GWF’s Three Count series is back for a second season, as the happenings in the world of the Berlin-based promotion returned to our screens.
We have a knack of covering the GWF’s series in two different timelines, so why not continue it here? Three Count’s back for a whole new series, and if you haven’t seen season one, then there’s this recap video that should get you up to speed.
In short: Crazy Sexy Mike is the GWF matchmaker after a series of turns… Cem Kaplan lost a Loser Leaves GWF match, but was allowed to stay anyway… Vincenzo Cocotti won a reverse Iron Man Match against Martin Guerrero then had a brief time off… Lucky Kid won the GWF Berlin title from Tarkan Aslan, but has since lost it… Chris Colen won the GWF World title from Pascal Spalter… Angelico won the Light Heavyweight World Cup… John Klinger debuted, laying out Lucky Kid… the Arrows of Hungary were forcibly reunited en route to winning the tag titles… there was a stipulation-heavy Chaos City match that was won by Ahmed Chaer and there’s a LOT LOT more, which may be a sign that this needs to be a full-on weekly show, rather than something that just appears for parts of the year. So, as we start season 2, Cem Kaplan is your Berlin champion, Colen the World champion, the Arrows of Hungary are the tag champs, while Benji has the, ahem, prestigious Loserweight title.
We open in the GWF boardroom, with Ahmed Chaer reminding us he’s president while Mike is matchmaker. Apparently Ahmed had a call with an advertising agency who wanted a wrestler, and that leads to an argument between Ahmed and Mike over who’d they’d send. In the end, they send Lucky Kid and Pascal Spalter so the agency can make the choice. Kati Libra walks in, formerly a part of management under Rambo’s leadership, as she asks for a bigger role in the GWF. Nervously, she asks to be matchmaker, but that’s part of Mike’s role… and as luck would have it, he has something for her. Catering. She throws her planned cards into the bin, and of course, Mike steals the ideas.
We’re in a locker room next as Ali Aslan loses his mind with Grup Anarsi. Perhaps correcting him isn’t such a good idea, as Aytac Bahar finds out… and while Cem Kaplan seems to be the golden boy, Georges Khoukaz stands up for everyone else… and ends up getting whacked with a wooden coathanger. At least Ali is resourceful when it comes to his weaponry. Benji’s backstage as he ran into Crazy Sexy Mike… who’s still a little sore about having been Loserweight champion… and that bleeds into Ahmed and Ali Aslan running into each other. He wants Cem Kaplan in the main event of GWF Battlefield, but Ahmed isn’t playing ball.
Lucky Kid and Matt Cross bump into each other backstage, before Pascal Spalter interrupts. Cross big leagues him, which angers the former champion. Next is El Phantasmo, who introduces himself to Cross… unaware that Cross is a bit of a veteran in these parts. Another meeting has the Arrows of Hungary – or New Wave, as they’re part of that group – meeting Mike and Rambo, who vow to beat them at Battlefield… and now, cue titles!
We’re inside GWF’s usual haunt, Huxley’s Neues Welt in Berlin, with Dave Bradshaw doing the English language commentary. It’s straight to action, finally…
Benji vs. Murat AK
We’ve got introductions in English and German, which means we get to hear Benji’s nickname twice… the Debrecen Sausage Boy! He’s also the Loserweight champion, but he doesn’t come out with the belt, as we instead get a rather cute sit-down promo where Benji says that he’s only the Loserweight champion so he can help the rookies.
There’s a huge size difference between these two, as Benji can barely reach the top of Murat’s head… and so the offer of a test of strength is rather ridiculous. Benji’s quickly chopped to the mat, before he scurries out of a powerbomb, then flips over a clothesline. He’s forced to try and chop away Murat’s vertical base, but Benji just springboards into a slam as Murat made light work of him, finishing him off with a sit-out powerbomb. Splat.
El Phantasmo vs. Matt Cross
We’ve sit-down pieces with both men, with ELP sporting a shiner here, and we start with the traditional tie-up before Cross backflipped out of a leapfrog amid an early game of one-upmanship.
From there, they up the pace, with Phantasmo taking Cross outside with headscissors, but Cross takes refuge in the crowd to save himself from being dived onto. Back in the ring, Cross quickly catches Phantasmo with a dropkick, prompting the Canadian to fight back with chops… only to get taken into the corner as a backbreaker stuffed an attempt at ropewalking. Cross keeps on putting the boots to Phantasmo in the corner, before he stretched him on the mat… but Phantasmo hits back with a springboard crossbody and a Quebrada as he manages to eke out a near-fall. The whirlibird neckbreaker’s next, but Cross flips out of it as they trade blows before Cross lands an ushigoroshi for a two-count of his own.
After getting lifted onto the apron, Cross brings himself back in with a stomp to the back of ELP’s head. Another trip up top’s stopped when Phantasmo catches him with an enziguiri, before a top rope ‘rana’s stuffed… allowing Cross to come down on his own terms, but his shooting star press is aborted as he instead springs off the ropes and into a cutter for another near-fall. A knee to the head of Phantasmo keeps Cross in front, but he’s suckered into a small package… and that’s enough for ELP to sneak the win! A nice little TV style match – with Matt Cross being caught unawares as Phantasmo picked up his first win in the GWF. ***¼
The in-ring portion of the show closes out here… but we then go backstage as Ahmed Chaer, Tarkan Aslan and Cash Money Erkan are in the green room. Aslan brings up the whole TV commercial thing from earlier, but seems annoyed that again he’s been overlooked. He doesn’t take the news that he’s gotten a GWF title shot as a make good lightly, to say the least.
Erkan tries to settle down Aslan with some beer, but a back-handed comment about Tarkan’s age leads to a closing shot of him about to get bottled as the show comes to a close… with ring announcer Olaf Heyden stepping into the credits to complain about him having no speaking role.
The new season of Three Count doesn’t “need” you to have seen the first season, or indeed the catch-up video… however, what it does lack for newcomers is an easy way to identify folks. Unless you’re really fluent in English and German, you’ll need to turn on those subtitles… which will help identify the characters, but it can be a bit of a barrier to entry.
While we stick in the “personal preferences” nitpicks, I’d rather the segments were mixed inbetween the matches – as opposed to the current set-up of the vignettes being presented as “before and after the show”. Sure, if we’ve got stuff of guys having matches being stopped on the way to the ring, it makes sense to have that in the “before” slot, but in the GWF universe, does nothing really happen during the show? At the very least, show everyone sitting down and watching the show in the locker room if that’s the reality!
Three Count drops every week on the GWF YouTube channel, and also on Amazon Prime – we’ll look to keep on top of the second series for a change!