Winfree’s MLW Azteca (Ep. 2) Review 1.13.22

Alright everyone, time for the second episode of MLW’s Azteca miniseries. Last week was a pretty poor start, I’ve soured considerably on that episode after a second viewing, and I really should have rated it lower. But we can hope for a rebound tonight, though I’m doubtful given that this episode comes from the same taping event as the prior episode and the crowd being totally dead was a significant contributor to the issues.

We get a video recap last week, most notably Richard Holliday being detained by police and MLW Heavyweight champion Alexander Hammerstone getting jumped and given a modified stretcher job. For this week we open with Cesar Duran talking to the camera from his office. He welcomes us to the new year, and says the angry tweets coming his way for what happened to Hammerstone don’t mean anything. Once he put his faith in his believers, but they let his temple fall. You’re not believers, your filthy renegades. But it’s a new year with new opportunities since he’s in full control of MLW Azteca. Let what happened to Hammerstone be an object lesson, even the world heavyweight champion must bend the knee to Duran. It’s silver or lead from here on out, and he will take a hard line against anyone who doesn’t bow to his power. But even the fate of Hammerstone is secondary to the violence now that his cathedral is open, so let’s lucha. Duran is still very good in this kind of role, and I like him calling back to the people letting his temple fall.

Oh, I stand corrected from the above, we’re not using the same taping event for this one. We’re at an “underground fight club”. Commentary runs down the card, we’ve got two title matches as Alex Kane defends his Openweight title against Aerostar, 5150 defends the tag team titles, and Savio Vega takes on Pagano in a hardcore match.

We get a video promo from 5150 as they walk to the ring, they find it convenient that the Von Erich boys are coming back to work only in their home state. They call the Von Erichs entitled, 5150 comes from the concrete jungle and they’ll leave the Von Erichs bleeding. Again, the more concentrated style of this worked as only Boogie and Rivera were talking.

Match #1 – Tag Team Title Match: (c) 5150 (Danny Rivera and Slice Boogie) w/ Konnan vs. Skalibur and Black Destiny

5150 jump Destiny and Skalibur before the bell, quickly isolating Destiny. Rivera and Boogie abuse Destiny for a bit including an assisted running double stomp. Skalibur lands a knee to Rivera but Boogie cuts him off and lays in chops while River and Destiny brawl on the floor. We get a cut and come back to Destiny hitting a suicide dive then Skalibur follows up with a corkscrew plancha. Back into the ring and Destiny speeds up attacking Rivera but eats a right hand after they run the ropes. Rivera avoids a handspring attack and slaps Destiny. A clothesline from Rivera then Boogie comes in and hits a suplex after taking out Skalibur on the apron. Rivera tags back in and the champ resume abusing Destiny in their corner. Destiny fires up with chops to Rivera but Rivera hits a snap suplex to cut that momentum. Boogie tags back in and mocks Skalibur not being able to tag in then hits a falling slam before tagging Rivera. Rivera with a hilo from the apron and that gets a 2 count. Boogie tags in and keeps beating Destiny down, including a scoop slam then running elbow drop for a 2 count. Tandem offense from 5150 as Rivera tags in but they still can’t keep Destiny down. Destiny avoids a corner attack and hits a top rope drop kick and both men are down. Skalibur gets the hot tag and comes in with a flying clothesline to Boogie. Boogie catches a flying Skalibur but Skalibur slips off of his shoulders then trips Boogie down and Destiny powerbombs Rivera onto Boogie for a near fall. Destiny takes an assisted DDT then an assisted wheelbarrow suplex and Destiny is out of the picture. Skalibur tries to keep fighting but the numbers are too much, he falls to a 456 Head Crack (double stomp assisted Death Valley Driver) and the champs retain.

OFFICIAL RESULT: 5150 retained the MLW Tag Team Titles in 7:44 shown

Rating: 2.5 stars

I feel that the edit hurt this, it gave us a match that was mostly an extended heat segment for the champs. But the action when things picked up was solid.

Post match Konnan gets a mic, they just demonstrated why they’re the best tag team in the world. He tells Aerostar and Drago in the back to stop talking trash, that draws out the luchadors and we get a brawl as all four men fight to the back.

We get a video of Alicia Atout talking with Savio Vega. Vega offers to show Alicia around the island, she asks about his thoughts on Duran and Vega isn’t happy with him. Most of all he wants to get his IWA promotion back, and if he can beat Pagano Duran has said he’ll return it.

A reminder of what nZo did to KC Navarro a few weeks ago. Emilio Sparks walks up on nZo and asks him about the attack, he says he likes KC and just taught him a lesson about turning your back on anyone.

Davey Richards is here with the Opera Cup and will talk a little bit later.

In the back Emilio walks up on Richard Holliday, who brushes him off as he’s focused on looking for Alexander Hammerstone. Holliday approaches a door guarded by three masked goons, he looks to start a fight but Alicia Atout convinces that this fight wouldn’t be worth it right now. Fiery babyface Holliday is kind of growing on me.

EJ Nduka hype video follows, I’m still surprised WWE let him go as he’s physically right up their alley and can talk well enough.

