MLW has confirmed four more wrestlers who will be part of the roster for their new season.
During the second week of MLW’s “2021 Open Draft,” it was announced that indie wrestler Alex Kane has signed with MLW. It was also announced that Gringo Loco, King Mo, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor will be returning for the new season.
Kane will be making his MLW debut when the promotion’s new season kicks off with a set of television tapings at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 10. It was stated that Kane will be representing Dan Lambert’s American Top Team in MLW, which King Mo is also a member of.
Kane’s nickname is “The Suplex Assassin.” While speaking with MLW’s Alicia Atout, Kane said he competed in amateur wrestling and rugby in college. He was trained in professional wrestling by AR Fox and made his debut in September 2018.
Kane told Atout that he wants to face MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone.
It was announced during the first week of the Open Draft that Davey Richards, Marshall & Ross Von Erich, Gino Medina, and King Muertes (formerly known as Mil Muertes) will be part of the roster for MLW’s new season. Richards has signed with MLW and will also be making his debut at July’s TV tapings in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia tapings will be MLW’s first event with fans in attendance since March 2020.
King Mo declared himself the new MLW King of Knockouts as he defeated Low Ki with a little help from some new Team Filthy teammates.
Alexander Hammerstone retained his National Openweight title in a hard-fought match against T-Hawk.
Dominic Garrini choked out Dr Drax in quick fashion.
The planned Jordan Oliver vs. Brian Pillman Jr. match was cancelled when Pillman didn’t show up due to a reason we learned about later in the show.
**Show review**
We saw a recap from the ending of last week’s eight man tag that saw King Mo attack Killer Kross with a bat, injuring Kross in the process and aligning himself with Team Filthy. We were told that Mo had been suspended by MLW, but his cornerman Dan Lambert told Alicia Atout that they have appealed the suspension so he will be able to compete against Low Ki tonight.
Atout had interview time scheduled with Brian Pillman Jr. but told us he had not arrived at the building yet.
Dominic Garrini (w/ Kit ‘Rip Von Erich’ Osbourne) defeated Dr Dax in a $1000 Prize Fight Challenge (1:05)
“Filthy” Tom Lawlor and Team Filthy (joined by Mo and Lambert) cut a promo on Killer Kross backstage. Garrini announced his Prize Fight Challenge and Mo said he was the only King around here.
Dax overpowered Garrini early but missed a corner splash, which led to Garrini taking the big man down and locking in a chokehold for the quick win.
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MJF was backstage with Gino Medina and Alexander Hammerstone and had a message for Mance Warner. He called him trailer park trash and said it wasn’t his fault “he was born to be an outlaw sh*tty little indie prick who should have never stepped foot in a major league company.” He got worked up and left saying he will f*ck him up next week.
Atout gave us another update regarding Pillman and said his match with Jordan Oliver was off as no one could track him down.
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MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone defeated T-Hawk to retain (12:17)
Hammerstone used his power early on with a hard shoulder block, but Hawk fought back. Even though he was outweighed by Hammerstone, he showed his own power with a suplex of his own. T-Hawk hit a pair of hard chops and also caught the champion with a sit out powerbomb for a close two count. This early exchange looked to have Hammerstone a little off his game, so he went for a test of strength but booted Hawk in the gut to take back the advantage.
Hammerstone caught Hawk coming off a baseball slide and hit a big pump kick from the floor while Hawk was draped over the apron. He then ragdolled him into the guard rail and threw him back inside but Hawk soon fought back with another chop. The comeback was short lived as Hammerstnoe knocked him down with another power move. The champion then stood and took another chop that left its mark, but got sent tumbling to the floor when Hawk caught him with another hard chop while he was perched on the top rope.
Back inside, they exchanged running and jumping knees. Hammerstone rallied with a dropkick, but Hawk no sold and roared to his feet, catching Hammerstone with a running knee to the back of the head. Hawk went for another suplex, but Hammerstone slid out the back and hit a pump kick, German suplex, power bomb, and then rolled into a Boston crab.
