What's good everyone, I'm Rob Camer, host of the MLW Confusion podcast.
With me is the beauty and brains behind the Urban Wrestling Network.
Muffins Martinez.
Definitely not beauty and definitely no brains.
Modest is all get out.
Yeah, all four two on that one.
No, I thought I'd live my life.
Oh, for insert, whatever.
Except for whichever I never say it was a never said never.
I hit all the got was six and oh four.
It's the only time in my life that I've got a winning record.
Anyway, onto proper business.
MLW Fusion 187 the fallout from slaughterhouse.
They packed in a lot of information in a relatively short period of time.
A TV short will call it 40, you know, 45 minutes, but like balls to the wall, like nonstop,
just information progressing, progressing things, giving us tidbits for the future and
all that sort of good stuff.
So jumping right into things are opening contest, which is a sentimental favorite of
mine.
Love Doug and Ichiban.
What'd you think muffins?
Well, I know I know lie.
I'll be honest.
I actually love this match.
I actually saw love Doug actually become a wrestler.
It's like to this point, I haven't really seen him do that much offense on anyone before.
So like, you know, he comes from the NDS, so I've never knew much about him.
So this match here really showcased what he's able and capable of doing if they give him
a chance to actually go out there and say, okay, go out here and just go crazy and have
fun.
But the Ichiban, I mean, this dude was like nonstop.
I want to say why he's like five and oh now six and oh, yeah, he got drafted.
So the dude keeps looking better and better and that one and the maneuver that he does
as a finisher still looks weird.
But last night actually kind of saw how he actually is supposed to hit it.
He's like Doug Good.
Yeah.
But yeah, man, but I was really, really impressed with love Doug, man.
Like really, he really showed out.
I mean, a lot of offense, a lot of stuff that he could do that I didn't see before and I
didn't know he could do.
So I'm looking forward to his next match and see if they actually give him the opportunity
to actually spam more and grow more.
But yeah, I was very impressed with both and I love the match from the beginning to the
end.
I love the whole match.
Yeah.
And to go with your point, Matt Stryker, even on commentary seemed like surprised that Doug
could go.
I can't remember.
I didn't write down like the phrase he used, but he was just like, that's it.
Yeah.
The boy has won me over.
And he's earned his stripes or whatever and whatever metaphors we want to use for it.
So like, yeah, whether that was real emotion or Stryker just doing a good job at his job,
you know, who knows.
But Doug definitely got the opportunity to show his value to MLW both as a character
before and after the match at their little vignettes.
And then during the match itself with Ichiban, who obviously at least low key MLW is kind
of putting the ball behind, especially for the middleweight division, because he has
gone, you know, four or five, maybe six and I didn't know we're going to play stats.
There was a, yeah, I had my phone right next to me and breakout cage match or whatever.
But yeah, he is at least functionally undefeated in MLW, at least the singles competition.
The match, I guess, had a stipulation whoever won will get a shot at the middleweight.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the middleweight title, which I guess now is the one that's held by a rocker.
Romero.
So yeah, so I'm looking forward to see that if that happens at the next pay-per-view in
November where Ichiban will get that shot there.
That'll be definitely be a nice match if it does happen at the next show.
I wish they will actually talk to Ichiban at least in one of these interviews that he
wins, you know, nothing from the man.
Well, I think part of his gimmick is that he know Abla English or whatever the Japanese
equivalent of that is.
My Japanese, my Japanese is mostly limited to it's finished and that's about it.
But yeah, I would like to see like some sort of vignette for Ichiban.
Like even if we don't get like a live mic with him, we can get like a training montage.
Like we could just see him meditating in the dojo and then, you know, Rocky style montage
of him just training.
Yeah.
It could help establish his character.
Yeah, we got to see Love Doug, you know, get an interview right after the match after he
lost and I'm like, well, since when did this start interviewing people who lose?
When it was the storyline.
Yeah.
And he got a little note or car from a legend.
Becca's backup dancers.
He said he doesn't kiss and tell so we don't know exactly what was given to him or what
does the car say, but it said that Becca will be coming in to watch one of his upcoming matches.
