Germany’s version of Tough Enough returned to YouTube as the GWF looked for their next big star.
We covered an episode of this recently in a Random Review, and with a new season starting… why not take another look? From the off, we’ve got Dave Bradshaw reading the same blurb that’s in the YouTube description, before showing us last season’s winner… and his psychedelic entrance video.
The Hungarian, Benji, has been a bit of a regular on the GWF undercards since winning… but there’s no time for that as Bradshaw breathlessly introduces us to the jury. It’s almost like there’s too many words to fit in the time allowed, or he’s gotten a Dave Meltzer run-on sentence as his script. Your judges today: Tarkan Aslan, John Klinger and Matt Cross.
After being told to turn on subtitles, we’re introduced to today’s competitors: Thrashman and Kevin Lazar. Thrashman’s from Spain and is in his early 30s… his promo is in broken English, telling us he believes in his elbow and his talent. His finish better be a flying elbow… it impresses Aslan, but Bad Bones reckoned he’d have preferred it in Spanish.
Kevin Lazar’s out next… he’s 27 and has had just the two matches in the brief time he’s been training. Apparently doing 500 squats in training has given him respect for the business… and he’s clearly noted as the bad guy here, despite the crowd (of plants?) trying to slap his hands. Lazar reckons he’s the chosen one, and after that decent/template promo, we have our first match… which starts with the crowd hating on Lazar after he tossed his ring jacket their way.
Thrashman vs. Kevin Lazar
We’ve got a five minute match now, where Tarkan Aslan notes that they’ll have issues calling things because of the language barrier.
It starts off decently with a tie-up, with Thrashman being taken into an armbar and a hammerlock, which he reverses… much to the crowd’s delight. Aslan turns on Thrashman for his headlock takedown, before praising them for doing the basics rather than running before they can walk.
He has a valid point that they’re not playing to the crowd (or indeed, the hard camera)… and on cue, they pace around the ring before Lazar grabs a headlock. Thrashman punches free, only to get taken down with a shoulder tackle, before returning the favour… and Lazar really did not want to bump for that elbow from Thrashman! Matt Cross liked that Lazar “went into business for himself”, as Aslan seemed to be taken out of the match there.
Thrashman finally drops his elbows – getting just a one-count. So much for his belief in his elbow! He follows up with a springboard legdrop off the middle rope, getting a near-fall, before Lazar mounted a comeback, using a suplex and some clubbing forearms as Thrashman’s bumping was brought up. Lazar chokes Thrashman in the ropes, but the judges rail on the Spaniard for hiding his face, as the German keeps up the offence before telegraphing his finish… Thrashman slips out and counters with a One Winged Angel, but that’s not the finish. That pissed off the judges, as it should… especially since Thrashman rolled him across the ring so he could do his elbow drop.
Eh, at least he connected with it, and the top rope elbow was the win… but the judges were not happy with him doing a big move for the hell of it and not trying for the pin. He also went over time too, so let’s see. This was fine for this sort of limit, but it had its clear issues.
Post-match, the judges praised both men for their promos, before criticising their bumps. Matt Cross praised Thrashman for working around his lack of English, before laying into Thrashman for not going for the pin from that One Winged Angel. It was at least constructive criticism from all three judges, as Bad Bones brought up the same points.
The show crashes to an end as YouTube’s woeful placement of icons and suggested videos masked the entire call to action (for people to vote for their favourite). We tried, except a broken image on the website meant we weren’t able to even attempt the CAPTCHA checks… so we’ll have to see whom the GWF fanbase picks. As a 15 minute show (or thereabouts… thanks for going over!), Who’s Next is an easy background watch – like Tough Enough but without all of the Reality TV™ drama inserted into it. We’ll eventually go back and mop up season one, but for now, season two has gotten off to a pretty good start.