MLW Underground report: Sabu vs. La Parka

Big takeaways:

La Parka levelled the score with Sabu as he picked up the victory tonight in their heavily hyped re-match. Los Maximos came face-to-face with their attackers, The Samoan Island Tribe, but fell short as they were overpowered and outweighed by their larger opponents.

Joey Styles welcomed us to the show and hyped up to the two main stories of the evening: the rematch between Sabu and La Parka, and Los Maximos who will be confronting their mystery attackers from a few weeks ago.

Speaking of Los Maximos, we cut to them as Joel and Jose told us that tonight they will call out their attackers and said they are all about action, and they hope their attackers have the “cojones” to show up.

The Samoan Island Tribe (Samu & Mana) defeated Los Maximos (Jose & Joel) (07:10)

Los Maximos had their names on their trunks which helped identify these identical twins, but it couldn’t help them overpower their much larger opponents and after a spirited effort, eventually fell to the Samoans’ size and strength.

Jose took out the Samoans with a tope con hilo as they made their way to the ring. Inside he dropped a top rope elbow on Samu, but the younger Samoan Mana soon overpowered his two smaller opponents and squashed them both during a “whisper in the wind” attempt.

The Tribe then singled out Joel and took their time beating him down. Styles told us of Samu’s WWF tag title lineage and also the team being related to WWE’s 3 Minute Warning (Umaga/Jamal and Rosey- Roman Reigns’ brother).

Joel tried to rally, but instead of tagging in his fresher brother, he climbed to the top rope and was caught in mid-air in a Samoan drop from Mana. Moments later, he did get his top rope wish by catching Samu with a moonsault.

After getting the hot tag, Jose ran wild hitting a missile dropkick and a step-up crossbody off the top rope, but he then made a pro-wrestling mistake 101- he tried to headbutt not only one Samoan, but two of them. So of course, as any historian would tell you, the Samoan’s have the hardest heads of all the wrestling heads in the world, so no-sold it and walloped poor Jose with some of their own.

Mana then knocked down Jose and placed him on the top turnbuckle before squashing him with a top rope Samoan drop for the win.

Backstage we had a promo from La Parka, but he was blind-sided and attacked by not only Sabu, but also the Cuban Assassin Fidel Alfonso. After the attack Styles told us the Assassin is actually the larger and more muscular brother of Sabu’s manager Bill Alfonso.

Joey Styles then changed our focus to the tag team division and let us know that CW Anderson and Simon Diamond injured PJ Friedman last week, rupturing his orbital bone, separating his shoulder and injuring his knee. We then heard from Anderson and Diamond, who told us that they did what they said they would do, win the MLW tag team titles and resuscitate a dying division. Anderson said that in a blue-chipper there is always a weakness, and for Friedman, it was his leg.

CM Punk was back again this week, telling us that he is straight edge and better than us. He said it was his destiny to win the MLW World title and he is the one guy everyone should be afraid of in MLW.

We then heard from the Samoan Island Tribe backstage after their victory earlier in the night. They were saying they should have been in the tag team tournament and were about to go name their next opponents before Los Maximos jumped them. Similar to their match, however, the Samoans overpowered their opponent and beat them down. I’m pretty sure at the end of their beatdown Samu told the camera and warned the locker room to get ready because everyone is about to get “teabagged”.

The heavyweight title rankings were back this week. Jerry Lynn remained in #10, #9 was Christopher Daniels (dropping one spot since last week), Paul London was up one spot to #8, #7 was Masato Tanaka (dropping from #3 last week), #6 was La Parka (no change), #5 Raven (no change), #4 was Sabu (up from #7 last week) Steve Corino was up one spot to #3, #2 Terry Funk (no change), and #1 was Mike Awesome (no change). 

We then saw some Mike Awesome highlights including him powerbombing champion Kojima through a table in the corner of the ring, then also powerbombing Masato Tanaka out of the ring and through another table on the outside.

We then saw highlights from the previous meeting of Sabu and La Parka from the Mexican Massacre match from the War Memorial Auditorium, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, from December 2002. This was previously covered in the Anthology episode for La Parka.

Sabu defeated La Parka

Parka threw a chair at Sabu’s face before the bell even rang, and that would have normally set the tone for the rest of the match, but they actually began with some chain wrestling as they both tried to gain the early upper hand. Parka locked in an early camel clutch that Sabu escaped from, and rightfully so with it being one of his signature holds, and moments later to rub salt in the wounds he locked in his own version on Parka.

They both found themselves on the top rope. Parka was shoved off, but landed on his feet on the apron but he was still able to clothesline Sabu into the ring, missed but rolled through a slingshot but then ate a tornado DDT from Sabu. A second DDT was dodged and Parka hit a spinning heel kick.

Parka then launched Sabu head first over the guard rail and into the first row. The crowd scattered as Parka hit him with a chair to the head, whipped him into the rail and then flew off the top rope and into the crowd and onto Sabu with a huge crossbody. “The Extreme Chairman” then set up a table at ringside and rocked Sabu with another chair shot to the head. Parka then set up Sabu to spear him from the apron and into the table, but as he ran, Sabu hit him with a dropkick to the knees that sent Parka head over heels over the top rope and through the table.

Sabu then got a pair of scissors and went to work stabbing Parka in the forehead and ripping his mask away before dumping him into the crowd. Alfonso then threw a chair to Sabu in the ring and Sabu then hit his chair assisted top rope cross body into the crowd on top of Parka.

Parka was bleeding heavily from his forehead as he slowly made his way back into the ring. Sabu pummelled him on arrival and went back to work on his forehead with the scissors. Parka hit a standing enzuigiri before setting up Sabu in a tree of woe and dropkicked a chair into Sabu’s face.

Parka then missed a spear in the corner and fell to the outside, only to be squashed by a somersault plancha over the top rope by Sabu. Alfonso then helped set up another table at ringside for Sabu to hit his chair assisted Arabian face-buster from the top rope and through the ringside table.

Sabu came off the top rope, but ate a boot to the face for a two count. Parka went up top, but Sabu caught him and hit a springboard hurricanrana from the top rope and crushed him with an Arabian facebuster. Regardless, Parka kicked out. A triple jump moonsault moments later sealed the deal and won the match for Sabu.

La Parka defeated Sabu (with the Cuban Assassin) (05:38)

La Parka came out dressed as a cross between Rocksteady from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and an orc from Lord of the Rings. Luckily it was just an entrance mask and he was back to his usual family-friendly skeleton attire for this one.

Similar to their first bout, this one started with a couple of minutes of chain wrestling after Parka had danced and played the guitar with his steel chair. Sabu tried a cross arm breaker and a leg lock but Parka powered out each time.

The action spilled to the outside where Sabu threw a chair into La Parka and sent him into the first row. Sabu then hit Air Sabu from the ring into the fans which got a nice pop from the audience.

Back from a break Sabu hit his triple jump moonsault but only got a two count. He lay Parka on a table but while Sabu was climbing the ropes, Parka got off the table, hit the interfering Assassin with a chair and laid him on the table instead, all of which Sabu missed as he came off the top and crushed his companion with a legdrop through the table. La Parka then climbed to the top and hit his corkscrew off the top, connecting his heel with Sabu’s skull to pick up the victory.