MLW Worth Watching: Lawlor! Gotch! Ace! Brazil! The Biggest Boys!

No Holds Barred: Tom Lawlor vs. Simon Gotch  MLW Fusion #36 12/13 (Aired 12/21/18)

ER: We've been seeing a lot more of the NHB no ropes unsanctioned matches as a gimmick and it's a fun monkeywrench to throw into a feud. This didn't reach the potential heights of the gimmick, but was kept to a brisk 6 minutes. I think they could have made good use of more time, but I also like the stip worked within a 6 minute sprint. There were some issues, namely that Gotch started the match as an absolute killer and had a great first minute that he couldn't really sustain through to the end of the match, but he's a bigger guy than Lawlor and I liked seeing him bully Lawlor around. Gotch goes for an armbar right away and we get the now familiar moment in a no ropes match where a guy breaks a move by shifting his leverage and getting his feet to the floor; this gets a twist on that as Gotch breaks but shoves Lawlor into the guardrail, and the guardrail flies backward and makes a ton of fans jump, great visual. Also loved Gotch rolling him onto the mat from the floor but holding onto an arm, wrapping it around a ringpost, and booting Lawlor in the face. The in ring strike exchanges had a couple misses, but the strikes were thrown in more of a worked shoot style with weird angles and disrupted rhythm, so a few poor strikes thrown in get blended a bit better than if you're doing a turn trading strike exchange. Lawlor is good at these types of exchanges (makes sense) so while a couple of Gotch's shots looked weak by comparison, that's something I'm okay with because Lawlor *should* tool him at that type of thing. Finish was a little off as Gotch looked like he tried something beyond his level, like he was going for a Negro Navarro-like rolling kneebar and did it slow and looked like he was purposely leaving his arm out there, didn't come off very natural, but I dug Lawlor sinking in the rear naked off that. I was expecting a little more from this one and think they could have done more, but also like that Lawlor ended him quick in a fight that was more his own element.

Simon Gotch vs. Ace Romero  MLW Fusion #37 12/14 (Aired 12/28/18)

ER: I wish this would have got more time, it only goes a little over 2 minutes, but it was a really fun 2+ minutes. Romero answers Gotch's open challenge and smacks him around, Gotch spills to the floor and Ace teases a dive, but ends up yanking Gotch up to the apron and into the ring by his mustache before slamming him in a fun worked spot. Gotch's strikes to comeback all looked good, peppering Ace with cupped slaps and body shots, but Ace just yoinks him up and slams him, then hits the best possible version of Abby's running elbow drop, absolutely crushing Gotch. What we got was good, but we should have got more. Romero is a big fat guy but he's not like Barrington Hughes, we've seen him work longer matches. Still, big strikes and a fat guy finisher is gonna make me recommend something.

Kotto Brazil vs. Vandal Ortagun  MLW Fusion #41 12/13 (Aired 1/25/19)

ER: I liked this showcase for the returning - still with eye patch - Brazil. I'm unsure if it was a true eye patch or a fake, as he hits some pretty impressive flying here that would seem tough/crazy to do with one eye blocked. But Brazil's lack of optics helps with the match optics, really making him seem like a loon who wants to return early. He crashes into Ortagun with three big dives, and Ortagun spills nicely into the barricade for them. Schiavone has been a really great part of the MLW return, as he seems so into the product and I don't think I realized how much I enjoyed Schiavone as a commentator until his MLW comeback. He was around so much during formative wrestling memories, but I think many of us got used to him beaten down and over-produced and just not into it. It's hard to call action you can't follow or aren't into, and he sounds clearly into guys like Brazil. As Brazil racks up dive after dive Schiavone's excitement really adds to the moment. Brazil is a guy with some cool stuff, and I especially loved him grabbing a sub after a pinfall, a sub that looks as finisher worthy as anything, as he locked Ortagun's arms behind his back using his legs, then locked on an awesome facelock while the legs were trapped. Sure, do a couple stunner variations, fine, but a cool sub like that needs to be highlighted. I also love that they established that Promociones Dorado straight up MAIMS people, going after eyes and kidneys and ears and braids; it makes payoff matches way more fun, and I'm more interested in seeing Brazil take on Martinez because of it.

