MLW announced today that Nakajima will challenge Women’s Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo at Battle Riot VII in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 5. The show is taking place at The Commerce Casino & Hotel and will air live on MLW’s YouTube channel for free.
“This championship fight has been brokered between MLW and TJPW, underscoring the continued collaboration between the two organizations,” MLW hyped. “It also comes at a time when MLW’s women’s division is heating up, and Nakajima looks to make an immediate impact by capturing gold in her debut.”
Nakajima is a two-time Princess of Princess Champion for TJPW, most recently holding the title in 2022. She worked a pair of AEW matches in 2019-2020 and has made recent appearances in the United States for indie promotion Deadlock Pro, along with wrestling at Defy and GCW events in collaboration with TJPW.
Exo is on her second reign as MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion. She regained the belt last month from Janai Kai. Only Taya Valkyrie, Exo, and Kai have held the title since it was introduced in 2022 as MLW’s first-ever Women’s Championship.
There have now been two matches confirmed for the Battle Riot VII card:
Matt Riddle defends the MLW World Heavyweight Championship in 40-wrestler Battle Riot match
MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo defends against Shoko Nakajima
MLW announced today that Delmi Exo will defend her Featherweight Championship against B3CCA at Slaughterhouse on Saturday, October 14. The show is airing live on Fite+.
There was an angle on MLW Fusion this August where B3CCA injured Exo with a guitar shot. After campaigning for a title match against Exo, B3CCA officially earned the opportunity by defeating Maki Itoh at MLW Fury Road earlier this month.
In April of this year, Exo won the MLW Women’s Featherweight Championship from Taya Valkyrie. Exo is only the second-ever wrestler to hold the title since it was introduced in 2022. She’s made three successful title defenses, retaining against Valkyrie, Paris Van Dale, and Ava Everett.
Exo defeated B3CCA when they faced off in MLW earlier in 2023.
MLW Slaughterhouse will emanate from Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena. Here’s the updated card for the show:
MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alex Kane defends against Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Minoru Suzuki vs. Jacob Fatu
MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo defends against B3CCA
This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in Philadelphia as part of April’s Battle Riot tapings with Rich Bocchini and Matt Striker on the call.
We opened with a recap of how we got to tonight’s main event for the Opera Cup with highlights from Davey Boy Smith Jr. defeating Calvin Tankman and Tracy Williams defeating Tony Deppen in the tournament semifinals.
MLW National Openweight Champion Jacob Fatu vs. Rickey Shane Page went to a double disqualification
In recent weeks, Page and The Calling have taken out Fatu’s bloodline of Juicy Finau and Lance Anoa’i in backstage attacks. This week, Fatu was out for revenge but also to keep his National Openweight title.
Fatu wasn’t waiting and opened this bloody fistfight with a dive through the ropes as Page was circling the ring for his entrance. A top rope senton bomb from the champion followed, as well as a triple jump springboard Arabian moonsault. Page came back with a running crossbody and, after a break, slammed Fatu onto a chair.
The brutality and gruesomeness were turned up a few notches as Page used a screwdriver to repeatedly jab into the sole of Fatu’s foot, followed by him piercing Fatu’s cheek with it and then biting Fatu’s toes. The final act broke the Philadelphia crowd into a “You sick f*ck” chant.
But the champion was not down for long. In true Samoan fashion, he no-sold a drop-toe hold onto a chair in a nice callback to the old ECW days. Fatu took out Page with another dive to the floor and came off the top again with a crossbody. Fatu’s handspring moonsault followed to continue the high flying and aerial display from the champion.
Raven distracted Fatu, which allowed Page to throw a chair at his head, but his sick idea of dropping Fatu on a sideways chair backfired as Fatu reversed and hit Page with a pop-up Samoan drop onto it instead. That looked brutal.
An “ECW” chant broke out at the sight of a table being set up in the ring. More chairs were used to set up Fatu on the table. Page then climbed to the top rope and hit a huge jumping senton, squashing both Fatu and the table, but that only got a two count.
