MLW One-Shot Review - December 5, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Riddle and "Filthy" Tom Lawlor Confronted Eric Bischoff

I thought this show would benefit from happening two days after Bischoff's appearance on WWE NXT, but the ratings revealed that Bischoff's NXT appearance didn't make the slightest difference, at least not a positive one. It was apparently NXT's lowest-rated episode in about a year. Yikes. I don't despise Bischoff the way most people do, but I can't deny he wasted a lot of time in this segment pandering to the crowd and saying nothing of note. It should've ended after his interaction with Riddle and Lawlor, but it just kept going, not to mention he was all over the rest of the show, to.

Mads Krule Krugger def. Babathunder

Babathunder is the former Babatunde a.k.a. Dabba-Kato a.k.a. Commander Azeez from WWE. Yes, he's had a ton of names but not a whole lot of success. I feel bad for the dude, but he's just not all that great and I don't see that changing in MLW. As you'd expect, this was a slow, plodding big man match. Immediately following his loss, Babathunder pledged his allegiance to Contra Unit. Okay, then.

Delmi Exo def. Ava Everett

Exo is great and has improved in the time I've been watching MLW, but I'm beyond ready for MLW to move beyond her and Janai Kai feuding over the MLW World Women's Featherweight Championship. It's like the division consists of them and no one else. This was a decent match and Everett had a solid showing, but it only existed to give Exo a win before she challenges for the title again. At least she established afterward that their next rematch will be Hair vs. Title.

Alex Kane def. Bobby Fish in a UWFI Rules Match

This was of the Fans' Choice matches. I would love to know who voted for a UWFI Rules match because I can't imagine I was the only one who didn't know/remember what the hell the rules entailed exactly. Honestly, I was largely bored by this. Fish was unable to get to his feet by the 10 count, so Kane was deemed the winner. Bischoff then "fired" Kane afterward. I'm skeptical that there will be an endgame to that angle.

MLW World Middleweight Champion Mistico def. Trevor Lee

Mistico's mask was on the line as well as his title. Lee is an terrific talent that I haven't seen much of whatsoever since he was released by WWE earlier this year. That was a loss for WWE in my book, but he needs to prove to them what they're missing out on. His skills were on full display in this entertaining outing. Mistico has been killing it as the World Middleweight champ this year and this was another fun title defense from him.

Matt Riddle def. Donovan Dijak in an MLW World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Match by Disqualification

Bischoff told Riddle in the opening segment that the title shot he earned from winning Battle Riot would be up for grabs here. This was the type of match that you would've seen on any edition of NXT from 2018 or 2019. They had the well-worked match they're capable of and the disqualification finish (even though I don't recall hearing the bell ring when Mister Saint Laurent pulled the referee out of the ring) was logical so both guys were protected.

The Andersons def. Paul Walter Hauser and MLW National Openweight Champion Matthew Justice in a New York City Street Fight

To his credit, Hauser is a massive wrestling fan. I applaud the effort he puts forth in the ring, but he really should've retired after that match with Lawlor a few months ago. That was a mess but had a certain charm to it. This did not. The New York City Street Fight didn't make it much better, either. Does this mean The Rogue Horsemen have the MLW National Openweight Championship in their sights?

COZYMAX def. Contra Unit (Ikuro Kwon and Minoru Suzuki) to Win the MLW World Tag Team Championship

I was relieved when COZYMAX finally lost the tag titles over the summer. Satoshi Kojima's focus should be solely on the MLW World Heavyweight Championship at this point, yet he and Okumura got the belts back here for absolutely no reason. As a match, this was fine for what it was, but hardly worthy of the main event spot. How anyone can consider Contra Unit a threat at this point, I have no idea.

Overall Show

Well, that was certainly a show that happened. In short, One-Shot sucked. Bischoff went from making a brief appearance on Tuesday's NXT to being featured all over this event, and not necessarily for the better. There were way too many shenanigans and the stipulations added to most of the matches were unnecessary. A lot of what we got on this show was not good, making for one of MLW's weaker events all year.

SEE MORE: MLW Reviews