We’re back with more MLW Fusion and the conclusion of the Opera Cup’s opening round action! Here’s the episode card.
MLW Fusion #112
Opera Cup Opening Round: Laredo Kid vs. ACH
Mars Krueger vs. Ariel Dominguez
Opera Cup Opening Round: Low Ki vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
In This Episode
Josef Samael introduces “The Blackhand of Contra” Mads Krügger. Also, Tom Lawlor announces that Dominic Garrini has found a tag partner in Kevin Ku—from my hometown of Birmingham, AL.
Yes, I had to announce that as it’s rare. If you don’t remember Ku, he made his on-screen debut during a Pulp Fusion episode where Lawlor was looking for Garrini.
Dominic was searching for a partner and said he saw Ku in action at an Inoki Jungle Fight event. It’ll be interesting to see how Violence Is Forever mixes it up in MLW.
Speaking of tag team action, the Von Erichs discuss Contra Unit and how they want a piece of them. Contra has way too many enemies without a strong number of heavy hitters besides Fatu, Samael, and now this Mads Krügger.
We’ll see how things pan out for the faction in the coming weeks. On the note of Contra, we have the continuation of the Salina de la Renta vs. Konnan beef.
Everything is very mysterious and vague with Salina. She’s promising something big and this viewer is hoping it’s a revival of Promociones Dorado.
Low-Tier
Mads Krugger debuts against Ariel Dominguez. He destroys Dominguez in 1:46 with a full Nelson facebuster. After that, the Sentai Death Squad comes out and puts Dominguez in a body bag.
That’s it. This was all Mads. I’m interested in how Logan Creed does with this gimmick. He should do well since he just needs to come out and destroy stuff.
The Intimidation Games cage match will be his big test if it gets that far with Contra Unit again.
Mid-Tier
ACH vs. Laredo Kid was good in the Opera Cup’s opening round was good. It didn’t wow me like Lawlor vs. Romero but it was a solid, strike-heavy match.
I was expecting Laredo Kid to take it to the skies on ACH who is an all-rounder but he mixed it up with kicks and punches. Actually, I don’t know if ACH did that great of a job at cutting Kid off or if Kid was like “I’m in this bitch” and wanted to throw hands.
It didn’t matter because ACH put Kid away with a Ghost Buster-level Brainbuster at 14:08. A hard-fought match that sees ACH advance in the Opera Cup to face Tom Lawlor.
Exotic-Tier
Low Ki vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr is a rematch from last year’s opening round. This was a match I said was too close to call and the opening feeling out period showed that.
As the match went on, we had Low Ki working diligently in keeping DBS Jr on the mat. While he has shaped up his mat game to the point of being better-rounded than his pops, DBS Jr is still at his most dangerous at the stand-up game.
After dumping Low Ki from the turnbuckles to the outside, things turned in DBS Jr’s favor. As expected, he gnawed on Low Ki from a standing base.
All of his mat offense was done in a way where he could get to his feet quickly if needed. Smith went to the Dean Malenko School of Collecting Limbs because he targeted the hands and shoulders of Low Ki.
I mean, Low Ki’s feet were always his most dangerous weapon but Davey Boy had a plan here. Towards the end, things were more in DBS Jr’s favor.
Low Ki attempted the same sleeper from last year’s bout. Instinctively, Smith Jr attempted the same roll-up attempt only for Low Ki to roll through and get the pin at a little under 21-minutes.
MLW Fusion #112 Verdict: Mid-Tier (7/10)
The main event bout was everything on this show. It didn’t have the pace of Lawlor vs. Romero but if you dig mid-tempo technical-heavy bouts, this match is the ticket.
Also worth watching was the ACH vs. Laredo Kid match. It was actually the complete opposite of what I was expecting and it turned out to be a good match.
Next week we have Calvin Tankman in action again. The big-ticket match will be the Von Erichs defending the MLW World Tag Team titles against Jacob Fatu and Simon Gotch.
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