This week’s MLW Fusion was taped at Philadelphia's famous 2300 Arena in July with Joe Dombrowski and Matt Striker on the call.
At the end of the Kiss My Foot match at Fury Road, Mance Warner bit MSL’s foot instead of kissing it and tonight, MSL promised revenge against the entire Second Gear Crew at the hands of Matt Cardona.
Snisky defeated Yoscifer El
MSL introduced former WWE wrestler Snitsky, now going by Snisky, as the latest member of his World Titan Federation and he took no time to destroy El. A clothesline and a chokeslam was enough to put him away, but the focus was on Snisky joining forces with MSL. As EL was being stretchered out, MSL instructed his new charge to attack him again and give him another beating.
- The next big event on the MLW calendar is Slaughterhouse on October 14th which will feature the MLW debut of Minoru Suzuki. Now that New Japan talent is free to appear in MLW, Jacob Fatu called him out.
The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) and Microman defeated Jesus Rodriguez and The FBI (Little Guido & Ray Jazz)
The FBI and Rodriguez interrupted Matt Striker before the match to introduce themselves and to get some easy heat before the faces came out to a nice ovation from the Philadelphia crowd.
Rodriguez is the latest foe of Microman, taking umbrage at being shown up in this year’s Battle Riot. FBI had some comedy spots double-teaming Microman, but it was always Rodriguez who came in to get the real heat by flooring Microman with stiff kicks.
Black got the hot tag and both the action, and quality, increased tenfold. Black hit a spin kick and a tiger feint kick on Jazz and Lyon hit a middle rope springboard moonsault for a close two count.
Black saved Lyon from an FBI attack and then hit a 3D into an X-Factor on Guido before Microman hit a middle rope Vader bomb through a circus hoop to pick up the pinfall.
After the match, Sam Adonis came out and distracted Microman by accusing him of things from when they were both in Mexico together. But the distraction was used to bring Snisky out who chokeslammed The Mane Event, punted some dolls into the crowd and threatened to punt Microman too. The Second Gear Crew then ran out to make the save and send Adonis, Snisky and MSL (who had come out with Snisky) to the back. Adonis will take on Microman next week.
- We saw a special All Access look at the MLW Champion Alex Kane who was out of character talking through his rough childhood, emotionally talking through his earlier suicidal thoughts and telling us that wrestling saved him. His recent popularity swing was highlighted and if any doubts were remaining, this video cemented that Kane is now a babyface.
wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Shigehiro Irie defeated Calvin Tankman to retain the title
Earlier in the night, Tankman called himself one of the biggest, baddest and heaviest hitters in MLW but he is still looking for his first singles championship.
This got some time and built to a good finish that had the crowd growing with interest throughout. I felt it had similarities to the Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs AEW All Out match with two big men hitting each other hard.
The hard-hitting chops and strikes began early as the action spilled to the outside. Tankman caught the champion and hit a nice powerslam on the apron as Irie had draped him backfirst across the middle rope. A big splash followed for a two count.
Irie got a boot up which seemed to rock Tankman. The match broke down into a striking battle that finished with Irie dropping a clobbering hammer first on a fallen Tankman. Tankman later found himself sitting on the apron and Irie came running and took them both to the floor with a sliding elbow.
Tankman came back with a spinning elbow and a pump handle slam to bring the momentum back in his favor. After shrugging off a rear choke attempt, Tankman hit a pop-up back elbow and a power bomb for a two-count. Tankman quickly hit his hard back elbow to the back of Irie’s head, but the champion had enough left to block a Tankman Driver.
Irie used the momentary opening to hit a hard clothesline to the back of the head, a somersault senton as Tankman was draped on the middle rope and two Beast Bomber clotheslines to put Tankman down and retain his title. Both eventually shook hands after they had recovered from the brutal match.
Next week:
- Sam Adonis vs. Microman
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