MLW Fusion: ALPHA - September 29, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Aramis def. Arez

The commentators noted that Cesar Duran will be bringing in more luchadors going forward and this was just a taste of what to expect. If MLW is going to be incorporating more Lucha Underground-esque elements into its product, you'll get no complaints out of me. I know absolutely nothing about either competitor and yet it didn't matter in the slightest because this was an excellent opener that the crowd was white-hot for. Both guys definitely made a fantastic impression in their debuts for MLW and left me wanting more.

Alex Kane def. Budd Heavy

This marked Kane's MLW debut and he was accompanied to ringside by King Mo (remember the MMA fight from TNA all those years ago?). As for Heavy, I assume he's a regular in MLW because he was a crowd favorite here. He played his role really well taking all of Kane's offense and making it look devastating. Much like Aramis and Arez, I was very impressed with what I saw from Kane. He feels like a perfect fit for MLW.

MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone def. Tom Lawlor

Hammerstone and Lawlor feel like two of MLW's biggest "homegrown" stars, so this was a smart match to showcase on their second episode of Fusion: ALPHA for those who are new to the product (such as myself), especially ahead of Hammerstone's big match with Jacob Fatu for the world title at Fightland. They had a damn good match and the win established Hammerstone as even more of a threat to Fatu than he already was.

Overall Show

That's two weeks in a row now that I've liked what I've seen from Fusion: ALPHA. I didn't know much about Fightland before two weeks, but I'm amped looking at the card and MLW has done a strong job on ALPHA the past two weeks of building it up. As for this episode, it once again effectively moved storylines along, introduced new characters, hyped stuff up for next week's shows (including Fightland airing on Thursday on Vice TV), and the three matches were all different from each other and worthwhile. If you're new to MLW like me, then now is as ideal of a time as any to jump into the product.

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