MLW Fusion Recap Episode 21: Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. Drago & Rey Horus

Last week on MLW Fusion: Teddy Hart Teddy Hart’d all over Vandal Ortagun, Simon Gotch defeated a boxer cosplayer, Team TBD exploded with Jason Cade gaining the victory over Jimmy Yuta by nefarious means and Team Filthy ended its feud with Stud Stable after Tom Lawlor defeated Jake Hager. Also HART FOUNDATION DON’T GIVE A F*CK!

Cold Open:

The opening video package focuses on the MLW Tag Team Champions the Lucha Bros. while their theme song plays in the background. Pretty good theme song, maybe needs some lyrics. We see their whole storyline in MLW from winning the belts to leaving Salina De La Renta to join Konnan. Nice little recap for the uninitiated to catch you up on the Lucha Bros.

Matt Striker is back on commentary. I still don’t understand the Rich Bocchini/Matt Striker situation. They kind of switch without consistency or explanation.

Richard Holliday vs. Fred Yehi

Holliday has a “We Will Rock You” style beginning to his entrance song that can guide the audience to react a bit. Holliday was trained by Paul Roma.

The Man of 1,000 counters is accompanied to the ring by Team Filthy. Striker says Yehi is a mat based grappler and that’s why he is a part of Team Filthy. Striker let’s us know that Fred is going to German promotion wXw to represent MLW for three months. Fred will be there to learn the European style of catch wrestling. Tony tries to say Fred is the most educated man in wrestling and Striker takes offense to that. I personally think it would be Otunga (Harvard graduate) or Xavier Woods (PHd).

Commentary rips on both wrestlers for playing to the crowd too much. They state that the fans aren’t the people to pay the wrestlers mortgage, winning matches is. The New York crowd doesn’t have much energy but are reacting to the bits of the match they are supposed to react to. Also seems like commentary are reaching for things to talk about because these wrestlers aren’t giving them much.

It’s like Holliday was told to “slow it down” and he slowed it down so much that it takes the interest out of the match.

Yehi is able to win the match with a modified Koji Clutch with punches to the face for tap out. That was pretty innovative. This match isn’t going to be on anyone’s must watch list.

We get that intense Hart Foundation/Kevin Sullivan backstage segment again. This really is the biggest thing Hart Foundation has done in MLW. We cut to Brian Pillman Jr. cutting a promo at what looks to be a house porch. Brian is day drinking and seems very drunk while cutting this promo. He mocks Kevin Sullivan and really sells this promo well. Even with him being wine drunk in a Hugh Hefner pajama robe.

Old School MLW video of Black Friday Management with Gary Hart and Homicide. It was quick and to the point that Homicide is reckless and unhinged.

Homicide vs. PCO

This is a bonkers idea of a match. PCO is rocking his Frankenstein gimmick. Homicide thrives off of punishing his opponents but it doesn’t look like PCO can be punished. He is a French Canadian Frankenstein.

We start off with a yay/boo spot but the crowd doesn’t yay nor do they boo. They aren’t blocking any shots and going blow for blow. Matt Striker tries to sound like he is in the know about the “Brooklyn streets” and tells Tony to “stay on the hipster side”. C’mon Striker, that’s not something that needs to be said, especially from the most white male Matt Striker.

Tony talks about how PCO trains for wrestling by getting nails driven into his nose and shocked by car batteries. Homicide finally is able to gain an advantage in the match by  hitting an exploder suplex into the turnbuckles on PCO. PCO is getting knocked down but he continues to sit up and stand up. PCO is Frankenstein so you can’t keep him down.

Matt and Tony laugh about comparing Homicide to Dick Murdoch because one is from Brooklyn and one is from Texas. It feels really “racy” when Matt and Tony go down those routes. PCO changes the dichotomy of the match and switches the commentary talking points when PCO dives onto Homicide outside the ring. Saline De La Renta is watching the match from the front row.

Matt calls Tony “T-Bone” and I can’t even with this commentary team. Gonna put it on mute.

Both men are hitting moves from the top rope and getting near falls. We go right back into a strike battle where neither man is backing down. PCO finally lands a punch square to the jaw of Homicide and gains the victory. The camera cuts to Salina looking a bit uncomfortable and ashamed. That match was great but I wish the story was better told by the commentary team. They spent too much time trying to be snarky and it hindered what it was supposed to enhance.

Recap video of Jason Cade beating Jummy Yuta. Jason Cade gets some promo time backstage. Cade said he single handedly beat Yuta all on his own (which he didn’t because heels lie). Jason Cade is now joining the Middleweight division. He says “people call me Deuce because I’m The Shit.)

The next MLW special event is Fury Road and the advertised match so far is PCO vs. L.A. Park. What’s weird is that last week’s show was the “go home show” for War Games and now there is no mention of War Games but build for Fury Road. This is not something that should happen without explanation. One of my main triggers with MLW is not explaining why the company decides to do certain things.

Right after I type that we get a War Games promo for next week. So hopefully we get that next week. So I’ll have to eat my words because War Games is being referenced. Maybe they should have put the War Games video package before the Fury Road one? Maybe I have never worked in television and the most minimal amount of work in wrestling and I don’t know what I’m talking about.

MLW World Tag Team Championship

Drago and Rey Horus vs. Lucha Bros. (c)

Drago and Horus come out to something reminiscent of German techno with Latin vibes. Very bland and basic song.

Lucha Bros. might be the most beloved characters on MLW. The crowd responds well to them, their theme song gets everyone hyped and the look of both men are awe inspiring.

Drago has his arm all wrapped up. I remember when MLW did a podcast that randomly stopped without explanation, Konnan talked about how Drago was injured before Battle Riot but said he was good enough to wrestle. Maybe this match was during those tapings. This episode has zero storyline advancement for all characters. War Games was filmed three days ago as of this writing. Maybe this is a back up episode to give MLW more time to put together the War Games episode. Like how after Takeover the next few episodes of NXT are matches that happened earlier in the night that Takeover happened.

The match starts with all four men going hard and within the first two minutes all the men are laying on the ground. Pentagon and Drago are the two that finally square off but only until this awesome superkick sequence happened.

This match has hella leg slapping though. Drago doesn’t even connect with two kicks that we hear the slaps to. That’s too bad.

This is a lucha style match where tags don’t really matter. I turned the commentary back up just in time to hear Tony not know who the legal man is and get mansplained lucha tag matches by Striker.

Drago doesn’t seem to be doing too well and had to roll out of the ring as the commentary team wonders if Drago’s shoulder popped out of socket. Horus is now handling the match by himself and almost winning with a C4 but Fenix does an amazing pin break up.

Now we are at the point in the match where Fenix is astonishing and almost everything he does is gifable. Pentagon is hitting chops with woo’s. Big move after big move. Spot fest if you will but all of it is done so well with timing so perfect. Absolute entertainment. The crowd is chanting “Lucha Libre” which is tremendous.

Matt Striker explains the lack of selling to Tony by saying “the rings in mexico are so muc harder that their bodies are able to bounce back quicker in these American rings.” Which is something I really liked.

The match ends with the package piledriver/ top rope double foot stomp combo. Lucha Bros. put on a good showing and the crowd is happy with their victory. This episode was a fun show to watch but if you never see it, it won’t impact you at all.

Fenix cuts a promo thanking the fans for showing up and paying for a ticket. The crowd throws money in the ring at the Lucha Bros. If they are $1 bills, it looks like the Lucha Bros. picked up another $15 at least.

Pentagon grabs the mic and thanks his opponents. The crowd gives all four man a standing ovation with a “please come back” chant. Gotta love the brotherhood of lucha.

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