW Anderson
Junior Heavyweight Champion: Sonjay Dutt
A video hyping “The Franchise” Shane Douglas’ return to MLW to take on Champion Steve Corino.
Opening video
Breaking News Guy is back and this week he has a name! Sean Naes runs down some of the card for the TV tapings in two week. On the 14th Sonjay Dutt takes on Chad Collyer. Stampede Bulldogs against Havana Pitbulls. Teddy Hart versus Juventud Gurrera.
And after 12 minutes we get our first match. Los Maximos beat Norman Smiley and Julius Smokes. We see a new side of Los Maximos as they used a chair to get the victory.
Sean Naes is backstage with Teddy Hart and they talk about a Dragons Gate match. Naes wants to know how Hart is preparing for the match. Hart says he goes out and puts his life on the line every time he wrestles. Hart says him and his team will be the last ones standing in the match. Hart talks a lot about god and says that he puts his life on the line for the fans everytime he wrestles. That was a weird promo.
Just added to the show on the 14th is Raven against Justin Credible and Jack Evans versus Bobby Quance.
The Stampede Bulldogs beat the Havana Pitbulls in the finals of the GTC Carnival. In the next match. The Bulldogs earned a title match with the win.
Sean Naes hypes the taping on the 13th. Extreme Horsemen take on Stampede Bulldogs.
PJ Friedman who has apparently been training in Russia says he is going to send a message to Vampiro through Norman Smiley. I don’t understand when Vampiro and Smiley became friends.
Sean Naes is back and he lets us know that Homicide has been suspended indefinitely due to his attack on Court Bauer and interference in the Jerry Lynn Michael Modest match.
In the main event Teddy Hart was vicorious over Bryan Danielson.
My thoughts on the show…
Decent tag match with the GTC Carnival finals and a real solid main event make this one worth checking out.
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Underground TV 2004-02-06 (Matches taped Reloaded Night 2 2004-01-10 from Tabu Night Club in Orland, Fla)
Champions
World: Steve Corino
GTC: Simon Diamond & CW Anderson
Junior Heavyweight Champion: Sonjay Dutt
The in ring promo by Champion Steve Corino from before his match with “The Franchise” Shane Douglas at Genesis airs.
Opening video.
In the opening match Junior Heavyweight Champion Sonjay Dutt was the victor in a 4 way match when he pinned Puma. The other participants were Jack Evans and Chasyn Rance.
Sean Naes talk about the debut of the six sided ring in the U.S. Jose Maximos shows up and talks about how Dark Fuego is trying to make money from a gimmick his cousin used. Dark Fuego shows up and attacks Jose. He says to expect the unexpected and it’s pretty clear it’s Joel Maximos in the mask.
Low Ki and Gary Hart are in the locker room. Low Ki says he and Homicide are better then MLW. Hart tells Low Ki to not let people keep him down. Hart says he will take care of everything for Low Ki and all he needs to handle is what happens in the ring. Tonight Low Ki says he will make an example of Chad Collyer.
Sean Naes say on February 14th Terry Funk has requested time in the ring to make an announcement. Naes wonders if it’s to retire.
Low Ki dominated Chad Collyer in the next match.
A video hyping the return of Fuego Guerrero is shown.
Naes is hyping the next set of TV tapings and Matt Martel interrupts him and plugs his column on MLW.com.
Back to Low Ki and Gary Hart. Low Ki says tonight he made an example of Chad Collyer and he will continue to do the same to other members of MLW. This was pretty stupid as it was in the same spot and they were in the same clothes as the previous interview making it pretty obvious that they were filmed at the same time.
In the main event GTC Champions The Extreme Horsemen beat the Samoan Island Tribe with a little help from Steve Corino and their new manager JJ Dillion.
Hype video for next weekends TV tapings.
My thoughts on the show…
Was not a big fan of the matches on the show here and really wanted the Tribe to take the tag titles. Thumbs down here.
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Underground TV 2004-01-30 (Matches taped Reloaded Night 1 2004-01-09 & Reloaded Night 2 2004-01-10 from Tabu Night Club in Orland, Fla)
Champions
World: Steve Corino
GTC: Simon Diamond & CW Anderson
Junior Heavyweight Champion: Sonjay Dutt
We got a LOT of last weeks main event to start us off.
Opening video about ten minutes into the show.
Chris Hero defeated Chad Collyer in the opening match with the heroes welcome. Champion Steve Corino was on commentary during the match and he had a lot to say about Teddy Hart. The two have been calling each other out over the past few weeks. Corino claims that Teddy Hart is ducking him.
