MLW Fusion Results, Highlights, and Grades: Lawlor Wins World Title

Low Ki delivered a backstage promo building to his World Heavyweight Title match, under an hour away, with “Filthy” Tom Lawlor. Ki talked up his 14 years of dominance in Major League Wrestling reminding Lawlor that he has been collecting trophies along the way – the World Heavyweight Title from Shane Strickland, the mask from Rey Fenix, the ear from Daga, and the general health and wellbeing of Konnan. Ki said that he would walk away with one more trophy tonight, that being the lion’s mane.

Grudge Match: Kotto Brazil vs Ricky Martinez

Salina de la Renta got into the referee’s face immediately here, and I mean immediately. Before the bell could even ring. As the two argued on the apron, Kotto Brazil sprang to action as he dove over the both of them and onto Ricky Martinez on the arena floor. Kotto just barely cleared everybody and made enough contact with Martinez to take him down, but it looked close to almost going pretty badly.

Kotto started off aggressive here relying on pounding Martinez in and around the ring rather than taking to the skies as Brazil often does. As is usually the case, Salina came into play before long with a distraction by grabbing the leg of Kotto as he stood on the apron. The lapse in focus allowed for Martinez to send him flying into the steel railing with a big boot.

Kotto rallied again with offense and finally did take to the sky with an attempt at a plancha on Martinez, but the sicario snatched him out of mid-air before tossing him into both the ring apron and the steel barricade.

Harkening back to the olden days of the ECW Arena, Brazil connected with a massive frog splash on Martinez toward the end of the match. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but Brazil was reminiscent of Rob Van Dam here with how high he bounced off of the mat after connecting with the move.

Unfortunately, Brazil would fall victim to the numbers game. Martinez pulled the eyepatch off of Brazil and with both good and bad eyes exposed, Salina sprayed him in the face with pepper spray blinding him and allowing Martinez to cradle him for a quick pinfall to end the match.

How Was It? It felt like this one went on a bit longer than it should have. Toward the end, things got a bit messy but I did enjoy the bulk of the action. I love when a wrestler alters their style based on the feud or stipulation – Brazil did that here by being more aggressive than high-flying with Martinez early on.

While we did get a screwy finish, I like it in that I hope it means more from the Brazil/Martinez feud down the road. I think these two could steal a show if they lock it up again in a contest where they’re able to showcase their specific skill sets a bit more. As a pit-stop toward a true blow-off match, I enjoyed what was presented.