MLW Fusion Review - February 17, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Davey Richards def. ACH

I haven't seen an ACH match since he left WWE in late 2019. I know he's seemingly retired a time or two since then, but it doesn't change the fact the guy can go in the ring. Throw in the fact that Richards has been killing it since returning to wrestling and this was an excellent match. ACH looked excellent in defeat and I liked how Richards put him over in the post-match promo. Richards will be contending for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship soon, so it obviously made sense for him to win here.

The Saito Brothers def. Gnarls Garvin and Budd Heavy

The Saito Brothers are from All Japan Pro Wrestling. I know nothing about them and I can't say anything I saw from them here was particularly impressive. I'm sure they're a talented team, but this wasn't exactly the strongest debut for them. It doesn't help that Garvin and Heavy weren't the best first opponents for them. Character-wise, Garvin and Heavy are a logical tandem, but I don't think they meshed well with The Saito Brothers at all. It was decent, if nothing else.

MLW World Tag Team Champions 5150 (Slice Boogie and Rivera) def. Los Parks (​LA Park Jr. and El Hijo de LA Park) in a Ladder Match

5150 were supposed to defend the tag titles against The Von Erichs at this taping before they had to be pulled, I believe due to COVID reasons. I'm sure that will be saved for WrestleMania weekend in Texas at this point. I didn't think Los Parks would win, but they gave it a hell of an effort, nonetheless. This wasn't one of those classic Ladder matches that will be included on an all-timer list, but as a wild brawl, it was fun with some cool spots mixed in and the expected interference from LA Park and Homicide.

Overall Show

We also got a contract signing backstage with Richards and Alexander Hammerstone for their upcoming MLW World Heavyweight Championship match as well as an explanation from Richard Holliday and Alicia Atout as to why they turned on Hammerstone. This wasn't a very wrestling-heavy show, but I really enjoyed that opener and the Ladder match main event for the tag titles was notable, so it was solid on the whole. Between Killer Kross, Lio Rush and Gangrel (yes, seriously), MLW is bringing in a ton of talent in the next few months and I'm excited to see how they're incorporated into the product. MLW seems to still be finding itself again after that stretch of Azteca shows that didn't have a ton of storyline significance.

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