In a match where weapons were allowed, we got a double DQ after both Page and Fatu shoved down the referee — a sensible finish for setting up their next weapons match but a confusing one given that the match had no disqualifications.
The two will square off in a Weapons of Mass Destruction match at September’s Fury Road streaming special.
– The teases we have seen in recent weeks will come to a head next week. We will see what worlds will collide, we will enter the realm and see kingdoms collide. This could be connected to a special announcement that will also take place next week.
– Matt Cardona cut a poolside promo on his Fury Road opponent Mance Warner. Cardona said he is not coming to take anyone’s spot because he already has his own at the top and the rest of the locker room can jump on his back.
MLW Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo defeated Paris Van Dale to retain
B3CCA has been desperate to get a title match against Exo. This week, she interrupted Exo’s pre-match interview with Sam Leterna but the champion shot her down, saying she needs to earn her shot and not continue this delusional dream.
This was quite short, but displayed what Exo can do in a short space of time. She hit some machine gun chops, a fisherman’s suplex and, after a short comeback from Van Dale, her Delmi Driver to retain her title.
B3CCA continued her campaign, but took it to a different level as she attacked Exo with a guitar as she was leaving the ringside area.
– We saw another tease for KUSHIDA coming in. This time the dates set on the Delorean were August 17 (for this episode of Fusion), September 3 (Fury Road) and May 12, 1983 (KUSHIDA’s birthday).
– Ahead of their MLW heavyweight title match at Fury Road on September 3rd, Alex Kane accused Willie Mack of not taking his match seriously by mocking his weight. Kane then teased a warm-up match against someone in Mexico. Kane already wrestled Delirious from the Mexico tapings two weeks ago, so will there be another warmup match for the champion before Mack gets his shot?
Davey Boy Smith Jr. (w/ Mister Saint Laurent) defeated Tracy Williams to win the 2023 Opera Cup tournament
The crowd booed Smith and taunted him with “Microman” chants as we started. Smith turned heel recently and aligned himself with MSL by attacking Microman.
Williams initially used some speed to out-wrestle Smith as well as focusing on Smith’s bandaged knee that he injured during his first round match against Tankman.
Striker’s tongue once again made him sound like a fool saying Smith’s new look of denim jeans was a tribute to Brian Pillman and Bret Hart… to which Bocchini corrected him saying it’s actually a homage to his dad, the British Bulldog.
If you ignore Striker trying to take away the focus from what is in the ring, the action was very good. It picked up with a forearm battle but the larger Smith eventually got the advantage, hitting a suplex and then an impressive top rope leg drop for a close two count.
Smith hit his Bulldog powerslam but couldn’t fully take advantage as he landed on his injured knee. Williams got a foot on the ropes to break the pinfall followed by a tilt-a-whirl Fujiwara armbar but quickly transitioned to an ankle lock. Smith powered out and snapped back into control with a quick power slam.
Smith then hit the power bomb he couldn’t land earlier. The referee counted to two and it looked like Williams just raised his shoulder off in time but it wasn’t clear. Smith quickly transitioned to a crossface and Williams tapped out. There was potentially a miscommunication at the finish, but they quickly recovered.
This was good but threatened to be ruined by Striker on commentary.
Leterna interviewed MSL and Smith on the stage as the crowd booed them both. MSL called Philadelphia a sh*thole and insulted the women of the city. They want to hold next year’s tournament in Canada but more importantly, they sent out a challenge saying they want the MLW heavyweight title
Next Week:
A special announcement
Willie Mack will take on Ken Broadway, Love Doug, Nolo Kitano and O’Shay Edwards in a scramble match
This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in Philadelphia and New York earlier this year as part of the promotion’s Battle Riot and War Chamber tapings earlier. Matt Striker and Joe Dombrowski were on commentary.
The episode also included recaps and the fallout from Saturday’s Never Say Never show, including Alex Kane defeating Alex Hammerstone to win the MLW Heavyweight title, and the shocking revelation of Don King being the financial backer of Kane and the Bomaye Fight Club.
