MLW Fusion, anyone watching it?

[Migs]

Picking up from War Games a few weeks ago might make sense. They pretty well explain the story there, and that gets followed Ki vs. Fenix and a whole bunch of PCO and La Parka. 

The Battle Riot special from a couple of months ago was also pretty fun.

[Edwin]

Posted this over at DVDVR, but might as well post it here:

I haven't seen it, but apparently MLW ran angle with Salina de la Renta calling ICE to get Pentagón Jr. & Rey Fénix deported and Court had to apologize as people got offended by it.

 

[EricR]

After liking a few of the recent singles matches (especially Ki/Fenix) I started from the beginning and have been writing up what I think are the best matches. I'm thru episodes 1-6 and I like the pace of the show. Dirty Blondes I've seen before in CWF, and they've gotten even better since then. Even matches I didn't like had some memorable moments, and I've really liked the sound of Tony Schiavone's voice calling some wrestling. He seems super into the product and it's really made the show more fun for me. 

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mlw-worth-watching-aries-dirty-blondes.html

 

[rovert]

19 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

Are there any standout episodes worth seeking out so far? I'm willing to give this a shot, but reviews seem to be scattered & mixed at best. Don't have the time to backtrack through everything, so I'm looking for a sampler or a solid indication of what they're doing.

 

Been told the last three episodes are a huge uptick.

You are right about the reviews and quality of the show. Fusion is in its first year and the roster hasn't completely settled yet. A lot of wrestlers never worked a proper TV taping before either. But you see elements of constant improvement. 

Not getting into the subject here just that Salina is a Flat Earther and things like that. So you will get what you are going to get with her Twitter. Not an entirely sensible person.

ICE angle seems to be one of Konnan's "edgy" comments on immigration. Did see any fan defend it on merit. 

[El-P]

18 hours ago, rovert said:

Not getting into the subject here just that Salina is a Flat Earther and things like that.

Da fuck ?  And I thought she looked kinda… creepy (in a good way)...

Well, I guess the talk about improvement over time will have me not quit just yet (I only watched the first 10 episodes). Plus the later episodes are now available here on YT, which is quite cool and handy. (Jack Swagger in both LU and MLW is kinda rough though)

[EricR]

Here's a few more matches I really liked, none list worthy but all worth seeing. A short Jeff Cobb/Jack Swagger power match, a Kotto Brazil/Rich Swann match that played more like a NJ vet torturing a young lion and the lion starts fighting back, and Teddy Hart's debut. 

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mlw-worth-watching-cobb-hager-swann.html

[joeg]

PCO vs Park was a letdown.

[WingedEagle]

Anyone have a list of must-see matches from the show thus far?

[El-P]

Brian Pillman Jr. cosplaying as his own father is pretty ridiculous. Like I said before, the whole revivalist aspect of MLW is really the part I would gladly do without.

[SomethingSavage]

Are there any angles on this show? Is it strictly matches? I've been trying to find the easiest access point to get into it, but my spare time is limited & nothing has really sparked enough interest just yet.

I did seek out a couple of podcasts with Court, but he's all buzzwords. You've got to work extra hard to get any sense of what he's really saying - and all I ultimately came away with was that it's a one-hour show with Shane Strickland as their champ.

[fakeplastictrees]

MLW doesn't have any angles that pull me in or make me invested in any real outcome of any of their matches. I watch MLW mainly to see the weird matches that take place every week!

Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Marko Stunt vs. The Hart Foundation

PCO vs. LA Park

The Parks vs. The Lucha Brothers

Spin the Wheel: Sami Callahan vs. Jimmy Havock

All of these matches are pretty random and makes MLW a fun Youtube watch. There is nothing major or interesting you are missing by not watching the shows in order, etc.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, fakeplastictrees said:

I watch MLW mainly to see the weird matches that take place every week!

Yeah, it's kinda fun to see who the fuck are gonna get paired next. I mean, PCO vs L.A. Park in 2018 announced by Tony Schiavone ? MLW ? More like WTF.

Finally watched the Wargames. First, I gotta say it's pretty ironic to hear Tony call the match after he made a point of saying how much he thought Wargames sucked on the podcast. Well, I did enjoy the first half of it. They tweeked the logic by having the babyfaces win the coin-toss and yet still maintain a heel advantage, which was pretty well done. I have no idea what was the point of injuring Strickland. I guess there was nothing wrong with him or he would not have took those two brutal bumps. Anyway, it was kinda odd since the whole match was about him vs Callihan. 

