MLW Fusion To Air Live As Injuries Shake Up Miami Double-Shot

MLW is heading to Miami for a pair of shows December 13 and 14 with huge championship matches each night. On December 13 Never Say Never is set to be taped for Fusion while on December 14 beIN Sports will air an hour of live programming from MLW’s Zero Hour event as the promotion’s first foray into live programming. But, with injuries piling up across the indies, what can we expect from the two nights of action?

MLW’s next set of shows comes in the form of back-to-back nights in Miami, but the cards are ever-changing thanks to a slew of injuries rocking the Major League Wrestling Roster. As reported over the weekend, Rey Fenix suffered an apparent groin injury which is likely to keep him on the shelf for several months.

Never Say Never on December 13 was set to bring new challengers to the MLW World Tag Team Titles as Fenix and Lucha Bros partner Pentagon Jr were set to defend against The Hart Foundation. With Fenix out, however, that match has shifted into a singles match with Teddy Hart and Pentagon going head to head.

When competing in an MMA fight, #1 contender to the MLW World Heavyweight Title “Filthy” Tom Lawlor broke his hand. Lawlor is set to face Simon Gotch in a No Holds Barred, No Ropes match on December 13 and it is yet to be seen whether or not the match will take place. With the nature of the match and the freedom it allows for working around an injury, Lawlor could be good to go if medically cleared.

Adding to the apparent curse at the top of the MLW card is a fractured elbow for World Middleweight Champion MJF. The champion, always the gentleman, reported via Twitter that he would be out 4-6 weeks with a silver lining – “The good news is I get a break from having to make eye contact with you poor fat slobs.” Hopefully, the elbow heals up well enough that he and Aria Blake won’t have trouble applying hand sanitizer after signing autographs for fans in the future.

With MJF’s injury, he is officially off of the first night of events where he was set to meet Rush in non-title competition. Rush will instead tangle with the newly-salty Shane “Swerve” Strickland on December 13 which could be an absolute show-stealer.

On December 14, MJF had been slated for a 4-way ladder match for the World Middleweight Title. One of his three opponents, Marko Stunt, was previously removed from the match after a nasty leg break at Joey Janela’s LA Confidential and the champ himself is now listed only as a possibility for the contest. If MJF can compete, he will defend against new faces Andrew Everett and Dezmond Xavier along with Kotto Brazil and Jason Cade what would be a five-way battle. If MJF can’t compete, the match will become a 4-way for the vacant World Middleweight Title.

In addition to the changes in cards due to injury, MLW is welcoming more new faces to the company as DJZ and Dragon Lee make their Major League debuts against one another as part of Zero Hour on December 14 while Tommy Dreamer and Brian Pillman Jr square off in a Singapore Cane match.

With Joey Ryan and Joey Janela also going down with injuries over the past couple of months, it seems like a tough time to be an independent wrestler as the year comes to a close. While the injured list is growing in MLW, the promotion is showing no signs of slowing when it comes to delivering big matches or continuing to grow the company.

As we recently covered, MLW Fusion is now airing on Fite TV in addition to beIN Sports and YouTube. Could the first-ever live episode of MLW Fusion be a testing ground for bringing future live events to Fite TV and exposing an entirely new audience to Major League Wrestling?