MLW Worth Watching: Brazil! Reed! Hager! Gotch! Callihan!

Kotto Brazil vs. Myron Reed  MLW Fusion #15 7/19 (Aired 7/27/18)

ER: This is a pretty shameless spotfest that has a few dumb moments of one guy taking a big move, then selling that move by getting up immediately to do their own big move. That stuff's dumb and it makes no sense, but sometimes it looks pretty enough or cool enough that I laugh and enjoy it anyway and stop being a total critical nard. It had a fun vibe as Reed was a total unknown to me, and now that I've watched 15 episodes of MLW TV over the past couple weeks, so the patterns they've established are pretty fresh to me. They've often started episodes with a match that never starts due to interference, or a quick-ish squash. They've been establishing a "Brazil climbing the ladder" story and I assumed this would be a Brazil dominant showcase to give him his first dominant showcase win. But it grew into something with a little more fireworks, and the fans reacted really big to it (like maybe they were also surprised at the competitive spotfest nature). There was a lot of mirror action in the beginning that usually feels played out, but these guys move interestingly enough that it feels a bit more fresh. Nice senton, nice corner dropkick, big collision on a mirror crossbody, all worked at high speeds. But the match ramps up when Kotto bends Myron's spine over the guardrail on a great tope and follows it right up, but then Reed cuts off a third with a dropkick and hits a nutso plancha, landing more like a Super Calo senton and landing right on Brazil's face. Reed hits a springboard elbow to a running Brazil, and Brazil leans way in and gets spun nicely by it. The finish is dumb fun and brainless big spots, but you knew what this was at this point and you don't totally regret it. We go into a few cutter variations that actually looked good, especially when we got to Reed hitting a really cool unexpected Stunner/Diamond Dust when Brazil was lifting him up for a back suplex. Brazil naturally sold it about as much as if he had been the one doing the move, and got up and hit his own (admittedly nice looking) Sliced Bread to immediately win the match. MLW Fusion has given us more lame finishes than not, and now that I think about it the only major weakness of the Fusion show so far is more lame endings than not. There have been a lot of run-ins or sudden or otherwise flat finishes. It's a problem with an easy fix, at least.

Jake Hager vs. Simon Gotch  MLW Fusion #16 7/19 (Aired 8/3/18)

ER: I'm really liking these compact Hager matches, this felt like one of those competitive 4 minute WCW Saturday Night heavyweight sprints. Hager jumps him before the bell, then jumps him at the bell, hits a great double leg slam and the Vader Bomb. He works over Gotch's arm, slams it into the post, and Gotch has a nice fired up one armed comeback, throws some running strikes onto Hager in the corner and hits a boss Saito suplex. Team Filthy has nicely babyfaced themselves after Lawlor's great match-long performance in Battle Riot, and to his credit Hager has been an effectively stoic heel. Lawlor battling through Hager's ankle lock was easily the best part of Battle Riot, Lawlor crawling up the ropes and clinging to the top, kicking at Hager to break. It was such a great babyface performance that it easily turned him, and now Hager is taking it out on his boy. Hager hits a really nice gutwrench powerbomb and then just kicks him in the face for the win, and I am digging this feud.

Sami Callihan vs. Kotto Brazil  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: A match that happened when Brazil saved his boy Barrington Hughes from a Death Machines beatdown turns into Callihan assaulting Brazil for 10 minutes while Schiavone yells like he thinks it's a shoot. Which is all pretty great. Sami works really violently the whole match, every move looks like it would basically snap me in two. Apron powerbomb, headbutts, fast Flatliner, ground and pound, hard kicks to the face, choking him over the ropes, brutal lariat, just a rough beating. Brazil was lucid and fighting back, reminded me of some of this year's Darby Allin vs. Monster matches, as he would pepper in his own strikes, hit a Code Red, a big tornado DDT, always in it, always working to surprise, but fighting an uphill battle. Callihan sets up chairs on the floor and puts one chair with the legs facing up, and Schiavone's flip out is awesome. "Who would do that!? Who would set up chairs like that!? Someone is going to get impaled!!" Schiavone is filled with passion for pro wrestling these days and I'm kind of surprised at my own reactions to it. Maybe I've spent too long listening to death years Tony, but I'm really loving him on commentary in 2018. Dude sounds like he's having a blast. Brazil's luck runs out when he goes for a rana and Callihan spikes him with a powerbomb, then the piledriver. Schiavone says that Callihan looked like he was trying to murder Brazil and I don't think he's incorrect. Callihan fought this with such viciousness that it made me even more excited for WarGames. He was working fast and violent, like it was the blow off to a big stip match. If he works like this in the cage? Daaaaaamn.