This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in Philadelphia as part of their Battle Riot tapings earlier this year with Matt Striker & Joe Dombrowski on commentary.
Mister Saint Laurent and Microman opened the show by introducing us to Microman’s new theme song which had MSL singing along and orchestrating the crowd to do the same.
This brought out Davey Boy Smith Jr. who has been receiving some mixed reactions since returning to MLW. Smith shook Microman’s hand, but then hit him with a big boot and a running powerslam.
During the attack, MSL feigned shock and horror. However, when Smith grabbed MSL by the neck, Smith and MSL’s faces both turned to grins as they revealed the ruse and their new evil partnership. Smith gorilla pressed Microman out of the ring and onto The Mane Event, who had come out to try and save their friend. MSL and DBS shook hands again and left together.
MLW Middleweight Champion AKIRA defeated Lince Dorado to retain the title
This was a decent match that had a very innovative finishing sequence involving Dorado losing his mask. This was AKIRA’s first defense of the Middleweight belt as he only won it a few weeks ago from Dorado in a triple-threat match which also included Lio Rush.
Dorado had an urgency in the early going and hit fluid ushigoroshis before showing off some great high-flying action with a running no-touch dive over the top rope to the floor and a torneo from the top rope when back in the ring.
AKIRA came back into the match when he crotched Dorado in a Tree of Woe and hit a running dropkick. He later dropped Dorado on his knee with a backbreaker.
Dorado hit a flipping DDT and moonsaults from two of the ropes, but AKIRA got his boot up to Dorado’s jaw on the third attempt.
AKIRA hit a German suplex, which he missed earlier, and got a close two count. As the back-and-forth action continued, AKIRA hit some running boots in the corner. Dorado came back with a handspring stunner and a brainbuster, but AKIRA grabbed and removed his mask while Dorado was attempting another handspring.
Instead of leading immediately to the finish, they were able to pull off some near falls and spots while Dorado was covering his face. Dorado kicked out of a running knee and then countered a piledriver into a hurricanrana, all while keeping his face hidden behind his arm.
Dorado eventually reached for his mask, but this gave AKIRA an opening to hit his Death Penalty elevated reverse DDT and pick up the pinfall win to retain his title.
– After last week’s “expose” exposing those that are not the financial backer of Alex Kane’s Bomaye Fight Club, this week’s second installment had the final four suspects: Conrad Thompson, Jim Cornette, Queen Latifah, and Dixie Carter. Similar to last week, all four were confirmed as not being the financial backer, but we will find out who is this Saturday at Never Say Never.
– In the gym, the Second Gear Crew were talking tactics ahead of their title match later tonight, which included a table drawn on a whiteboard, Hindu squats, and plenty of beers.
– After last week’s attack on Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo, Taya Valkyrie has been fined and suspended for one week. This led the commentary team to question whether Exo will be fit for her title vs. title match this Saturday against wXw Women’s Champion Ava Everett.
Mandy Leon defeated Billie Starkz
Leon continued her winning ways in MLW against the impressive Starkz. Leon has joined forces with Raven, AKIRA, and Ricky Shane Page as part of the main heel faction The Calling, and had to call upon her stablemate henchmen to get the win.
Before Leon’s entrance, a video featuring The Calling was shown. Page challenged Jacob Fatu for his National Openweight title and it was mentioned that Leon is gunning for the Featherweight title.
This match was only a few minutes long, but they put a lot of effort into their time. A German suplex and an Unprettier on the apron had Leon in control. Starkz came back with suplexes on the outside and inside, but the masked Calling henchmen distracted the referee and pushed Starkz off the top rope to give Leon the win.
– Ahead of their MLW title match at Never Say Never, Alex Kane and the champion Alex Hammerstone cut promos backstage. Hammerstone took offense at being called a placeholder by showing how he has bettered Kane at every step during their similar paths in MLW. Kane’s promo was more straight to the point as he again called Hammerstone “roid boy” and guaranteed a win Saturday.
MLW Tag Team Champions The Samoan SWAT Team (Juicy Finau and Lance Anoa’i) defeated The Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders & Mance Warner) to retain in a hardcore match
The build for this match was one week long and emerged from a friendly sharing of beers backstage last week. That was all these four needed to sign on for a hardcore match, which says a lot about the crazy characters involved here. The match was a callback to the old ECW classics involving The Gangstas where weapons were sprawled all around the ring.
We were straight into the action as all four threw chairs at each other before the outside brawling began. Finau’s head became a weapon against Warner before the “Southern Psycho” decided to go for the eyepoke to get some non-head-related offense in.
Manders threw a chair at Finau on the outside, but it spun off and hit a security guard and tumbled into the front row as the chaos continued. Tables were brought into the ring and set up for a splash from off a ladder.
Warner exploded into life with chair shots to the tag champs followed by Anoa’i taking a big bump off the top of the ladder and through another ladder that was resting in the corner.
Finau squashed Warner with a powerslam, but immediately ate more chair shots from Manders.
Manders then found himself on a table after more chair shots and brawling. Finau went to the middle rope, but was caught by Warner and more chair shots. Warner then ended up on Finau’s back, but the huge tag champ only used this extra weight to continue and crush Manders with a middle rope splash through the table leading to a pinfall victory and the champions retaining their titles.
After the match, and for the sixth time this episode, The Calling’s music hit as AKIRA, Page, Delirious and gas-masked henchmen jumped the SST and Second Gear Crew, all as Raven and Leon watched on.
But unlike most other Calling attacks, the SST got the upper hand and sent The Calling up the ramp as they brawled with Warner and Manders, all after Finau had launched a ladder over the top onto Page, who only saw it coming at the last minute.
This Saturday’s card for MLW Never Say Never live on FITE+:
- MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone defends against Alex Kane
- MLW Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo defends against wXw Women’s Champion Ava Everett in a title vs. title match
- MLW National Openweight Champion Jacob Fatu defends against Calvin Tankman
- MLW Tag Team Champions The Samoan SWAT Team (Juicy Finau and Lance Anoa’i) defend against The Calling (Ricky Shane Page & AKIRA)
- Timothy Thatcher vs. Tracy Williams
- Mance Warner vs. Sam Adonis in a Country Whipping match
- The Bomaye Fight Club benefactor is revealed
