wrestling / TV Reports
Winfree’s MLW Underground (Episode 10) Review 9.12.20
Image Credit: MLW/YouTube
Loading...Hey there everyone, Winfree back again. This week on Underground we’ve got another truncated episode, the run time is just over 30 minutes. Our only listed match will be MLW World Champion Satoshi Kojima taking on Johnny Smith. Part of this match was featured on Kojima’s Anthology episode, so I’m curious to see if this will be more or less edited. Or if they actually fixed the audio syncing, which was clearly off for that match on Anthology.
Joey Styles is here to let us know what’s happening. He makes sure we know that upcoming Mike Awesome will challenge for the MLW World title, be that against Kojima or Johnny Smith pending the outcome of the main event.
Styles talks about the budding feud between Raven and CM Punk and their divergent world view and experiences. We get a Raven promo, he says he enjoyed wrestling CM Punk who he thinks has a lot of potential. He respects Punk’s convictions even if he disagrees with them, but he enjoyed beating him before and will enjoy doing so in the future. The only advice he has for Punk is to protect himself when taking the Raven Effect because eventually he’ll break his nose with it. To close he welcomes Punk to Raven’s clockwork orange house of fun.
Styles mentions that Diamond and Anderson will be presented with the tag title belts soon. We get an in person interview with Los Maximos ahead of their rematch with the Samoan Island Tribe. Joel with some Spanish, Jose does the translation for him. He says the Tribe has superb personal hygiene and are quick in the ring, they hope for a spirited contest. Not sure if that was supposed to be comedic but it fell totally flat.
Video from Simply Luscious, she says you shouldn’t assume anything about her or her appearance but you can get some answers about her at an upcoming show. Styles recaps the beat down that Paul London took at the hands of Christopher Daniels and Jerry Lynn, but London used some gimmick policy to get a 2 out of 3 match series so we’ll get a prolonged series between Lynn and London. Next Styles runs down the top ten contenders for the world title.
Re-air of Mike Awesome calling out Kojima, Awesome’s promo style is so steeped in the 80’s kind of promo it’s almost painful.
Styles talks about the upcoming Funk vs. Corino no rope barbed wire match. I’m still sick of that talking point from weeks ago, but here we are. We get a hard sell from Styles, he promises that seeing a no rope barbed wire match in person is something every wrestling fan should do and something they will remember forever.
Funk is interviewed next, he says there isn’t much difference between the original Horsemen and the EXTREME Horsemen. Every fan ever takes exception to that, but he clarifies that the originals were a bunch of assholes, and so are these ones. He can’t even understand why these three are called Horsemen, says they feel like a WWE rehash of the Horsemen. OK, that’s a legitimately sick burn from Funk. Funk says he was in the last barbed wire match in the USA against Sabu, he’s willing to go through that again to keep interference out of the equation. Funk may not be a world champion anymore, but he’s still a tough SOB and willing to crawl back into a barbed wire match with Corino.
That will finally get us to our match for the evening.
Match #1 – MLW World Title Match: (c) Satoshi Kojima vs. Johnny Smith
Circling to start, both men looking for an opening. They tie up, and I am sad to report that our audio sync issues are still present. We cut and come back to Smith down and Kojima regaining his feet. Kojima unloads with chops in the corner, then a running forearm. Up top for Kojima, and he hits a diving elbow. The audio issues seem to be sorted now, or at least are close enough to not be too jarring. Cutthroat neckbreaker from Kojima, but Smith wont stay down. Smith avoids a lariat and hits one of his own for a near fall. Smith tries another lariat, Kojima counters into a Koji cutter but he can’t get to a cover right away and that delay lets Smith kick out at 2. Kojima hits a Michinoku Driver but Smith has fighting spirit and drops Kojima with a death valley driver and both men are down.
Smith sets for a powerbomb, hits it but Kojima again kicks out. German suplex from Smith but again Kojima wont stay down. Smith tries another one but Kojima gets free and hits a lariat but the slow cover lets Smith kick out. Kojima isn’t happy about that, but Smith fires up and hits a reverse DDT called British Falls but Kojima kicks out again. Smith tries it again but Kojima counters into a northern lights suplex then he removes the elbow pad but Smith blocks the lariat for a backslide and a real close near fall. Kojima blocks a lariat, and decapitates Smith with one of his own to retain the title.
OFFICIAL RESULT: Satoshi Kojima pinned Johnny Smith at around 7 minutes shown
Rating: 2 stars
It was nice to see the audio issues mostly sorted out, but the editing down still hurts this match badly. Part of the draw and drama of the Strong Style wrestling is seeing the escalation, seeing the physicality and intensity build to the climax. Cutting that short really hurts what that style is kind of built to do.
Styles reminds us that Kojima has an upcoming match with Mike Awesome, but wonders about the toll these physical matches have taken on Kojima ahead of a beast like Awesome. We get a video package showing some MLW highlights set to Bulls on Parade to just reinforce the decade this was all done. They’re trying to sell the upcoming event more than anything. That little music video closes the episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuomPl2VIHw&ab_channel=MLW
