MLW Fusion Recap Episode 39: Dreamer vs. Pillman – Singapore Cane, Dragon Lee vs. Swann

Last week on MLW: Gringo Loco became a star in his match against L.A. Park in a great match that was ruined by a finish. A HUGE promo parade that took up 1/3 of the show. Different locations but same shit, wrestling promo into the camera. They need to have some variety. A documentary style vignette, a promo, a twitter war recap and some backstage interactions. Not just “this guy talks at camera, this guy talks at camera”. Teddy Hart put on one of his best performances in MLW in a match against Pentagon Jr.

Cold Open

Tom Lawlor is eavesdropping on Salina De La Renta and Sami Callihan fighting about money and taking out Tom Lawlor. Tony Schiavone says something about “Smash Mountain”.

No MLW opening graphic showing their old stuff mixed with their new stuff. Tony and Rich run down the card for tonight and hype the upcoming event SuperFight.

Low Ki has a backstage promo. He has a bit more inflection on his voice and facial expressions. Different from his usual ACTUAL anime promo’s and weird narration. It’s still super cheesy but not AS cheesy.

Dragon Lee vs. Rich Swann

• The crowd is really excited to see Dragon Lee for this Middleweight divison bout.
• Rich Swann needs a theme song that has more soul. Dude loves to dance when he comes to the ring but with a looping hip-hop beat that sounds like Def Jam background music, it’s hard. If he can’t have “All Night Long” at least give him some 60’s-80’s R&B/Motown/Stax vibe.
• Rich Swann blows a kiss to the fans and then smacking his butt. Tony and I are both very confused.
• Dragon Lee went for a handshake and Rich did not oblige. So Rich is outwardly trying to wrestle heel. No explanation on the character change, commentary doesn’t know either.
• The pace of the match really picks up with some fantastic counter wrestling. After a burst of wrestling action they separate and play to the crowd. Rich tells a member of the MLW faithful to “suck it”.
• Now all momentum in the match has died when Swann challenges Dragon to a dance off… Dragon runs at Rich and wants to fight though.
• Swann is in complete control of the match. Egging on the crowd and being very cocky.
• Dragon Lee gets tranquillo about it though which angers Swann. That leads Rich to begin brawling, going to the outside and instead of chopping Lee, Dragon ducked and Swann chopped the lighting truss.
• Swann comes back from that quickly and dances while doing the “suck it” taunt. I wish we had more to go on on why Rich is being such a dick.
• I’m not sure if there was a specific moment, but Dragon Lee is making his comeback. This match is really, really hard to get into. The sense of urgency is non existent and the story is convoluted.
• We got a paltry “MLW” chant from the crowd and a yay/boo spot by the wrestlers. I can’t help but think that Impact Wrestling does MLW better than MLW.
• Dragon Lee won after dodging a Phoenix splash by Swann.

And I’m Like… The match felt flatter than Stanley. Nothing really worked here and there wasn’t much chemistry. To further confuse the fans, Rich who wrestled the whole match out of character as an asshole, shakes Dragon Lee’s hand after the match and shows respect. This was utter nonsense.

Sami Callihan confronts Ace Romero in the hallway with a hammer looking for Tom Lawlor. Then Callihan grabs this old dude who almost corpses delivering the line “Jerry?!” because Tom asked “Have you seen Tom?”

Brian Pillman Jr. has an instagram promo. Brian brags about being a millennial that puts the old timers out of their misery. Brian has a faux confidence, his eyes wonder a bit and stutters over his words. The message is good, that the old timers are latching on to the new legacy. It’s just an instagram post so he could have done a few more takes I think. It’s still just a dude talking into the camera like the last two promos. At least MLW has some backstage interactions to spice up the promo parade.

Tom Lawlor finds a guy coming out of the bathroom and tells the dude to tell Sami where Lawlor will be warming up. Dude, who was drying his hands, shakes Tom’s hand and Lawlor had a grossed out look while wiping his shirt. I figured dudes hand would have been dry, guess not.

