Tag: MLW Fusion Alpha

MLW Fusion: Alpha opened with Konnan and the new MLW Tag Team Champions 5150 (Danny Rivera and Slice Boogie) celebrating their win over Los Parks from last week.

Konnan called for the best tag teams to challenge them for the belts. Boogie talked about how he’s not going back to the streets, he’s going to the bank. Rivera said they won’t forget what it’s like to be on the bottom now that they are on top and anyone coming into MLW has to now go through them. 

Rich Bocchini and Joe Dombrowski were on commentary. 

Holidead (w/ Dr. Dax) defeated Willow Nightingale (w/ The Blue Meanie)

Before this match started, we saw a backstage promo featuring Holidead saying she can’t wait to rip Nightingale’s hair out and wear it as a necklace. We then saw highlights of Holidead and Dax providing the distraction last week that allowed Arez to defeat Aramis and win Cesar Duran’s briefcase full of cash. 

As Nightingale  was making her entrance, she brought out The Blue Meanie to be in her corner. 

Nightingale got the early advantage, but had to contend with interference from the outside. She went to the second rope but Dax, who was chained to the ring post, grabbed her boot. This allowed Holidead to hit a big boot and go on offense for a bit. 

Nightingale then made a comeback that culminated in a dropkick from the second rope. She went for the pin but Dax got up onto the ring apron, breaking the chain that kept him attached to the post. Holidead got back up and pushed Nightingale into the referee, causing him to go down. 

Dax got involved again and started choking Nightingale with a chain but Meanie came in and made the save. Meanie and Dax ended up brawling into the ring with Nightingale and Meanie hitting tandem Dusty Rhodes jabs and elbows on the heels. Arez then hit the ring and delivered a dropkick to Meanie. Nightingale was concerned with Meanie and the distraction allowed Holiday to hit a double underhook facebuster she calls Darkness Falls for the win. 

This was fun. The Philly crowd was into Meanie and Nightingale comes off as a likable babyface. Holidead and her crew have a vibe befitting MLW as well and it feels like Holidead will likely be a key part of their women’s division moving forward. 

— We cut to Cesar Duran sitting backstage talking to someone on the phone. 5150 then entered as they continued to celebrate their title win from last week. Duran asked them to pour a drink for “El Jefe.” Duran said the gods will be happy with the sacrifices he plans to make and he hopes 5150 won’t disappoint him. Duran then reached into his pocket, making 5150 think he might have a gun, but he pulled out a deck of cards. 5150 then seemed really enthusiastic about playing cards. 

— The camera cut to a video featuring the Von Erichs. Marshall was playing old school Pac-Man when Ross came in and revealed he had the contract for their Tag Team title shot coming up in Dallas on January 21st. Marshall brought up that it’s been 40 years since a Von Erich challenged for a title in Dallas. They said they will get back in the gym and be in great shape for the match. 

LA Park defeated Homicide

Last week, Homicide got involved in the tag title match by dragging LA Park out from under the ring. Park was hiding so that he could switch out with either of his sons to gain an unfair advantage as Los Parks did throughout their title reign. On commentary, it was mentioned that Park demanded this match due to Homicide’s actions last week. 

Park ended up with the early advantage after they exchanged moves in the opening moments. He used a steel chair to hit Homicide outside the ring and then put his opponent in a seated position on the chair and hit him with a suicide dive. 

Back in the ring, Homicide recovered and hit a ddt. He would later hit an exploder suplex for a two count. They then exchanged moves and two counts for a period. Finally, Park countered a tornado ddt attempt and then delivered a spear to his opponent for the win.

This was good with lots of fun spots and a fast pace. It was played up like Park was getting some revenge on 5150 and that’s going to be it between the two teams now that 5150 is moving on to face the Von Erichs. 

— Highlights were shown of nZo attacking KC Navarro last week. We were given an update that Navarro suffered a neck injury and there was no timetable for his return. 

— There was a backstage promo featuring EJ Nduka. He talked about being a three-sport athlete growing up in Dallas, Texas, where MLW will be next month. He said that football taught him a lot that he takes into wrestling. Nduka also mentioned he was a Dean’s and President’s list student as a double major in biology and business. 

— There was a short video package for Rok-C’s debut in Texas next month. 

Charlie Bruzzese inducted into 2300 Arena Hall of Fame

There was a video package on one of MLW’s cameraman, Charlie Bruzzese. He talked about having worked the indies, ECW, and the early days of MLW in 2002. We cut back to the arena with the shot of Bruzzese as his contributions to wrestling were honored. A banner with his name on it was unveiled inside the arena, officially recognizing him as a member of the 2300 Arena Hall of Fame.  

— We then cut to a video informing viewers that the Bomaye Fight Club has pressed charges against Calvin Tankman. Last week as MLW was going off the air, a clip was shown of Tankman attacking MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Kane in the parking garage. Tankman’s mug shot was shown on the screen from his arrest as well. Kane revealed he has enlisted the help of lawyer Stephen P. New, so Tankman is going to be in jail for a long time. We then saw a New commercial conveniently enough. 

Kane seems like someone with a lot of potential. MLW is very much behind him, giving him his own faction to lead and an Openweight title reign. He’s only three years in, but looks to have tremendous upside. 

— A short creepy video aired featuring sad clowns yelling maniacally while images of Pagano flashed on the screen.

