MLW Roundup: Lawlor and Fatu battle live tonight for heavyweight gold, dream match signed, more!

Let’s catch up on this week’s news in MLW and preview Saturday night’s episode of Fusion. Tom Lawlor and Jacob Fatu will clash for heavyweight gold during the Kings of Colosseum live special from Chicago, a dream match was signed for Never Say Never, and another member of the Hart family joins the MLW team.

If you missed the newsiest news this week, it was announced yesterday that MLW has scheduled their first PPV event for November 2.

Kings of Colosseum live special tonight

MLW

MLW is banging out a fresh set of tapings with a show Saturday, July 6 from Cicero Stadium in Chicago. And that means we will be treated to another live special on beIN SPORTS.

The headliner for the live special will be Tom Lawlor defending his Heavyweight Championship against Jacob Fatu from the Contra Unit. Contra had been running roughshod over the MLW roster until they met their match in a pair of third generation wrestling brothers from Hawaii via Texas, Ross and Marshall Von Erich. Contra had a setback in that trios loss, but now Fatu has a chance to right the ship by taking what is precious to Lawlor.

To add a touch of intrigue, LA Park will be lurking to cash in his Battle Riot golden ticket. That ticket gives him the privilege of a heavyweight title shot at any time.

Speaking of LA Park and Promociones Dorado, the empresaria Salina de la Renta will be a guest on the first-ever live Jim Cornette Experience. I’m hoping Mance Warner will crash that party.

Alexander Hammerstone is hosting the, “Star Spangled Hammer Challenge.” What that entails is not specifically described, but I would guess the National Openweight champ is looking for competition. He may get an answer from a certain Canadian-British bulldog.

Myron Reed versus Rey Horus is also scheduled to be part of the live broadcast. Expect a speedy moves match.

Here is the full advertised card for Kings of Colosseum. Two rematches and a new signee were announced this week.

• Heavyweight Championship: Tom Lawlor vs Jacob Fatu
• LA Park & Hijo de LA Park vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.
• Tag Team Championship Ladder Match: Teddy Hart & Brian Pillman Jr. vs MJF & Richard Holliday
• National Openweight Championship: Alexander Hammerstone vs Davey Boy Smith Jr.
• Unsanctioned Match: Von Erichs vs Simon Gotch & Josef Samael
• Death Match: Mance Warner vs Bestia 666
• Myron Reed vs Rey Horus
• Low Ki vs Ricky Martinez
• Air Wolf vs Ace Austin
• Gringo Loco vs Zenshi

There will also be a meet and greet with Jim Cornette and special Mance Warner beer koozies for sale.

MLW Fusion airs on beIN SPORTS Saturday nights at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT. New episodes are posted on YouTube Mondays at 7 pm ET. Fusion is also broadcast in the UK, Ireland, and Israel.

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Fusion fallout

I want to offer a quick clarification to any Cagesiders that read the episode 64 MLW Fusion review when it was hot off the presses. I ended up changing the headline later that evening. I may have originally misunderstood Aries’ promo. I added this message to the review:

Author’s note: A previous version of the headline read, “MLW Fusion: Austin Aries is a magician, takes shots at WWE cosplaying as pro wrestlers.” But after discussing with the cSs community and researching Aries’ promo, I may have misunderstood a possible reference to AEW and the Elite. I don’t follow AEW that much, so the cosplaying reference flew over my head. With that new information, it does not seem like WWE is the target of the cosplayer joke. Listen for yourself and let us know in the comments what you think. Aries’ promo starts around the 18:45 mark of episode 64.

On the topic of the Austin Aries vs Adam Brooks match, Kevin Von Erich gave it his stamp of approval.

Richard Holliday apologized after making controversial comments during the broadcast.

Let’s all go out this weekend and work on our ‘91 Hogan tan.

Here’s a great photo of MLW dudes wearing matching jackets from the Vanguard sausage joint in Milwaukee. Kayfabe be damned.

For pictures of succulent wieners and other assortments of hot meat, check out Vanguard’s Instagram page.

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Quick hits

A dream match between LA Park and Jimmy Havoc was signed for Never Say Never on July 25 in New York City. That is an odd bout. Havoc appears to be aligned with Salina de la Renta and Promociones Dorado. Either they parted company quickly and we’ll find out why soon enough or somehow Mance Warner got that match made as payback for his ‘loser leaves’ fight with Sami Callihan.

Georgia Smith, Davey Boy’s sister, will be joining the MLW broadcast team as a correspondent. She has media experience with iHeartMedia.

The newest wrestler signed to MLW is Zenshi.

Zenshi is scheduled to compete with Gringo Loco at Kings of Colosseum. It looks like he went by the name Shynron and began wrestling in 2011. Zenshi currently holds, “The Chile Lucha Libre International All Star Championship for a record 1,965 days (and counting) and Peru’s LWA International Championship.”

The Inside Major League Wrestling podcast, hosted by Jonathan and Kristina Snowden, returned with episode five. A Jordan Oliver interview began at the seven-minute mark and talked about the thought process of planning matches for TV and mental health. The Fusion review began at the twenty-minute mark. A chat with Ariel Dominguez began at the forty-minute mark. He weighs 140 and aims to be 205. I guess he is going for the short boxy look, like Taz. Dominguez told an interesting story about having to shoot pin an opponent who disregarded the referee’s time warning on an MLW episode. That interview was the best of the bunch, in my opinion. A talk with Kaci Lennox beginning at the fifty-three-minute mark closed the show. She discussed guidance from Court Bauer and Jim Cornette and women’s wrestling in MLW. As always, the podcast is an interesting listen for MLW die-hards.

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Who are you picking to be champion of the heavyweight division when the night is over? Who would you like to see answer Alexander Hammerstone’s challenge? How many bleeps will be needed to censor any curses when Jim Cornette interviews Salina de la Renta?