By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
Whilst a period of time for rest and recuperation was unlikely to hurt a promotion that had been firing on all cylinders, wXw still needed to hit the ground running upon their return Shotgun. Having the semi-final and final of the Shotgun #1 Contender Tournament sure helped, though for it to play out against a backdrop of increasing RISE tensions only added to the drama. Fifty minutes into their return, and wXw had kicked the second half of their year off in exciting fashion.
With the brackets leaving us with semi-finals that were TKO versus Lucky Kid and Marius Al-Ani against Veit Muller, it perhaps wasn’t surprising that the final would end up being between Kid and Al-Ani. However, that is not to discredit either TKO or especially Muller, who have both come out of the tournament with significantly heightened status. The Kid versus TKO match would be the first match of the show and TKO managed to match Kid’s antics with his own impressive aerials, landing a second rope spinning armdrag and crossbody, with his nearest pinfall attempt coming from a rolling Samoan drop into a second turnbuckle moonsault. Unfortunately for TKO, a ref bump allowed Tarkan Aslan to grab a leg as a distraction, leading to a Kid dragon suplex for three.
As for the Al-Ani versus Muller contest, the focus became the Ninja’s inability – at least initially – to overcome the power of his opponent. Having showcased impressive athleticism with a huracanrana, tiltawhirl armdrag and dropkick, Al-Ani would get caught with a headbutt to the stomach that set off a sequence that saw Muller match his every move, cutting him off from forming any kind of momentum. Along the way, Muller was ruthless, throwing Al-Ani with a modified gutwrench suplex, hitting a powerbomb into a shoulderbreaker and driving the air out of Al-Ani with a modified hipblock slam. Muller would even manage to hold onto a cravat following an Al-Ani slam in an attempt to escape. Al-Ani would manage to fight off the cravat, hitting a spinkick to take both men to the canvas. From there, a sunset flip into the exploder was enough to allow Al-Ani to nail the five star frog splash in a hard fought victory.
As the show has been going along, the focus on RISE and all the other competitors has seen multiple little segments that build to the main event. From RISE’s first get together after the summer break revealing that Lucky Kid got a speeding ticket, to Pete Bouncer wishing Marius Al-Ani good luck but suddenly refusing to show the ticket to the Ninja, to Bouncer asking Tarkan Aslan for a word, followed by Aslan pulling Kid away from an interview and also revealing to Ivan Kiev he didn’t know where Bouncer was, each little bit added to the growing puzzle heading into the main event.
Lucky Kid versus Marius Al-Ani for the right to face Bobby Gunns at Shortcut to the Top was a competitive battle that went back and forth from the very opening moments where both men traded headlocks and some ground grappling. Kid would try and get into Al-Ani’s head, grabbing the leg, tripping Al-Ani up, using the fake dive, all things that looked to be working until Al-Ani nailed him with a back suplex. Kid would fire back with a manjigatame, before Al-Ani applied a unique submission all of his own that forced Kid into the ropes. After a bridging hammerlock by Al-Ani, both men would have trademark offense blocked or avoided (the sunset flip exploder for Al-Ani, the handspring back elbow for Kid) before Kid did eventually hit the handspring back elbow for two.
In a similar vein, Al-Ani did eventually hit the exploder suplex, though he couldn’t capitalise when going for his frog splash, although he at least landed on his feet. Moves were being traded frantically now as a wheelbarrow suplex by Al-Ani was followed by an Asai DDT by Kid for another two count. A kick to the head seemed to have Kid down, but much to Al-Ani’s concern, his opponent would sit up and start to laugh. The lariat that followed only scored a one, whilst Kid was then able to kick out of a vicious brainbuster. Al-Ani showed resilience as well moments later as he beat the count on a Kid Liger bomb.
This is where things unravelled.
As the action continued in the ring, we saw Ivan Kiev find a downed Pete Bouncer backstage as the shot went to split screen. Bouncer would tell Kiev that they needed to get to Kid. However, whatever the issue was, they would not be able to resolve it in time. Shades of the semi-final saw another ref bump in a Kid match, though this time Aslan would punch Kid in the face in what looked to be a mistake. That was enough for Al-Ani to then block a kick to the head and turn it into the ankle lock to grab the submission win and the title shot. Aslan would leave shortly after his mistimed interference, whilst Kid would walk out just as Bouncer and Kiev finally made it to ringside.
It wasn’t all RISE and the Shotgun title this week. Emil Sitoci and Tommy Giesen would speak about Dirty Dragan and his therapy sessions, before revealing another match in the Dirty Dragan Trial Series would take place at Shortcut to the Top. Speaking of matches at the marquee event, Monster Consulting would also meet with Christian Michael Jakobi, offering up a shot at the wXw Tag Titles to RISE and JayFK in a triple threat tables match, an offer Jakobi was quick to accept.
Finally, we would head from the 16 Carat Gold winner, Absolute Andy. Fresh from a great summer on a yacht in the sun, Andy was back to prove once again that those who doubt him are in the wrong. Andy is apparently book smart, street smart, and wrestling smart – all things that Ilja Dragunov is not. Whilst likening the champion to a 9th or 8th division team and himself to the Champions League, Andy would finish the interview by saying that the wXw Unified Champion was running scared.
With WALTER versus Pete Dunne the main event for next week, alongside surely further developments with the RISE situation, wXw are already throwing things at the fans thick and fast and I for one am glad they are back.
