By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
The first of two big events in a row for wXw would be main evented by Zack Sabre Jr. challenging for the wXw Unified World Championship held by Absolute Andy. Alongside this, the fans would wait to see who David Starr had replaced Jack Sexsmith with in their scheduled match against RINGKAMPF, as well as Marius Al-Ani defending the Shotgun Title against Bobby Gunns.
The show starts proper – after the introduction and a montage video for the first match – with JayFK attacking Monster Consulting in the entranceway prior to their wXw World Tag Team Title match. Though a dive off of the stage would see Jay Skillet and Francis Kaspin caught and bashed into each other, Skillet managed to avoid a double team move in the ring to enable the challengers to regroup. They did more than this as confusion over the legal man allowed Skillet to drop Julian Nero throat first on the top rope and take complete control. The official would spend a lot of time trying to stop Avalanche from getting in the ring, allowing some heel 101 beatdowns in the corner; a pleasing variation on JayFk’s more high-flying face offense. Both Kaspin and Skillet would antagonise Avalanche, so when Nero did fight his way out of the corner with kicks, a tag to Avalanche had Skillet collapse on the canvas in fear. A clothesline, belly to belly, corner splash and a Samoan drop (having no-sold a Kaspin top rope crossbody) had the champions in control, whilst Skillet had to save his partner on a sidewalk slam/second rope legdrop combination.
All four men were in the ring at this point and a sequence of momentum changes saw Skillet almost steal the win with a very close nearfall on a schoolboy roll up with a handful of tights. Still, it was not to be as an assisted Go2Sleep and the Ripcord Lariat by Avalanche was enough for victory. It was too early for Monster Consulting to lose the gold, especially with World Tag League around the corner and narrative of them trying to be the first to enter, and then leave, with the belts still around their waists. A solid opener that played to all strengths in the match.
The Fred Yehi and Chris Brookes match promised to be at least interesting due to their highly unorthodox styles. Their unique brand of offense seeped in after some initial reversals: Yehi bouncing off the middle rope for a shoulderblock, Brookes targeting the arm with a stamp, only to get one of his own after an attempted dropdown. Yehi’s offense would work the whole body, with elbows working the shoulder area and stamps on the thighs following a snapmare. With Brookes under pressure, he would escape the corner and a hit a back senton across a crouching Yehi, allowing him to hit a springboard cutter and lock in the Kondo clutch as Brookes dug deep into his playbook.
Yehi would counter shortly afterwards with a Koji clutch after an STO, whilst also dropping Brookes with a spinning chop to the back of the head. An Octopus hold by Brookes did threaten to end the match, but the momentum was with Yehi after multiple knees to the head and a powerbomb for two successive nearfalls. However, a Brookes suplex triggered a sequence of roll up nearfalls, with Brookes scoring the win after bridging back following a reversal. The pace never really let up as the two men put on a competitive contest that showcased Yehi’s interesting offense to a new audience.
Marius Al-Ani would make the first defence of his Shotgun Title in the next contest, meeting the man he had defeated for the title, Bobby Gunns. Al-Ani was in full heel mode, bringing with his new attitude a new change of clothes as well. The striking throughout the match was pretty intense, with Gunns being the first to break and attempt a guillotine choke and land a suplex. The ex-champion would also be able to avoid the nip-up offense of Al-Ani to turn it into a cross armbreaker, but to no avail as Al-Ani stomped on his face to break the hold. When in control, Al-Ani was methodical, hitting a back suplex, applying a chinlock and sending Gunns crashing to the mat with a flapjack. Reeling in his offense a little like JayFk earlier, Al-Ani was still prone to the odd piece of aerial offense, taking Gunns down with a rana.
After avoiding a charge in the corner, Gunns began to work the arm with stamps, arm submissions and finger breaks, though with moves such as his nip-up kick, Al-Ani was able to quickly turn the tide. Neither man was able to hold control for long at this point, with a wrist-hold strike exchange seeing Gunns boot Al-Ani hard in the face several times, yet the champ remained standing and eventually turned it into an ankle lock. Al-Ani would hit a T-bone, only to get dumped with a German suplex moments later, whilst Gunns managed to apply the Switch armbar for a few seconds whilst in the ropes. This left him vulnerable to an Al-Ani legwhip and plancha as the fight spilled to ringside, but Gunns would make the mistake – upon winning the brawl – of grabbing the Shotgun title and brandishing it in the ring. Upon putting it down on the apron edge, Gunns would see Al-Ani pick it up and walk out on the contest, giving Gunns the win by countout.
