Welcome back to MLW Underground. This week things get kicked up a notch as we see Dr. Death and his protégé in tag action, a no DQ madness fest between hardcore legend Terry Funk and Chris Candido and an MLW Title Fight between Satoshi Kojima and Jerry Lynn. All this fills out a fun 50 minutes of wrestling as MLW builds its Tag Team tournament. Plus, we get the Pulp Fusion Recap as always. Let’s get into it.

Dr. Death Steve Williams & PJ Friedman defeated Afterburn & Giovanni Jabroni via Backdrop Driver

First up, we got a preview of one of the teams in the tag tournament as Steve Williams and his protégé PJ Friedman made easy work of Afterburn and Jabroni. I mean, did you expect anything different since one of the jobbers had Jabroni in his name? Friedman bullied Afterburn with technical and striking prowess whilst Williams nearly killed Jabroni with a Doctor Bomb. There was a cut as Williams was tagged in so some of the action is missing but I assume it was just more kicks and strikes against the jobber team. Afterburn broke the pin up on the Doctor Bomb so Friedman nearly broke his neck with a Dragon Suplex. Dr. Death killed Jabroni with a Backdrop Driver and the match was over. A very quick, very dominant performance for Dr. Death and his protégé. Their match faded into the tag tournament brackets as we learned they would take on Mike Sanders and Jimmy Yang in the first round and The Extreme Horsemen would be taking on Loz Maximos.

Terry Funk defeated Chris Candido (w/Tammy Sytch) via Roll-Up

After the tag action, we got a hardcore gem. Terry Funk was out to spill Chris Candido’s blood in no DQ action. This match was expected to go everywhere and it did not disappoint. There was nothing friendly here as from the get-go Funk and Candido were scrapping and ignoring the ref. Funk got into Candido’s head by continuously outsmarting him and countering his offence. Funk continued to wind up Candido as they traded whips and breaks. Funk brought down some elbows and a flustered Candido escaped an abdominal stretch and tried to fire back some jabs of his own. He missed and got a mouthful of Funk’s knuckles. Sytch helped Candido get the advantage and he chopped Gunk against the ropes. The fight spilled outside as Candido buried Funk under the timekeeper’s table, slammed his head off it, then introduced Funk to the ring post. Candido then chopped him against the guardrail, hammered at an open cut on Funk’s face, and threw him into the crowd. The fight continued into the crowd where Candido continued to go after the cut with more strikes and bites. Funk tried to fight back but he was blinded by blood and knocked off the apron by exhaustion and Candido. Sytch strangled Funk on the floor as Candido admired his handiwork then went back to the head of Funk yet again. Funk surprised everyone by suplexing Candido over the ropes to the floor then threw him over the guardrails into the crowd. Funk gave chase and hit a Piledriver onto the floor amongst the fans. Candido crawled to the ring, was hit by a DDT then promptly bailed back outside again. Funk beat him towards the ramp and dropped him onto it with a Brainbuster.

A camera cut later and Candido once again had the advantage and threw a ladder into the ring. He set Funk on the top rope but Funk answered back with some headbutts and sent Candido back first onto the ladder. Candido kicked out of the Texas Toe Hold and dropped Funk with a Suplex. He hit a diving headbutt onto Funk but only got two. Candido tried for a second diving headbutt, this time off the top of the ladder but completely missed and was greeted by a series of jabs from Funk. Candido was thrown to the floor again so Sytch came in and hit a nutcracker on Funk. He didn’t take this lying down and dropped her with a DDT and after doing something rather obscene, set up for a piledriver. Candido made the save with a chair shot to the back and tried to kill Funk off with a Hangman’s neck breaker. Thinking this wouldn’t be enough, he set up some chairs but a defiant Funk woke up and hit his own Hangman’s neck breaker onto the chairs. Funk went for the Texas Toe Hold again but Candido punched out of it. They traded jabs and Funk rolled through a Small Package to snag a roll-up win. A livid Candido KO’ed Funk with a Piledriver for stealing the win and sauntered off. This was a bit of an odd match but it was fun to watch and despite the lack of pace, hit exceptionally hard. The Sytch shenanigans were pretty crude but, other than that, this was a serviceable Funk no DQ match.

Satoshi Kojima defeated Jerry Lynn via Lariato

Originally reviewed here. This match was a masterpiece of old school hybrid. Kojima had a fire lit under him by the veteran savvy and determination of Jerry Lynn. After a very back and forth fight full of near falls and frights, we saw Kojima get the big win and become the MLW Heavyweight Champion. Either man could have won here and the crowd would have been happy. To see Lynn and Kojima slug it out in front of a hot crowd could very well become a definition of a main event. There’s not much I can add that wasn’t in the original review. This was a defining match for MLW that saw them crown an international title with an international belt that would travel the globe… and it was damn fun to watch too. A lot of drama and high stakes added an extra layer of depth to an old school dream bout.

Pulp Fusion Recap

Last but not least, we take a trip into the daily lives of MLW’s stars as they prep for the eventual return of MLW. CONTRA Unit opened the broadcast by celebrating their conquests and promised they were far from done with their conquest of MLW. King Mo was leveling more insults at Low Ki for his stance on masks, Tom Lawlor left for Hawaii, Richard Holliday opened up about how angry his lawyer/father was and his intention to sue Mance Warner and his bear, Zenshi was hard at work training and wanted to become an MLW champion, Jordan Oliver claimed to be coming for Fatu’s belt without fear, Konnan had another warning for Salina de la Renta about the people she has double-crossed and how they are looking for her, Gino Medina wanted the interviewer to take more COVID precautions, Myron Reed reminded people he was the Middleweight Champ and that he wants the smoke, Hammerstone was prepping with his coach (his dog) for the bodybuilding invitational, Los Parks were questioning LA Park over Salina’s cryptic secret but he had no idea what it could be. Lastly, we got another message from Salina herself as she warned Konnan to back off or she had a little secret of her own to expose about him. We will continue this next week as we go back to MLW Underground.

All images courtesy of MLW, MLW Twitter Videos courtesy of MLW YouTube

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