MLW Underground results: Junior Heavyweight title tournament finals
The Halloween 2003 episode of MLW Underground featured Sonjay Dutt winning the first-ever MLW Global Junior Heavyweight title by defeating Christopher Daniels in the finals of the Super J-Cup tournament.
MLW is airing Underground once again as it prepares for its July 10th TV taping and new season in Philadelphia.
Methodically worked over for most of the match by the heelish Daniels and Mikey Whipwreck at ringside, Dutt mounted a comeback late which included an unbelievable looking somersault dive to the outside that was preceded by Dutt bouncing off several sections of ring ropes over two rings.
Daniels got in all of his key spots after working a slow, methodical style early, dismissively covering Dutt with his knee. After Dutt got a visual pin on Daniels that was negated due to Whipwreck, Dutt took out the ECW star with a pescado dive before hitting the Hindu press on Daniels for the pin and win.
The show took place in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on the same night as their WarGames match, hence the two rings.
Dutt would only defend the title one more time before the company went into mothballs for thirteen years. The title wasn’t brought back when the company rebooted. This would be Daniels’ final MLW appearance after nine matches over 2002-03.
In other action:
The aforementioned Whipwreck picked up a win over Norman Smiley following the Whippersnapper (stunner off the top rope). This was Whipwreck’s final MLW appearance after four matches.
In a bit of a mess, the Samoan Island Tribe (Samu and Ekmo, later Umaga) and Mana defeated the debuting Matt Martel (Matt Striker) and Rich Criado in a handicap, falls count anywhere match. Originally, it was Martel and Criado against Mana in a handicap match, but the SIT and Monsta Mack of The Hit Squad appeared and started brawling at ringside and the match was changed. However, Mack wasn’t announced as part of the chance even though he remained involved the entire time. Got that?
If there’s an example of the difference between pro wrestling safety in 2003 to 2021, it’s here. There were a slew of unprotected chair shots to the head and the match itself had this dangerous feel but not in a good way.
Mack went for a headbutt/shoulderblock version of the Van Terminator on Samu that looked terrible as he barely made it to the other side of the ring and the trash can was placed at Samu’s side. Earlier, the SIT put Criado in a wheelchair on the stage and rolled him off it in an ugly looking crash.
Francine came down to ringside during the match as she was said to be scouting. She disappeared and reappeared several times, but never factored into the match.
The match ended when Ekmo hit a splash on Martel who was laid out on a table to the floor, leading to a ref stoppage. Martel did a great job selling the impact.
Other stuff:
- Joey Styles wore various lucha masks through his on-camera segments because it was Halloween.
- The Samoan Island Tribe were announced as getting a Tag Team title shot against the Extreme Horsemen (CW Anderson and Simon Diamond) at the November ’03 King of Kings show.
- Coming out of WarGames, the Extreme Horsemen’s Barry Windham was announced as taking on Sabu which should be something to see.
- Even though he was in an angle with CM Punk and Raven, Vampiro apparently had left MLW but Styles said Punk vs. Raven was coming up soon.