MLW Fusion Results, Highlights, and Grades: Death of The Death Machine

Training Team Filthy

Backstage, Lawlor and Simon Gotch prepared for the Chicago Street Fight with some shadow boxing in the bowels of Cicero Stadium. Lawlor asked Gotch if he would have his back tonight, letting his partner know that he needed him in his corner instead “waxing his mustache” or “doing Hindu squats” somewhere else.

Gotch let Lawlor know that he would absolutely be there for him and apologized for not being around when Callihan attacked him the first time. To make up for it, Gotch told Lawlor that he set him up with a post-match press conference so they could extol the virtues of Team Filthy to the entire world.

Lawlor cooled Gotch’s jets a bit by letting him know that he needed to focus on Callihan first before thinking about any kind of press conference or other extracurriculars.

Grade: Good. A good storyline piece… but not much left to the imagination here.

A few weeks back, Lawlor and Gotch trained much in the same way during a backstage segment. In that case, it seemed as though Gotch was trying to lighten the mood while Lawlor tried to keep his mind on the matters at hand. It was easy enough to write off as a clash of personalities between two friends and stablemates.

Here, it feels a bit more clear that there is a deeper dissension between the two as Lawlor handily shuts down Gotch’s attempt to take his eye off the ball while also kind of, but not really, calling him out for not being there to help him with Callihan in the past. It certainly feels like seeds of doubt are being planted with Team Filthy.

Size Matters vs Dirty Blondes

The news of Joey Ryan’s injury spread quickly during the Fightland taping, so it was no surprise to see him out with his arm in a sling to start this match. Ryan was quick to let the crowd know about his damaged pec, which we now know the severity of but are still waiting on a timeline for a return.

Ryan did his trademark lollipop spot to start things off with Swoggle pulling a giant-sized lollipop out of his shirt to follow suit. I’m not sure which fan wound up with the cleaner candy – the one from inside of Ryan’s mouth or the one pressed up against Swoggle’s body.

The Blondes were out without Colonel Robert Parker, but Rich on commentary was quick to let us know that Parker was watching from home while preparing for an appearance at the Bucksnort Jumprope Academy. Little touches like that highlight how good Rich is in this role, as he adds a much more playful air to the broadcast than does Matt Striker. For my money, you can’t get better than Tony and Rich in MLW.

With Ryan injured, the Blondes were able to muscle him out of the way before using their excessive size advantage against Swoggle. Despite the more seasoned duo working together to tame their opponents, Swoggle was able to connect with a German suplex to turn the tides.

While limited, Ryan was able to make his mark in the match by nailing Leo Brien with Sweet Tooth Music allowing Swoggle to connect with the Tadpole Splash from the second rope for the victory.

Grade: It’s Fine. This was never going to be anything to write home about with the situation at hand.

With the match being so heavily promoted in the weeks up to Fightland, there wasn’t really any way to avoid having at least some kind of confrontation between the two teams here. The match itself was kept fairly short with Ryan only doing what he needed to do in order to stay effective yet safe.

Post-match, Ryan got back on the mic to bid a farewell-for-now to the crowd while showing off the bruising on his pec and bicep which looked gruesome, to say the least. Staying on the bright side, Ryan gleefully let the crowd know that while he may be injured he still has his most-prized asset… and I’m not talking about his endless supply of lollipops.

One has to wonder what the future holds for Size Matters’ opponents in the coming weeks. It makes sense to give Ryan the feel-good win on his way out to recover from his injury, but with Jake Hager no longer a member of the MLW roster, what becomes of Brien, Patrick and the Stud Stable?