It lulled at times, but it also had some nice moments of intensity in the exchanges that felt fitting for a rematch that put Gunns opposite the man who took his beloved wXw Shotgun Title away from him. The finish may feel cheap, but in the opening moments of a heel turn, I like Al-Ani deciding to walk out personally.
The match between Veit Muller and Doug Williams was an enjoyable match primarily due to the clear respect that the Hamburg fans had for Williams, carrying a contest that wasn’t going to live up to what Williams was capable of in days of yore. After a criss cross saw both men go for armdrags and hit the canvas, we were treated to more ‘twinsanity’ offense as they hit forearms and boots at the same time for a double down. A later sunset flip attempt by Williams also had them both almost counted out as each struggled to get their shoulders off of the canvas. They would shake hands after this, only for Williams to kick Muller and for Muller to apply an arm wringer takedown almost immediately after the japes to show they meant business. In a neat callback to Shortcut to the Top, Williams threw Muller over the top rope at one point, whilst also getting a lot of chants to do a shooting star press, the fans having to settle for a running knee off of the apron.
Muller was able to use his strength to throw Williams around at times, hitting a suplex, a gutwrench suplex and a belly to belly suplex to punctuate spurts of Williams’ strike based attack. Muller would land a superplex off the top after Williams took too long to capitalise on a jumping back elbow off of the ropes, whilst a seated armbar almost took advantage of a failed Chaos Theory that ended up with Williams colliding with the ringpost. Muller would try his Powerbomb Shoulderbreaker, yet Williams would manage to fight out, hit a T-Bone suplex and finish off with a beautifully executed Chaos Theory for the win.
Whilst never going to set the world alight, it was fun to watch Muller get a match he clearly wanted. It also helped that the crowd loved every second of it, giving Williams a very warm send off on what might be his last time wrestling in Hamburg. We even get a promo from Williams, thanking the fans of Hamburg, as well as Muller, for the evening.
It was my first chance to see Kris Wolf as she met Killer Kelly and Melanie Gray in a triple threat match for the right to face Alpha Female the following night, and after some early pinfall trading led to a crane kick pose, I can see why she is well liked. Gray would take control early with shoulders in the corner and a running corner knee to Kelly, whilst the wolf mask came into play as Wolf used it to add a bit more to her knees and kicks to both of her opponents, before hitting a knee that was very low on Gray. Still, Gray would get her revenge by kicking Wolf’s tail off after nailing Kelly with a spinout slam. A Wolf crossbody saw the pin broken up by Kelly, who took control at this point by hitting a suplex and a dropkick into the corner on Gray. An exchange led to a Fisherman suplex by Kelly on Wolf and that was enough for the win. Alpha Female would head to the ring post-match to have a face-off with her new challenger, though it didn’t come to blows. In the instance that they have found themselves in, wXw have only really got Killer Kelly as a feasible contender against a de facto, albeit popular, heel in Alpha Female, so it is the best booking they could do in order to provide an ounce of doubt for the Oberhausen title match.
I really like Jack Sexsmith, but getting in Ilja Dragunov as your tag team partner can only ever feel like a kayfabe upgrade as David Starr looked to take on RINGKAMPF. All four men have been involved in wars with each other, so the initial cycling of opponents allows some quick interaction with all men. It is Starr that gets initially caught out, being stupid enough to chop WALTER and getting his face slapped off. This leads to an extended beat down as Thatcher hits a gutwrench suplex, WALTER lands a vertical splash, and RINGKAMPF team up with a bow and arrow/boot choke combination. Dragunov would exchange briefly with WALTER to break a Boston crab, whilst he would legally enter the ring after Starr avoided the collective attention of both Thatcher and WALTER, a tag that coincided with all of the fans getting on their feet in their support for him.
