By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
Shortcut to the Top, like any event with a match that includes a multitude of challengers and a shot at the wXw Unified World Title as a reward, always has the potential to rip things up and reshuffle the pack completely. Little did we know on a hot and sweaty evening in Oberhausen how significant the changes surrounding not only the contenders for the gold, but also titles, stables and friendships would be by the end of the event. The landscape of wXw has changed significantly with a show that weaved a storyline pretty much throughout everything that was presented in the ring.
Fittingly, the opening match set the tone for what was to come as Bobby Gunns’ Shotgun Championship Title match against Marius Al-Ani. With the initial exchanges highlighting both Al-Ani’s flexibility, strength and athleticism as he turned a bridge into a headscissor takeover and followed up moments later with a nip-up into a kick, Gunns was instantly aware of the Ninja’s potentially dangerous challenge. Still, Gunns will be Gunns as he arrogantly slapped a seated Al-Ani following an exchange of submission attempts, though this only led to a clothesline over the top and a huge plancha by Al-Ani over the corner ringpost. The champion would take control with a kick to the back and a modified reverse DDT, whilst a guillotine, a suplex and several kicks led up to a vicious stamp to the head that caught Al-Ani between Gunns’ boot and the ringside apron.
After a huge lariat following a step-up enziguri earned the challenger a two count, Gunns would grab a hand and unload with chops to the neck and side, hitting an over the shoulder armbreaker for good measure. Gunns continued to pressurise Al-Ani after catching a kick by hitting a German suplex and a lariat of his own for two, but two attempts at guillotine chokes only saw Gunns rammed into the corner and then dumped with a suplex for two. Gunns would cut off Al-Ani as he went to the top and send him over with a superplex, but Al-Ani was quick to apply an ankle lock that was subsequently reversed into a schoolboy pin for two. As the pace picked up, Al-Ani nailed Gunns with a superkick and picked up the three count, even though Gunns’ foot was on the ropes! Controversially, Al-Ani was announced the new wXw Shotgun Champion. The aggressive manner in which Al-Ani grabbed the title and celebrated served as a small clue to changes later on in the card.
After a short match that saw WALTER the latest road block in the Dirty Dragan trial series, one that Dragan briefly was competitive in with a roll-up and a bunch of forearms before a Gojira clutch put him to sleep, we had the wXw World Tag Team Titles defended by Monster Consulting in an Elimination Tables Match against Jay-FK and RISE. Jay-FK would do their usual and try to escape, though they would be caught at ringside and bounced between their two opponents in a crowd pleasing spot. It is Avalanche who is the first to grab a table after a clothesline and slam on Pete Bouncer, with each man fighting to try and send the other crashing through the table in the corner. Neither was successful, whilst Jay-FK took the opportunity to utilise the tag belts as Francis Kaspin nailed Bouncer before a superkick/title belt combination took out Avalanche. Jay-FK couldn’t take full advantage as Avalanche would burst out of the corner with a pounce that saw the young upstarts collide in the centre of the ring.
Following more back and forth in the ring that included Bouncer knocking the table out of the way to save Ivan Kiev, Jay-FK would take Kiev up the ramp to another table. A low blow by Kiev on both men stopped the attack, but a recurring theme then detracted from the contest as a whole: an unbreakable table. Kiev would come off of a stand near the entrance onto Skillet, wiping out Skillet but not breaking the table, just bending the legs.. It would take two more attempts to eliminate Jay-FK as a running slam by Nero wasn’t enough, but a double powerbomb by Nero and Bouncer would work on the unbroken table. With only two teams left, Avalanche would be saved from going through the table by Nero twice, the latter by throwing Kiev off of the top rope. However, as Avalanche tried to splash Bouncer through the table to win as Nero held it wedged between the apron, it once again didn’t break. The result was in the bag off of that spot, though the running spear that did win that match for Monster Consulting at least a vicious ending as they retained their gold in a match not helped by circumstances.
