MLW Fusion LIVE Results, Highlights, and Grades: 5-Way Ladder Match

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This week’s episode of Fusion is the first-ever LIVE episode of the series with three big matches including a multi-man ladder match for the vacant MLW World Heavyweight Title. In the main event, Rush makes his second appearance as he squares off with Rich Swann while DJZ and Dragon Lee make their Fusion debuts in singles action against one another.

Perhaps testing the water for future live broadcasts, MLW presented its first fully live episode of Fusion emanating from Miami as part of their end of the year double-shot with Never Say Never and Zero Hour. Three matches made up the live broadcast while bouts from both nights will fill MLW Fusion for the next several weeks.

As soon as the show hit the air, Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado were seen attacking the remaining members of Team Filthy outside of the building. LA Park ran the returning Fred Yehi into a wall while Ricky Martinez harkened back to the days of the nWo by lawn-darting an unnamed member of Tom Lawlor’s stable into the side of a trailer.

de la Renta, flanked by Martinez, Park, and World Heavyweight Champion Low Ki asked a simple question of #1 contender Lawlor: “Are you ready? Because we are live.”

World Middleweight Title: 5-Way Ladder Match

As Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini welcomed everybody to the show, Gringo Loco awaited his opponents in the ring. Somehow, Loco found himself a part of the World Middleweight Title Match which apparently wasn’t done morphing with the removal of Jason Cade and addition of Hijo de LA Park earlier this week.

Andrew Everett was also mysteriously removed from the match with no explanation, though Tony and Rich mentioned that a “wild card” entrant had been added to the contest.

For those keeping score at home, at this point the match consisted of Gringo Loco, Kotto Brazil, Dezmond Xavier, and Hijo de LA Park. As Xavier made his way to the ring, Teddy Hart came through the crowd and laid out the debuting fighter on the floor before hopping up to the apron.

In a somewhat terrifying way to start the match, Hart hit a sitdown springboard moonsault to Xavier on the floor and came down with his lower back crashing against the stairs on the stage. This sent a shiver through my body remembering a similar bump Rick Rude took which wound up cutting his career short.

Hijo de LA Park took to Brazil quickly by sandwiching his leg in a chair with a Pillmanizer before crushing his ankle between a ladder with several chair shots. Kotto, considered the favorite by many in the match, was taken out by MLW officials due to the damage to his ankle.

Back in the ring, Loco and Hijo de LA Park got off to a relatively sloppy start with Xavier joining the fray to help smooth things out somewhat. After some quick back and forth, Xavier found himself the victim of a powerbomb on the hard arena floor absent of any padding whatsoever.

The ladder didn’t come into play as a means to end the match for quite some time, but when it did the miscommunications amongst the fighters led to some awkward situations. At one point, Xavier had his hands on the belt and could have very easily unbuckled the prize to become the new champion. Instead, he had to fiddle with the belt while waiting for Hijo de LA Park arrange another ladder in the ring.

After a second ladder was set up to bridge the ropes and a ladder standing vertically in the ring, the camera missed what sounded like a brutal springboard moonsault from Hart onto a prone Xavier laid out on the ladder, instead focusing on Kotto Brazil fighting through the ankle damage to return to the fight.

As Brazil ascended toward the championship, the ladder buckled and he fell toward the ropes as Hart connected with a steel chair to the back for good measure. With precisely zero expression of any sort of emotion on his face, Teddy Hart climbed a ladder and unbuckled the championship to become the new World Middleweight Champion.

Grade: An Unfortunate Mess. A lot of miscommunication in what could have been a weekend-stealing ladder match.

This ladder match may have been doomed from the very moment it was announced. This contest was supposed to feature MJF defending his title against Kotto Brazil, Jason Cade, and Marko Stunt. Three of those individuals were removed from the match as a result of injuries.

Andrew Everett and Dezmond Xavier were added to the match, though Everett was noticeably absent from the match and not mentioned at all by the commentators.

In the opening spot of the first live broadcast of Fusion, I expected more from this match. I’m not sure if MLW expected the allure of a live episode to garner new viewers or not, but the sloppiness of this match could have hurt that potential. It also felt like the ladders were largely irrelevant until the final moments of the match, where I would have expected a multi-person ladder match to use the namesake of the match to a higher degree.

With all of the names involved in the match, Hart may have been the least exciting option to become the champion with the exception of Gringo Loco who, for whatever reason, was inserted into the match without reason. Of the original lineup, Kotto and Jason Cade should have been the frontrunners to walk away with the gold.

Unfortunately, Kotto was non-existent for 90% of the match to sell the attack from Hijo de LA Park. Despite what could have been a star-making moment with Brazil fighting through the injury to return to the match, Hart found himself standing tall amongst the field.

The Hart Foundation had initially been slated to challenge The Lucha Bros for the World Tag Team Titles as a part of the Miami double-shot, so one begins to wonder if the original plan was to put the Tag Team Titles on Hart and Smith. Hopefully, the way Kotto was removed from action will lead to a future championship opportunity and a short reign for Hart as the upside on Brazil in 2019 is much higher than that of Teddy Hart.