Saturdays have been wrestling days for many years, and these days we have MLW Fusion on YouTube. Episode 29 debuted on YouTube on November 3rd, 2018. This episode is hosted by your commentary team of Matt Striker and Tony Schiavone.
We open with a video recap package. This shows a match that went down between “Filthy” Tom Lawlor and “Swerve” Shane Strickland to determine the ‘ace’ of MLW. During this match, Low-Ki came out to try and influence the decision, however, Tom Lawlor was able to come away with the win. Low-Ki and Lawlor came face to face in a hallway. While Lawlor was distracted, Sami Callihan attacked him from behind and choked him out with a baseball bat.
Next, we go to Tony and Matt who hype the booked matches for the evening, a singles and a six-man tag match. The Hart Foundation will take on the team of Rich Swann, ACH and Marko Stunt in the main event. Also, tonight will be Tommy Dreamer taking on Brody King. Before we can get started with those, Konnan comes out to speak to the crowd. He isn’t alone for long though, as his rival Salina de la Renta comes out to rattle his cage. She is accompanied by Ricky Martinez, who bows up on the veteran luchador and promoter. Konnan promises he has an opponent just for Ricky. Out comes luchador Puma King.
This was my first experience seeing Puma King wrestle and his entrance is very innovative. From the top turnbuckle, he climbs down onto the top rope and slinks along them like they were jungle vines. He then strikes a very Jungle Book, king of the jungle type pose. This was a fast-paced lucha encounter which saw Puma King come out with the win. Martinez did get bloodied in the nose, and it was played up that the New York Athletic Commission was watching closely. This really hammers home the point of this is more of a “fighting” style promotion, a la MMA. The wrestlers are referred to as fighters by the commentary team. even on their official website, MLW lists their talent as fighters or promoters instead of wrestlers and managers/valets.
Following that contest, a video promo airs hyping the return of Stokely Hathaway next week at MLW Fightland. We also have promos from Jason Cade, Jimmy Yuta, and MJF. They will participate in a triple threat match for the MLW Middleweight Championship at Fightland. Then we go into the next match, which will prove to be a violent encounter. We have the “Innovator of Violence” Tommy Dreamer taking on the “Bounty Hunter” Brody King. Both men have hard-hitting styles perfect for this fight-style promotion. Tommy attempted to end things by bringing in a cheese grater from under the ring. However, Brody was able to hit a low blow and piledriver, picking up the victory.
Another replay of Tom Lawlor being choked out by Sami Callihan is played, and Lawlor is interviewed. We then go into a promo package for MLW Fightland, where a Chicago Street Fight between Lawlor and Callihan is highlighted. Next up is a video promo from the Callihan Death Machine. Finally, it’s main event time. As previously mentioned, it will be The Hart Foundation taking on Rich Swann, ACH and Marko Stunt.
The Hart Foundation is a trio of second and third-generation wrestlers, Brian Pillman, Jr., Teddy Hart, and Davey Boy Smith, Jr. The Hart Foundation previously laid out Swann who ended up with a concussion. Ever since Swann has been seeking to avenge this. An incredible back and forth match worth seeking out, it could’ve easily gone either way. However, the much larger team of the Hart Foundation came away with the win. It’ll be interesting to see how Swann will rebound as he continues to seek revenge. If you’d like to check out MLW Fusion, which I highly recommend, you can catch it in two different ways. It airs on Friday nights at 8:00 PM on beIN Sports and is then uploaded on YouTube the following Saturday. Until then, I will catch you next week to talk about MLW Fusion episode 30.
