October 5th, 2018
Low-Ki kills it yet again with his narrating, recapping the Konnan vs. Salina De La Renta feud, and it escalates tonight with the Mexican Massacre match between LA Park and Pentagon Jr.
Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini welcome us to the show, and hype tonight’s main event. Also tonight is ACH taking on Davey Boy Smith Jr, and Simon Gotch will host another edition of his Prizefight Challenge.
MJF and Aria Blake meet with Salina De La Renta in Puerto Rico! MJF heard that Salina had bounty hunters, and Low Ki says he can provide a solution for MJF…
Ricky Martinez w/Salina De La Renta vs. Jake St. Patrick
While nothing special, this was another quality outing for Ricky Martinez, before he gets a real step up in competition. Jake St. Patrick was your typical jobber, but looked to have some potential. I’m interested to see how long Martinez lasts with Salina, while the pairing is cool, Martinez isn’t your typical luchador, or “bounty hunter” that Salina is looking for. Either way, he could have some fun matches in the future, but we’ll see when we get to that point.
Winner: Ricky Martinez
Match Rating: NR
Tom Lawlor has sent in a video, hyping up his match with Shane Strickland in 2 weeks. Lawlor is fighting for his hopes and dreams, with his biggest dream being to hold the MLW World Title. He’s been putting in the work 24/7, 365 days a year, and Strickland will be facing the best of the best. These video packages have been quite good to hype up the big “Ace of MLW” match, which should be insane.
Simon Gotch has raised the purse to $2,000 for his Prizefight Challenge. He wants the best, and is ready for anyone.
Prizefight Challenge: Simon Gotch w/Team Filthy vs. Gangrel
I’m not a big fan of Gangrel being the one to accept the challenge here, especially with the finish. Out of anyone you could choose, why Gangrel? We knew this would be short, and that’s exactly what we got. Gotch attacked early, but Gangrel countered, but ultimately ended up in the rear naked choke. Gangrel used his “fangs”, but that got his disqualified, so Gotch picked up the win. Can you spell F-I-L-L-E-R?
Winner: Simon Gotch
Match Rating: NR
ACH is interviewed, and calls the actions of the Hart Foundation unprofessional, along with calling them bullies. ACH is ready for a fight!
On the Halloween Special (October 26th), Sami Callihan will take on Jimmy Havoc in the “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” match. Sami Callihan is hyped for the match, because he is the most dangerous wrestler walking the planet today, and there’s so many options for him to destroy Jimmy Havoc. This match will go down in history as the most violent match in MLW history, let’s hope for that, and not another edition of the Boiler Room Brawl.
The first update for Fightland (the November 8th show in Chicago) is here, as they announce Shane Strickland getting his rematch for the MLW World Title against Low Ki and Rush making his MLW debut.
ACH vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
No clue why ACH was jobbed out here, as you’re putting over a guy who no one really cares about. Davey Boy Smith Jr. is EASILY the least intriguing man out of the Hart Foundation, but he gets to beat ACH in 2 minutes? There wasn’t much to this, and this honestly should’ve never happened. Poor ACH.
Winner: Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Match Rating: NR
Konnan is interviewed, but is quickly interrupted by Salina De La Renta. Salina thanks Konnan for letting her sacrifice Pentagon with LA Park. Konnan has been in jail with LA Park, drunk with LA Park, and he knows him inside out, unlike Salina. They argue in Spanish as we go to commercial break.
Rush’s MLW debut is hyped up.
Mexican Massacre: Pentagon Jr. w/Konnan vs. LA Park w/Salina De La Renta
While not a true “Massacre” like they hyped it up to be, this was a good main event, full of some solid action, an invested crowd, and overall served its purpose. LA Park is pretty slow, and quite sloppy at times, so it was questionable for him to work a 15 minute main event. You could really see Pentagon carrying the match in terms of calling spots in the ring, but this was still fun. The finish was very odd, as the fireball spot came out of nowhere and was sloppy, then the referee busisness felt weird. Pentagon attacked the ref, then LA Park hit a low blow, and the referee did a fast count to 3. Weird ending, but the spear off the top rope through a table spot was awesome and made up for it.
Winner: LA Park
Match Rating: ***1/4
LA Park does some Spanish talking, as Salina translates and says LA Park wants a Tag Title shot. Pentagon gets on the mic and accepts, it’ll be the Lucha Bros vs. LA Park and Hijo de LA Park in Chicago.
Final Thoughts:
MLW usually has a squash match or two on each show, but this show was totally filled with them, and you wouldn’t miss a thing by skipping through the first 30 minutes of the episode. The Ricky Martinez squash made sense, and was probably the only one that belonged. Gangrel appearing was fine, but his usage was stupid and made Simon Gotch look weak. Speaking of looking weak, don’t even get me started on ACH. What could’ve been a fun, and good singles match between ACH and Davey Boy was a squash, making ACH look like a complete loser. The main event was fun, but LA Park held it back from being great. Still, it’s awesome that we’re seeing LA Park matches in 2018, so I can’t complain. This was the definition of a one match show, and if it wasn’t for the main event, would’ve been totally skippable (arguably still is).
Final Rating: 4.0/10