RISE as was is no more it would seem following Tarkan Aslan’s in-ring promo in the middle of the show. Accompanied by Lucky Kid, it initially looked like an announcement of his retirement, but he revealed that this wasn’t the end. However, he did give a ‘present’ to his ‘little brother’, a video that showed the discussion Aslan had with Bouncer that eventually led to Bouncer’s incapacitation on the first Shotgun after the summer break. Bouncer would reveal that Aslan had lied about his injuries, before Aslan touching the RISE leader around the neck led to him dropping to the ground. Back in the ring, Aslan would walk out without saying a word, leaving Kid screaming in despair.
These initial two contests (excluding Dragan vs WALTER) and Aslan’s announcement would bleed into a Shortcut to the Top match that began with David Starr and WALTER as the first two entrants. Both men nearly eliminated each other early on, but it wasn’t until Timothy Thatcher’s return at #7 that the first eliminations occurred, with Koray, Timo Theiss and Michael Dante being taken out by Thatcher, RINGKAMPF and WALTER respectively. Thatcher got a huge response unsurprisingly, with the duo of Thatcher and WALTER looking dangerous early on. Mike Schwarz would offer both members of RINGKAMPF a beer from #8, though WALTER’s decision to take one almost cost him as Starr tried to eliminate his nemesis without success. Francis Kaspin’s arrival at #9 saw him head straight outside to sit in the crowd, whilst Oliver Carter’s brief flurry of offense from #10 that used some feinted low blow attempts was ironically curtailed by a Thatcher low blow.
Carter would be the next man eliminated, with Julian Pace using a back body drop that was followed with a suicide dive on Kaspin who had tripped Voll Gas moments earlier. Jay Skillet’s arrival at #13 allowed them to eliminate Julian Nero as Kaspin grabbed him from outside, and Kaspin’s decision to enter the ring paid dividends as Jay-FK eliminated Schwarz. Kaspin’s charmed life would end as WALTER eliminated him, yet he’d still have some input as a grab from outside along with Skillet working on the inside took out Thatcher. Dirty Dragan would enter at #16 to begin the second half, though he would also bring down Young Man Chong and Marius Van Beethoven as backup. Dragan would have some success immediately, using a low bridge to take out Pace. Chong and Beethoven lasted until the next entry; WALTER putting out both men with ease. After Starr eliminated Prince Ahura, WALTER would wipe him out with a brutal John Woo dropkick that had Starr rolling to ringside to regain his composure.
Things were about to heat up as Jurn Simmons made his return at #18. With his arrival saw the end of Juvenile X, Skillet and WALTER (reversing a powerbomb) as Simmons went on a tear. A brief suggestion of a partnership with Dragan ended within minutes as Simmons would bring out his black kendo stick, but luckily for the Serb, Emil Sitoci was in at #20 to save his friend. Simmons managed eventually to hit Sitoci with the weapon, but as Starr grabbed it and the two men brawled, they’d both be eliminated by Sitoci and Dragan. Nothing stopped them from continuing to brawl around the ringside after their elimination. The next big arrival was Alpha Female at #22, leading to not only the elimination of Darksoul and the Rotation, but a faceoff with Avalanche who entered at #24. Female managed to slam Avalanche after some heavy strikes were traded, but Avalanche would eventually eliminate the first woman to enter the match.
Dragan’s dream run would come to an end via Veit Muller’s arrival at #25, but the big news was #26: Bobby Gunns was pulling double duty after losing his Shotgun title. Doug Williams would be a surprise entrant, though Muller would make his night a short one, whilst the last two entrants would be Pete Bouncer and Tarkan Aslan. Kiev had lasted all the way from #11, but as the two RISE members went to attack Aslan, Marius Al-Ani jumped Bouncer with a Shotgun title shot! Aslan and Al-Ani were clearly now in cahoots, further cementing Aslan’s break from RISE. Bouncer and Kiev would be eliminated in short order, whilst Aslan would also eliminate Muller. Just as it looked like he could steal the victory, Aslan would get low bridged by Gunns, leaving the King of Smoke Style and Avalanche as the last two men in the ring. Avalanche would use his size to cut off Gunns’ offense a couple of times, but a switch armbar attempt over the top rope was used by Gunns to eliminate Avalanche and win Shortcut to the Top! At the end of the show, Gunns would talk about his sadness for losing the Shotgun title, but how that spurred him on to enter Shortcut. He plans to take back his title as well as going for the wXw Unified World Title.