— There was an interview with Tankman on the phone from jail. He said when he gets out, he’s going to get his hands on the Bomaye Fight Club. He said he’s going to be getting out of jail sooner than he thought, too. 

— It was then announced that on the season premiere of MLW Azteca on January 6th, King Muertes will team up with Taurus to face MLW World Champion Alex Hammerstone and Pagano. 

MLW World Middleweight Champion Tajiri defeated Atsuki Aoyagi to retain

This was taped at a recent All Japan show in Tokyo, Japan. 

The early moments saw Tajiri and Aoyagi go back and forth with some technical grappling until Tajiri grabbed the first sustained advantage after delivering a neckbreaker. 

Aoyagi managed to hit a suplex to get back into it just before the commercial break. After Aoyagi was on offense for a bit, Tajiri escaped to the outside. Aoyagi then hit him with a moonsault on the floor. He then got Tajiri back in the ring and hit a springboard dropkick and a standing moonsault. 

Tajiri got back into it after avoiding another moonsault, wrapping his opponent in the tarantula shortly after. Tajiri missed a head kick and took a handspring kick to the face for a two count. Aoyagi then missed another moonsault, but blocked a kick from Tajiri and hit an enziguri. 

They went counter for counter for a bit until Tajiri hit a piledriver, followed by the Buzzsaw kick on Aoyagi that got the three count.

— Before the show went off the air, we saw a video from the back with Richard Holliday approaching Duran about investing in NFTs but was promptly blown off. Gnarls Garvin approached Duran, but he was blown off by El Jefe as well. Finally, Hammerstone confronted Duran about him sending his brother Matanza (Jeff Cobb( after him. The MLW World Champion told Duran not to cross him again and Duran said he’ll see him in Mexico. 

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this was a good show as Tajiri is always fun to watch wrestle. MLW is really building up 5150’s Tag Team title win too. With the Von Erichs getting a shot in Texas in January though, they are perhaps losing them soon. It should be interesting to see where things go between those two teams leading up to the Dallas show.

Ahead of next week’s War Chamber show, this week’s edition of MLW Fusion: Alpha saw the first Opera Cup semifinal match as Davey Richards took on Bobby Fish, a chaotic Los Parks vs. 5150 trios match, and a massive 12-man survival tag team match.  

The show opened with MLW World Champion Alex Hammerstone, EJ Nduka and Richard Holliday entering the building. Emilio Sparks tried to get words from them ahead of the upcoming War Chamber match, but they all blew him off. Holliday was on the phone with former Dynastic member and current AEW star MJF, joking about Sting not being over since he was with The Police and agreeing he is too busy to team with them in the War Chamber match as they searched for two new members.

Cesar Duran confronted them and reminded them they are currently two men short for their “Hammerheads” team against CONTRA. Duran said they all have an opportunity to get rid of CONTRA Unit once and for all and wants to work with the MLW Champion and his team. He said he has a man for their team, but “they need to use a key to unleash your dreams.”

5150 (Slice Boogie, Rivera and Homicide) (w/ Konnan and Dr. Julius Smokes) vs. Los Parks (LA Park, El Hijo de LA Park and LA Park Jr.) went to a no contest in a trios match

This was a great action-packed way to start the show: a wild no disqualification brawl that harkened back to the ECW days with the entrance music continuously playing in the background, weapons and all-out mayhem. Storyline-wise, it built to a future title shot for 5150.

The ring announcer announced this as a trios match and the commentary team even picked up on this as only Hijo and LA Park Jr came out. Rivera and Slice Boogie followed as the match started as a standard two vs. two.

Rich Bocchini said he had word from Sparks that LA Park was involved in an altercation backstage which is why he wasn’t there. As the four men in the ring brawled, 5150’s music hit and Homicide entered the fight. Bocchini then went out on a limb to say Homicide was the reason LA wasn’t out there.

Seconds later, Los Parks’ music hit and the other half of the Tag Team Champions, LA Park, entered the match with a steel chair. Los Parks cleared the ring and hit a triple dive at the same time to the delight of the Philadelphia crowd.

After more brawling on the outside, Slice Boogie power bombed Hijo through a wooden board in the corner of the ring. LA Park then entered and smacked a chair over Boogie’s head as the referee had seen enough and called for the bell. For his troubles, he then got taken out with a slapjack by Smokes.  

Homicide and Rivera took out LA and LA Jr., followed by Rivera landing a corkscrew plancha and Homicide landing a cannonball tope con hilo through the ropes. The bell continued to ring as LA Park returned and took out Boogie with a spear as Hijo smacked the rest of 5150 with the broken pieces of the wooden board.

After an ad break, the brawl was still going on backstage which now included Jacob Fatu. It ended with 5150 pulling off Hijo’s mask.

Zenshi, Warhorse, Savio Vega, The Blue Meanie, Richard Holliday & EJ Nduka defeated Beastman (w/ Kim Chee), Kevin Ku, Gino Medina, KC Navarro, Ikuro Kwon & King Mo in a 12-man survival tag team match

Nduka looked impressive again here as he eliminated the entire heel team on his way to being the sole survivor.

The faces cleared the ring of the heels to start us off. Ku eliminated Warhorse early with a gutwrench power bomb. Nduka then eliminated Mo and Ku with a spinebuster and power bomb. Navarro and Zenshi had a nice, fast exchange that ended with Zenshi laying out Navarro and Kwon with a handspring backflip double kick.

