Written by Brandon Hoffman
Major League Wrestling’s Battle Riot VII, which took place in Orlando on January 29, officially aired on Thursday February 5 on the promotion’s YouTube and beIn Sports, we are here to break down the absolutely scattered madness on this show. To be fully transparent, this my first time watching an MLW show from start to finish.
Joe Dombrowski and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor welcomed us in and we started off with the first of two matches airing on stream that isn’t saved for future Fusion tapings.
Templario (c) v. KUSHIDA – MLW World Middleweight Championship Match
What a hard-hitting match. KUSHIDA worked so convincingly as a heel, stomping and punt kicking Templario’s arm until it turned to mush. The technical wizardry between the two made for an entertaining bout too, giving each other Mexican Surfboards and various arm-related submissions.
KUSHIDA captured the title after hitting the Back To The Future finisher for the win. The slightly heelish performance from KUSHIDA was important to note earlier, because a twist was imminent when Ikuro Kwon of the evil Contra Unit came down to the ring. Kwon and KUSHIDA attacked Templario together after the match, revealing KUSHIDA as the newest member of Contra.
While this match did not feature a lot of story in the match itself, the ring work was solid enough to communicate the limb work struggle from both. KUSHIDA becoming a full-blown heel is going to be very hard to get used to. As long as he continues punting arms and cinching in Hoverboard Locks, it would be easy to make someone of his move set work as a vicious heel. Overall, it was a fine match to experience with nothing earth-shattering happening, but still fun to watch nonetheless.
The Battle Riot Match – 40-Man Elimination Style for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Mads Krule Krügger was defending the MLW World Title entering at #8.
The Battle Riot started out with Killer Kross and Matt Riddle entering first and they were the true Iron Men in this match. Lasting over an hour while punching and kicking everyone in the match is definitely no easy feat. Other than the notable #1 and #2, there were tons of individual moments that were worth noting in this 40-Man Battle Riot.
Contra v. Krügger: The main story of this match saw the Contra Unit coming in as a whole to try and eliminate the biggest threat of this match and former core member of the faction. World Champion Krügger was a Chokeslamming machine here, but would get stopped after being ganged up on by Contra.
Simon Gotch, Babathunder, Ikuro Kwon, KUSHIDA, and a very large masked guy (Ace Romero?) eliminated Krügger. Sentai Death Squad then carried off the now former World Champion in a body bag.
It’s a good middle of the card rivalry to hold that doesn’t need any titles to anyone’s name to get recognition. The history of the Contra Unit is embroiled alongside MLW’s revival back in 2017. Therefore, their name value should speak for itself when portrayed as the big heel stable in the company. After all the chicanery in the Battle Riot match went down, Krügger’s retribution story will surely be one to pay attention to going forward.
Contra Unit has a ton of heat too, taking out Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Satoshi Kojima to seemingly steal spots in the Battle Riot. Also, Kwon uses mist? So overpowered!
Lots of familiar names: Speaking of “retribution,” Donovan Dijak and Bishop Dyer joined the Battle Riot as MLW World Tag Team Champions working together. Trevor Lee, Sidney Akeem, and Madman Fulton were all involved, making for a ton of ex-WWE names that casual fans of MLW can recognize.
Jesús Rodriguez cosplayed as Super Crazy with his gear, and Paul London brought out a grey jumpsuit to hide his non-2005 physique.
Basically put, wrestling is a small world after all. Even the most cup-of-coffee names in wrestling can just pop up whenever we least expect it. Everyone has to start somewhere when watching a promotion they’ve never watched before, and MLW has a lot of names to familiarize yourself with what the company has to offer.
Ridiculousness to the maximum: There were so many moments that made people throw up their hands and ask what the hell exactly was happening. The random weapons thrown in by Matthew Justice included a kendo stick, a barbed wire bat, and the dreaded pineapple. Anything but that, think of the children! The pineapple specifically was used as a pseudo bowling ball to hit people in the crotch throughout this match.
Also, Paul Walter Hauser and Paul London failed to go through a table with a splash. “They are the table,” said Maffew from Botchamania somewhere. At least Matthew Justice crashed through his own table while being eliminated, complemented with a scary looking bump.
Arguably the most ridiculous moment of the Battle Riot was the return of the Festus gimmick played by Doc Gallows. The audience chanting “ring the bell” meant they understood the assignment completely.
The amount of random wackiness a match contains can only be funny so often though, as that seemed to be what the first half of this match focused on. Thus, when Festus appeared in the middle of Dyer and Dijak’s domination it felt like a fish out of water type situation.
The match finish and finishing thoughts: The final four of this Battle Riot were Alex Hammerstone, Bishop Dyer, Matt Riddle, and Killer Kross. After beefing throughout the match, Riddle and Kross found a common enemy in The Skyscrapers (Dyer & Dijak). That was also a confusing point to highlight because Riddle caused Kross to bleed a lot thanks to an errant knee to the face. Quite the turnaround to want to work with the guy who busted you open minutes earlier.
Anyway, Kross won in the end by eliminating Hammerstone and Riddle at the same time, making for a new MLW World Champion. In an event with only two matches shown in almost two hours, it had its strong moments when they were due. As a cohesive Battle Riot, the 60 second intervals made it hard for the action to remain constant and attentive.
Also, the ring was quite small. All the wrestlers trying to squeeze around each other to hit some moves without being in the way felt contrived and made the action stop-start. This bottled show is not one to check out if you’re a stickler for the in-ring action specifically. However, the craziness sprinkled throughout Battle Riot VIII makes it worth checking out for the sheer absurdity of it all if nothing else.
