By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
The Inner Circle shows are always a little fun pre-cursor to the bigger wXw tournaments, often offering a chance for lesser names and relative rookies to have a chance to shine whilst also incorporating some of the leading lights of the promotion as well. The one before 16 Carat had a match between WALTER and Jonah Rock, so the company aren’t messing around when it comes to Inner Circle. Over in under ninety minutes, it is a breezy watch and a perfect slice of wrestling.
The first match would be a perfect melange of the aforementioned names against someone looking to make the most of a window of opportunity – Aussie Open taking on Coast 2 Coast, Shaheem Ali and Leon St. Giovanni. Having competed in ROH, a promotion I don’t watch, this was my first chance to see them in action. The opening narrative had both Giovanni and Ali able to hang with Kyle Fletcher, before unleashing some nice double team offense with a rolling double snapmare and double basement superkick. Things turned when Mark Davis was brought in, with Ali in particular taking a ride with a flapjack. Indeed, it was Alli who felt the brunt of the Open offense, but after hitting a dropkick on Davis and an enziguri on Fletcher, he tagged out to Giovanni, who quickly landed a roll into a clothesline and a second rope springboard punch to take out both members of Aussie Open. Two more neat combinations saw a skull crushing finale/STO followed briefly afterwards by a double hiptoss into a hold and a flapjack out of it. This almost earned C2C the win, but as Open are in the World Tag League, an assisted ace crusher by Fletcher gave the obvious result. A really fun opener though that didn’t outstay its welcome at around seven minutes bell to bell.
Another name I’m not familiar with is Benjamin Van Es, but he is the holder of the wXw Academy Cup. He plays an effective arrogant heel in his contest against Julian Pace, helped by Pace’s general likeability and popularity. Van Es tries to avoid engaging for a while, even fleeing into the crowd, before making it clear he doesn’t want to get punched in the face. Unsurprisingly, that is what happens, with even the referee catching him with an errant elbow in the corner. An attempted Code Red would be blocked by Van Es, allowing him some time on top as a drop toehold into the turnbuckle halted Pace. Van Es would come closest to picking up the win following a blocked standing moonsault and a brainbuster over the knee, but Pace was always likely to come out on top. They played off of the Van Es’ desire not to get hit in the face in the finish; a swing had him duck, Pace jumping straight into the Code Red for victory. A decent showcase for the Academy champion.
I’ve always enjoyed watching LuFisto as she is someone who uses her size and power in a commanding fashion to bully her opponents. She also managed to get a good match out of Kris Wolf – someone I’ll admit I haven’t been hugely into in this wXw run – as LuFisto forced Wolf to use her speed and athleticism, cutting down on some of the campier stuff in the process. Sure, we get a bum bite moments after two dropkicks, but this just served to annoy LuFisto who used strikes, kicks and a butterfly suplex to good effect. A shotgun basement dropkick after a sunset flip earned Wolf nearfalls, before LuFisto just crushed her against the middle ropes with a crossbody. After biting a leg to break a submission, Wolf would have some concerted offense following a tiltawhirl headscissors, using a chin breaker and putting the wolf’s head on LuFisto before firing kicks at her chest. A German suplex and a lariat stopped Wolf’s momentum, and LuFisto would come close with a variation of a fisherman suplex from the top rope to the mat. This wasn’t enough, but after blocked an attempted springboard DDT, LuFisto used a modified fisherman’s buster/DDT for the win. In a match that was often about whether Wolf would get caught, when she did, she was put away convincingly.
The tentative, grapple heavy opening to the Timothy Thatcher versus Fred Yehi match all helped to build towards the bigger bombs getting thrown later in the contest. It was Thatcher who had most of the success on the mat, bullying Yehi almost in a similar vein to LuFisto and Wolf, leaning on him in rope breaks and turning a Yehi leglock into an ankle lock of his own. Thatcher would even channel his inner-mixed martial artist with a full mount, several palm strikes and a cross armbreaker, before unleashing several knees to the side. Yehi is just as capable in this world, blasting back with chops, strikes, and knees of his own, all followed up with a big powerbomb. Yehi’s unorthodox offense included punches to the back of Thatcher’s head and a double foot stomp, whilst a neckbreaker earned him a two count. Thatcher’s explosiveness got him back into the game with a jumping kick and a belly to belly suplex, alongside a trademark deadlift gutwrench. In a neat touch, a pin only got a one count for Thatcher, so he locked on a tighter cradle for two. A second powerbomb by Yehi almost dumped Thatcher on his head, but only was enough for a two. It would be going to the well one too many times that eventually cost Yehi, as a third powerbomb saw the resulting pin turned into a Fujiwara armbar for the submission. A match that took a bit to get going, but the ground work helped the middle and closing stretches immensely.
A match between two teams in the World Tag League followed, as Okami faced off against JayFK. Both Francis Kaspin and Jay Skillet refused to engage with Hideyoshi Kamitani, with Skillet in particular requesting Daichi Hashimoto get into the ring. A simple armwringer soon has Skillet squealing in pain, whilst a reversal on an Irish whip also sees him take a huge Hashimoto kick to the chest. When Kamitani finally does get in, Skillet makes the stupid mistake of trying to slam him, receiving one of his own in retribution. JayFK utilise the blind tag really well in their matches, and this one was no exception as Kaspin caught Kamitani with a top rope bulldog as Skillet grabbed onto a leg. This gave way to some simple, effective heel tag work as JayFK kept Kamitani in their corner, at least until a shoulder tackle on Skillet and a slam on Kaspin allowed him to tag out. All four men would end up in the ring, with Kamitani taking out both members of JayFK with a clothesline and Skillet getting dumped with a double suplex and nailed with a double kick to the head for two. Another blind tag would allow Kaspin to almost steal the win with a superkick/DVD combination, but after Skillet had to break up a pin with a double foot stomp – after Hashimoto hit a falcon arrow on Kaspin – Okami would pick up the win with a high/low combination not a million miles away from Total Elimination, though with arms and bodies. A bit sloppy towards the end, but a good way to introduce Okami before the big tournament.
With Lucky Kid and Chris Brookes forming the popular CCBLAAH team in Lykos’ absence, the pre-match was given over to some very funny altercations, including Kid channeling Smackdown and challenging the Undertaker and Kane to a tag match. A well-timed gong would have both men concerned after they ‘won’ the match by forfeit, but the partners would eventually have to collide. The good spirit would bleed into the contest, helped by a real good atmosphere for two popular wrestlers. We’d get the usual Kid japes, including the dive feint and the trip, but this is where things turned as a teased RISE salute allowed Brookes to snap Kid’s finger and begin to take control with a stamp on the elbow and a kneedrop for two. Like the Yehi/Thatcher match, the handspring back elbow became a recurring motif, with the first one blocked by a Brookes’ boot, though Kid would use the momentum of grabbing the ropes to turn it into a Asai DDT.
After an actual dive to the outside and an apron 619, a top rope dropkick earned Kid another nearfall, only to find himself wrapped in an Octopus hold as we almost had a repeat of the Asai DDT spot. He would finally land the handspring back elbow and an elevated reverse DDT for another nearfall, before a strike exchange would end up with Kid biting Brookes’ finger and scoring another close pin on a pop-up Ligerbomb. There was time for one more failed handspring back elbow, this time into a German suplex, but as Brookes went to capitalise with a roll-up, Kid would roll through into one of his own for the win. Brookes teased walking out, but would return to celebrate with Kid to send the patrons home happy. An exciting contest helped by a really invested crowd.
As stated at the top, you know what you are getting with these Inner Circle shows, and this one was no different. A more relaxed atmosphere, some interesting match ups, and a hot crowd always make them worth a look.
