By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
With World Tag League just over a week away, the focus of this week’s Shotgun was the wXw Unified Title match, with the rivalry between Absolute Andy, Ilja Dragunov and Bobby Gunns permeating its way throughout the show; from the opening segment, all the way to the finale, wXw sought to ramp up the interest in the marquee match outside of the tag tournament – and they were very successful in the process.
Prior to a main event that saw Marius Al-Ani defend his Shotgun Title in a rematch against Bobby Gunns, the big hitters had all had their chance to be heard. The show would open with Absolute Andy’s attempts to deflect the suggestion that he attacked Dragunov last week, a defense made by putting an AA towel over the interviewer’s head and claiming that this doesn’t immediately make him Absolute Andy. With the veneer slipping, Andy would say that he was sick of having to defend himself, that if was a dinosaur (like Gunns had suggested before), he was a tyrannosaurus who would use his jaws to eat his – making up for his physical limitations – and that he had already defeated Dragunov twice.
Throughout the show, we’d get videos from the three men involved in the title match as well, each spelling out their current state of mind going into World Tag League. Gunns’ video would be first, with the young stunner talking about taking the Shotgun Title to the next level, only to outgrow it on the way to taking the title from a dinosaur – one he promised to make retire – whilst defeating a man who was overemotional in the process. Dragunov’s was intense as always, with his focus being on his rise to the top being more than just a drive, it being a belief as the masses had been moved by one word: UNBESIEGBAR.
When Andy had his chance to talk, he told a story about a peasant fetching ducks that had been shot by a dignitary from a pond by running across the water. Having watched it happen several times, the dignitary chooses to claim the duck this time, only to fall into the water. The morale of the story is that it is alright to have courage and spirit, but it is also better to know where the stones are – Andy knows where the stones are when it comes to wrestling and being champion. The trilogy together were just an excellent way of adding more fuel to the fire of what should already be an excellent match.
Andy’s night was only just beginning. After an altercation with Al-Ani backstage in which they belittled each other’s achievements – Al-Ani calling Andy ‘padawan’ and him replying ‘Darth Andy’ a particular highlight – Andy would interject himself into the main event. Up until that point, Gunns and Al-Ani had had another physical encounter in which neither man was able to establish control for long. Al-Ani would try and ground Gunns early on with side headlock takedowns, but with the lack of a clean break in the corner seemingly firing up Gunns, it would be Al-Ani struggling moments later as a suplex variation led to a cross armbreaker that forced Al-Ani to the ropes.
It would be Al-Ani catching Gunns in the ropes with a dragon screw legwhip that turned the tide in his favour, with an ankle lock in the ropes and Tarkan Aslan sending Gunns into the ring steps adding insult to injury. Gunns managed to score a nearfall off of a flash backslide and stamp on Al-Ani’s to try and halt the offense, yet Al-Ani would score a two count off of a flapjack. After a dropkick by Al-Ani sent Gunns into the ropes for a big clothesline, momentum would quickly shift between the two men multiple times. A diving Euro uppercut by Gunns earned him a two count, whilst a cross armbreaker forced Aslan to get into the ring and cause havoc. Lucky Kid would make his presence known – perhaps responding to a derogatory pre-match promo from his former partner – and the two men would brawl to the back.
Al-Ani came close to a submission with his ankle lock, one that he kept on several times as Gunns fought his way to the ropes, only for Gunns to use said ropes to kick his way out of the hold. Gunns would nail a German suplex and use another suplex to get Al-Ani in the position for a punt kick, only for Al-Ani to tease walking out once more. Thus, Andy would make his fourth appearance, distracting Gunns long enough for Al-Ani to grab the win with a roll-up. The finish worked really well – the fans were teased with the same finish as before, only for Andy to get one over on the man who had jumped him at the end of FAN.
The other storyline that continued outside of their brawl in the main event was that between Kid and Aslan. Fred Yehi and Julian Pace would talk about their words with Aslan last week, with Yehi deciding to warn Kid, only to be caught talking to Al-Ani by his partner from last week. This would fire up Kid for the other match of the show, which saw him opposite Yehi in a battle of two men who would have a chance to earn a shot at Al-Ani at World Tag League.
Yehi and Kid made good partners and their oddness also helped create an engaging singles encounter. After some messing around with poses and some early grappling, a dive feint by Kid almost saw him pinned as Yehi nipped in to use a crucifix for two. The early narrative centred around Kid getting dropkicked to the knee, with the weird one even keeping weight off of his leg when attempting his trademark leg grab. Yehi wasn’t messing around when he used a Koji clutch with multiple elbows to the head, whilst an Irish whip that had Kid slide to the outside as he connected with the bottom turnbuckle, and a slam into the corner, both looked impactful.
A variation of an octopus hold allowed Kid a route back in, though Yehi would escape a pin attempt and use his limb stomps to good effect. In a new move in his arsenal, Kid would use the momentum from grabbing the bottom rope as he was chucked outside to swing back into the ring and hit a standing shiranui. A jacknife pin and a sitdown powerbomb both scored two for Kid, but just as it looked like Yehi had come back with a corner crush manoeuvre, Kid grabbed the win with a snap small package. The two men would do the RISE salute and touch fingers to show that there were no hard feelings.
The other segments saw interviews with Killer Kelly and Emil Sitoci. Kelly would complain about Melanie Gray winning the wXw Women’s Title, before suggesting her main focus was now on Femme Fatales. This was somewhat undermined by her calling Gray a ‘pathetic bitch’ before she finished. Sitoci’s words mostly were about how well Dirty Dragan was doing in therapy, but these would be cut short as Aslan would also try and coerce Sitoci into working alongside him. Like Julian Pace beforehand, Sitoci gave Aslan short shrift before walking off.
This Shotgun episode worked well to set up the two singles title matches at World Tag League, presumably to clear the decks for the tag teams to get a look in next week. If that is the case, the promotion have continued to build effectively towards World Tag League, even with the tournament – based on the teams involved – generating a lot of interest on its own.
