[2002-06-15-MLW-Genesis] Shane Douglas vs Jerry Lynn

[TonyPulis'Cap]

This is the first semi-final in the tournament to crown the first MLW Champion. Douglas defeated Corino in the QFs, while Lynn got past LA Parka. On his way to the ring Lynn is confronted by Christopher Daniels who says that he wants to “cleanse him of the sins of his past disappointments” and that all the companies that Lynn’s ever worked for have never treated him with any respect. This is foreshadowing the heel run that Lynn would have in MLW.

Douglas gets the jump on him to start the match after faking him out with a handshake – it’s pretty ambiguous throughout the tournament if we are meant to be behind him or not, but is consistent with the Franchise character, I guess. There’s not too much to the match, but it has a decent flow to it. Lynn keeps it relatively interesting, wrestling at speed around Douglas to compensate for Shane’s lack of mobility.

If you watch the whole tournament, then in contrast with what you see in modern wrestling, there’s not lots of unbelievable kick outs of big moves, so it gets a good reaction in this match when each kick out of the others finish; Douglas out of the cradle piledriver and Lynn out of the belly to belly. A bit like the Lynn/LA Parka match in the round before, just as it’s starting to look like hitting a big closing stretch, Douglas catches Lynn in another belly to belly to advance to the final. Solid stuff. (** ¼)