Welcome back to MLW Underground. This week has a shorter offering featuring clips of CM Punk’s first-time promo in the company, footage of the Extreme Horsemen, and Masato Tanaka addressing their future opponents and an awesome match between Fuego Guerrero and Cult of Daniels member Ikuto Hidaka. It was going to be a shorter episode but that’s no problem as we focus on the past and present of MLW. Let’s get into it.

Fuego Guerrero defeated Ikuto Hidaka via Zero Gravity

Fuego Guerrera with a ?️ KICK on @hidakaikuto!#MLWUnderground

?https://t.co/86cEVu11r2 pic.twitter.com/wHHZRp1WjF

— MLW (@MLW) August 25, 2020

Our first and only contest was between the rising star Fuego Guerrero (aka Amazing Red) and one of Daniels’ Disciples, Michinoku Pro’s Ikuto Hidaka. There would be no mercy shown here as Hidaka has helped kill Los Maximos and Quiet Storm the week before. They traded lock-ups then went into a series of reversals. Hidaka got the first blow with a cartwheel dropkick. A chop-off broke out and Guerrero took control with so kicks and a diving Hurricanrana. Hidaka popped-up and ate a second one that made him bail to the outside. He avoided a dive and hit Guerrero with a forearm from the apron. He tried to springboard in but got kicked out of the air and sent to the floor once again. Guerrero went for another dive but Hidaka dodged again and threw him into the guardrail. He dragged Guerrero around ringside and chopped him against another guardrail. He continued to bully Guerrero with a springboard senton then the show went into a camera cut. When it returned Hidaka launched Guerrero into the ropes and ate a vicious head kick. Guerrero hit him with a sidekick in the corner and dodged a splash to plant Hidaka face-first into the turnbuckle. Hidaka returned fire and launched Guerrero into the air and kicked him back down. The move didn’t quite connect so Hidaka nailed a basement dropkick to the neck. He hung Guerrero out on the ropes, nailed a top rope dropkick, and targeted the legs for a rolling Deathlock. He looked to pick the leg again but Guerrero answered back with an enzuigiri and hit a body-scissors bomb for two. He nailed Hidaka with a brainbuster but Hidaka tanked and dragged him off the top rope with a swinging neckbreaker. He continued with a sit-out powerbomb but only got a two-count. Hidaka got crotched on the ropes so Guerrero rushed him with a spinning heel kick and brought him crashing down with a top rope Frankensteiner. He ended the match with the Zero Gravity Shooting Star Press and claimed the victory over Ikuto Hidaka. As the only match on the show, I think it did a nice job of showing off some strong cruiserweight wrestling. It’s great to see some of the earlier days of Amazing Red’s career.

Fuego Guerrera showing ZERO respect for GRAVITY!#MLWUnderground

?https://t.co/GloLVBFkAF pic.twitter.com/RsM2eHBHVz

— MLW (@MLW) August 23, 2020

The rest of the show was made up of:

• A video package for Terry Funk vs Steve Corino set to Metallica’s “Sad but True.”
• Simon Diamond and C.W. Anderson addressing a dying breed of tag teams.
• CM Punk addressing the MLW crowd much to Joey Styles chagrin.
• Masato Tanako issuing a warning to his long-time FMW/ECW rival Mike Awesome
• Christopher Daniels and Jerry Lynn held a sermon for MLW and especially towards Paul London and Homicide
• Raven closed the show with another message for Vampiro from the set of where their fight was supposed to be, instead, he hadn’t shown so he insulted Vampiro and offered him another chance.

Pulp Fusion Recap

CONTRA Unit hijacked the end of Underground so it seems fair that Team Filthy would hijack the opening of Pulp Fusion to ask for help finding Dominic Garrini with the full-on Unsolved Mysteries theme and a $5000 reward from their sponsor. The Von Erichs learned that MLW is coming back soon. Alicia Atout tried to interview Richard Holliday again following a lawsuit threat from his lawyer/father complete with cue cards. Atout refused so Richard Holliday interviewed himself. Salina de la Renta had purchased a new helicopter and was still making new business deals. Hammerstone was trying to prepare for a potential Wrestle Island event. Injustice issued another threat to everyone stating they are still the best unit. LA Park had a fun message for everyone that I cannot repeat. The CONTRA watcher was still observing the group. The show ended with Jordan Oliver demanding title shots and Filthy Tom Lawlor once again asking for information on Garrini’s whereabouts.

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