The style changed as Beastman tagged in to slow Zenshi in his tracks. The 300-pounder threw Zenshi across the ring with a fallaway slam and then squashed him with a massive corner cannonball to eliminate him. Vega came in with his kendo stick, but ended up being eliminated after a Beastman big splash.

The crowd chanted for Meanie as he entered and slammed into Beastman. Kim Chee held Meanie’s leg which let Beastman squash him in the corner and eliminate him after another big splash. Nduka then came in to take out Beastman with a spinebuster to make it three on two.

Holliday and Medina came face-to-face to reignite their feud. After a nice exchange, Holliday was counted out as they brawled on the outside followed by Kwon taking Holliday out with a superkick. This left Nduka on his own against Medina, Navarro and Kwon but he took all three of them out in quick succession to become the sole survivor.

— Duran met Willow Nightingale backstage and said she was the favorite to be the first MLW Women’s featherweight champion. Nightingale said she plans to both take the title and make the title. Duran thinks this is the start of a very productive relationship.

— After a break, an enraged Fatu entered Duran’s office and demanded a championship rematch against Hammerstone. Duran brought up Josef Samael’s contractual control over Fatu’s matches and Duran said that clause was still in effect. However, Samael had not yet granted Fatu’s rematch. Fatu was confused as Duran tried to plant another piece of doubt in a member of CONTRA Unit’s head, but Fatu said no one could come between him and Samael.

Davey Richards defeated Bobby Fish to advance to the Opera Cup finals

This was a great 15-minute battle of survival filled with stiff strikes and great submission battles. The commentary team played up the possibility of Fish taking the Opera Cup back to AEW and handing it over to Tony Khan.

After a nice chain wrestling opening, Fish attacked Richards’ knee when they went to the outside. Fish continued his stiff strikes and kicks that made Richards crumble to the floor.

Richards fought back and showed some impressive submission transitions and innovations. More strikes followed which woke both men up and kickstarted a standoff, but Fish again attacked Richards’ legs, this time adding in a dragon screw leg whip.

Richards got his knees up on a springboard senton from the apron, but Fish locked in a heel hook to add more pressure on the lower limbs. Richards reversed the heel hook into a sharpshooter.

Both got to their feet and connected with kicks and boots at the same time. Richards reversed and rolled through an exploder suplex into an ankle lock. Fish pushed Richards off, but he used the momentum to bounce off the ropes and take Fish’s head off with a soccer punt. Richards then nailed Fish with a brainbuster but Fish kicked out. Richards went straight to another ankle lock, grapevined the leg and forced Fish to tap out.

After the match, the two grizzled warriors shook hands. This sets up the Opera Cup final between Richards and the winner of TJP vs. Calvin Tankman.

— Alicia Atout interviewed Hammerstone, Nduka and Holliday backstage and they announced Savio Vega as joining their team in addition to Holliday being granted a future title shot against Hammerstone. Hammerstone questioned if Duran is playing games with them by making the friends face one another. They also wondered who their team member could be and said because Duran mentioned a key earlier, it could be Duran’s brother, Matanza.

Next week:

CONTRA Unit (Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon, Josef Samael, Mads Krugger and a Sentai Death Squad member) vs. MLW World Champion Alex Hammerstone, EJ Nduka, Richard Holliday, Savio Vega and a mystery partner) in a War Chamber match

This week’s edition of MLW Fusion: Alpha ahead of Saturday’s War Chamber event saw a casket match between IWA Caribbean Champion King Muertes and the departing “Filthy” Tom Lawlor.

Matchmaker Cesar Duran came to the ring to open the show in what turned out to be chaotic fashion. He said when putting the card together he missed something: a sacrifice.

5150 interrupted, introduced themselves, and called out Los Parks who obliged for a fight. Rivera and Slice Boogie took to the sky and hit stereo dives while Los Parks’ music was still playing. A huge brawl broke out as officials and security failed to keep them apart.

When the teams finally dispersed, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor’s music hit as he and Kevin Ku came to the ring to talk to Duran (who stayed in the ring while the chaos ensued around him).

Lawlor said he has been screwed week after week and deserves to be treated like a prizefighter. Duran asked what he wanted and Lawlor repeated the answer that got him a National Openweight title shot against Hammerstone a few weeks ago: “I want a title fight!”

Duran granted his wish, but once again, it was not the title that Lawlor wanted. Duran made Lawlor vs. King Muertes for the Caribbean title in a casket match instead.

Willow Nightingale and Zoey Sky defeated The Sea Stars (Ashley Vox and Delmi Exo)

The Sea Stars took control early as they singled out the smaller Sky. Nightingale got tagged in and got her team back in the match with a cartwheel, superkick and senton splash before bodyslamming Sky onto Vox.

Exo got a hot tag and took Nightingale over with a Northern Lights suplex. As the action broke down, Nightingale was thrown from the ring. Holidead appeared from under the ring and attacked Nightingale once again, dragging her back under the ring.

Inside, the Sea Stars had the numbers advantage as Exo crushed Sky in the corner with running knees before Vox finished her off with a Tidal Wave (an assisted top rope tumbling senton bomb). Nightingale was able to leave with the rest of the women in the match, but she looked worse for wear.

