MLW Fusion Results, Highlights, and Grades: Marko Stunt Debuts

MLW cashes in on the recent and sudden rise of Puma King as he makes his Fusion debut tonight, plus Marko Stunt makes his first appearance as he teams with ACH and Rich Swann to take on The Hart Foundation in the main event. In a battle between generations, “The Innovator of Violence” Tommy Dreamer clashes with the new bearer of brutality in MLW, Brody King.

MLW Fury Road barrels onward with a trio of matches from the October tapings in New York. There are still two huge title matches left to air, and both the World Middleweight Championship and World Heavyweight Championship will be defended next week. Tonight, however, isn’t about titles; it’s about grudges.

The last time Rich Swann and ACH met The Hart Foundation in New York, Swann left the arena with a severe concussion at the hands of the polarizing duo of Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr. Now, Swann looks to achieve some semblance of revenge as he and ACH have recruited Marko Stunt to take on Hart, Smith and Brian Pillman Jr.

Brody King laid out the challenge a few weeks back, looking to make his own mark in professional wrestling by being the man who puts Tommy Dreamer down for good. Can the face of extreme rally to overcome the younger, larger and stronger King or will the west coast native pick up a much-needed victory as he moves toward a No DQ match with PCO at Fightland in Chicago?

Kickoff With Konnan

With rivalries in mind, the show kicks off with Konnan making his way to the ring. Before he can get too far into anything, though, Salina de la Renta and Ricky Martinez make their way to the ring. Salina mocks Konnan and the Lucha Bros, whom she writes out of this episode by reminding everybody of their prior situation with ICE. This elicits groans from the crowd (and me).

Konnan accidentally calls Ricky Martinez “Ricky Vega”, prompting Martinez to get in the legend’s face. Konnan steps him back after calling him a “Duck Dynasty reject”– among other things – before telling Martinez that “your father is talking to you.”

Salina steps in and tells Konnan that if he actually wants Martinez to have a match, he needs to bring somebody to the ring. Konnan tells the pair that he has someone on tap for this situation, which leads us to our opening match of the night – Puma King vs Ricky Martinez.

Puma King vs Ricky Martinez

MLW is pretty good at striking while the iron is hot with names on the indies, and Puma King is the result of that. Puma King became something of a household name for diehard fans before PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles even kicked off.

As much as he may have made a name for himself over the course of that tournament, his notoriety got a boost in the arm, thanks to Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin not knowing who he was. Puma King seems more than happy to have been a mystery to Satin due to the extra spotlight it shined upon him.

This is Puma’s official MLW debut in front of the New York crowd but, unfortunately, it falls a bit flat for me. Martinez is busted open early which seems to slow down the action a bit, as the blood fills and trickles from his nose throughout the match.

Puma doesn’t get his legs under him for any extended amount of time here, as Martinez has an answer for him at every turn, slowing the pace down and using his power to control the luchador.

Leading toward the end of the match, Puma connects with a vicious missile dropkick on a seated Martinez in the ring but falls victim a second-rope Codebreaker for a two count. After countering an attempt at a top rope hurricanrana into an avalanche powerbomb, Puma ties Martinez up with a La Magistral Cradle for the victory.

Grade: Fine. Nothing too spectacular but a continuation of Konnan/de la Renta with a new face in the mix.

After hearing about Puma King’s debut at the Fury Road tapings, I was super excited to see him in action, but nothing here felt like a showcase for him when it absolutely should have been. He had a couple of nice spots but spent most of the match on defense, limiting the amount of time he could spend winning the fans over with an offensive attack.

All in all, nothing terrible, but nothing that would put me on the Puma King bandwagon as a new viewer.