7/6 MLW Fusion TV Report: MVP vs. Sami Callihan in Boiler Room Brawl, Lawler & Gotch vs. ACH & Swann

MLW TV REPORT
JULY 6, 2018
ORLANDO, FLA.
AIRED ON BE-IN SPORTS NETWORK

Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Rich Bocchini

-MLW intro played.

– A promo aired where Sami Callihan said he is building an army of like-minded individuals. He said they are taking over everything. Callihan said he is going to destroy the roster like they destroyed MVP. they replayed the angle where Callihan kidnapped Kotto Brazil and challenged MVP to a Boiler Room Brawl.

-The Fusion intro video played.

-Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini introduced the show. They previewed the Boiler Room Brawl between Callihan and MVP. We are also going to get a new MLW top 10 and we will hear from Shane Strickland. ACH and Rich Swann will take on Tom Lawler

– During Team Filthy’s entrance, they replayed footage of all the antics Team filthy has been up to on Fusion, including attacking Jimmy Havoc and defecating in Colonel Parker’s hat.

(1) Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor & Simon Gotch) vs. ACH & Rich Swann

ACH laid on his back and tried to goad Lawlor or Gotch into grappling with him during the entrances. The crowd was chanting for both ACH and Swann. Swann and Gotch start off the match. Gotch controls some early mat wrestling. Swann kips up and takes control. Swann shows some nice reversal skills springing off the top rope into an armbar. Swann tags in ACH and Gotch tags in Lawlor. Lawlor gains the apprehend with some strong knees to the face. Lawlor hits a hard chop in the corner. Lawlor now goes to his butt and tries to lure ACH into some mat wrestling. ACH hits a standing dropkick for a one count. Lawlor puts a triangle hold on ACH who lifts Lawler into the air and suplexes him. ACH tags in Swann who comes in hot, but Gotch manages to apply an armbar. The Dirty Blondes somehow appear at ringside. As they exchange words with Lawlor and ACH out on the floor Swann dives over the top rope onto all four men. Jack Hager arrives and throws Lawlor into a steel post. The Stud Stable make their way up the ramp where Colonel Parker is waiting with a cigar and a smile on his face. In the ring, ACH hits Gotch with a brainbuster and Swann hit a frog splash for the win.

WINNERS: ACH & Rich Swann.

(Karcher’s Comments: Decent match for the time it had but it needed to be longer to reach that next level. I think MLW really needs to give their matches a bit more time. It seems every week the matches are ending before they really start to hit their stride. It’s not like there are PPV’s every month where we will get to see these guys get more time. The TV show is their only product so having a few 10 plus minute matches would really help in my opinion. I Like the tag team of ACH and Swann. They seem to have good chemistry. ACH could be a main event talent soon so I hope that he doesn’t get stuck in the Tag Team Division for good.)

– Footage from “earlier today” showed Selina de La Renta arriving at the building. She was talking to someone on the phone when Vanessa Craft attempted to ask her what was going on with her bounty on Strickland. La Renta said Vanessa was a nobody and she is not going to answer her. When La Renta waled away Craft chased her down and asked if bounties are even legal. La Renta said she doesn’t know American laws, and she walked off.

[c] A commercial aired advertising the July 19th TV tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in NY.

– A replay aired of The Stud Staple interfering in the tag match earlier. Then Schiavone threw it backstage to Colonel Parker and Jack Hager. Parker called Lawler a disgrace to the human race. He said Lawler is going to pay for using his hat as a toilet. He said Hager was going to twist his head off. He said the hat cost him thousands of dollars (Must be a really nice hat) but it’s more the disgrace that he’s worried about. Parker said Lawler was going to pay dearly for it.

– MVP was backstage. He approached a door and hesitantly opened it. Inside Kotto Brazil was knocked out in what looked like some kind of boiler room. MVP picked up a cell phone and played a message from Callihan. Callihan asked MVP if he had the balls to meet him in the boiler room.

