MLW Azteca #4 Review

Matches:
  1. Arez vs Extreme Tigre ***1/2
  2. AAA Mega Title: Hijo del Vikingo(c) vs Aramis ***3/4
  3. MLW World Heavyweight Title: Hammerstone(c) vs Octagon Jr ***1/4

Thoughts:

I've been vocal about how disappointing MLW tends to be rather often here and recently I've added the Azteca brand into that fold. Almost everything this company puts out always feels below what it should be on paper and I consider this revival attempt of the legendary Lucha Underground a b-level attempt.

Still, Court utilizes some great talent and occasionally things surpass my expectations.

This episode is an example of that.

We started with a pretty good spotfest opener between Arez and Tigre Uno. It's always nice seeing the latter pop up occasionally and Arez is a solid worker.

Not-LAX played some craps next, they bragged a bit, and Cesar joined in and set up their next defense (it's against Familia Park).

Next, we saw Pagano and crew beating down Hammerstone from a few episodes back and they promoted the rest of the card.

Our midcard match of the evening saw Vikingo defending the Mega strap against Aramis, though he came out with his CRASH Heavyweight Championship instead because he didn't have the AAA belt with him (it was right before he won it that this was taped). I have no idea why it wasn't booked as a CRASH defense, but it's a funny little thing.

The contest itself was a great spotfest with some big moments sprinkled nicely around. It was short, but sweet. I'm a big Aramis fan and a huge Vikingo supporter and this delivered nicely. My sole complaint is the ending, which saw Arez distract the ref, attack Aramis, and Vikingo pick up the victory after in a shit finish. The champ showed respect after and didn't seem to love Arez's actions.

An okay promo package for EJ followed and Mads wants Fatu. We're shown that Richards was jacked and Kane is put in a match with flippy fuckers.

This episode's main event saw Hammerstone best Octagon Jr. in a match that was better than expected. I didn't expect Alex to allow for that much offense against and it was far better because he did. Cesar was ringside and his minions watched from the entrance, attacking once the champ had retained and picked up the victory. Holliday assisted, but the two were being overpowered as the episode concluded.

I know I can be a bit harsh at times, especially about MLW. I really want to enjoy them more than I do even though I really dislike the owner. I just, don't find the product to be as worthwhile in reality as it looks on paper. They do land things well occasionally, though, as rare as that is. I still find Azteca to be a bastard revival attempt that falls far into the shadows of the original, but this specific episode was sincerely a very enjoyable 50-minutes of entertainment and I suggest anyone that has an interest at all to at least consider streaming this one.

Overall Rating: 75/100%