MLW Fusion Results, Highlights, and Grades: Spin The Wheel

Guevara’s Future and Low Ki’s Next Challenger

Backstage, Konnan is with Sammy Guevara to lend him some advice following his loss to Hijo de LA Park last week. Guevara has the AAA Cruiserweight Championship slung over his shoulder, a title he won in a four-way match between himself, ACH, Shane Strickland and former champion Australian Suicide.

Konnan tells Guevara that he needs to focus and Guevara leaves thanking Konnan for the advice determined to show everybody what Sammy Guevara is all about.

Before we can go anywhere else, Salina, Konnan and Ricky Martinez arrive on the scene. Konnan promises to bring someone from Mexico who will finally defeat Low Ki and take the World Heavyweight Title out of the Promociones Dorado camp.

Ki laughs it off when Konnan reveals that his next prospect is Daga, promising that whoever he brings from Mexico will feel pain and punishment at his hands the same way Rey Fenix felt at War Games.

Konnan, once again sporting regular old eyeglasses allowing us to get a peek at his oft-hidden eyebrows, refers to Ki as “ex-champ” and tells him he’ll see him later. Ki and crew laugh off the comment while exiting with Salina chalking the statement up to a loss in translation.

Grade: Good. A fair amount of ground covered in not a lot of time.

Not only do we get the seeds planted for a potential Guevara/Konnan relationship, but we build to the coming Ki/Daga match for the World Heavyweight Title. Everyone delivers here and, as usual, Salina is much better in this type of segment than when delivering a standard promo to the camera or a crowd.

She’s much stronger with delivery and just feels more comfortable in these backstage segments than with promos which, at times, come off forced and wooden.

Spin The (Modestly Sized) Wheel

Kaci Lennox is backstage with Jimmy Havoc who won a coin toss earlier in the day for the rights to spin the wheel (thus making the deal). The wheel is so tiny! I was hoping for a more theatric wheel (and maybe a random teen locked in a cage wearing a Hannibal mask) ala WCW, but beggars can’t be choosers.

But honestly, let me get pedantic for a minute. The backstage setup here is a bit half-hearted with some Halloween decorations and a jack-o-lantern strewn about the room surrounding the wheel. But also, there’s a flat screen TV mounted on the wall and you can see the reflection of an exit sign over Havoc’s shoulder.

There’s also a massive glare on the wheel itself making it relatively impossible to read the name of whichever match was landed upon.

With things like this, where the show is entirely Halloween-themed and the gimmick of the match is laden with Halloween Havoc flashbacks, it would really benefit MLW to go the extra mile with some set design.

At the very least, some black sheets hung up around the room so things look a bit more creepy and less like we’re just in the corner of a conference room.

Nonetheless, Havoc gives the wheel a spin as Callihan watches on in a picture-in-picture window. The wheel lands on Spinner’s Choice which is fine, but also a bit of a cop-out. Havoc has a hard time choosing a match stipulation and instead demands that MLW provides the means to wrestle in every type of match listed on the wheel. Callihan, enraged, throws his hat on the ground and stomps away.

Grade: Fine. The core features were there, but it could have felt spookier (cue Halloween effects).

Again, a little could go a long way with stuff like this when it comes to set dressing. The end result is what it is – instead of the wheel being the ultimate decision maker, it winds up with Havoc calling the shots. It all makes sense from the perspective of the storyline with Havoc seeking his revenge and looking to use every possible weapon and stipulation to his advantage to do so.