MLW Fusion Results, Highlights, and Grades: Strickland vs Rush

With under a month to go until MLW’s next major show, SuperFight in Philadelphia, the event is crystallizing with the undercard being built out. It was recently announced that on February 2, MLW SuperFight would broadcast a live hour on beIN Sports much in the same way Zero Hour aired in December. Later on, we’ll cover what we’ll see on the next MLW Fusion LIVE, but tonight we’ve got Shane Strickland, Rush, Ace Romero, and The Hart Foundation in action!

The show started with a cold open as Shane Strickland paced in the ring, microphone in hand. He ran down the Miami crowd and posited that nobody in the locker room could hold a candle to him. Strickland claimed that he was “the gold standard” in MLW – before being interrupted by Rush.

Rush screamed loudly into the microphone sending the levels into the red and making audio engineers all over the world cringe. Strickland, perhaps an audiophile himself, jumped Rush for the crime of distorting audio… or, perhaps, for interrupting him and challenging his claim that he was the best MLW had to offer.

With that quick attack, we were off with an official match!

https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1086428526968954880

Shane Strickland vs Rush

Strickland controlled things early on using the surprise attack to his advantage. The former MLW World Heavyweight Champion punished Rush on the arena floor before entering the ring and peppering El Toro Blanco’s head with kicks meant more to humiliate than cause real damage.

Rush tried building some offense to combat Swerve but was unable to get the momentum to swing in his advantage early on. Strickland delivered a series of kicks to the chest of Rush before hitting the ropes and being caught with a forearm out of nowhere to allow for some recovery time.

Back on the outside, Rush took the fight to Strickland throughout the arena as the two brawled through the crowd and through a door leading out of the main part of the building. Rush, not content with just beating Strickland with his own hands, hurled a trash can at his opponent before the two made their way back to the ring.

Rush was on his game back in the ring teasing the diving dropkick in the corner, instead rolling backward into the center of the ring and into a Tranquilo pose. Looking to put things away, Rush attempted the Rush Driver which Strickland was able to block.

Both men traded punches and forearms in the center of the ring struggling to take, and keep, the advantage. Rush would eventually do so catching Strickland with an overhead belly to belly suplex followed with a dropkick to the back of the head.

After taking way too long to hype up the crowd, Rush missed a senton from the top rope leaving the door open for Strickland to connect with a double stomp and a brainbuster to net himself a two count.

In the final moments, Rush would finally hit the diving dropkick in the corner before pulling Strickland to the center to spike him with the Rush Driver for the three count.

How Was It? Pretty great! How was this not the main event?!

This may very well be the last we see of both Rush and Strickland on MLW TV. Rush has signed an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor and I believe this was his last taped match as part of the MLW roster. Strickland, on the other hand, has been heavily rumored to be on his way to WWE in the near future.

Nonetheless, how this match was relegated to the opener is beyond me. Both men threw it all out there for twenty minutes in a match that would have been at the top of any card across the country.

Seeing Strickland and Rush battle it out there is a sad reminder that we probably won’t see this match again – or, if we do, it’ll be a while before we do. Both men seem to be on very different career trajectories but, thankfully, they found themselves in the same place long enough to put on a great match.