Battle RIOT VII was a big show.
The annual event was held in Los Angeles and was capped off by the massive Battle Riot match itself. To recall, Battle Riot is a 40-wrestler match where pinfalls, submissions, and over-the-top eliminations all count.
This is also the first time that the Battle RIOT match has been held for the World Heavyweight Championship. MLW has already confirmed several big names; former MLW World Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima, Paul Walter Hauser, Bobby Fish, Jesus Rodriguez, Paul London, and Brock Anderson were just some of the competitors confirmed for the match.
But the biggest surprises were a couple of former WWE stars including a Hall of Famer!
The surprises didn’t take long as Alex Hammerstone made his MLW return as the No. 1 entrant.
This is the first time that Hammerstone has stepped foot in MLW since 2023. As many of you know, the former MLW World Heavyweight Champion made a full transition to TNA/Impact Wrestling in 2024. However, the 34-year-old recently confirmed that he was done with TNA for the time being. Since then, Hammerstone has floated around different indie promotions and it was a nice surprise to see him make a return to the place that really put him on the map. However, this does appear to be a one time thing as Sean Ross Sapp stated that he has not signed a new contract with the promotion.
The surprises didn’t end there. A former WWE Champion immediately came out as the No. 2 entrant was Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal in WWE). This was Dhesi’s MLW debut. Like some of the entrants in the match though, it appears to be a one off for now.
At No. 22 was former WWE star Chris Adonis (who was Chris Masters in WWE). There was a big battle between him and Alex Hammerstone, which briefly didn’t go in the former MLW world champion’s way.
But the biggest surprise was WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam.
He came out as the final entrant of the match. The former WWE Champion came close to becoming the new world champ as it came down to Matt Riddle and him, but just as RVD was going for a frog splash, Riddle was able to get up quickly and push him off the turnbuckle.