BRM Reviews MLW War Games (horrible)

[Big Red Machine]

MLW War Games (9/19/2003)- Ft Lauderdale, FL

EXTREME HORSEMEN PROMOS- pretty good

SUPER DRAGON & JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. LOS MAXIMOS- 4.25/10

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Tony Mamaluke vs. Sonjay Dutt- 4.75/10
Good, but very short.

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Jerry Lynn vs. Eddie Colon- 5.25/10
A good match, but the fans were pooping all over it. The action wasn’t bad at all, but the fans were not into Primo at all, and thus had no interest in seeing him beat the heel Jerry Lynn.

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Jimmy Yang vs. Juventud Guerrera- 5/10

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Christopher Daniels vs. Super Dragon- 4.75/10

MIKEY WHIPWRECK vs. NORMAN SMILEY- no rating.
The match was going fine, but then the DVD just cut away to the beginning of the next match. I am giving this a “no rating” rather than a dud because it isn’t Norman and Mikey’s fault.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE WEAPONS MATCH: Monsta Mack, Matt Martel, & Richard Criado vs. The Samoan Island Tribe- no rating. Good segment.
This was pretty much an extended squash, and it made the Samoan Island Tribe look like monsters. Ekmo absolutely CRUSHES Matt Martel through a table here and he sold it perfectly. If WWE was still using career enhancement talent, he definitely could have had a career doing that. Instead, he got stuck as the second coming of Dean Douglas, with a super-lame catchphrase to boot.

SAMOA JOE vs. MIKE AWESOME- 3/10
This has always been a dream match of mine, and is the reason I bought this DVD (the tournament looked cool, but wasn’t enough to make me buy the DVD on its own), so the fact that it went just six minutes was extremely disappointing. Apparently this was also a No DQ’s match (the ref didn’t stop anyone from using weapons, but I’m not sure because there was no commentary for this match. I guess Kevin Kelly was taking a coffee break or something).

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL: Sonjay Dutt vs. Eddie Colon- 4.75/10

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL: Jimmy Yang vs. Christopher Daniels (w/Mikey Whipwreck)- 5.5/10

RAVEN vs. NOSAWA- 4/10
Short, and the referee just decides to let a few low blows go in the beginning.

AFTERMATH- decent, and transitioned well into…

CM PUNK vs. VAMPIRO- 4.5/10
Short

JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FINAL: Sonjay Dutt vs. Christopher Daniels (Mikey Whipwreck)- 6.75/10

WAR GAMES MATCH: Extreme Horsemen (Steve Corino, CW Anderson, Simon Diamond, Barry Windham, & PJ Walker) vs. Terry Funk, The Sandman, & “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, Sabu, & Bill Alfonso)- 5.75/10
Nowhere near good enough for a main event or a big blow-off, or any match with the “War Games” label
No intros, no opening bell, no nothing… we just cut to the match with Kevin Kelly talking and CW standing over a downed Sandman.
The angle going in to this match was that, through various circumstances, the heels actually had a 5-on-3 advantage, so when the ring announcer started counting for the fourth guy on the babyface team, everyone was very confused. I think it would have worked better if we all thought it was 4-on-3 going in, and, in the middle of the show, the babyfaces cut a promo claiming that they had found a fouth guy to even things up. Then, right before the match, I would have Corino cut a promo saying that if the babyfaces can add someone in at the last minute, so can his team… enter Barry Windham. Then, when it is 5-on-4 during the match, I would have had Fonzie cut his great promo and jump into the ring (which got great pop).
I have no idea why Justin Credible was using his “PJ Walker” ring name, as he had been wrestling as Justin Credible in ROH and 3PW at the time.

Overall, this show stunk. Fourteen matches in just two hours and twenty minutes? Everything on this show was too damn short. I definitely recommend that you stay away from this show.