MLW Underground results & video: Kojima-Vampiro, Lynn-Awesome

The Big Takeaways:

• Satoshi Kojima successfully defended his MLW World title against Vampiro in the night’s main event and found out his next challenger will be Mike Awesome after his victory over Jerry Lynn.
• Fuego Guerrero (aka Amazing Red) defeated Super Crazy and Christopher Daniels in a triple threat match. 

Show Recap:

Raven opened the show to let us know there is only one week to go until he and Vampiro will meet and be on the same show. Quote the Raven nevermore.

Joey Styles welcomed us to the War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for this week’s MLW Underground before running down the card.

The cameras caught up with Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels backstage. Daniels was in his Fallen Angel character and was trying to “cleanse Lynn’s troubled soul”. He said MLW stabbed him in the back time and time again and wanted Lynn to trust him instead. Lynn said he made some good points, but he had work to do. 

Fuego Guerrero defeated Christopher Daniels and Super Crazy in a triple threat match (9:51)

This started slow but built to a fast-paced finish. Everyone took their time feeling out their opponents in the early going. Super Crazy disrespected Guerrero by sitting him in the corner while he and Daniels locked up, but he was quick to join the action as all three took turns with dropkicks, leading to an early stalemate. Daniels took the mic and told the fans to shut up while he tried to wrestle. Guerrero took out Crazy with a nice tilt-a-whirl bodyscissors as we went to a break.

Back from break, Guerrero was laying in kicks to Crazy in a style similar to Tajiri (as pointed out by Styles on commentary). He then took Daniels off the top rope with a headscissors and sent Crazy to the outside by reversing a side slam into an arm drag.

Crazy took out both men with a springboard moonsault and hit Guerrero with a big flapjack for a two count. Daniels came in and hit a ura nage and a triple jump moonsault for a two count of his own. The match started to break down as Guerrero got planted with a strong powerbomb from Crazy but Daniels broke up the count.

Guerrero finally hit a dive to the outside to take out Daniels. Crazy then joined in with a crossbody off the top rope. Back inside, Guerrero picked up the win over Crazy with a finishing sequence of an enzuigiri and standing leg sweep followed by a standing shooting star press.

After the match, Crazy tried to rip Guerrero’s mask off but he was saved by Jose and Joel, Los Maximos. 

Mike Awesome cut a promo on Lynn and took some shots at the then-WWF in the meantime. He said he just got out of the “sports entertainment detox center” last week, will no longer be politically hijacked, and his career won’t be driven into the ground anymore. He is starting his road to the top tonight with Lynn and will finish with Kojima or Vampiro. 

Mike Awesome defeated Jerry Lynn to become the no. 1 contender for the MLW World title (8:41)

After Awesome’s promo, we jumped right into the start of his match. Styles continued the WWE bashing by emphasizing they were wrestlers who found they was no place for them in sports entertainment, Awesome was not “that 70s guy”, “the fat chick thriller” or an “Alliance puppet” while he knocked down Lynn with a clothesline. Awesome continued to use his strength in the early going with Lynn only getting in a springboard crossbody in the opening exchanges.

Awesome found himself on the outside and Lynn wiped him out with another crossbody, this time to the floor. But the story of the match continued on the outside as Awesome powerfully reversed a whip and sent Lynn into the guardrail. Awesome got sent into the crowd but he quickly turned around, ran, and jumped back over the rail, taking Lynn out with him.

Back inside, Awesome took out Lynn with a slingshot shoulder block. Lynn reversed a pop-up powerbomb into a hurricanrana and then drove Awesome to the mat with a tornado DDT. Daniels then made his way out to the ring as Awesome backdropped his way out of a piledriver and then took Lynn’s head off with a big boot. He hit a sit-out Awesome Bomb for a two count.

A second Awesome Bomb was reversed into another DDT by Lynn, but Awesome suplexed him moments later to get his momentum back. He then squashed Lynn with a huge big splash off the top for another two count. Lynn slipped out the back of a running Awesome Bomb and got a school boy out of it, but Awesome popped up, knocked Lynn down, and hit his running Awesome Bomb to pick up the win and an MLW title shot.

After the match, Daniels got into the ring with a mic and told Lynn he was very disappointed in him. He listed off his recent failures: not winning the title against Kojima, losing all his matches recently, and losing here against Awesome. He said he could join forces with Daniels and rule MLW, but a stern-looking Lynn grabbed the mic out his hands and told him that he was absolutely right. He shook hands with Daniels and they both left together. 

Steve Corino then cut a promo for his upcoming match with Terry Funk, saying he is better than Funk, and Funk should be ashamed that his own brother trained Corino, and when they wake up the morning after their fight, it will be just another day at the office for Corino while Funk will be hobbling back to his ranch in Amarillo, Texas. 

MLW World Champion Satoshi Kojima defeated Vampiro to retain the title (8:25)

Vampiro did not have his usual WCW face paint here, keeping in line with the story Styles told us that he was no longer a cartoon character as he was in WCW. But, he did take offense early on and frustratingly threw a chair into the ring after being knocked out it by Kojima.

Vampiro got his act together and took control for the rest of the early going. Kojima was whipped into the guardrail and knocked a poor fan in the front row off his seat, but he recovered, suplexing Vampiro on the concrete floor and chopping him over the barrier into the crowd. They brawled through the crowd to the stage where Vampiro climbed a camera rig and hit a flying clothesline.

After a short break, we were back inside the ring with Vampiro in control. He hit a chokeslam but missed a corkscrew senton and had his hurricanrana attempt reversed into a power bomb. Kojima then hit a neckbreaker for a two count and took Vampiro down with a dragon screw leg whip.

Kojima continued to target the knee with a pair of dropkicks and another dragon screw before locking in an STF. Vampiro dragged himself to the ropes, but Kojima hit an ace crusher and a big lariat to pick up the win, a successful title defense and a ticket for a showdown with Mike Awesome. 

Speaking of Awesome, he came to the ring to give the fans a small taste of what to expect in their title match. He and Kojima began chopping each other and Awesome hit a sit-out Awesome Bomb before tossing a table into the ring. He set it up in the corner and landed a running Awesome Bomb on the champion through the table, posing with the title belt as his music played and MLW Underground went off the air. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBusymRJd7M