MLW Underground Wrestling Review - February 21, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sam Adonis def. MLW World Tag Team Champion Calvin Tankman

I like the idea to pair Adonis with Cesar Duran because it gives viewers a reason to hate him right off the bat. He plays his role well and he had a quality contest here with Tankman. I was actually surprised to see EJ Nduka accompany Tankman to ringside since his recent title match with Alexander Hammerstone was the perfect swan song for him if he is indeed done with the promotion, but at least he and Tankman might be dropping the tag titles before that happens. Post-match, Johnny Fusion/John Hennigan (he was referred to by both names) made the save for Davey Richards (who was called out by Adonis), only to attack him and align with Adonis and old friend Duran. Richards vs. Fusion/Hennigan for the MLW National Openweight Championship will go down on next week's episode.

The Billington Bulldogs def. The F.B.I.

Billington Bulldogs are off to a solid start. MLW doesn't have many teams (and I have no idea what the hell happened to The Von Erichs), so I can see the division being built around them and eventually them winning the tag titles. There wasn't much to the match, but it was fine while it lasted and successfully served as a showcase for Billington Bulldogs. They'll have to do more to get over with the audience, but racking up wins for now only helps.

MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone def. Yamato

Yamato is a top talent from Dragon Gate and I appreciated that we got a video package on him earlier in the episode. MLW often randomly throws unfamiliar faces onto the show without telling the audience anything about them, and although that works in some cases, a bit of background is always helpful. They didn't get a ton of time due to the commercial break, but it ended up being a pretty good sprint, regardless. Jacob Fatu emerged afterward to brawl with Hammerstone and hype their upcoming rematch for the title.

Overall Show

Unlike the last two episodes, this show featured graphics for Underground Wrestling and wasn't from a Fusion taping. Between Johnny Fusion's debut and the title match main event, it was easily the strongest edition of the three so far and I'm excited for Fusion vs. Richards next week. Interestingly, there has been no new Fusion episode for the last two weeks, so it looks like MLW is putting their full focus on Underground Wrestling for the time being.

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