MLW Fusion recap for April 13, 2019: The trust fund express

The latest episode of MLW Fusion included more drama between the Dynasty and the Hart Foundation, an unlikely alliance against Promociones Dorado and more.

Recap of a Riot

This episode of MLW Fusion began with a montage recapping the events of last week’s Battle Riot. Here were the important things from that show that would have been a pay-per-view if we weren’t in the streaming/live event era now:

• Teddy Hart retained his Middleweight Championship against Ace Austin but was also sent to the hospital because MJF smashed a bottle over his head.
• Tom Lawlor retained his MLW World Heavyweight Championship over Jimmy Havoc in a New York Street Fight with a fair amount of blood. He was later attacked by Contra during a press conference.
• Promociones Dorado went around mugging people for their Battle Riot entrance numbers.
• MJF drew No. 1, then rolled under the bottom rope and hid under the ring. He later emerged to eliminate a bunch of guys before being eliminated by Brian Pillman Jr.
• Jacob Fatu entered the battle royal normally, but his Contra buddies quickly joined him from the crowd. They attacked other wrestlers with a gas can and attempted to set a pile of wrestlers on fire before being ejected by security.
• Low Ki and Daga faced off in the Battle Riot and Daga eliminated Ki.
• Jim Cornette uttered the sentence, “let the bodies hit the floor.”
• A number of wrestlers who used to be in MLW more often (the Lucha Brothers, the Dirty Blondes, etc.) returned, but, skipping ahead, Sami Callihan is the only one to have stuck around that we know of so far.
• Callihan and L.A. Park were the last two wrestlers in the match. Park won and got a plaque and a future match for the World Heavyweight Championship that he can “cash in” any time.

Rollin’ Brian

The first match of the Fusion show that aired on beIN Sports on April 13 and on MLW’s YouTube channel on April 15 was MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr. Pillman didn’t have the other members of the Hart Foundation by his side, but MJF’s Dynasty buddies interfered so much, so early that they were ejected from ringside by the referee.

But MJF is still not a wrestler to take lightly on his own, and brutally, intelligently targeted Pillman’s previously-injured shoulder. When Pillman finally freed himself and gained some momentum, MJF poked him in the eyes. While the former aspiring opera singer argued with the ref about a two-count, Pillman recovered enough from all of this to be able to roll him up for the win. MJF immediately complained that this win was a fluke, ensuring that the Hart-Dynasty feud will continue, not that anyone would have thought this was the climax.

This match also contained what I think I’m going to have to start highlighting in these recaps, the Jim Cornette Line Of The Week.

Jim Cornette Line Of The Week

"“He is a malicious narcissist, a pathological liar, he’s got criminal tendencies, and he’s not as smart as he thinks he is! I’m not talking about Donald Trump — I’d never do that! I’m talking about Maxwell Jacob Friedman and the rest of the Trust Fund Express, the Dynasty!”"

And Speaking Of Dynasties

Probably the best match this week was Rich Swann and Myron Reed vs. Jimmy Yuta and Lance Anoa’i, in the latter’s MLW TV debut. Reed and Swann are still doing their questionable tape-over-the-mouth, misguided quest-for-justice angle, but showed their straight-up wrestling skills in this match as well. Their teamwork, especially the series of 450 splashes that finished the match, was so good it seemed like they should get an actual tag team name.

However, the real standout of this match as Anoa’i, a nine-year veteran who still hasn’t been seen by a lot of wrestling fans. He’s a big dude to be able to do a 450 splash and a standing moonsault, and picking up Reed in a fireman’s carry, then hitting Swann with a dropkick, then hitting the Samoan Drop on Reed was the coolest sequence of the whole show.

In Backstage Segment News …

Outside of the matches, we had some developments backstage this week. First, Salina de la Renta said she will be the first-ever female producer in the history of pro wrestling (Gail Kim is a producer for Impact, so this isn’t true, but “technically the second-ever” is still very telling about the industry) when she executive produces MLW’s Cinco de Mayo episode on May 4.

In an entertaining segment, probably even for those who don’t like this guy very much, Sami Callihan talked about finding himself after he got his butt kicked by L.A. Park a while ago, wrote on a whiteboard with faulty markers and challenged Mance Warner to a match.

Holliday and Hammerstone were upset about their team’s loss/their ejection and then had to deal with MJF’s car being stolen and Pillman Jr. (I’m pretty sure; I’m not an expert on the blurred butts of the Hart Foundation, but Teddy was driving the car and Davey Boy Smith Jr. seems too tall for this) mooning them through the window.

In shorter segments, Warner claimed to have fought men in moving trucks on the interstate, then accepted Callihan’s challenge for next week. In a less intimidating promo despite him being a shoot badass, Tom Lawlor assured us he will have a match against Jacob Fatu at some point.

The Alliance To End Promociones Dorado

The show’s main event — L.A. Park’s open challenge that was answered by Callihan — was underwhelming as a match, but functional as a way to move various feuds forward. After some brawling and fighting with foreign objects were dominated by Park, it looked like a ref bump and Callihan’s bat might be game-changers.

A run-in by Ricky Martinez and Hijo de L.A. Park put a stop to that, but it also drew out Mance Warner as an impromptu enemy-of-my-enemy ally for Callihan, then Low Ki to help his faction-mates, then Daga to help out the people against Ki. Once everyone was cleared from the ring except the legal competitors, a massive spear from Park put Callihan away, keeping the Destroyer looking strong ahead of his match with Lawlor, whenever that will be.

With Promociones Dorado making moves and Park gunning for that World Heavyweight Championship, it’ll be interesting to see if today’s impromptu alliances spring up again in the future. With Warner vs. Callihan coming up next week, it’s safe to assume we’ll see more of this related drama along with some blood.