Welcome back to MLW Underground. It’s another short episode this week featuring an MLW World Heavyweight title match from All-Japan Pro Wrestling as Satoshi Kojima takes the belt home to defend against the masterful Gaijin Johnny Smith. Alongside that, we’d have more words from Los Maximos, Raven, and the continuation of Terry Funk vs The Extreme Horsemen with teases to something massive. Not to mention, we’ll check in with the MLW stars of today through Pulp Fusion. Let’s get into it.

A truly interactive fan experience on #MLWunderground!

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— MLW #TheRestart (@MLW) September 13, 2020

In This Episode:

• Raven hyped up a rematch with CM Punk and put him over as an interesting opponent. He praised Punk for sticking to his ideals, even if he thought it was dumb. Raven was looking forward to kicking his ass again.
• Los Maximos had some strong words for their upcoming opponents the Samoan Island Tribe. They’d already suffered multiple beatings from the Tribe, could they prevent another?
• Simply Luscious introduced herself to the MLW audience with a promo.
• An updated Top 10 list for contenders to the MLW World Heavyweight Championship. Number 1 was still Mike Awesome who had some enthusiastic words for his upcoming opponent.
• Terry Funk ran down the Extreme Horsemen once again. He took shots at both generations of Horsemen and was ready to murder Steve Corino in an upcoming no-rope barbed-wire match.
• A clip-show of the biggest hits of the Underground era set to Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade.”

 MLW World Heavyweight Title: Satoshi Kojima defeated Johnny Smith via Lariato

.@cozy_lariat attempts the lariat but Johnny Smith counters it with a lariat of his own!#MLWUnderground

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— MLW #TheRestart (@MLW) September 12, 2020

Originally reviewed here. What to say about this match? It felt like the main event with an exceptional clash of styles as British catch as catch can took on Japanese Strong Style. It’s great to see that even in the old days of the League they were forming connections with companies overseas and boosting the stock of their champion and their belt. Not to mention the match itself was a pretty enjoyable experience. Smith and Kojima had a very competitive match that took both to their limits. Smith was able to withstand many of Kojima’s heavy strikes and answered back with a ton of his own. It was exactly what you’d want from a main event title match, even if it was being streamed to MLW by satellite. It’s a shame it was the only match on the card as I imagine having to sit through 20+ minutes of ads and promos killed some of the enthusiasm to watch the actual match. It’s definitely worth a watch and the clips of it they show clocks in at about 10 minutes of competitive stiff fighting.

Pulp Fusion Recap

The Dynasty’s Richard Holliday and Alex Hammerstone made a competition about who would have the best tan for The Restart with some very high stakes. King Mo reminded us he knocked out Low Ki. Konnan once again threatened Salina de la Renta. De La Renta fired back at Konnan teasing the audience with an answer to just what Konnan has on her… next week. Kevin Ku welcomed a return of violence to MLW. Logan Creed promised to start the Age of the Heathens, demolishing everyone in his path, regardless of faction. The Von Erichs were hard at work training and we got a history lesson on the link between the Von Erichs and MLW. Alicia Atout alerted the MLW audience to the BS Richard Holliday’s lawyer/father was trying to pull to prevent her from coming back to the States for the restart. Injustice fired back at Brian Pillman Jr’s attack and told him he could have had the title match if he cut the weight. Jordan Oliver then reminded everyone that he’s a main-eventing heavyweight now.

As you can see, things are hotting up and with the restart looming ever closer and MLW hinting at new blood coming to the company, the hype just continues to build. MLW are looking to come back better than ever and I hope they once again offer both Pagano and Dickinson deals, as they had before the pandemic, because both would be insanely good additions to the company.

All images courtesy of MLW Twitter Videos courtesy of MLW YouTube