Quick recap —
Puma King defeated Hijo de LA Park
Chico Adams & Vertigo Rivera defeated Contra Unit (Josef Samael & Jacob Fatu) by DQ
MLW Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation (Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) defeated The Dynasty (MJF & Richard Holliday) by DQ
Full rundown —
Mance Warner joined Jim Cornette and Rich Bocchini at the commentary table for the opening match on this week’s edition of MLW Fusion.
Puma King defeated Hijo de LA Park (10:07)
On commentary, Warner played up the ongoing story between himself and Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado. In a flashback to 2000 when Chris Jericho and Kane feuded after a spilled cup of coffee, this feud has kicked off with a spilled beer on last week’s episode of Fusion.
They started with a lucha opening sequence. They exchanged dives to the outside early on as de la Renta was getting involved and grabbing Puma’s legs from the get-go. Hijo hit Puma with a chair on the outside, which the referee seemed to let go.
The chair action continued in the ring as Hijo sat Puma in the corner. He set a folded chair between Puma’s legs, then swung and hit a home run with a chair right where the sun doesn’t shine.
As Hijo whipped Puma with a television camera cable on the outside, de la Renta asked Cornette and Bocchini why they were talking to “this redneck bitch” on commentary. Warner calmed himself down with a nice light beer and reminded us that his granny always told him not to hit a woman.
Puma King fought back with a good old-fashioned kick to the buttocks and a more flashy pair of tilt-a-whirl backbreakers. The referee was definitely letting the rules bend as Puma decided to take some revenge from earlier by repeating the groin-based chair shot spot Hijo delivered to him.
They exchanged near falls when Hijo hit a Code Red and then Puma soon after hit a pop-up powerbomb. Hijo hit Puma with a chair to the back while he was on the top rope, but Puma caught him and was still able to deliver a headscissors to bring him back into the ring. Hijo kept fighting with a step-up kick and a Spanish Fly from the top rope that got a close near fall.
After another de la Renta leg trip, Hijo hit a Gory Special reverse piledriver but didn’t go for the cover. Instead, he went out to the commentary table and spat at Mance Warner — who got up and spat right back at him!
As Hijo turned his back, Warner got Cornette’s world famous tennis racket and hit Hijo over the back with it. Warner rolled him back in, and Puma was waiting and hit a big double knee face breaker from the top and rolled Hijo up with la magistral cradle for the win.
Puma King and Mance Warner then shared a beer at ringside to celebrate.
– Backstage, we heard from MJF and Richard Holliday as they were impersonating The Hart Foundation. They were about to start really mouthing off, but we were interrupted by this week’s edition of H2tv.
– Brian Pillman Jr. was working out in the pool by his coach Davey Boy Smith Jr. Smith let MJF and Holliday know that — all joking aside — they are going to hurt them when they step inside the ring tonight.
– MLW World Heavyweight Champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor was backstage with a pre-taped promo from earlier in the week. We were told that his “doctor” from last week was bogus and the real doc had confirmed this during the week.
Lawlor was coming out of the hospital and said he didn’t care what the doctors had to say — what they don’t know about is what is inside fighters’ hearts. Lawlor said that he wants to fight any of the three “bastards” from Contra Unit.
Lawlor said they tried to finish his title reign before it even started, but he is going to finish their MLW run before it begins. He told them to get ready to watch their world burn.
Chico Adams & Vertigo Rivera defeated Contra Unit (Josef Samael & Jacob Fatu) by DQ (1:15)
A very quick demolition squash for Contra Unit — even though they lost by disqualification. It was much more of an angle than a match, as it did not take long for Contra Unit to go to their usual tactics: foreign objects and demolition.
There was some really good old-school heel work from Samael and Fatu. They seem to easily be able to push the crowd’s buttons and rile them up to (almost) riot levels. Cornette certainly helps this along and helps create the riotous feel they are going for with this new unit.
Samael used his wrist tape to choke Adams while we learned that Fatu is from the famous Samoan family — but he’s the black sheep of the family and was not allowed to train with them.
Fatu got in a nice pop-up Samoan drop before Samael brought his spike out and was disqualified for using it to bludgeon the forehead of Adams.
Fatu hit two amazingly athletic springboard moonsaults from the corner onto Adams, but the real take home point came seconds later as Samael used flash paper to throw fire into the face of Rivera. The EMTs tried to then take Adams out on a stretcher, but the EMTs picked him up and set him up perfectly for Fatu to hit a third and final springboard moonsault.
A fan threw a water bottle at Samael — who opened it and threw it back at them. This opened the floodgates, literally, as the ring began being bombarded with bottles, cups, and rubbish of all sorts. Officials began to frantically calm both the fans and the wrestlers down and Contra Unit were quickly ushered to the back.
Cornette screamed that a fan had jumped the guardrail, but they cut away before we could see anything for ourselves.
– Matt Striker gave us breaking news that LA Park will be in the Battle Riot. He began running down other confirmed names: Sami Callihan, Hijo de LA Park, Rey Fenix, Brian Pillman Jr., Gringo Loco, Ken Kerbis from Israel, Pentagon Jr, Teddy Hart, MJF, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Ace Romero, Alexander Hammerstone, Minoru Tanaka from Pro Wrestling NOAH, and Low Ki.
– LA Park was backstage and said he is going to win the Battle Riot. Short, simple, straight to the point. Done.
MLW Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation (Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr. w/ Brian Pillman Jr.) defeated The Dynasty (MJF & Richard Holliday) by DQ (11:03)
MJF took the mic before the match and was trash talking Stu Hart, stomping on the ground and talking down to him saying he left his legacy in the hands of the “idiot” Teddy Hart. MJF said The Dynasty is better than them and they know it.
MJF rolled out and stalled at the start a couple of times and tagged Holliday in before making any contact with Hart. Holliday tried the same, but Hart turned and got his shot in on MJF and knocked him off the apron and into the guardrail.
The Hart Foundation took the early advantage with Hart hitting a Code Red and Smith hitting a double underhook suplex. Smith followed up with a 20-second delayed vertical suplex and Hart hit a Pillman-assisted moonsault from the middle of the top rope. MJF made a blind tag, and after a forearm to the back of the head, took back the advantage for The Dynasty.
On the outside, MJF distracted the ref as he rammed Hart into the apron, attacking his already injured ribs. He whipped him, hard, into the guardrail as Hart was having trouble breathing. Holliday went for a Sharpshooter, but Smith quickly broke it up with a pair of right hands. MJF then interfered with a pendulum piledriver and The Dynasty got a close near fall.
MJF locked in an abdominal stretch, but Hart fought out and hit a tornado Canadian Destroyer to knock both of them down. He was visibly coughing up blood as he tagged in Davey Boy Smith Jr. — who ran wild with a big boot, 10 punches in the corner, German suplex, uppercuts, chops, and a big biel on Holliday right onto MJF in the corner. He got MJF in a double chicken wing suplex for a close two count.
A big sit-out powerbomb by Smith on MJF got another very close two count as Holliday broke it up at the last minute. The Hart Foundation then went for the double-team Canadian Destroyer, but Alexander Hammerstone interfered with a chair and hit both Hart and Smith as the referee called for the bell and the disqualification.
Pillman tried to help but got laid out with the chair too. The crowd chanted “bullsh*t” as Hammerstone, Holliday, and MJF beat down The Hart Foundation. The three Dynasty members stood tall in the middle of the ring as Fusion went off the air.
Next week —
Mance Warner vs. LA Park in a death match
We will hear from Contra Unit