Showtime : Astrodome
Genre : Drama / Comedy / Sports
Showrunner: Steven Soderbergh
Writer : Chad Taylor & Mo Buck
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Joe Manganiello, Dacre Montgomery, Nick Offerman, Cooper Andrews, Paul Walter Hauser, Zoey Dutch, Anna Gunn, Clayne Crawford, Tom Hopper, Alan Ritchson, Paul Rust, Sofia Black D'Elia and Toby Huss
If we can say it’s calm in the arena, the same can’t be said in the locker room. Everyone is gathered around Bill Gundy (Nick Offerman) who keeps saying her can perform tonight despite the injury he sustained. Ricky Santana (Joe Manganiello), however, sits in a corner, alone, focused. Dicky Ray (Paul Rust) and Loto (Cooper Andrews) sit next to him, one on each side. Loto asks him he’s ready to do it and Ricky says he’ll go through. Dicky asks if he told anyone and he didn’t. It will shock everyone and it’s perfect that way. Diane enters the locker room and goes to see what’s getting everyone’s attention. She sees Gundy’s injury and she starts to freak out. Ben Carr (Barry Keoghan) ask her if she knew about it and she says she doesn’t. Ben is now mad at Brad who was supposed to tell her, but Diane says that all Brad told her was that he saved the day at the bar. The Bruiser Brothers (Alan Ritchson and Tom Hopper) are quick to say they were the ones who gave the wrestlers the upper hand and Diane puts an end to the chaos. The show is running late and the tag team match was supposed to go first and that’s out of the question. Bill continues to argue and he says it will take more than a deep cut on his thigh to prevent him from wrestling. She says there’s no way he heads out there like that. She has decided that he won’t wrestle, so he won’t. He looks at her in the eyes and he tells her he’s disappointed in her decision. The whole mood is down in the locker room and the crowd is getting impatient. She makes a change to the card on the spot. She looks at Sweet Tea (Zoey Deutch) and Thunderjack (Dacre Montgomery) all over each other in the corner and she says they’re out first. She points at Ben and she says he’s Thunderjack’s opponent. He’s nervous and so is Thunderjack. Before they head out, he tells Thunderjack to follow his lead and they’ll be good.
Thunderjack and Sweet Tea make their way to the ring to a good reaction. The crowd is unsure how to react to Ben Carr going out alone. The match starts slowly. Thunderjack isn’t the most agile and quick wrestler and Ben must adjust his style. Ben remembers everything his father and brother thought him. He guides Thunderjack throughout the match and the crowd gets behind them. We see a quick montage of the best bits of the match and Thunderjack comes out on top, in the end. When they get back to the locker room, everyone is quick to congratulate them and tell them they were exceptional out there. Thunderjack takes all the credit for their match. Ben goes over to Bill to rent that he called the match from start to finish and he should get the credit and Sweet Tea calls Thunderjack out to give some credit to Ben because he really made him look good and Thunderjack says he needs to think about his career first. Diane briefly enters and tells Thunderjack that the crowd is still chanting his name and to go out for a brief curtain call. She can’t hold back a smile, knowing she has a star on her hand.
Brad has his match with Clem, which is a showcase for Brad. The crowd is not told that it is Clem’s last match but when he gets to the back, everyone congratulates him. The evening is going great and the locker room is buzzing. For the first time in a long time, TCW feels like it could really be something.
It comes time for the main event. Loto and Dicky make their entrance, to tens of thousands of people booing. He is hated but mainly because who he is pitted against. When Ricky makes his interest, this becomes obvious. While Thunderjack is a star of the future, Ricky Santana is the star of now. He drinks this in and looks out in the crowd to spot Shirley (Sofia D’Elia Black), which he does.
The two of them are complete pros and so the match is one of TCW’s best in a long time. The audience is eating out of the palm of their hand. When Dicky interferes, the crowd is heated but then quickly elated when the referee throws him out. This Ricky’s chance for a comeback. He hits all of his signature moves and builds up to the Stargazer, his finishing move. However, he ends up accidentally running Loto into the referee, ruining his chance to make the pin. During this time, Dicky comes from the crowd and hits Santana with a steel chair. He comically tries to dead-lift Loto up and then tries to snap some sense into him. After he does, he motions to Loto to go to the second rope and hit him with a Loto Bomb. He hits him with the devasting splash and goes for the cover while the referee regains consciousness. One. Two. The crowd is ready to leap to their feet. Three?
A stunned silence shrouds the Astrodome with occasional boos sprinkled throughout. In the back, Diane has turned red, also stunned into silence. She looks furiously over to Brad who shrugs, implying that he doesn’t know anything about it. Dicky runs into the ring with the belt and begins leaping around in celebration. The ring announcer announces that the winner and NEW Texas Championship Wrestling World Champion...LOTO THE EVIL ISLANDER!! Now that the news is settling in, the place is full of boos, which is an odd note to end the company’s mega-show.
When he arrives in the back, all eyes are on Santana. When he runs into Diane, things come to a head. He tells her his time here has been great but he’s on to bigger and better things. She tells him “don’t even say it” as she tries to anticipate the next three letters to come out of his mouth. A. P. W. She is fuming and calls for security to escort him out of the building. She storms off back to her office, where Brad tries to follow but she says she needs some alone time. When Loto arrives backstage, everyone is actually happy for him because he is so well-liked.
Leonard, the TV executive, enters Diane’s office and asks what the hell went on with that last match. Santana is their big star, why did he look like such a geek out there? She is brutally honest with him and tells him Santana just quit. He tells her “I think you know what my answer is” and she shakes her head in acceptance. After he leaves, she sits in silence for a few beats. She then picks up her phone and makes a call.
On the other line, Paul Martin (Toby Huss) says he was ready for this call. She asks him if he watched the show and he says he did. APW?, he asks. She affirms. She asks him if the offer to form an alliance is still on the table. He affirms. She says that she is ready to accept. He tells her it’s about to be a whole new ballgame.
Diane looks nervously out to her locker room, unsure of what is to come next.
Showtime's finale gave us a piece of all the series' strong suits. Between the spectacle, the back-stabbing, and the testosterone, Showtime gave us a very strong end to a solid debut season
The series is strong from start to finish, with an excellent all-star cast led by Joe Manganiello and a great script by Buck and Taylor filled with twists and turns. The have been impressive in all their previous collaborations and this one is no different.
Much like Gauntlet, Showtime not only acts as a sort of male soap opera, but it also perfectly captures the business and era in which the series is set, with a myriad of unique characters who all get their chances to shine once in a while
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