MLW Fusion results: Two-out-of-three falls Tag Team title match
Big Takeaways —
- Due to some interference from Austin Aries, The Dynasty retained their MLW Tag Team titles after defeating The Hart Foundation two falls to one.
- Injustice’s Jordan Oliver defeated Zenshi as their feud continues.
- Two big matches are booked for next week: Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Havoc in a Bunkhouse Brawl and Timothy Thatcher vs. Douglas James.
Full Recap —
Fusion opened with a recorded message from Josef Samael (not so) fresh and bloodied from the War Chamber match last week. He said the war with the Von Erichs isn’t over and he will take them all out once and for all.
Jordan Oliver defeated Zenshi (7:11)
Fellow Injustice members Kotto Brazil and Myron Reed accompanied Oliver and were interfering throughout.
Oliver kept up with Zenshi’s rolling and lucha-style arm drags and reversals in the opening moments, but he was finally halted with a standing Shooting Star Press.
Zenshi had to deal with Injustice’s interference early as he kicked Reed away as he climbed the turnbuckle. Oliver met Zenshi up the turnbuckle and looked to have caught him with a hurricanrana off the top, but Zenshi landed on his feet after a full rotation and rolled to his apparent safety in the opposite corner. However, Injustice’s numbers game played to their advantage in that corner as Brazil was waiting to trip him behind the ref’s back — and Oliver followed in with a basement dropkick to the face.
Zenshi fought back with a slingshot headscissor takedown and then took out Reed with a Shooting Star Press to the floor. He then hit Oliver with a slingshot DDT and slingshot twisting senton (both from the apron), but Oliver kicked out at two.
Zenshi hit a Sliced Bread neckbreaker, but Brazil pulled the ref out before he could count to three, pulling his shoe off in the process.
Inside the ring, Oliver hit a cutter as the referee was throwing Brazil out. Reed — complete with a D’Lo Brown chest protector for his apparent broken ribs — interfered again with a beautiful 450 splash that let Oliver cover Zenshi and pick up the win.
After the match, Injustice put the boots to the official until Gringo Loco ran out with a chair to make the save. This feud continues.
– A video hype package for “The Bone Collector” Dominic Garrini aired. He will be coming to MLW this fall.
– Mance Warner challenged Jimmy Havoc to a Bunkhouse Brawl match. He said he is going to bust Havoc up.
– A good recap and hype video played for tonight’s main event between The Dynasty and Hart Foundation, which led into Lifestyles of the Rich and Dynastic with Richard Holliday in the gym. He had a message for us “consumers” and said tonight we will see that there is only one Dynasty in MLW, not the Hart Foundation, The Dynasty.
– Rich Bocchini asked the Von Erichs who they were pulling for in the main event. They said the Harts have the edge for them — but ultimately it doesn’t matter, as the Von Erichs are coming for Tag Team gold.
– Salina de la Renta was backstage with a message for Jacob Fatu. She said LA Park will take care of him, and before she could talk about Warner, Havoc appeared and said he has him sorted. He said Warner is screwed and he will end up drinking Warner’s blood.
MLW Tag Team Champions The Dynasty (MJF & Richard Holliday) defeated The Hart Foundation (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Teddy Hart) in a two-out-of-three falls match to retain their titles (22:54)
We were told there was an altercation between Teddy Hart and Austin Aries backstage as Aries thinks Hart has been shunning him since he announced he wants a shot at Hart’s MLW Middleweight title.
The Dynasty stalled early on with a game of rock, paper, scissors and added some jaw-jacking with the crowd. The Hart Foundation jumped them and they began brawling around ringside. The commentators took a good three minutes complaining about the referee saying that he didn’t start the match and didn’t call for the bell to ring. It clearly rang as you could see the timekeeper ringing it and we heard it ring. This wasn’t a passing comment either, they talked about it for minutes.
Oddly, a few minutes later Bocchini and Tony Schiavone brought up the bell ringing again. They questioned if referee Doug Markham was suffering from injuries at the hands of Injustice’s attack a few weeks ago. Given that we saw and heard the bell ring, this was all very awkward.
The match built up slowly with some good chain wrestling from Smith as you would expect. The action spilled to the outside again, with all four wrestlers briefly disappearing backstage. Back in the ring, The Hart Foundation hit a pair of symmetrical Northern Lights suplexes for two counts.
The Dynasty got the advantage when MJF clocked Hart from the apron and Holliday followed up with a big lariat. Smith got the hot tag and ran wild on Holliday. He hit a diving headbutt off the top rope, but Holliday kicked out at two. Smith hit a piledriver, but Holliday kicked out again. Fifteen minutes in and we were still 0-0.
A few moments later, we had our first fall that seemed out of nowhere with little crowd reaction. Smith had a sleeper on Holliday, but the Dynasty member dropped down to escape with a jawbreaker. He then ran off the ropes and knocked Smith down with an apparent shoulder block. Feeling the effects of the grueling match so far, Holliday fell back to the ropes to rest, but MJF reached up and pushed Holliday into the center of the ring, where he fell on top of Smith and the ref counted the pin. 1-0 Dynasty via Holliday’s jaw breaker/shoulder block combo.
A replay during the 30-second rest period showed that Holliday and Smith’s heads collided on the shoulder block.
After the rest period, MJF knocked Hart off the apron to focus on the groggy Smith. MJF helped him to his feet and hit him with a right hand, but that just woke Smith up. Smith hulked up and knocked MJF down.
Hart tagged in and hit a Canadian Destroyer. He then hit Holliday with a lung blower/Lumbar Check. Hart gave MJF a Canadian Destroyer from the top rope and a springboard twisting moonsault to pick up the fall and level the score. 1-1.
After the rest period, MJF was out, and the commentators were screaming at Hart to cover him. But strangely, Hart picked him up to his feet to hit his hammerlock DDT, but Holliday broke that up with a big boot. Smith then took Holliday out and brawled around ringside, which distracted the referee.
Out of nowhere, Aries appeared and hit Teddy Hart with the MLW Middleweight title belt. He then grabbed Hart and hit him with a brainbuster on the apron, knocking him down to the floor and knocking him out.
The referee began to count Hart out as Smith realized and desperately tried to lift him back into the ring in time. He got Hart up but couldn’t turn and drop him on the apron in time, so the referee counted to 20 (20 counts in MLW) and called for the bell and awarded the fall and the match to The Dynasty.
2-1 to The Dynasty via Teddy Hart countout.
Hart was helped to the back after the match, knocked out cold at the hands of Austin Aries.
Next Week —
- Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Havoc in a Bunkhouse Brawl
- Timothy Thatcher vs. Douglas James