Ace Romero/Barrington Hughes vs. Dirty Blondes  MLW Fusion #41 12/14 (Aired 1/25/19)

ER: This was merely a cruel tease, but I am contractually obligated to write about something with this many bigguns. Dirty Blondes were on the first MLW return ep, and were prominently featured, so I was misled into thinking that they would be continually treated like a big deal. Well, all these weeks later and they're one of the only teams left from those original tapings, but they've sadly never been treated seriously since. They're still here, but they're lower than Disorderly Conduct, which is weird on a roster with so much turnover. This threatens to start as Barrington vs. Ace, but you know that's just as tease and sure enough the Blondes come out, and we get a good minute of blubber flying. No reason they couldn't have given this 6 minutes and just hid Hughes on the apron for most of it, but even in one minute we get a lot of fun jiggly clubbering and two mammoth falling powerslams. Still, the Blondes deserve more, and should really go out of their way to be promoting their fat guys in actual matches. Fat guys are the one thing missing from the American wrestling scene right now, and they have the two fattest. We need more fat guy screen time. Watching the Rumble the other night it just bummed me out that we have no big fat guys in WWE right now. That's fucking criminal.

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MLW Worth Watching: Yehi! Holliday! Hart Foundation! Stud Stable! PCO! King!

Fred Yehi vs. Richard Holliday  MLW Fusion #21 7/19 (Aired 9/7/18)

ER: This works as both a cool showcase for Yehi, and a nice introduction to Holliday, of whom I know nothing about. Yehi doesn't squash him but never feels in trouble, and Holliday has a nice undeserved smugness to him, like a guy who would make sense teaming with MJF but taking all the pinfalls; a good entitled stooge. Yehi blocks a lot of his shots in fun ways, hits a hard shoulderblock, stomps his hand, does a couple leg sweeps that nobody else does, the kind of stuff you want to see Yehi doing. Holliday bumped around and acted perplexed by all of it, but still nicely worked in a couple pieces of offense; I really liked Yehi grabbing him with the trapped arm kicks to the chest and pushing him off, put Holliday blazing back off the ropes with an elbow. Holliday showed his egotistical charisma while clearly on the losing end, and I love a big mouthed jobber. Yehi grabs that Koji Clutch and Holliday starts tapping the second Yehi starts throwing shots. Nice touch.

The New Hart Foundation vs. The Stud Stable  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: I would have liked to see this twice as long, but what we got was as good as I hoped it would be. Teddy Hart has been so great everywhere he's turned up this year, that right hand is just lighting everyone up. Pillman is green as hell but a good lackey for Davey Boy and Teddy, and I dug them basically using him as a way to distract Parrow, basically throwing him to the wolves so they can get in their licks. Parrow took a nice Nestea plunge bump off the apron into the Blondes and Hart hit a huge moonsault off the top onto all of them on the floor. Both Blondes take big suplexes well for big dudes (and Patrick takes a brutal Saito suplex from Davey) and they both throw out some nice offense. I'll pretty much be completely in the boat (is that a phrase? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing) for any tag team that does a tandem elbow drop, that kind where both guys are dropping elbows one after the other. It always looks great, and it looks ever greater when it's two guys (like the Blondes) with great elbow drops. We get a kind of goofus finish with Parrow wanting the pinfall all for himself, but Pillman breaks it up and Parrow gets pinned like right after. Blondes were each up on the top rope when Parrow opted to go for the pin, and I really wanted to see what the heck they were going to do. But afterwards they give Parrow a beatdown, and I kinda just want them to start getting actual tag matches. We've already wasted time feuding them with the already broken up Team TBD, now they're starting up something with Parrow, but they still don't feel established. Just give these guys a run already.

PCO vs. Brody King  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: Phil pointed out that one of the keys to successful PCO matches is to keep the pace fast, and the more we see of him we realize another key is keeping things short. There's a set amount of material, and that material is fantastic at 10 minutes or under. Brody King is kind of similar, so you give these two 5 minutes to lace into each other and pull out some crazy nonsense? Then that's absolutely going to be something worth taking time out of your day to see. These are two big dudes who have no problem sending shivers to the jaw, and taking man size spills that aren't typical of guys their size. The whole match was filled with hard elbows, big clotheslines, headbutts, and hard knees. That alone would have been enough to make this good, but PCO breaks out a huge and impressive dive early, King drops him with a brainbuster, launches him into the buckles with a backdrop, misses a rolling senton that lands him on his head, PCO hits a big powerbomb and running knee; the match is just packed with cool stuff and hard shots. King pie faces the ref when he gets in the way of two adults beating each other's ass, and we get an awesome postmatch melee with other officials running out to separate, and PCO hits a flat out GREAT moonsault off the top to the floor, crashing through everybody. This is exactly what this match should have been.

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MLW Worth Watching: Aries! Dirty Blondes! Yehi!