— Mads Krugger interrupted during the women’s featherweight entrances and said that he was the leader of CONTRA Unit as the commentary team questioned if there was internal conflict between himself and Josef Samael. Later in the night, Samael had a propaganda video where he called himself the leader of CONTRA and the real “El Jefe.” 

— Alex Kane “confirmed” that Calvin Tankman was out of the Opera Cup and said his only mission was submission as he hinted he was substituting for Tankman and taking his place in the tournament. However, Alicia Atout later confirmed that Tankman is fit and is at home training for his scheduled semifinal match with TJP.

Alex Kane (w/ King Mo) defeated Warhorse in an open challenge prizefight

“4000 pounds of heavy metal” answered Kane’s open challenge and knocked King Mo out of the ring with a headbutt to start things off. Mo then distracted Warhorse as Kane tried to take advantage, but Warhorse reversed Kane and sent him into the guardrail and then back into the ring.

Inside, Warhorse was impressive as he headbanged (aka traded headbutts) with Kane and got the better of his larger opponent. Mo got involved again by grabbing Warhorse’s ankle which allowed Kane to get ahold of him and suplex him onto his head in the corner.

Kane took advantage, suplexing Warhorse all over the ring as Mo held up number cards along with each throw. Warhorse did land on his feet after a back suplex and slapped Kane’s ears, but it was a brief hope spot as Kane just ended up throwing him across the ring.

Kane hit a ripcord Olympic slam and a head and leg suplex to pick up the pinfall win against a spirited Warhorse.

— Backstage, Lawlor and Ku were talking tactics via an excellently drawn “Mil” on a whiteboard when Ku brought up that sponsorship money was way down and his gym fees were way up, suggesting he and Lawlor weren’t working anymore. Lawlor questioned his timing ahead of his title match, but Ku said he has to leave him on his own.

— Rumors had been running wild all week of MLW World Champion Alex Hammerstone making a deal with the devil, Cesar Duran, for his War Chamber mystery partners. When questioned, Hammerstone quickly blew off the reporters.

— Atout caught up with Richard Holliday who was still wrapped in bandages from his title loss to Muertes two weeks ago. Holliday said he has a new marketing campaign for candy in Japan, but when he tried to give Atout a sneak taste, he found new MLW Middleweight champion Tajiri sampling the product instead.

IWA Caribbean Champion King Muertes defeated Tom Lawlor in a casket match

Karlee Perez (the former Maxine in WWE and Catrina in Lucha Underground) came out to make her MLW debut before Muertes entered with a lot of death symbolism that made Lawlor feel very uncomfortable.

Lawlor fought this match, his last in MLW, as a babyface as he battled and struggled to overpower Muertes. The action soon spilled to the outside where Lawlor was thrown headfirst into the casket.

The commentary team made no bones about this being Lawlor’s last match, calling it the final undoing of Lawlor and his swan song, listing off his recent losses along with his earlier split with Ku.

Muertes hit a big TKO in the ring as we had our first casket tease, but after Lawlor escaped, he got a bit of momentum and knocked Muertes down with a ripcord knee to the face.

Lawlor dragged a deadweight Muertes to the casket for a tease of his own, but Muertes powered his way out. The action spilled to the outside again where Lawlor missed a chair shot and ended up being power bombed onto the casket.

Back inside, Lawlor locked in a rear choke from the middle rope before Muertes crawled over to the casket with Lawlor on his back. Lawlor once again got Muertes in the casket but couldn’t close the lid. Muertes grabbed Lawlor around the throat, dragged him back into the ring, and snapped a powerslam that stopped Lawlor in his tracks.

Muertes tried a spear but in a final heroic attempt, Lawlor caught him in a front guillotine choke. Muertes powered out of it and got to his feet before he hit his Straight to Hell face-first finisher. He then dragged Lawlor inside the casket and closed the lid to end not only the match, but the former MLW World Champion and Opera Cup winner’s career in the promotion.

Next week:

• Davey Richards vs. Bobby Fish in an Opera Cup semifinal match

This week’s MLW Fusion: Alpha featured the final two matches in the 2021 Opera Cup opening round with TJP vs. Alex Shelley and Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty.

The show opened with a National Openweight title update. Cesar Duran had the title in his office and announced that a new champion will be crowned on the Thanksgiving edition of Fusion, later announced to be a multi-man ladder match that will take place at November’s TV taping in Philadelphia. Alexander Hammerstone relinquished the title following winning the MLW World title from Jacob Fatu.

New IWA Caribbean champion King Muertes then entered Duran’s office and said Duran needs to “fulfil his end of the bargain.” Duran said there must be a sacrifice and handed Muertes a wooden box that shone with a golden light when opened, similar to Pulp Fiction’s briefcase scene.  

Opera Cup quarterfinal: Bobby Fish defeated Lee Moriarty to advance

In a rematch from a recent AEW Rampage that was actually taped before that match, Fish defeated Moriarty in a great back-and-forth technical encounter.

Pittsburgh, PA, prodigy Moriarty said he was representing AEW in a pre-recorded promo as both he and Fish have since signed with the company after this match was taped.

An “Undisputed” chant rang out before they began the slow feeling out process. Both tried their luck with various kicks and strikes with Fish getting the initial upper hand. Moriarty used his speed to get back into the match. The referee got in his way on the apron during a soccer punt attempt which gave Fish the chance to sweep his leg and take the firm advantage going into a commercial break.

