by Hugh Zeitlin    
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

There were plenty of surprises, not to mention Holy Shit moments, throughout the show.  As I write, I'll do my best to get the story-lines up to speed.  After waiting an extra 20 minutes for the show to start, we get things going with....

A promo from the Extreme Horsemen...made up of Steve Corino (MLW Champ), Simon Diamond & CW Anderson (MLW Tag Champs), and a masked man.  The foursome was supposed to face the team of Terry Funk, Sandman, Dr. Death Steve Williams, and Jerry "the King" Lawler.  However, Corino begins the promo saying Lawler won't be at the arena, because Vince McMahon and Jim Ross pulled him off the show...

(This isn't completely true...Lawler fought Funk last month in Tampa, which he's allowed to do since he's only an announcer on RAW...however, the match showed up on MLW Underground TV 2 weeks ago, which irked the WWE heads...so now Lawler isn't allowed to wrestle on indy shows that will be televised...he still could have wrestled for MLW this weekend, but then the War Games match wouldn't make TV, and the MLW heads want to televise the match...that's your reason for the Lawler no-show)

From there, we were introduced to the newest member of the Extreme Horsemen (currently wearing a mask)...with Corino telling us he's "just so cool" and "just the right guy" for the group...off comes the mask and it's Justin Credible...only he grabs the mic, telling us he'll be known as P.J. Walker.  Simon Diamon and CW do a bit of talking, but before things wrap up, Corino says he has one last surprise for us...the "original" horseman, and out from the back comes Barry Windham!  Corino now says it's 5-on-3 tonight for War Games, and the Horsemen will shine.

Time for the wrestling...

1)  Los Maximos vs. Super Dragon and Juventud Guerrera.  Maximos and Guerrera are the "mexican" high-flyers...Super Dragon is a masked wrestler from somewhere in the U.S.  This was a solid opener, but after the long promo to start the show, the crowd was a bit over-anxious...finally getting into it as the high spots started.  Finish saw the Maximos earn the victory, as they rolled up Super Dragon (I think) for the pin.

The next 4 matches were the Quarterfinals for the MLW J-Cup Tournament, which at the end of the night would give us the first ever MLW Junior Heavyweight Champion:

2)  Tony Mamaluke vs. Sonjay Dutt.   Mamaluke is formerly of ECW, as a member of the Full Blooded Italians, while Dutt is of Indian descent, and had a really good match with Jimmy Yang not too long ago on MLW TV.  This was relatively short for an MLW match, but had plenty of high spots to get the crowd excited.  Mamaluke hit a diving somersault off the top rope, to the floor, on to Dutt...but couldn't get the victory when he got him back in the ring.  Finish saw Dutt hit an AMAZING corkscrew 360 splash for the pin, to advance.

3)  Eddie Colon vs. Jerry Lynn.  Colon is the son of Puerto Rican legend Carlos Colon...or so says the program.  Jerry Lynn is....well if you don't know who he is, there's something wrong with you.  Lynn has been playing a heel for the last several months, now calling himself the "evil f'n show", but the crowd still cheers for him.  After a relatively solid match, Lynn hit a TKO on Colon, but he kicked out at 2.  Lynn then went for his spike piledriver, but Colon reversed it.  While J.L. was stunned, Colon went to the top, hit his own twisting somersault (not as impressive as Dutt's), and picked up the victory.  This marks yet another loss for Lynn (his gimmick since being in MLW is he keeps getting "upset" by younger guys).  After the match, Lynn threw a mini-temper tantrum before leaving the arena.

4)  Jimmy Yang vs. Juventud Guerrera.  Yang recently lost to Tommy Dreamer on an episode of Sunday Night Heat...but has shown lots of promise in his MLW matches.  Once again, an excellent match as you would expect from the J-Cup tourney.  Juvy eventually would hit not one, but two Juvy-drivers...but to no avail.  Jimmy would get the upper-hand, hit yet another top rope move...his was of the corkscrew-moonsault variety!  And that was it...Yang picks up the win, and advances.

5)  "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels vs. Super Dragon.  Of all of the quarterfinals, I guess this one was the easiest match to predict.  Daniels kept control for a good part of the match...unfortunately the crowd was not completely enthused by his competition, as "boring" chants picked up during the contest.  Daniels eventually the "Test Finisher"...a.k.a. the whip around, reverse DDT looking thing.  The Fallen Angel moves on to the semis.