We started with a post-match press conference from the event with Kane and Mr. Thomas. A sweaty and passionate new champion called out his doubters and naysayers before listing his accomplishments and what he had to overcome, both exaggerated and true, before winning the title. He then said Hammerstone still hasn’t earned his respect and he will beat him again if he comes because this is Alex Kane’s house, kingdom, and empire.
Taya Valkyrie then told Women’s Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo she is going to prove why she is “the craziest bitch” tonight as she attempts to regain her title. Valkyrie portrays the crazy multi-persona/serial killer character really well as she cheerfully and happily mentioned that she intends on ripping Exo limb from limb tonight.
Delmi Exo defeated Taya Valkyrie (w/John Hennigan) to retain the MLW Women’s Featherweight title
During the ring entrances, highlights were shown of Valkyrie attacking Exo two weeks ago, and curb stomping her onto the title. Valkyrie was fined and given a one week suspension for her actions.
The match started hot and escalated when Valkyrie took control by using the ring post and dropping Exo face-first onto the apron. Valkyrie hit Sheamus’ 10 Beats of the Bodhran and even added in his mannerisms as she flaunted in front of Exo, but she took too much time showing off and let the champion back into the match.
The champion hit Valkyrie with a fisherman’s suplex, a low dropkick, and a dropkick from the middle rope for a near fall. It was not long before the challenger came back and hit a pair of curb stomps with the second one going into the bottom buckle.
Exo rolled through the Road to Valhalla and elbowed her way out of a second attempt before going for her Delmi Driver, but a distraction from Hennigan stopped her. Hennigan got up on the apron and, similar to the previous title match, Valkyrie collided with him. Exo then tried a roll-up but Valkyrie kicked out.
Valkyrie tried to take advantage of the distraction but Exo hit a tilt-a-whirl head scissors takedown into a Fujiwara armbar, getting the tapout and successful title defense.
– We saw another recap of Never Say Never where Mister Saint Laurent announced the drafting of Matt Cardona, who will be the newest member of MSL’s group, joining Davey Boy Smith Jr. who turned heel by attacking Microman on last week’s Fusion.
– Another recap showed the revelation of Don King as the Bomaye Fight Club financial benefactor which was followed by interviewer Sam Leterna trying to get a word with Court Bauer who only told her to never do business with the “crook” Don King.
– O’Shay Edwards joined Kevin Blackwood and Matt Cardona as the latest draft picks. Edwards will be officially coming to MLW soon to join the Bomaye Fight Club while we have already seen Edwards in MLW this year in the Battle Riot.
Ken Broadway defeated TJ Crawford
This was really good and brought the crowd into it, especially toward the end during the nearfalls.
The “Silver Sniper” Crawford got the early advantage with a big boot and dropped Broadway hard with a suplex. The bigger Broadway came back with a strong lariat that turned Crawford inside out.
Broadway got a close near fall after a power bomb and a face-first swinging Bossman slam to the shock of the commentary team. Crawford then got a near fall after some strikes, a middle rope dropkick, and a double underhook driver. As the match started heading toward the finish, you could hear the crowd getting more into it the longer it went on.
Crawford then hit a great standing spin kick to the jaw and a springboard stunner, which normally sets up his brain buster finisher. Broadway fought out of it and hit a penalty kick and a pop-up bridging German suplex that he calls the Travis Plex (in honor of Matt Travis) to get the pin and win.
– Another Never Say Never recap showed Ricky Shane Page and AKIRA from The Calling winning the MLW Tag Team titles, making AKIRA a double champion as he also holds the Middleweight title.
– We saw the brackets for the 2023 Opera Cup which begins next week. Davey Boy Smith Jr. will face Calvin Tankman in one semifinal while Tracy Williams and Tony Deppen face off in the other.
Willie Mack defeated John Hennigan (w/ Sam Adonis) and Lio Rush in a triple threat match to become the no. 1 contender to the MLW Championship
This was a great match and a great way to end a good episode.
This was great and fast-paced throughout. You can imagine the spots Rush and Hennigan were able to do as well as having the size, power, and impressive explosive agility of Mack. They all combined brilliantly.
