MLW Fusion Recap for March 30, 2019: Every Daga Has His Day

The March 30, 2019, episode of MLW Fusion included both victory and struggle for Promociones Dorado and an open challenge by Teddy Hart.

This week’s episode of Fusion opens with the MLW debut of Air Wolf and Ricky Martinez in a match that makes both men look like contenders. Wolf quickly wins over the crowd by getting some impressive height on a crossbody over the top rope to the outside and holds his own throughout, but Martinez gets a veteran’s win. Martinez kicks Wolf down from the top rope while he’s facing away from the ring and hits him with a pop-up knee to the face, reminding us that his “El Sicario” nickname isn’t just a reference to a movie.

Where is L.A. Park’s adult son?

Promociones Dorado has less success in their other story this week, the backstage segments surrounding Hijo de L.A. Park being sent on an errand by Salina de la Renta. She’s really convinced that whatever she sent Baby Park to do will put her faction back on top. However, she gets super worried when this adult man has not returned halfway through the show. L.A. Park is concerned as well.

It turns out this was for a good reason, because we find out in the episode’s closing segment that Mance Warner, who got beaten up by all of Promociones Dorado after he attacked Park backstage after Park beat him in a death match last week, obtained Hijo’s mask somehow. He uses this disguise to attack Park successfully this time, so it looks like their feud is far from over.

Let’s get ready to Riot!

This episode also addresses the upcoming Battle Riot live event, which will take place on Friday, April 5, at 8 PM Eastern. Thirty out of 40 participants have been announced for the battle royal so far and it seems like the 10 remaining slots might be left a mystery to allow for surprises.

However, what’s not a mystery is what Tom Lawlor wants to do to his World Heavyweight Championship challenger Jimmy Havoc at the event, because he tells us in a promo — he wants to put him in the hospital. Lawlor calmly calls “England’s Most Dangerous Man” just “one bump in the road that I wasn’t able to drive right over.”

In the first match of the episode, Daga defeats Ariel Dominguez to send a similar message to his Battle Riot opponent, Low Ki, who sits in on commentary. Dominguez is very much “enhancement talent” here, but Daga isn’t much enhanced by this bout, which is very much not the performance of his career. He hits Estilite for the win and almost fights with Ki after the match, but his most threatening moment is in his promo later in the show when he tells Ki he’s going to straight-up kill him.

In other promo news …

We also hear from the new Contra Unit stable of Jacob Fatu, Josef Samael and Simon Gotch, via the words of Fatu, who has been mostly a silent presence so far. It’s more of the threatening/cryptic language we’ve heard from Contra so far (i.e., “salt the earth with the ashes of our enemies”) and mostly reminds us that these guys are around and could strike again at any time.

Fellow sneak-attack-enthusiast trio The Dynasty has more specific goals to outline in regards to the Hart Foundation, who they claim to have exposed as frauds. According to Dynasty, they’ll “cement” themselves “as the most dominant force here in MLW” at Battle Riot. But will Hammerstone ever start wearing suits like the rest of the team?

The Hart Foundation have their own words for the Dynasty that were clearly recorded at the same time and place as their promos for previous episodes. Their position boils down to that being the Hart Foundation isn’t about coasting on a famous last name, but instead represents a rigorous wrestling training program and a way of life.

The Hart of a champion

Our main event is all about the heart of the Harts, and specifically that of Teddy, who decided to issue an open challenge for his World Middleweight Championship right after getting bailed out of jail despite having injured ribs. Myron Reed responded to this earlier in the show with a self-filmed promo about how if he gets an unbiased official — unlike the ones who have been counting too slowly for he and the suspended Rich Swann’s liking and getting punched in response — he can beat Hart, and if that’s true under any circumstances, it’s these.

This match has both a great heel and a great face and ends up telling a clear story to match. A rib injury is not at all helpful to a high-flying wrestling style, but also Hart is a noted crazy person, so it seems like he might try his usual moves anyway. However, Hart does try to play it smart at first, but his ribs are in such pain that it seems like he shouldn’t even be wrestling. When Reed breaks free of Hart’s initial attacks, he does a lot of damage to his opponent with well-placed kicks to the ribs and the match becomes more balanced. Hart stays in the game through sheer fighting spirit, but it’s Reed’s hubris that ultimately decides the match’s result. When he advances on the ref for giving him a two-count it buys Hart time to recover enough to pin him with a backslide.

Both performers come out of this looking good, the character arcs of both Reed and Hart have been advanced in a way that makes sense, and we saw some very good-looking high flying. MLW watchers will go into Battle Riot 2 and the following episodes knowing the Hart Foundation’s strengths and weaknesses, but with whether they’ll be able to hold onto their gold in question.