By Jon
COMMENTATORS: Rich Bocchini & AJ Kirsch
This week on Fusion MJF is in action against Marshall Von Erich and Davey Boy Smith Jr. brings Bloodsport to MLW as he takes on Simon Gotch in a no-holds barred no rope match where the only way to win is via submission or knockout. The World Middleweight Championship is also on the line as Injustice’s Myron Reed defends against AAA’s Drago.
CHAMPIONS
- MLW WORLD CHAMPION: “The Samoan Werewolf” Jacob Fatu
- MLW NATIONAL OPENWEIGHT CHAMPION: Alexander Hammerstone
- MLW WORLD MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION: Myron Reed
- MLW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS: The Von Erichs (Marshall & Ross Von Erich)
LINEUP
- NO HOLDS BARRED FIGHT: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Simon Gotch (NR)
- Myron Reed [c] vs. Drago for the MLW WORLD MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP (**1/4)
- Marshall Von Erich vs. MJF (**1/2)
*****
-FEUD RECAP: CONTRA vs. Hart Foundation.
–Alicia Atout is standing by with Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Pillman Jr. Smith says Simon Gotch has a big mouth that needs to be fish hooked (ew) and wants him to pick his execution. TOUGH BOI.
-LAST WEEK: Injustice interrupts Konnan’s interview, sends Drago to face Myron Reed for the Middleweight Title tonight.
NO HOLDS BARRED; NO ROPES; SUBMISSION OR KO-ONLY
Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Simon Gotch [w/ Josef Samael]
I’ll be honest my recap of this is not going to be interesting because this grappef*cking stuff doesn’t do a lot for me but I’ll give it a shot. Smith with a front chancery, and hooks a leg to bring him to the mat. Gotch tries to escape, Smith hangs on. Back to a vertical base Smith grabs a wristlock, Gotch tries to break with knee strikes but Smith absorbs the blows and brings him back to the mat. Gotch finally counters with a headscissors, Smith easily nips up and out and they reset. Smith with a side headlock takeover, transition into a key lock-like armbar. Gotch tries to break it with knees, Smith releases to drive some elbows to the side of the head. Smith goes back to the arm, Gotch uses his legs to break the grip but Smith quickly transitions into an inverted front chancery. Gotch escapes and they trade forearms until Gotch falls. Gotch kicks his knee, dropping Smith, and immediately follows it up with a kick to the head. Smith tries a cross armbreaker, Gotch keeps his hands locked and Samael pulls him towards the apron which doesn’t do sh*t because no breaks. Gotch goes to the ankle to break the hold and commences a flurry of kicks. Smith connects with some stiff forearms, Gotch rolls through a lift and grapevines the leg for a leglock (legbar? I don’t really care). Smith gets to his feet and escapes via deadlift belly-to-back suplex. Smith hits another belly-to-back, Gotch fights out of the third but eats a discus forearm followed by a big ol’ kick and finally a third belly-to-back. Smith picks Gotch up and hits a FOURTH and the ref calls for the bell
Davey Boy Smith Jr. defeated Simon Gotch via knockout (8:00)
- There’s a market for these types of matches but I am not it. This was decidedly Not For Me, but I hope the folks who dig fake shoot fighting liked it. Not even going to rate it. (NR)
-VIDEO: Intimidation Games 2020 coming to the Cicero Stadium in Cicero, IL on April 18th.
-LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND DYNASTIC: Alexander Hammerstone, Richard Holliday, and Gino Medina are hanging out talking on a couch. Hammerstone brags about sponsorship deals being sent from Japan after his run, and says he has chosen one that’ll pay him 10,000 yen. Hammerstone thinks it’s 100,000 dollars but it’s not even 100. They get as much soda as they want though. Medina can’t even open his so Holliday has to do it. They give these sodas a try; Hammerstone likes them, Holliday and Medina are not impressed. Holliday calls them “sellable” and his lawyer/his father will get them sold.
-LAST WEEK: Mance Warner beats Jimmy Havoc in a Barbed Wire match to finally put an end to their feud. Immediately following the match a bloody Mance Warner says he’s going to do three things: hit the pay window, get his light beers, and get him some GOLD. Warner calls Hammerstone out specifically and his National Openweight Title.
-VIDEO: Team Filthy Dojo is back, with Captain Tom Lawlor.
-FILTHY DOES DALLAS: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor and Dominic Garrini stop at Wild Bill’s Western Store to get some boots and belts so they can be real cowboys unlike The Von Erichs.
–Injustice make their entrance for the next match. Jordan Oliver gets on the live mic and “accidentally” calls Dallas (NORTH RICHLAND HILLS) “Houston”. Kotto Brazil says they’ve got no love for Dallas or their trash ass Cowboys. Oliver tells the crowd to show some respect to the best champion in MLW by chanting along with him. They do not.