Mance Warner was drinking light beers on commentary. Warner was out there to continue his feud with Adonis who accompanied Hennigan to the ring. Rush was also announced as representing New Japan’s CHAOS faction.
Hennigan and Rush distracted Mack by forming an alliance on the outside, but the main reason was to let Adonis distract Mack, which let both heels jump him at the onset.
Their alliance lasted all of 30 seconds as Rush tried a sneaky roll-up once Mack was disposed of. Rush and Hennigan then had a parkour-tinged minute of dodges, feints, and reversals. Mack re-joined the action, but promptly ate a springboard kick to the face from Hennigan. Mack then hit a Samoan drop to slow the frantic opening minutes down.
Rush hit a great poisonrana after reversing a gorilla press by Mack, but Mack came back with a pop-up forearm to the jaw. Later on, Rush hit his low dive combo through opposite sides of the ring, nearly sliding and ramming Mack into the front row in the process.
The finishing sequence saw Mack send Rush out after a missed frog splash and a stunner. Hennigan then reversed a Mack stunner. Adonis got involved and grabbed Mack’s leg from the outside, but Hennigan hit Adonis by accident, giving Mack the opportunity to roll up Hennigan for the win.
Next week:
2023 Opera Cup semifinal match: Davey Boy Smith Jr vs. Calvin Tankman
This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in New York City as part of MLW’s War Chamber tapings earlier this year. Matt Striker and Joe Dombrowski were on the call.
AKIRA (w/Raven) defeated Lince Dorado (c) and Lio Rush to win the MLW Middleweight title in a three-way
There were a lot of interlocking storylines going on here. Rush had previously stolen Dorado’s title as he claimed himself to be the real Middleweight champion while Dorado was on the end of a recent Calling attack, setting up this intriguing triple threat match.
AKIRA jumped Dorado during his entrance, dropping him with a hard suplex on the floor and taking him out of the opening of the match.
But the champion got back into it with springboards and a top rope twisting dive to the floor. He and Rush then took turns hitting handspring cutters and stunners to take AKIRA out temporarily.
Dorado momentarily got his own torturous revenge by locking AKIRA in an armbar, but Rush quickly broke it up with a frog splash. Rush then hit a dive to the floor but was taken out when he missed another frog splash.
AKIRA capitalized with Rush out of the ring to hit his Death Penalty (lifting reverse DDT) to pick up the pinfall victory and the MLW Middleweight title win — his first in MLW.
– We heard from Jacob Fatu who is set to return to action next week against John Hennigan. We last saw Fatu being attacked by Raven, AKIRA, and Ricky Shane Page. The Samoan Werewolf is out for revenge. He said his Openweight title shot against John Hennigan – that he lost due to The Calling’s attack- will take place next week.
Raven and The Calling then brought Mandy Leon to life in an ominous pre-taped video package. Leon was motionless wrapped in a plastic sheet, but after a kiss to her forehead, Leon’s eyes popped open.
Sam Adonis (w/ John Hennigan) defeated Willie Mack
After being part of the party that screwed Mack out of an Openweight title win against Hennigan last week, Adonis faced the revenge-minded Mack this week.
Adonis got on the mic before the match to rile up the New York crowd, but Mack had his own words for Adonis and Hennigan, promising to put his boot up both their asses.
Mack moves very impressively for his size. In the early going, he worked up the speed to hit a flying kick to Adonis in the face and vault to the floor. After catching his leg on Adonis’ head during a leapfrog, Mack hit another jumping kick to stay in control.
After a break, Mack pulled Adonis off the top rope as Adonis tried to bring some of his AAA moves into the match. Mack again caught Adonis off guard and rammed his fist into Adonis’ gut as the Azteca Lucha member came off the top.
Mack was selling the earlier leapfrog collision as he could not complete his usual kip-up, struggling to hit his standing moonsault.
Hennigan got knocked off the apron after tripping Mack’s leg behind the referee’s back. But with Mack momentarily distracted, Adonis hit a Death Valley Driver/Air Raid Crash slam and a 450 splash from the top rope to pick up the tainted distraction win.
