MLW Fusion Review - October 19, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Ichiban def. Love, Doug in an MLW World Middleweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

I've mentioned before that I was first exposed to Doug's work on the independent scene late last year and I wasn't sure if his gimmick would translate well to the MLW audience. Well, it was obvious from the reaction he received here that he's gotten over just fine. Ichiban is also progressing nicely and I'm glad he's being built up with a string of wins. By virtue of his victory, he's now next in line to challenge newly-crowned MLW World Middleweight Champion Rocky Romero.

The Bomaye Fight Club (Mr. Thomas and J Boujii) def. The Mane Event

We don't see nearly enough of J Bouji in action, so it was cool to see him back in the ring for this match alongside Thomas. They make for a good team and they had a well-worked match with The Mane Event, another nice addition to the tag team division. I wouldn't be opposed to them dethroning The Calling as MLW World Tag Team Champions in the near future, if only because it means less gold in that group.

Matt Cardona def. 1 Called Manders

This marked Cardona's Fusion in-ring debut. Considering he beat Mance Warner back at Fury Road, it made sense for him to take on Manders here. They had a fairly standard main event with nothing out of the ordinary about it, but at least Cardona won to remain undefeated (which he boasted about afterward) ahead of his inevitable opportunity at Alex Kane's MLW World Heavyweight Championship.

Overall Show

For a Slaughterhouse follow-up show, this was an uneventful edition of Fusion. We got the usual backstage interviews and three decent matches, but it felt like business as usual. It was a step up from recent episode, but I expected more. Then again, The Calling had zero presence on this show after being all over Slaughterhouse, so that alone made it bearable. I'm glad they've already established that Kane vs. Cardona is the direction they're headed in.

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