Maple Leaf Pro Mayhem 8/13 Results: Stu Grayson earns double-champ status, takes Rohan Raja’s PWA title – POST Wrestling

Image Credit: Maple Leaf Pro

Results

Rhino def. Bryce Hansen
Capitan Suicida & Mascara Dorada def. El Reverso & Mo Jabari, James Drake & Zack Gibson, Blake Christian & Lee Johnson (Four-Way)
Stu Grayson def. Rohan Raja (Interim Maple Leaf Pro Championship / PWA Champion’s Grail) (Recommended)

Rhino beats poor Bryce Hansen

This week’s episode of Maple Leaf Pro: Mayhem, taped earlier this summer from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, opened with ECW legend Rhino on the mic. A fired-up Rhino said he wants to prove he’s still the “war machine” and will do that with an open challenge.

MLP tag champs 1st Faction were seen backstage talking to their manager, Bryce Hansen. The champs peer-pressured the inexperienced Hansen to hit the ring and answer the challenge. Sheldon Jean said that Hansen is a representative of the entire group, so if he’s afraid of Rhino, people will think all three of them are.

Hansen, not ready to compete in sweats and a dress shirt, hastily tried to apply wrist tape as he marched toward the ring. Hansen surprisingly put up quite the fight here; this wasn’t the one-sided squash that I expected. But Rhino eventually connected with his Gore spear for the pinfall win after dodging a top-rope move from Hansen.

We saw another video package on Psycho Mike. This time, it was sound bites of MLP fans saying why they like him. “He feels like that weird kid I knew growing up,” one said. They’ve been building him up quite well, and he’ll be back in the ring next week.

CMLL duo wins wild four-way tag

A hectic four-way tag match was next: CMLL’s Capitan Suicida and Mascara Dorada, AEW’s The Swirl, the Grizzled Young Veterans, and a Canadian team of Mo Jabari and El Reverso. We had seen three of these teams before. It was a TV debut for Jabari and Reverso. Jabari has been hyped up in video packages which featured words from Bret Hart himself on why he’s one to watch.

The Swirl went on a really fun run late in this match on Dorada. In an homage to their trios teammate Jay Lethal, Blake Christian hit a Lethal Injection of sorts to Dorada while Lee Johnson held him upside down. This earned a near fall.

Grizzled Young Vets got a two-count of their own after giving Christian a combination dropkick and Michinoku Driver. CMLL’s duo in this match had a pair of big dives outside the ring onto everyone else. Capitan Suicida scored a huge tope suicida onto the group, then Dorada followed with a springboard moonsault to the floor.

Back in the ring, Suicida scored an incredible “Kamikaze Special” Swanton Bomb onto Reverso for the pinfall win. A fun, high-octane match between four skilled teams. I honestly would’ve put this first in this week’s lineup, as it’s the type of fast, tone-setting match which hooks viewers for the rest of a broadcast.

In his latest interview package, Adam Copeland revealed that Scott D’Amore first reached out to him about performing in Maple Leaf Gardens after he expressed interest in wrestling at the venue during a 2022 podcast interview.

I get that Copeland is a huge get for Maple Leaf Pro. And, these clips are neat. But, I don’t know if the substance of these interview clips (which are all part of the same sit-down shoot) is worth promoting each week. Feels like we’re being IV-dripped little tidbits about Copeland. But, at the same time, I get it. It’s exciting for them.

07/31 Moore’s TNA Impact audio review: Mustafa Ali vs. Jason Hotch for the TNA International Championship, Knockouts TV Title tournament matches

Stu Grayson wins title-versus-title showdown against Rohan Raja

The main event saw Rohan Raja and Stu Grayson meet in a title-versus-title match. Grayson was putting up his interim Maple Leaf Pro title and Raja was wagering the PWA Champion’s Grail, a title that Maple Leaf Pro sanctions along with a few other promotions around the world.

Raja was disrespectful early on, spitting Grayson in the face at one point. This only enraged Grayson, who fired up after the statement move from Raja. Grayson had a great comeback run, including a Pele Kick. He tried for a springboard move, but got tripped up in the ropes by Raja’s manager Aurora Teves, who got onto the ring apron at the same time. The referee saw this blatant interference and ejected Teves from ringside.

Grayson rebounded from the moment with a flatliner, then a huge springboard moonsault for a near fall. Grayson teased a German Suplex off the ring apron and to the floor, but Raja thankfully escaped. Raja instead kicked Grayson back-first. A move from him was countered by Grayson into an absolutely brutal brainbuster onto the ring apron – this was nasty.

Back after another break, a back-and-forth striking exchange caused Mauro Ranallo to reference the famous Frye vs. Takayama Pride match. Raja caught Grayson with a backstabber for a two-count. Grayson came charging at Raja for a move but ran into a huge Black Hole Slam for another near fall. A justifiable “This is awesome” chant broke out.

Grayson fought out of an attempted flatliner, then scored a trio of overhead belly-to-belly suplexes. Raja tried to avoid another suplex with a headbutt, but Grayson answered back with a headbutt of his own, then continued with his parade of suplexes.

Raja rolled to the ring apron, but Grayson came flying over the ropes with a huge DDT. Back in the ring, Grayson scored a 450 Splash. Surprisingly, Raja kicked out! The fight went to the top rope, where Grayson scored a superplex then impressively shot back up to his feet.

Grayson tried to score a running knee strike, but Raja smoothly reversed it into his hunger lock! Grayson escaped the move by transitioning into a pin attempt. Raja tried for a Rings of Saturn, but Grayson avoided the submission from being fully applied. Grayson came charging off the ropes for a huge knee strike. A Nightfall from Grayson was escaped by Raja. Grayson dropped Raja with two more running knees to the head, then on the second attempt was able to connect with Nightfall for the pinfall win. Incredible match between these two.

Considering how short this show is, you have to pick and choose which matches you give a significant amount of time to. This was probably the longest match on Mayhem to date, and rightfully so. Raja and Grayson were both trying really hard here and put together a main event-worthy showdown. Two thumbs up from me.

Final thoughts

While I’d slightly tweak the match order here, putting the tag four-way in the opening spot, this was otherwise a stellar episode. I’d argue, maybe MLP’s best episode of Mayhem yet. We got a big fight-feel main event, a fun tag bout, plus some strong vignettes to build to upcoming angles. Hard to ask for more out of a 44-minute program.

Here’s what they announced for next week’s show: