This week's MLW Underground was taped in Philadelphia, PA, with Joe Dombrowski and Matt Striker on the call.
Jacob Fatu defeated Lio Rush
We immediately opened with action as Rush dove to the outside before Fatu could make his way inside the ring. Rush hit a moonsault off the apron to kickstart a fast-paced opening which saw the NJPW star dodge and evade the former MLW Champion. The Samoan eventually caught Rush coming off the middle rope, swinging him around and planting him with an impressive swinging uranage.
MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone was on commentary hyping up his title match with Fatu coming up in two weeks. He talked about Fatu’s speed, his own injury history, and Fatu’s Battle Riot win last year.
Inside the ring, Fatu’s impressive strength and speed had the crowd chanting “That was Ucey” which Fatu acknowledged and told the Philadelphia crowd, “I am the bloodline!"
Rush kept coming back and tried to chop down Fatu time and time again, but Fatu kept overpowering him, even sending him crashing through the buckles to the floor after a whip to the corner.
Rush eventually hit his top rope crossbody and a bottom rope springboard stunner, but Rush went to the sky too many times as Fatu moved out of another attempt and took Rush’s head off with a superkick. Fatu’s handspring moonsault followed for a near fall.
It looked like Fatu had things in control, but when Rush reversed a pop-up Samoan drop into a poisonrana, there was a slight chance an upset could be in the cards. But the story of the match was Rush going to the well too many times, and when he let Fatu recover before running the ropes, Fatu caught him and eventually hit his pop-up Samoan drop.
With Rush flattened, Fatu hit his double spring top rope moonsault to pick up the big win and clear the path for the Hammerstone match. After the match, Fatu told Hammerstone the belt was coming back to him and there was another pull-apart brawl between them both as the announcers hammered home the hype for their title fight.
- Backstage, Sam Adonis introduced Cesar Duran who then introduced Featherweight Champion Taya Valkyrie and new National Openweight Champion John Hennigan who he said “are dripping in gold."
Billington Bulldogs (Mark & Thomas Billington) defeated Bomaye Fight Club (Myron Reed & Mr. Thomas)
Davey Boy Smith Jr.'s shot at Alex Kane was on the line here via their respective teams. Kane brought the Hart family’s Opera Cup to ringside as he joined the commentary team.
Reed and Thomas jumped the Bulldogs before the bell, but were quickly on the receiving end of a firm shoulderblock and crisp snap suplex from Thomas and a top rope moonsault to the floor by Mark going into the break.
After the break, Reed cut off Mark and Thomas threw him halfway across the ring with an overhead belly-to-back suplex. There was another massive back body drop as Thomas threw Mark through the air again which looked incredible.
The shortest member of the match (Thomas) slammed the tallest (Thomas) which was another impressive moment in the match. As the match was reaching its conclusion, Kane was getting more and more animated and concerned. But his interference attempt was thwarted by Smith Jr. who came to ringside to help his cousins keep it two on-two.
Mark backflipped away from Thomas and dropkicked him in the gut. He then hoisted him up for Mark to hit the Hart Attack dropkick from the top rope to pick up the huge win.
- Backstage, Real1 was in a wheelchair and enraged after being run over last week by Mance Warner. Real1 is threatening to sue Court Bauer and Warner.
- Before their tag title defense next week, EJ Nduka and Calvin Tankman were supposed to be talking about their title defense, but instead, Nduka wanted to talk about Fatu and his recent shots at the MLW title. Tankman didn’t like what he was hearing so he turned Nduka’s attention back to their match. They seemed to be on the same page as the promo came to a close, but with Nduka’s recent reputation, I wouldn’t expect that to be the case next week.
- Warner was backstage with Microman and had some words for the Calling Card Attackers who took out Microman last week. Warner challenged any of them to a one-on-one fight next week.
- We then supposedly got the identity of the Calling Card Attackers as Raven, Ricky Shane Page and AKIRA appeared in a hype video with the same gas masks men and symbols that have been synonymous with the attacks. The commentary team questioned who of the attackers will be stepping up to face Warner next week.
MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone vs. Lance Anoa’i (w/ Juicy Finau and Jacob Fatu) went to a no contest
Fatu joined Striker and Dombrowski on commentary to have his shot at hyping up the title match, but within moments, he and Hammerstone came face-to-face for another pull-apart brawl. The referee had no choice but to call for the bell and call this a no contest.
Nduka and Tankman joined the brawl and got a few cheap shots in on Finau and Anoa’i. The next two weeks could be a momentous time for the Fatu and Anoa’i families as next week, the Samoan SWAT Team get their MLW Tag Team title shot while in two weeks Fatu has his MLW title rematch.
Next week on MLW Underground:
- MLW Tag Team Champions Calvin Tankman & EJ Nduka defend against the Samoan SWAT Team (Juicy Finau & Lance Anoa’i)
- Mance Warner has an open challenge to the Calling Card Attackers
More must-reads: