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If you haven’t seen the MLW Fightland special, you can now stream Fightland on ViceTV.com at this link.
As previously reported on PWInsider.com, the 11/6 return to Philadelphia will be headlined by the War Chamber match. The match itself should be announced by next week, possibly sooner. The first row for 11/6 already sold out and ticket sales have been faster than the initial on sale for the October event.
There isn't an available date for the promotion in December at the 2300 Arena so the hope is to return to NYC and then be back in Philadelphia from January 2022 on. There have been communications between MLW and the Melrose Ballroom according to sources at the venue.
New MLW Champion Alexander Hammerstone is expected to be cleared to return to the ring for the 11/6 date, but his foot and ankle injuries will require some time off to recover. Hammerstone pulled himself off independent dates over the weekend. The injury occurred just five minutes into the main event with Jacob Fatu at Fightland.
To clarify some confusion, Will Ospreay has not signed with MLW. He is signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling and will be working the 11/6 date in Philly and has been booked through New Japan.
As we reported the night of Fightland, Homicide is now working here as an agent. Savio Vega, Josef Samuel, Konnan, Dave Prazak and Mike Patrick all worked as agents at the Fightland taping. MLW head Court Bauer, Samuel and Vega agented the Fatu vs. Hammerstone main event.
There was unhappiness within the promotion about the length of the Fightland taping, as they had 15 matches. Court Bauer has already decreed that will not be happening again. They had a lot of content they needed to tape but the belief is the company has gotten into a bad habit of having too much on the shows and burning out the live crowd. The plan is to try and keep things to a three hour run-time going forward, even if that means less matches or talents booked per show.
The Tajiri MLW Middleweight Championship title win at Fightland scored the company some publicity with Japan’s Weekly Pro. The plan is for Tajiri to defend the title in All Japan Pro Wrestling, which he currently books. Tajiri received a huge babyface homecoming reaction in Philly.
The top merchandise movers for the company right now in terms of t-shirts are Alexander Hammerstone and Azteca Underground. One mistake sources within the promotion cited from the Fightland event was not having t-shirts on sale for the 5150 group as fans were visibly complaining about not being able to buy them. The group got a massive pop live and it was noticed internally, so expect them to get a big push.
More on the planned international taping. It will now be early 2022 in either Mexico or Puerto Rico, where they work with Savio Vega’s IWA Puerto Rico. The determining factors will be the state of the world due to COVID-19 and a business deal that the promotion is hoping will be locked in well before the end of the year. Jacob Fatu and Richard Holliday will compete at IWA Puerto Rico 10/16 eventin the Coliseo Mario “Quijote” Morales. Holliday will defend the IWA World Heavyweight Championship against Mr. Big while Fatu will face Chicano in the main event. Thanks to Oliver Taylor.
The MLW Embedded segment on Fightland was something of a backdoor pilot with the idea of doing a 30 minute weekly series.
Some spoiler notes on MLW booking on Page 2.
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