Back from the break, they brawled on the outside which continued inside with Fish in control. Moriarty brought out some of his self-named Taiga style for a brief moment of hope, but Fish went back to working on his lower limbs.

Moriarty fired up once more and was able to escape two choke attempts, coming off the top with a double stomp to the arm. But seconds later, Fish kept the back-and-forth action going with an exploder suplex into the ropes. A back suplex followed after a strike battle, but Moriarty kicked out.

Moriarty tried a pair of mouse trap pins, but Fish rolled smoothly into a heel hook which left Moriarty no choice but to tap out due to the continued leg attacks throughout the match.

This now sets up an Opera Cup semifinal between Fish and Davey Richards, who defeated Tom Lawlor to advance.

— There was a War Chamber match update with the teams now being Hammerstone, Richard Holliday, EJ Nduka and two mystery partners vs. Jacob Fatu, Mads Krugger, Josef Samael, Ikuro Kwan and a Sentai Death Squad member. Emilio Sparks caught up with Nduka who said he is here to make things right and that maybe Hammerstone could repay him with a title shot in the future.

Calvin Tankman segment

Before his scheduled match with Gino Medina, Tankman was backstage talking about the speculation of him joining King Mo and Alex Kane. He said they should be joining him by jumping on his bandwagon instead. Mo and Kane walked by and heard this and attacked Tankman, busting him open. He was later taken away in an ambulance and his participation in his Opera Cup semifinal match was put into question as we learned that Kane is the first substitute if anyone is not able to compete.

— Los Parks were trick-or-treating back home. They jumped a poor fan who had a Konnan mask and then said trick or treating was for children. Later in the night, 5150 (Konnan, Slice Boogie, Rivera and Dr. Julius Smokes) challenged Los Parks for the MLW Tag Team titles.

— Sparks then met up with Willow Nightingale and asked about her being attacked by Holidead last week. She said Holidead had scratched her cornea and she wanted revenge. She said she called Duran and got a match booked.  

— Hype videos aired for two impending debuts: nZo and Warhorse.

Mads Krugger defeated Dr Dax (w/ Holidead)

This was a very quick squash. A big boot and a reverse tree slam had Dax defeated.

Duran talked with Krugger before the match and planted more seeds of doubt with staying with CONTRA Unit. Duran asked him what his plan is now that Hammerstone has beat Fatu for the title and asked him to think about going back to his mercenary roots.

Mads Krugger defeated Budd Heavy

After the match, Krugger took the mic and challenged Hammerstone. But, it was Budd Heavy who answered the call with a chair, only to be destroyed in a similarly short fashion with a big boot and a reverse tree slam.

— During an Alicia Atout interview, Hammerstone challenged CONTRA Unit to a tag team match. Holliday arrived covered in comical-looking bandages after his match last week but ended up being slapped by Atout after supposedly saying something inappropriate under the bandages.

Opera Cup quarterfinal: TJP defeated Alex Shelley to advance

Shelley said if you can’t go out and wrestle on auto-pilot, you don’t deserve to be in MLW or the Opera Cup, indicating you need to be able to use your instincts and not think too much while in the ring. That was certainly on display in the opening minutes as both he and TJP smoothly exchanged holds, reversals and escapes as the announce team talked about them being near mirror images of each other.

The action snapped into life as Shelley got knocked to the floor and TJP landed on him with a big pescado. TJP took control and hit a nice twisting headscissors that kept Shelley in his control as he dabbed and blew kisses to the crowd.

TJP stopped a Shelley comeback by locking in a sharpshooter, transitioning into a Muta lock before snapping his knee while he hammerlocked Shelley’s arm with his legs.

Shelley blocked a tornado DDT and dropped TJP face-first into the middle buckle. He then hit a running knee in the corner and a tornado DDT of his own. Shelley went to the top rope and hit a big frog splash but TJP kicked out.

TJP hit a low dropkick to get a breather before they both crawled to their feet and had a forearm strike exchange. The strikes turned to kicks before Shelley’s sliced bread #2 was reversed and he ate a superkick. TJP then hit a running boot across the face and went to the top rope, but missed a frog splash of his own.

Shelley tried to lock in his Border City stretch and a cross armbreaker but couldn’t fully sink in either. TJP reversed into a leg lock cloverleaf and transitioned into an STF but couldn’t get Shelley to quit.

Shelley dropped TJP and finally locked in his Border City stretch crossface, but TJP rolled through, grabbed the ropes, and picked up a tainted pinfall win to set up a semifinal match with Tankman if injury doesn’t knock him out first.

Next week:

• The Sea Stars (Ashley Vox and Delmi Exo) will be in tag team action

This week’s MLW Fusion: Alpha saw the IWA Caribbean Championship on the line as Richard Holliday defended against King Muertes, an Opera Cup first round match between Matt Cross and Calvin Tankman, and Holidead taking on Nicole Savoy in women’s featherweight action.

The show was supposed to open with the Caribbean title match but when Holliday did not appear as his music played, we saw Ikuro Kwan and Mads Krugger attacking him backstage, only to be saved by MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone.

Nicole Savoy defeated Holidead (w/ Dr. Dax)

In her inset promo about Holidead, Savoy said the bigger they are, the harder they fall. However, both were evenly matched here. Holidead had Dax in a dog collar and chained to the ring post.

