{"id":11648,"date":"2019-03-14T06:41:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T10:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=11648"},"modified":"2019-03-14T06:41:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T10:41:37","slug":"wxw-16-carat-gold-night-one-review-8-3-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/14\/wxw-16-carat-gold-night-one-review-8-3-19\/","title":{"rendered":"wXw 16 Carat Gold Night One review (8.3.19)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

wXw 16 Carat Night\nOne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With technical difficulties having delayed the release of the first night of the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, I have been able to skillfully dodge pretty much all spoilers whilst waiting with baited breath for the show to drop. The biggest tournament in Europe; the Turbinenhalle; 16 viable competitors; one trophy \u2013\u00a0 16 Carat Gold begins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axel Dieter Jr.\nversus Marius Al-Ani<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an opening match featuring the WWE NXT superstar\nreturning to his hunting ground against your current Shotgun champion, the\nquestion instantly becomes how you book it? The political affiliations of\nseveral wrestlers have cast some debate over the booking within the tournament,\nbut you couldn\u2019t argue about the crowd reaction for both men as they began to\nengage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the opening moments, Dieter Jr. gave the crowd some\npleasing spots such as clapping his legs in a headlock escape and landing on\nhis feet from a monkey flip. However, Al-Ani managed to knock him off the top\nto get in some offense including a chinlock that had the crowd rallying behind\nJr. This worked as moments later Dieter Jr. came close with a second rope\nEuropean uppercut. After each man worked a submission \u2013 Al-Ani, the ankle lock,\nJr., the Axel Dieter Sr. Special \u2013 it became a question of Al-Ani\u2019s resilience\nas he kicked out of a superplex and a Landungsbrucken (neck\/leg capture back\nsuplex with bridge). Eventually, Dieter Jr. put Al-Ani away with what looked\nlike a sitout Landungsbrucken that probably has a name that I\u2019m not willing to\nGoogle whilst trying to avoid spoilers \u2013 sorry! A competitive opener with an\nobvious winner. It\u2019ll be interesting to see whether the Shotgun title gets put\non the line at some point over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rey Horus versus\nFenix<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what promised to be an exciting match, the crowd seemed\nto be more behind Fenix as the two men locked up to exchange a sequence of\nholds and reversals. It was Horus who went to the air first with a Mexican\narmdrag; Fenix immediately one-upped him with a ridiculous sequence of bounces\non the ropes for his; Horus said \u2018hold my beer\u2019 and launched himself over the\ncorner post with a wild dive to wipe out Fenix. The interesting spots\ncontinued, although a Fenix rope walk kick whiffed pretty significantly. It was\nmade up for pretty quickly with moonsault to the outside. Horus came closest\nwith an awkward one man Spanish fly, but Fenix picked up the win with a muscle\nbuster driver. A spotfest with some sloppiness, but basically delivered\nsomething tonally different for the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shigehiro Irie versus\nChris Brookes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the few matches that felt like it had a clear likely\nwinner in Irie, it saw two of the most popular wrestlers in the tournament\nmatched up. The contest included a fair bit of humour as Brookes pretended to\ncheck Irie\u2019s kneepad when caught trying to jump him, whilst a slap to Irie\nafter a suggested trading of bows earned Brookes a huge pounce. It became all\nabout putting over Irie in the long run as he landed a huge top rope splash,\nkicked out of the Black Mantis Bomb, escaped the Octopus Hold and nailed the\nBeast Bomber to win the contest. To kick out of Brookes\u2019 finisher as well as\ndominate the majority of the match bodes well for Irie\u2019s run in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy Thatcher\nversus Lucky Kid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakout match for Kid and one of the best matches from\nlast year\u2019s tournament sees a repeat in the opening round this year. It is\nanother clash of hugely popular wrestlers, especially with the significant UK\nand Irish contingent in the crowd who like Kid but LOVE Thatcher. Thatcher,\ncoming in with the narrative of wanting to take something for himself\nconsidering WALTER and Dieter Jr.\u2019s current direction, absolutely set out to\ndestroy Kid in the early going with gutwrench throws, vicious ground strikes\nand submissions. Strikes from Kid only served to anger Thatcher, whilst a\ndropkick off the second rope was turned into a half Boston with relative ease.