MLW Fusion results: Jacob Fatu vs. AKIRA, NJPW partnership revealed

This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in Philadelphia at the famous 2300 Arena in July with Rich Bocchini and Matt Striker on the call. 

The Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders & Matthew Justice) defeated The Calling (Delirious & Talon) and The Samoan SWAT Team (Juicy Finau & Lance Anoa’i) in a three-way to become the no. 1 contenders for the MLW Tag Team titles

Talon was debuting here but was wearing a gas mask to hide his identity. Nothing was mentioned regarding his team competing for the no. 1 contendership in their first match, but they tried to explain it by saying The Calling want to dominate the tag team scene.

Delirious and Talon took control early after initially disappearing backstage only to jump the babyfaces moment later.

Justice and Anoa’i dove to the floor early and Talon was taken out after a Michinoku Driver from Finau and a top rope splash from Anoa’i. Delirious was on the receiving end of a big Samoan drop from Finau, which led to the babyfaces squaring off.

Second Gear Crew launched Anoa’i out of the ring onto Finau, then finished off The Calling with a top rope power slam by Manders and a top rope splash by Justice to pick up the pinfall win. With that, they are now the new top contenders for the titles held by The Calling's Rickey Shane Page & AKIRA.

- After B3CCA attacked her with a guitar last week, we learned MLW Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo will be out of action for 2-3 weeks while B3CCA will face the debuting Maki Itoh in a no. 1 contender's match at Fury Road.

- The major announcement that has been building for several weeks was revealed to be a partnership between MLW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. The recent teaser was shown in full as the MLW and NJPW logos appeared from behind Earth with the Fury Road logo also hinting at more developments to come for that event.

- KUSHIDA had already been heavily hinted as appearing at September's Fury Road, and it was confirmed here via the new partnership. He will be in action against Tony Deppen.

Willie Mack defeated Ken Broadway, Love Doug, Nolo Kitano and O’Shay Edwards in a scramble match

This helped build to the big Mack vs. Alex Kane MLW title match at Fury Road with Edwards being the latest member of the Bomaye Fight Club to put a target on Mack’s back.

In his MLW debut, Edwards was slated as the powerhouse and caught Kitano and Doug as they launched themselves from the ring. It wasn’t until Mack came flying at him that Edwards finally fell.

Broadway, Kitano and Doug hit each other one after the other until Edwards came in and floored them all, culminating in a big delayed suplex on Broadway. 

Kitano is called "The Concrete Samurai" with kicks and escapes to match his character. He would fit perfectly in the middleweight division. Doug is a lovable comedy character who can turn it on and fight dirty when he needs to.

The main story of the match was the dominance of Edwards. He again bullied the pack (without Mack) and had to be attacked 4-on-1 to take him out of the equation with an avalanche superplex.

With Edwards out of the picture, Mack picked up the quick pinfall victory after a top rope splash to Broadway after he had planted Kitano with a face-first slam.

MLW National Openweight Champion Jacob Fatu defeated MLW Openweight Champion AKIRA via disqualification

After going to a double disqualification last week with Rickey Shane Page, Fatu was scheduled to meet another member of The Calling here in AKIRA, but yet again The Calling were up to their usual tricks and the match ended prematurely.

AKIRA and Fatu got on the mic before the match. After security came out to temporarily block Fatu from entering the ring, AKIRA came off the top rope with a chair onto everyone.

They eventually got into the ring after a brawl on the outside with chairs. AKIRA reversed a pop-up Samoan drop attempt into a backslide for a close two count but Fatu came back with a superkick.

Some masked men from The Calling ran in for a disqualification, and the distraction allowed Page to run in with a barbed wire baseball bat which he then used to ram Fatu’s head into the ring post.

AKIRA and Page left the area as Fatu was left on the ringside floor grabbing at his face and eye. The commentary team speculated that a barb from the bat may have hit Fatu in the eye.