They exchanged forearms and T-Hawk fired up more and more with every shot. Hammerstone eventually hit a T-Bone suplex, but Hawk was back to his feet and dumped Hammerstone face first for a close two count. The champion then hit Hawk with a dropkick while he was on the top rope followed by a superplex off the top, finishing him off with the Nightmare Pendulum to retain the title.
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Mance Warner then had some strong words for MJF and the Dynasty. He said all they did was make him crazier and that he wasn’t a loser and he isn’t leaving town next week. He said MJF is about to answer for everything he has done.
Alicia is backstage with yet another Pillman update but she was interrupted by Injustice. Jordan Oliver showed her some footage from his phone, apparently of Pillman being beaten up and the reason he was not at the building.
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King Mo (wDan Lambert) defeated Low Ki (w/Ross Von Erich) (9:43)
This was dubbed a “King Of Knockouts” match but with traditional wrestling rules and finishes. The background was that Low Ki had knocked out 60% of his MLW opponents in the last year and Mo had knocked out 62% of his MMA opponents. The referee gave the intense face-to-face instructions over the mic before instructing both back to their corners.
They grappled early, but Mo overpowered Ki and dumped him over the top rope onto the apron. Ki landed hard on the apron and sold it in what would be the story throughout the match. Upon his return to the ring, Mo went after the legs again with knees before dumping him on the floor once more and flipping him off for good measure. Mo hit some stiff knees in the corner that floored Ki again and started laughing as Ki stumbled and fell into the ropes moments later.
Ki powered up from a leglock/chinlock combo, but Mo just used his weight to put him back on the mat. Ki briefly fought back again, but Mo took him out with a vicious looking chop block. The referee started the 20 count and it took Ki every second to pull himself back up into the ring.
Mo mocked Ki with jumping jacks as Ki stumbled and struggled to pull himself to his feet. Out of nowhere, Ki hit a leg kick followed by a great rolling koppu kick right on the top of the head that stumbled Mo for a moment. Mo went for a takedown, but Ki dodged it and locked in the same standing chokehold that nearly put away Davey Boy Smith Jr in the Opera Cup.
Dominic Garrini and Erick Stevens made their way to ringside and got in Ross Von Erich’s face which distracted everyone including the referee. Ross’ brother Marshall ran down to even the odds for his brother, but inside the ring and behind the ref’s back, Tom Lawlor ran through the crowd and hit Ki with Mo’s umbrella, knocking him out.
Mo’s cornerman Lambert then threw in Ki’s towel that Ross had dropped during the pull apart and as the referee got back into the ring, he saw the towel and called for the bell to awarded the match to Mo.
Atout met Team Filthy on the stage. Lambert called Philadelphia morons and instructed them to cheer for their new King of Knockouts. Mo wanted them to bend the knee. Lawlor started a “King Mo” chant as we jumped the footage from Jordan Oliver’s phone from earlier on. It showed Oliver and Myron Reed (while Brazil filmed it) jumping Pillman in the parking lot and then finishing with Reed giving him a curb stomp through a concrete block that broke on impact.
**Next Week**
Loser leaves MLW empty arena match: MJF vs. Mance Warner
In what is being billed as a match to determine the “true knockout king”, retired MMA fighter turned pro wrestler “King” Mo Lawal will face former MLW champion Low Ki at Fightland in Philadelphia, PA.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, February 1st and will be a TV taping for their Fusion TV show.
American Top Team founder and famed wrestling belt collector Dan Lambert will corner Lawal for the match. Lambert was heavily involved in the Impact Wrestling vs. ATT angle that lasted from late 2017 through early 2018 which saw him defeat James Storm in a career vs. career match.
Lawal retired from MMA in November after being knocked out in a bout for Bellator MMA. The 38-year-old walked out to the cage with an MLW t-shirt and shorts on and the following morning, they announced he had signed a deal with the organization to wrestle that night.
