By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
It was an interesting looking Shotgun on paper as the less star studded matches in the Shotgun Title #1 Contender Tournament took place. With a chance to shine for some names that aren’t necessarily the first the come to mind when you think of wXw, the two matches delivered enough entertainment to warrant this lofty position.
In the de facto main event slot, Juvenile X took on TKO, with X quickly getting frustrated with the chant from the fans. A top wristlock takedown by X gave TKO a chance to show off his core strength as he bridged out of a pin, even with the weight of X on top of him. Not only does TKO have power, he can fly as well as he landed a springboard armdrag and spinning heel kick, only for X to sucker him over to the apron and drop him throat first on the ropes. X was good on offense, hitting a big knee to the bread basket, a snap suplex and a snap powerslam as TKO came off the ropes to ramp up his momentum. However, a top rope crossbody attempt found no-one, allowing TKO to make his comeback. Two running forearms in the corner, a Whisper in the Wind and a suplex into a sitout bomb earned TKO a two count, but it was the avoidance of an X kick after a neckbreaker by the heel that allowed TKO to hit his namesake move for the victory. TKO was more than serviceable, but I really liked X in particular – some good heel offense.
Your mileage on Veit Muller versus Mike Schwarz is wholly dependent on your interest in big boy graps, something which I personally do enjoy. This was nothing special in terms of work, but it played into the strengths of both men as we saw collar and elbow tie ups, tests of strength and shoulderblock collisions that emphasised the strength of both men. Schwarz controlled the match for long periods, hitting a big fallaway slam and sidewalk slam for two before ending up using fans as a base to chop Muller at ringside. These ringside shenanigans cost him as Schwarz would be sent into the ringpost as he tried to run Muller into the steel himself, yet Muller only had a brief resurgence with punches and European uppercuts the order of the day. A Black Hole Slam by Schwarz ended up with both men down, but it looked like Schwarz had the match in his grasp as he hit a snake eyes and a pump kick. However, Schwarz had an attempted chokeslam blocked, leading to Muller applying a cravat and turning it into a modified slam for the victory. It did what it had to do.
With a streamlined show this week, there were few backstage interactions, but they were notable enough. Christian Michael Jakobi would announce a wXw Tag Team Title match between Monster Consulting, RISE and JayFK for next week’s Shotgun, though the belts were conspicuous by their absence: JayFK having left them at home. Further tag team shenanigans may be on the horizon in the Women’s Division as an attempt by Melanie Gray and LuFisto to corner Killer Kelly backstage saw Toni Storm come to Kelly’s rescue. It also included LuFisto casting aspersions about the quality of Jurassic Park (due to a shirt Kelly was wearing), thus making her the ultimate heel.
The show opened with what looked like real tension between Absolute Andy and Alexander James, though this was all a ruse as it turned out that they had planned the attack on Ilja Dragunov that occurred last week. Tension was also the key word as Dirty Dragan faced up to Emil Sitoci after it was revealed Sitoci thought Dragan’s wins had been a bad thing for the Serbian. Sticking to his guns, Sitoci mentioned how they had made Dragan cocky, before a Dragan shirt grab led to a Sitoci push as things threatened to boil over. Cooler heads prevailed, but we were left with a crying Dragan.
A good opportunity to showcase different talent in a window of time where things are slowing down due to the summer break, this episode of Shotgun naturally isn’t on a par with some of the episodes that have been broadcast this year. However, it was a nice change of pace and sets up a big main event for next week in the process.