A wXw Unified World Title held by…Absolute Andy.
Taking place before Shortcut to the Top saw Gunns earn his shot at the title, Absolute Andy would take the gold from Ilja Dragunov as both wXw singles titles changed hands in one night. Early on, Andy would use the ring, the ropes and ringside to frustrate Dragunov as he would pick his opportunities to strike before retreating. Eventually, Dragunov would catch him and they would brawl at ringside, including a senton splash by Dragunov and a charge into the ring apron. Luckily for Andy, Dragunov wiped out a member of the ring crew with a clothesline, a move that allowed Andy to regain some control as he dumped the champion with a back suplex on some chairs. All of Andy’s offense would target the injured back from Shotgun, though Dragunov would fire back with a slam that seemed to take it all out of the Russian. This just allowed Andy to continue to work the back, bending Dragunov around the ringpost, using a back breaker and two huge Irish whips into the corner.
The referee would begin to get more involved as the match progressed: a spear and sharpshooter by Dragunov saw Andy grab the ropes and kick Dragunov backwards into the referee, causing some hurt to the champion. Dragunov’s frustrations with the officla threatened to boil over when the two wrestlers were at ringside, though this just allowed Andy to use a beer to temporarily blind Dragunov. After Dragunov managed to use an F5 of his own after avoiding two attempts by Andy, things would heat up as Dragunov used slaps, a DDT, a corner lariat, two Greetings from Moscow, a step up enziguri and a third Greetings from Moscow that led to a Chernobyl bomb for two. Still, Andy was able to stay in the contest, reaching the ropes after a second Dragunov F5. The referee would once more get involved, but in moving out of the way to avoid a charging Dragunov suicide dive, he was injured. Dragunov followed things up with a coast to coast dropkick, but a second suicide dive saw him collide with an Andy chairshot. One A-Klasse later, we had a new champion! Dragunov had laid it all on the line, but Andy had managed to weasel his way to the title.
Whilst the matches outside of the Shortcut main event may not have been the best wXw offerings of the year, probably owing to the heat as much as anything else, the storyline throughout more than made up for it. I wrote about elevating Gunns earlier in the year, so the pop Gunns’ victory received from me as I watched along was huge. Add a big shift in Marius Al-Ani in terms of alignment and new singles gold, the return of Jurn Simmons, and the crowning of Absolute Andy as the guy in the promotion, wXw have shuffled the pack in a way that leaves things wide open as we start the move towards the World Tag League. Is this the time that Bobby Gunns capitalises on his popularity? Where does Dragunov go from here? What about Lucky Kid, Tarkan Aslan, and RISE? Things are there to be answered as the second half of the year unfurls for the promotion.
Shortcut to the Top entrants
- David Starr
- WALTER
- Michael Dante
- Timo Theiss
- Julian Nero
- Koray
- Timothy Thatcher
- Mike Schwarz
- Francis Kaspin
- Oliver Carter
- Ivan Kiev
- Julian Pace
- Jay Skillet
- Prince Ahura
- The Rotation
- Dirty Dragan
- Juvenile X
- Jurn Simmons
- Aaron Insane
- Emil Sitoci
- Darksoul
- Alpha Female
- Laurance Roman
- Avalanche
- Veit Muller
- Bobby Gunns
- Doug Williams
- Tengkwa
- Pete Bouncer
- Tarkan Aslan
