By Chris Vetter, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@chrisvetter73)
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MLW “Never Say Never”
Taped July 12, 2024 St. Petersburg, Florida at The Coliseum
Streamed August 10, 2024 on the MLW YouTube Page
Joe Dombrowski and Christian Cole provided commentary. This is a fieldhouse with a high ceiling and the crowd is maybe 500. MLW has used this venue in the past and I think it’s a good room for wrestling.
1. Mistico defeated Magnus in a first-round Opera Cup tournament match at 13:59. Magnus is in shiny gold and black tonight, while Mistico is in silver/white. Standing switches to open, and Mistico hit some deep armdrags. They fought to the floor, and Magnus whipped him into the guardrail. In the ring, Magnus tried to untie Mistico’s mask, and he tied him in the Tree of Woe. Magnus hit a huracanrana at 5:00, then a 619, then a springboard huracanrana, then a twisting plancha to the floor. In the ring, Mistico hit a handspring-back-elbow then a top-rope crossbody block at 7:30. He nailed a dive through the ropes to the floor onto Magnus. Magnus hit a second-rope superplex for a nearfall at 9:30.
Magnus held Mistico upside down for several seconds before hitting a backbreaker over his knee. He hit a stunner for a nearfall. Mistico hit a Frankensteiner for a nearfall at 11:30. Mistico hit a top-rope Spanish Fly and they were both down; Mistico eventually got a nearfall. They hit stereo Mafia Kicks and again were both down at 13:00. Mistico hit a springboard crossbody block. He got the headscissors into La Mistica/Fujiwara Armbar on the mat, and Magnus quickly tapped out. A very good lucha match, but it ended exactly how you knew it would.
* Backstage, Akira and Satoshi Kojima left a medical trainer room and they said Okumura is too injured to compete. Matt Riddle walked up and volunteered to tag with them tonight.
* In another backstage segment, Salina de la Renta was looking at baby items on her phone. Cesar Duran was annoyed. Duran told Salina’s ‘baby daddy’ he will fight for Azteca Lucha and he handed him a mask. I have not hidden how little I care for this storyline.
* A commercial aired for the next show on Aug. 29 from New York City, which also will air on YouTube. It will feature second-rope Opera Cup tournament matches.
* A vignette aired to say Brock Anderson and CW Anderson are headed to MLW.
2. Bad Dude Tito (w/Salina de la Renta, Jesus Rodriguez) defeated Danny Jones in a first-round Opera Cup tournament match at 6:18. I’ve seen Brit wrestler Jones before, but he is much smaller than Tito. They traded forearm strikes and Jones knocked him down with a shoulder tackle, so Tito hit one back. Tito set up for a dive to the floor at 2:30 but Jones cut him off with a forearm strike. Tito hit a snap suplex for a nearfall. Jones hit an Exploder Suplex for a nearfall. He hit a German Suplex for a nearfall, then a Dragon Suplex, then a Shining Wizard or a nearfall at 4:00.
Tito hit a rolling elbow and his own German Suplex, then a Falcon Arrow for a nearfall. Tito clotheslined him to the floor, and this time he nailed the dive through the ropes. They traded kicks in the ring, then traded clotheslines. Jones dropped him with a clothesline for a nearfall. Tito hit a piledriver for the pin. That was a non-stop sprint and all action.
* Backstage, Saint Laurent approached Mr. Thomas with a briefcase full of money and told him he should be a top star here. Alex Kane approached and chased Laurent off.
* Bobby Fish joined Dombrowski and Cole on commentary.
3. Brett Ryan Gosselin defeated Jake Crist at 2:49. BRG came out first and he got on the mic, and he demanded respect. He vowed to get his revenge on Crist, and called him hillbilly white trash. Crist ran into the ring and immediately stomped on him and they traded punches. BRG hit some back elbows in the corner. Crist hit a Death Valley Driver for a nearfall at 2:30. BRG poked the eyes, then he hit a snap twisting neckbreaker for the pin! I didn’t expect that to be so short.
