Brian Pillman Jr. will face Tommy Dreamer in a Singapore Cane match on this week's edition of MLW Fusion. In addition, Dragon Lee will be facing Rich Swann. Let's get to it!
MLW Thoughts
- Tom Lawlor is outside a door to a room where inside Salina de la Renta and Sami Callihan can be heard arguing. Callihan and Salina seem to be arguing about how much Salina will pay in order for Callihan to take out Lawlor later.
- Low Ki cuts a promo backstage. He talks about being undefeated in MLW for 15 years. (Haha. That's rich.) He's going to retire that way as well. Feb. 2, it will be no different at MLW SuperFight.
- Our first match is Dragon Lee taking on Rich Swann. This will be an interesting match to say the least. It's been a while since I've seen Dragon Lee wrestle anywhere with the last major match I remember being the match that unfortunately injured Hiromu Takahashi (possibly taking him out of the business all together). It seems as if Rich Swann is working heel in this match with his mannerisms before the match. Yep. He just told Miami to kiss his butt. He's a heel. (Cue your internal Jim Cornette impersonations.)
Swann and Lee have a high-flying, fast-moving stalemate early on. Swann gets the advantage and plays the crowd for a little bit. Eventually Lee starts fighting back and even does a Tranquilo pose. They end up brawling on the floor and back in the ring. At one point, Swann puts him on the top rope and goes after the mask of Lee. Swann gets Lee in a Tree of Woe and hits a running dropkick into the corner. Lee fires back with some slow offense while still selling the punishment he's taken. Swann hits a Frog Splash off the top for a CLOSE 2 count. The two exchange a barrage of kicks. A Reverse Rana by Lee is met with a Spinning Back Kick by Swann a second later. Kicks exchanged by both men. Lee is on the top rope, and Swann kicks up at Lee. Snap Rana off the top by Swann. Phoenix Splash by Swann misses, and this sets up the Sit-Down Powerbomb for the 3 by Lee. Swann and Lee shake hands afterwards. So, I'm guessing Swann's heel turn was just for this match.
Decent enough match. I was honestly a little underwhelmed by a good bit of it. But the last couple minutes worked. So, all in all, a good opening match.
- Sami Callihan runs into Ace Romero. He tells Ace to tell Lawlor that he's looking for him. Callihan continues to search the backstage area.
Later, we see Tom Lawlor setting up Sami Callihan by telling one of the members of Team Filthy (Fred Yehi) to tell Callihan where he can find him.
- The next match is Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Pillman Jr. in a Singapore Cane Match. Dreamer takes the fight to Pillman even before the bell rings and whacks Pillman with the cane on the floor. Back in the ring, Pillman gets whacked again. But Pillman has layers of clothing on to absorb any attacks by Dreamer. Dreamer knocks down Pillman and starts ripping off the protective clothing. Dreamer attacks Pillman on the floor and through the fans, continuing to rip off the protective clothing. Dreamer chops the ring post by accident trying to get to Pillman. Pillman saddles Dreamer on the guardrail and superkicks him. Both men go back in the ring. Pillman gets his turn to attack Dreamer, targeting the hand of Dreamer. Pillman hits a cane shot from the top rope on Dreamer, but Dreamer kicks out of a pin attempt at 2. Pillman uses a metal-tipped cane to try to attack Dreamer, but Dreamer hits him with the cane.
Dreamer gets some offense in and pulls out a steel chair from under the ring. Dreamer pulls up Pillman's shirts to expose the back. Cane across the back by Dreamer, but Pillman drops Dreamer face first on the chair for a 2 count. More cane shots by Pillman. Russian Leg Sweep by Dreamer using the cane. Pillman again gets decked by the cane. A cutter by Dreamer gets a 2. Pillman low-blows Dreamer and hits a DDT/neckbreaker combination for the win.
A decent enough match again this week. This wasn't nearly as brutal as I was expecting, but it did a really good job of making Pillman look like a star. So this worked for what I believe it was intended to do.
- Sami gets on the cameramen for not being 5 feet behind him. Fred Yehi tells Callihan where to find him.
- We get a SuperFight Control Center commercial.
- Fred Yehi takes on Low-Ki in the main event. It's apparently for the MLW World Championship. Not exactly a great or long match here. They work a submission style match, which is fine on paper. But the execution left a lot to be desired. At no point did I feel like Yehi had a chance to win the title, even when they pulled out the customary close 2 count towards the end. The double stomp to the back of Yehi thankfully ends this match. I'm not hating on either performer here. I'm just saying this wasn't a great match to wrap up the show.
- Backstage, Callihan busts into a kitchen area in the arena. He hears a chime coming from inside a freezer. He opens it up and goes inside. You hear a bunch of yelling and screaming. The door opens, and Lawlor emerges licking the hammer that Callihan had been wielding the whole night.
Overall, this show had its moments, but the main event dragged it down a few levels for me. Nothing on this show really met the expectations that you would have. That being said, I can't completely dump on a show in which the world champion is made to look strong, a young up-and-comer beats a legend in their signature match, and the #1 Contender to the aforementioned World Champion disposes of one of the biggest obstacles in his way. Still, for MLW standards, this was just decent. And that is disappointing.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
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