Welcome back to MLW Fusion. The next few weeks will see us taken to Mexico for the MLW/AAA Super Series. AAA and MLW stars will clash in cross-promotional bouts of mayhem, madness and amazing action. Our first taste will see Alexander Hammerstone defend the National Openweight Title against Laredo Kid and the sinister Pagano makes his MLW debut by teaming up with Mortiz against the brawling badasses Mance Warner and Savio Vega. Plus, more is promised as we dive into the first episode of the Super Series.

Barrio Street Fight: Pagano & Mortiz defeated Savio Vega & Mance Warner via Flipping Neckbreaker

The first match of the series will undoubtedly be it’s most insane. Mance Warner and Savio Vega would team up to battle Pagano, the clown haunting MLW and his partner Mortiz in street fight action. Given Pagano’s, Mance’s and even Vega’s reputations for the extreme things were going to get messy. Mance was riding the high of kicking MJF to the curb so now he looked to curb stomp a clown. The ring was littered with tools of destruction and tables galore. This was going to be fun. Pagano and Vega started with a staredown and Vega slapping Pagano. Mance was hit and started brawling with Pagano on the outside as Mortiz dealt with Vega in-ring. It descended into chaos as everyone fought outside. Mance brought the toys into play by choking Mortiz with a wire and throwing a chair at his head. Vega continued the trend by driving Pagano into a car hood. Vega and Mance continued to bully the AAA brawlers Back in-ring, Pagano started slugging on Mance but Vega struck from behind and stabbed skewers into his head. Mortiz came to his partner’s aid and inflicted some CTE inducing chair shots to the MLW team and held them in place for Pagano to dive onto. Pagano returned the favour by holding them in place for Mortiz to dive too, putting everyone through some boards. Pagano spilled some beer on Vega and chopped him in the chest. Mance was nearly thrown into a chair but he stopped himself and launched it at Pagano’s head. Mortiz saved the day and initiated a chair duel with Mance. He bested Mance and tried to smash in Vega’s head too, only to have a chair kicked into his face. To make things worse, Vega then powerbombed Mortiz onto the car hood. Pagano re-entered the match and slapped and slugged up Vega before Mance remembered he could fight and broke a chair over him.

The action spilled everywhere again as Pagano and Vega brawled outside and Mortiz set up a table inside whilst pummelling Mance with a chair part. Mortiz then doused that table in lighter fluid and set it ablaze. He went for a Spanish Fly but instead was Chokeslammed through it by Mance. He went for the pin but the ref was too busy dealing with the flaming table. Pagano started throwing in some doors and set them up in the corners. He drove Mancer through one with a Spear for two. Mancer returned fire by doing the same to Pagano and got the same result. Mance and Pagano slugged it out as Vega and Mortiz filled the ring with more plunder. Hammerstone had been on commentary, watching the madness and ended up interfering by kicking Mance in the head as he set up a table. Mortiz took advantage and splashed Mance through the table. Pagano headbutted the chair but couldn’t get through to Vega and ended up taking a chair to the face again. He placed the chair onto Pagano and tried to dive onto him but ended up crotched by the chair. Pagano wasted no time and finished Vega with a Flipping Neckbreaker for the win. This was mad. I loved this messy, chaotic mass of violence. We got skewers, car hoods, fire and more as Mance and Vega tried to draw first blood in the AAA/MLW war. AAA was successful and it’s thanks to Pagano, Mortiz and Alex Hammerstone. I am so glad Pagano got to bring his brand of extreme violence to MLW.

Following that madness, we got the news that King Mo has been suspended for a month and fined $10,000 for his attack on Killer Kross. Filthy Tom Lawlor was not happy. He took some time to rant about this then announced that Team Filthy were entering the tag division as he was teaming with Dominic Garrini to come after the Von Erichs.

Keeping up with the Dynasty

After the news about Team Filthy, we got another episode of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Dynastic. This time from Mexico. It started with the hungover pair of Hammerstone and Holliday in a hotel room confused as to where Gino was and where the hell they were. They briefly referenced the Donkey Show and talked about too much alcohol. They remembered they had to wrestle and panicked trying to find hangover cures.

This was followed by a video from Injustice who addressed Court Bauer about their suspension. They refused to pay any fines and had no remorse for their actions towards Brian Pillman Jr. they threatened that they could be anywhere, even in Mexico. It turns out they were in Mexico as they interrupted Konnan to spout more BS and angle for a six-man title fight. Konnan made a AAA Trios title match for them. We also got packages from Davey Boy Smith Jr planning a title fight, Josef Samael talking about preparing for war. We also got Psycho Clown emphatically accepting Los Parks’ challenge. He is going headhunting when their match comes around.

Alexander Hammerstone defeated Laredo Kid via Nightmare Pendulum

The show was main-evented by the first series title match. Alexander Hammerstone looked to continue his streak of National Openweight Title defences against one of AAA’s best, Laredo Kid. Hammerstone is no stranger to making Luchadores suffer and had the extra motivation of helping get the Dynasty back on the winning track. Having already cost Mance Warner his match, he now needed to ensure he kept his belt, hangover be damned. Laredo Kid started the match by trying to lock up with Hammerstone and found himself getting thrown. Laredo went to the legs and sent Hammerstone out of the ring with a Hurricanrana. Laredo followed that up with a Diving Crossbody to the outside. He tried again but was caught out of the air and dropped into a Uranage. Hammerstone kept up the beatdown in the corner, stomping and choking out Laredo. He sent him flying into the other corner and dropped him again with the Spinal Countdown. Hammerstone tossed him to the outside and beat him up around ringside even sending him flying into an LA Park cosplayer in the crowd. Laredo broke from Hammerstone with a kick and forearm then hit him with a dive that sent him dangling over the barrier. He socked Hammerstone in the face with a beer and continued smashing him around ringside. He got Hammerstone up into a Suplex and hit Hammerstone with a duo of step-up Moonsaults. Hammerstone struck back but found himself on the wrong end of a Superkick. However, this was shaken off and Hammerstone dumped Laredo face first with an Argentine Facebuster. Laredo tried to roll-up Hammerstone but was kicked off and hit with a Lariat. Laredo got back up and went top rope, he fought Hammerstone off and hit a 450 Splash that sent the crowd into a frenzy. He tried to place Hammerstone on the top rope but was shunted off and had his face kicked off with a Bicycle Kick. The ref got taken out so Hammerstone went top rope only to be dragged back down with a Top Rope Spanish Fly. Had the ref not been KO’ed this would have won the match. Laredo went and got the ref but ended up giving Hammerstone time to recover. He hit Laredo with a German Suplex, a Powerbomb and ended the match with a Nightmare Pendulum. Again, this was a great match. Alexander Hammerstone is unable to have bad matches. He always makes magic with whoever he’s in the ring with. He handled the hostile crowd with more hostility and won in quite dominant fashion. A great end to a great episode.

So, there you have it, another episode of MLW Fusion reviewed for your reading pleasure. To no one’s surprise, I loved this episode. This featured an insane street fight featuring Mance Warner and Pagano and a title match featuring Alexander Hammerstone. I love all those elements. Both matches were given breathing room and we got some entertaining set up for future episodes. Injustice will be getting a chance at the AAA Trios titles, Douglas James is taking on Averno and Team Filthy will do battle with Puma King and Xtreme Tigre. It’s only going to get hotter in Mexico as AAA and MLW continue to collide.

All images courtesy of MLW Twitter, Video courtesy of MLW YouTube

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