Results
- Evil Uno def. Johnny TV, TJP & Jonathan Gresham (Four-Way)
- Alice Crowley def. Taylor Rising
- Michael Allen Richard Clark def. Luigi Primo
- Brent Banks & Sheldon Jean def. Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews (Maple Leaf Pro Tag Team Championships)
Evil Uno wins fast-paced four-way opener
This week’s episode of Maple Leaf Pro Mayhem, taped earlier this year in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, opened with a promo from Johnny TV, roasting his three opponents tonight. Generative AI art was put to work in this video package.
We had a four-way scramble to start this week featuring four men we saw on previous episodes of the show: Johnny TV, TJP, Evil Uno and Jonathan Gresham. Johnny TV scored a fun somersault plancha onto Uno and TJP a few minutes in. Gresham stole Johnny’s spotlight right after, shoving him into a set of steel stairs before the show went to a break.
After the show returned, a three-man superplex spot came out of the corner. TJP, the one wrestler not involved in that sequence, tried to capitalize by rolling up Uno. AEW’s Uno kicked out at two to keep this one going.
A fast-paced sequence between these four had an incredibly fun exchange between Uno and Gresham: “The Octopus” came out of the corner with a crossbody, but Uno instead flattened him by pumping out his chest and using it as a block. Gresham responded moments later by dodging a huge senton from Uno.
A lengthy striking exchange between Johnny TV and Gresham ended with Johnny TV hitting the Moonlight Drive. TJP prevented a Starship Pain, knocking Johnny TV out of the corner and onto Gresham. TJP gave Johnny TV a Coup de Grace-esque double stomp out of the corner.
Uno got back into the match and scored a Spinning Evil (Spinning Flatliner) onto TJP for the pinfall win. This was a super fun, tone-setting type of opener for this card. Did it move forward stories that much? Not really. But sometimes it’s important to hook the viewer by simply putting together a good match. I enjoyed this one.
We saw a pre-taped promo from Adam Copeland, who spoke about how his passion for professional wrestling and the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team fuelled his desire to perform at MLP’s Northern Rising card later this year, which takes place in the former Maple Leaf Garden grounds. “For me, my great white whale has been Maple Leaf Gardens,” he said.
PCO makes Mayhem debut in post-match segment, M.A.R.C. scores win
Up next, we saw ex-NWA talent Taylor Rising face off against JCW (the Juggalo one, not the Jersey one) alum Alice Crowley. This was a hard-hitting match early on. Rising was in control for a large part of it, but Crowley caught her late with a roll-up for the win.
An upset Rising attacked Crowley after the bell. To get some extra heat, Rising ally Chris Chambers, was about to put a Figure Four on Crowley. But, just as he was about to do this, the lights went out!
A casket appeared on stage… This casket was opened and revealed former TNA and ROH name PCO! The 58-year-old Quebecois man was electrocuted back to life then started to march his way down to the ring.
Chambers attempted to take out PCO with a chair, but it only made him stronger! PCO chokeslammed Chambers and was about to score a moonsault, but Rising rolled Chambers out of the way. The heel duo retreated to end the segment. It looks like we know who PCO’s first opponent on Mayhem will be.
The co-main event saw Manitoba-based heel Michael Allen Richard Clark make his Mayhem debut, facing off against once-viral name Luigi Primo. Clark (a.k.a. MARC) was on the commentary desk last week and went after Zach Gowen. To return the favor, Gowen was on the desk for his match this week.
We had some good comedy spots early on featuring Primo and the pizza dough he often uses as a prop in his matches. Clark stole the dough from him and was able to get some heat by mocking him with it. Anyway, this was a quick win for Clark, who put away Primo with a fireman’s carry into spinebuster. It was heavily teased that we’re getting Clark vs. Gowen sometime soon.
1st Faction add yet another huge win to title reign
The main event of the night saw Maple Leaf Pro Tag Team Champions Brent Banks and Sheldon Jean try to pick up another big win, facing Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews of Subculture. The Canadian duo that is 1st Faction have already scored some big wins: They dethroned The Good Brothers and two weeks ago beat the CMLL duo of Mascara Dorada and Capitan Suicida.
Webster scored a huge Swanton Bomb to the floor onto both members of 1st Faction early in this match. He followed up with a moonsault in the ring and a sit-out facebuster for a near fall onto Banks.
Andrews got back into the match and delivered a Falcon Arrow, but a follow-up pin was stopped by Jean. A minute later, Jean held back a leg of Andrews from ringside, a pause which allowed Banks to nail Andrews with a huge head kick. Jean tagged in and gave Andrews a leg lariat. He scored a powerslam, then Banks got back into the match with a huge frogsplash. Webster pushed Jean into a pin attempt to keep the match alive!
Subculture knocked 1st Faction out of the ring with dual headbutts, then both delivered topes to the floor. Andrews gave Banks a Stun 41, then Webster followed up with Shadows Over Malice (Swanton Bomb). It looked like this would be the finish, but a pin was stopped once 1st Faction’s helper, Bryce Hansen, who put Banks’ foot on the bottom rope.
An enraged Dani Luna dropped Hansen with a forearm. Women’s champ Gisele Shaw, who has been feuding with Luna for weeks, came charging down the ramp and started to exchange hard forearms with her. They both brawled their way into the backstage area.
Webster and Morgan were quite distracted by Luna’s disappearance. Webster put together a series of chops and strikes to Banks. He came running off the ropes but then ate a huge lariat from Jean, who did a blind tag to get back into the match. 1st Faction then gave Webster a neckbreaker-powerbomb double-team move for the pinfall victory.
Like I said when 1st Faction beat Dorada and Suicida two weeks back, an interesting challenge with MLP is how you elevate local talent in matchups against global names without bothering people. You want to build up names like Jean and Banks, who are new wrestlers for many viewers, but you don’t want to alienate those viewers by having them score wins against far more established wrestlers.
While I really like Subculture and want them to get bigger opportunities, I don’t mind them taking the loss here. It doesn’t seem like outrageous booking, especially since they lost in a dirty fashion. The interference helped build up the more important Luna and Shaw program, too. The match itself was great; all four worked quite well together.
Here’s what Maple Leaf Pro announced for next week’s show:
- We’ll hear from Adam Copeland
- James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Blake Christian & Lee Johnson vs. Mo Jabari & El Reverso vs. Mascara Dorada & Capitan Suicida
- Stu Grayson vs. Rohan Raja (Interim Maple Leaf Pro Championship & PWA Champion’s Grail)
