2024’s World Tag Team Festival is quickly approaching – so it’s time for our usual run through of who’s part of the tournament, and what’s going on in Oberhausen!
Running from October 4th through 6th in Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle 2 will once again host three nights of the World Tag Team Festival, while supporting shows feature the return of Femmes, the Extreme Wrestling Party, and appearances from DEFY, PROGRESS and NOAH.
WORLD TAG TEAM FESTIVAL ENTRANTS
Timothy Thatcher & Hideki Suzuki
The first team announced for Tag Festival was the return of Timothy Thatcher for the first time in four and a half years. He’ll be bringing Hideki Suzuki alongside him as the former GHC tag team champions look to leave Germany with the tag titles…
1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire
Having first teamed up at this past March’s Inner Circle, we’ve got some more cowboy stuff as Manders and Shire reunite…
Gringo Loco & Arez
It’s another return to wXw for Gringo Loco for his debut in Tag Festival – while Arez is back for his second successive Tag Festival as part of Los D-sperados.
Stephanie Maze & Bobby Gunns
Qualifying for this by way of a win over High Performer Ltd. at Drive of Champions, the newly-named “Team Fighting Spirit” will see Gunns looking to go one better than last year, where his team with Michael Knight crashed out in the semi-finals – leading to the end of Gunns’ latest title run.
Shigehiro Irie & Fuminori Abe
Entering as a duo for the second time in three years, Abe and Irie will be looking to go all the way – with their 2022 run ending with them missing out on the finals on tie-breakers (back when Tag Festival was run in blocks.)
KxS
Having come up short in their bid to win the tag titles in Hamburg back in May, Axel Tischer and Fast Time Moodo were the sixth team entered into this year’s tag festival – looking to take the long way to winning gold.
High Performer Ltd. (Icarus & Joseph Fenech Jr.)
With Icarus having somehow gotten AMBOSS a spot in the festival – and with AMBOSS now gone – he’s taken his spot with him to High Performer Ltd. Alongside him is Joseph Fenech Jr., who’ll be back for his third festival in a row, but his first since dumping Aigle Blanc at last year’s tournament…
Dennis “Cash” Dullnig & Hektor Invictus
Cash & Hektor’s successful defence against Nick Schreier and Mike D Vecchio earned them the eighth spot here – with what looks to have been their final title defence ahead of the festival.
Young Blood (OSKAR & Yuto Nakashima)
Team number nine for World Tag Team Festival sees New Japan’s Young Blood make their bow – with Yuto Nakashima making his festival debut after missing 16 Carat Gold through injury.
Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II)
We’ve got a pair of wXw debuts here – although Kid Lykos (the elder) has been on wXw, seconding Chris Brookes in years gone by. Having won tag team gold in PROGRESS, NORTH, TNT and Target Wrestling, the Lykii will be looking to claim their first hardware in Europe.
Elijah Blum & LSG
Qualifying with a win in Bielefeld over the Big Bucks, Blum and LSG may well be seen as outsiders – particularly since Blum’s still got more than one eye on Peter Tihanyi following the Hungarian’s recent actions.
Y2Kutie (Jacob Crane & Ava Everett)
Back for a second festival, the reunited Y2Kutie look to go better than last year, where they crashed out in the first round to Massive Love. Remember them?!
As it stands, the schedule for World Tag Team Festival weekend is as follows:
Inner Circle
We’re back in a sold-out Gelsenkirchen for the latest go around of the Inner Circle – October 3rd with doors at 6.30pm, and a 7pm bell time for what’s likely to be mostly a mystery card, but we do have one match:
Timothy Thatcher vs. Fuminori Abe
World Tag Team Festival – Night One
The tournament kicks off on Friday in Turbinenhalle 2. in Oberhausen – doors at 6pm and bell at 8pm for the first set of tournament matches.
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round: Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II) vs. Los D-Sperados (Gringo Loco & Arez)
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round: High Performer Ltd. (Icarus & Joseph Fenech Jr.) vs. Y2Kutie (Jacob Crane & Ava Everett)
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round: Stephanie Maze & Bobby Gunns vs. Shigehiro Irie & Fuminori Abe
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round: 1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire vs. Timothy Thatcher & Hideki Suzuki
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round: Young Blood (OSKAR & Yuto Nakashima) vs. Elijah Blum & LSG
wXw World Tag Team Festival 2024, First Round – wXw World Tag Team Championship Match: KxS (Axel Tischer & Fast Time Moodo) vs. Dennis Dullnig & Hektor Invictus (c)
wXw Shotgun Championship: Ahura vs. Matt Cardona vs. Levaniel (c)
Extreme Wrestling Party
Doors open at 11.30pm on Friday night, after the tag festival show, with the show itself starting at one minute to midnight. Announced so far:
TLC Match: Gringo Loco vs. Mike D Vecchio
Drunken Ambition Match: Fuminori Abe vs. Fast Time Moodo
Dog Collar Match: Mad Dog Connelly vs. 1 Called Manders
Hardcore Schreier Invitational
Latigo vs. Aigle Blanc
Also announced: Vaughn Vertigo
DEFY x Pro Wrestling NOAH x PROGRESS
We’ve got just the one matinee show on Saturday, with doors at 1.30pm and a 2pm start. Announced so far:
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Axel Tischer
Arez vs. Kid Lykos vs. Latigo vs. Man Like Dereiss
Cara Noir vs. Taishi Ozawa
Gringo Loco vs. Kid Lykos II
PROGRESS Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Maze vs. Rhio (c)
PROGRESS Men’s World Championship: Timothy Thatcher vs. Luke Jacobs (c)
World Tag Team Festival – Night Two
Doors at 6.30, bell time at 7.30 for the “middle Saturday” of the tournament, along with:
Robin Christopher Fohrwerk vs. Maggot
wXw European Championship: Mike D Vecchio vs. Aigle Blanc (c)
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Peter Tihanyi vs. “Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Laurance Roman (c)
Femmes Fatales
Sunday’s matinee show has doors at 11.30am for a noon start for the latest edition of the Femmes Fatales womens’ tournament.
Femmes Fatales 2024 Tournament, Semi-Final: Debbie Keitel vs. Jane Nero
Femmes Fatales 2024 Tournament, Semi-Final: Rhio vs. Anita Vaughn
Femmes Fatales 2024 Tournament Final
In non-tournament matches, we also have:
Ayame Sasamura vs. Baby Allison
Anastasia Bardot & Calypso vs. Venom and Violence (Devlyn Macabre & Kelsey Raegan)
No DQ: Stephanie Maze vs. Jessy Jay
Also announced: Ava Everett, Iva Kolasky, Diana Strong & Tank.
World Tag Team Festival – Night Three
The big finale has doors at 4.30pm, and a 5.30pm bell time as the tag festival final wraps up the weekend.