MLW Fury Road 2019 Recap/Review

Beware of Contra Unit…

We open with a look back at MLW Fusion as Contra Unit attacked the Lucha Bros., Barrington Hughes and Ace Romero, Low Ki, and then the MLW Heavyweight champion Tom Lawlor as they drape the Contra flag onto Lawlor.

We are welcomed to MLW Fury Road by the broadcast team of Rich Bocchini and Jim Cornette who hype up the two title matches at the show with the tournament finals for the National Openweight championship between Alexander Hammerstone of Dynasty and Brian Pillman Jr. of The Hart Foundation and then the MLW Middleweight championship is on the line as Teddy Hart of The Hart Foundation defends against Jimmy Havoc.

Match 1: Myron Reed vs Gringo Loco

Myron heads towards the ring with a protest sign with “#Justice” on it and his mouth covered with tape that says the same. The announcers talk about how he is convinced the whole world is against him which I like as it reminds me of Chris Jericho’s “conspiracy victim” gimmick going over two decades ago in WCW. The match starts with Reed and Loco pushing/shoving each other and some counters which leads to the first piece of offense in the match as Reed does a flip over the top rope landing on Loco after he had rolled out of the ring and whatever plan he had backfiring. Reed has some words for the crowd as he rolls Gringo Loco into the ring and attempts a pinfall that only reaches a two count. After some work in the corner Loco lands a kick to the chest of Reed and does some nice looking flips after being irish whipped into the opposite corner by Myron. It’s pretty amazing when it comes to the athleticism of Loco in regards to his weight. Shades of the late John Kronus. Reed runs at Loco and gets a dropkick to the knees for all his trouble. Reed goes for another irish whip but after he drops down Gringo Loco stops and executes a beautiful standing moonsault onto the back of Myron Reed. Myron hops onto the middle rope and lands on Loco’s shoulders and rotates into a frankensteiner but no, no, no, not this time as Gringo transitions his momentum into a cartwheel. Loco goes to hit Reed but he pulls a matrix and goes inside out and hits an enzuigiri and after some aerial attempts gets hit with a boot to the arm and goes down for a two count. Reed hits a good looking slingshot leg drop for a two count. Reed is definitely getting good heat on himself playing things up especially when he locks in a chin lock. After Loco gets countered on a moonsault from the corner he nearly gets the win with a running sitout powerbomb. Then, after some back and forth on the turnbuckle Loco hits a Falcon Arrow off the top rope and STILL cannot get the three and there is definitely a sense of heat as we get “Holy Shit” chants and some cheers for Gringo Loco. We get a hint of a finish to the match as Reed hits a bounce back cutter and then hits the springboard 450 splash for a two count. Things get interesting when the referee starts hounding Myron about him having a foreign object when he gets hit with a crescent kick and by Loco and reverses a suplex into a modified stunner. Loco goes for a roll-up and Reed reverses into a roll-up of his own but using heelish tactics as he holds the ropes. He gets caught by the ref and lets go. After threatening the referee Reed gets caught in a spinning tombstone piledriver for the three count. As Loco is celebrating Reed sticks his hand into his tights and nails Gringo in the head with a pair of brass knucks.

We then go to Salina De La Renta who announces that MLW Head Honcho Court Bauer has given her control of the June 15th show. We then go back to the next bout which is the finals of the MLW National Openweight tournament between Dynasty’s Alexander Hammerstone and The Hart Foundation’s Brian Pillman Jr.

Match 2: Alexander Hammerstone vs Brian Pillman Jr.

Prior to the match beginning MJF makes a remark about the late great Brian Pillman that simply only he could have done. The match begins with a lockup between Pillman Jr. and Hammerstone and Pillman works the arm of Hammerstone and hammers him with a flurry of chops and punches before performing a running dropkick into Hammerstone. After a failed cradle roll-up Pillman gets nailed with a scissor kick by Hammerstone shades of Booker T. Hammerstone has control with some elbows to the face of Pillman and goes for a suplex to the outside of the ring but Pillman fights back and hits him with a dropkick in which Pillman nearly flies through the ropes and while he’s on the apron he nearly knocks himself and Hammerstone out with a reverse cross-body. After hitting a European uppercut on Hammerstone as he lies against the guard rail, Pillman runs around the ring doing a full 360 and dives at Hammerstone but is caught and swung against the railing. Hammerstone then hits an odd looking powerbomb with Pillman landing on the apron. He rolls Pillman into the ring for a two count. Pillman shows he is still in the fight by slapping Hammerstone across the face to which leads to Pillman getting multiple knees to the face. After putting Pillman in an abdominal stretch and hitting him with a lariat does Hammerstone go for the cover which fails as Pillman grabs the bottom rope. After launching Pillman into two corners Hammerstone continues what MJF started by saying “If only your daddy were here”. Pillman responds with a better super kick than most of the ones seen in the fed only for Hammerstone to kick out at two. This happens again when Pillman hits another reverse cross-body Pillman goes to the top and misses a senton and Hammerstone pounces and hits the Nightmare Pendulum for the win beating Pillman and becoming the inaugural National Openweight champion for MLW. Hammerstone then cuts a heel promo on Pillman saying he was riding his father’s name while Hammerstone worked for it. We then get a hype graphic for the main event for the MLW Middleweight Championship between Jimmy Havoc and the man with the gold Teddy 2 Belts.

We get a hype graphic for Austin Aries return to MLW. Suddenly we see a Contra Unit logo on screen and then Fatu and Samael attack “Filthy” Tom Lawlor and kidnap him and then the video transitions into a hostage video which I was not expecting and when I say hostage I mean terrorist level. Or if you want to be a nerd about it the hostage scene with the Ten Rings and Tony Stark in the first Iron Man. But instead of Tom Lawlor crafting an exo-suit he gets beat up by Fatu while Samael cuts off his ponytail. He then says that they are Contra Unit and are in MLW to take what they want.

Main Event: Teddy Hart vs Jimmy Havoc

The match immediately starts as Havoc goes to get a cheap shot in on Teddy 2 Belts after he climbs the turnbuckle and does a back-flip off of the top rope landing on his feet. He’s that damn good. Teddy evades Havoc and starts hitting him with punches, uppercuts and a neck-breaker before hitting a beautiful springboard corkscrew. Teddy has control of the match hitting Havoc with kicks and punches before Havoc takes control after hitting an elbow to the face of Hart. Havoc gets hit with two lung-blowers and a moonsault off the corner rope. After hitting a modified neck-breaker on Teddy Hart he is busted open and then gets hit with a chair by Havoc as his head is against the turnbuckle. At this point the ref has gloves on as Teddy is bleeding profusely and to add insult to injury Havoc juices Teddy Hart’s hand and mouth with an 8×10. He then does multiple suplexes on Teddy against and eventually denting the guard rail. Havoc smacks Hart across the head with a chair and tries to pick up the pinfall but Hart kicks out at two. It is at this point where it is announced that on the next MLW Fusion MJF will be taking on Davey Boy Smith Jr. Teddy hits a frankensteiner on Havoc and Havoc then goes for a sharpshooter on Teddy Hart in a show of disrespect. After the two exchange Canadian destroyers, Teddy hulks up and hits a hammerlock DDT onto a chair for the victory. The Dynasty come out to attack Teddy Hart and Pillman and Davey come out and its a six man brawl to end the show.

4.5 out of 5