Killer Kross Defends MLW World Title Against Josh Bishop in No Holds Barred Match

Killer Kross will put the MLW World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Josh Bishop in a No Holds Barred main event at MLW Kings of Colosseum, scheduled for Saturday, September 5, in a sold-out Chattanooga. The stipulation strips away rules and referees’ usual restraints, setting up what promises to be a brutal collision between the champion and one of The Skyscrapers’ most imposing new pieces.

Bishop has quickly emerged as a focal point of The Skyscrapers, a faction that has already made its presence felt in MLW’s tag team ranks. With this shot at Kross and the World Heavyweight title, the group is signaling that its ambitions extend well beyond the tag division — they want the company’s top prize, too. Landing a title match this significant for a member still establishing himself speaks to how much stock MLW is putting in Bishop as a singles threat, and how seriously the promotion is treating The Skyscrapers as a top-tier force.

For Kross, known in MLW as the Blood King, this defense is a different animal than a standard title match. No Holds Barred stipulations tend to favor the physically dominant and the willing — and Kross has built his reign on a reputation for embracing exactly that kind of violence. But Bishop brings size and momentum of his own, backed by a faction that has shown no hesitation about getting involved when the numbers are needed. That makes the real question heading into Chattanooga less about who wins a clean fight and more about whether Kross can survive an environment tailor-made for interference.

The stakes go beyond a single title defense. If Bishop walks out with the championship, it instantly validates The Skyscrapers as the promotion’s dominant faction across multiple divisions and reshapes the picture at the top of MLW’s roster. If Kross retains, it’s a statement that the Blood King can weather chaos on top of raw power — and it likely sets up more confrontations with a group clearly not finished chasing gold.

Either way, No Holds Barred main events have a way of leaving a mark on a company’s championship picture, and this one arrives with a faction-wide agenda attached rather than just individual title aspirations.

MLW Kings of Colosseum is scheduled to begin at 6:05 PM ET on Saturday, streaming free on YouTube, with the broadcast also available at 9:00 PM ET on VEEPS. Fans in Japan can catch the show on NJPW WORLD the following Monday at 12:00 PM JST.