MLW
Never Say Never 2023
July 8, 2023
2300 Arena
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Watch: FITE
This coming Saturday (July 8), the world of Major League Wrestling (MLW) continues to turn as they return to pay-per-view for the first time in almost four years with Never Say Never. Headlining at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is Alexander Hammerstone defending the MLW World Heavyweight Championship against Alex Kane.
As things stand, Saturday’s events will consist of a six-match TV taping to start and then a six-match PPV that will stream live on FITE+. Commentary will likely be provided by Joe Dombrowski and Matt Striker; the former is good but the latter jumped the shark for me a long time ago.
MLW is, I think it’s fair to say, a very strange promotion. When things are going well, they’re a simple, effective little outfit that executes simple A-to-B booking and shows off talents you don’t see much of elsewhere. However, the lack of any major shows to build towards and the huge backlog of tapings they’ve managed to pile up over the last year often makes the TV product feel quite aimless and hard to invest in.
For example, Delmi Exo, AKIRA and Jacob Fatu all won singles titles at the two taping events they ran at the beginning of April. Those title switches didn’t air until the last couple of weeks, so none of them have had a reign that’s had time to breathe coming into this show. Likewise, they’ve already started and finished the 2023 Opera Cup and that’s not made tape yet.
Constantly switching TV networks and airing formats doesn’t help proceedings and neither does the peculiar choices that Court Bauer makes. Who else, when given their biggest TV spot yet, would push nZo and Microman hardest?
Putting all of that aside, it’s good that there’s another outlet of a reasonable size like MLW on the scene and Court is putting the good work in with this WWE court case.
This Never Say Never card, while not blow away by any means on paper, could be quite decent and hopefully sets the tone for the sort of events they can have more regularly moving forward.
Timothy Thatcher vs. Tracy Williams
EVOLVE never dies!
Timothy Thatcher is returning to MLW here for the first time since the 2019 Opera Cup to square off with a guy in Tracy Williams that he’s not faced one-on-one in seven years.
As Erin Quinn said on her new MLW TV review podcast Fusion Dish, if we get an Evolve Timothy Thatcher, this could be the sort of grappling that bores you to tears. If we get a more physical Thatcher in a match that runs to about 10 minutes, this should be a lot of fun.
My initial gut instinct here was that Timothy Thatcher would win given MLW’s relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH and because I felt like he’d be a strong first challenger for Alex Kane as World Champion. However, I know that Williams is part of the as yet unaired Opera Cup, so I wonder whether he’s going to sneak out a win here to give him some momentum for that. Prediction: Tracy Williams
Country Whipping Match
Mance Warner vs Sam Adonis
Sam Adonis is a solid enough talent and probably the sort of heel that MLW should use. He feels in line for a reset after this show though as he’s the only member of Azteca Lucha left following Taya Valkyrie and John Hennigan’s departures to AEW.
Adonis and Mance Warner had a Strap Match of the Four Corners variety on Fusion recently that I quite enjoyed. With both guys on three corners each, Warner drove Adonis through a board in the corner they hadn’t hit, inadvertently gifting Adonis the win.
That finish has led them to run it back here in what Joe Dombrowski described as the first-ever Country Whipping Match. By all accounts, it’s a strap match, potentially with a lumberjack component, that has to end via pinfall.
All in all it seems like a simple set up for a crowd-pleasing brawl that sees the heel get his comeuppance from the popular babyface. Get to the pay windah, Ol’ Mancer. Prediction: Mance Warner
MLW Openweight Championship
Jacob Fatu (C) vs. Calvin Tankman
Jacob Fatu has been one of MLW’s best assets for a long time. On talent alone, he should probably be showcasing skills on a bigger stage. He’s not though and one of the biggest reasons for that is his behaviour outside the ring. His latest misdemeanours saw him skip more independent shows without notice that he’d been booked on, including one that was for charity. Not a great look but also probably not enough for MLW to change their use of him.
It was never explained on Fusion why Calvin Tankman is getting the shot on this show. He’s a former tag team champion, yes, but he’s 1-2 in televised singles matches this year and has lost his last two. I know they’re free to book how they want but a little bit of logic to these things wouldn’t go amiss.
