MLW Worth Watching: Gringo Loco! Stunt! Familia Park! Lucha Bros! Ace!

Gringo Loco vs. Marko Stunt  MLW Fusion #32 11/8 (Aired 11/23/18)

ER: This was clearly designed to be a Marko Stunt showcase, and that's definitely the type of guy they should be bringing in and featuring, but I'm happier that the fed was smart enough to be in Chicago and bring in Gringo Loco as a base. That shows me that whomever is running this thing has a good head on their shoulders. I don't know if there is a base in the Chicagoland area that is going to give Stunt a more impressive showcase. This whole thing was worked like a Nitro lucha match, only with Schiavone actually talking about the wrestlers in the ring. Loco flies all around the ring setting up Stunt armdrags, and they do a killer Stunt rana off the top to the floor, which - even with a guy like Stunt who is 120 lb. - always looks impressive. Stunt leaping off the top to the floor onto Loco's shoulders, and we get that brief pause as the pendulum swing of momentum throws Loco. I love it. Loco is really fast and agile for a chubby guy, and really we need he and Steve Pain to just be permanently in NXT as a team. Team Base Gods. Loco really doesn't get a lot of offense, a press slam into a standing moonsault and then a gently overshot moonsault, then a missed corkscrew moonsault. But he wasn't in there to hit offense, he was there to convincingly get tossed around by a tiny human, and that he did.

LA Park/Hijo de LA Park vs. Fenix/Pentagon Jr.  MLW Fusion #33 11/8 (Aired 11/30/18)

ER: There's a lot to like in this match, just as there is an awful lot more to dislike, and yet more to really dislike. Pentagon is just Cero Interes at this point. He'll take a dumb bump and do a dive, and the rest of the time he can't even be bothered to sell or do anything other than his catchphrase. There were many moments here where he was just sitting on the apron or slumped in the corner watching the action, either completely unable to keep active in any way, or just completely uninterested in doing so. This match goes long, too long to keep Pentagon interested when he's not eating up nearly 30 seconds slowly signing his catchphrase (I counted the seconds, my time was appropriately wasted), but Fenix likes eating up time by making up new combos and ways to fly at his opponent, and Park always seems to try weird new things if he's given the time to do so, so both of those things happen and work. Park and boy are wearing their great skeleton leather jackets, and Hijo is wearing the legitimately great blue/red/gold aesthetic. That is a majestic color scheme and makes me gloss over those annoying parts of Hijo matches where there's always a 1-2 second delay between his opponents getting into position for a move, and him doing the move. He's got cold feet or trust issues or something, always leaving guys hanging before any flying move. We get a stubborn table that stands up to Park powerbombing Pentagon and Pentagon powerbombing Hijo, Park laughs at Pentagon's chops that he builds to by taking an eternity to remove his glove, Hijo hits a cool Spanish Fly variation while his pops is holding onto Fenix up top, everyone hits dives (hearing Schiavone flip his lid for Park's fat boy dive was great, as he had spent all match politely tip toeing around the fact that Park was smaller in WCW and Schiavone still sounds somewhat reluctant to believe that this is the same wrestler from WCW) and Fenix caps off the match with his whip fast tope con hilo that sends him into the crowd, Park hits a big spear on Pentagon...basically all the good was really good. But in addition to 2018 Pentagon working like 2018 Pentagon, we got a lonnnnnng and not very interesting Fenix/Hijo circle jerk (...straight line jerk?) where they just hopped around and did flipping piledrivers and other bullshit that apparently doesn't hurt that bad. I liked a lot of this and hated a lot of this. LA Park is eminently watchable. We'll go with that.

PAS: Park ruled in this as usual, he hit his awesome tope, wailed on guys with chairs, threw a crazy headbutt that looked like it legit dimmed his own lights, any time he was doing anything it elevated an otherwise weak sauce match. He also took his belt off and waylaid people, and then ended up eating a receipt belt shot to the mush. There were also some really cool Fenix highlights, with crazy speed on all of dives and a nice spin kick. Still this was at least half stinker, just goes way too long, including some long El Hijo Del LA Park showcase moments which showcased how much he has to learn. He really brought out the worst in Fenix. If this was a bit shorter and PARK had a better kid, this could be something great, instead it was just something OK.

Ace Romero vs. Marko Stunt  MLW Fusion #34 11/8 (Aired 12/7/18)

ER: I'm a big fan of the fatties and they don't come fatter in wrestling these days than Romero. I also like big/little matches and it will be tougher to find anyone bigger than Ace and anyone smaller than Stunt. On paper this looked like a fun mismatch on a Coliseum Video that I'd be excited about even though I knew it likely wouldn't be good ("Oooooooo Giant Gonzalez vs. Doink!"), but it's plenty fun. I don't really buy Stunt yet - couldn't be happier for his "overnight" success and am sad he got taken out so suddenly with a rough injury - but I don't think I've seen him do something that actually looks like his opponent should be selling it. I understand there's going to be some implausibility in play with a guy Stunt's size, but when you're talking a near 4:1 weight difference I'm just not going to be too interested in Ace taking a Code Red. I can't imagine he would even feel Stunt jumping on him. My dad was 300 lb. and one time while we were on a wilderness vacation staying at a cabin I rolled out of a bunk bed while asleep and landed on him and he barely stirred. I think 7 year old me falling onto my dad is a fairly apt measuring stick for Stunt falling on Ace. MLW is a fed prone to overkill anyway (earlier this episode Teddy Hart landed 3 backcracker variations, a Code Red, and a nasty as hell hammerlock DDT within the first 3 minutes of a match that went 9), so we're going to get Stunt kicking out of some silly things.

But I really liked the visuals in this, the size disparity when it's this extreme will always make me smile, and it had a ton of cool moments. Ace sets up a ridiculous spot while Stunt is prone on the apron, Ace starts climbing the turnbuckles like he's going to splash Stunt on the apron. Honestly I don't see a way that it wouldn't have just shattered Stunt's rib cage, but this crowd HAD just seen Jason Cade eat a top rope flipping piledriver. Ace misses his legdrop to the apron from the middle rope and it just looks crazy, like he easily could have snapped his own leg with his landing, and the missed legdrop leads to the most plausible offense for Stunt: A great superkick from the apron while Ace is standing on the floor, and an expertly shot punt, leading to a big tope. And I love that right after landing those things, while Stunt is celebrating, Ace runs up and just avalanches him into the guardrail. Ace has really fun fat guy offense, big running dropkick, big slams, excellent fat guy elbowdrop, and him squishing someone was never going to fail. Some of Stunt's comebacks where pretty preposterous, but you don't want to completely flatten the guy so I totally get it. MLW has made a bunch of smart moves by bringing guys like this in, guys without a TNA stink or who have been overexposed on super indies. It's part of what makes their show so easily digestible. Obviously we won't be getting more MLW Stunt for awhile, but I hope Ace gets bigger opportunities here. And literally as I type "BIGGER OPPORTUNITIES" we get an onscreen match graphic for Ace vs. Barrington Hughes, so....holy shit. Things don't get a whole lot bigger than that these days.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK