By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
With the ongoing saga over the wXw Unified Heavyweight Title not yet resolved since Absolute Andy’s time out with injury, Broken Rules began with The VeterAAn going up against Bobby Gunns with the winner to meet the winner of Ilja Dragunov and PCO at a later date.
After a crew member helped Andy de-jacket, the early exchanges saw Gunns try and use his speed to avoid Andy whilst attacking the legs with kicks, whilst a huge Andy slap established Andy’s power advantage. Following early finish teases, it would actually be Andy who locked on a switch armbar on Gunns, but he was unable to finish the match with it. Andy would return to this offense following a clothesline that halted Gunns’ string of offense that had included a top rope forearm for two. Andy would tease the A-Klasse moments later, only for Gunns to ‘break’ his fingers instead.
It would become all about the ability to reverse and avoid your opponent; a top rope belly to belly superplex saw Andy catch Gunns unaware, only for Gunns to subsequently turn a sharpshooter into a half Boston crab. Andy would return to the top after using the ref to help crotch Gunns, but a top rope rana was blocked by Gunns. The King of Smoke Style wasn’t able to take control though as he would jump straight into a cross armbreaker. A reversal allowed Gunns to lock in the switch armbar, but a rope break and an argument with the referee left him open to a big Andy spinebuster.
The final moments served to highlight the wiliness of the ex-champion as Andy kicked out of a roll-up and a German suplex, before dragging the referee in the way of a superkick (halted by Gunns) and hitting a low blow in the confusion. One A-Klasse later, Andy had picked up the victory and a chance to officially regain his title. Perhaps a little slow in the early going, the match definitely picked up down the stretch.
The second contest was a triple threat match as Killer Kelly, Kris Wolf and Audrey Bride went toe to toe. An early reminded by Kelly to Wolf to focus on wrestling led to a double dropkick on Bride, but it was Kelly’s new no-nonsense attitude that was emphasised most in the opening stretch as she nailed Wolf with a pump kick. Bride would send Kelly into the ringpost after a trip to ringside; Kelly would gain a measure of revenge with a kick to Bride to add a little extra to a Wolf suplex. Luckily for Wolf, Bride would stop Shades of Shibata with an ace crusher, but wasn’t in a position to halt it a second time as it looked like Kelly was on the verge of victory. However, an STO by Bride took Kelly out, leaving Wolf to pick up the win with a nice capture back suplex with bridge. A fun sprint with a somewhat ironic finish as Wolf took Kelly’s advice and won.
With Julian Nero out injured, it would be Laurence Roman, a Dresden local, who got the nod as Avalanche’s partner to take on The Crown (Alexander James and Jurn Simmons). After the initial confrontation between the two teams saw the Crown not taking things too seriously and Avalanche showing off his power by slamming James on Simmons before nailing a double second rope clothesline, Roman got in on the action with a dive to the outside and a rana off of the apron on James. It was always going to be about when Roman got caught by the heels, and it occurred after Avalanche was sent into the ringpost, crotching Roman whilst he was on the top turnbuckle. The Crown would swarm, with Simmons rubbing Roman’s face in the mat and ramming him into the ring apron, before James used a big clothesline to halt a brief comeback.
A double chokeslam attempt was for nought as Roman escaped, slipped out of two back suplex attempts and scooted through two sets of legs to make the tag to Avalanche. The fans are hot as the Crown are arguing and don’t realise Avalanche is in the ring. This leads to a double corner splash and James getting spun almost 360 with a clothesline. The makeshift team almost picks up the win following an assisted moonsault, big splash and frog splash combination, but after a Massive Kick takes out Avalanche, it is only a matter of time for Roman. A double chokeslam and an assisted curb stomp puts an emphatic end to a contest that was a decent way to establish the new partnership, with an added notch due to the heated crowd.
RINGKAMPF exploded in the next match as the question was whether Timothy Thatcher could beat WALTER. The early grappling saw Thatcher come out on top, including applying a half Boston crab. However, as the match spilled to ringside and became more physical, Thatcher struggled to compete, though he did hit a nasty suplex on the floor. Back in the ring, WALTER would land a chop and a quick German suplex, allowing him to smother Thatcher and keep him grounded with strikes. Every time Thatcher tried to fight back, he would be dropped by a strike or a kick, whilst a failed back suplex saw WALTER land in a pin for a nearfall.
