This week’s MLW Underground featured their fifth annual Battle Riot match featuring 40 entrants with the winner getting an MLW title shot in the future.
Entrants and eliminations are in the traditional Royal Rumble format but unlike the Rumble, eliminations can also be via pinfall or submission. Weapons are also legal and often encouraged.
Previous winners were Tom Lawlor, LA Park, Alex Hammerstone and Jacob Fatu.
Alex Kane won the MLW Battle Riot match
Alex Kane and Willie Mack were number one and number two, respectively, to kick off the match. Mack showed off his athleticism before Jesus Rodriguez (previously Ricardo Rodriguez) surprised the crowd and joined the Riot, tuxedo and all.
Number four was Middleweight Champion Lince Dorado who flew into the ring, hitting Rodriguez with a crossbody off the top, a springboard cutter and flying head scissors. He also skinned the cat before Calvin Tankman joined as entrant five.
Tankman suplexed Kane and Rodriguez before Lance Anoa’i joined his fifth Battle Riot, the only person in MLW to be part of all five such matches
Microman was number seven and ran through some legs before running headfirst into Rodriguez’s groin.
Los Azteca 33, a masked henchman of Cesar Duran was eight and Juicy Finau joined at nine along with a trash can filled with weapons. As Finau was entering, Microman pinned and eliminated Los Azteca, while Kane eliminated Anoa’i.
Finau and Tankman went face to face and they traded cookie sheet shots before moving to whiteboards and kendo sticks.
The Beastman entered at number 10 to add to the mass already in the ring. It went from one of the biggest to one of the smallest in Little Guido at 11. Tankman saved Microman by putting Guido on his shoulders which started an impromptu chicken fight with Dorado and Microman.
Sam Adonis was 12 and entered with a double blockbuster on Rodriguez and Kane, but was floored by Beastman and a lariat.
Microman bit the knee of Beastman and hit him with a kendo stick downstairs before Finau and Tankman toppled him over the top rope with Microman getting the final push to eliminate him.
13 was Mance Warner and a 2×4 which he used to pin and eliminate Rodriguez but during the commercial break, Warner and Adonis both eliminated each other and brawled to the back, likely signaling an upcoming match.
During the break was also had Alex Kane choke out Microman to eliminate the fan favorite, plus the entrances of Jimmy Lloyd (14), Mr. Thomas (15), TJ Crawford (16) and Ken Broadway (17).
All of The Calling came out next: Raven, AKIRA, Dr. Cornwallis, Ricky Shane Page, Delirious plus two people in gas masks that brought the official entrance numbers to 23. They eliminated Broadway, Tankman, Crawford, Lloyd, Dorado (by AKIRA), and Thomas.
Los Azteca 9 (24) entered and left and in doing so, broke a Battle Riot record for the quickest elimination. The Calling then busted Finau open — the only remaining non-Calling member left in the ring. They then tied him to the ropes as the countdown started for the next entrant…
…which, of course, was Jacob Fatu (25) save his SST brethren, just as Page brought out a gasoline canister.
Fatu eliminated Cornwallis, Delirious and then the two masked men. AKIRA then sacrificed himself to eliminate Finau, leaving Fatu and Page in the ring by themselves. Both eliminated themselves with a suplex over the top rope and brawled to the back.
Kane had not been eliminated and was there to meet entrant #26 Kim Chee with a suplex and a chokehold to quickly eliminate him.
Midas Black (27) was another quick elimination before Taya Valkyrie (28) entered to give Kane a slighter tougher challenge. Kane quickly pinned her with a fisherman suplex. Jay Lion (29) and Ray Jaz (30) followed the same fate, but Lio Rush (31) quickened the pace and survived the Kane eliminations, for now anyway.
Rush hit his springboard stunner but Kane floored him with a strong lariat and threw him across the ring with another suplex. Tracy Williams (32) debuted and dropped Rush face-first on the top rope with a DDT as the ring started to fill up again toward the end of the match.
O’Shay Edwards (33), a member of Bomaye Fight Club, gave Kane some help before another surprise legend Duke “The Dumpster” Droese (34) went toe-to-toe with him and hit him with a trash can (of course). Kane slipped in and locked in an ankle lock as Page came out again as supposedly, this is where he should have entered to begin with.
As Page was met by Fatu and another brawl ensued in the aisle, Kane unravelled Droese’s prosthetic leg in the ankle lock as “The Dumpster” tapped out.
During the next commercial break, we were told Matthew Justice (35) missed his entrance because of The Calling as 1 Called Manders (36) entered with his cowbell.
John Hennigan (37) and Davey Boy Smith Jr. (38), dressed in jeans like his dad circa 1999, came out to fill the ring with more possible winners. Both received a chorus of boos from the Philadelphia crowd.
Hennigan eliminated Manders and Smith eliminated Williams before Shigehiro Irie came out as the 40th entrant by my bookkeeping. Apart from one graphic during the first commercial, we were not told the entrance numbers so it was hard to keep track. We were only then told that there was still one entrant to go because The Calling’s masked men were not being counted as official entrants.
That final entrant was former WWE wrestler Gene Snitsky. He chokeslammed Rush and crushed Hennigan in the corner but was eliminated during the commercial break. Smith also eliminated Rush and Edwards to leave the final four as Smith, Irie, Hennigan and the number one entrant, Kane.
Kane nearly threw Hennigan out but the parkour specialist slipped back in. Kane then held on with his fingertips to save himself from elimination and to set a new Battle Riot record for lasting the longest time in any of the five matches.
Kane eventually eliminated Hennigan by choking him out on the apron while Smith tossed Irie to bring it down to Kane and Smith as the final two.
The feud between these two has been going on for most of 2023 and it continued here with forearms and suplexes. Smith tried an O’Connor roll but when Kane kicked out, Smith sat in the perfect position for a rear naked choke which Kane gladly applied to eliminate Smith and win the 2023 Battle Riot match.
The Bomaye Fight Club came out to celebrate and hoist Kane on their shoulders as he now has a guaranteed future MLW title shot in his possession.
Final Thoughts:
It was a good Battle Riot that told a few stories throughout. However, having two masked Azteca wrestlers was a bit disappointing and the lack of entrance numbers made it almost impossible to follow.
The Calling coming in as one unit and clearing house was a clever way to make way for a triumphant Fatu to kickstart a new direction following his losing effort to MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone recently. It looks like he will clash with Page soon.
There were also teases for future matches such as Beastman vs. Microman, AKIRA vs. Lince Dorado, and Adonis vs. Warner.
But the main takeaway is the push to Kane who eliminated a lot of the participants via submissions and chokes and went on a Brock Lesnar-style run of beating entrants one-by-one as they entered.
The Philadelphia crowd may have had a hand in Kane winning this as they began getting behind the Bomaye leader during this recent run of tapings in the city.
