MLW Fusion results: Mance Warner vs. Sam Adonis leather strap match

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

Mandy Leon (w/ Raven) defeated Clara Carreras

This was advertised as “The Calling unleashing Mandy Leon on the Featherweight division” and it did not disappoint in delivering Leon into title contention. 

Leon was recently unveiled as the latest member of Raven’s group of rogues and here, she wasted no time in planting her spot at the top of the featherweight division. She is surely in line as one of champion Delmi Exo’s first challengers if she can survive wXw Women’s Champion Ava Everett in their title vs. title match at Never Say Never.

Carreras managed to get some offense in, including a cannonball in the corner and a nearfall from a frog splash, but Leon took most of the match. She rag dolled her opponent and put her away with Astro Projection and a Raven-inspired Evenflow DDT.

– Earlier today ahead of his leather strap match, Mance Warner and the Second Gear Crew caught up with MLW Tag Team Champions The Samoan SWAT Team. They ended up agreeing on a friendly tag team match in the future between the beer-loving and beer-sharing fan favorites.

– Microman and Willie Mack were sharing some Dunkin’ Donuts in the parking lot but Mister Saint Laurent was quick to jump in and remove his Micro-money maker from the situation.

– After winning the MLW National Openweight title last week, a jubilant Jacob Fatu said he and the Samoan SWAT Team, who joined him for a championship celebration last week, were now going full gear in MLW.

Sam Adonis defeated Mance Warner in a strap match

After coming to blows and eliminating each other in the Battle Riot match, but more recently being on the end of a reckless and brutal hanging two weeks ago, Warner was set for revenge tonight against the men (Adonis and John Hennigan) who were fined $2500 last week for their actions.

The four corner touch rule was in effect here. Adonis came out early trying to touch each turnbuckle multiple times. He was also quick to use the strap to his advantage. It culminated in a top rope blockbuster neckbreaker by the lucha-loving AAA member Adonis. As impressive as Adonis’ neckbreaker was, it still received a “you still suck” chant from the fans, which was a nice comedic touch from the Philly faithful.

Of course, the tough-as-leather Warner fought back and hit a neckbreaker on the floor followed by multiple chops and whippings from the strap.

The finish of the match involved the rules coming into play. The referee told the fans that during the back-and-forth brawling, both fighters made it to 3-3 on the corner touching but via different paths. However, a tug-of-war ensued that led to both crashing into a wooden board in the corner. As Adonis went in back first, his hand reached up first and as a consequence, he hit the buckle before Warner thus giving Adonis the win. 

Warner got the last word after smacking a broken board over Adonis’ head, but it was the Azteca Lucha member who walked away with the win.

Later, Warner called out Adonis for a Country Whipping match to bring their feud to a conclusion. This was booked for Never Say Never.

– In a segment that took us no further forward in the search for the Bomaye Fight Club money man behind the enterprise, Dan Lambert, Shane Taylor and Wale were all named as potential leaders of the number one contenders fight club. However, they were quickly told that none of them were, in fact, the person we are looking for, and that person will be named at Never Say Never. Other than name dropping, this seemed a bit pointless but it did give Dave Meltzer a showing as he was pictured alongside Wale.

– Jacob Fatu will defend his newly won Openweight title against Calvin Tankman at Never Say Never.

– Sam Leterna interviewed the aforementioned Exo, but she was quickly attacked by former champion Taya Valkyrie. Valkyrie gave her a curb stomp on top of her newly-won title belt before explaining Exo has to have a rematch with her in the next 30 days due to her contract.

– Everett then cut a promo before her title vs. title match with Exo and said that Exo was in her first-ever professional match. She also promised to walk away with both titles.

Alex Kane defeated Shigehiro Irie

Ahead of his MLW Championship challenge of Alex Hammerstone at Never Say Never, Kane put up some of his Bomaye Fight Club cash in what was advertised as “The Big Apple Grapple II: The Search For More Hoes.” They are still going with this name.

Irie’s slingshot splash is innovative and impressive which gave him a very early nearfall in this 10-minute hard-hitting battle. A ringside brawl concluded with Kane having the advantage inside the ring after a commercial break.

Irie caught Kane off guard and slammed him with a nice suplex as the commentators talked up his latest wXw 16 Carat tournament win. Irie then ran over and slammed into Kane with a running back elbow through the ropes as Kane was sitting on the ring apron, which was the first time I have seen that.

A strike exchange then followed before a hard-hitting back-and-forth exchange of suplexes led to Kane raking the eyes and hitting The Mark of Kane finisher for the win. This was a good hard-hitting bout. 

After the match, Kane called out Hammerstone who gladly obliged but was initially held back by officials so they could throw insults at each other. Kane had a few good straight-to-the-point ones: “Hulk Hogan,” “Old Warrior,” and “Roid Boy” but ended with a good line while Hammerstone stood behind three referees and a stagehand in a black hoodie. He said, “You lift all these weights and you can’t break through that line?” before Fusion eventually went off the air with Kane milking in the crowd adulation.

Next week:

• MLW Tag Team Champions Samoan Swat Team (Juicy Finau & Lance Anoa’i) defend against The Second Gear Crew (Mance Warner & 1 Called Manders)

New for Never Say Never (July 8th):

• Mance Warner vs. Sam Adonis in a Country Whipping match
• MLW Openweight Champion Jacob Fatu defends against Calvin Tankman