PWDU Live Review: MCW Fight to Survive, Saturday 14 October 2023

We’re back at the Thornbury Theatre for another really exciting MCW card, featuring a 5-on-5 main event, Jarvis vs Delta, and the Natural Classics vs TMDK’s Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita.

We start off with a pre-show match, with Sensational Shen defeating Levi Nixon. Then after some very minor tech issues that delayed the show just a little, we’re into the show proper.

Nick Armstrong vs Mikey Broderick

Armstrong has lost a series of “Loser leaves MCW” matches, yet continues to pop up. The crowd is having a heap of fun with the Champ Champ, this is a very fun, pretty original comedy storyline, which is over like crazy.

Broderick comes out, and he’s still doing the Squat gimmick in MCW, despite doing some heel work elsewhere in the country.

This was a comedy match with a heap of character work from both men, and a wild amount of nearfalls for an opener, before Armstrong shocks the world by rolling up Broderick for the win.

Winner: Nick Armstrong

Referee Edwin comes out ahead of the next match and receives the most insane pop I’ve ever heard for a ref. It was pretty cool – Edwin seemed genuinely moved by it.

Aysha vs Erika Reid

I’d been critical of MCW’s failure to book much female talent throughout 2023, but this is exactly what I want – Aysha, who is Melbourne’s best female wrestler, vs Erika, who is amazing, but for reasons doesn’t get a lot of opportunities in the top tier promotions. She did recently win the Oceania Pro Wrestling Women’s Championship as part of the IMPACT Wrestling tour, which I hope leads to more opportunities.

If not, this match should – these 2 had incredible chemistry beating each other up. We got a short little back and forth, fairly violent match, with both women fighting into the crowd leading to a double countout.

I’m stoked that they’re actually booking a storyline that will see more of Aysha vs Erika on the next show, they put on such a fun little match. It wasn’t amazing, because it was sort of a “cut-off match” that finished in the crowd out of nowhere – I’m super excited for the next match though, these two are setting up for a war.

It’s worth mentioning the incredible babyface charisma that had people cheering Erika on immediately. That’s a pretty great talent to have, she was so impressive.

Result: Double count-out

Both women continue brawling after the match, and here’s MCW General Manager Rocky Menero. The crowd is chanting “let them fight”, and he looks like he’s going to before sending Erika to the back.

We see the promotional video for MCW End Game on Sunday 10 December at 3pm – they ignored the previous MCW 13 announcement altogether on this show.

“Crackle” vs WAIK

Mick Moretti’s new Shadow Alley faction is here, and they’re really continuing to announce “Snap” (Blake Malik), “Crackle” (Ryan Rapid) and “the pop” (Moretti). Moretti on commentary, while Rapid’s opponent turns out to be WAIK, which is one of the PCW top draw matches – I really like these occasional showcases now that MCW’s and PCW’s training schools have merged.

Rapid largely dominates this match, though WAIK gets enough offence to be interesting, and with his facepaint it strikes me how much he would’ve fit in with Shadow Alley.

Anyway, Rapid wins it clean as a whistle.

Winner: “Crackle” (Ryan Rapid)

MCW Intercommonwealth & Women’s Championship Match: Jarvis (cc) vs Delta

To watch the entrances and the enormous heat behind this match is to know you’re watching MCW’s feud of the year. It’s wild how over both are in their respective roles, and to listen to the crowd, this was the true main event.

The match starts with Delta immediately hitting a flash F5, but Jarvis bails to the outside.

What followed was incredible wrestling storytelling, as Jarvis’ failed hit-and-runs play into Delta’s domination, up until the point he manages to hit a dirty chop block and take advantage of Delta’s knee.

We got some incredible call backs to earlier in the feud, the best of which was Jarvis attempting to pin Delta with his feet on the ropes – which is how he won both titles – before referee Edwin caught him, to the explosion of the crowd! Incredible!

We get another great callback as Jarvis grabs one belt, is caught by Edwin, then grabs the other belt and wipes out Delta – but she kicks out, unlike Aysha when Jarvis had inadvertently wiped her out.

Delta recovers, she catches a top rope dive from Jarvis and hits an F5, followed by a spear, then another F5 to win back both belts following both wrestlers’ best ever match. This was the loudest pop I’ve ever heard at the Thornbury Theatre, and for its incredible storytelling elements (more so than “pure workrate”) this match, perhaps a little surprisingly, goes on the December re-watch list – it was that friggen good!

Winner and NEEEW MCW Intercommonwealth & Women’s Champion: Delta

Seriously, get yourself to the Thornbury Theatre to experience how over Delta is, it’s incredible.

Intermission

The Natural Classics (Stevie & Tome Filip) vs TMDK (Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita)

This looks like being the final match of Fujita’s mini-excursion of Australia, with Eagles and Fujita announced for the New Japan Junior Tag Tournament starting this weekend.

We start off with a bit of pose-off, with the Natural Classics doing the Rogue Army pose and Robbie reacting big to it – this was odd, because the Rogue Army story hasn’t been told in MCW, so it didn’t really get over.

Anyway, I put the phone down for this match, I was really excited for it. It was largely what I expected, with Stevie and and Robbie both hitting their top rope arsenals and Tome and Fujita working around them on the mat. Fujita in particular looked really impressive for my first time seeing him live.

I really enjoyed this match, although I’m not sure how it’ll hold up as a MOTY contender – it’s going to need another watch.

Winners: The Natural Classics (Stevie & Tome Filip)

Out next is Rocky Menero with his special announcements. He announces that in February MCW will be holding a two-day anniversary event, before going on to announce the wrong dates.

Following the video, Rocky is interrupted by “The Gift” Robbie Thorpe, who has a bum microphone that kind of wrecks the segment, cos Robbie doesn’t quite have the experience to overcome it. Thorpe ends up challenging Rocky to a match at End Game, which Rocky accepts after consulting the crowd – but given this was Robbie’s main show debut, and it will be Rocky’s first match since retiring, I feel like there was supposed to be more storyline here that the microphone didn’t allow for.

5-on-5 Fight to Survive: The Kings of Chaos (Eli Theseus, Gabriel Aeros, Edward Dusk, Mick Moretti, Lucky O’Leary) vs Big Business (Slex, Tommy Knight, Emman Azman, Caveman Ugg, Adam Brooks)

Exceedingly tough to review a match like this…

Theseus is eliminated early in the match by Tommy Knight, who spears Eli while he’s doing his Greek dance. As the ref tries to tell Theseus to leave, he assaults the ref, resulting in a chaotic 5 on 5 assault.

As this goes on, Dusk strips the announce table and places it in the middle of the stage – O’Leary, Theseus and Dusk Shield-bomb Slex through the table. This brings out paramedics – with one of them smiling, which didn’t quite put over the gravity of the situation – and Slex is taken to the back.

O’Leary is next to be eliminated by a Tommy Knight brainbuster, before Knight cops a low blow and a 3-on-1 beatdown before he’s rolled up.

Caveman Ugg is the next man eliminated when Moretti rolls him up out of a Razor’s Edge, and Dusk is eliminating for assaulting Brooks with the spare turnbuckle hook.

Moretti follows this up with a double stomp to Brooks, allowing Aeros to pin Brooks. Aeros demands his necklace back from Moretti: “IT’S EXPENSIVE!” which pops me.

Slex returns with Rocky trying to talk him out of it… but given Slex tags straight back in and starts hitting really slick offence, it doesn’t sell the story of the returning injured star that convincingly.

Azman is next out when Aeros pins him, and an attempted Slexbomb takes out the ref, allowing Theseus to return to the ring for a sneak attack. Aeros grabs the chain, but misses Slex and knocks out Moretti, allowing Slex to lock in the Close of Business for the tap out.

It’s a long final exchange between Slex and Moretti – like, really long. On one hand we needed Slex to win heading into his title match against Buddy Matthews, but on the other hand they appeared to be trying to establish Moretti as his first challenger. As a result of all this, as well as being the result of an incredible, really tense event, I’m not sure this final exchange got over particularly well. It didn’t ruin the match by any means, but in hindsight the aim of the final exchanges of this match should’ve been purely around making Slex look great – they could’ve worried about Moretti later on. Anyway, a Business Bomb and Slexecution finishes it for Buddy’s next challenger.

Winner & Sole Survivor: Slex (Big Business – Tommy Knight, Emman Azman, Caveman Ugg, Adam Brooks)

Final thoughts: I’m not sure this review does this show justice. This was an incredible show with a MOTYC between Jarvis & Delta, another great match between TMDK and the Natural Classics, some incredible story-telling, and a super hot crowd. It was one of those shows that was so much greater than the sum of its parts – with the possible exception of the last 5 minutes of the main event, everything on this show hit, and the crowd was into all of it.

I’m looking forward to re-watching this show, as it might be MCW’s show of the year.

How to watch it: MCW events are available to Fite+ subscribers a week following the show – in the case of Fight to Survive, it will debut this Saturday 21 October at 7.30pm.

I also recommend following MCW on social media, as its events all sell out. If you wish to attend an MCW show – and it should absolutely be a goal of yours if you’re at all interested in local wrestling – you’ll need to make sure you pre-buy tickets.

Upcoming shows they’ve announced to date are: