Hello, beautiful people of Nearfalls Media, my name is Michael Hymantor. In my debut piece for this website. I am going to be covering MLW’s recent major show, which is known by the name of Never Say Never. This show features an MLW World Championship match in the main event, while we also have two other matches and more segments revolving around the different stories that are going around in MLW.
Venue: GILT Nightclub
Watch:
Opening:
Never Say Never opens up with promos from both the MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu and Calvin Tankman. Both of these promos are visually pleasing to look at, while also having a unique intro to this specific event, with a red, black and white design. We get a preview of the card, which leads to our opening match of the evening.
Match One: Jordan Oliver vs. Simon Gotch
Jordan Oliver was part of the tag division of MLW for a few months, and since the departure of Koko Brazil, Jordan Oliver has bulked up into a heavyweight. Most recently challenging against Jacob Fatu for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship. While Oliver would be unsuccessful in his title match, for the past few weeks he has been getting inside the minds of the CONTRA UNIT. Looking to avenge a fallen friend, with Jordan Oliver facing against high ranking member, Simon Gotch.
This match was very technical and for almost the entire first six minutes, was dominated by Simon Gotch. Knee scrapes, knee strikes, kravates and elbow shots. A very slow match. But towards the middle, Jordan Oliver started to make a comeback with a sequence of elbows into a lariat. Jordan Oliver would attempt to go for a cutter from the top rope, but it was reversed by Gotch into a submission turned into a pinfall from Oliver. Oliver would get out of it and hit the cutter on Gotch for the victory. This is the 1st victory in the show for Injustice.
Winner: Jordan Oliver (9:14)
Match Rating: **1/4
CONTRA Segment
After the match, the leader of Contra, Josef, showcased anger towards Injustice; calling them spoiled brats and infidels towards the reign of Jacob Fatu. Josef also talked about the training that CONTRA has been dealing with in preparations for the show. A visually appealing promo too.
The Dragon Gate and MLW Partnership
Before the pandemic, during the Opera Cup Tour in 2019, MLW announced a partnership with Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. This partnership never came to fruition because of the pandemic. But as of Never Say Never, it seems like the partnership is back full force, with possible talent coming into MLW and Dragon Gate real soon.
Match Two: Daivari vs. Myron Reed
Myron Reed has been part of the middleweight division for MLW since his debut for the company, he was even a former MLW Middleweight Champion and held it for over 400 days. Daivari became one of the newest members of CONTRA, making his debut in January. Since January, Daivari has gone on an undefeated streak in singles competition and has been getting inside the minds of Injustice members. Which leads to our second Injustice vs. CONTRA battle.
This match started off real quick, with some outside action from Daivari, which included a reversal from Myron Reed with a back body drop on the outside. Myron Reed would attempt to hit a springboard splash, but would get reversed. After that, Reed would start to mount a comeback, which includes a springboard leg drop from Myron Reed. Which is a unique offense from Reed. Daivari started to damage Reed, including stealing Reed’s chest protector to get into his mind. This led to one of the most awkward parts of the match, where it felt like it lost almost all of its steam. Myron Reed reversed a top rope splash from Daivari and would hit a springboard cutter onto Daivari, picking up the 2nd victory for Injustice.
Winner: Myron Reed (8:05)
Match Rating: **½
Alexander Hammerstone Segment
One of the most intriguing parts of MLW in recent memory has been the Azteca Underground storyline. This storyline recently brought Mil Muertes into MLW and has been one of the key aspects in the MLW National Championship scene. Mil Muertes stole the MLW National Championship from Alexander Hammerstone and has been antagonizing Hammerstone coming out with the championship. Hammerstone would showcase anger and happiness as he’s going to face off against Mil Muertes on April 14th’s edition of MLW Fusion for the National Openweight Championship.
Interviews from Gino Medina and Richard Holiday.
One of the factions that were the talk of MLW towards the end of 2019 was “The Dynasty”. This group would consist of wealthy wrestlers such as Richard Holiday and MJF, with one of its newest members being Gino Medina at the Opera Cup Tour in 2019. Eventually, Gino and Holiday would have a falling out and have been feuding via promos for the past few weeks, regarding the Caribbean Championship that Richard Holiday holds. In this segment, Holiday would mention how Medina was a failure to the Dynasty faction. It was also announced that Richard Holiday will face off against Gino Madina in the near future.
Match Three – MLW World Heavyweight Championship: Jacob Fatu © vs. Calvin Tankman
Jacob Fatu has been MLW World Heavyweight Champion for over 600+ days, with credible titles defenses against many of MLW’s best. From the guys like LA Park, Jordan Oliver, ACH, Tom Lawlor and CIMA to just name a few. Jacob Fatu defends his championship in our main event against Calvin Tankman. Calvin Tankman made his debut in MLW when they first came back from pandemic. He has been dominating many smaller guys and set his intentions on the MLW World Heavyweight Champion. Calvin Tankman would become part of the Injustice faction as well and would get involved in the war between these factions, which leads to our main event of the evening.
While the hype for this match was high, the match itself was heavily dominated by Fatu; with Tankman getting little offense in this match. Tankman was very impressive in this bout with his running shooting star press, his brutal suicide dive and a lariat from him as well. But the ending is what really hurt the match with Fatu winning because of interference, with Fatu hitting the face off Tankman with a flag pole. Fatu would hit his big splash to retain his championship in a 10 minute main event. This was, in my opinion, the match you should go out to look for.
The Winner: Jacob Fatu (10:44)
Match Rating: ***
Thank you for reading my first piece for this website, if you can. Please follow my social media with @LWOS_Hymantor. Have a nice day or night everyone.
