Live Notes From MLW Fightland Show in Chicago

– PWInsider has notes from a fan who was in attendance at Thursday night’s MLW Fightland event, which was also a taping for MLW: Fusion. You can see the notes below courtesy of the site and Joe Chmielewski:

* The building was packed, they said it was a sellout, the crowd was hot all night.

* Puma King was super over and MJF did a great job riling up the fans, he is an awesome heel. Aria Blake was also great in her role, she actually spit in a fan’s face when he was jawing at her.

* I got the impression that not a lot of the fans had seen Marko Stunt wrestle before and they were blown away by his performance. When he came back out for his second match he got a huge pop.

* I didn’t recognize Ariel Dominguez when he came out for the Gotch prize fight, that match was kind of a let down. Was expecting a better surprise than what we got.

* Joey Ryan showed us his injury after the match was over, and it looked pretty bad. He said he injured it the night before wrestling in Texas. The match was your typical comedy Swoggle match with him getting the pin with the tadpole splash.

* Kotto Brazil vs Trey Miguel was a great, fast-paced match, really good stuff. Kotto is going to be a star one day.

* After the Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Pillman Jr match Teddy Hart came out and they beat Tommy down.

* The Tom Lawlor vs. Sami Callahan street fight was the best match of the night. It was a nuts brawl and I didn’t see everything that happened, but the crowd was super into it and I’m sure it’s going to look good on TV.

* Teddy Hart is really impressive and he was over with the crowd, when he wasn’t on camera in his heel persona he was very personable and friendly with the fans. I even passed him in the hall on the way to the bathroom and he stopped to shake my hand. He signed autographs and took pictures with fans even after the show was over.

* Rush got the loudest reaction of the night outside of the main event. He had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand, the match with Sammy Guevara was very good. He did a promo in Spanish afterwards as there were a lot of Spanish speaking people in the crowd. I didn’t understand a word he was saying, but he has quite the presence. Looking forward to seeing him in ROH in December.

* The PCO vs Brody King no DQ match was another crazy brawl that included PCO diving off a balcony above the entrance through a table, just before Brody rolled out of the way. That match should also come off great on TV and it was super fun live.

* Low Ki vs. Shane Strickland was also a pretty entertaining match. Stokely Hathaway watched from a front row seat along the entrance, but he never got involved. Ricky Martinez distracted the ref when it looked like Swerve was going to get the win and Zalina gave Ki a foreign object, which he used to get the win. After the match Strickland went ballistic, tearing up ringside and turned heel calling out Court Bauer for his “hypocrisy” and telling the fans off. When he tried to say that he was terminating his contract, his microphone was shut off. He stormed out through the crowd, very well done angle.

* They announced the main event was a mexican rules no tag match. All four men got huge pops for their entrances and introductions and the crowd was WAY into this match the whole way through. There were some pretty stiff spots and lots of crazy dives and brawling all over the place, I can’t wait to see this match when it airs.

* They were pushing the March 2nd return card all night long and announced that tickets will go on sale this Monday at 10 a.m.

* On a personal note I got to interact with Tony Schiavone before the show. He was very approachable and took the time to chat with everyone that came up to him. I told him we’d met once before after a Nitro in Milwaukee in 1996, he was very gracious and friendly. I will definitely try to come back when they return to Chicago in March.