First off, a happy belated Thanksgiving to all readers who celebrate it. Secondly, welcome to MLW Thanksgiving. A special edition episode headlined by CONTRA Unit granting Ross Von Erich a title match for the MLW World Championship. It was meant to be Marshall Von Erich but a mysterious attacker took him out of action on the last episode of MLW Fusion. This was joined by a Survivor Rules tag match between Injustice and El Gringo Loco and Zenshi and the debut of King Mo, MLW’s latest acquisition. It looked set to be an exciting hour so let’s get into the action.

Injustice (Kotto Brazil & Jordan Oliver) w/Myron Reed defeated El Gringo Loco & Zenshi via Top Rope Ace Crusher & Any Means Necessary

I learned two things from this match. One, no one likes Injustice and they keep giving people more reasons not to. Before the match, they took to the mic to complain about Thanksgiving and piss the crowd off. They cried a bit more when Myron Reed was ejected from ringside before the ref could ring the bell. The second thing is that Zenshi is an absolutely amazing performer to watch. He was pulling out all kinds of flips and moves that I can’t even begin to name. Even the commentators gave up on trying to call his offence. It was more just a case of repeating the words “wow,” and “I don’t even know what that was.” It saddened me when he was the first elimination as he and Loco had been working well together to batter down the Injustice guys. This became even more ridiculous when Zenshi got hot tagged in by Loco after he had suffered a serious work over and a busted nose. Zenshi broke out a bunch of amazing moves but got caught by some double team shenanigans and taking out with Kotto Brazil’s Any Means Necessary. It wouldn’t be two on one for long though as Loco returned the favour moments later with a Tombstone Piledriver to Brazil. The match ended when Myron Reed clobbered Loco whilst the ref was distracted, allowing Oliver to strike with a Top Rope Ace Crusher. It was an excellent and fast elimination match with Injustice once again getting the win through nefarious means. I love seeing Zenshi in action and hope he becomes more of a breakout star in the company.

The camera cut backstage following Casey as she looked for an interview with Priscilla Kelly. She had been told to meet her at a certain location near a loading area. However, instead of getting an interview, Priscilla attacked her and the cameraman.

King Mo defeated Ricky Martinez via Heel Hook

The crowd loved King Mo. The former MMA star was looking to take some heads in MLW, starting with Ricky Martinez. In a pre-match interview, he had threatened to turn Martinez into an ugly clown. Time to see if he could follow up on that threat. Martinez struck first by attacking Mo on the bell as a welcome to MLW, hitting a surprise neckbreaker. He tried to follow up with a top rope manoeuvre but Mo speared him out of the air. Followed that up with a Corner Splash, a Gutwrench Driver and ended it quickly with a Heel Hook. It was a quick but fierce affair and bar some slight sloppiness in application, it looked great. Mo seems to be a natural at working crowds and hopefully, he gets more chances to show off soon. I’d love to see him square up to Filthy Tom Lawlor soon. Welcome to MLW King Mo, the future looks bright for you in the company.

Mance Warner sent in a video message threatening more violence is coming Jimmy Havoc’s way. “It’s eye for an eye Jimmy. It’s eye for an eye.” That was followed by a trailer for upcoming events including the Opera Cup, Zero Hour and MLW’s next PPV, Fightland taking place on February 1st, 2020.

Keeping Up with the Dynasty

It’s finally time to learn what Alexander Hammerstone’s gift to the Dynasty is. That present is a very tall man called Grogan. He is the Dynasty’s new giant/monster/colossus/new destroyer for The Dynasty. Both MJF and Richard Holliday seemed pleased with present and are even happier to learn that Grogan knows the Dynasty fist bump and has been entered in a giant battle royal taking place on next week’s episode of Fusion.

Jacob Fatu (w/ Josef Samael) defeated Ross Von Erich (w/ Filthy Tom Lawlor) via Moonsault

Lastly, we got our main event. The promised title match between CONTRA Unit monster, Jacob Fatu and Ross Von Erich. Ross was at a size and strength disadvantage but he did have a man in his corner to potentially help out should CONTRA bring in more numbers. Even then, this didn’t help him in the slightest. For the most part, this match was a mugging. Fatu took great joy in breaking down Ross with stiff strikes and dominant power. Ross was tossed around like a ragdoll and continuously beaten down whilst Samael watched on and occasionally threw in a shot of his own. Eventually, Ross started bringing the fight back to Fatu and levelled the playing field. The match broke down when Fatu attacked the ref and disable Ross’s knee with a Suplex into the corner. When the ref failed to count, he got angry. Ross mounted a small comeback, which prompted Josef Samael to come in with a chair. Ross kicked it into him and Lawlor picked it up, making it look like he was going to crack Fatu in the face. Instead, he turned it on Ross and stormed off, flipping everyone off. Fatu took advantage and won with a Moonsault. The crowd were shocked and CONTRA sauntered off with their title still intact. Tom Lawlor is clearly sick of playing second fiddle to the Von Erich’s and is going back into business for himself.

So, there you have it, another episode of MLW reviewed for your reading pleasure. It was a tight episode with some excellent multi-faceted action. We got Lucha goodness, brawling goodness, CONTRA goodness and a new star in action pulling out a dominant performance. In a night of shock betrayals and villainous wins, it would seem that Thanksgiving left a lot of the more ungrateful of the company in a better position. The Dynasty also look set to unleash someone new on the next episode as their new monster comes to play. It should be interesting to see.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=257LNwhRZF4]

Images/gifs courtesy mlw.com, MLW twitter Video courtesy of MLW YouTube

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