That match joins a card that includes:
MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu vs. CIMA
Tom Lawlor vs. Killer Kross
MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone vs. T-Hawk
Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Erick Stevens
Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Jimmy Havoc (w/ Priscilla Kelly)
Injustice (Jordan Oliver & Kotto Brazil) vs. Puma King & Gringo Loco
“King Mo” Muhammed Lawal will be in action at MLW’s Opera Cup television tapings.
MLW announced today that Lawal has “signed an open contract” for a match at the tapings. His opponent has yet to be revealed.
Lawal made his MLW debut at the promotion’s Blood & Thunder tapings earlier this month. The night before that, Lawal had his mixed martial arts retirement fight against Andrew Kapel at Bellator 233. The American Top Team member was knocked out by Kapel in the first round.
Lawal had the MLW logo on his T-shirt and fight shorts at Bellator 233.
The Opera Cup tapings are taking place at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5. Here’s the updated card for the show:
Opera Cup tournament semifinals and finals
Strong Hearts (CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) vs. CONTRA Unit (Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon & Simon Gotch)
Opera Cup tournament first-round match: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Shinjiro Otani
Opera Cup tournament first-round match: Alexander Hammerstone vs. MJF
Opera Cup tournament first-round match: Timothy Thatcher vs. Richard Holliday
Opera Cup tournament first-round match: Brian Pillman Jr. vs. TJP
Prince of Darkness match: Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Havoc
The morning after he wore their logo on his t-shirt and fight shorts, MLW announced that “King Mo” Lawal will make his debut for the company at their “Blood & Thunder” titled TV tapings Saturday afternoon at Orlando, Florida’s GILT Nightclub.
The 38-year-old Muhammed Lawal retired after an 11-year career Friday at a Bellator MMA show in Thackerville, OK, where he was knocked out in the first round. He’s also a member of American Top Team, owned by famed wrestling belt collector and former Impact Wrestling character Dan Lambert.
Lawal and pro wrestling have long been intertwined. He was offered a WWE developmental contract out of college but the amateur wrestling standout chose the MMA path instead. In 2012, he got involved with Impact Wrestling and wanted to pursue a career in both fighting and wrestling. He did some training at Ohio Valley Wrestling, but he and Impact parted ways in 2015 after a small amount of appearances. He has done a few appearance on indie shows since then.
Lawal joins former UFC fighter and former MLW world champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor on the roster which also features several wrestlers with grappling and BJJ backgrounds in Timothy Thatcher, Simon Grimm, Davey Boy Smith, and Dominic Garrini.
A year and a half after the heavyweight title was stripped off the champion, Bellator MMA finally has a plan to crown a new champion and it’s a big one.
On Friday, the promotion announced to MMA Junkie that an eight-man heavyweight tournament Grand Prix is expected to begin in late-January with a conclusion in December 2018. The Grand Prix format is a favorite of Bellator president Scott Coker who famously last had a heavyweight Grand Prix in Strikeforce’s dying days.
The tournament is loaded with notable talent, making for some interesting potential matchups:
– Fedor Emelianenko
– Frank Mir
– Roy Nelson
– Matt Mitrione
– Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Ryan Bader
– Rampage Jackson
– King Mo
– Chael Sonnen
Yes, you read that right. Sonnen will compete in the promotion’s heavyweight tournament without actually having fought at heavyweight before. He joins the newly re-signed Jackson, King Mo, and Bader — all of which have made their names at different weight classes. Mo and Jackson have fought each other at heavyweight while Mo has competed there several times over the past few years.
Bader’s inclusion is particularly interesting, given he just defended his light heavyweight gold for the first time last weekend. It’s unclear how this will affect the title going forward.
Mir was released from his UFC contract months after a USADA violation that put his career in doubt and signed with Bellator earlier this year. Mitrione is coming off a knockout of Emelianenko, while Nelson is coming off a win in his promotional debut.