This time it would be Thatcher who got stuck, taking a combination chinlock/falling headbutt by his makeshift opponents amongst other things, before a miscommunication saw Dragunov and Starr collide on a clothesline. WALTER would re-enter, facing off against two of his most famous opponents and somewhat coming out on top, shrugging off an assisted German to land a double lariat. Moments later, Starr and Dragunov would hit their double clothesline this time on Thatcher, but Dragunov would then need to save Starr after a huge John Woo would lead to a powerbomb/Euro uppercut combination. Naturally, this would see Dragunov launch himself halfway across the ring with a top rope senton to break the pin! After escaping simultaneous Gojira clutches and Dragunov used the finish of a strike exchange to hit a suicide dive on WALTER, Starr would come close to winning with the Blackheart Buster. This was only enough for a two count, and the resulting Han Stansen attempt saw Starr charge into an armbar, one that Thatcher rolled into a pin for the three count.
As you’d expect from what amounts to a match between four of the best wrestlers in wXw, this was a spectacle that played beautifully off of the passion of the fans and the ongoing stories between all four of these to create a really good contest. My words really don’t do the action towards the end justice.
In terms of working with a character, Absolute Andy versus Zack Sabre Jr. was a great main event to solidify Andy as one of the best heels in the business at the moment. As I once saw beautifully put across on Twitter, Andy doesn’t make you want to give him stars for his matches, but just makes you dislike him for finding another way to win a match. The actual contest doesn’t begin until several minutes of fighting in the crowd has happened, sparked by an Andy superkick during the ring introductions. During the brawl, Andy would try to introduce a chair, only to get stopped by the referee, before Sabre Jr. would end up applying an Octopus hold whilst in among the fans. When the match returned to the ring, Sabre Jr. would attack the arm, as well as often letting his arrogance get the better of him as he would derisorily kick away at Andy at times. Sometimes this worked to demoralise the champ; at other times, it would offer Andy a way back into the match.
Andy would celebrate his escape from an arm wringer with immense gusto, though he would then fail to apply a sharpshooter as Sabre Jr. would circle his leg around just at the right moment to avoid it, eventually turning it into a heel hook that forced Andy into the ropes. The match would spill outside a couple more times, often at the behest of Andy as he began to target Sabre Jr. with a backbreaker and back suplex. Whenever the pace quickened, Sabre Jr. became dangerous as he would dump Andy with a tornado DDT and a Northern Lights suplex, though he would also show he was willing to bend the rules by grabbing Andy’s nose in a modified straitjacket chinlock. As the match headed to the top in quick succession, Sabre Jr. landed a superplex, only to be outdone as Andy hit a top rope rana of all things, though ate a PK seconds later to leave both men down.
Andy’s nefarious ways would continue to be on show as he would try and use the title and a mic after failing to earn a submission with the sharpshooter. Both times, the ref would halt him, almost getting the champ pinned as a European clutch was used to score a nearfall. However, Andy would re-apply the sharpshooter to further damage the back, and then thrice try and get the match thrown out. Two low blows aimed at Sabre Jr. would be turned into submissions, punctuated by a nearfall off of an Andy F5. The third would target the referee as Andy was trapped in a submission. The second official would try to end the match via DQ, only to get stopped by Sabre Jr. Unfortunately, this didn’t work in his favour as a Zack Driver attempt was reversed into an F5 for an unlikely Andy victory, at least in terms of kayfabe.
There was a bit more smoke and mirrors around this to help reach the long running time, but it beautifully played off the difference in Andy and Sabre Jr.’s characters: Andy is presented as a chancer, whilst Sabre Jr. is a pure wrestler. Andy would have to cheat to beat Sabre Jr. to win, and no matter how often the challenger was able to avoid the schemes of the champion, one slip and Andy took the match.
Ilja Dragunov would head to the ring and cut a promo – in German – as Andy slipped away before a confrontation could occur. Dragunov would have his shot at Andy the following night in Oberhausen.
A show that definitely grew in certain points, but it is rare for wXw to have an absolutely bad match. Whether it was the interest in the booking, the strength of the long term storytelling, or just playing to the strengths of the characters they have created, it was a solid show that nicely set up events at Oberhausen the following night.
