Welcome back to MLW Fusion. We’re still in Opera Cup territory and it’s time for our first semifinal fight as Alexander Hammerstone takes on his Super Fight opponent once again, Davey Boy Smith Jr. We’ll also see Filthy Tom Lawlor in action after fleeing from Ross Von Erich on the last episode and the main event will see the Strong Hearts make their debut on MLW by battling the biggest group on the brand, CONTRA Unit. It’s time to prepare for war so let’s get into the action!
Before this match started, we got an impassioned video message from Ol Mance Warner who was sending a message to Jimmy Havoc. After the wars they had had and the blood that had been spilt, Mance was ready for one last war, a no rope, barbed wire deathmatch. That is happening in Dallas during the Zero Hour tapings.
Filthy Tom Lawlor defeated Rip Von Erich via Rear Naked Iron Claw
.@FilthyTomLawlor with a big airplane spin on Rip! #Fusion | #RipVonErich
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— Major League Wrestling (@MLW) January 5, 2020
Our first match saw Filthy Tom Lawlor look to prove a point to the Von Erichs by putting on an exhibition against who he dubbed was the last great Von Erich. No one knew who he meant by this so Lawlor took to the mic to clarify. He insulted the crowd for being fickle and insinuated Ross and Marshall were fake Von Erich. He then brought out “Rip Von Erich” (Hello Kit Osbourne) as his opponent. Commentary and the crowd were left at a loss for words. He was the supposed son of Lance Von Erich, an imposter of the Von Erich family. When the match started, Lawlor didn’t take it seriously. He demolished Rip with strikes and basically bullied the suspicious Von Erich. He won in minutes and finished Rip with his own version of the Iron Claw. Post-match, he took the mic again to rub some salt in the wounds and proclaimed he was now undefeated against the Von Erichs and that wouldn’t change. His words stoked the ire of the real Von Erichs who stormed the ring, only to be ambushed by the Spirit Squad. Yes, they are still a thing… And they’re working with Lawlor.
The Gino Medina bidding continued in a video as The Dynasty’s Richard Holliday and Alexander Hammerstone discussed the markets, they could open them up to. Salina de la Renta interrupted them and, in the Dynasty’s own words, cockblocked them.
Davey Boy Smith Jr defeated Alexander Hammerstone (w/Richard Holliday) via Diving Headbutt
A BIG German Suplex from @DBSmithjr delivered to @alexhammerstone in the #OperaCup semi-final match!#Fusion | #OperaCup
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— Major League Wrestling (@MLW) January 5, 2020
This match gets bonus points for having MJF on commentary. He was desperately trying to hide how bitter he was about losing but still wanted to cheer on his Dynasty teammate. Davey Boy Smith Jr was looking to avenge a loss from the MLW Super Fight PPV and had already fought off Low Ki to reach the semi-finals. It was about to get physical. DBS had Hammerstone outclassed in the opening part of the match as he locked on some holds and forced Hammerstone to reach for the ropes. It wouldn’t be until Holliday interfered on his part that Hammerstone got into the match. He hit a devastating belly-to-back suplex into a barricade and then continued the beatdown on the outside. Eventually, all the strikes to Davey Boy powered him up and he returned all the damage he had received to Hammerstone. He took some time to taunt and almost won the match with a leg drop and followed that up with a trio of German suplexes. The pair traded strikes before Davey Boy locked in a crossface prompting Richard Holliday to interfere again. Unfortunately, all this earned him was a kick in the face when he and Hammerstone miscommunicated. Davey Boy finished the match with a powerslam and the diving headbutt. It seems like he is looking to keep the Opera Cup and keep it in the property of the Hart family. After the match, he tried to offer a handshake to Hammerstone as a sign of good faith and Hammerstone looked set to shake it when Holliday batted it away and ushered Hammerstone away. Is it just me sensing some dissension in the ranks of the Dynasty? Anyway, this was an excellent and well-placed classic style bout between 2 excellent wrestlers.
CONTRA Unit (Simon Gotch, Josef Samael & Jacob Fatu) defeated Strong Hearts (CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) via Moonsault to CIMA
MLW gave us some breaking news as the Strong Hearts made their entrance. Their leader CIMA will be taking on Jacob Fatu at Fightland for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship. Now back to the match. This was going to be chaos, both teams had power, speed and destructive ability on their sides. It started with Gotch vs CIMA who instantly traded strikes before CIMA dropkicked Gotch’s head into the turnbuckle. He tagged in the diminutive powerhouse El Lindaman who started strong but was used as a punching bag by Josef Samael and Fatu. Contra kept him in their corner and continued to work him over. After nearly bodyslamming Fatu and escaping from Gotch, Lindaman tagged in Shigehiro Irie. He went on a rampage, unleashing a barrage of offence on Gotch, even piledriving Samael onto the chest of Gotch. We then got a beast off as Fatu and Irie collided in the ring, knocking each other down with cross bodies. The match broke down as the action spilled everywhere. CONTRA and the Strong Hearts continued to tee off on each other with Samael being bounced off the entrance ramp and the two beasts trading suicide dives. When the action finally went back into the ring, it saw all of the Strong Hearts trying to take down Fatu with open hand chops and following it with a combo of attacks ending with Lindaman hitting a deadlift bridging German suplex. Gotch saved the day but was levelled by Irie. Lindaman took out Samael leaving CIMA to deal with Fatu. He tried but was destroyed by a Pop-Up Samoan Drop and the moonsault to end the match. CONTRA drew first blood in their new war. Fatu has made a statement to his future title competitor and the fans got to enjoy every second of it. Hail CONTRA.
The show ended with Filthy Tom Lawlor challenging the Von Erichs to put their tag titles on the line against the Filthy Dojo’s top pupils.
.@tachimukau_irie hits @JosefSamael with a piledrive on @deviousjourney #Fusion | #STRONGHEARTSvsCONTRA
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— Major League Wrestling (@MLW) January 5, 2020
So, there you have it, the newest episode of MLW Fusion reviewed for your reading pleasure. It was another strong episode with some Von Erich shaming antics from Filthy Troll Lawlor, an excellent Opera Cup semifinal and that war of a main-event. The episode had no slow moments and next week’s promises to be just as fast. We have the second semi-final between Brian Pillman Jr and Timothy Thatcher which could see an all-Hart final should Pillman prevail, and the challenge to the Von Erichs courtesy of Lawlor. I can’t see anything going wrong there.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvObJBJGS4A]
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