MLW has a nicely resurgent indy run going, and we've reviewed a few matches recently that landed on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. I figured it couldn't hurt to skim through the existing episodes of Fusion while it's still at Episode 25, as it's a smarter plan than still thinking about skimming through episodes when they're at ep 125. It's early enough in the run that I can catch up to live, and write up a few notable matches along the way. Since they're all so short I likely won't be writing up many Barrington Hughes matches, but that's alright because you all know Barrington is worth watching without some goof like me telling you so.


Austin Aries vs. ACH  MLW Fusion #1 2/8 (Aired 4/20/18)

ER: A fine way to reintroduce people to the promotion, with a compelling sell job of the ribs by ACH, and Aries looking precise as ever. ACH comes in with kinesiology tape on the ribs and Aries starts not really focusing his attack on the ribs, but throwing in shots throughout as a means to open ACH for Aries' other offense. It's a cool strategy from Aries and it was nice seeing ACH committing to putting over these attacks. ACH's selling was fun as he never forgot about his ribs, even when it got him into stupid situations (stop going for frog splashes and 450s if your ribs are hurting!), but it gave a little dimension to his selling when he would take a move that didn't focus on his ribs. If you eat a dropkick to the chin, sure your chin will be feeling it, but your core is still screaming as well. Aries is good in control, everything he does always has nice snap, and his normal offense worked even better with ACH's hurt ribs, like Aries' great elbow drop just means more when it's to a guy's injury. Aries is also great at making offense look good. There was a spot where ACH got a boot up in the corner, and Aries flew into that boot like he was actually trying to do offense, not like he was just running into a boot because that's the spot. It looks more violent when you see Aries leaping in for an elbow and you see his trajectory get changed by a kick to the face. Aries is smart about suckering ACH into doing dumb things (those splashes!) and we get a good nearfall when ACH hits knees on a 450, with Aries then immediately rolling him over into the Last Chancery, with ACH getting the ropes. Aries' brainbuster looked like something that should certainly end a match, he really has a great one. There were some exposed wires in this, from little things like Aries putting himself back into a headscissors to complete a sequence or ACH waiting frozen for Aries to run into his kick, to bigger things like a violent death valley driver on the apron that's mostly brushed off 10 seconds later. That driver just felt really unnecessary, but if you're going to use it, treat it like a big deal. Still, this had a hot pace, and was a nice debut feature match.

The Dirty Blondes vs. Jason Cade/Jimmy Yuta  MLW Fusion #2 4/12 (Aired 4/27/18)

ER: I can't really recommend this as a good match because Jimmy Yuta really stinks (his timing is terrible and he runs through one of the more embarrassing hot tags in this match), but it's such a fantastic showcase for the Blondes and especially Leo Brien. Leo Brien is a cool fat Steve Corino and wrestles like the best southern heels. He throws great punches, cuts low and fast on clotheslines, throws great elbows, drops a tremendous kneedrop and elbowdrop, he's a guy who really gets it. Patrick isn't far behind and he won me over for eternity with a really nice fistdrop. Cade isn't bad, I liked him attacking Brien at the bell with a hard dropkick and laid in some elbows, eats offense well, a guy who I would look for more if he had a better partner. So, not really a good match, but the Blondes are legit.

Fred Yehi vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman  MLW Fusion #4 4/12 (Aired 5/11/18)

ER: Yehi is really one of the top 10 workers in the world this year, and this is the first I'm seeing of MJF. MJF is really polished for a guy as young as he is, and he was a fun guy to get beat up by Yehi. Yehi tore it up, and looked like a guy who MJF wouldn't have any kind of answers for Yehi, as Yehi was running this show. He starts with a few hard shoulder blocks, switching up his rope running on one of them by rushing out of the corner followed hotly by MJF, then just cutting 90 degrees and blindsiding him off the ropes. Yehi hits a big back elbow, stomps hands, and hits a really cool German where he delays a little at first and then snaps him over. Schiavone seemed really impressed by that one. Yehi starts selling his left arm, and it comes about in a neat way: Yehi tries to Irish whip MJF, MJF holds onto the ropes tight, and right after Yehi shakes his arm out a bit. That would really be all it takes to tweak a limb, you miscalculate a step and end up taking it weird, suddenly your knee or foot feels funny, so I like that Yehi just built an injury like that from something believable. So that gave MJF a nice target, and believably slowed Yehi down enough, but it certainly didn't slow him down entirely. Yehi was still on the attack, throwing his heavy chops, using his dead arm for a backfist (why is that a theme with matches we review now??), blocking MJF's strikes in really cool ways, laying in that low dropkick (he hits that low dropkick better than almost anyone, and I dug how MJF came up rubbing out his jaw), and dropping a heavy dragon suplex (called as such by Schiavone, who genuinely feels reenergized and excited as an announcer). This was a fairly dominant Yehi performance up to this point, so the ending was both satisfying from a heel standpoint, and disappointing from a match standpoint, as MJF yanks the ref in front of himself as a human shield, then eye pokes Yehi, double stomps him, and rolls him up. The match at least did a decent job of featuring both guys, showing all of Yehi's damn cool offense, and establishing MJF as a decent heel. I wish it wasn't Yehi getting the loss, but hopefully he'll be featured more.