After the match, Sam Leterna brought out Mance Warner for an interview on the stage, but Adonis and Hennigan quickly interrupted and jumped him. Adonis used a leather strap to choke Warner out over the top rope.
– Ahead of his MLW title match against Alex Hammerstone at Never Say Never, Alex Kane again promised to reveal the money man behind the Bomaye Fight Club at the event. Before that, he also mentioned a cash prize being up for grabs in a “Big Apple Grapple” open challenge.
– Before the main event and after a few failed attempts to cut a promo on Delmi Exo due to technical difficulties, Taya Valkyrie stormed off saying she is leaving MLW because of issues like this.
Delmi Exo defeated Taya Valkyrie (w/ John Hennigan) to win the MLW Women’s Featherweight title
Valkyrie had been playing politics recently to delay this eventual title match, but the ending did not disappoint with Exo picking up the win and the title to end Taya’s one year reign as champion.
Earlier in the night, Exo said there was only one way she wanted to win the title and that was with the Delmi Driver, and she did just that after Hennigan’s constant distractions came back to haunt him and Valkyrie.
After a slow-building start, Valkyrie dropped Exo face-first on the apron and Hennigan added a few sneaky shots as Valkyrie distracted the referee. She slowed the match down again and kept in control as she double foot stomped Exo in the gut.
They exchanged close near falls when Exo hit a cross-legged fisherman suplex and a Pedigree for close calls, followed by Valkyrie hitting a Blue Thunder Bomb for one as well. Similar to the earlier match with Adonis, Hennigan grabbed Exo’s foot from the outside, causing the challenger to switch her focus to him.
The champion then went for a rollup, but Exo countered with her own pinning combination. Exo had Valkyrie pinned, but the referee was distracted by Hennigan on the ring apron.
Valkyrie and Hennigan then accidentally collided on the apron which distracted the champion enough to give Exo the opening to hit her Delmi Driver to win both the match and the Featherweight title.
Next week:
MLW National Openweight Champion John Hennigan defends against Jacob Fatu
This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in Philadelphia as part of the SuperFight and Battle Riot tapings earlier this year.
After Christian Cole called the Super Series the last two weeks, Matt Striker returned to join the ever-present Joe Dombrowski at the announcers’ table.
The Azteca Lucha faction (John Hennigan, Sam Adonis and Taya Valkyrie) cut a backstage promo. Adonis called out Mance Warner after he eliminated him from the Battle Riot match while Valkyrie laughed at the thought of Delmi Exo coming for her and her Featherweight title. They will face off next week.
Delmi Exo defeated B3CCA
Ahead of the title match next week, B3CCA must have read the writing on the wall as she came out of the blocks early with a combination of dropkicks, strikes and extravagant taunting. She even went as far as to cartwheel handspring into a simple slap which only seemed to fire Exo up.
She kicked B3CCA in the head and dropped her headfirst with a sit-out fisherman’s buster. B3CCA hit a springboard stunner for a close two count and got her in the Muta Lock and a single crab.
However, the number one contender used her smarts to roll and cause B3CCA to miss a top rope moonsault. This gave Exo the opening she needed for her Delmi Driver package piledriver to pick up the win before her big title shot next week.
This was a good short match and another nice showcase for the women’s division.
– The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) cut a heartfelt, feel-good interview where they spoke out of character about their inspirations (House of Glory and Amazing Red) while we saw true backstage moments from their MLW debut. This felt different and was a very nice package to give the impression they will be in for a strong push soon.
– Sam Leterna interviewed Willie Mack who wasn’t willing to give up any secrets ahead of his Openweight title shot against John Hennigan.
1 Called Manders defeated Yoscifer El
El is an interesting character. Billed from “three to five thousand years ago,” he is a berzerker crossed with a White Walker crossed with Bruiser Brody crossed with a Genghis Khan character. Manders’ character is a bit more straightforward: a country-tough man of the Midwest.
This was a great big hoss fight filled with hard shots and slams with both men using their bodies to ram into each other. As good as it was, it was short-lived as Manders hit El with a big lariat to get the win.
