YMMV / MLW

• Awesome Ego: Alexander Hammerstone, whose boasting and arrogance manages to be both entertaining in its sheer prickery, but he's so good that he's not entirely wrong. In fact, a combination of that and his chemistry with Richard Holliday once Dynasty was whittled down to just those two have turned Hammer into the main babyface of the company.
• Broken Base: While there were a lot of people who liked MLW's initial run at the time and have fond memories of it, there are also people who found it disappointing.
• Crazy Is Cool: The Samoan Island Tribe, especially in the Six Man Tag Falls Count Anywhere Weapons Match at MLW War Games.
  • PCO is a 50-year-old man having a career renaissance when most people are winding down. Before ROH snatched him up, PCO had a few matches in MLW wherein he would bust out moonsaults off the top rope!
• Cult Classic: While not as well-known as other promotions, MLW has a following of its own and is beloved by its fans.
• Draco in Leather Pants: For a guy with the reputation Teddy Hart has, the MLW faithful sure do love him, even as a heel.
  • Ditto LA Park. He is still the much loved Rudo he was in WCW.
  • AKIRA gets a lot of cheers despite his affliction with The Calling.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite being a heel in the reboot, the crowds absolutely love Teddy Hart.
  • Ditto LA Park. Even though he's part of the despised Promociones Dorado, he still has a lot of love from the American fans who remember him fondly from his WCW days. He may be a bit wider and older than he used to be, but he's still the same Chairman, after all.
    • For a guy nowhere near the main event, Gringo Loco is starting to get himself a nice little fanbase.
    • Mance Warner also gets this treatment, probably due to the fact that he is Garbage Wrestler that isn’t totally depraved and crazy, and due to the fact he often feuds with people like the guys mentioned, Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado stable, and the group of Jerkasses known as The Dynasty.
    • Among the luchadors from AAA, Puma King seems to get the most love.
    • For a guy that that was brought in to get his ass kicked, the crowds seem to love Budd Heavy.
• Evil Is Cool: Despite being a part of the villainous CONTRA Unit, Jacob Fatu always has a fair section of fans cheering for him, due to him being a intimidating heel combined with a freakish athleticism that drops jaws.
• Fandom Rivalry: With ROH during both the original run and the revival. The first time around they shared talent and ROH knocked MLW off their perch as the unofficial "number three promotion" in America and into hiatus. After the revival, ROH has gained a nasty little habit of sniping MLW's talent, including ruining a proposed dream main event for MLW's Rise of the Renegades; a match between LA Park and Rush when they signed Rush. ^note Albeit Rush was pressured into signing by his home company CMLL through their talent-sharing agreement with ROH. This, along with CMLL pulling something similar with Rush's brother Dragon Lee lead to MLW sticking to booking solely talent from AAA by extension.
• Friendly Fandoms: On the other hand, MLW has no problem working with Impact Wrestling; multiple Impact-based talents and AAA talents who work with both companies work for MLW as well. This lead to the two companies holding their April 4th shows (MLW's Rise of the Renegades and Impact's United We Stand) at different times so talents and fans could enjoy both without having to choose one or the other. MLW and Impact worked together with Wrestlecon to solve a booking issue with Pentagon Jr. and make sure that he could fulfill his prior commitment to them as well as wrestle on both the aforementioned shows, and they allowed Kotto Brazil to represent MLW in the Ultimate X match at Impact's show.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: South of the Border, Gringo Loco is hated for his Eagleland flavour and his rule-breaking ways. Since MLW is an American promotion, he is a beloved fan favourite for his Eagleland flavour and eye-popping high flying moves.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: MLW has almost always been a male-oriented promotion. They had had women wrestlers in the relaunch (mostly based around Santana Garrett), but for some reason they were gone by the first Battle Riot event. They tried to launch an official women’s division in late 2019 with Zeda Zhang heading it, though Zheng’s injuries and the COVID-19 outbreak kind of killed the idea before it could get off the ground. Hell, managers Aria Blake and Salina de la Renta have wrestled in other promotions (Blake even wrestled in a mixed tag team match for MLW War Games in 2018). They have recently hired Dave Prazak, co-founder of SHIMMER to help launch it again.
• Growing the Beard: The first couple of years since its revival were good, but by "Battle Riot" 2018, MLW has gained a stronger sense of direction and it shows.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: On Fusion #96, MJF remarked on commentary that Savio Vega reminded him of another wrestler named Kwang (who was actually Savio in a mask). Richard Holliday jokingly guessed Kwang as a potential opponent as Mance Warner’s mystery man for Holliday to face on Episode #102. Come Battle Riot 3, guess which gimmick Savio brought out for a cameo?
• Iron Woobie: In a weird sense, Tom Lawlor. CONTRA Unit keep jumping him and he keeps getting up and getting more pissed off by the day. Still, it's hard not to sympathise with his determination because of the 3 man beatdowns.
• Love to Hate: The Dynasty are a talented group who happen to be a pack of pricks. That's why they're so fun to watch!