Singapore Cane Match

Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Tommy Dreamer

• It’s nice for Pillman to be working with Dreamer. Brian is still really new to the business and having a veteran like Tommy Dreamer to learn in the ring from is great for Pillman’s future.
• The match starts with both men wielding kendo sticks. Pillman is smart because he wore a hood and a coat to protect himself from the cane shots. Dude still has his normal wrestling tights on though.
• Pillman also had a shirt on under the hoody. It’s no HHH return outfit. Hoody under jean jacket under leather jacket under jean vest.
• Tommy grabbed a can of beer out of the audience and then beer bottles and hit Pillman with them. “ECW” chants break out.
• I don’t know what the difference between a Singapore Cane match from a No Disqualification match from a normal match is in MLW. There honestly is very little rules in any match. It’s like the Mexican restaurant of wrestling promotions. Only have a few ingredients for matches but present them in slightly different ways with different names to make it seem like there is variety.
• Pillman is caning Tommy’s hand and top of the head. Then Brian does some finger work and joint manipulation. Welcomed surprise to Pillman’s wrestling style.
• Both men are knocked down and the referee starts a ten count. So a Singapore cane match can end in double knock out. Good to know.
• Dreamer brings a chair into the ring and Tony says “A Singapore cane match and Tommy has a chair….” Tony stops the thought even though I’m sure a lot of us thought the same thing.
• Brian is now shirtless, no marks on his body yet so Tommy needs to do some damage to make his promo from last week mean something.
• Brian wins the match with a spinning neckbreaker.

And I’m Like… Maybe it was the crowd, but this whole show felt off. I don’t know who is agenting these matches or how they are planned out but there is really no build to these finishes. That makes the whole feeling lacksluster.

Sami Callihan walks up to the dude from the bathroom and says “I have a hammer to your face so you are going to tell me exactly what I want.” Bathroom dude no sells the threat and just calmly tells Sami where Lawlor is.

MANCER IS COMING TO MLW!!!!

Now all Konnan has from being stabbed in the back is a lacerated liver. Last week he had kidney and liver problems and was pee’ing blood. Good to know the recovery is going well.

MLW World Heavyweight Championship

Fred Yehi vs. Low Ki

• Fred is apart of Team Filthy. Low Ki has a championship match coming up with the leader of Team Filthy Tom Lawlor.
• Fred Yehi’s in screen promo was same ol’. “I wanna challenge you!”.
• Tony says Low Ki has been undefeated in MLW since 2004. Tom Lawlor won Battle Riot, the first one. That means Tom HAS to win. The feud has built up for 7 months and Tom is cashing in his Battle Riot contract. To set up the prestige for the future Tom must win.
• It’s crazy that the Heavyweight champion is 174 pounds. What does that make a Middleweight?
• Yehi is giving Low Ki a bit of a test in the wrestling department. Ki even lays on his back and smiles a bit. Then the match starts adding strikes, which is Low Ki’s wheelhouse.
• Yehi diversifies his offense and hits some innovative strikes to confuse Ki a bit. Fred got a flash nearfall that Tony thought was the finish. It added some excitement but the crowd isn’t doing much to make this exciting.
• Low Ki hits his double stomp for the win among boo’s of a bored crowd.

And I’m Like… This show really has no energy this week. I don’t know if it’s the end of some taping and the crowd is warn out but… It’s really tough to get excited for a match when the crowd is dead. People were legit resting their heads on their hands while watching a championship match. Don’t really know the remedy for that.

Sami ends up going to where he was told Tom was. It all happened behind a closed door and there is banging and gagging. Then Tom walks out with Sami’s hammer in hand. Tom licks the hammer as the show goes off the air… Weird stuff, especially after watching the Nigel McGuinness documentary on how he got Hepatitis B from contact with someone else’s blood.

I’m excited for the future of MLW once Low Ki’s title reign ends. This company is still a toddler and has many growing pains to go through. It’ll be fun to watch.

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