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CWF Mid-Altlantic Worldwide Episode 105

Episode 105

1. SIS vs. Priscilla Kelly

PAS: SIS slings potatoes when she wrestles men, putting her against another woman almost feels like watching an uncomfortably violent intergender match. Kelly, the valet for the Carnies, puts in a game effort, she unloads some nasty kicks and forearms, but SIS just brings the heat. Southern Indy Aja Kong is a really cool thing to have in 2017

ER: Yeah this is actually the first time I've seen SIS against a female, I'd just gotten used to her against men that I've stopped thinking of her as a female. Priscilla Kelly is a name I've seen popping up a lot on FloSlam but didn't realize she was the gal appearing with the Carnies. I also did not realize that she was on (still is on?) some reality show called My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, she is very young (probably just 19 or 20) and has a dad who is basically Jamie Dundee. Her kicks need a lot of work but the ideas are good. I liked all the kicks specifically targeting SIS' legs, especially the running low kick to the patella. The punt on the apron with the leg landing on the top rope, followed by a gyrate, is a pretty great heel gloat (wait she's a heel right? Does that mean SIS is a face!?). The kicks just need to be tightened up. But she leaned in to all of SIS' nasty stuff, the great headbutt, the body press in the ropes, the low german, so I imagine she'll keep getting better.

2. AJ Gray vs. Xsiris

ER: I thought this was really damn good. CWF pulls from a pretty ridiculously deep talent pool, they can bring in a debuting guy like AJ Gray and the guy seems like he's been at it for years, a debuting guy who already has tons of polish. I assumed it would just be an Xsiris squash and what we got was much better than that. Xsiris doesn't really take Gray too seriously, asking someone in the crowd what Gray's name was so he can taunt him. Xsiris looked really good, and should really be on TV more (if Stutts is to be believed on commentary, apparently he has a day job that prevents him from wrestling more often?), he's almost a clone of Brad Attitude, and I would love more Brad Attitudes in wrestling. A great right hand goes a long way with me, and he has that and more. We build nicely to a huge comeback lariat from Gray, and for something I expected to go 90 seconds I was pleased as punch we got a good match out of it.

PAS: CWF does has a really deep talent pool, although in some way that can be a detriment. We can go months with out seeing guys like Xsiris or Lee Valiant, and the shows are often filled with rookies of varying quality. Gray was pretty good, and I liked the story of Xsiris not taking him seriously and paying for it.

ER: (Agree wholeheartedly with Phil's point about a deep talent pool being a blessing and a curse)

3. Aric Andrews/Dave Dawson/Dirty Blondes (Mike Patrick/Leo Brien) vs. Nick Richards/Mitch Connor/Slade Porter/Ace Perry

ER: An okay enough CWF/WAR 8 man, though they don't really do a whole lot with the 10 minutes given. Mitch Connor has a nice Jake Milliman look and babyface charisma, but most of the match is spent with him getting his knee worked, and it's weird to work the middle 6 minutes like that and then just rush through a multiple tag finish. I'd be fine with Perry and Porter not appearing again for a long while, and in turn I want WAY more of the Dirty Blondes. I really liked them in the Kernodle Cup and want to see more of what they can do (and I love Brien's downward angle right hand). I loved Connor's dedication to selling the knee when he finally tagged out, but this wasn't much.

PAS: I enjoyed Connor's selling, and all of the heels were good (it was nice to see Andrews get some offense for once), I thought Perry and Porter's offense wasn't great but they took some big bumps. Porter absolutley died on a back suplex and Perry spiked himself on the Andrews choke bomb.

4. Battle Bowl 10 Man Battle Royal

ER: I think I'm a bigger battle royal fan than most, but this probably got too much time. There were some good things, like Andrews quietly stooging around for Mecha, Wilkins getting sandwiched by the Sandwich Squad, a sick elimination bump from Biggs, Royal getting uppercutted and elbowed around by several guys ("Planet of the Ace is off its axis," said Cecil Scott amusingly), but this didn't have enough for me. And it doesn't always take much for me to get behind a Battle Royal.