6)  Mikey Whipreck vs. Norman Smiley.  No longer in the J-Cup, but the crowd really picked up for this one.  I don't know what it is, but south Florida fans just love Norman Smiley.  Whipreck and Smiley exchanged bumps for a bit...the "highlight" came as Whiprerck was perched up on the 2nd ropes, between the two rings set-up...Norman came up from behind, and proceeded to give us a 2nd rope Big Wiggle.  Not long after that, Whipreck would manage a top rope whipper-snapper, and pick up the pinfall.

7)  Two no-name guys with a pretty-boy gimmick vs. a Big Samoan.  I apologize on the lack of names, but the music for their entrances was so loud, that none of us could pick up on them.  It really didn't matter though, as soon as they started to wrestle....the rest of the Samoan Island Tribe (which now includs the wrestler formerly known as Jamal, of 3 Minute Warning fame)  made their way out through the crowd, fighting with one member of Da Hit Squad...and it was announced that it was time for...

8)  Da Hit Squad vs. The Samoan Island Tribe, in a Fans Bring the Weapons -- Hardcore match.  Only one problem, none of the fans seemed to have weapons with them.  Didn't matter though, as Jamal and the other REALLY big Samoan went to the back, and came out with 2 trash cans full of stuff, including 2 VCR's, and all sorts of other goodies.  After the typical brawling, and nasty looking shots...the finish came when one of the no-name pretty boys was put on a table, that was set up beyond the guard-rail, amongst the crowd...in a spot that will look even better when I get to see it on t.v., everyone cleared out, as Jamal hit a top rope splash onto the guy...and picked up the victory.  Truly a Holy Shit spot.  They guy who took the bump seemed to be in really rough shape as he was helped to the back after it was over.  (as a total afterthought here...Francine spent the entire time on the entrance-ramp, as if she was scouting someone...not sure who)

9)  Mike Awesome vs. Joe Seanoa.  Nothing special here...Seanoa is a guy about the same size as Awesome, only a little stockier, and seems to at least be partiall Samoan.  I looked at this just as a way for them to get Awesome on the card, since he missed last month while touring Japan.  Awesome hit a leapt over the top rope for a splash onto Seanoa, who was standing on the floor.  Back in the ring, Awesome hit another splash, this time with a chair laying across Seanoa's body for the pin.

The next two matches were the Semi-finals of the J-Cup Tournament.

10)  Eddie Colon vs. Sonjay Dutt.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, this was another solid J-Cup match...nothing that stands out as phenomenal, but nothing that was unwatchable either.  The finish saw Colon missing his top rope spot, allowing Sonjay to flip him over for the pinfall.  Sonjay Dutt advances to the J-Cup championship.

11)  Jimmy Yang vs. Christopher Daniels (w/ Mikey Whipreck).  Whipreck was hilarious on the outside, as he chased after the stripper-looking ring girl...and then had to explain himself to Daniels before the match started.  Like the previous semi-final match...this was solid.  I guess these matches were going to be a little bit less that "top-shelf"...but that's only because the winners still had one more match on the night.  Yang impressed, but it was the "veteran" Daniels hitting again with the "Test-finisher" (reverse DDT), to earn the final spot in the championship match.

12)  Raven vs. Nosawa.  This match was "signed" after Nosawa joined "straight-edge" forces with CM Punk, to destroy Raven.  Raven was bald, as he obviously lost his hair vs. hair match to Shane Douglas on TNA 2 nights before.  The match went back and forth for a bit...around the 7-minute mark, the "straight-edge" ref made his way to ringside, distracting the assigned official.  This was supposed to allow Nosawa to pick up the win, but it didn't happen.  A little more ref interference led to CM Punk making his way to the ring.  However, the ref and Punk's interference backfired...Raven was able to hit the Evenflow DDT, and picked up the 1-2-3.

Following the match, Punk got in the ring and on the mic, saying he was disappointed with Nosawa...that he didn't accomplish anything that he told Punk he would do.  Nosawa then took the mic and said he didn't give a "f*ck".  While Punk had his back to the crowd.....out comes Vampiro!

