MLW Fusion Review - September 28, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tiara James def. Zayda Steel

James is one of MLW's newest recruits and, having seen her work on the independent scene, I'm glad she's getting the opportunity to show what she can do. Her winning here was a solid start and she had a decent match with Steel, but it would help if we got to know more about her through a profile package or a backstage promo. Maybe those things will come in time. Either way, she's a quality addition to MLW's women's division.

TJ Crawford def. Kevin Blackwood and Alec Price in a Three-Way Match

Blackwood is another new recruit by MLW and I believe this marked his in-ring debut for the promotion if I'm not mistaken. He was definitely impressive along with Crawford and Price, who have had at least a few matches already in MLW. This served as a strong showcase for all three guys and it was a really fun match. A masked man confronted Crawford a few weeks ago and he revealed himself to be Tony Deppen here, helping Crawford attack Blackwood afterward. That's a good feud for both men.

MLW World Middleweight Champion and MLW World Tag Team Champion AKIRA def. Jimmy Lloyd in a Street Fight

I know very little about Lloyd other than that he's aligned with The Second Gear Crew, but from what I can tell, hardcore wrestling is his specialty. He and AKIRA had a nice brawl, though it would've meant more if we didn't see so many Street Fights and No Disqualification matches in MLW as often as we do. The Calling continue to dominate and hold most of the gold. We found out earlier in the episode that AKIRA will face CMLL representative Rocky Romero at Slaughterhouse.

Overall Show

In addition to the three matches written about above, there was also talk of Mister Saint Laurent starting his own promotion within MLW called the World Titan Federation featuring Matt Cardona, Gene Snisky and Davey Both Smith Jr., basically a mini WWE. We'll see where that goes, but very rarely does MLW actually stick to this stuff and instead it's forgotten about soon after. It also doesn't feel like there are that many storylines going on in MLW right now and The Calling being the primary focal point is not appealing. With all of that said, I liked the three matches we got and thought it was a thumbs-up episode on the whole.

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