– Ahead of his MLW title match with Alex Hammerstone at Never Say Never on July 8th, Alex Kane was eager to explain of all the injustices he has suffered: being number one in the Battle Riot, his National Openweight championship loss, and being left out of the Opera Cup tournament. He turned it on Court Bauer and told him the Bomaye Fight Club is for the people and he will bring a revolution to wrestling.
At the end of the show, the cameras caught up with Hammerstone who said Kane is talking like he is looking for an excuse and an easy escape for their title match. He thinks Kane is looking for either a cheap cash in or an injury to grant him the win because there is no way he will be a man and step up to a fair one-on-one contest.
– Taya Valkyrie again laughed off Delmi Exo’s chances of beating her next week, making fun of her name and saying she has beaten people all over USA and Mexico and it will be the same next week.
– Timothy Thatcher vs. Tracy Williams was announced for Never Say Never.
MLW National Openweight Champion John Hennigan (w/ Taya Valkyrie) defeated Willie Mack to retain the title
Mack got his shot after he disclosed that he may know the whereabouts of Cesar Duran, blackmailing his way into the match.
Mack put a stop to Hennigan’s early efforts with a massive pounce. Hennigan had to get dirty to get the real advantage where he could then use his array of kicks and strikes to slow Mack down.
After a slap to the face and trying to use Valkyrie as a human shield, Hennigan was on the end of a rampaging Mack who chopped his way into an advantage. But the resourceful Hennigan hit a desperation jawbreaker and a springboard kick to get right back into the match.
Hennigan hit his swinging neckbreaker Moonlight Drive for a close two count as Sam Adonis (at the announcers’ table) speculated that Duran will return in no time and make everything great again in MLW.
Hennigan went to the top rope, but took too long which allowed Mack to crotch him. Mack then joined Hennigan, but the crafty Hennigan was again able to trip him and make him crash to the mat.
The confidence was growing in Hennigan but that came crashing down as well when Mack dodged Starship Pain. Mack then exploded into a comeback with strikes and a red-hot pendulum slam. He then hoisted Hennigan up with ease for a Samoan drop, a kip-up and a standing moonsault for a crowd erupting close two count.
Hennigan slipped behind and struck him with a forearm to the back of the head, but Mack came back with a big pop-up forearm of his own.
Mack had a visual three count after his running step-up kick, but Valkyrie distracted the referee. Hennigan then accidentally kicked Valkyrie off the apron, distracting the referee again. It looked like Adonis was going to interfere and knock Mack out with the belt, but the challenger thwarted the heels’ antics and stunnered Adonis out of the ring.
Mack then hit a pop-up sit-out power bomb for a close two count that got a “this is awesome” chant from the crowd.
The heels still had one trick left up their sleeve. Hennigan kept his title belt in the ring and after a sunset flip, he made the referee get rid of it. As the referee’s back was turned, Valkyrie hit Mack in the back of his head with her title belt to give her man the tainted win and successful title defense.
Next week:
MLW Featherweight Champion Taya Valkyrie defends against Delmi Exo
MLW Middleweight Champion Lince Dorado defends against AKIRA and Lio Rush in a three-way
An update on Jacob Fatu’s injury status and news on his return
Delmi Exo has signed a contract with MLW, per Court Bauer on Friday’s Busted Open Radio.
Known as “The God Queen” on the indies, Exo made her return to the company at this month’s SuperFight TV taping in Philadelphia against B3CCA.
Exo previously worked for MLW in 2021, debuting with a win over Brittany Blake. She then worked twice alongside her sister Ashley Vox (The Sea Stars) and picked up two wins along the way.
It’s believed the deal is for one year.
Exo has primarily worked out of the Northeast U.S. for Limitless Wrestling out of Maine and both GRIND Pro Wrestling and Wrestling Open out of Massachusetts in addition to Shimmer.
She also has experience in the pre-Tony Khan Ring of Honor as part of the Sea Stars. She also worked one singles match in a December 2021 loss to Max The Impaler.
The aforementioned B3CCA is also expected to return to MLW for several more dates, according to a source. She made her MLW debut at the SuperFight taping and also made her WWE debut last Friday in a loss to Lacey Evans.