So even though we know she's in house arrest right now, I don't know when is that going
to happen?
So yeah, that part interested me that he said that she was coming to watch his match considering
she she's on house arrest and forbidden from being like out in public by her record label
as well.
So but at least at least they're keeping it going.
And, you know, love love love Doug can stand.
Well, both competitors really just continue to shine.
Doug kind of defying expectations for people who don't know who he really know who he is
and then each bond showing, you know, his worth in the ring, just in general, like being
kind of the sleeper hit of the draft.
Moving on from here, the next thing I have is mildly important and we don't have to spend
too much time on it.
Tom Lawler basically announced that he is back with well, not MLW, he signed on with
the World Titan Federation.
But the most important thing is he did basically say that he's going to be he is back with
the company and that Slaughterhouse was not a one shot.
And I personally love Tom Lawler.
So like, you know, you can, you know, put him wherever, you know, whatever stable you
want or have him be on his own, and I am going to either, you know, cheer for him overtly,
if I'm supposed to you, or just kind of golf collapse, you know, while yelling boo, just
because, you know, Tom Lawler is kind of one of the complete packages in terms of character
work and inring action too.
And I will never not pop for his a jort strip tease with the Jorts and then revealing a pair
of tights that are colored like Jorts.
But yeah, so he is an official member of the World Titan Federation, very upset that MLW
has gotten into bed with Don King.
And not that he's the only one.
He's just the only one who's got a, you know, a mic in front of him on MLW television saying
it unlike us who, you know, are just neckbearding on the internet.
But yeah, short term, like I'm excited to see Tom.
For sure.
You know, and also to like look, look into him, you know, he has a MMA background, 11,
eight and one as MMA, but it's all from the mid 2000s to 2010 was when he was accumulating
that.
So you, you see how he used to be a fighter and then transitioned into wrestling.
And I remember watching his last fight, I want to say last year, I want to say in one
of those PPL, um, um, fights where he actually won and then took off his boots or gloves
and left them in the middle of the ring.
So that was it for his career.
So, you know, I would have loved to see him when he was in his prime fighting.
And then you find out about this stuff later on years later.
So, okay.
He was one of the guys that was there in the beginning of the USC's MMA stuff.
So that was always good to find out later on that he was one of those guys that was
pivotal for USC.
And then he transitioned into wrestling.
So that was always good to know.
Like I said, I wish I would have saw him when he was in his prime as a fighter, but now
we get him out.
Now we get him at MLW on a full-time basis for maybe another year or two years.
So I'm happy about that.
Exactly.
And just to extrapolate on your point of his MMA career, Tom Lawler has always been a
play on a professional wrestling and often used pro wrestling influences, at least in
his way ends.
So if you guys haven't seen it, dear listener, you can find it on YouTube of Tom Lawler during
one of his weigh-ins being the shockmaster.
And it is beautiful.
Has the glitter helmet, the giant vest comes face plants right out of the curtain.
I got a little bit of a look at it when we get done there because I never see that.
It is great.
I can't remember where I originally heard that from, but I'm like, that can't be a
real thing.
Totally is.
Tom Lawler just bursted through a curtain and face planting a lot of shockmaster.
I mean, obviously a purpose because he has a stormtrooper helmet on and all that good
stuff.
Yeah, definitely for that.
Definitely got to see that.
But Tom Lawler back in action with MLW or the World Titan Federation, slight upgrade over
Dave Boy Smith, Jr. though.
I don't want to see Davey Boy out like he is, but I still think it's an upgrade.
Following this next start point, the tag team match, the main event versus the Beaumont
Fight Club.
This is Jay Bujji's first official match as a member of the Beaumont's team with Mr.
Thomas taking on the main event.
It served its purpose.
Definitely the main events are a very entertaining tag team.
On the Confusion podcast, I really kind of went on a small tangent about how I wish MLW
would use them more and better, more better because they got their act down.
They have some very innovative spots.
They're in a very entertaining team and given the nature of the tag team division within
MLW, I don't understand how they aren't a bit more of a power player team.
