By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
After a brief break, I am back to look at all things wXw with the latest Shotgun having just dropped on wXwNOW. Significant things have changed since I last passed judgement on the world of Westside Xtreme Wrestling, most notably the indefinite suspension of John Klinger in ‘real’ life. With little known about the reasons why he has been suspended, it would be crass of me to dwell upon the mights and maybes of the situation. What this does mean is that the wXw Tag Team Titles have been vacated, but we are promised news on the next steps for those belts on this show. Also, we will see Session Moth Martina take on Veda Scott and Monster Consulting against the team of Emil Sitoci and Dirty Dragan.
At True Colors, Marius Al-Ani will take on Absolute Andy for his guaranteed title shot at the wXw Unified World Championship that he won at 16 Carat Gold, with TLC rules in place as the contract will be placed high above the ring. Al-Ani believes that the TLC is his match, especially as he is ‘The Ninja’. The team won the tag belts in 2016 in a TLC match, so they have history with the gimmick, but Al-Ani at least thinks that the better man will win, unlike Andy’s tainted victory at 16 Carat.
We follow with an interview with Killer Kelly, one that focuses on her match against Millie McKenzie from the London show a couple of weeks back. Kelly is stitched up from the battle, but she has nothing but positive words for McKenzie and London itself. At True Colors, Kelly will fight Audrey Bride, a newcomer to the promotion.
We go straight to Bobby Gunns talking with Lucky Kid, following a segment the previous week in which Tarkan Aslan challenged Gunns for the Shotgun Title on behalf of his charge. Gunns is less than impressed with Kid sending his ‘errand boy’ and chews him out briefly, before storming out.
Our first match of the evening is the tag match between Dragan/Sitoci and Monster Consulting. Dragan and Julian Nero are up in the ring first, though Dragan tags out before even engaging. Sitoci takes early control with a headscissors and some armdrags, whilst Dragan lands a second rope elbowdrop to the forehead upon entry into the match. Nero chooses to challenge Dragan to five minutes with no karate, but is mainly luring him in: a tactic that doesn’t work initially, though Dragan’s attempt to potentially hit a suicide dive is cut off by a huge Avalanche clothesline.
A splash by Avalanche earns Consulting a two count, as does a sidewalk slam/legdrop combination. A missed Avalanche corner splash should allow Dragan to get the tag, but he decides to stay in to try and prove himself. Sitoci gives him no choice when he helps Dragan avoid a second corner splash, tagging himself in in the process. Sitoci uses his speed to take out both members of Monster Consulting, earning a two count off of a split legged moonsault on Nero. With Dragan’s advice, Sitoci hits a top rope chop, but a pinfall following an assisted splash is broken up by Avalanche. Sitoci takes a bullet for Dragan by getting in the way of an Avalanche corner splash, though this just allows Consulting to finish Dragan off with the ripcord clothesline. A fun match that continues to build the Sitoci/Dragan storyline.
Bobby Gunns is back for his Smoking Break, with him announcing a four way contest for his Shotgun Title. Lucky Kid isn’t the only one getting a look in – Mark Davis and Alexander James make up the foursome in the contest. As the Break finishes, Gunns calls his cigarette the ‘Fucking British Indy Scene’, before putting it out. Tough words by the arrogant champion.
The rest of the card for True Colors so far is announced, with a match between Jay-FK, LAX and Monster Consulting the end result of RISE losing the titles due to Klinger’s suspension. The main event is a beauty: WALTER versus Ilja Dragunov for the wXw Unified World Championship.
After the announcements for True Colors, Alexander James has an interview to talk about his chance at the Shotgun Title. James realises how dangerous his opponents can be, but he runs down each man – or ‘boy’, as he dubs Gunns – promising to come out as the champion.
In an effort to put herself back into title contention, Session Moth Martina is up against Veda Scott in what is the de facto main event. The pre-match shenanigans see Scott threatening to pour Martina’s beer away whilst Martina toys with breaking Scott’s sunglasses. Martina uses her fury at Scott throwing her beer away to take the fight to Scott with various strikes, before getting a two count with a roll-up and another nearfall with a suplex. A top rope codebreaker attempt sees Martina miss and thus allows Scott to take over. The crowd is somewhat subdued as this match was taped during the 16 Carat Gold weekend and the action is loose to say the least.
A Scott spear earns her a two count, whilst she then ties Martina up in the corner and hits her with kicks followed by a stunner. Scott struggles and fails to apply a pendulum submission, but ends up grapevining the legs instead. Martina grabs a beer instead of the ropes, spitting it at Scott and firing up with a stunner of her own. A big crossbody off the turnbuckle gets a two count and both women trade strikes until Martina hits something akin to a clothesline/Slingblade but it’s poorly executed whatever it is. A cutter and an enziguri look like it is enough for Scott to pick up the win, yet Martina kicks out and hits a really poor second rope codebreaker for the win. The commentator tries to cover for the execution of the move, but the match as a whole wasn’t very good. They tried hard.
Two segments finish off Shotgun this week as WALTER talks about his shot at Ilja Dragunov at True Colors. He speaks about the importance of 16 Carat Gold 2017 to him and how the final changed his relationship with Dragunov. The two men were willing to make a sacrifice to take the title away from RISE, and they were successful. The main event at True Colors will prove once and for all who the true champion is. To finish, we see Emil Sitoci trying to give some encouraging words to Dirty Dragan, before both men are joined by Christian Michael Jakobi. He tells them they have to talk, but the screen fades to black.
In terms of development, the next lot of matches for True Colors is interesting to see where the company is heading post-16 Carat Gold. Some of the contest feels a little bit like stopgaps (the Shotgun Title match, for example), but WALTER/Dragunov, the tag title situation being resolved and Al-Ani versus Andy are all positive situations for the company going forward. In the ring, this was hit and miss, with the main event one of the weaker outings for wXw since I’ve been watching them. You can’t always knock it out of the park.
