“Filthy” Tom Lawlor is the winner of the 2020 MLW Opera Cup.
In the main event of this week’s MLW Fusion, Lawlor defeated Low Ki in the Opera Cup finals. The match was 24 minutes long and Lawlor attacked Low Ki’s knee throughout. Low Ki hit a rolling kick to Lawlor in the corner at the finish, but Lawlor fell forward and pinned Low Ki to win the Opera Cup. Low Ki had hit a Ki Krusher prior to that, but they were too close to the ropes for Low Ki to get the pin.
To get to the finals, Lawlor defeated Rocky Romero in the first round of the Opera Cup tournament and ACH in the semifinals. Low Ki defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the first round and Richard Holliday in the semifinals.
Davey Boy Smith Jr. was the winner of last year’s Opera Cup tournament.
“Held annually for nearly 50 years at various turn-of-the-century opera house locations from New York City to Boston, the Professional Wrestling Opera House Cup was a grueling multi-day tournament,” MLW wrote about the Opera Cup. “The best of the day competed in the tournament and would often be an entree to more success, including the World Heavyweight Championship of the day. After a 71 year hiatus, the Opera Cup returned in 2019. Soon thereafter, the league confirmed the ‘classic’ would be an annual tournament hosted exclusively by MLW.”
“Filthy” Tom Lawlor defeated Low Ki to win the 2020 Opera Cup while The Dirty Blondes set their sights on the Von Erichs’ tag titles, earning a shot at Kings of Colosseum after a quick win tonight.
Show Recap:
The Dirty Blondes (Michael Patrick and Leo Brien w/Aria Blake) defeated Ariel Dominguez and Daniel Starling (1:37)
The Blondes are officially still part of Col. Robert Parker’s Studd Stable, but it was Blake who accompanied the southern boys in their first victorious outing of the MLW restart.
Brien squashed Starling with a powerslam from the second rope to pick up the quick impressive win.
The commentary team mentioned Tag Team Champions The Von Erichs while the Blondes celebrated and their title showdown at Kings of Colosseum was made official later in the night. The champions were in high demand as again later in the night, LA Park gave MLW an ultimatum: give him and his sons a tag title shot or he will retire.
— Alex Hammerstone told Mads Krugger that he won’t lose the diamond chasing the glare when he meets the black hand of CONTRA at Kings of Colosseum. Hammerstone’s National Openweight title will be on the line, but the champ made his end goal perfectly clear: Jacob Fatu’s World title.
— Also on January 6th, Jordan Oliver will take on Simon Gotch in a grudge match and Salina de la Renta will drop a “bombshell” on the free-to-air special.
— The Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 10 MLW stars for this week: Calvin Tankman dropped a place to #10; Laredo Kid dropped two places to #9 after his loss last week; ACH dropped two places to #8; Mads Krugger was up three places to #7; Richard Holliday was up two places to #6; #5 was still Middleweight Champion Myron Reed; LA Park remained #4,; Low Ki and Tom Lawlor switched places to #3 and #2 which left National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone still as #1.
“Filthy” Tom Lawlor (w/ Kevin Ku and Dominic Garrini) defeated Low Ki (w/ Marshall and Ross Von Erich) to win the 2020 Opera Cup (24:41)
Ki booked his spot in the finals by going through Davey Boy Smith Jr and Richard Holliday while Lawlor chopped his way through Rocky Romero and ACH on his way to tonight’s showdown with his fierce rival. Lawlor is already 2-0 against Ki in MLW history and said he wanted to make it 3-0.
Earlier in the night, Ki told Lawlor he was well prepared for Team Filthy’s interference so he brought out the Von Erichs to back him up to counter Lawlor’s teammates Violence Is Forever.
After a solid and equal ground game showings from both finalists, Lawlor suplexed Ki and worked on his knee, but Ki fought back with elbows and a figure four choke around Lawlor’s neck. Lawlor reversed the choke into an Indian deathlock which added more pressure on the knee.
Ki locked in a dragon clutch choke while on Lawlor’s back and tied up his arms for good measure. The ever-resourceful Lawlor broke the hold by biting the ropes. Lawlor went back to the knee and locked in a sharpshooter and figure four leglock. Lawlor also locked in a kimura while in the figure four but Ki got to the ropes to break both holds.
Ki fired up with running elbows and a springboard kick to the head but, as it looked as though Ki was zeroing in on the win, Lawlor caught him mid-air and slammed him with a big ura nage.
Ki kept coming, eventually overpowering Lawlor with the Ki Crusher, but Lawlor was already to close to the ropes for Ki to make the cover. Ki hit his running shotgun dropkick in the corner and his running rolling kick to the head. But as Ki connected the kick, he landed head and shoulders first on the mat. Lawlor, knocked loopy from the head shots, fell forward on top of Ki in the perfect pinning position to pick up the three count and this year’s Opera Cup.
Lawlor, Ku and Garrini celebrated with the Cup as Fusion went off the air.
The first round of MLW’s Opera Cup tournament will conclude on next week’s episode of Fusion.
MLW has announced that both remaining first round matches in the Opera Cup tournament will air on Fusion next week. The matches are: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Low Ki and ACH vs. Laredo Kid.
The Opera Cup began with “Filthy” Tom Lawlor defeating Rocky Romero and Richard Holliday defeating TJP on this week’s Fusion. Lawlor will face the winner of ACH vs. Laredo Kid in the semifinals. Holliday will face the winner of Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Low Ki.
Davey Boy Smith Jr. was the winner of MLW’s first Opera Cup tournament, defeating Brian Pillman Jr. in last year’s finals. Smith Jr. defeated Low Ki in the first round of last year’s tournament.
“Held annually for nearly 50 years at various turn-of-the-century opera house locations from New York City to Boston, the Professional Wrestling Opera House Cup was a grueling multi-day tournament,” MLW wrote about the Opera Cup. “The best of the day competed in the tournament and would often be an entree to more success, including the World Heavyweight Championship of the day. After a 71 year hiatus, the Opera Cup returned in 2019. Soon thereafter, the league confirmed the ‘classic’ would be an annual tournament hosted exclusively by MLW.”
Gino Medina, Jordan Oliver, Hijo de LA Park, King Mo, Dominic Garrini, and Daga were announced as alternates for this year’s Opera Cup.
MLW Fusion premieres on the fubo Sports Network and YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesdays. The show is also made available on-demand via DAZN. It airs on beIN Sports at 10 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays.