Chad Hart and Rich Criado beat The Shane Twins. After the match Hart was upset that Criado celebrated the victory since it was Hart that picked up the win. The two brawled to the back.
Chad Hart vs. Rich Criado ref Mickie Jay
JJ Dillion is on commentary. Criado with a leap frog and he goes down holding his knee. Hart goes near him and he pops back up and hits a nice looking brain buster. Slam and leg drop by Criado. This match is from before Dillion joined the Extreme Horsemen. Criado with a tilt a whirl slam Criado covers and puts his feet on the rope for leverage but the ref sees it. Hart comes back with a high knee. Hart covers and now he puts his feet on the rope and gets the win in 3.13.
Vampiro video package.
In six man tag team action PJ Friedman, Mike Modest, & Chris Hero defeated Bobby Quance, M-Dogg 20 Matt Cross, & Matt Martel.
Homicide and Low Ki are walking on the streets. Homicide wants to know if the rumors are true and if Terry Funk is really retiring. He says that Funk’s days are numbered.
My thoughts on the show…
Good opening match the rest was worthless. Skip it.
The aftermath
And that’s it for MLW. The taping that was supposed to happen today and the one for tomorrow were canceled and MLW closed up shop, just like that….
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MLW in Review
As a whole I’d have to say that the company was a disappointment. Just about every show looked like it should be awesome based on the card, but most of them were a huge let down. Bad matches, tons of no shows, guys showing up for one match and then disappearing, and a three month break at a time when both the World and Tag Team Championship scenes were picking up some steam. Let’s take a brief look back and go over some of my favorite performers, least favorite performers, best storylines, must see matches and finally my all-time favorite moment from MLW.
Best Performers
Mikey Whipwreck—Mikey gets the top spot from me as the guy who brought me the most joy when watching MLW. All the matches he had with the company were decent enough but it was his backstage stuff and general insaneness that gets him this spot. While being insanely cartoony during his promos it made me smile each and every time.
Samoan Island Tribe—No matter the combination Samu, Mana and Ekmo were always good for a fun beat down. Whether they were beating down Los Maximos or Ekmo was diving to the floor from the top rope it was constantly entertaining.
Teddy Hart—While only showing up for the final two MLW shows, Hart was able to put on two very solid matches and was good on commentary and had some interesting promos on TV. I was really looking forward to seeing what they did with him and the rest of Hart Foundation 2.0
Worst Performers
Los Maximos—If you have been following along with my reviews you knew this one was coming. Easily one of my least favorite tag teams off all time. They repeatedly claimed to be the best tag team in the world yet can’t put together a match that made any sense at all. Let’s not forget about the fact that almost every match they were in had tons of blown spots in it.
Christopher Daniels—My first real look at Daniels after hearing about how great he was and he did not impress me at all. I’m not sure if he really was one the of the worst in MLW or if I was just expecting so much and was so let down and that’s why he makes the list.
All the guys that showed up once then disappeared and all the guys that didn’t show up at all—MLW was trying to build a national company to fill the void left by ECW. Pretty hard to do that when you start story lines and then guys don’t show up at the next show or when you hype someone making their debut and then they never come.
Best Storylines
This is seriously a tough one as so many stories started and then stopped or were talked about on TV like they were going to happen and then never did.
Raven/CM Punk—Both of these guys are great on the mic and in the ring. Punk would improve a lot over the years but he was still “on” for his whole feud with Raven. One of the few storylines that really got to play out over time and actually had a bit of closure. I’m sure it would have continued into a three way story with Vampiro being added into the mix, but it still developed enough to feel complete when compared to a lot of the other feuds.
Best Matches
“The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Quiet Storm & The SATs from Reload 2002-09-26
Sabu vs. La Parka 1 + 2 from King of Kings 2002-12-20 and Revolutions 2003-05-09
Jerry Lynn vs. Homicide from Rise of the Renegades 2003-07-26
Sonjay Dutt vs. Jimmy Yang from Summer Apocalypse 2003-08-22
Low Ki vs. Homicide from Reloaded Night 1 2004-01-09
Steve Corino vs. Terry Funk from Reloaded Night 2 2004-01-10
My all-time favorite moment…
There were very few moments that really had me marking out. This is another hard thing to come up with. But from the very limited list in my head the number one moment from MLW is Ekmo coming off the top rope and putting B-Boy through a table on the floor. The dive onto Matt Martel was probably more impressive but this being the first one it gets the nod.
