MLW Underground results: Sabu vs. Christopher Daniels spike match

As they take a break ahead of their new season starting in July, MLW began another turn back to 2003 with another Underground show, headlined by a spike match between then-rival Sabu and Christopher Daniels.

We are on the road to War Games where the Extreme Horsemen (Steve Corino, CW Anderson and Simon Diamond) are taking on The Funkin’ Army (Terry Funk, Steve Williams, Sandman, and Jerry Lawler.) Sabu and Bill Alfonso would later replace Lawler on Funk’s team, while Barry Windham and PJ Walker joined the Horsemen team. The episode opened with a recap from the last episode where Funk took on Lawler and the twisting tale when Lawler and Funk united to fight off the interfering Horsemen.

We then heard from the Horsemen who hyped up the match in typical Horsemen fashion, talking down the legends and saying they will put them out to pasture.

Funk and Lawler (flanked by Sandman and Williams) retaliated with a pre-taped promo after their bloody battle the week before. Lawler pointed out Funk’s blood on the floor, saying it was still wet from their fight but they are already talking about teaming up in War Games. Lawler said he is willing to put 20 years of problems behind him for one night. A bloodied Funk said he will never forget “the eye” but that when going to war, you need “a pervert, a crazy son of a bitch, a thief, and a liar” but doesn’t think they have any of them. What they do have are four mean “son of bitches” that will get the job done.

The Samoan Island Tribe (Ekmo & Samu) defeated Monsta Mack & B-Boy

Ekmo is the late Umaga of WWE fame.

This was supposed to be a falls count anywhere match between Da Hit Squad (Mack and Mafia) and the S.I.T., but the story was that Mafia was attacked in the parking lot by the S.I.T. B-Boy was his replacement for the night, so there were no doubt as to who was taking the pinfall.

They quickly started brawling through the crowd where Ekmo and Samu dominated. Back in the ring, Ekmo sent Mack face first into a chair and hit a twisting slam. Mack and B-Boy used low blows to get back into it, but only for a brief moment. Samu hit B-Boy with a chair and Ekmo caught Mack coming off the ladder. Samu then set B-Boy on a table at ringside, leading to Ekmo splashing poor B-Boy from the top rope all the way through the table to the floor to pick up the dominant win.

— Sabu and Alfonso spoke ahead of their match with Daniels. They showed Sabu’s Daniels-inflicted injuries, but called Sabu the spike master with some foreboding threatening to spike Daniels’ eye out.

— CM Punk taunted Raven about joining WWE with his gimmick and having mediocre matches with all his merchandise. He called WWE a circus and took a dig at a certain 350-pound guy named something only a comedy writer would laugh at. He said he then slipped back into his old ways of drinking, drugs and “rats,” lost that job and ended up in MLW. Punk then revealed NOSAWA as the new man in Punk’s straight edge society and would face Raven at War Games. Raven verbally retaliated later on, promising to beat “Punk’s flunkie” like he did with Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie in ECW.

Homicide defeated Jerry Lynn (w/ Sinister Minister)

Homicide already had a win over Lynn and this was the second match in the young lion’s series: someone without an MLW contract (the young lion) had to beat an established MLW employee in a best of three series to win a contract.

Earlier, the Minister said Homicide got lucky against Lynn the first time they faced each other, adding the old lion will brutalize and kill the young lion and establish him as the king of the jungle. Lynn then got serious with a low grumbling voice and said Homicide was about to set foot in his dark domain. A pent-up Homicide later shouted there were no more young lions and tonight will be the rise and destruction of all his opponents before punching his own locker.

We came back from an early break and were reminded of no disqualifications in MLW as Homicide bulldogged Lynn into the timekeeper’s bell. Homicide was busted open (no idea how) and was on the receiving end of a TKO. Moments later, Homicide rolled Lynn up with a half nelson and got the quick win out of nowhere. Afterward, Lynn hit a cradle piledriver and came off the middle rope, driving the bell into Homicide’s neck.

Backstage, Sonjay Dutt said he was entering the junior heavyweight tournament as the number 1 junior heavyweight in the world.

Sabu (w/ Bill Alfonso) defeated Christopher Daniels (w/ Sinister Minister) in a spike match

This match came before their loser must leave MLW for 60 days match. Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song” introduced Daniels before an injured Sabu came out with a cast on his left arm, but showed no sign of letting that get in the way between he and Daniels.

The rules of the spike match: pinfall or submission with either combatant being able to use a spike that was hammered into a table in the aisle. Alfonso said Sabu was suffering from a torn bicep and 27 stitches under his cast.

We came back from an early break with Daniels hitting two triple jump moonsaults before the spike was brought into action. They teased using it, but Daniels locked Sabu in a head and neck submission with his leg. It was clear Sabu was limited with his arm injury as Daniels was flying all over trying to cover for Sabu’s limitations.

Daniels took his time on the top rope which let Sabu knock him into the ring, followed by a Sabu suicide leg drop, all with only one arm. With Alfonso’s help, an Arabian face crusher (chair assisted suicide leg drop) through a table followed.

Whipwreck interfered and tried to light the fire paper used a few weeks ago (in the 2003 timeline), but Alfonso doused him in water before he could light it. Sabu then used the spike on Daniels’ forehead four times before getting him in the camel clutch and forcing the spike into Daniels’ eye which caused him to quit.

Final Thoughts:

Originally airing the same night he had his last tag match with Frankie Kazarian in AEW, Daniels showed how good of a wrestler he is (and was in 2003) by dragging Sabu to an exciting match when Sabu was clearly limited. He flew around on offense to keep the crowd happy and set himself up perfectly for Sabu’s trademark spots. He even ran full force at Sabu to take the spikes to the forehead before the finish. Now that is dedication.

I would have liked to have seen more of the heavily edited Lynn vs. Homicide match, but the opening tag match was a great chaotic way to open the show.

Speaking of that opening, we didn’t get the best Terry Funk promo he ever cut, but it was one to remind us of how crazy he could be (as if we needed reminding). On the contrary, Punk’s promo on Raven was intelligently thought out, personal and to the point. If you were jumping into this episode, you would immediately know and understand the beef between he and Raven.