MLW Fusion Recap Episode 54: Mance Warner vs. Sami Callihan

Last week on MLW Fusion: The feud between The Hart Foundation and The Dynasty is continuing, this time Brian Pillman Jr. defeated MJF in a singles bout. Myron Reed and Rich Swann had a banger of a match against Lance Anoa’i and Jimmy Yuta. Lance really had a coming out party in this match. Sami Callihan and LA Park had a hardcore match against each other that ended with Park winning and Salina’s group beating Callihan down.

We still are in New York for the Battle Riot taping.

Air Wolf and Rey Horus vs. The Lucha Bros.

• Lucha Bros. entrance gear and theme song are bad ass. These dudes are two of the greatest in the game right now. This match is going to be hot fire.
• Glad Air Wolf is being featured on many episodes of MLW, he is kind of the future.
• MLW has the volume turned up WAAAY too much and the bass from the Lucha Bros. song sounds like it blew a speaker.
• The crowd chants “Cero Miedo” and Jim Cornette calls it “babble”
• Air Wolf and Fenix start the match off but it’s lucha rules. So tags aren’t necessary and the wrestlers are just in and out of the ring.
• Jim Cornette is known as one of the fastest talkers in wrestling and he said he can’t even keep up with the action.
• The action slows down on the outside of the ring and Lucha Bros just chop the hell out of Air Wolf and Horus. Cornette says “these matches are actually easy to call because all you have to say is oooh and aaah, wow and son of a gun”
• The crowd is loving the strikes and spots, all the wrestlers timing is very good. After the action slowed down the crowd broke out in applause.
• The crowd is chanting Lucha Brothers and Fenix grabs Air Wolf’s ear on his mask to make him hear the crowd chant for Lucha Bros.
• Air Wolf and Fenix battle it out and Air Wolf hits the bottom rope 619. Which he calls the Mystery-Low, which I call the 612 (Minneapolis area code, cause Air Wolf is from Minneapolis) and Rich calls it the 617 which is Boston’s area code I believe.
• Fenix and Horus are dominating the match and the crowd is reacting to EVERYTHING. Jim Cornette is shocked at what he is witnessing. Sounds like he is really enjoying it.
• Lucha Brothers get the pin on Air Wolf using the double footstomp/ package piledriver combination.

And I’m Like… This match ruled hard. It’s hard to call and hard to gather a story from it. It’s just real good lucha style wrestling. Great way to open a show.

Contra Unit has a vignette about how they are going to raise their body count. They are just really intense and throw fire and stuff. Good shit.

Salina de la Renta has a press conference, she yells at the reporters. Yells about how Sami Callihan is disgusting and then Sami comes in yelling at her.

Ace Romero vs. Josef Samael

• Story going into this match is that Contra Unit destroyed Ace and left him bleeding weeks ago. So Ace is ready to get revenge.
• Samael can’t even enter the ring cause Romero is already attacking him. Cornette calls Josef the leader of MLW.
• Samael is also known as Sheik. He and Fatu make waves over at PCW Ultra, which is something Kevin Sullivan used to rave about when he podcasted with MSL, who is the head of talent relations for MLW. Makes me think if you combine the House of Hardcore roster with Impact roster with PCW Ultra roster with AAA roster, you get MLW roster.
• Ace Romero legit went on the top rope but Samael stopped Acey and threw him off the top rope.
• Samael kicked his toe on the mat, like he was “loading his boot”. It’s the most old school thing I’ve seen in a long time.
• Samael lands a kick on Romero’s head and gets the win.
• Contra Unit’s Fatu and Simon Gotch run out and they all start beating down Ace Romero, causing him to bleed again. Barrington Hughes shows up to save the day.
• Barrington has “Nah Fam” on his ass.
• Fatu is able to neutralize Hughes and all the referees come out to stop them, but Contra Unit cannot be stopped. They leave Barrington laying and then dip.

And I’m Like… This feels like what happened in Chicago but without the heat. The match was what it was. Samael impressed a lot, he is the most old school wrestler out there without it being a “gimmick”. Really like this Contra Unit.

Tom Lawlor cuts a promo on Contra Unit. He says that Contra Unit hasn’t come at him yet, even though they did. He asked for “a 1-on-1 one match, 2-on-2 match, 3-on-3. Mano y Mano, Man to boys” then he said he has friends to help him.

Ricky Martinez is on the phone walking in a stairwell. Sami is also in the stairwell and they start fighting.

Recap of Hart Foundation stealing The Dynasty’s car and mooning The Dynasty.

Hart Foundation smoke a blunt in the car even though Teddy is supposed to be sober. They also say that their cat is pee’ing and having sex in the car. Davey isn’t smoking but you can see the smoke all around him. It’s weird. They said they planted something in MJF’s car and also MJF had sex with Hammerstone because MJF has tight panties?