That being said, though, you got to showcase the Beaumonts given that, well, they're the
entourage to our World Heavyweight Champion and have made a big deal about the addition
of Jay Bujji.
And those two gelled very well together.
I was actually very surprised how well they gelled.
And again, not doing my proper research, don't know if they've ever teamed on the Indies
or not or had any practice or if this is their first real match.
And I popped hard for the Cable Toss where Mr. Thomas just shot Jay Bujji over the top
rope on the main event too.
But it was a fun match.
I showed off what both teams can do and I'm very interested to see how this iteration
of the BoMeiA teams work in the future, even if they work in the future.
I know the next BoMeiA tag team match scheduled is Kaiju and Mr. Thomas as a combo.
But what are your thoughts on it?
I love the match.
I love the main event when I saw them for the first time at AEW when they were going
through the whole pandemic thing, that's the first I saw them.
And I started looking for them and then I found out they work for House of Glory.
And they just recently won the tag team belt there.
And you are correct.
Why are they not being pushed more in LMAW for the tag team is beyond me.
But we know that there's a storyline with BoMeiA and not with WTF coming up in the future
or whatever, Cardona.
The only thing that I don't like about the match for some reason is a lot of stuff seems
choreographed too much with the main event.
That's like, you can see a lot of things coming and they were waiting for the spot to hit
and he's holding him to do this move and stuff like that.
I'm like, eh, you know, like, like it was like too choreographed for me.
But yeah, but the border toss of hip toss over the ropes with Abuji and then Mr. Thomas
doing, you know, the power moves because he was like the tallest guy in the ring, you
know, just destroying Jay Lyon there with a move.
They get the winning or not.
They move forward.
And like you said, I would like to see the next tandem of Kaiju and Mr. Thomas coming
up in the future and see how they look.
Because I know that there was one with Thomas in Kane teaming also.
So we're good to see, you know, who else is tangible, who is good together and stuff.
We're good to see that coming up the next couple of weeks.
So, yeah.
Oh, and each, you know, each variation of the team will bring something new to the table
because obviously Jay Buji is, you know, cruiserweight, middleweight, high flying type dude.
And then you have Kane's Ground and Pound submission style, stylings.
And then both Mr. Thomas and Oshie Edwards are both men beasts.
And we're just just going to toss you around.
Yeah.
And that's kind of what I'm looking for.
Looking forward to when Thomas and Edwards team up because I, you know, I like my team.
I do like teams like the Road Warriors and one or two, just two big meaty dudes.
You're just going to steamroll you.
And especially with the MLW roster, or we'll say the physical size of the MLW roster members,
like those two guys are going to be like the biggest dudes, you know, unless they bring
in that Yusuf or L and bring back Beastman and the other big guys.
Yes.
Yeah.
Some of the other big guys, like almost everybody else, you know, is significantly shorter.
And like even in the case of like Jay Lion, who's like a big around dude, but he's still,
you know, a lot shorter.
Yeah.
Still a lot shorter than Mr. Thomas.
So yeah, but I do love the Road Warriors, powers of pain days, you know, two big muscular
guys out there just doing power moves.
Which I mean, ironically enough is how Mr. Thomas kind of got his start in the business
as part of the Devastation Corporation.
It was a stable of big dudes managed by Sidney Bacabella.
And they got their teeth in Chikara.
And of course, the Chikara roster members were physically not always the biggest when,
you know, Claudio Castagnoli is like one of your Hauses.
You know, I don't want to say there's something wrong, but like it just shows that your roster
is on the shorter side, which definitely played it played to the advantage of kind of the
old school physical mentality that was the Devastation Corporation who heavily drew inspiration
from the Road Warriors from demolition from the powers of pain, etc.
etc.
The old face painted tag teams.
Good old days.
Following this, we got some big news coming into next week.
Selena de la Renta has announced that she is once again taking the role of producer
due to a due to a lawsuit that Court Bauer has to physically attended to.
So she is taking over the next episode of Fusion.
You know, she this is not her first stint doing it.
And she even made the comment of like how fast like she went from coming back.
Yes.
Now running the show.