Myron Reed [c] [w/ Jordan Oliver & Kotto Brazil] vs. Drago for the MLW WORLD MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Reed dodges a clothesline with a nip up and plays to the crowd. Drago ducks a clothesline, flips over Reed and catches him with a series of kicks and a Legsweep. Drago follows up with a middle-buckle splash, but the chest protector hurts him and Reed doesn’t feel a thing. HA. Oliver grabs Drago’s ankle, distracting him so Reed can connect with an enzuigiri. Reed sent to the apron, Reed immediately slingshots back in with a lung blower for a two-count. Drago escapes a chinlock, Reed hits a slingshot belly-to-back suplex followed by a slingshot legdrop. Slingshot slingshot slingshot. Drago rolls to the apron and ducks, Reed flying into Injustice’s arms. They catch him, Drago takes out all three with a somersault plancha. That was cool. Drago connects with a pop-up powerbomb followed by a regular powerbomb for the 1…2…Reed gets his shoulder up. Oliver runs in, Drago hits him and superkicks Brazil off the apron and into a barricade. Reed catches Drago with a kick, Drago catches the second and throws him off the buckles. Drago seats Reed back up top, Oliver distracts the ref and Brazil hits Drago with a low-blow. Reed takes advantage with a springboard 450 for the 1…2…ref suddenly stops counting and says it’s 2. Reed tells him it’s over and the ref counts again for the 1…2…3. HEH?
Myron Reed [c] defeated Drago via pinfall to retain the MLW WORLD MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP (4:42)
- A couple of cool spots but way too short to get into and that referee botch was real bad. They covered for it well after but YIKES. (**1/4)
Injustice shove the ref and get in his face for a moment. We get a replay of the finish, and now the commentators think maybe Injustice have a point to their crusade after all. Nice cover.
-Alicia Atout is backstage with Low-Ki. Ki is quickly interrupted by King Mo and Dan Lambert of American Top Team. Mo brags about knocking out a Gracie and they walk off, Ki is unamused.
-NEXT WEEK: Brian Pillman Jr. challenges Jacob Fatu for the World Title.
-CONTRA UNIT: Josef Samael calls The Hart Foundation “false idols” and they’re the death squad.
-BREAKING NEWS: Air Wolf’s match has been cancelled after a vicious backstage attack. Apparently the attackers are part of CONTRA’s death squad.
-Tom Lawlor joins Bocchini & Kirsch on commentary.
–The Dynasty (sans Richard Holliday) make their way out for the next match. MJF says there’s a reason the Von Erich family couldn’t hack in pro wrestling: they’re complete trash like everyone in the crowd. Tonight another Von Erich goes SIX FEET UNDER because he’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman and he’s better than you. Marshall Von Erich makes his entrance and doesn’t appear to be too phased by MJF bringing up his dead uncles; his entrance theme/video also appears to be skipping a bit which is unfortunate. Hey where’s that big dude MJF was with last week during his promo? Is that dude real? Did I imagine him? The referee kicks Alexander Hammerstone and Gino Medina out of the ringside area.
Marshall Von Erich vs. MJF
Both men circle the ring and roll to the floor, not breaking their collar and elbow tie-up. They roll back in and finally MJF breaks free and they reset. MJF asks for a handshake for SPORTSMANSHIP which Von Erich accepts like an idiot and he gets kicked for his troubles. Von Erich floats over MJF in the corner and connects with a pair of armdrags followed by a dropkick. Von Erich signals for the Claw, MJF takes a powder. Von Erich follows him out but hits nothing but post when he goes for a chop, MJF PUTS VON ERICH’S FINGERS IN THE RING STRUT AND PULLS BACK. Ewwwww. MJF stomps the hand to further hurt his Clawing hand, and wraps it around the guardrail while biting the digits. More arm/hand work from MJF, not much else to say really. Von Erich grabs a bearhug, MJF peels him off but Von Erich reattaches and connects with an overhead suplex. Von Erich connects with a dropkick followed by a pair of corner clotheslines, MJF drops down and gets splattered with a cannonball. Pop-up powerslam, MJF kicks out at 2. Von Erich tries for the Claw again, MJF puts the ref between them. Von Erich misses a forearm, hitting nothing but buckle and MJF brings him to the mat with a Fujiwara Armbar. Lawlor is turned on seeing a Von Erich in pain. FILTHY. Von Erich forces a rope break and drops MJF with a kick followed by a high-elevation moonsault for the 1…2…MJF kicks out! Hammerstone and Medina come back out, Von Erich clears them off the apron and MJF rolls him up with his feet on the ropes for the 1…2…he kicks out! MJF gets in the ref’s face and turns right into the VON ERICH CLAW forcing MJF to tap!
Marshall Von Erich defeated MJF via submission (10:30)
- Solidly-worked match but can’t say I found it too interesting. I appreciate MJF spending the match wearing down Marshall’s claw hand but then he won with it anyway so it ultimately didn’t matter. Lawlor was pretty funny on commentary though. (**1/2)
Dynasty help MJF out of the ring as Lawlor makes boo boo faces at the commentary table. After a replay Lawlor tries to sneak attack Von Erich but gets caught. Dynasty run back into the ring and Marshall fights all of them off, standing tall to end the show.
*****
FINAL THOUGHTS: A weaker MLW Fusion this week, with none of the in-ring action being all that interesting and the promos/videos not really landing with me either. Can’t be perfect every time out but that was a bit of a buzzkill after the past few weeks firing on all cylinders. Eh it happens though, I’ll keep tuning in.
- MATCH OF THE NIGHT: Marshall Von Erich vs. MJF
- MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: Injustice catch Myron Reed, Drago flattens them all with a somersault plancha