Unfortunately, the audio at ringside would drop at this point, meaning that the crowd response wasn’t particularly audible. After fighting his way out of a Boston crab, Thatcher landed several strikes and an enziguri, even shrugging off a boot to the face to land his trademark belly to belly suplex. Looking to put things away, WALTER nailed a vicious clothesline to the back of the head followed by a powerbomb for two, whilst a strike exchange eventually saw Thatcher crumple to the canvas. It looked like Thatcher was there for the taking, but an avoided strike into a Fujiwara armbar had WALTER scrambling. Thatcher would get a two off of a back suplex, before turning another armbar into a pin that gave WALTER no chance of kicking out for the big victory. A match that was very much about the struggle and it was good to see Thatcher pick up the victory.
JayFK had their hands full in their wXw Tag Team Title defense as they took on two teams who didn’t like them much: The Arrows of Hungary and Coast2Coast. This was cemented by some early double team offense as Francis Kaspin was taken out with a C2C assisted flapjack, before Jay Skillet was dumped with a T-bone suplex and blasted with an assisted cannonball by the Arrows. However, JayFK are the masters of picking their spot – a superkick on Shaheem Alli was followed by a superkick/DVD combination on Icarus. Not everything was going smoothly for the champions as they would end up colliding, leading to a sequence of moves for each team that included a unique swinging neckbreaker by Kaspin, a Butterfly Bomb by Leon St. Geovanni, and a gutwrench powerbomb by Alli that were all impressively executed.
With the Arrows of Hungary in action, we were always going to see the strength of Dover, this time with a double slam on JayFK. Not to be outdone by his tag team partner, Icarus would take advantage of some brawling outside the ring to climb a pillar and hit a somersault plancha that wiped out all five men! The Arrows would take themselves out of the contest soon after with a missed Crossfire on Skillet, and C2C almost picked up the win with a swingout slam/450 combination. Realistically though, there was only ever one outcome, and a uranage/backstabber saw JayFK retain their gold in a fun match that never really let up in terms of action.
Melanie Gray’s defense of her wXw Women’s Title against Toni Storm didn’t exactly go to plan. Following a promo in German, Gray would sing ‘Let It Go’, ‘The Bare Necessities’ in German, and the Batman theme tune as she seemed to try and waste time prior to the match. Storm didn’t waste time when the bell rang, putting Gray down with the Strong Zero in around six seconds. I’d have liked to see more of Gray as champion, though I feel her best work would have been done on a show akin to Shotgun. Marquee event by marquee event, Storm has to be the best option.
The main event featured Ilja Dragunov defending the wXw Unified Heavyweight Title against PCO in his adopted homeland of Dresden. Unfortunately, the audio issues from earlier crept back in at this point, killing the crowd noise for the first half of the contest. Fought under street fight rules, this was always going to be wild, highlights quickly by successive suicide dives by both men before Dragunov was thrown into the third row with a hiptoss. PCO would regret introducing a ladder as he was backdropped twice onto it moments later, before a snap suplex on the stage had Dragunov firmly in control. That was until a chokeslam through a makeshift table had PCO send Dragunov from the stage to the hard floor.
At the point that the audio came back in, Dragunov was making an in-ring comeback as he hit the Konstantin Special and a top rope senton. There was always going to be two parts to this match that were guaranteed, with the first one being Dragunov getting busted open and fighting through the pain. A chairshot would see him bleed, whilst a sequence of moves that included a chokeslam onto four chairs and a second rope tombstone through another makeshift table weren’t enough for PCO to pick up the win. PCO would even land the moonsault, but this was not enough. A senton that aimed to hit Dragunov across the apron missed, allowing Dragunov his window of opportunity.
The second guarantee was a sequence which would see PCO show off his resilience in the face of heavy offense. A Van Terminator and DVD through a board in the corner were only good enough for a two, whilst a superplex onto some chairs saw PCO kick out at one. Dragunov would drop him with a chairshot, only for PCO to sit up as if nothing had happened. Just as it looks like PCO was firing up for another rally, a sudden Torpedo Moscow kept him down for the three. A spectacle as much as anything; the finish was good though, booked in a way to still make it seem viable after wrestlers had been kicking out of much more serious offense.
Perhaps a step down on some of wXw’s offerings during this year, but still a worthwhile show that helped to keep hot teams that needed it (The Crown, JayFK), shifted the Women’s Title onto Toni Storm (who would probably never have lost it if she wasn’t injured) and set up Absolute Andy versus Ilja Dragunov for the wXw Unified Heavyweight Title. I feel bad for Bobby Gunns, as I did feel he had a possible chance of taking the gold before Andy’s injury, but this is the match that makes most sense to return things to some sense of order in the promotion. The changes to the structure of the promotion and some of the big injuries haven’t helped, making things feel a little unsettled; Dragunov and Andy should hopefully redress some of that as the promotion heads into the new year.
