MLW Fury Road Review - September 27, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Atlantis, MLW National Openweight Champion Blue Panther and Diego Hill def. El Galeon Fantasma

There was a lucha six-man tag team match on a recent MLW event that was quite good despite me knowing very little about those involved and this was along the same lines (though I'm familiar with Atlantis and Panther). It was well wrestled and the crowd was into the action. The outcome was irrelevant in my opinion, but they did kick off the show on a high note.

Paul London def. Okumura in an Opera Cup Opening Round Match

This wasn't nearly as long as the opener and that was probably for the best. Both guys are older and I'm not sure how this would've gone had it lasted longer, so keeping it on the shorter side was smart. Of the two, London winning was the better outcome. I liked that he established in a post-match promo that this could be his last shot and that's his motivation to win the whole thing.

Volador Jr. def. Titan in an Opera Cup Opening Round Match

I've seen plenty of these guys in Ring of Honor in the last year or so and I'm well aware they're both talented, so unsurprisingly, this was an enjoyable outing from them. They received plenty of time and kept it interesting throughout. This was another instance where it didn't matter to me who advanced, so I was just along for the ride. Volador Jr. will face Zandokan Jr. in the next round.

Shotzi Blackheart def. Alejandra Quintanilla

I'm honestly shocked MLW didn't immediately put the MLW World Women's Featherweight Championship on Blackheart and instead opted to have her pick up a bunch of wins before eventually challenging for it. That's definitely a positive. Granted, there was no question who was winning here, but I thought they had a nice match in the time they were allotted.

Satoshi Kojima def. Mr. Thomas in a Lightning Match

I continue to hate the concept of Lightning matches, as it feels like a longer version of WWE's Speed matches and that concept sucks, too. Not only was there nothing at stake, I don't even know why this needed to be a Lightning match. I also don't know why Thomas attacked Kojima beforehand. I must have missed something. Thomas was on offense for a majority of it, but Kojima won, anyway. All of this was a waste of time.

Austin Aries def. Kushida in an Opera Cup Opening Round Match

Aries has spent the last little while on commentary for MLW, but this was actually his first match for the promotion since 2019. His pre-match promo did him no favors. I'm sure he thought it was brilliant, but it reeked of the same nonsense he's been babbling about on social media for years. Thankfully, the match itself delivered and even exceeded my expectations. I don't know if Aries advancing was the way to go, though.

MLW World Heavyweight Champion Mads Krule Krugger vs. MLW World Tag Team Champion Bishop Dyer Never Got Underway (Non-Title)

I was looking forward to seeing what these guys could do together, but it never got underway due to Dyer and Donovan Dijak brawling with Krugger instead. As an angle, it was fine, but what sucked is that it was supposed to serve as the main event. This wouldn't have been as lame had it happened earlier in the event, but hopefully we'll get the match eventually. If neither Dyer nor Dijak are in Chamber of Horrors at Slaughterhouse (where Krugger's MLW World Heavyweight Championship will be defended), how much sense would that make?

Overall Show

Aside from the main event not going on as planned, this was a thumbs-up event from MLW. There was more focus on the Opera Cup, Blackheart scored another momentum-building win and the opener was fun. Kojima vs. Thomas was the only thing on the show I didn't care for (in the ring, anyway), but that's about it. We'll see if MLW can keep up the string of solid shows with Slaughterhouse next Saturday.

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