Savoy’s ground game was on display as she grounded Holidead in the early going, but she did hit two hurricanrana and a dive to the floor to show she has different levels to her game. After a commercial break, Savoy was still in control with a Saito suplex but minutes later, she was locked in a surfboard submission.

After both women were down after a double headbutt, Savoy fired up with a double underhook suplex, a German suplex and a running elbow for a near fall. Holidead had her own near fall after a backbreaker and a swinging uranage into a Celtic cross. Savoy came back with a dragon suplex moments later.

Holidead deadlifted Savoy while stuck in a triangle choke, but Savoy didn’t break the hold and transitioned into a triangle choke to pick up the submission win.  

After the match, the doctors checked on Savoy as it looked like she got hurt toward the end of the match. It could have been on the dragon suplex as there was a camera cut and a few seconds cut between the move and the pinfall attempt that followed.

Willow Nightingale, who was on commentary, was attacked by Holidead as she left the ringside area, laid out with a DDT on the ramp.

— Backstage, Alicia Atout asked Holliday if he was still in shape to fight, but Holliday said when you are breathing “Rarefied Air,” you defend your championship.

Calvin Tankman defeated Matt Cross to advance to the semifinals of the 2021 Opera Cup

Tankman continued to impress with his explosive offense and this was Cross’ best performance to date in the show’s best match. There was also a bit of storyline added in post-match with Cross complaining of an alleged eye poke that only he supposedly felt.  

Cross was coming off a recent loss to then-World Champion Jacob Fatu.

King Mo was on commentary scouting Tankman and talking him up which continues the storyline from last week with Alex Kane and Mo trying to recruit him.

Cross immediately hit a pump kick, took Tankman down with a headscissors and double stomped him in the thigh. Cross was on fire in the opening minutes as he hit a dive to the floor and cartwheeled back into the ring, but turned straight into a big shoulder barge from Tankman that sent him halfway across the ring.

After a break, Tankman was in control of a forearm battle. He floored Cross with a suplex and a slam, flattening him with a big splash.

Cross fought back by getting his feet up on a charging Tankman. A pair of pump kicks and a springboard crossbody followed, but after a step-up kick, a double stomp from the top rope and another pump kick, he was caught in mid-air after a pescado to the floor and then power bombed on the apron.

A strike battle had both the Philadelphia crowd cheering and the sweat flying with a springboard cutter from Cross dropping Tankman headfirst on the mat. Cross then landed on his feet coming off the top rope with a shooting star press but he walked straight into a pop-up back elbow.

Minutes later after one final strike battle, Tankman floored Cross with a clothesline and a back fist to the base of the neck to pick up the win and advance in the tournament.

After the match, Alicia Atout interviewed a salty Cross and asked him what happened about the alleged eye poke. He said that Tankman shouldn’t have to stoop to those levels and everyone saw that it was b.s.

— Atout then interviewed Budd Heavy backstage, but before they could get much more past beer and partying in Philadelphia, Atout got led away by Cesar Duran’s masked man.

— Emilio Sparks had an exclusive look backstage where we saw Jacob Fatu and Josef Samael enraged after his title loss to Hammerstone. Samael said it was a fluke because Fatu is better than Hammerstone in all attributes and got the War Chamber idea in Fatu’s head.

— We then cut to another cinematic style production in Cesar Duran’s office with Atout. Duran said her investigative journalism “impressed” him, but her expose last week on him was vicious. Atout said it was true and accurate, but Duran called it “dirt sheet standards.” Duran then invited Atout for a front row seat to tonight’s main event where he promised violence. This was a tie-in to last week where he confronted Holliday about his storyline relationship with Atout.

— After a break, we were back in Duran’s office as he had an invitation for Krugger and put question marks around his loyalty to CONTRA Unit.

King Muertes defeated Richard Holliday to win the IWA Caribbean Championship

This was a slow storyline-based brawl, but it got great crowd reactions from those who were firmly in the favor of Muertes. Duran and Atout were both sitting in the front row watching. Booking Holliday against Muertes was a clear message to Atout and the rest of the locker room not to mess with Duran.

Storyline-wise, Holliday was the face and Muertes the heel, but the Philadelphia crowd wanted it the other way. The two seemed to work the opening moments with those dispositions, too. Muertes looked the tougher of the two and always got the best of the exchanges, getting cheers when he crashed into Holliday with a spear.

The Sentai Death Squad came out to stand on the ramp while we cut backstage to see EJ Nduka and Krugger brawling.

Holliday tried to make a comeback, but couldn’t lift the bigger Muertes. He ended up clotheslined out of the ring and crashed into the railing where Duran poured a glass of champagne over his head.

After blocking a top rope suplex attempt, Holliday came off the top with a big forearm which changed the expressions of both Atout and Holliday. Muertes stopped the comeback with a scoop powerslam but couldn’t put him away.

Holliday fired up again as Hammerstone joined the backstage CONTRA brawl. In the ring, Holliday had Muertes in a torture rack and dropped him with a neckbreaker but Muertes kicked out.

The Sentai Death Squad came to ringside to distract Holliday which allowed Kwan to hit Holliday with a kick to the back of the head (it connected with his shoulder) and Muertes to drop him face-first onto the concrete floor. Muertes then rolled him into the ring for the pin and the Caribbean championship.