13)  CM Punk vs. Vampiro.  The crowd erupted when Vampiro made his entrance, and stayed hot for this one.  It didn't take long for the two to brawl to the outside...and then into the stands.  They literally fought 3 rows up from where we were sitting...we got splattered with a Coke that Punk used over Vampiro's head.  The two eventually fought their way back into the ring.  Vampiro sitting on the top rope, as Punk climbs up, shouting to the crowd, "This is for you...assholes!"  He hits the huracarana, but Vampiro rolls through it, and rolls up Punk for the victory.  Punk is pissed, while Vampiro parties with the crowd for a bit, before they both exit the arena.

14)  Sonjay Dutt vs. Christopher Daniels, for the J-Cup...MLW Junior Heavyweight Championship.  Words can't do this one justice...it was easily the match of the night...and in the end Dutt proved to be the breakout star.   Quality wrestling with plenty of nearfalls as the contest went on.  Then, the high spots took over.  The big move of the night belonged to Dutt.  Sonjay had Daniels on the outside of the ring, when he proceeded to LEAP ON 4 SETS OF ROPES, ACROSS THE 2 RINGS, BEFORE HITTING A SOMERSAULT SPLASH ON DANIELS!!!  (the leaping was basically a semi-circle...starting in one ring and rotating around to the other ring)  Whipreck tried to interfere on Daniels' behalf, but Sonjay kicked him to the floor, then proceeded to hit his awesome corkscrew 360 for the pin!  Sonjay Dutt is your new MLW Junior Heavyweight Champion!

Following the celebration, we had a 45 minute wait while the crew (meaning all 4 people) set up the War Games cage.  I don't remember back in the day if it was a "cell" or a "cage" in WCW, but for our purposes here, it's 2 ring surrounded by a 10-12 foot high steel cage.

15)  WAR GAMES:  Rather than try to recap the cluster of events...I'll give you the order of which they entered...and any special notes along the way.  The two starters went 5 minutes, with each wrestler then entering at 2 minute intervals.

1 - CW Anderson 
2 - Sandman 
3 - Steve Corino 
4 - Terry Funk 
5 - Simon Diamond 
6 - Dr. Death Steve Williams 
7 - P.J. Walker/Justin Credible 
8 - Sabu (this was a surprise entry...he had reportedly accepted another booking and was off the show) 
9 - Barry Windham  (he hasn't gained anymore weight, which is good...didn't have to do too much in this match, so kind of hard to tell how rusty he is) 
10 - Bill Alfonso (he came out with Sabu, and said, "I may get my ass kicked, but at least I'm gonna try".)

All but the last 3 entries bled in the match.  Finish saw Funk somehow get a hold of a branding iron, light it on fire, brand Corino on his back and on his chest...he then spit the fire in Corino's face.  The MLW champ instantly fell to the ground, as if he was severly burned.  Funk put him in a spinning toe-hold, and with Corino in so much pain, Diamond called for the bell, giving the Funkin' Army the victory.  As Funk and his crew left the ring(s), all of the Horsemen sold the Corino injury...asking for medical help and such.  Eventually, Windham helped Corino to the back, as the champ kept a towel over his head and face.

Moments later, Diamond re-emerged on the entrance ramp, telling us that the Funkin' Army may have won the battle, but the Horsemen will win the war.  End of show...

Overall, a solid show...obviously 4 hours of anything like this will drain you as the show progresses, but the Ft. Lauderdale crowd was into it til the end.  If I had one complaint it would be the War Games set up itself, involving 2 rings.  I guess it's the necessary evil, but when the wrestlers are having their match in one ring, the half of the arena that isn't near the action kind of didn't pay as close attention.

Plusses:  Sonjay Dutt was awesome...in fact the whole J-Cup tournament was entertaining...the surprises (P.J. Walker, Barry Windham, Vampiro)...the atmosphere (they drew 1,500 to this show...a Smackdown house-show down here 2 weeks earlier drew just 2,500...people are digging MLW in south Florida).

Minuses:  The delay before War Games (obviously you can't fault the ring crew, they went as fast as they could...but 45 minutes is still a hell of a wait)...no Homicide (I was really looking forward to seeing him...they even had a feature article on him in the program)...and I already mentioned the ring set-up.

Once again, it was worth my money...good show...will hopefully look just as good on t.v.

That's it for now...take it easy everybody...

E-MAIL HUGH   
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