By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
With Shotgun no longer the way in which wXw can develop their storylines and angles, the ‘Road to…’ shows interestingly appear to be one part Shotgun, one part Marquee Event. The interviews, promos and angles that we’d normally see on the weekly television are instead interspersed amongst the matches, with many of the segments designed to build to Broken Rules – a literal ‘Road to…’ indeed.
That being said, the opening ten minutes or so is all about setting up the action to come at Broken Rules, alongside some reference to tonight’s action. Ilja Dragunov, the interim wXw Unified World Heavyweight Champion, would passionately talk about how Absolute Andy was still blocking him from being the true champ, just like had done so many times before. PCO is his next big challenge at Broken Rules, yet his focus is also on challenging Andy to a unification match in Hamburg on the 23rd of November.
Andy’s retort is immediate as he talks about the need for Dragunov to worry about PCO first, a wrestler who is even older than he is, considering that was a common bone of contention amongst the challengers to Andy’s title. Bobby Gunns chose this time to interrupt, proclaiming that Andy weaselled his way out of the title match at World Tag Team League, before challenging Andy by putting his guaranteed title shot on the line, with the winner going on to meet Dragunov or PCO. Andy is apoplectic with rage, neither shooting down the challenge nor accepting it; instead, he spends the end of the segment calling for his lawyer and trying to get the camera shut off.
Prior to the first actual match of the night, Veit Muller sought guidance from Timothy Thatcher as to how to beat Julian Pace, a man who had beaten Muller in the past. Thatcher’s suggestions included using Muller’s strengths, such as his power, whilst also aiming to slow down Pace as much as possible.
Speaking of Muller versus Pace, that is the opening match of the night and a chance to showcase two up and coming talents on the roster. Perhaps coming off the back of Thatcher’s words of wisdom, Muller started the contest with purpose, keeping Pace grounded on the canvas and also dumping him hard with a spinebuster into a Boston crab. As soon as the speed picked up, Pace began to look more dangerous as he used his Voll Gas rope running to nail a dropkick. However, a monkey flip attempt was not only blocked by Muller, but it injured Pace’s knee. Sensing blood in the water, Muller blasted Pace with a kick to the injured leg and would continue to target the limb with shin and kneebreakers. A nifty counter to a back body drop let Pace back into the contest, leading to a running Yakuza kick in the corner and a roll into a neckbreaker. The damage had been done though, and a Gory Bomb allowed Muller to apply a figure four for the tap. A decent match that showed Muller’s killer instinct, as well as more generally his ability to come back from a previous loss to Pace.
Between the first two matches, we get Tommy Giesen talking to Meiko Satomura, but there are no subtitles and she speaks pretty much entirely in Japanese. It isn’t difficult to pick up the jist of what she is saying – she is number one and will go for the wXw Women’s Title…I think.
The Calamari Thatch Kings versus llja Dragunov and WALTER contest was all built around the exchanges between RINGKAMPF members as Timothy Thatcher and WALTER went head to head at several points during the match. The earliest exchange saw Thatcher block a chop and put his usual partner into a single leg crab. Unfortunately for CTK, Brookes would be the first person truly isolated in the match, eating offense from both Dragunov and WALTER, as well as needing Thatcher to break a Boston crab by WALTER with several European uppercuts.
The second exchange followed some concerted attacks on Dragunov after Thatcher had nailed three belly to belly suplexes in a row, followed up with a gutwrench suplex later on. After strikes and a senton on Brookes, Dragunov tagged out, and WALTER and Thatcher unleashed on each other. WALTER and Dragunov showed some effective teaming with a powerbomb/top rope Torpedo Moscow on Thatcher, only for Brookes to break the pin with a springboard dropkick. One more huge set of strikes between WALTER and Thatcher led to the finish of the match as Dragunov and Brookes interceded on the strike war, before Dragunov hit Brookes with a quick Torpedo Moscow for the win. A match that picked up as Thatcher and WALTER started to lay into each other, though a notch down on RINGKAMPF versus Starr and Dragunov from recent wXw history.
The next promo took place in the ring as Avalanche came out to announce that Julian Nero was injured, and that they were advertising for a new CEO to join Monster Consulting. Timo Theiss would come out and – after many ‘shut the fuck up’ chants – state that he was the new CEO that Consulting needed. Avalanche suggested that this sounded like a job interview, before asking for a referee for five minutes.
This match was all about whether Avalanche could catch Theiss with his corner splash, as well as how long Theiss could hit and run. An early eye rake halted Avalanche’s early momentum, but Theiss would get the ref in the way of one corner splash and avoid a second attempt, tripping Avalanche up in the process and ramming his leg into the ringpost. Theiss would stupidly try a slam, allowing Avalanche to regain control with clotheslines and a belly to belly suplex, but another attempted corner splash would be stopped by Theiss’ boot. Moments later, Theiss would come off the second turnbuckle with a double axehandle, only for Avalanche to shrug it off, hit the corner splash, a slam and a Vader Splash for the win. Fun for what it was, as Avalanche’s win was never really in doubt.
After a brief interlude which sees Killer Kelly and Toni Storm eating Haribo as they talk about Storm’s challenge for Melanie Gray’s title at Broken Rules and how wXw is their home even when they are taking over the world, Coast 2 Coast faced the Arrows of Hungary in a match that originally included Monster Consulting. An early exchange of offense between Icarus and Leon St. Giovanni saw LSG get dumped hard on his head during a step up rana, but he didn’t seem too worse for wear for it. C2C would get two early one counts after some double team offense including a double superkick, but it would be the combination work of the Arrows that saw them take over, with an impressive looking whip into a cannonball the highlight. The Arrows would keep LSG isolated for a long stretch, using a double tackle to halt him and a back suplex from Dover as it looked like he may reach Shaheem Ali.