\nEvery attempt by Kid to get back into the contest saw him cut off by a\nlaser-focused Thatcher, most notably multiple shotgun-sounding slaps by Kid being\nusurped by one open hand from Thatcher to the jaw. Unfortunately, the dream\nended when Kid caught Thatcher in a roll-up for the three count. A huge upset,\nbut one I had called as I feel Thatcher going out has more potential for\nstoryline interest going forward. A brutal squash that saw the underdog survive\nlong enough to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurn Simmons versus\nAvalanche (Falls Count Anywhere)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year after missing Carat with a broken leg, Jurn Simmons\nentered the first round against his fierce nemesis, Avalanche, in a Falls Count\nAnywhere match off the back of their ever-so-long No Countout contest from the\nlast show. The two men started quickly with a Massive kick to begin proceedings\nand a quick back and forth of high powered offense. Naturally, things weren\u2019t\ngoing to end until they were brawling around the arena and that\u2019s what they did\nas they traded plunder shots whilst walking around backstage. One particular\nnasty was Avalanche getting dropped nuts first across a wooden contraption of\nsome sort. Some kendo stick work by Simmons brought the match back to the ring,\nwhere like all good baddies Simmons\u2019 desire to monologue cost him. Avalanche\nfought back, the match ended up back at ringside where Avalanche hit a Super\nDreissker bomb off of a set of railings for the victory. A decent enough brawl\nwith a unique finish, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was worth noting that\nAvalanche was visibly limping on his way backstage, though that may be to sell\nthe match rather than a legitimate injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video for Superstars of Wrestling 2019 followed which\nannounced KEN SHAMROCK as one of the competitors. Mental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon Jr. versus\nMark Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an odd match as the crowd reaction being so behind\nPentagon and the general disjointed feeling meant it never really got going.\nDavis, considering this was supposed to be a match between two hard hitting\nopponents, didn\u2019t get much audible impact on any of his strikes, whilst an\nAlphamare Waterslide midway through the contest also looked poor in execution.\nPentagon had a Canadian Destroyer attempt blocked which almost led to Close\nYour Eyes And Count To Fuck after a sliding forearm, but a reversal into the\nSacrifice armbreaker gave him the window for another Canadian Destroyer and the\nvictory. Worst match of the round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daisuke Sekimoto\nversus Ilja Dragunov<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always likely to be a hard hitting contest, Sekimoto and\nDragunov didn\u2019t disappoint as the import took control following a uranage\nbackbreaker after some early trading. This allowed Sekimoto to take control for\na concerted length of time, though Ilja was always willing on more punishment.\nIt took a flurry of strikes and a big knee to get Ilja back into the contest,\nbut even then he endured a sharpshooter, top rope splash, brutal German suplex\nand a lariat as Sekimoto piled the punishment on top of Dragunov. In the midst\nof that offensive onslaught, Ilja did land some stiff lariats of his own, but\nit ended up being a DVD into the corner that eventually broke Sekimoto\u2019s spirit\nas he went down to the Torpedo Moscow shortly afterwards. Took a bit of time to\nget going, but the closing stretch was really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Starr versus\nWALTER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storyline, if not genuinely, most anticipated match\nclosed out the first night as David Starr tried to put his losing streak\nagainst WALTER to bed in the very first round having used his right to choose\nan opponent and picking the man he\u2019s never beat. As if to signify the urgency,\nStarr bypassed his own introduction to attack WALTER, raining down blows on the\nunprepared Austrian. Starr\u2019s exuberance almost immediately cost him as he\nchopped a ringpost and then missed a suicide dive, colliding with the chairs\ninstead. WALTER bullied Starr for periods of time, though got caught out going\nto the top and dropped with a belly to belly superplex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the brutalisation by WALTER, Starr managed to fight\nhis way back into the contest, only for WALTER to manage to kick out of the\nBlackheart Buster and the Product Placement. With the history of these two men,\nit was always going to need something more than just a finisher. Taking a\nmorally circuitous route, WALTER begged off before unleashing a huge powerbomb,\nbefore seemingly tapping moments later on a sleeper only to be apparently\naddressing his foot being under the rope. As Starr celebrated, WALTER pounced\nand put him to sleep for the victory. A mixed reaction followed the finish as\nWALTER received some boos for his underhand tactics, but this was a really\nstrong finish to the opening night. When will Starr beat WALTER, if ever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-show, Starr had an emotive interview with Rico Bushido\nand Alan in which he claimed victory, as well as stating that WALTER had to use\nthose tactics as he knew Starr had his number. Like Thatcher earlier, I wonder\nwhere this leaves Starr for the tournament weekend as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good first night with only a couple of false notes, but\nsome huge upsets that leave the tournament wide open. Starr and Thatcher were\nboth viable 16 Carat Gold winners, yet are out in the first round. Night Two\nwill settle who ended up in the Semi-Finals, before Bobby Gunns gets his big\ntitle shot against Absolute Andy. Should be another cracker!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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