Anyway. Enjoyed the match quite a bit until the point Leon Scott entered. From that point on, it pretty much fell apart. The one memorable sequence after that point was Abyss vs Koto Brazil. That guy was easily the standout, confirming the good feeling I had about him already.

Callihan I enjoy in any setting. He's dirty, he's disgusting, he's agressive, he's vicious, he's a true heel and he bumps his ass off and shows tons of ass when requested too. I like his work.

Mundo, well, Impact, ok, Hennigan was daydreaming of the next iMPACT tapings I believe. He was ok but didn't do much.

Fulton did a good job destroying Koto in the first sequence and was a trooper then.

Havoc...well. That guy screams INDY GARBAGE WRESTLING so loud... I mean, he looks like a guy even *I* could beat up. And I never fought in my life. Still, he's bleeding, he's taking gimmick shots, he's ok in an überindy way. 

Dreamer, well... I'm an old ECW fan, so, "Man in the Box" kinda brings back good memories but ya know... Old ass balding Dreamer ain't exactly young Tommy coming down the aisle with Beulah and piledriving Francine either. His Dusty tribute is getting really, really, really old by now. We get it. You want back in NXT.

Abyss. Damn, no teeth ? He looks slimmer than in 2009 though, good for him. Well, he did his bit. FAT Black Hole Slam on Dreamer (damn, that looked tough), a nice bit with Koto and the requisite bump in the tacks. No idea what you'd want more from Abyss in 2018.

Leon Scott is useless, whoever he is. Barrington Hughes is another throwback, or throw-up, depending on your political correctness level. Seriously, a morbidly obese shit "worker" (he can't do shit, really) has no place in pro-wrestling in 2018. Give me some crossfit guy any day over that awful stuff. And *HE* got the submission ? Whose sextape does he own ? (well, Bauer I guess)

So yeah, the first half was fine, then it became pretty bad. MLW certainly is not a must-see Youtube channel at all. It's kinda fun sometimes. I could see Salina show up on iMPACT at some point, or Lucha Underground.

[Migs]

I think MLW has gotten better in terms of angles (which makes sense, as it takes some time to develop the characters), but I still haven't really cared about the outcome of an MLW match yet. It's main upside is that it's a watchable, 1 hour weekly show that moves well and keeps the action level up. It's never a slog to get through. In 2018, I feel like that might make it the best weekly show (not including New Japan, who's weekly show isn't really comparable to anyone else's).

[rovert]

Nailed it, Migs.

I probably enjoy NXT TV more but likely couldn't watch two episodes and the extra Youtube bits back to back.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Thought the latest episode summed up the up and down nature of MLW - crazy main event trios match but then a really lethargic way past his prime Tommy Dreamer match. I can understand a lot of the criticisms, but as a 50 min weekly show, I enjoy it, and as I've said in this thread before, to me the presentation is what I think a weekly 80s territory wrestling show would like if those companies had survived into 2018.

I'd recommend people check out the main event from this past week though and the absolutely insane amount of punishment that Marko Stunt takes from the Hart Foundation. I've always been a Teddy Hart mark, but for a lot of his MLW run so far he's been somewhat underwhelming. Not in this match, thought the Hart Foundation really looked good and there's a lot of mileage in them wrestling trios matches every week. 

I'm also enjoying the Salina De La Renta/Konnan angle, and both of them trying to be the supply line for getting the best Mexican/Latin talent into US promotions. I like that's essentially what Konnan's role has been in real life, but now in story line there is a young upstart with money trying to get in on the act. It's like two football teams trying to assemble their squads and stealing signings from one another.   

[EricR]

I'm almost caught up on Fusion and have been writing about the matches I liked the most, for people wondering what's worth checking out. Here's a fun Yehi showcase, an awesome 5 minute PCO/Brody King stiff fest:

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/11/mlw-worth-watching-yehi-holliday-hart.html

Here's a bunch of Teddy Hart matches, because Hart has been GREAT in MLW. 

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/11/mlw-worth-watching-teddy-hart.html

Here's a cool debut from Myron Reed, a nice compact Hager/Gotch match, and Sami Callihan working over Kotto Brazil:

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mlw-worth-watching-brazil-hager-gotch.html

[El-P]

Those Byron Reed matches are exactly some of what I don't care about in MLW, way too indieriffic and cosplayish (as in "look at me do all those moves and pretend selling" way). I dunno, maybe he'll grow on me but he's kinda like generic flippy indy worker N°whatever at this point (unlike Koto, who's displayed much more than this to me).