After a nearfall from an Icarus standing moonsault, Giovanni managed to fight his way out of the corner to tag in Ali. A leg lariat, a headbutt and an STO variation all followed, only to be eclipsed by an impressive double powerslam by Dover on both members of C2C. This looked set to lead to the Arrows’ finisher, the Crossfire, but they would end up colliding with each other, leading to an Ali sidewinder and a 450 from LSG for the win. A tag match that pretty much was played to the formula and decent enough with it. I’d like to see more of the Arrows of Hungary in wXw in general as I’ve enjoyed their work when they are booked.
Post-match JayFK would get into the ring to congratulate both teams, before Jay Skillet said they both weren’t good enough to earn a shot at the titles. Tommy Giesen would then get into the ring to announce that a three way dance at Broken Rules had already been booked between the three teams, and the belts will be on the line. JayFK were incensed and tried to attack all four of their soon to be opponents, only to get quickly dispatched from the ring.
Backstage once more, WALTER and Timothy Thatcher would be sitting on a sofa as Veit Muller walked in. Thatcher congratulated him on his win, whilst WALTER seemed a little distracted. Thatcher would challenge Muller to a match at the 23rd November show in Hamburg as means to help train him some more. When Muller left, tensions boiled over with the two members of RINGKAMPF as each claimed the other had their focus elsewhere – this would lead to a challenge for Broken Rules as the two RINGKAMPF members would compete against each other in a singles match.
Killer Kelly fought Kris Wolf for the second time in recent months, and this was all about Kelly showing that she wasn’t there to mess around. We did get some Wolf shenanigans involving the wolf’s head as Kelly used it on Wolf before hitting her with a superkick. The wolf’s head then came off whilst Kelly had a dragon sleeper on, allowing Wolf to land a dropkick. Some pouring and spitting of beer instigated by Wolf only served to wind up Kelly further, and she picked up the win after a release German suplex and a bow and arrow-style submission. Interesting to see a more driven Kelly in what amounted to almost an extended squash in reality.
Before the main event, we had a few other segments to build to Broken Rules. The Crown (Jurn Simmons and Alexander James) would get in the face of Avalanche as he was in the process of putting his flyers up for a new Monster Consulting member. After laughing at Julian Nero’s situation, the Crown would find themselves challenged by Avalanche, who promised to find a partner in time for the event. Kris Wolf and Killer Kelly would also talk backstage in a segment that was made by Wolf getting annoyed at being called a ‘kid’, declaring that she is actually 238 years old. This was all to build to a three way match between Kelly, Wolf and Audrey Bride. Finally, PCO gave a pretty standard ‘I’m coming for the gold’-style promo aimed at Ilja Dragunov – that match should be insane.
To the main event – RISE and Bobby Gunns versus Absolute Andy, Marius Al-Ani, and JayFK. It would be Gunns who got the match started at a sprint as he launched himself at Andy and into a cross armbreaker before the bell had even rung. The faces would clear the ring soon after, and consolidate their control with Gunns in particular on fire in his efforts to take out Andy. Similarly, Lucky Kid was also impressive in the early going, though after some back and forth with Al-Ani, Andy would trip Kid whilst at ringside and send him into the ringpost. This allowed for some concerted heel beatdown work on Kid, up until JayFK managed to screw up for their team by sending Kid into the corner; the RISE member would nail both Andy and Al-Ani with a dropkick, before getting the hot tag to Gunns.
Gunns was the proverbial house on fire hitting multiple European uppercuts and German suplexes, yet his attempt to catch Andy in the ropes with an armbreaker left him vulnerable to a Skillet double foot stomp. RISE and JayFK would then take center ring as they ended up hitting a quadruple clothesline to leave everyone down. Andy would also have his moment, hitting a big spinebuster on Kid and following up moments later by disrupting the Kid dive feint with a superkick to the face. After a sequence that saw all of the heels in a submission at once – broken by Al-Ani powerbombing Gunns whilst in an armbar onto Bouncer – Andy would find himself in a four on one situation. Gunns would ‘break’ his fingers, but an Asai DDT and a Kiev top rope leg lariat was only good enough for two.
With things not going to plan for the heel team, JayFK tried to use their tag belts on RISE, only to get a taste of the gold from Kiev and Bouncer after missing with errant swings. Similarly, Al-Ani would attempt to misuse the Shotgun Title on Kid, only for him to avoid the attack and use the belt on its owner. This left Al-Ani open to a Liger bomb from Kid and that was enough for the three count. A fun main event that really showed how good Gunns and Kid have become, as well as the strength of the heel characters sitting in the prime positions in wXw right now. This victory would also lead to Kid being booked against Al-Ani on the 23rd November show in a match for the Shotgun Title.
For the first ‘Road to…’ show of the new era, it was a very watchable show. Unlike the big marquee events, the contests felt less important, which is not necessarily a bad thing. What this allowed them to do, like they used to do on Shotgun, is explore different groupings, teams and match ups in a way that produces something engaging to watch – the main event was a prime example. These ‘Road to…’ shows have a lot on their shoulders in terms of keeping guys in the spotlight, driving forward feuds, and building towards title matches and marquee events. This did a good job, but it’ll be interesting to see how things build, grow and evolve over the next year or so under this new plan of action.
