Alan Counihan <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a busy 16 Carat Gold weekend, the Road to NYC show\nwas a rather more sedate affair that offered some development moving towards\nthe upcoming Frankfurt event whilst also showcasing some of the lesser names on\nthe roster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the \u2018Road to\u2019 shows act as extended Shotgun shows in\npractice, there were a lot of backstage segments and interviews, starting off\nwith Bobby Gunns, the new wXw Unified World Heavyweight Champion. Having\nthanked his brother, it would be Vinnie Vortex who was up next as he became an\nunwilling shoulder upon which Absolute Andy unloaded all of his concerns about\nbeing cheated. Finally, Chris Brookes and Aussie Open made their reason for\nuniting in wXw clear \u2013 they are sick and tired of being the novelty imports\nused at 16 Carat and World Tag League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marius Al Ani\u2019s Open\nChallenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The opening contest of the show saw Marius Al-Ani\u2019s Shotgun\nTitle Open Challenge answered by Jurn Simmons. An opening exchange saw Simmons\nquick out of the gate with a Massive Kick and a gutwrench sitout bomb for a two\ncount. Al-Ani struggled to get into the contest at all as Simmons chucked him\naround with ease including three suplexes that saw Simmons send Al-Ani across\nthe ring. However, an eye rake allowed Al-Ani to hit a double knee to the back\non Simmons and get the surprise roll-up victory. A fun display of power by\nSimmons gave way to a weak finish unfortunately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More backstage segments had Absolute Andy request a rematch\nwith Bobby Gunns from Karsten Beck, only to get a contest against Vinnie Vortex\ninstead. A brief Shigehiro Irie interview saw him challenge Bobby Gunns for the\nwXw Unified World Heavyweight Championship \u2013 an apt first title defense in New\nYork \u2013 before a video for Emil Sitoci sold the idea that Sitoci could only\nreally feel something when he stepped foot in the ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crowchester versus\nLukas Robinson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two members of the wXw Academy were given a chance to show\ntheir wares and the initial exchanges of pinfalls and reverses were perfectly\npleasant to watch. Robinson found time to put on a hat and take Crowchester \u2018around\nthe world\u2019 (a turnbuckle smash in each corner), but before long Marius Al-Ani\nattacked both men to cause a no contest. Julian Pace and Leon Von Gasteren made\nthe save, only for Emil Sitoci to come out to attack them. Karsten Beck, channelling\nTeddy Long, made a tag team match between the four men for the main event\ntonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beck continued to be busy on the booking side of things as\nhe also decided that Pretty Bastards and Arrows of Hungary would compete later\nin the show for a wXw contract. Alongside this, we got our first look at the 16\nCarat Gold winner, Lucky Kid, though Pete Bouncer cut short the celebrations by\nquerying Kid\u2019s relationship with the newly arrived Schadenfreude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yuu versus Wesna<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The two women clashed on either side of a tag team contest\n16 Carat Gold Night Two and began with chop and shoulderblock trades in which\nboth held their own. This turned into a Wesna beatdown as she utilised her\npower advantage, though Yuu did drop the Croatian with a sidewalk slam and back\nsenton. Following some further strikes from both women, a Yuu sleeper was\nstopped when Wesna lept back on top of her in a brutal (painful, not aesthetically\nso) looking spot. This was enough to let Wesna hit the Samoan drop for the win\nin a short match that was decent, if unspectacular outside of the sleeper spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having lost to WALTER at 16 Carat Gold, David Starr\ninterrupted a conversation between the big Austrian and Alan Counihan to\nchallenge him once more, stating that they were finally fighting at the same\nlevel. WALTER brushed off the challenge, telling Starr to grow up, especially\nas WALTER had bigger things to worry about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arrows of Hungary\nversus Pretty Bastards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The match for the wXw contract was immediately in the hands\nof the Pretty Bastards as they jumped the Arrows of Hungary before the bell. Icarus\nwas isolated as multiple suplexes by the Bastards were punctuated by Prince\nAhura\u2019s strikes. Dover\u2019s hot tag unsurprisingly led to some impressive power\noffense, including a back body drop\/fallaway slam on the Bastards as well as a\ndouble powerslam. As the referee lost control, the Bastards hit a sickening\nlooking Alabama slam into a kick, before finishing the match with a spinning\nsuplex into a sitout bomb. A reasonable contest between the two teams and the\nteam I wanted to win picked up the three so can\u2019t complain too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately for the Pretty Bastards, Prince Ahura\u2019s\ndecision to brag in front of Karsten Beck backfired as they found themselves\nbooked in Frankfurt against Avalanche and Ilja Dragunov. Either side of this\nannouncement, Veit Muller was congratulated on joining RINGKAMPF by Axel Dieter\nJr., WALTER and Axel Tischer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolute Andy versus\nVinny Vortex<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the Pretty Bastards before him, Andy took immediate\ncontrol by attacking Vortex with a clothesline, leading to a contest which\nrarely saw him in much trouble. Vortex attempted to fight back several times\nbut was often cut off quickly, though he did hit an interesting jump on Andy as\nthe two men fought at ringside. His fieriest comeback saw Vortex land a top\nrope European uppercut for 2, but a superkick and F5 gave Andy the victory.\nNothing special, feeling more of a storyline victory than a contest that was\nbooked with the expectation of quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Playing off of David Starr \u2018stealing\u2019 Veit Muller\u2019s\nlimelight in Hamburg a couple of months ago, an attempt by Starr to get Muller\nto pass on a message to WALTER ends up with Starr versus Muller being booked\nfor Frankfurt. This was a nice touch as many fans had mentioned that that\nlittle moment had the potential to lead to a match down the line \u2013 well here we\nare. Another match for Frankfurt is Schadenfreude versus RISE as there was some\nmore back and forth between the two teams as Brookes, Davis and Fletcher tried\nto celebrate with Kid. The segment ended with Brookes confused as to why\nBouncer wanted a four on two match in a humorous little touch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marius Al-Ani and\nEmil Sitoci versus Julian Pace and Leon Van Gasteren<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The main event of the show gave us our first look at Sitoci\nwith his new frame of mind and an early slap to the face by Pace had Sitoci\nsmiling. It was Pace who ended up cut off following a hotshot and the heels\nattempted to cut the ring in half. A side headlock\/headscissor takedown combo\nhelped Pace to get the hot tag to Van Gasteren, who exploded with multiple\nsuplexes. The match broke down as Pace landed a Code Red, only to be told he\nwasn\u2019t the legal man, before a suplex\/crossbody on Al-Ani almost gave the face\nteam the win. Sitoci and Pace ended up battling around ringside, leading to\nSitoci hitting a spinning tombstone on the stage. This kept Pace down long enough\nfor Sitoci to hit the same move on Van Gasteren for the win, though Pace did\ncome close to breaking the pin even after such an impactful spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A show that wasn\u2019t full of the best in-ring action that wXw\ncan offer, yet it did make up for things with the backstage segments and\ninterviews that have helped to build some interesting matches for the Frankfurt\ncard. Muller versus Starr and RISE versus Schadenfreude in particular should\ndeliver in terms of both in ring action and storylines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alan Counihan Following a busy 16 Carat Gold weekend, the Road to NYC show was a rather more sedate affair that offered some development moving towards the upcoming Frankfurt event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,202],"tags":[570,460,386],"class_list":["post-11752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-wxw-reviews","tag-absolute-andy","tag-lucky-kid","tag-wxw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-33y","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/maxresdefault.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11754,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11752\/revisions\/11754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}