On the other hand, Fenix vs Low-Ki from E24 was the easily best match on Fusion thus far, truly excellent stuff. Ki pacing it and really getting heat on Fenix, who's a great babyface (as showed by his LU stuff where he was more charismatic than Puma) made it super solid structurally, with all the stiff offense and crazy shit you'd expect. Salina is definitely an excellent manager, she doesn't has to do much in term of spots at ringside, but she does it really well. It's striking how short all these guys are though, unless she's a really big girl, as she looks as tall as many of them despite wearing flat shoes. Anyway, this was pretty ace.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Low Ki has been terrific in MLW so far as the champion. I think the reason I really enjoy his matches, is because I'm so checked out on 'your turn/my turn' matches where it's just guys exchanging moves with little opportunity or indeed goal to build an emotional connection. I'm sure it's been a criticism down the years that Ki can take 'too much' of a match and eat up his opponents, but as El P says, it really enables heat and sympathy to be built in his matches as he methodically breaks down his opponent. I wouldn't say his most recent match with Daga was anything special, but I enjoyed it a lot more than the other two matches on the show which were just a series of random movez with no substance.   

[El-P]

Gotta say also I really like Ki's new style of "Hitman" (the video game, not Bret Hart) promos. Very different and refreshing.

[El-P]

Exhibit #X of why 2018 has been the craziest and most exciting year in pro-wrestling in 20 years : just browse Youtube and you get to watch Pentagon Jr. vs L.A. Park having a terrific, terrific garbagey brawl, announced by Tony fucking Schiavone. I really liked Salina wearing LA Park's colors too, cool aesthetic detail, the kind of which I always loved in old-school wrestling (Jimmy Hart's outfit, Rick Rude's tights). Is LA Park really 53 ? Seems insane considering how well he bumps and execute his spots. Back to back winner matches involving the Lucha Brothers too, which I'm glad I get to see more of outside of LU.

[El-P]

On 11/2/2018 at 3:44 AM, joeg said:

PCO vs Park was a letdown.

I didn't think so. For two guys who pack up more than 100 years, it was a perfectly fine match. I guess expectations are running wild these days. Since the craziness aspect is a part of every PCO match, that damn bump from the top rope to the apron was fucking insane. The never-ending promo/translation stuff at the end was kinda messy, although I liked the fact it looked organic.

On the other hand, Havoc vs Callahan was a letdown, but I guess I just don't care one bit for Havoc. The whole staples and papercuts with lemon & salt is just for shits and giggles and it gets old very quick (especially the papercut nonsense). I expected a blood & guts match, I got some not funny indy comedy match... Considering the stuff Callahan has done in LU or iMPACT, this kinda sucked (but again, Havoc stuff usually does).

[Blehschmidt]

I am glad to see that someone else finds Jimmy Havoc as unappealing as I do.

I see this guy getting praised all over the place, and I just don't get it. He looks and wrestles like a thousand other guys that I've seen a million other times bludgeoning themselves for twenty bucks and a hot dog on garbage indy shows all across the East Coast of the United States. 

[SPS]

I agree on Havoc, I love MLW but I have not been impressed at all with him and I don't see anything he does particularly well. There are several deathmatch guys (even though I've grown to really not enjoy the style as I've gotten older) who can do much more in the ring and in terms of charisma in both deathmatches and regular bouts than Jimmy.

[Migs]

3 hours ago, SPS said:

I agree on Havoc, I love MLW but I have not been impressed at all with him and I don't see anything he does particularly well. There are several deathmatch guys (even though I've grown to really not enjoy the style as I've gotten older) who can do much more in the ring and in terms of charisma in both deathmatches and regular bouts than Jimmy.

Havoc has a weird charisma about him that I enjoy, but I agree that his matches tend to be pretty weak. He's more of a comedy garbage wrestler in the ring, even though at times he wants to be serious. If you take the Callihan match as comedy, it was entertaining - but that's not what the build was going for. 

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Not much love here for poor Jimmy!

I think Migs' description of him as 'comedy garbage wrestler' is essentially what he's turned into over the last year, but around 2013-2015 he was a really captivating character and a great heel - check out his Progress Title reign as evidence of what he can do - but can definitely see where a lot of the criticisms above come from.

I still think he can be an entertaining chaotic brawler when he wants to be, but agree that the MLW match with Sami was really disappointing - like a bad early 2000s WWE hardcore title match. If you want to see a much better and hard hitting match between the two, check out the match they had on the Impact vs UK event from the MediaCon event here in Britain a few months ago. I think it's still available on Impact's Twitch channel for free.