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Welcome back to the Fun House Mirror, the column that looks at an MMA show that has the feel of an old school territory professional wrestling show and a United States company that wants to put out a Lucha Libre influenced product.
Last week we had a match between two "personality" guys which turned out to be pretty dull. UFC also put out a PPV last weekend that put people to sleep and was vastly inferior to the televised pre show. What will TUF do to get back on track?
We find out that the party life goes on for Alex and Jeffery in the house, although Jeffery feels a little awkward. As well he should after boasting that he would never tap and then tapping out. Especially since a drunk Alex continues to boast and rub it in.
Back to training. GSP brings in Gia Sissauori to coach wrestling. Gia looks like a fire hydrant with arms and legs. His is also blindingly fast.
It's time for the fight selection and GSP has the pick. Will he try to protect his number one pick with an early fight with a tomato can, or will he continue to go with the guy who says that he is ready?
GSP's selection is Michael Johnson versus Aaron Wilkenson, the number 1 versus the number six pick. On paper this seems like a good choice.
Wilkenson has some pretty heinous cauliflowering on his upper ears.
We then have a personality piece on Johnson. He doesn't seem to have much of a personality, but at least he seems focused on the fight.
Koscheck seems to want to supplement "mindless training" with "mindless hijinks" by parking two cars close enough to GSP's car to prevent entry.
Then we get a personality piece on Aaron, and since he talks with an English accent of course we get subtitles. Aaron is very confident and thinks that he is not at a disadvantage going into the fight.
Both fighters make weight with no drama.
Then for some reason we get a run in from Mike Tyson. For someone who hates all things pro wrestling like DW, it's funny for him to bring in a guy who was with "Cold Stone" Steve Austin at a Wrestlemania.
We find out that GSP used to play Punch Out with Mike Tyson when he was a little kid.
And, it's fight time and the tale of the tape is very even.
The first round starts well for Johnson who seems to be beating Aaron to the punch, but Aaron perseveres and winds up getting a take down with ninety seconds left in the first round and he dominates Michael from the top for the rest of the round.
The second round is marginally better for Michael as even though he gets taken down he doesn't get held down. Also he comes up with some take downs of his own.
However, Michael also looks noticeably gassed in this round.
So what happens in the third round? Michael overwhelms Aaron from the beginning, gets a take down, holds him down, gets his back and sinks in the rear naked chock for the tap in a total time of around ten seconds.
However, Aaron can take consolation in the fact that he could be high on the list for the wild card round, since one could argue that he might have won the fight on a judges decision in the second.
So, how can Chikara counter this?
Well, we start off with a singles bout between "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels against Eddie Kingston. Daniels NEVER has a bad match and this is no exception. The finishing sequence has Eddie going for the backdrop driver and Daniels grabbing the referee to break up the move. Then Daniels hits the Space Tornado Ogawa (STO) and goes for the BME (Best Moonsault Ever). Eddie moves out of the way but Daniels lands on his feet. He charges Eddie but Eddie moves out of the way. Daniels bounces out of the corner right into The Backfist to the Future. BLAM! Shades of Shone Carter versus Matt Serra, only without the moonsault.
We then go to the Finals of King of Trios, The Colony versus the BDK A team. The Colony comes out like a house on fire, taking it to the bigger BDK team. The isolate on Ares hitting him with a series of devastating maneuvers. The Colony then goes for the maneuver that put away the Osaka Pro team: a splash where Green Ant stands on the arms of Soldier Ant and Fire Ant who themselves are standing on the second rope in the corner.
Unfortunately, Claudio is able to show his resilience and cut off this move with a European Upper Cut to Green Ant as Green Ant dives from at least ten feet up.
That's gotta hurt!
So, again this week, some good action. While the Johnson vs Wilkenson bout lacked fireworks until the end, it did tell an interesting story as Michael apparently took Aaron too lightly and had to kick in an extra gear for the third round to win. And, of course, the Chikara action speaks for itself.
Not much in the way of pro wrestling posturing on TUF. Koscheck's pranks are just to childish and we didn't really see much character development from Johnson other than learning that he is a boring ass wrestler.
But, maybe next week will surprise.
