We’re catching up on a ton of MLW Fusion ALPHA! I enjoy binging Fusion ALPHA and Major League Wrestling has been on fire in late 2021 with this show!
MLW Fusion ALPHA #3 Card
5150 vs. Injustice
Willow Nightingale vs. Ashley Vox
MLW World Heavyweight Title: Jacob Fatu (c) vs. Matt Cross
The Sizzle
Alicia Atout talks with women’s featherweight division talents and current SHIMMER Tag champs going on two years, Team Sea Stars.
The team is comprised of Delmi Exo and Ashley Vox–the latter of which will be facing Willow Nightingale next. Speaking of Willow, she joins the interview. It’s all friendly until Brittany Blake moseys in and breaks up the fun.
We get a CONTRA Unit interruption with Daivari speaking Farsi. Hammerstone–who just stays on CONTRA’s ass–shows up and starts beating him up.
Mads Krugger shows up and starts brawling with Hammerstone. Expect updates on the brawl throughout the night in this lead-up to MLW Fightland 2021. Atout is interviewing Davey Richards when TJP shows up, interrupts, and sneaks in a slap. A brawl is about to pop off when refs rush in to break it up.
Latin American Xchange is a dope faction/tag team in any incarnation and 5150 is no different. This promo about the aftermath of this episode’s opener is really good with the trio not being impressed by the efforts of Injustice.
Julius Smokes also reveals there was a big ol’ parking lot rock in the slapjack. Seriously, this rock was the kind of rock you’d find at the dark end of a Wal-Mart parking lot where people tend to avoid parking.
Smokes was in that parking lot and found a gem of slapjack rock. We get another CONTRA Unit promo, this time with Josef Samael hyping the big title vs. title match
The Steak
5150 vs. Injustice had a mixed start. Not very fast as you’d expect but not slow. It was a steady start that worked and showed 5150’s power over Injustice.
Once things picked up with 5150 using ring awareness and tag work the Injustice team of Myron Reed and Jordan Oliver were in peril. Rivera and Slice Boogie work very well together cutting off the ring. Once Oliver manages to tag Reed in, “Hot Fire” is a house en fuego!
Everything about the match was solid. Good pace, the finish with Julius Smokes hitting Reed with the slapjack was good Konnan was in a primary manager role and Smokes as the interfering, active manager works. Smokes can double as a wrestler but Injustice just never got their third guy back.
The Women’s featherweight division match between Willow Nightingale and Ashley Vox was very good.
There were parts where it seemed to slow down a touch but everything was fluid, the flow saw Willow show off her strength and use her size while Vox used her speed and ability to counter.
Since it was the first outing for the division, they did a great job in keeping the pace going and keeping it entertaining for the crowd.
Late in the match, we see some surprising agility–if you’re like me and not as familiar with women’s wrestling in the U.S or SHIMMER–from Willow. Willow picks up the win with an AWESOME gutwrench powerbomb.
Rich Bocchini lets us know that the main event between MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu and Matt Cross will be the tenth title defense. This match was solid overall but really good in the second half. I believe the thing about this match was that it was an obvious (possible) final defense for Jacob Fatu’s first reign.
The way these shows aired before Fightland kind of gave away that we were getting Fatu vs. Hammerstone. This is MLW’s most anticipated match of the year and has been the clash they had to run for over a year.
That said, the match delivered as a defense. I wouldn’t say that there was that unpredictable moment where Cross could’ve won the MLW World Heavyweight title but he gave Fatu a strong fight.
Also, that moonsault from Fatu to finish him was magnificent. I was thinking “There’s no way he’ll be able to hit that moonsault from that far.” Fatu is great but he doesn’t have the spring in his legs like AKI Man from WCW/nWo Revenge 64. “The Samoan Werewolf” proved me wrong, obviously.
It was a good, exciting main event for MLW Fusion ALPHA and a good lead-in to Fightland on Vice.
MLW Fusion ALPHA #3 Verdict: Silver Medal (3/5)
Both the sizzle and the steak scores came out to 3 out of 5. The women’s featherweight match was only hurt by there being no actual stakes or story going on.
Exhibitions only go so far with me unless they’re exceptional—like the six-man tag from Barely Legal ‘97. The main event title match was hurt by the expectation that Fatu was going to win since MLW had all of this promotional stuff done in advance for Fatu vs. Hammerstone.
“Card subject to change” is one of wrestling’s mantras but Court Bauer wasn’t going to blue ball fans on a match we should’ve gotten months ago. Match of the episode was Fatu vs. Cross for the World title.
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