Tankman is someone that I know can be good but I’ve been down on for quite a while now. Fatu is the right sort of opponent for a fun match, even if the outcome feels set in stone. Prediction: Jacob Fatu
Fans Bring the Weapons Match for the MLW World Tag Team Championships
The Samoan Swat Team (Juicy Finau & Lance Anoa’i) (C) v The Calling (AKIRA & Rickey Shane Page) (w/Raven & Dr Cornwallus)
I don’t know if Court Bauer watched any of the Impact Wrestling shows last year where Raven made guest appearances but if he did, I can’t understand what he saw or heard there that made him think ‘yes, I need this man to come in and lead my top heel faction’.
Anyway, two of his boys, Rickey Shane Page and AKIRA, are going for tag team gold here and they’re two pickups that I can’t hate on MLW for. RSP is a decent promo and AKIRA is a passable worker but the biggest upside is that they’re two people you aren’t going to have pinched from under you. That probably sounds mean but it’s better for them to target people like that than a Killer Kross or Johnny TV with their current taping schedule as it gives you better storyline continuity and booking confidence.
The hardcore stipulation here will suit both teams as it will cover up the collective physical limitations of all four participants, it’ll get the crowd onside and it opens up a bunch of different booking directions with potential run-ins and cameos and so on. Pushing The Calling seems to be MLW’s main focus at the moment, so them going over seems the logical play. Prediction: The Calling
Winner Takes All Match for the MLW World Women’s Featherweight Championship and the wXw Women’s Championship
Delmi Exo (C) vs. Ava Everett (C)
MLW announced a working relationship with Germany’s wXw earlier in the year and this title-versus-title bout is another step to solidifying that.
Ava Everett is someone I’ve only seen a couple of times before and she seemed a decent promo and worker. As for Exo, she’s quite hit and miss for me but largely more miss than hit.
Sadly, the booking of Exo on Fusion has seemingly tipped off the outcome here. Exo won the title off Taya Valkyrie, who they’ve already taped a rematch with but not aired yet. On the go-home show, they announced that Valkyrie was ‘suspended’ for a week, presumably meaning that the rematch will air on an episode of Fusion after this show. As such, that either means Exo is unifying or we get a screwy non-finish. I’ll opt for the former, with Exo likely going over to Germany later in the year to drop the wXw strap. Prediction: Delmi Exo
MLW World Heavyweight Championship
Alexander Hammerstone (C) vs. Alex Kane (w/Mr Thomas)
One thing MLW has always deserved tremendous credit for is making their big time World title matches feel like the biggest thing they could book at that time. That has been no more true than during Alexander Hammerstone’s World title reign as he’s faced off with Jacob Fatu (twice), Davey Richards, Mads Krugger, Richard Holliday, EJ Nduka and now Alex Kane.
Hammerstone is, without question, the promotion’s biggest star. He’s got the look, he’s an underrated promo and his matches typically deliver more than anyone else’s. He’s been a singles champion of some shape or other for more than four years and he’s not lost a singles match in the promotion since the 2019 Opera Cup.
It’s time for that to change.
Alex Kane has had a similar elevation trajectory to Hammerstone. His first title in the promotion was the Openweight Championship and he then moved into the World title picture by winning the Battle Riot.
Kane is the undoubted hot hand in the company and as they use this show and the renewal of the Open Draft as a sort of soft reset for the roster, pivoting to him seems like a sensible decision. Bomaye is for the people, of course.
As for the match, it should be pretty good. Kane’s performances are usually dictated by the quality of his opponent but his matches with Davey Boy Smith Jnr over-delivered and I’ve got the confidence that him and Hammerstone can mesh well for a proper main-event style match.
My main concern is this background story of the Bomaye Fight Club’s ‘backer’. It’s a cringy angle and the ‘expose’ pieces they’ve done on Fusion were horrible (Dixie Carter or Wale, seriously?!). What could and would be worse is if they use that angle as a means to screw Hammerstone out of the title. It’d be using every cliche in the book and it would be a horrific way to end your first PPV since the pandemic, particularly as the backer isn’t going to be some big or shocking name (it’s probably Dan Lambert).
I sincerely hope they don’t do that because if Kane is going to win, it needs to be clean and it really needs to be in a way that potentially positions him as a babyface moving forward. Prediction: Alex Kane