Gringo Loco vs. Puma King

• Gringo Loco is someone everyone gets behind. Never heard him talk or what his character is, but he is liked by all and easily supported.
• Puma King’s music is fun and chaotic, there is crazy drums and percussion, a brass section and whistles. He also does everything like a cat! This is the type of content I am here for.
• Lots of rolling and tumbling back and forth wrestling. Jim Cornette explains how lucha style wrestling started. 100 years ago when professional wrestling was introduced in Mexico, the rings were boxing rings. So to protect their bodies, they would roll and tumble instead of bump and feed, which lead to the style of wrestling we have today.
• The crowd is reacting to these moves as well, especially the fan with the air horn. This has become a staple of MLW shows, just because there was a fan with an air horn in Chicago and in New York. Leading to multiple weeks of an air horn in the crowd.
• Puma King has THE MOST CHARISMA. Commentators are doinga great job talking about lucha and what rings are hard. They say many things that show respect for lucha and it’s wrestlers. Really good shit.
• Gringo Loco hits a Spanish fly from the top rope. King kicks out of it and then is able to hit a superplex, holds the suplex after landing and does another one. Gringo Loco is able to reverse that and turn it into a Tiger Driver ’97 for the win.

And I’m Like… Commentary puts Gringo Loco over hard and talks about how easily he can win the crowd over. Gringo Loco was bleeding from the mouth and looked very serious during his winning celebration. The match was fun, typical lucha match, not much in the way of story, but entertaining.

Salina de la Renta is yelling at the camera man to start recording, then has him follow her. He records her butt a bit and then she runs into the stairwell where every wrestler tends to be during this taping. Mance Warner is coming down the stairs drinking light beer when Salina confronts him. Salina tries to bribe Mancer into taking care of Sami Callihan. She comes on pretty strong but Ol’ Mancer turned her down because he doesn’t want fleas.

The Dynasty has a meeting outdoors. They don’t care that their car was stolen cause they can buy a better car. It’s so windy outside that you can’t really hear them. Hammerstone looks like he is getting fed up with MJF and Richard Holliday.

Sami Callihan vs. Mance Warner

• The storyline here is that Sami and Mancer had problems in a match once but now they think they are a lot alike.
• Jim Cornette is not a fan of Sami Callihan. His theme song is nuts, it’s a half speed of something. It’s good for single entrance but when his music played as a surprise last week, it was a crowd killer. Sami Callihan is a weird dude.
• Mancer comes out with a shit load of energy. Jim Cornette is a big fan of Mancer. I can’t get over how much of a star Mancer is. You can’t take your eyes off of him. MLW is really developing an old school feel presented in a new fashion. They are like 80’s NWA mixed with indie/lucha. Even Cornette and Bocchini, Rich is a lot more open to all types of wrestling and Cornette is an old man that yells at a cloud.
• This isn’t a hardcore match but they outside looking for weapons. I love how the last three main event matches on MLW have been hardcore matches. Jim Cornette is not a fan but is able to call it anyway. Openly hates Callihan and Havoc, which adds more to the match.
• Sami and Mancer have been battling outside of the ring for the majority of the match. Sami is spitting in the air and catching it, drinking fans beer.
• Then Mancer and Sami start chopping each other. Sami takes his vest off and tells Mancer to “give me your best shot”. Mancer chops Callihan and Sami sells it beautifully.
• After eight minutes out of the ring, Rich brings up that MLW has a 20 count.
• Rich is trying to explain that grudge matches are basically no DQ. Then Callihan uses a chair on Mancer. The bell ringer rings the bell.. The ref goes over to say “NO” and then there is confusion. So the time keeper thought it was a DQ because IT’S A NORMAL WRESTLING MATCH, but the ref is like “nah, I’ll allow it”. Confusing shit.
• Like just fucking say in MLW there are no rules. They just call for DQ’s when the story calls for it and it’s ludicrous. Commentators trying to explain the reasoning, time keepers not knowing what’s going on, no explanation from the referees. Hell, WCCW used to have David Manning talk about why he made certain decisions in the ring. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO EXPLAIN THIS!
• Callihan takes Mancer’s suspenders and ties Mancer’s hands to his side. Then loogied on his hand and slapped Mancer’s back. The spit flew in the air and it’s disgusting. It’s like the scene in Big Daddy when kids spit touches the floor.
• Callihan stops the match to give Jim Cornette the finger. Cornette doesn’t know how to respond. Sami is going back to the chair but Mancer was able to gain an advantage.
• Mancer lands tons of headbutts but gets caught in a tombstone piledriver. Sami piledrives Mancer THROUGH a chair. Mancer kicks out to the shock of everyone.
• Sami is setting up a door that he got from under the ring, Sami headbutts the door and leaves a hole in it. The camera cuts to the commentary team twice in the matter of a minute. Not sure what that was all about but it was while Sami was getting into the ring and when he was setting the door in the corner.
• Mancer spears Sami through the door. Callihan kicks out at one. There is a bunch of spit coming from Sami’s mouth. Then he spits on Mancer’s face. The spit is just hanging there……..
• Mancer gets heated and starts attacking Sami. Then Hijo De La Park and Martinez run in the ring and it’s a brawl.
• Callihan and Mancer start teaming up together as the time keeper ringing the bell again. The crowd is fully supportive of these two teaming up.

And I’m Like…. The show goes off the air with Mancer’s music playing while Mance and Callihan beat on Park and Martinez. That match didn’t mean much I guess. A lot of spit and just weirdness. This was a Sami centric match and didn’t shine that much of a light on Mancer. Not sure where we are headed with these two, maybe just a place over feud to fill the next card.

This was the most MLW show I’ve seen in a while. Lucha action, up and coming stars, old school veterans, weird “edgy” videos, wrestling for the sake of wrestling, some storylines inbetween, bad promos and a hardcore match that is under the guise of an actual match. If you want to explain MLW to someone, show them this episode.

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