The commentary team played up Duran’s master plan of hiring CONTRA to make sure Muertes won the title tonight, a tie-in to last season when he unsuccessfully won the Openweight title from Hammerstone.

Next week:

• TJP vs. Alex Shelley in an Opera Cup first round match
• Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty in an Opera Cup first round match

With MLW Fightland debuting Thursday on Vice TV, this week’s edition of Fusion: Alpha acted as a preview as Matt Cross challenged Jacob Fatu for the MLW World title in a match that could change the Fightland main event.

Injustice members Jordan Oliver and Middleweight champion Myron Reed take on the 5150 team of Danny Rivera and Slice Boogie in their MLW debut. Plus, Willow Nightingale will take on Ashley Vox in the first women’s featherweight division match.

The show opened with a clip from earlier in the day with National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone getting refused entry into the building by security ahead of his title vs. title showdown with Fatu. The match was made no disqualification and the bout was heavily hyped throughout the night.

5150 (Danny Rivera and Slice Boogie) (w/ Konnan and Dr. Julius Smokes) defeated Injustice (MLW Middleweight champion Myron Reed and Jordan Oliver)

This feud kicked off at Battle Riot III when Injustice interrupted Cesar Duran’s debut, only to be interrupted by the newest and latest debuting faction in the 5150. Since then, it has been a war of words between these confident stables with this match having major implications for the next contenders to Los Parks’ MLW Tag Team titles.

5150 took control early after Smokes got involved with a helping hand from the outside. Boogie then powered Oliver down with a big uranage while Rivera launched himself across the ring and took Reed off the apron with a dropkick.

Injustice had a glimmer of hope when Oliver was fingertips away from tagging in Reed. That was until Smokes again got involved and pulled Reed off the apron denying the tag. Moments later, Reed was tagged in and was a house of fire with kicks, leg drops, feints and nip-ups.

Reed’s springboard inside-out cutter got blocked with an uppercut from Rivera. Boogie then took him out with a spear on the apron. Inside, Oliver also had a springboard cutter blocked and when he got pushed to the ropes, it was Smokes again getting involved, hitting Oliver with a loaded sock which allowed Rivera to roll him up to pick up the win.

After the match, Injustice were spray painted and Reed had his chest protector stolen. Reed defends his Middleweight title at Fightland against Arez, Aramis and the debuting Tajiri.

— Alicia Atout interviewed current Shimmer Tag Team champions The Sea Stars, Ashley Vox and Delmi Exo. Ashley referred to Delmi as “dummy” a few times which teased a bit of tension between the sisters before Willow Nightingale and Brittany Blake interrupted. Nightingale acted friendly towards the pair while Blake was quite the contrary.

— Hammerstone interrupted a CONTRA Unit propaganda video by jumping Daivari, but was saved moments later by Mads Krugger as Hammerstone attempted to get his hands on Fatu. Krugger and Hammerstone continued to brawl throughout the rest of the show.  

Willow Nightingale defeated Ashley Vox

This was a babyface match, but also played into the size and power advantage Nightingale had over Vox, who was announced as the smallest competitor in the new division. I am really looking forward to seeing more of both as this was an excellent kickstart to the division.

Nightingale’s advantages played true in the opening moments of the match and her speed was also hyped up as she snapped on a bridging suplex. Vox momentarily escaped, but was locked into an armbar.

Vox escaped and rallied with a springboard headscissors takeover and a big suicide dive to the floor. Back inside, Vox won a chop battle and had the upper hand until Nightingale countered an Irish whip with a cartwheel and connected with a smooth superkick.

Nightingale pulled out more power moves toward the end as Vox barely kicked out after a spinebuster. A somersault senton in the corner looked to have the match won for Nightingale but she instead went to the top rope and missed a moonsault.

Vox used that swing in momentum to her advantage with a big clothesline, but Nightingale just kept coming back. After a kick to the head, Vox picked up the win with a perfectly executed sit-out powerbomb.

— Alicia Atout interviewed Davey Richards about his win against TJP two weeks ago, but he was interrupted by the man himself. After some choice words between the two, TJP landed a cheap shot slap before the officials kept them apart.  

— 5150 were backstage. Smokes revealed a rock inside his loaded sock and Rivera told us they were there to take over. There was no mention of Los Parks or the tag titles but that seems to be the direction they are going.

MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu (w/ Josef Samael) defeated Matt Cross to retain

Similar to the women’s match, they played the size and power vs. speed and agility story here. Cross hit a tilt-a-whirl headscissors and a suicide dive early on which had the champion knocked off his feet. Cross hit a very clever elbow drop on the outside using the ring post to hold him in position.

Fatu seemed more uncaged than usual, going face-to-face with fans at ringside and taking some risks he normally wouldn’t, but he took back control from Cross’ early flourish when he dodged Cross coming off the top rope and rammed him with a dropkick.

Fatu brought out his trademark repertoire including a spinning uranage, a Samoan drop, superkicks, and his ever impressive handspring moonsault. Cross fought back and hit a springboard forearm and a standing moonsault of his own for a two count.

Cross successfully got Fatu onto his shoulders and made the most of Fatu missing a corner splash and connecting head first with the ring post. Cross, channelling his inner Rey Fenix, hit Fatu with a top rope double foot stomp to the back and in the same motion, he hit the ropes and dove to the outside taking out Samael who had kept interfering.

