17th Sep2018

‘MLW: Fusion’ Wrestling Review (Sept 14th 2018)

by Nathan Favel

MLW-fusion-header

Welcome to this week’s Major League Wrestling: Fusion review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we are going into the War Games cage, right now!

Match #1: Main Event: WAR GAMES –  Dreamer, Brazil, Hughes, Hennigan, Strickland defeated Callihan, Scott, Fulton, Havoc, Abyss

The following is courtesy of MLW.com:

Period 1 (5 minutes): Kotto Brazil vs. Fulton – Despite being a match in two rings, surrounded by a steel cage, this one started outside. Brazil flew through the door of the cage, driving Fulton back through the timekeeper’s table. While Brazil had the early advantage, Fulton’s size and strength eventually took over for much of the first period.

Period 2 (2 minutes): John Hennigan entered for his side and was able to give Brazil a bit of time to recover after nearly five minutes of beatdown from Fulton. Hennigan and Brazil were able to gain the advantage through some double-teaming against Fulton before Period 3 started.

Period 3 (2 minutes): Jimmy Havoc entered with a thick piece of paper in his waistband. He wasted no time using one of his favorite weapons, slicing the webbing between Hennigan’s fingers to create a nasty papercut. Will it win the match? No. Will it drive home the point that Havoc likes to inflict pain? Yes. Havoc also found a way to nail Brazil in the head with a stop sign that was in the ring before the next contestant was announced.

Period 4 (2 minutes): This is where things took a turn in this match. Sami Callihan’s team was at a disadvantage after losing the coin toss, meaning his team would never be up a man. It would always be even or the advantage would go to the other side. Callihan eliminated that issue. As Shane “Swerve” Strickland was introduced into the match, the Worldwide Desperado attacked. Callihan threw Strickland into the ring steps on the stage at Fort Lauderdale’s War Memorial Auditorium. He threw Strickland off the stage and through a table. He then powerbombed Strickland through what was left of that table. Strickland was carried out of the auditorium and was not seen again for the rest of the evening.

Period 5 (2 minutes): After his violent attack on Strickland, Callihan entered the match, giving his team a 3-2 advantage inside the cage. Almost immediately, that numbers advantage paid dividends, as Havoc dropped an elbow on Hennigan from the top rope, driving him through a table. With Hennigan temporarily incapacitated, Callihan, Havoc and Fulton started once again tearing apart Brazil.

Period 6 (2 minutes): Enter the Innovator of Violence. Tommy Dreamer, trash can full of weapons in tow, immediately turned the tide back in his team’s favor. Dreamer, who symbolically wore black with yellow polka dots in Dusty Rhodes’ memory, took charge inside the cage throughout this entire period.

Period 7 (2 minutes): Both Death Machines were now in the match, as Leon Scott entered. Once again, Callihan’s side had the numbers advantage. Scott brought Callihna’s ever-present baseball bat with him to the ring. The bat and the numbers left Callihan’s Ravagers to run roughshod.

Period 8 (2 minutes): The final member of his team to enter, Barrington Hughes was out next. Once again, the momentum shifted. Hughes even took three shots to the skull from Havoc with a “wet floor” sign, with no effect whatsoever. But the final man to enter the match would give Callihan’s side the numbers edge one final time with Strickland injured.

The Match Beyond: With the entry of Abyss, the Match Beyond commenced. At this point, the match could now be won or lost and it could only be decided by submission or a member of one team being unable to continue. Abyss came to the ring holding a bag. We quickly learned it was a bag of tacks. While he tried to slam Brazil onto those tacks, the maneuver backfired and Abyss was the one later pulling tacks out of his body.

For more than 8 long minutes – keep in mind the opening bell rang nearly 30 minutes ago – the two teams battled. Neither able to get an advantage. But a key moment came at roughly the 29-minute mark. Havoc went to hit the Acid Rainmaker on Dreamer. But the Innovator of Violence was able to shove Callihan into the line of fire. Callihan ate Havoc’s signature maneuver.

Callihan followed that up with a cutter on Havoc. At the same time, Brazil found the barbed wire that Dreamer brought with him to the ring. That barbed wire would figure heavily in the outcome. Brazil wrapped his own teammate Hughes in the barbed wire. Hughes became what Rich Bocchinni called on the broadcast “a walking weapon of mass destruction.” With the barbed wire wrapped around him, he hit a big splash on Fulton. That was the beginning of the end.

Brazil and Hughes then wrapped some of the barbed wire around Fulton’s head and continued applying pressure with it. Blood running down Fulton’s face, he couldn’t take the pain and eventually tapped out, leaving Dreamer, Hennigan, Brazil and Hughes to celebrate their victory and seemingly end the months-long feud between these two groups.

My Take: Well, this was wild. These guys beat the hell out of each other in any way you could think of. This was definitely a War Games match. Lou Thesz might not have been into this kind of thing (I suspect) but I think you just might like it.

News Of The Night:

  1. Sami Callihan and his men attacked Jimmy Havoc after the match.
  2. At MLW: Fury Road, The Hart Foundation will fight ACH, Rich Swann and Marko Stunt.
  3. PCO will fight LA Park.
  4. Low Ki will defend the MLW World Title against Rey Fenix and the winner will defend the title at Fury Road.

Final Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 – This was great. What more do you want?

Off

Comments are closed.