* Fish interviewed BRG at ringside. Fish said he has the most educated feet in pro wrestling. BRG said he just showed why he should not have been an alternate for the Opera Cup, he should have been in it. Crist came over, but BRG attacked him and stomped on him. Fish hit Crist, too! “Bobby, you are out here as an analyst! What is wrong with you!” Dombrowski shouted.
4. AJ Francis defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. (w/Saint Laurent) via DQ at 6:11. This is a heel-heel matchup so we’ll see how this goes. An intense lockup and Smith stalled. AJ knocked him down with a shoulder tackle at 1:30, and Smith rolled to the floor to regroup. In the ring, Smith hit a back suplex and stomped on Francis and hit a guillotine leg drop for a nearfall. Francis hit his own back suplex at 4:00. They got up and traded forearm strikes. Francis hit a side slam and an elbow drop for a nearfall.
Saint Laurent grabbed AJ’s ankle. It allowed Smith to apply a sleeper. AJ reached the ropes but Davey Boy immediately reapplied it. Francis powered up and again got to the ropes. Smith wouldn’t let go. The ref reached the five-count and called for the bell. He had to step in and yank Smith off of Francis. A strange match; I guess Francis just turned babyface?
* A video package aired of Paul Walter Hauser and Tom Lawlor training for their big match. MLW will return here on Oct. 4!
5. Delmi Exo (w/Cesar Duran) defeated Renee Michelle at 4:42. Michelle has been in AEW and of course is wife of Drake Maverick (and did those cheesy skits with him in WWE.) Delmi wore her tiara to the ring. Slow standing switches to open and this feels like it’s at three-quarters speed. Delmi hit a Russian Leg Sweep at 2:00 for a nearfall. She hit a Northern Lights Suplex for a nearfall. She set up for a package piledriver but Renee escaped, and Renee hit a clothesline and a missile dropkick. They hit stereo kicks. Renee missed a moonsault. Delmi immediately hit the package piledriver for the clean pin. Passable.
* Joe Dombrowski introduced Gigi Rey and interviewed her. Gigi said she has traveled all over the world and proven to be among the best. Renee Michelle came out to her and said Gigi was disrespecting her. Gigi told Renee to go to the back and cool off. Renee challenged her to a match.
* Backstage, an interviewer tried to talk to Bobby Fish and Brett Ryan Gosselin. Fish said “what happened out there was appropriate.”
* A video package aired showing that Miyu Yamashita is headed to MLW! Dates for the next four MLW shows were displayed, including Nov. 9 back in Chicago.
* Outside, Matt Riddle fired up Satoshi Kojima and Akira for their match later.
6. Alex Kane defeated Mr. Thomas in a first-round Opera Cup tournament match at 5:49. Mr. Thomas came out first. They shook hands at the bell and locked up, and Kane immediately applied an ankle lock, but Thomas reached the ropes. Thomas hit a gut-wrench suplex and a bodyslam at 1:30. Kane speared him on the ring apron, then he hit a splash to the mat. In the ring, Kane hit a gut-wrench powerbomb at 3:00. They got up and traded forearm strikes, and Thomas applied a sleeper.
Kane hit a German Suplex and a hard forearm to the jaw. Thomas hit a Sky High powerbomb for a nearfall. Kane hit an Angle Slam. Thomas hit a release suplex. Kane hit a German Suplex, then a T-Bone Suplex and his own release suplex. He hit a running crossbody block for the pin. Good for the time given and this didn’t need to be any longer than this.
* Kane got on the mic and put Mr. Thomas over. Thomas took the mic and told him to go get that Opera Cup. No hint of dissent between them today, despite what we saw from Saint Laurent earlier.
* Outside, Salina De La Renta and her boyfriend left. Cesar Duran watched them walk away and made a call. “I’m ready to discuss my family situation. I’ll see you soon.” Very ominous… but I don’t care, either. At all.
* A cool black-and-white video package aired with Kenta talking backstage. His English came across very well in this video package. He wants the MLW title. It showed some of the Kenta-Bobby Fish bout from the prior event. The black-and-white video really made this standout. VERY well done.
7. Paul Walter Hauser defeated Tom Lawlor in an MMA cage match at 14:17. Hauser has reached a David Arquette level of “please, celebrity, just go away” with me. He comes across as obnoxious, and just too confident in his abilities. Okay, this fight is filmed in an empty gym with an MMA-style round cage set up; they could have filmed this at any time and edited it a lot. A clock is in the bottom right corner of the screen. Lawlor dropped him with a knee strike and stomped on him. He applied a front guillotine choke but Hauser escaped.
They straddled the top of the cage and traded punches. I can’t put into words how much I hate empty-arena matches with no crowd heat or reaction. They left the MMA cage and fought into a nearby wrestling ring, where, Hauser hit a Sandman-style Russian Leg Sweep with a kendo stick across the throat for a nearfall at 5:00. Lawlor hit a dropkick for a nearfall. I am hating how much Hauser is getting 50/50 booking here; it’s like watching Shane McMahon fighting against top WWE stars.
They fought around some punching bags and Lawlor was ducking between them like a Scooby Doo scene. Hauser speared him through a cage wall at 10:00. They were now in an office area at this gym, where Lawlor put Hauser on his shoulders and slammed him through a table. They finally got back into the MMA cage! Lawlor was in charge but Hauser is apparently Super Shane-O-Mac because he’s kicking out of everything. Lawlor applied a sleeper at 13:00 and he let go of the hold. (Why? Please make this end!) Lawlor got nunchucks and swung them. However, one end struck himself in the face! Hauser immediately hit a Flatliner for the pin. Congratulations MLW, you just produced my pick for the worst match of the year.
8. “Contra Unit” Mads “Krule” Krugger, Ikuro Kwon, and Minoru Suzuki (w/Janai Kai) defeated Satoshi Kojima, Matt Riddle, and Akira at 10:34. The heels came out first, and the babyfaces charged in and all six brawled. Suzuki chopped Kojima against the guardrail. In the ring, Akira hit a dropkick on Suzuki in the corner, and Riddle hit a senton on Minoru for a nearfall at 3:00. Krule hit a Mafia Kick on Riddle. Kwon hit some spin kicks on Riddle for a nearfall at 4:30 and the heels worked over Riddle in their corner.
Riddle hit a German Suplex on Kwon at 6:30, but Suzuki cut Matt off from tagging out. Akira finally got the hot tag and hit a dropkick on Minoru. Akira hit a Gory Bomb on Kwon. Kojima hit his rapid-fire chops in the corner on Krule at 8:30. Krule flipped Kojima from the top rope to the mat. Riddle and Suzuki fought on the floor as the ref has lost control. Krule powerbombed Satoshi through a table in the corner. Kai slid a chair into the ring, and Krule clocked Akira with an unprotected chairshot to the head and pinned him. The heels then covered Akira in the Contra flag as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts: A decent brawl to end the show until the completely and totally unnecessary unprotected chairshot to the head. Just because AEW allowed one recently doesn’t make it okay. These should be banned, I don’t care whether it is WWE or your local indy. Just because Akira is willing to take it doesn’t mean Court Bauer should allow it to occur. So, that left a bad taste in my mouth.
My previous pick for worst match of the year was Billy Gunn tossing around Jay White, literally half his age, and making Jay look nothing like a star. The Hauser-Lawlor match easily surpassed that. I intentionally compare the use of Hauser in MLW to Shane McMahon and David Arquette. It’s one thing if he was fighting, say, Brett Ryan Gosselin, and stood toe-to-toe with a comedy-ish undercard heel. But for him to get 50/50 offense on legit fighter Tom Lawlor, a former MLW champion and clearly in the top tier of MLW today, is just broken and flawed booking. I truly cannot wrap my head around how wrong-headed this was. He made Shane-O-Mac’s non-selling look good.
Too bad I am having such a bad reaction to the end of his show because I had been enjoying it. The Mistico-Magnus match was exactly how you pictured it would be in your head, right down to the finish, but it was entertaining. Tito-Jones was more even offense than I anticipated and it was really good for the time given. I actually had such low expectations for Kane-Thomas, they had no problem surpassing them. I’m curious if others will have the same strong negative reaction to the cage match I did. This show does not get an overall thumbs up.
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