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Some notes from Major League Wrestling’s Fightland TV taping this past Thursday in Chicago:
The show broke several records for the promotion. It was the best attendance in company history, as well as the biggest gate in the history of MLW, dating back to its first event in 2002. The event set merchandise sale records and speaking to several wrestlers, they did incredible business selling their own merchandise as well. We are told that Cicero Stadium concessions were so packed that the venue was sold out of several food items by intermission.
The locker room morale coming out of the show was said to be have been excellent as well. The crowd reactions were described as great and that fed into the energy in the locker room, which several said was the best since the company restarted. Tommy Dreamer was described as a “Godsend” in terms of his help behind the scenes and Konnan continues to get praised by younger talents as “getting their vision” and working with them on how to make it work, as opposed to shooting things down.
The debut of CMLL star Rush got a massive reaction. He came out to his authentic theme music from Mexico, which MLW’s Court Bauer was able to gain clearance for through his hip hop connections. The idea is to build to Rush vs. L.A. Park and bring that rivalry here.
BeIN Sports had a team at the show, shooting photos and additional video material for usage on their network, including segments that will be worked into their Locker Room daily sports desk broadcasts.
The taping went longer than usual as the promotion needed to film five weeks’ worth of content. They usually film four hours.
MJF got a ton of heat before his flag match with Puma King cutting a USA vs. Mexico promo. It was described as like the type of heat Americans would get in AAA working heels in the 1990s. There have been a lot who have compared MJF to Chris Candido behind the scenes.
Lagunitas Beer, an MLW sponsor, sent several congratulatory cases of beer to the locker room for a little post-show celebration.
Brody King was said to be working through a hip issue at the show.
Joey Ryan worked despite what is believed to have been a pectoral muscle tear suffered the night before in Austin, Texas. His tag match with Swoggle was laid out to protect him and to allow Swoggle to work more of the bout. Ryan was adamant that he didn’t want to let fans down and did everything he could to work around the injury without complicating matters. He was said to have been in good spirits despite not knowing what he was in for medically. On his Facebook page, Ryan noted, "My doctor thinks my chest has a tear somewhere in it because of all the swelling and is worried about it healing in the wrong place and causing me discomfort forever." He was scheduled to get an X-Ray and MRI today, but as of this posting there's no official update on the injury, how it will be treated or how long he could technically be out of the ring.
They ran an angle where Shane Strickland was upset after losing his MLW title bout against Champion Low Ki that spilled over onto social media. Strickland cut a promo that was described as a tantrum knocking the promotion as well as Court Bauer and MLW fans. The core idea, which sounds as if it has echoes of the night Bret Hart railed against WWF on Monday Night Raw years ago, was that Strickland was blaming fans for wanting pro wrestling that was bad for wrestling and was wrong. He pushed that he was sick of being screwed over despite all his hard work. Strickland had been wiped out early in the Wargames a few months ago and taken out without getting any revenge on Sami Callihan. He and Bauer went back and forth on Twitter as well. There’s been talk of WWE interest in Strickland off and on over the last year, so it should be interesting to see where this goes and whether it’s the beginning of an exit strategy for him.
UFC Fighter Julianna Pena, currently ranked at #3 was in the front row.
Kylie Rae was backstage visiting.
A few Maybach Music Group Latino Division talents were also in a VIP section.
There are plans to hold the first MLW tryout soon.
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