'Heels': Big break for Crystal, unlucky break for Ace

Right off the bat, Slam Wrestling’s Tommy Milagro will be pleased with the opening track of “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones — proving that the show is indeed investing more money into its soundtrack for season two as he pined for in his review of last week’s premiere.

Jack starts off the episode where we’ve all been: sleeping late when he’s supposed to be headed to work. Staci helpfully reminds him of this and he races off to work, cursing all the way. Elsewhere, Willie gets in touch with Wild Bill to check in on their aspirations for working together, only to hear that he has spent the night with the commisioner of the fair where the Duffy Wrestling League (DWL) hopes to garner a lot of business.

Catching up with Ace, he’s on the road towards Dover Springs and debating the rights of non-paying customers to use gas station bathrooms, dumping some empty coke bottles in their parking lot as satisfactory revenge — surely that’s going to catch up with him later.

Meanwhile, the new DWL champ Crystal arrives at the barn where Bobby meets her and they enter together while Willie and Jack are already inside with Willie pleading with him for an idea of where their stories are headed and how she can promote it. Ricky Rabies (CM Punk), for one, is happy to see that the DWL has some momentum and wants to stick around with this little promotion that could.

Jack gets in the ring and hands out praise and compliments for everyone involved in the show, then immediately says they’ll be rendering the result of the ladder match, and Crystal’s championship, invalid and building something new from there. She’s upset and lets Jack know, but Willie manages to take her aside and tells her to shut up, listen, and learn.

Crystal leaves a note apologizing to Jack for the day before, but Jack is busy meeting with Staci and their son’s principal about his hitting another student. The meeting doesn’t go all that well, with Jack confrontational about his son’s right to defend himself, and it gets worse in the parking lot as Staci and Jack continue their own argument which ends with Jack laying out all his insecurities about getting back to his old self.

Ace is still out there making bad decisions, stealing someone’s money for a bill off a diner table before coming around and dropping it in a tip jar. He hits a camping store next and the clerk gets worried about his obvious lack of camping know-how, but there he is out in bear country with a tent in his backpack.

Back at DWL Central, the ladder match participants appear in a promo featuring the promotion’s president Eddie, in full Jack Tunney mode, stripping the title from Crystal and setting a rematch between Bill and Jack, while also inviting Ace to join in the rematch as well. Ace, for his part, is watching the promo on his phone from his little tent, but will he show for the show?

Fast forward to main event time and Jack meets Bill in the ring, where Eddie promises a replacement for Ace — and Crystal aims to fill that slot. The match starts and Crystal eliminates Bill early with a roundhouse kick, then gets Jack reeling with an aerial attack before hitting a cutter out of nowhere and beginning the climb. Jack pulls her down but she chokes him out and starts up the ladder again. But wait, Bill is back and knocks over the ladder — though still allowing Crystal to grab the belt and regain the championship.

Jack and Bill cheers one another backstage as Crystal celebrates and thanks Wilie specifically. Ace, though, is still out in the woods and, while he’s lost in thought, slips down a rock face, breaking something undefined in the dark, and is left calling for help with no-one nearby.

This felt more like a true season debut, setting in motion the pieces that will presumably chart the path for the remainder of the shows.

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