30th Dec2018

‘MLW: Fusion – Christmas Special’ Review

by Nathan Favel

MLW-fusion-header

Welcome to this Christmas edition of Major League Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have Court Bauer’s answer to Santa Claus when he asked if Court had been a good boy this year. Do you think Santa smacked him in the head when he just showed an hour episode of MLW instead of answering the question? What if he asked Bad Santa? Does Tony Cox come with him? Screw it. Here comes The Monkees…Major League Wrestling. Santa didn’t bring me a delete button, so The Monkees get to stay…especially Peter Tork.

Match #1: PCO vs. Brody King – No Disqualification Match

My Take: 3.5 out of 5 – As a sound match this was no masterpiece, but as a great spectacle, this was a wild opener. Both of these guys are on their way to Ring of Honor for 2019, but they went out with a bang in a match that looked like it hurt a bit too much. There were dives on to the concrete and…they stayed on the concrete a lot of the time. Did you ever hear those stories about when Bill Watts wanted to take the mats away from the ring-side floor in WCW? I’d imagine the risk of CTE is the same there as it is now with these two behemoths playing “Clash of the Titans” like it’s going out of style…again. This whole thing was like “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” for the inmates at Folsom Prison during the Sadie Hawkins dance. Is the Sadie Hawkins reference spelled right? What can really be said about a match that was wrestled to look like it all started over the last Twinkie not being available? I’d hate to piss these guys off when no one is looking. I’m rambling a little bit, but I’d like to think. Oh, I think they both died after the match ended. Do you get that this looked like a mauling? Does this match get both fighters on the Naughty list or the Nice list? I love Rock ‘N Roll and this was an excellent fight to the finish.

Match #2: Ace Austin vs. Myron Reed

My Take: 3 out of 5 – This was a good technical bout that faltered at times, but had enough gas in the tank to make it to the finish line. Both of these guys have the personality to stand out in any roster they are a part of, so they have that part down. Neither man is a head-liner yet, but the wrestling skills they displayed here are certainly the kind that will get them the notoriety necessary to move up the card. Eventually, this match moved towards the aerial moves, which were spectacular but did throw off the rhythm they had going with the mat work. Does the phrase “mat work” sound pretentious? If it does then I’m %$#@!? without the delete button. I’ll kick Santa’s ass if ever see him again. Any-way, the wrestling went to the sky and that’s when the match lost its bearings a little bit, because the fight went from one extreme to the other. As good as the moves were, I would have liked to have seen the match stay on the ground until the last act of the bout, as they were getting some-where with the holds and locks. As a side note, Myron is a nerd’s name. That doesn’t have any-thing to do with the match, but it is pretty cool that a name like Myron actually stands a chance of drawing real money in a profession that has a history of penalizing its athletes for having meager names. If you had told me that the Barry Horowitz’s of the world would actually get their chance to be seen as a potential draw a decade ago, then I probably would have told you that you were crazy. Why am I still talking about this? Would Vince let Myron go by his name or re-name him Slade Conner? Back in reality, this was a lot of fun and I think you’ll like it as well.

Match #3: (Main Event) MJF vs. Puma King – Flag Match

My Take: 3.5 out of 5 – This was a lot of fun, but that’s because it felt like a proper match. That sounds like the librarian from Hell/Martha’s Vineyard/Harvard University Fight Club tried to write a review of a boxing PPV, doesn’t it? This was a good blend of the lucha libre style and the more refined X-Division style that MJF uses. Puma is as charismatic as they come, but there was a part at the end where he kissed Aria Blake, who is MJF’s valet. There’s nothing wrong with a kiss, but it was booked to be forced on her, which is some-thing that is punished in all other forms of entertainment right now, so I’m just a bit curious as to how it keeps getting allowed in wrestling? As far as the stipulation goes, the Flag Match has never been the best of the bunch, but it worked out well here as they pushed it to include some weapons, which makes sense for a match that advertises having people whack each other with a flag after they take it off a pole.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

This was a short but sweet Christmas gift for wrestling fans…except if you don’t celebrate Christmas, then it’s just a gift from Hugh Jackman.

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