– Schiavone was in the “Battle Riot Control Center” and he reminded everyone of the rules of the Battle Riot. Which are as follows. New competitor every 60 seconds. Eliminations are by pin-fall, submission, or by throwing your opponent over the top rope. The match is also no DQ. Schiavone then announced the next batch of participants. They are as follows: Aerostar, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Leo Brien, Michael Patrick, Rey Fenix, Vandel Ortagun, Simon Gotch, and Drago. Two more matches were announced for the July 19th show. Sami Callihan will be going one on one with Shane Strickland, and Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix will put the Tag Titles on the line against Aerostar and Drago, Jimmy Havoc faces Brody King, PCO goes up against Homicide.

– Footage aired of last weeks match showcasing Salina de La Renta’s newest addition to the roster, Sami Guevara. Guevara lost last week, however, and has since fallen from La Renta’s good graces. They showed a video posted earlier this week of La Renta, relaxing in a Jacuzzi, taking a phone call from Guevara and firing him over the phone. (Side note I really like La Renta’s ringtone. It starts off like the classic iPhone tone but then changes tempo into like some wild remix. It’s great and I need it)

– A replay of some footage showing Low Ki’s attack on Shane Strickland played and Schiavone said Low Ki would be in action up next. [c]

– Back from break, Schiavone announced that after the altercation earlier, MLW match makes have officially booked Jack Hager vs. Tom Lawler for next week on Fusion. Then they went backstage to get some comments from Lawler and Gotch. Lawler said that he is ranked number one in MLW, not Jake Hager. Gotch said Lawler was better then Hager because Lawler was a UFC fighter. Lawler said that Parker wasn’t the only person in The Stud Stable that was over the hill. Then he said he was going to put them out to stud but he doesn’t think they have what it takes to get the action done. I’m not sure what that means exactly.

(2) Low Ki vs. Ricky Martinez

They showed some of Low Ki’s recent tweet antagonizing Shane Strickland. Low Ki hit a running knee right off the bell and then started to viciously punch and kick Martinez in the face. Low Ki grabbed Martinez by the beard and threw him around the ring. Low Ki hit a huge slap to the chest then choked Martinez with his foot. Low Ki hit a running dropkick then raked the eyes of Martinez. Low Ki then hit a kick to the back of the skull for the three. That move is apparently now called the switchblade. (I think Jay white may have something to say about that)

WINNER: Low Ki

(Karcher’s Comments: Not much to this match but it did give Low Ki a chance to show off his intensity. If nothing else Low ki has always been a hard-hitting competitor. In my opinion, a little too stiff but his stuff always looks crisp and realistic.)

– Vanessa Craft was backstage and asked Low Ki about the bounty on Shane Strickland. Low Ki said at $20,000 La Renta got what she paid for, an amateur. Now that she has raised the bar to $60,000 she is going to get a professional to do the job. Low Ki said Strickland should spend time with his family because his tombstone is already made.

– A replay aired of the brawl between Barrington Hughes and the Death Squad.

– A promo aired where Barrington Hughes said he is 469 pounds of hurricane fury. He said that’s appropriate because he’s about to go natural disaster on his ass.

– The MLW top 10 for July was revealed.

10. Barrington Hughes (7)
9. Teddy Hart (-)
8. Jimmy Havoc (6)
7. Maxwell Jacob Friedman (-)
6. ACH (10)
5. Rey Fenix (3)
4. Sami Callihan (4)
3. Low Ki (-)
2. Pentagon Jr. (2)
1. Tom Lawler (1)
0. – Champion – Shane Strickland

– A promo aired of Shane Strickland. He said Swerve is Major League. He said La Renta is going to send a second bounty hunter after him. He said he is going to go 2 for 2 against bounty hunters. They showed footage of La Renta upping the bounty and more footage of Low Ki attacking Strickland. Strickland asked what happens when the professional comes to swerves house. He said it can only end one way, and that’s with a swerve stomp right through Low Ki’s head.