The Philadelphia fans lapped up the great action, but Cross’ admiration was short-lived as he looked up to see the Samoan bulldozer flying over the top rope with a Fosbury Flop that crushed the challenger and stopped any momentum he was building.

Back inside, Cross blocked a Samoan drop and dropped Fatu on the top of his head with a springboard cutter. He then went up top but landed on his feet after Fatu moved from a shooting star press attempt. However, he turned around straight into a massive clothesline from Fatu followed by the double jump moonsault to put him away.

Cross was taken out in a body bag by the Sentai Death Squad members as Fatu celebrated in the ring. Backstage, we saw Samael direct the SDS to a car to take Cross away. However, when they popped the trunk, Hammerstone emerged, saved Cross and continued his CONTRA assault by taking out Samael and the SDS.

MLW Fightland Thursday on Vice TV:

• World Champion Jacob Fatu vs. National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone in a title vs. title match
• Middleweight Champion Myron Reed vs. Aramis, Arez and Tajiri in a four-way title match

After complaining last week to new MLW matchmaker Cesar Duran that he did not receive a title shot after winning the 2020 Opera Cup, former MLW World Champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor gets his shot at Alex Hammerstone and his National Openweight title on tonight’s show.

Aramis defeated Arez

This was a really good, fantastic opener. The Philadephia fans showed their appreciation afterward by throwing money into the ring after it ended.

This played into the Duran storyline as it was hailed as a Duran-booked showcase of the superluchas for these two newcomers. Arez was called “the master of strange style” and had face paint instead of the more traditional Aramis-style lucha mask. Arez also was less traditional with his wrestling style as he showed a ground-based game early on, but it was still a style in which Aramis matched him move for move in the early going.

They traded roll-ups, armdrags and had a stalemate face-off before the action picked up with Aramis diving to the floor. Arez’s unorthodox style was a nice change of pace as he tried to slow things down, but Aramis always recovered to speed things up again. Aramis was sent flying over the top rope after a buckle bomb, but it didn’t stop their flow.

Aramis stepped up the tempo and the risk factor toward the end with a head first tope suicida and an amazing top rope somersault plancha to the outside which got a “holy sh*t” chant from the Philadelphia crowd. A twisting top rope splash then got a close two count.

Arez hit a nice combo of a GTS, heel kick and a Michinoku driver for a near fall of his own. Aramis returned with a sit-out power bomb and later defiantly kicked out of a tilt-a-whirl back cracker, putting Arez away with a spinning torture rack into a power bomb.

— Backstage, Duran was confronted by Matt Cross once again. Similar to last week, he said he deserves a shot at the World title. Duran appreciated his ambition and announced Cross would face Jacob Fatu for the MLW World title.

Alex Kane (w/ King Mo) defeated Budd Heavy

This was quick and made Kane look like a monster. “The Suplex Assassin” took the popular Heavy off his feet right from the bell, beat him down, and put him away with a ripcord Olympic suplex (Angle slam).

Kane no-sold the brief offense Heavy was able to garner but was suplexed, chopped and elbowed for his trouble. Heavy flipped Kane off as he was leaving and ate a multitude of suplexes for his bravery. For Kane’s impressive performance, he was granted the first alternate spot in the Opera Cup by Duran if someone can’t continue.

— Alicia Atout interviewed EJ Nduka and hyped up his impressive performance in Battle Riot III. Nduka said we will be seeing much more of him soon.

— Konnan and LAX (Rivera, Slice Boogie and Julius Smokes) cut a passionate pre-recorded promo before we saw a hype video for Bobby Fish’s MLW debut and then the tale of the tape for our main event title match.    

National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone defeated “Filthy” Tom Lawlor to retain the title

Lawlor had the ground game advantage, but Hammerstone had the size and power advantage and was able to both power out of and escape Lawlor’s holds and locks early on. Lawlor then began to chop Hammerstone down to size by focusing his attack on the lower limbs of the nearly three-year National Openweight champion.

One-half of the Chop and Roll Express’s chops didn’t do much damage to Hammerstone early on. Instead, Lawlor ended up eating the apron after being dropped face first on it. But, Lawlor got the underhanded upper hand moments later after raking the champion’s eyes.

The chops had a little more sting to them as Hammerstone was struggling to recover. He was able to momentarily power out and launch Lawlor over the top rope to the floor in both a warning shot and a reminder of the power advantage.

Lawlor countered a fallaway slam into a rear naked choke before transitioning into an armbar and crossface. Hammerstone fought back and hit his fallaway slam into a uranage to start turning momentum back in his favor.

Hammerstone landed clotheslines and an overhead belly-to-belly followed as Lawlor tried to call for help to someone in the back. Hammerstone then hit a German suplex, a power bomb and a Nightmare Pendulum to finish off Lawlor for the successful title defense.

Earlier in the night, Mads Krugger of CONTRA Unit had promised to take out Hammerstone before his title vs. title match against Jacob Fatu at Fightland. When Hammerstone made it back through the curtain, he was jumped by all members of CONTRA Unit as Fusion: Alpha went off the air.

Next week on Fusion Alpha:

• MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu vs. Matt Cross title match
• Willow Nightingale vs. Ashley Vox
• 5150 (Rivera and Slice Boogie) vs. Injustice (Middleweight Champion Myron Reed and Jordan Oliver)