I mean, why a month and two weeks now.
Yeah.
Yes.
Something something like she has not been back terribly long.
And she she's making moves.
Obviously, you know, we've already she's already nabbed herself to titles like within
MLW and that's not counting any titles that you know, Rocker and Merrow happens to hold
in the meanwhile.
Yeah.
AKA CMML historic welterweight championship.
And now she's going to be in charge of next week's episode.
And I'm curious to see how that goes because she's promised us at various points more
lucidories coming in.
So I don't know if this is going to be another if this is going to be into being another
you know, lucidore showcase or if this is just going to have her fingerprints all over
it.
I mean, neither scenario is a lose to be to be frank, but I'm morbidly curious to see
where we're going to where she's going to take us next week.
Well, I know before she left, she had produced two shows and those both of those shows were
the highest view shows from MLW back then.
So I'm expecting this one to be the same.
Another another viewership, high viewerships watching it.
And I don't know about bringing anybody in, but I'm pretty sure fingerprints are going
to be there, meaning we'll probably get to see Rocky Romero doing something and maybe
even Jet Nai Kai doing something.
So and maybe even announcing she's bringing somebody in from CMML for the next show in
November sometime next week, you know, she all announces.
So this is definitely something good to look at.
I'm looking forward to this episode next week.
Yeah.
And just to really hype up the packaging more again, like she she has gotten the rocket
strapped to promotion promotion is Dorado.
Like she she's it's almost a hostile takeover at this point.
And I'm waiting to see how this goes with some of the other factions that are readily
available.
So WTF kind of have their hands full with the combination of second gear crew, plus
now targeting the bow my a's or specifically Alex Kane.
But you know, how much longer can you know, two large factions, or at least in terms of
scope and power grabs, how long can they coexist?
And you know, always being a wild card in the background, you know, despite the seeming
fracture of the group, you know, the calling is still there and still willing to, you know,
cut you.
Yeah.
So like I'm very curious to see like how this how this will interact in the near future.
I mean, obviously, I don't think we're going to see anything involving that nature kind
of next week, because again, everyone's kind of got their hands full with other stuff.
But that may not be far off in the future.
Or the time will tell, baby.
Yeah, we just got to watch and see.
Yes, story play out.
Yes.
And our main event of the evening, the one called Manders taking on the agent Matt Cardona,
Mr. Saint Laurent out doing his thing as well, chewing up all the scenery.
What'd you think, muffins?
I didn't like this match that much.
Since I'm not really a Matt Cardona, Matt, you know, fan, you know, it did what it did.
You know, he cheated to get the win.
So you know, now is one up or now he's two or no.
He's saying against the second year crew now or two is it to an old and MW to an old against
those guys.
But okay.
So yeah.
So now he's two or no, but I guess Manders is still there waiting to get another crack
at him.
So that match, I'll be interested to see what kind of match they do.
God, I hope it's not another kiss my foot match, but more like, you know, bring weapons
or something or, or, you know, get paid anywhere.
And this time to have a camera to go back there and those going on and not, you know,
put it off or not like that.
So, but, you know, a day was it was supposed to do in Mark during that kid's winning.
Now he's two or no and I'm a W and against the second year crew.
So now he has those guys to deal with.
And then he has the boomer yet club to deal with if he's wants to go after the title.
So yeah.
And I agreed like there was nothing wrong with the match.
The match was entirely serviceable.
Yeah.
But as one of those like little things where I questioned like outside the concept of Matt
Cardona having a main event just because of his name value, like he is the, you know,
he is the biggest name in MLW.
But like outside of Cardona's like name value, the match itself didn't seem too terribly
main eventy.
Like I just, but if you look at the other matches on the card, at least how the, how
the card was set up for this tape for, for this episode, you know, one other match was
going to be the main event really.
I mean, logistically speaking.
So, and, and as of right now, like really Cardona.
Being the biggest star MLW has like he needs to be, he would be doing a total squash and
he should be in the main event.
And that being said, this match was not a squash match by any stretch of the imagination.
Cardona actually is like really more of a squash the other direction.
