MLW Fusion Recap: Hart Foundation Reunites, Holliday Defends ‘His’ Caribbean Title, Suspect Officiating Continues
Artwork by Bill Pritchard
On Episode 107 of MLW Fusion, the suspect officiating by those Tijuana referees continues as Richard Holliday takes on Chessman and The Hart Foundation reunites to face El Mercenariios in Texano Jr. & El Scorpion Jr. Also Dominic’s cat “Dusty Rhodes” creates chaos during the recap.
To hear the complete recap of MLW Fusion, take a listen to “The Survey Says…” with WrestleZone’s Dominic DeAngelo and be sure to watch the full episode of this week’s MLW Fusion below:
It’s week three of the AAA MLW Super Series and everything is all knotted up at two wins apiece for the promotions, but Richard Holliday plans to turn the tide in MLW’s (but mostly his own) favor.
“Los consumerdores!” Holliday exclaims to the Tijuana crowd as he removes his very expensive Air Pods, a product which he claims the crowd cannot afford. He talks down in two languages to the packed house and the legendary Chessman has had enough as he brings a chair to the ring. TJ goes bonkers.
Match 1
“Caribbean Championship Match”
Richard Holliday vs. Chessman
Before the bell rings, Holliday takes a pause to santize his hands and then takes a moment to pieface Chessman. Chessman has had plenty and slugs away at Rich before double dropkicking him out of the ring. Chessman’s chair comes into play onto the outside and RIchard uses it to his advantage. Holliday soon goes for a pin attempt in the ring and the referee takes his sweet time in administering the count, so much that Holliday doesn’t even let him do so.
Holliday stays on the offensive, but Chessman uses the ring to outwit the Air Pod God and kicks him to the outside once more before doing a suicide dive, sending Rich right into the guardrail. Chessman hits Holliday hard with a chair. He rolls him in the ring and gets a two count.
The two trade punches before the two have a physical chess match, outwitting one another before a double clothesline sends the two competitors crashing to the mat. The ref counts both men down but a kick out washes the count clean. A superkick by Holliday before he hits Chessman with 2008 but gets a very methodical count, allowing Chessman to get a shoulder up.
A single leg drop kick followed by a moonsault gets Chessman a pin attempt good for two as well.
Chessman climbs up once more for a corkscrew splash but Richard rolls out of the way and lays a picture perfect Market Crash for the (still slow) three count and “title retain.”
WINNER and “STILL” Caribbean Champion: Richard Holliday
Alicia Atout is standing by with a light beer bringing Mance Warner, making a peace offering to the birthday gal. He apologizes to Alicia and wants to share in a Miller Lite, but Atout says the best gift he did give was sending “that a**hole” MJF packing. This amps Mance up and he talks about sending the competition packing, but he does think it’s high time for some MLW gold. Alicia 100% agrees and suggests Hammerstone. Ol Mancer sent one of The Dynasty members packin’, and it’s time to “whoop that ass” of Hammer’s every week until he gets that gold around his waist. “Best gift ever,” says Alicia.
Scary update on Douglas James who at the hands last week of Averno suffered a transient disorder of the brain function without long-term sequele. He’s going to be evaluated for a subdural hematoma and is barred from in-ring contact for 180 days unless cleared by a neurologist.
We get a brief “pillow talk” from LA Park as he lays in bed with his wife, but LA Park does happen to do very little talking as he’s off to the land of nod.
We revisit Pagano who alongside Mortiz was victorious two weeks ago in his Barrio tag match against Warner and Savio Vega, but he tells everybody to be aware of his impending presence in MLW.
Alexander Hammerstone is back at home in Phoenix and says he bets Mance Warner feels real proud of himself and hopes he’s getting his laughs in after last week’s cake incident. Hammer feels Mance represents his biggest enemy in pro wrestling: the people he doesn’t relate to which is a lot. Mance has the gall to call Hammer’s National Openweight Championship “The people’s Championship” but Hammer makes note that the title is just like his birth certificate – it’s always has had his name on it. He makes it clear that he will wreck The Bucksnort Brawler if they come face to face in the ring.