No brackets were announced, but expect that to be part of of the official announcement that will happen at one of Bellator’s five remaining 2017 shows. In the Junkie piece, Coker said there will be one fight per event at seven different shows throughout the year. However, there wasn’t any mention of alternates if one of the tourney fighters gets injured.
The last Bellator heavyweight champion was Vitaly Minakov who last defended the title in April 2014 by downing Cheick Kongo. He was finally stripped in May 2016.
Bellator MMA debuted in Dublin, Ireland, Friday in front of a packed house and a fairly rabid crowd…at least until the main event.
The fights all went pretty much as expected although the show was not nearly as entertaining as last week’s event in Florence, Italy. The event was part of a joint promotion with UK company BAMMA with the four fight main card airing via tape delay on Spike TV.
The main event was a boring three round heavyweight fight between Bellator stalwart King Mo and Japan’s Satoshi Ishii. Mo handily won all three rounds but never came close to finishing the Olympic medalist.
Ishii seemed very unwilling to engage the entire fight, despite Mo taunting him on several occasions and having his hands down for most of the fight. He was able to take him down seven times, but did virtually no damage on the ground. Mo was doing pretty well standing but just when it seemed he would have Ishii hurt, he’d take him down and just lie on top of him.
The announcers were pushing Mo as a top contender for either the heavyweight or light heavyweight title. He did lose a close decision to Phil Davis and the heavyweight title is currently vacant so either of those is a definitive possibility.
The biggest star to the local crowd was featured in the co-main event as featherweight James Gallagher, a training partner of UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, even got to the lights-out treatment during his ring introductions as he put his unbeaten record on the line against American Anthony Taylor.
Taylor and Gallagher had been sniping at each other all week via social media and had a confrontation at the weigh-ins. With just a 1-1 pro record for Taylor, this was clearly designed to be a showcase fight for Gallagher. However, the fight was much closer than anyone anticipated and I had it even at 19-19 going into the third.
In the final round, Gallagher took over. He had been softening up Taylor with leg kicks the whole fight and then took his back standing. He got on a body lock and was able to drag him to the mat. At that point, he quickly slapped on a rear naked choke for his fourth submission win in five career fights.
Gallagher cut a good promo after the fight where said this was his country and that’s what happens to people who disrespect him in his country. He’s just 20 years old and definitely has star potential but he had too much trouble with a guy he should’ve beaten easily and they need to be careful with him going forward.
The opener saw journeyman featherweight Brian Moore of Ireland take on Bellator vet Daniel Weichel.
Weichel dominated Moore en route to a first round submission win and then called out division champion Daniel Straus, who has been out over a year due to injury. Weichel has now won seve of his eight Bellator fights and has definitely earned a shot at the belt.
The second fight featured a pair of women’s bantamweights who both came into the fight with unbeaten records. Local product Sinead Kavanagh was the local favorite and she dominated her 18-year-old opponent, Greece’s Elina Kallionidou, en route to a decision victory. Either of the first two rounds could’ve gone 10-8 and I had it 30-26 for Kavanagh.
This was Bellator’s final event of 2016 and they return in January with Bellator 170 from Los Angeles, one of the biggest shows in company history. Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz will square off in a light heavyweight bout on January 21 with Phil Daley and Brennan Ward in the co-main.
Bellator 169 full results:
King Mo (20-5) won a unanimous decision over Satoshi Ishii (14-7-1) on scores of 30-27 x 3 (heavyweights)
James Gallagher (5-0) submitted Anthony Taylor (1-2) with a rear naked choke at 1:52 of the third round (featherweight)
Sinead Kavanagh (4-0) won a unanimous decision over Elina Kallionidou (5-1) on scores of 30-27, 30-25 and 30-26 (women’s bantamweights)
Daniel Weichel (38-9) submitted Brian Moore (9-5) with an arm triangle at 4:44 (featherweights)
Cameron Else (4-3) won via KO over Ireland’s Dylan Tuke (3-1) in 20 seconds (Spike.com)