PAS: I liked the finish run between Royal and Richards, most times battle royals are going be made on final runs and I thought they were great. Nasty shots, and the battle on the apron was cool with Richards trying to german Royal off the apron and slipping and falling off. Gets the full Worldwide point from me.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 98

Episode 98

1. The Dirty Blondes (Mike Patrick/Leo Brien) vs. Sandwich Squad (Aaron Biggs/Mecha Mercenary)

ER: I dig the Sandwich Squad, but then suddenly CWF presents me with a couple of new chubsters and I'm like a raccoon with a shiny object when it comes to new fat guys in wrestling. So they present me with two new chubs, with a great team name, and expect me to not root for them!? So I was rooting for an upset, but this was mostly an extended Sandwich Squash. The Blondes got one little run in the middle, and I really like Brien definitely bringing the Dusty vibes and he threw a great overhand right (that kind of right hand that has a downward trajectory on it, like he's punching down across the nose bridge). But the Squad is too tough, loved the drop down to trip Brien followed by the Mercenary splash. Ending had a couple hitches but this was fun.

PAS: Dirty Blonders were a bunch of fun, tubby, bleach blond hair, big bumps, multiple Dusty elbow combos, just a blast to watch. Would like to see them in a long competitive grudge match. This was a squash, which is literal when you are talking about the Sandwich Squad. Love all the different ways the Squad has to land their flab on someone.

2. HIM/SIS vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe/"White" Mike Jordan

ER: I didn't care for any of the "Sharpe wants to bang SIS" part of this, as I think it took away from a lot of the cool stuff SIS did, and it's a shame as I liked her more than anyone else in the match. Her low crossbody in the ropes was awesome (and look how expertly she rolls out of the way), she had a cool fast standing splash, and I always love her headbutts. Now the HIM/SIS gimmick is incredibly goofy, but it's tough when they have a goofy gimmick AND their opponents treat them like jokes. White Mike gets to run the home stretch, and he whiffs on a double neckbreaker, then does a can opener neckbreaker finish that just looks like he DDTs himself.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Eric did, I think both HIM and SIS have really nasty offense, and considering how bad they stiffed Jordan and Sharpe I don't think they were treated like jokes. I also think White Mike's finish looks awesome, and it is impressive he pulled it off on a chunky dude like HIM.

3. The Lynch Mob (Joey & Matt Lynch) vs. The Carnies (Nick Iggy/Kerry Awful)

ER: This was fine, though the Lynch Mob didn't do much for me. It felt like for every one nice thing they would do, you'd get something meh a moment later. Carnies don't totally feel authentic to their gimmick, but I liked them in-ring. So I didn't care much for the early parts with Lynch Mob controlling, but once Awful cheapshotted and Iggy followed it up with an awesome dropkick on the mat I was into it. Iggy hits a sick full weight senton, and the finishing stretch was particularly brutal: Iggy disposes one of the Mob to the floor in nasty fashion, Awful hits kind of a sloppy powerbomb on the other and locks in a Boston crab, as Iggy hits a killer kneepad-down kneedrop off the middle buckle to the back of the head. That's a good finisher.

PAS: Lynch Mob felt a little PWGish for me, but I thought the Carnies were killer in this. Awful is a pretty great fat dude and has a bunch of fun ways to throw his flab into people, Iggy is really vicious and I like how he ties in his crazy gimmick with some really violent assaults. The ending was really nasty with Iggy driving his full weight with a knee drop into the back of a Lynch's head and then follows it up with really nasty ground and pound forearms for a stoppage. I want to check out the three way now, as adding Iceberg and Tank can only be an improvement.

4. Lee Valiant/Aric Andrews vs. The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy)

ER: This had a lot of moving parts, and I think it didn't work because of that. It felt like the whole match was one guy running at another guy, that guy dodging, and then doing a kind of clunky move in response, and then a new guy running at them. It came off too busy, without much substance happening. I liked the last Ducklings appearance, as unhinged big bumping loons. This didn't have as much of that, Lude came off crazier in his last appearance. Killjoy took a big bump off a lariat, and both did dives (into the Hales contingent), but this was all worked pretty even. There was a lot of hinky move set-up by the Ducks, and I just don't think much of it worked this time. Andrews threw a great cut off punch down the stretch, and Valiant always comes out with a great aggressive attitude, but this landed short.

PAS: I liked all the cutting off of the ring that Valient and Andrews did, and if the end run was a bit shorter and polished I would have really dug this. The Ducklings monkey flip senton thing is really cool, as is Valient and Andrews Doomsday device backcracker, this just felt like it kept going though with the cooler stuff more in the middle then the end, it built to a creshendo and then kept going past its natural end point.

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