Col. Robert Parker has been allegedly promoting unsanctioned wrestling contests on barges and those events have happened to be shut down by the U.S. Coast Guard. Parker has since denied partaking or promoting in any outlaw barge shows, but Parker does promise a big 2020.
We are introduced for the first time this Fusion to The Von Erichs via Hawaii and the two are aware of Team Filthy’s entrance into the tag division. That means they’re in the Von Erich’s waters and they’ll be sure to see Garrini and Lawlor on the “flip side”. Marshall and Ross literally displaying that as they jump into the Hawaiian falls.
There is an update on the suspect officiating by the referees in Tijuana during the Super Series. With a severe amount of visual evidence of clearly delayed pin counts and blatant disregard for match occurrence, MLW and AAA are working together to make sure such matters will not happen again.
So America Top Team has been planning to have press conference all episode, but Low Ki had something different planned for his adversaries. He took a shot at ATT’s Dan Lambert and Team Filthy along with Lambert’s crew have left the building. A video of Low Ki says that he couldn’t just sit back after what they did in Philadelphia. “Gentlemen, what you started is a war.” Low Ki could make some phone calls to a “king” or maybe even a “god”, but regardless, the party is not over.
Main Event
Los Mercenarios (Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion Jr.) vs. The Hart Foundation (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Brian Pillman Jr.)
The two teams exchange some word before the match begins but it’s Texano Jr. and Pillman starting things off. Brian cools himself down and begins with a wristlock. Pillman rolls himself around to escape the clutches of Texano and a well placed kick does so. Pillman is really in his element. Los Mercenarios take an opportunity to double team Brian as the official is tied up with DB because of a foot on the ropes. Hart Foundation soon show their chemistry as they lift Texano up for a double suplex that turns into a Davey Boy signature stall. He slams Texano down and goes for the pin, but there is yet another deliberate slow count by the referee. Rich Bocchini questions the possibility that perhaps CONTRA has some spies loose in the arena which cause AJ Kirsch to ponder such a valuable point.
Davey tags in Brian and who comes out but Injustice to distract. It works and the Los Mercenarios begin to work on Davey, showing their tag team prowess.
Texano catches Brian in a fireman’s carry and flips it into a backbreaker. Not even a two count. Texano and Scorpion work on Pillman as the ref is tied up with Davey Boy once more. DB’s rightfully getting heated with the official. Scorpion is wearing out Brian with some wrist suplexes, but begins fighting back. This gets some shots from Scorpion and he eventually pulls Pillman down by the hair. Scorpion continues to work on Brian as Texano soon slingshot sentons onto Brian for a near fall.
Davey tries to keep his cool as the referee keeps interacting with him. This allows Brian to take a Texano bullrope to the knee. El Scorpion hits a powerbomb, but Davey breaks it up, still very frustrated.
A dropkick frees Brian up and gets the tag in to DB, but the ref didn’t see the tag and sends him back to the corner.
Brian fights his way back and tags DB in. This time the ref see and DB gets to work on his magic. He eventually double clotheslines both out of the ring. This opens up Brian to do a somersault plancha to the outside and lands on his feet.
Davey Boy boosts Texano up for Brian to hit an Air Pillman from the top rope. Davey flips over for a jacknife pin and the win. MLW leads the Super Series 4-2!
WINNERS: The Hart Foundation
Very big win for MLW as we can hear Davey Boy shouting that “The Hart Foundation has reunited!” It’s been almost six months since The Hart Foundation has teamed together but AJ Kirsch put it best by saying they haven’t missed a beat. Both Brian and DB celebrate with the Tijuana crowd as they make their way to the back, relishing in the very deserving victory.
The feed gets cut and we see Josef Samael of CONTRA. Samael reaffirms the rumors that spies and soldiers are out for the Unit.