Alex Kane is still the MLW World Champion, and now he knows his next challenger will be the returning Richard Holliday.
Kane defeated Matt Cardona to retain his MLW World Championship in the main event of MLW One-Shot. The match saw plenty of interference and shenanigans by Steph De Lander on Cardona’s behalf. Mance Warner (in his Good Brother 3) mask ran out and kissed Steph De Lander, payback from a month ago. Cardona hit Radio Silence, but Kane kicked out. SDL gave Cardona the world title, and he took Mr. Thomas out with a belt shot.
Cardona held up Kane, and SDL went to hit him with the belt. Kane ducked out of the way and speared her. He then no-sold a chair shot and went after Cardona, hitting him with suplexes and a Falcon Arrow for two. Kane put Cardona in Fade To Black, and Kane gets the submission win.
Alex Kane then called his group to the ring and they carried him out, with commentary joking that he’s a sports entertainment martyr. Kane called for some new blood, and the lights go out.
Richard Holliday is standing in the ring, and he and Kane talk a little trash until MSL comes to the ring. MSL says he’s booking the matches, and as his last official decision of the night, he’s offering Richard Holliday the match at Kings Of Colosseum. After thinking about it and asking the crowd, Holliday puts on a WTF hat and joins MSL’s stable.
This is Richard Holliday’s first appearance in MLW since he lost a world title match to Alex Hammerstone in June 2022 (the match aired in November).
The right platform
WrestleZone recently spoke with Richard Holliday about his return to the independent scene and his “abrupt” MLW departure. Holliday went on a sabbatical last year because he was in treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He completed treatment in February 2023 and was in remission in April, but his MLW contract expired when he was in treatment.
Holliday remained on good terms with MLW and said he was focused on finding the right platform to reintroduce himself to the pro wrestling world.
“‘Abrupt’ is kind of an appropriate word for what happened. It came seemingly out of nowhere, right? Because there was time left on [my contract] and then obviously everything happened,” Holliday explained, “so it was just best for both parties to let it go. For the most part, the thing about what we were doing in MLW, is that we weren’t restricted from independent bookings, and they kind of encouraged it.
“Really, it was just getting back on the indies without MLW, and then what could be the biggest platform that I could use to accelerate my career or get back out there. I kind of felt like it was a reintroduction, a lot of people didn’t know who I was, obviously,” Holliday noted. “I wanted to treat it like a reintroduction back into wrestling. So, just so many different promotions reached out and I made tons of debuts, like you mentioned. GCW, that’s one of them. Just getting back out there and hitting the ground running.”
Read More: MLW One-Shot Results – December 7, 2023: Alex Kane Defends Against Matt Cardona
