Results
- Stu Grayson def. Dior Nolins
- Alexia Nicole def. Alice Crowley
- TJP, Johnny TV & Gabriel Fuerza def. El Reverso, Mo Jabari and Luigi Primo
- Andrade El Idolo def. Karl Anderson
Northern Rising headliners come to blows
This week’s episode of Maple Leaf Pro: Mayhem, the second-to-last episode of this first season, opened with a clip from last week’s show, where we saw great babyface promo backstage from Priscilla Kelly shortly after she won the Maple Leaf Pro Women’s Championship.
We then went to the ring, where interim Maple Leaf Pro Champion Stu Grayson opened the show with a showcase against Toronto’s Dior Nolins. Grayson immediately caught Nolins with a running knee strike, then put him away in mere seconds with his Nightfall finisher. Tough night to be Nolins.
Grayson got on the mic afterward and said he hopes Northern Rising opponent Josh Alexander was watching. “An angry Stu is the best Stu,” he said.
Wanting to get under the skin of Alexander, he called for Mayhem color commentator and Alexander manager Don Callis to come to the ring. Callis got up from his desk and started to walk to the ring when Alexander himself came out. Alexander told Callis he didn’t have to come to the ring; he’d go face-to-face with Grayson instead.
Alexander said that Grayson had been walking around MLP for weeks with a “replica” title, trying to convince everyone that he’s the top man. “Daddy’s home now,” Alexander said. These comments fired up Grayson even more. Alexander told him to handle this confrontation with “class” and save the fighting for Northern Rising.
Alexander instructed Grayson to shake his hand. This was a setup, as Alexander struck Grayson in the head right after! Grayson responded with a punch of his own and tried to put together more of an attack, but Alexander wisely got out of the ring and fled the scene. A decent little angle between these two to help hype up that segment.
Alexia Nicole leans on ringside support for singles win
In a backstage promo, Nikki Storm cut a promo on her Northern Rising oppoenent, Priscilla Kelly: “People see a champion, I see someone who’s been told they’re special.”
Up next, Alexia Nicole went head-to-head with Alice Crowley. Nicole picked up a near fall early on after catching Crowley with a backstabber. She sent Crowley into a corner for a meteora, then a snap suplex for another two-count.
Crowley started to get back into the match with a series of lariats. The up-and-comer climbed up a corner of the ring for a move but was pushed back down to the mat by Taylor Rising (Kris Chambers, who was also at ringside to support Nicole, distracted the referee). Nicole rolled up Crowley for the win right after.
Nicole, Chambers and Rising were planning for a post-match attack on Crowley, but Jody Threat hit the ring and cleared out all three. Wonder if some sort of tag match between the four women involved here will be added to Northern Rising?
A vignette from Crazzy Steve mentioned how, when he was the voice in Psycho Mike’s head, he was playing tricks on him. “I told you, ‘The world was using you.’ I just forgot to mention, I was too! … You thought I was setting you free? I was just making sure you became exactly what I wanted you to be.”
New trio scores win ahead of Northern Rising
Six-man tag match was next, as TJP, Johnny TV and Mexican-Canadian talent Gabriel Fuerza faced off against El Reverso, Mo Jabari and Luigi Primo. It was announced during this match that the TJP, Johnny & Fuerza duo will appear as part of the Northern Rising card against the trio of Subculture and Mascara Dorada.
TJP tried to spray a mist at Primo early on, but the pizza maker used the dough he carries around to block the move! Reverso and Jabari scored dual tope suicidas to the floor, both were nasty landings. Primo, while spinning his pizza dough, hit a top-rope crossbody onto everyone at ringside.
In an ode to mentor Bret Hart, Jabari put a Sharpshooter on Johnny TV at one point. Another homage came moments later when Jabari, along with Reverso, gave TJP a Hart Attack.
Fuerza, who was on the ring apron, caught Reverso with a head kick. This allowed Johnny TV to score Starship Pain out of the corner for a pinfall win. This was meant to be a showcase for this new Johnny TV-led trio, but the spotlight felt more like it was on the other team. Either way, that trios match on Northern Rising should be fun.
We saw a clip where a fired-up Deonna Purrazzo shouted at partner Steve Maclin after he was bailed out of jail for assaulting Adam Copeland. Shortly after getting free from behind bars, Maclin got a FaceTime call from Copeland. “You don’t seem to fully grasp what’s coming. This isn’t a homecoming, man. This is your funeral.”
Andrade suffers attack from Northern Rising opponent
The main event saw AEW National Champion Andrade El Idolo face off against Karl Anderson.
Andrade was getting all his spots in before a commercial break, ripping off his long pants and getting a selfie with a woman at ringside. Anderson avoided a meteora from Andrade after the show returned, instead dropping him with a hard spinebuster.
Andrade got back into the match with a Three Amigos series of suplexes. Andrade climbed to the top rope for a move, but was knocked off-balance by an Anderson dropkick. A superplex from Anderson was reversed by Andrade, who knocked him back to the mat with a headbutt then followed with a crossbody off the top. Anderson used the momentum of the crossbody to roll into a pin attempt, which Andrade escaped at two.
Andrade tripped Anderson into a set of turnbuckles then connected with his meteora upon second attempt. Anderson escaped a DM attempt, but ran into a spinning back elbow from Andrade. The spinning blow helped set up for the DM, earning Andrade the pinfall victory.
The Good Brothers looked as though they wanted a piece of Andrade after the match. A man wearing Capitan Suicida’s mask hit the ring to even the odds… But then they shockingly dropped Andrade with a chairshot to the back!
The mask was taken off and it was revealed that Capitan Suicida was actually Andrade’s Northern Rising opponent, Rohan Raja! The heel stood tall over a hurt Andrade as the show went off air. A really clever post-match segment here.
Here’s what the final episode of Mayhem Season 1 looks like:
- Nikki Storm vs. Dani Luna
- Vaughn Vertigo vs. Rudra
- Stevie Filip & Tome Filip vs. Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews
- Rohan Raja, Dan Maff, Jonathan Gresham, Sheldon Jean & Brent Banks vs. Neon, Psycho Mike, Billy Gunn, Judas Icarus & Travis Williams
And here’s an updated lineup for MLP’s Northern Rising card following tonight’s show:
- Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster & Mascara Dorada vs. TJP, Johnny TV & Gabriel Fuerza
- Andrade El Idolo vs. Rohan Raja
- Dan Maff vs. Psycho Mike vs. Crazzy Steve (Monster’s Mayhem)
- Sheldon Jean & Brent Banks vs. Judas Icarus & Travis Williams vs. James Drake & Zach Gibson (Maple Leaf Pro Tag Team Championships)
- Adam Copeland vs. Steve Maclin
- Priscilla Kelly vs. Nikki Storm (Maple Leaf Pro Women’s Championship)
- Josh Alexander vs. Stu Grayson (Maple Leaf Pro Championship)
