Post by fifthhorseman on Mar 4, 2019 1:39:23 GMT -5
MLW FRIDAY NIGHT HEAT
EPISODE 23
EPISODE 23
60-second video montage recapping the events of last week’s show, followed by title graphics and explosive pyro.
“Earlier tonight, Commissioner Chuck Norris conducted a draw to determine the random order of entry for the first nine teams, personally witnessed by MLW Owner and President George Steinbrenner. The tenth and final team was pre-determined last week, and they represent the Horsemen – Curt Hennig and Rick Rude. One more thing – Commissioner Norris has set a 15-minute time limit on all but the deciding fall in this match. This, my friends, is gonna be a sprint to the finish line. And it looks like Howard Finkel is ready to get our night underway, so let’s get to the ring!”
TEN TEAM GAUNTLET
MLW WORLD TAG-TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
MLW WORLD TAG-TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Blanchard and Anderson, accompanied by their manager, JJ Dillon, weren’t thrilled with their slot, but they had a job to do. If they couldn’t get to the end of the gauntlet – and the odds were fairly stacked against that – they were going to punish every team that tried to get through them. They bounced back and forth, staring up the ramp, ready to begin what they hoped was going to be a long night.
Thus, they never saw their opponents jump the rail, slide into the ring, and attack them with righteous anger from behind.
The Revival laid into them with fists and kicks before tossing them outside. The four men brawled to the crowd’s delight, and it almost cost them, as Blanchard and Wilder barely slid underneath the bottom rope to break the referee’s count at nine. Things slowly returned to relative normal, and the two teams put on a clinic in tag-team wrestling. Quick tags, cutting the ring in two, using the five-count, ref manipulation… it was all there. But the first stage of the gauntlet ended at 11:01 with a clean, and powerful, Anderson spinebuster on Wilder, and it was only because they needed to conserve their energy that the Horsemen didn’t continue the assault.
Windham was very familiar with his opponents, so he started the next fall off against Double-A. Bigger, quicker, and fresher, he bounced Anderson around the ring until Blanchard tagged himself in… and then "the Widowmaker" did the same to Tully. Dillon shouted from the corner, and the big Texan smirked at him before tagging in his nephew.
“The Eater of Worlds” dominated the next couple of minutes, using his power and unsettling moveset to baffle the Horsemen, but a missed middle-rope senton gave his foes an opportunity – and a target. They worked his back viciously, and as before, expertly separated Wyatt from his teammate. Eventually, Windham made his way in, and all four men fought, but the damage to Wyatt’s back was too much to overcome. He lifted Blanchard up for a suplex, but could not snap it off; the wily veteran turned in mid-air and crashed hard onto his foe. Dillon covertly helped out by pushing Wyatt’s foot off the bottom rope, and the Horsemen won another fall, this one at 9:55.
Their manager, always thinking, grabbed a pair of water bottles from ringside and handed them to his charges. Blanchard and Anderson were winded, but their confidence was sky-high. They were eager to keep going, and they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the next team down.
But America’s Most Wanted was up to the task. They wanted to push the pace, to take advantage of a duo that had already battled for over 20 hard-fought minutes, and they scored several two-counts early. But the Horsemen were resilient, and Blanchard survived the initial flurry. It settled into another Southern-styled tag contest – a much more deliberate pace, solid double-teams, and “the Cowboy” was the proverbial face in peril. He absorbed a beating before making a long-overdue tag to his partner, and “Wildcat” cleared house. However, he was taken down from behind by Anderson, and had to fight his way back out as well. Quick tags from both teams as they all tried to finish it, and at the 13:49 mark, Storm hit Blanchard with his Last Call superkick, eliminating the Horsemen from the gauntlet.
The fifth team in were also TNA alumni. The newly formed team of Nick Aldis and Eli Drake ran down the ramp, hoping to seize a quick victory over their weary, wounded opponents. They tossed Storm over the top rope and ganged up on Harris, pounding him to the canvas. Only when the official threatened them with disqualification did Drake leave the ring, and the “National Treasure” continued the beatdown solo. He went for several pins, but Harris stubbornly kicked out of every one. The minutes ticked by, with Aldis and Drake wearing down both of their opponents. But after the Englishman missed a top-rope elbowdrop on Storm, the tide turned. “The Cowboy” rallied back, and after several tags and strikes, Harris pinned Drake with a German suplex at 12:27.
Next up: the Briscoe Brothers. The four men exchanged fistbumps in the middle of the ring in a show of sportsmanship; Jay and Storm started out for their respective squads, and traded throws and holds to a standoff. AMW was on defense, trying to refuel their tanks; the Briscoes wrestled at their typical breakneck pace, going for high-risk, high-impact maneuvers.
This was a dream match, each duo representative of the era but with deep ties to their territories. All four men showcased their skills, individually and collectively, and the crowd cheered both teams on as the gauntlet passed its halfway point. Five minutes elapsed, then ten, as the brothers from Sandy Fork poured it on, seeing the exhaustion in AMW’s eyes. But Harris and Storm grimly fired back, and a “tower of doom” spot caused all four to crash to the mat hard. “The Wildcat” was the first man up, and he lifted Jay with him, but the MLW Wild Card champ hit a Cactus clothesline on his foe and they both spilled over the top rope. Mark slowly climbed onto a turnbuckle, and hit his patented Froggy-Bow elbowdrop on Storm. One, two… and the bell sounded.
It was a 15-minute draw. Both teams were knocked out of the gauntlet.
The USF Sun Dome crowd gave both squads a standing ovation as they limped up the ramp and through the curtain. The next team’s entrance theme kept them on the feet, though, as the first MLW World champs, Edge and Christian, parted the curtain and posed on the stage.
Thus, with their backs turned to the curtain, they never saw Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard sprint out from behind it with chairs in hand. The Horseman hit them repeatedly in the back and legs before officials could literally tackle them both to stop the heinous assault. They were dragged away, and the Canadian duo forced themselves to their feet and painfully made their way to the ring. The referee asked them both if they were alright; they were practically held up by the ropes, but they insisted that he signal for the next team to enter the fray.
DiBiase, Schyster, and Keith Lee smugly sauntered down the ramp. Styles reminded the audience that a few weeks earlier, Money Inc. defeated them in a match in which the stipulation insured that neither Edge nor Christian would get a shot at DiBiase’s MLW World Heavyweight title for six months. Thus, aside from the physical damage that they just received, their confidence might be in short supply as well. The bell rang, and the “Million Dollar Man” charged at Christian, flooring him with a clothesline. He was merciless, and he dragged him into his corner to let IRS have his fun, too.
“Captain Charisma” was in agony, but he kept getting up. Every second felt like an eternity, but at long last he dove across the ring and tagged Edge in. He fired fists at both foes, but he was in obvious discomfort as well, and the adrenaline surge only lasted so long. DiBiase took him up and over with a crisp spinning powerslam and came within inches of winning the fall. Now it was Edge’s turn to suffer, and Money Incorporated kept him on their side of the ring, seemingly assured that, with Lee on the outside keeping an eye on the clock, that they could finish the match whenever they wanted to.
But Edge didn’t quit, and he took advantage of a lax cover by Schyster to kick out, roll across the ring, and tag his friend in. Before long, all four men were duking it out, and the referee tried in vain to separate them while also keeping an eye on the encroaching Lee. Bodies collided and tumbled, and out of nowhere, Christian stacked Schyster up with an O’Connor roll, eking out the shocking pin at 11:20.
Money Inc. was furious, and Lee tried to avenge their loss by hitting Edge and Christian with a double spear. The referee told the trio to leave immediately, and after a tense standoff, they exited the ring. DiBiase claimed his championship from the timekeeper’s table, and Schyster his briefcase, while the Canucks laid on the mats, holding their ribs.
The penultimate team in the gauntlet – and largest - made their entrance. Sid Vicious and Dave Batista stood like statues on the ramp, and when DiBiase walked by them, he stopped and said something to “the Animal”. Intrigued, the twin towers conferred, and Schyster joined the conversation, while Lee kept the cameraman from getting too close and overhearing them. After several seconds, Batista and DiBiase exchanged one last look, and the twin titans marched to the ring.
Edge and Christian got to their feet, but dual kicks to the stomachs doubled them over. Batista and Vicious picked them up like children, and brought them down simultaneously with powerbombs. But neither man went to a corner; instead, they repeated the maneuver, driving them into the mat again. The referee yelled at both men, ordering them to stop and follow the rules… but they ignored his orders. The only thing Batista and Vicious did differently the third time was switch opponents. As the multi-time WWE tag champions slammed into the mat for the third time, the referee called for the bell, immediately disqualifying the masters of the powerbomb.
The big men shrugged as officials ran down the ramp to get them out of the ring. They got to the curtain without even looking back at the carnage they caused… and then, Schyster came back out and handed Batista his briefcase. As the three men departed, another trio emerged from the back. They were the final team to enter the gauntlet, led by their manager, JJ Dillon: Rick Rude and Curt Hennig.
Styles: “Fans, this is a travesty! Instead of getting a legitimate, fairly-fought battle for the most prestigious tag-team championship in our great sport, we get this terrible mismatch. It’s obvious that Money Inc. paid off those two monsters to beat up Edge and Christian in retaliation for knocking them out of the gauntlet. How much money does it take to give up a shot at the gold? I don’t know – but apparently, ‘Big’ Dave Batista and ‘Psycho’ Sid Vicious do!”
Howard Finkel returned to the ring to introduce the combatants; Dillon was livid, as this gave Edge and Christian a few precious seconds to recover, but they looked – and felt – like they had been run over by a truck. If Hennig and Rude were angry, they didn’t show it, as they casually stretched and posed on their half of the ring; Rude did not, however, take a microphone to insult the crowd. The referee checked on Edge and Christian, but they insisted that the match go on.
“Mr. Perfect” and the “Rated-R Superstar” started it off, and Hennig used a variety of armdrags, hiptosses, and other rudimentary grappling maneuvers to embarrass his foe. Rude smirked in the corner as Hennig pressed forward, backing Edge into the corner, smack-talking him the entire time. He let him tag out, and after hurling Christian around with a pair of release suplexes, Rude came in and press-slammed the “Instant Classic” overhead. He paraded him to all four corners before dropping him in the center of the ring.
And yet, they could not keep Edge and Christian down. At first, it was because they simply didn’t care… but then, every second the two stayed in the match, the more confident they got. It took a few minutes, but the Canadians finally gained their first advantage of the match. They hit a couple of double-teams on Hennig, backdrops and dropkicks, angering the former AWA World champ. Then, they went after the “Ravishing One”, doing the same to him.
Alas, all it took was one powerful shoulder-tackle from Rude to reverse the course of the match. After dodging a clothesline from Edge, he bounced off the ropes and hit his opponent so hard, he flew from the ring. Meanwhile, “Perfect” hit Christian with his somersault neckbreaker, picked him up, and shoved him toward Rude. With Hennig and Dillon watching with anticipation, the newest Horseman brought Christian crashing down with the Rude Awakening. Three seconds later – at an official fall time of just 7:14 – Curt Hennig and Rick Rude brought the vacated gold back to the Horsemen camp. Norris came down to the ring and presented them with the titles personally, and they celebrated their “hard-fought” victory in front of a jeering crowd as the cameras faded to black.