5150, just Rivera and Boogie, are in the back and take umbrage with Drago and Aerostar attacking them. A masked goon walks up and delivers a note, it’s informing them they’ll defend the MLW tag team titles against Aerostar and Drago next week. That has some serious potential.

Match #2 – MLW National Openweight Title Match: (c) Alex Kane w/ Mr. Thomas vs. Aerostar

Kane easily overpowers Aerostar to begin, tossing him out of tie ups. Aerostar avoids a corner attack and lands a kick then a double corkscrew plancha from the top rope. Hurricanrana from Aerostar and Kane takes a powder. Kane heads back into the ring, Aerostar lays in strikes then gets caught in a fall away slam to put Kane back in charge. Mr. Thomas gets in a few cheap shots while Kane argues with the ref. Kane hits an overhead belly to belly suplex for a 2 count. A few strikes from Kane, he calls for the end but Aerostar flips out of a suplex and hits an enziguri. Drop toe hold from Aerostar then a meteora to the back of Kane. Kane heads out of the ring so Aerostar dives onto both Kane and Mr. Thomas. Back in the ring Aerostar heads up top but River and Boogie are here to take him out while Mr. Thomas distracts the ref. Kane locks in the Tazmission and chokes out Aerostar to win.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Alex Kane retained the Openweight title in 6:05

Rating: 2 stars

Alex Kane is very much a work in progress, and some of his current limitations showed up here. These two never quite found a groove, though given that this was also a bit of a setup for the tag team match next week there wasn’t a tremendous incentive to go all out.

Emilio Sparks tries to talk with Cesar Duran in the back, he asks about Hammerstone and what’s on Duran’s mind. Duran says you can’t find any good help these days, then a goon walks up and Duran dresses him down for his appearance. EJ Nduka comes up and also asks about Hammerstone, Duran tries to placate him and asks him to step into his office. EJ does move into the office, then Emilio tells his cameraman they’re going to find the goon.

A reminder that Bestia 666 is coming to MLW soon.

We get a video of Mads Krugger, he’s chained up and restrained by masked goons. Karlee Perez is talking to him, this is the arena where Contra showed up and says Contra will not return. Krugger acknowledges Contra is ashes, no longer his concern, all he wants now is revenge on the Judas that is Jacob Fatu. Perez calls his anger intoxicating, but he must earn his vengeance. Krugger is willing to pay any price. Perez tells him to deal with Bestia 666, and he promises to annihilate him. That match will be a Street Fight next week.

Emilio has followed the masked goon to a meeting of other masked goons, and he sends them away from a guarded staircase. It’s pretty clear the different goon is Richard Holliday, but Emilio follows him down the stairs.

Gnarls Garvin is still here in MLW, in case you’d forgotten.

To the ring for our main event. We cut to the back where we see Davey Richards down on the ground and the Opera Cup no where in sight.

Match #3 – Hardcore Match: Savio Vega vs. Pagano

Both men brought chairs to the ring, and Vega attacks Pagano as soon as the latter gets into the ring. Vega lays in stomps and punches. Vega gets a chair and starts laying in strikes. Pagano into the ropes but eats a clothesline. The small crowd is pretty pro Pagano. Pagano hits a clothesline of his own to drop Vega. Slingshot elbow drop from Pagano gets a 2 count. Pagano mocks Vega and lays in strikes. Vega hits a throat chop, then another one and starts choking Pagano. Pagano rolls to the floor and Vega follows him out. Some brawling around the ringside area, Pagano gets the better as he drives Vega’s head into a steel barrier then hits a running knee strike. Some biting from Pagano and Vega is bleeding from the head now. Pagano gets a kendo stick and both men head back into the ring. Vega lands a right hand as Pagano tries another slingshot move. Some choking from Vega, Pagano fights back and heads to the second rope then jumps to the top rope and hits a drop kick. Pagano sets Vega on the top rope then empties a small amount of thumbtacks from a bag. Pagano up top, he wants a superplex but Vega counters and drops him face first onto the tacks. Vega tries to jump at Pagano, but Pagano has a bunch of the tacks in his hand and he tosses them into the face of Vega. Pagano puts a chair on Vega, heads up top and hits a moonsault onto Vega then pins to win.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Pagano won in 8:25

Rating: 1.5 stars

This was rough, slow paced, lacking in intensity, lacking in narrative, overall a very odd choice to close the show. I liked the finish, Pagano getting dropped onto the tacks but still having the presence of mind to toss a handful of them into a jumping Vega’s face was kind of cool. But the overall action here was a pretty serious downer.

Next week we’ll hear from Jacob Fatu in addition to the aforementioned matches.

We cut to the feed from Emilio where he walks through a warehouse. There are locked doors indicating Salina de la Renta and Killshot are both here and being held. The masked goon has found the door labeled for Hammerstone and we see the champ through a small hole in the door. The goon reveals himself as Richard Holliday, who then opens the door and escorts Hammerstone out of the building as Hammerstone swears vengeance on Cesar Duran.

6.8

The final score: review Average

The 411

A much needed rebound from last week. The crowd was small but at least somewhat engaged as opposed to last week when everything was dead. The strongest match was the first with things slipping downhill from there. Fortunately the overall story development that went on here helps counterbalance that, Holliday rescuing Hammerstone plus the potential for EJ Nduka to be tempted to the dark side by Duran.