• Moral Event Horizon: CONTRA Unit has crossed that when they attempted to set 3 wrestlers on fire with gasoline during "Battle Riot II" during Jacob Fatu's turn in the Battle Riot (leading to him being the first and so far only man to be disqualified from the Riot, which is supposed to be a no disqualification type match). They would eclipse this by running roughshod during an entire episode (Episode 59, if you're watching on YouTube), beating up Tom Lawlor, Low Ki (leading to Low Ki's Heel–Face Turn), Pentagon Jr and Fenix, throwing a fireball at Pentagon in order to write the Lucha Bros off TV and a few others.
  • Before then, Low Ki and Promociones Dorado crossed this by shanking Konnan and trying to rip Daga's ear off.
• Nightmare Fuel: Low Ki literally PRISON SHANKING Konnan after their brutal no disqualification match and had Tom Lawlor didn't run out to stop Ricky Martinez and El Hijo Del LA Park, Konnan would be in serious danger or worse.
  • "Worse" being what Ace Romero got at the hands of the CONTRA Unit's Josef Samael. After Josef and Jacob Fatu helped beat Ace down at the behest of leader Simon Gotch, Josef pulled out a railroad spike and stabbed Ace multiple times in the head, leaving Ace a bleeding mess while MLW officials tried in vain to get CONTRA to leave the ring. The following week, Fatu & Samael did a similar beatdown to two jobbers only this time, Samael threw a fireball to one of the jobber's face as well as Fatu doing a couple of moonsaults and a big splash to the other jobber while he was on a stretcher. As a result, it caused a mini riot in the arena. In an episode of Fusion, Jacob Fatu successfully defended his title against CIMA (the same one who's also signed w/ AEW). After the match, CONTRA's Death Squad placed CIMA in a body bag and carried him out of the arena. Who knows what plans CONTRA has for him....
    • And for the trifecta, MLW's description of the off-screen beatdown Pentagon Jr. got when the Lucha Brothers were written off of MLW TV. Josef Samael allegedly gouged out Pentagon's eyes with his thumbs while lifting him above his head. While none of this was depicted on-screen, it's a very unpleasant image.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Dick Togo, at MLW Reload, September 26, 2002, since he got injured by Los Maximos' overblown Spanish Fly finisher in the Far-East Connection (Christopher Daniels/Togo/Ikuto Hidaka)-Los Maximos/Quiet Storm match.
  • Austin Aries, Matt Riddle, Jeff Cobb and Garza Jr didn't stick around past the first few episodes of Fusion. Subverted in Aries' case as vignettes started to air promoting his re-debut later in 2019. Which is also his first appearance in a national televised wrestling program since his departure from Impact Wrestling in late 2018. Also Cobb came back for one night at War Chamber 2021 and Riddle returned as a regular in 2024.
  • James Storm at War Games 2018.
  • Zicky Dice at Battle Riot III.
  • Buddy Matthews, Rok-C, and Miranda Gordy at Blood & Thunder 2022.
  • Parker Boudreaux at Battle Riot IV.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Why bring the Stud Stable back in 2020-21 if you're gonna use the Dirty Blondes twice, Mike Parrow twice and barely follow up on Aria Blake and Colonel Parker's entanglement and drop them without fanfare after rebooting your roster prior to Battle Riot 3?
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: As good as MLW is, they're definitely a very Villains Act, Heroes React kind of product. This was never more evident than at Intimidation Games 2019 in Chicago, where nearly every match ended with the faces getting beaten down by the heels they're feuding with.
  • Even before this, Low Ki did some really violent things during his title reign including stabbing Konnan and almost ripping Daga's ear off. The only reason he isn't a Karma Houdini is because he got dethroned by Tom Lawlor, though the match itself was regarded as an Anti-Climax giving the months of buildup.
• Too Good to Last: Subverted as of 2017. MLW began running shows again, premiered their own weekly show on BeIN Sports, and are still alive and kicking going into 2019. The world of MLW would NEVER stop indeed.
• Took a Level in Badass: Simon Gotch came into MLW as "the other guy" in the Vaudevillains from WWE. After being Tom Lawlor's best friend in Team Filthy, Gotch betrayed Lawlor and got his ass kicked for his troubles, then got beat by Ace Romero in his open challenge for $20,000. Disappearing for awhile, Gotch would reappear, clean-shaven, with Jacob Fatu and Josef Samael in tow, beating down Lawlor after Lawlor beat Low Ki in a cage match. Having beaten down Lawlor, Gotch and his new stable known as CONTRA Unit would begin destroying everything in their path at Intimidation Games.
• Unexpected Character: Nobody could have expected MLW would announce that Savio Vega, ​of all people, would appear at Never Say Never 2019 to face Alexander Hammerstone.
  • Nobody expected Kamala’s manager Kim Chee to participate in the Battle Riot, let alone join up with the promotion full time.
  • Nobody could have predicted that the mysterious backer of the Bombaye Fight Club was Don King.
• X-Pac Heat: Barrington Hughes has this with some people for his appearance.

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