MLW Fusion, anyone watching it?

[El-P]

So WWE has settled with MLW, because that's how US "justice" works, the rich people just pay so the shit goes away and even worse shit don't see the light of day. So now Court Bauer has some spare change to get Matt Riddle to show up. Somewhere, William Corgan is probably jealous of the entire thing.

[El-P]

Matt Striker saying dumb shit about Matt Riddle just to be a edgelord heel is so Matt Striker. 

I watched a littlebit here and there of the latest stuff. MLW is just an odd-ass promotion. They have some cool partnership with CMLL and NJPW, they are doing some kinda ironic take on old-school 80's wrestling with the WTF stable, they have Salina who is still tons of fun, they do lots of garbage stuff and comedy. Some good talent and some very subpar talent too. It feels they kinda are what the NWA tries to be. Well, I'm sure Corgan would want Matt Striker after this one anyway.

[Laz]

It's funny, because Deadlock Pro, a company started by Twitch streamers that specialized in presenting the goofiest wrestling video game matches they could think of, feels like what MLW should have been.

[Autistic Dragon]

19 minutes ago, Laz said:

It's funny, because Deadlock Pro, a company started by Twitch streamers that specialized in presenting the goofiest wrestling video game matches they could think of, feels like what MLW should have been.

Personally my feeling is that MLW should fully commit to the "real sports league" angle they already somewhat use. Vague references to "league officials" are fine and weight classes are a solid touch they could go even harder with a ranking system (occasionally mentioning PWI's is nice but I mean create their own) time limits displayed on a Fox Box and intruding a  round robin tournament like all the major sports leagues do. Maybe call it the "MLW Grand Prix".

[Autistic Dragon]

MLW won 20M from WWE in a antitrust lawsuit.

https://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-paid-mlw-20-million-to-settle-antitrust-lawsuithttps://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-paid-mlw-20-million-to-settle-antitrust-lawsuit

[NintendoLogic]

Interesting factoid in the latest Observer. Thanks to the settlement, MLW turned a bigger profit last year than any non-WWE promotion in history other than WCW in 1997 and 1998. That has to be my all-time favorite piece of wrestling trivia.

[Coffey]

There's an MLW PPV free on YouTube tonight starting at 10PM EST.

 

[Autistic Dragon]

Here's the full card for Once Upon a time in New York.

Matt Riddle vs Davey Boy Smith Jr w/Saint Laurent

MLW World Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima, Okumura & Alex Kane vs World Titan Federation (Tom Lawler, Richard Holiday & Josh Bishop) w/Saint Laurent

AJ Francis w/Saint Laurent vs Mr Thomas

Magnus w/Caesar Duran vs Star Jr w/Salina de la Renta

Delmi Exo vs Zayda w/Saint Laurent 

Bad Dude Tito w/Salina de la Renta vs Azteca 66

6 Man Scramble.

Brett Ryan Gosselinvs vs Love, Doug vs Ichiban vs Marcus Mathews vs Dylan McCay vs Cannonball

[El-P]

The idea  Court Bauer would spend some of that settlement money to get Mauro Ranallo is so funny to me (aside from the fact that it would insure the guy would not risk ruining a product I actually enjoy, which is a good thing, so please do). The whole thing about Ranallo is calling epic matches in the most epic way possible (for better or worse). Except there's not a company less epic than MLW this side of Corgan's NWA. Lately only Mistico vs Rocky Romero (which is a CMLL match) and Kojima vs Suzuki (which is a NJPW match) have been really good. Usually the rest of the card is still underdeliver city. 

Gotta say, Matt Striker not getting booked anymore after making a really stupid edgy comment about Matt Riddle is the most Matt Striker thing ever. I still would rather have him than Mauro though (his replacement has been quite competent, but Striker idiotic edgy shit fit the product quite well actually, and with Cesar Duran around, that added to the "Hey, 'member Lucha Underground ? Well, we're not quite the same at all" vibe).

[El-P]

MLW is funny. They have this whole show based around the idea of a contest between Cesar Duran and Salina de la Renta, the winner getting "the key to the biggest power in lucha libre" (yeah, MLW is recycling everything they can from everywhere in the cheapest way possible, here, Lucha Underground). Which Cesar already owns. So what's the point for him ?

And then. This is a contest with FOUR matches. So basically, it could end up in a draw. Which it does.

And then. The first three matches have Salina's team be the technicos. Ok. Not like she's a babyface, but neither is Cesar I guess, so it's fine. But in the last match, Cesar's guy is.... Mistico. 

Seriously, this is so poorly thought out that only William Corgan could have booked this stuff as bad as this. 

The CMLL matches were very cool, mind you. Salina seems to be killed off. Again. Yeah, whatever, can't Coach TK just sign her and have her be the Bobby Heenan of luchadors in AEW or something ?

[Flyin' Brian]

Checking out MLW One Shot out of curiosity, tried a few MLW shows before but never found anything that kept my interest for very long. We’ll see if there’s anything good tonight. 

[El-P]

Court Bauer got a shitload of money from the WWE settlement and his company and he's booking Eric Bischoff. That's telling about as much as anyone should know. The good thing is that you can watch it for free on Youtube. The bad thing is that you gonna get your money's worth. I gave them countless chances over the mast year or so. It's just not any good. The only saving grace is when CMLL guys show up, but really you only get lesser-than Arena Mexico matches anyway. TAFKA Dario Cueto is still there, doing sub Z-movie version of Lucha Underground. Everything is a poor redux of stuff from the past, basically. The announcing is awful too, and that is even after Matt Striker got striked for his stupid edgy line about Matt Riddle. Oh yeah, they actually have Matt Riddle as their biggest star. Should have started by this.

[El-P]

Mistico vs Austin Aries is probably the match no one had on their bingo card this year, and of course it had to happen in MLW because where else would Austin Aries work ? Thing is, even at 47, and despite basically vanishing from consciousness since being a complete idiot during the pandemic, that douchebag is still a great promo and a great worker. And Mistico be like "yeah, I'm totally gonna take TWO death valley drivers on the apron on an MLW show" like he's Sabu or Terry Funk. That guy has to be the wrestler of the year, all things considered. He also busted out a brainbuster because why not.

MLW still is basically "CMLL US", as far as the good stuff goes. And then you get shit like Matt Riddle & Krüle vs Dikaj and Bishop Dyers (TAFKA Baron Corbin), which I'm absolutely not watching (I have at least 3 good reasons not to) and WCW circa 1991 cheese (they even re-did the Chambers of Horror match last month, involving CW Anderson's old ass). What an oddity of a promotion.

Oh, Killer Kross is showing up next month. All of this endless talks and astroturfing to end up in a match vs Matt fucking Riddle in MLW. Court Bauer makes William Corgan cry, he's a better carny.