4. Good: Robin Sane’s dedication.

Robin Sane had a legit ankle injury two weeks prior to the show, and according to medical experts, needed three weeks to fully recover.

Well, guess what? He didn’t care what the doctors recommended: he went and wrestled with a bad ankle, in what was a losing effort to the Son of a Glitch, Morgan Vaughn, who is constantly improving himself with each match he wrestles, even if his character seems straight out of the spoiled millennial playbook mastered by the likes of the YOLO Twins from rival company Philippine Wrestling Revolution.

3. Better: A satisfying finish to an intense feud (we think).

The crowd may have been picking on him the whole night, but “Pinoy Strong Style” Rex Lawin still pulled off the win against the ‘90s Action Hero Gigz Stryker. Rex had a chip on his shoulder for being called “unsafe” by wrestlers and reviewers alike the previous two shows, and he wanted to prove his doubters wrong by being even more stiff in the ring. Kudos to Stryker for taking all those hard hits like a champ. In his own words, Rex wasn’t “unsafe:” he was downright “dangerous.”

2. Best: A new breed of heel in Fabio Makisig.

The cool heel template may have been mastered by the likes of PWR’s Mike Madrigal or John Sebastian, but Fabio Makisig’s heelishness in his match against Hanzello Shilva was on a whole ‘nother level.

From what we believed to be very solid, stiff shots against Hanzello to the relentless and not-trying-to-be-funny trash-talking Makisig delivered that genuinely made you feel sorry for Hanzello (until he tries to talk on the mic, making you wish Makisig just kicked him again), Fabio was pushing the buttons of everyone in attendance in a way that you can’t help but respect.  Perhaps the best thing about his work is that unlike Rex, who seemed legit angry, and Gus Queens, who is legit annoying as a character, Fabio’s heelishness was all within the boundaries of kayfabe. Hard to argue with something as convincing as that.

1. Awesome: Liwanag and Aldrin Steal the Show.

Moises Liwanag’s rising star was nothing short of phenomenal. Once he found his stride as a character, he just knew how to work his magic on the mic, and got the crowd practically worshipping his every move. Maybe that’s the wrong reaction to get when you’re supposed to be the bad guy, but Liwanag is simply untouchable right now in terms of overness.

And here we were, expecting to look past his opponent, Aldrin Richards, seeing as a guy capitalizing on the AlDub mania inside a wrestling ring just sounds like the dumbest thing ever, only for Aldrin to blow everyone away by having the best match of the night with Liwanag. It only goes to show that for all of Manila Wrestling Federation’s growing pains, they have a great core product at the heart of it all: topnotch wrestling that can only get better and better as the roster gains more experience and grows their ranks.

We can also talk about the crowd itself, whose chants were mostly dictated by the PWR wrestlers in attendance, seeing as there were a lot of them. It was great to see the guys from the other company just enjoy themselves as the fans of wrestling they really are, in the first place. We don’t expect any crossover matches anytime soon, but it’s good to know that PWR and MWF are pretty friendly with each other.

So, on a scale of 1 to 8, let’s put MWF’s Road To Fate on a firm 5.5: a solid effort that goes far beyond the number ranking we’re giving it, and a show well worth the 250-Peso asking price.

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