Episode 117 of MLW Fusion is produced by Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado. Between 2018 and 2019, the faction terrorized the MLW ring while gradually losing talent.
During the first half of 2019, Contra Unit became the powerful heel army in town and began targeting everyone—including Promociones Dorado members.
Before the year was out, Los Parks had become free agents, the other members just weren’t featured as often, and de la Renta simply continued her beef with Konnan.
However, it seems as though the faction was just in holding.
A Word About the Verdict
As with every review starting this year, the matches make up the bulk of the rating. In the case of TV shows, bonus points are given for the overall show pace and how well ongoing stories are presented.
Pay-per-views and major events only get bonuses for show pace as the matches themselves should carry the story after four weeks of television with promos and angles.
A point can be deducted for a show that drags or nothing being pushed storyline-wise at all. With that out of the way, let’s get into MLW Fusion #117!
Storylines on This Episode
Low Ki still has it out for King Mo for his attacks and having him blackballed by different athletic commissions. Salina de la Renta is still beefing with Konnan who accused her of working with Contra Unit to invade MLW early last year.
Either Promociones Dorado was revived or it never left as de la Renta had no charges last year. Her new ace looks to be the debuting Mil Muertes. She announced that there would be an MLW Tag Team title defense as the Von Erichs take on Los Parks. With “Filthy” Tom Lawlor as special guest referee.
Dynasty’s Richard Holliday—who had a solid run in the 2021 MLW Opera Cup—is still feuding with Savio Vega over the IWA Puerto Rico Caribbean championship.
Lio Rush bragged about being MLW World Middleweight champion—as he should. Injustice and Alexander Hammerstone are beefing with Contra Unit and should result in better big game bouts later in the year.
The big breaking news announced mid-episode is that Promociones Dorado was purchased. In the credit bump at the end of the broadcast, Promociones Dorado’s logo was secondary to one that looked like the Lucha Underground logo and read “a subsidiary of Azteca Underground.”
MLW Fusion #117 Card
-Low Ki vs. Budd Heavy
–Mil Muertes Debut Match: Mil Muertes vs. Brian Pillman Jr
–MLW World Tag Team Title – Texas Tornado Tag Match: The Von Erichs [c] vs. Los Parks
Low-Tier
Low Ki murks Budd Heavy in eight seconds with the Cross Right Flash running elbow smash for a KO. His promo afterward about King Mo and Team Filthy was longer. He’s still MLW’s knockout artist.
Mil Muertes depended on this Promociones Dorado-produced show. His opponent was Brian Pillman Jr who hasn’t seen the same booking in Major League Wrestling as he did in 2018 and 2019.
This was a brief, basic, and meh affair with Salina de la Renta’s bulldozer putting Pillman down in 3:26 with the Straight to Hell. A dominant performance by the former Lucha Underground Champion.
Mid-Tier
The main event was a bit mess of a match featuring a filthy, special guest referee in Tom Lawlor—arranged by this episode’s producer Salina de la Renta.
Her new—or still contracted—team of Los Parks was granted a Tag Team title shot under her authority. On top of that, it was made a Texas Tornado match which is pretty flexible as it is.
Without Lawlor’s involvement, this could’ve gone either way. Von Erich family members are expected to be good at Texas Tornado matches in the same way that Funks are expected to exceed at Texas Death Matches.
The opposing family team of Los Parks tend to really have brawling on lock and can get it done in bouts with loose rules. This should’ve been a truly dope showdown all things considered.
Even though there was some questionable officiating from Tom Lawlor, the brawling and scrapping was something I knew I’d be into. I love a brawl, folks.
This wasn’t the most heated of brawls but it was an exciting match with an odd run-in by L.A Park Jr who assisted his dad in scoring another Spear.
Then he dove back on the same side of the ring that he came from in front of special referee Tom Lawlor. Not that it matters since it’s Lawlor and he’s the scoundrel that MLW fans love.
Los Parks pick up the win and the championships at 10:36, ending the Von Erich’s 438-day reign. I enjoy matches like this, this one, in particular, was a decent match.
It probably wasn’t the title change myself or others were expecting or wanted but the match itself wasn’t bad at all. As with some of the matches on Kings of Colosseum 2021, you know those in the ring can deliver better.
MLW Fusion #117 Verdict: Mid-Tier (5/10)
Even though the episode wasn’t particularly good, it picked up two bonus points for being a well-paced episode and getting the company’s stories in.
It didn’t feel like a regular one-hour show or something where it feels like you’ve been watching longer than an hour.
Quality-wise, this wasn’t Major League Wrestling’s best offering and definitely doesn’t work as an introduction to the company for newcomers.
This was an “I’ve been watching for a while already” episode of Fusion. The match of the Episode goes to the MLW World Tag Team title main event even though it was just slightly past the midway mark of “mid-tier”.
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