MLW Fusion results: Two title matches

This week’s MLW Fusion was taped in New York City as part of MLW’s War Chamber tapings earlier this year. Matt Striker and Joe Dombrowski were on the call.

AKIRA (w/Raven) defeated Lince Dorado (c) and Lio Rush to win the MLW Middleweight title in a three-way

There were a lot of interlocking storylines going on here. Rush had previously stolen Dorado’s title as he claimed himself to be the real Middleweight champion while Dorado was on the end of a recent Calling attack, setting up this intriguing triple threat match.

AKIRA jumped Dorado during his entrance, dropping him with a hard suplex on the floor and taking him out of the opening of the match.

But the champion got back into it with springboards and a top rope twisting dive to the floor. He and Rush then took turns hitting handspring cutters and stunners to take AKIRA out temporarily.

Dorado momentarily got his own torturous revenge by locking AKIRA in an armbar, but Rush quickly broke it up with a frog splash. Rush then hit a dive to the floor but was taken out when he missed another frog splash.

AKIRA capitalized with Rush out of the ring to hit his Death Penalty (lifting reverse DDT) to pick up the pinfall victory and the MLW Middleweight title win — his first in MLW.

– We heard from Jacob Fatu who is set to return to action next week against John Hennigan. We last saw Fatu being attacked by Raven, AKIRA, and Ricky Shane Page. The Samoan Werewolf is out for revenge. He said his Openweight title shot against John Hennigan – that he lost due to The Calling’s attack- will take place next week.

Raven and The Calling then brought Mandy Leon to life in an ominous pre-taped video package. Leon was motionless wrapped in a plastic sheet, but after a kiss to her forehead, Leon’s eyes popped open.

Sam Adonis (w/ John Hennigan) defeated Willie Mack

After being part of the party that screwed Mack out of an Openweight title win against Hennigan last week, Adonis faced the revenge-minded Mack this week.

Adonis got on the mic before the match to rile up the New York crowd, but Mack had his own words for Adonis and Hennigan, promising to put his boot up both their asses.

Mack moves very impressively for his size. In the early going, he worked up the speed to hit a flying kick to Adonis in the face and vault to the floor. After catching his leg on Adonis’ head during a leapfrog, Mack hit another jumping kick to stay in control.

After a break, Mack pulled Adonis off the top rope as Adonis tried to bring some of his AAA moves into the match. Mack again caught Adonis off guard and rammed his fist into Adonis’ gut as the Azteca Lucha member came off the top.

Mack was selling the earlier leapfrog collision as he could not complete his usual kip-up, struggling to hit his standing moonsault.

Hennigan got knocked off the apron after tripping Mack’s leg behind the referee’s back. But with Mack momentarily distracted, Adonis hit a Death Valley Driver/Air Raid Crash slam and a 450 splash from the top rope to pick up the tainted distraction win. 

After the match, Sam Leterna brought out Mance Warner for an interview on the stage, but Adonis and Hennigan quickly interrupted and jumped him. Adonis used a leather strap to choke Warner out over the top rope.

– Ahead of his MLW title match against Alex Hammerstone at Never Say Never, Alex Kane again promised to reveal the money man behind the Bomaye Fight Club at the event. Before that, he also mentioned a cash prize being up for grabs in a “Big Apple Grapple” open challenge.

– Before the main event and after a few failed attempts to cut a promo on Delmi Exo due to technical difficulties, Taya Valkyrie stormed off saying she is leaving MLW because of issues like this.

Delmi Exo defeated Taya Valkyrie (w/ John Hennigan) to win the MLW Women’s Featherweight title

Valkyrie had been playing politics recently to delay this eventual title match, but the ending did not disappoint with Exo picking up the win and the title to end Taya’s one year reign as champion.

Earlier in the night, Exo said there was only one way she wanted to win the title and that was with the Delmi Driver, and she did just that after Hennigan’s constant distractions came back to haunt him and Valkyrie.

After a slow-building start, Valkyrie dropped Exo face-first on the apron and Hennigan added a few sneaky shots as Valkyrie distracted the referee. She slowed the match down again and kept in control as she double foot stomped Exo in the gut.

They exchanged close near falls when Exo hit a cross-legged fisherman suplex and a Pedigree for close calls, followed by Valkyrie hitting a Blue Thunder Bomb for one as well. Similar to the earlier match with Adonis, Hennigan grabbed Exo’s foot from the outside, causing the challenger to switch her focus to him. 

The champion then went for a rollup, but Exo countered with her own pinning combination. Exo had Valkyrie pinned, but the referee was distracted by Hennigan on the ring apron. 

Valkyrie and Hennigan then accidentally collided on the apron which distracted the champion enough to give Exo the opening to hit her Delmi Driver to win both the match and the Featherweight title.

Next week:

  • MLW National Openweight Champion John Hennigan defends against Jacob Fatu