So after an entirely slow and disjointed first season, the second season covered a whole lot of ground that should have been covered in the first. Such as the reasons why Tom killed himself. What led to Wild Bill and Willie's split that threw Willie for a loop, etc.
We get all those answers in a fantastic second season of this show and when it comes to the final moment, they botch the ending.
And maybe we should have seen it coming. After all, botches are not only a part of professional wrestling but also what the Spade Brothers seem to specialize in. But this botch is something that is going to take a ton of creative power to get out of in a realistic fashion.
The whole season was building towards the cross-promotion finale in which FWD meets DWL to end the feud started when Jack slugged Gully in the middle of his ring during an FWD show bringing about a lawsuit from Gully to Jack.
We're shown only three matches of this card. One involving "defector" Crystal going over "Ell Dorado" played by AJ Mendez recreating her AJ Lee character (I give her low-talent husband Phil credit for coming up with something different with Rickie Rabies instead of his usual character). A tag team match won by Diego Cottonmouth and Wild Bill which leads to Wild Bill clutching his chest a couple of times and leading all watch the show to believe that he's about to have a heart attack and join his old friend Tom.
Finally we get to the main event. The Condammed (Ace) vs. Another DWL defector in Rooster Robins in a Last Man Standing Match. Gully has his guys come down and string Ace up and wants Rooster to finish Ace off with a baseball bat. Crystal saves the day as she and Rooster both turn only for Jack to come out and reveal a turn of his own.
Jack says he sold the DWL to Gully and if Ace can beat him, Ace will own the DWL, if Jack wins, he's burning the whole thing down. Jack and Ace proceed to bring the house down with their third match over the run of the series. Jack was supposed to go over but with the crowd being so hot, Jack goes for one more high flying maneuver and looks to nail it properly.
However, Jack somehow didn't. Calling back to the opening scene where Jack attempts a shooting star press into a dumpster full of foam padding and botches it. Tom tells Jack not to bother with something like that because that's not who he is. But Jack does it in this match and then tells Ace, he can't get up, he's injured. Ace beats the ten count and is declared the winner by the FWD referee and Stacy goes to check on her husband and the last words we hear are "I can't feel my legs."
Now one thing I've always enjoyed about this show is they make an effort to show all the parts of wrestling. The good, the bad, and the ugly. They even took time out in a first season episode to explain if a real injury occurs in the ring, the referee will make an X above his head with his arms to signal to the back that there's a real injury in the ring.
And this is where they lost me. Yes, the referee knows that Jack, not Ace, is supposed to beat his count. The referee also knows to keep tabs on the wrestlers, especially after some kind of high spot like a guy going off the top rope or guys smashing through a table. But our referee does not do this. He doesn't even check on Jack after the count has been made and an arm has been raised. No actual professional wrestling referee would ever do this.
So now we're supposed to believe that Jack is at least a temporary paraplegic? Bobby Pin had his leg broken in the first season and hasn't returned to being a wrestler yet. Now the DWL is going to be down another headline wrestler? Gully is going to inherit the financial mess that is the DWL with his lawsuit? Continuum is going to want to be a part of the whole thing and make the two promotions work together?
That's a lot to unscrew in the upcoming season should there be one.
Overall a bit sad given that what this season offered compared to the first. I'll say this much though, it was compelling television to watch even with the dead Tom in the crowd yelling at his son for not listening. So 6 out of 10 stars with the deduction being for the major, major botch at the end.
The potential pitfall of a sale to Continuum along with having to permanently work with Gully and FWD would have left a good enough cliffhanger for the third season. Jack being partially paralyzed is just like him and his matches, one step too far leading to a botch.
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