It was Manders had a lot of offense going into it.
And, and Cardona would just have these little spots where he, he would counter something
and then almost outside of like one like spurt, like he pretty much got like taken over right
away.
Even like Manders missed a spear showing off his skills that he learned in the University
of Iowa, but almost immediately right after that, just back body drops Cardona to the
floor.
Yeah.
And then, you know, storyline wise, I mean, just, you know, I showed some of the inexperience
that Manders had because he was way more focused on MSL who wasn't doing anything.
He was just doing bad commentary and went after him like he was a podcaster or something
and, you know, got the distraction, which, you know, was the beginning of the downfall.
Of course, the real downfall is his respect for referees and Cardona using using the ref
as a meat shield, allowing an eye poke and radio silence to take up the victory.
But, but really the more important thing coming out of it is that we had all this security
that was supposed to prevent the Titan Federation and the second gear crew or the bow my a's
basically stopping what was supposed to have what happened at Slaughterhouse from happening
last night.
And for all that security there, Mass Water just strutted his way out and thought in the
head with nary any sort of, you know, blockage.
Like we had all this extra security and Cardona just instantly just gets his head thumped
and is chased backstage.
You know, then Sand Lord Ron is hiding behind poor Sam Luternia.
Yeah, some of that turner.
The guy is bigger than him, like by three by three times the size and he's hiding behind
her.
Like, like, like really like do like we can see you behind the girl.
I mean, if you're going to get a meat shield, Sam Luternia is not the person you needed.
Yeah.
But you're not going to shield it all to begin with and let alone for someone the size of
MSL.
Yeah, we could see you from any angle.
So there's no way he'll man's Warner did not see you hiding behind her.
But yeah.
And that's how the episode ended.
Yeah.
Luckily.
Yeah.
So as we said, it's a solid episode overall.
It went by really fast and it showed progression.
Yeah.
Like there's really no like no big complaints.
Like really anything I complain about is more just nitpicky stuff, armchair stuff.
We got we got our seeds planted for the future, especially coming next week with the promotion.
Always Dorada take over and we haven't really touched on where the what's going on with
the calling.
They did a small package on it, but they didn't, you know, it didn't add anything.
He's just reminding us that, hey, Ricky Champagne shoved a cure to the ground and there seems
to be some problems going on.
But you know, but you know, we can't we can't give everything out all at once.
Yeah.
Give them the timeframe of an episode of fusion.
And they also announced, you know, meet you Yamashita coming in.
So they had a nice little package.
So she'll be in coming in the future.
So I was happy about that.
They mentioned that.
So I'm excited for that one.
Yeah.
So, you know, comparatively speaking, I know they've been pretty patchy in terms of capitalizing
on any momentum right after one of the big shows.
But I feel last night was a good turnaround comparatively speaking and really like again,
just kind of whetted the appetite and I'm still like really curious of where they're
going and they didn't just sweep a bunch of things under the rug.
I'm like usual.
So that that was fusion 187.
Yes.
Anything else to add muffins?
No, not really.
I think, I think we covered it all in the meanwhile then as we wind down, be sure to check out
this year, this year podcast.
We're on the Spotify's and wherever else you happen to get your audio podcasts now in
addition to the YouTube's 10 pounds of gold is Wednesdays.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Except this week I kind of messed up because I had a couple of appointments so it'll probably
be out tomorrow.
So, okay.
So new episode tomorrow, traditionally on Wednesdays.
Yes.
With this on Fridays.
Yep.
MLW Confusion, wherever you happen to get your podcasts and that drops usually Friday
morning unless I hit the wrong button and then it tries to come out Friday evening, but
whatever.
It's a nice little supplement to this year podcast as well.
Get some differing opinions in here.
Otherwise, you know, check out the social medias.
Got my Twitter handle on there.
Most everything else is at Urban Wrestle and W or Urban Wrestling Network, et cetera.
Sometimes there's a banner at the bottom that goes by to help these things out.
Hey, there it is.
These are Instagrams and Twitters and all that sort of good stuff in the meanwhile.
We'll catch you all later.
God bless you guys.