[c] a commercial aired advertising the July 19th TV tapings.

(3) Sami Callihan vs. MVP -Boiler Room Brawl

Callihan was dragging the ref to the boiler room door. He cautiously opened it up and threw the ref inside the room. When Callihan entered MVP was waiting for him. The two started brawling and trying to gouge each other’s eyes. MVP used a steel cage door and repeatedly smashed Sami Callihan with it. Some more eye gouging. MVP hit Callihan with a steel bucket. Callihan then used the cage door. Out in the hallway outside the boilers, Callihan tried to crawl away from MVP. out of nowhere Leon Scott interfered and knocked MVP out of camera frame. When Sami ran over to help Leon, he found Leon laid out by the time he got over there. Callihan couldn’t find MVP until MVP popped out of a doorway and the brawl was back on. Fulton then interfered and Callihan told MVP to stay down. He said thumbs up, thumbs down but before he could finish his attack MVP managed to knee Callihan in the groin and push Fulton off him and out of frame. MVP then tossed Fulton back into frame against some wooden tables. The brawl continued down the hallway (not much of a boiler room brawl if the boiler room portion was less the two minutes. The two brawled all the way out into the ringside area. MVP was beating Callihan with a broomstick until Callihan raked the eyes of MVP to gain the advantage. Callihan threw MVP into a long post. MVP reversed an Irish whip into a group of steel chairs. Callihan broke a bottle over MVP’s head and hit MVP with a plastic trash can. Callihan hocked a lugie right into the ring. Gross. Callihan tossed two steel chairs into the ring. He hit MVP in the gut then over the back with a chair. Callihan attempted to get MVP up into a piledriver onto the steel chair but MVP punched his way out and hit the playmaker onto a steel chair for a two count. (MVP his finisher on a steel chair and still didn’t get the win?) Callihan gained control by tossing a steel chair into MVP’s face. Callihan grabbed a baseball bat from underneath the ring. Before he could use the bat, MVP hit a running spear. MVP then used the bat to take out Fulton and Leon Scott. The distraction allowed Callihan to recover and used the bat to hit MVP in the gut. Callihan then hit the cranial contusion for a two count. Good near fall. Callihan then hit MVP in the forehead with the bat (protecting the end of the bat with his own hand) and that got a three count for the win.

WINNER: Sami Callihan.

(Karcher’s Comments: This was mostly bad, with small patches of good thrown in. I hated most of the backstage brawling stuff. Now that’s not necessarily my thing so maybe it was good brawling and I just can’t recognize it but I just can’t get into it. I did like the near falls at the end. A few times I thought the match would be over and was very surprised by at least two kick outs. I also like that Callihan hit his finisher, and MVP kicked out, so Callihan just gets back up and uses the bat to finish MVP off. I like when a wrestler keeps up the offense after getting a near fall and then just simply does another big move in order to get the win. It’s something you see a lot in NJPW and I’d like to see more of it in the states.

– Schiavone reminded everyone that next Tom Lawler will face Jack Hager. He said it was UFC vs. Bellator.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I thought this week was a great show. It was light on good wrestling, but I liked all of the storyline progression we got on this show. The Low Ki-Strickland program is heating up nicely and I’m looking forward to that eventual match. I liked the Team Filthy vs. Stud Stable developments and well see next week how that turns out. I hope the MVP and Callihan program is over. This would have been an okay finish to the program but if they keep going I feel like it will wear out its welcome. That’s it for this week. Be sure to check back right here next week for my MLW Fusion Report here on PWtorch.com.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S REPORT: 6/29 MLW Fusion TV Report: Rich Swann vs. ACH, plus Battle Riot hype, Tom Lawlor and Simon Gotch, Jimmy Havoc, Guevara, Sami, Schiavone