The finals of Who’s Next were set as four became two ahead of this weekend’s Showdown.
Yeah, it looks like we slipped on the date. GWF’s Showdown is actually this weekend in Berlin! Maverick, Onur Daglur, A-Buck and Andy Steel are your final four, and we open with the judges giving them a pep talk ahead of today’s tasks: Last Man Rolling, “Sell This Item” and a four-way match.
Last Man Rolling is a challenge where everyone does forward rolls until they wobble… and the first issues arise between Andy Steel and A-Buck, as those two seem to keep clashing into each other. Buck’s out first, then Daglur, before Andy Steel was judged to be too slow… so Maverick wins the dizzying challenge.
Next up is the promo challenge – think of the early days of NXT! Maverick’s gotta “sell” a banana… and he does a good job, saying that he prayed for food to give him strength, and so he was gifted a banana from the heavens. A-Buck has to sell a pen, saying he’ll use it to wrist a list of the people he’ll beat in the GWF to make it to the top, starting with Senza Volto… but Doug Williams calls out that Buck’s cutting promos on people rather than the pen itself.
Andy Steel’s got the bottle of water to sell, which he tells us he will drink out of a victory cup when he wins Who’s Next – and it’s a promo that impresses the judges, as he managed to talk without becoming repetitive on what was purposefully, a boring item. Onur Daglur’s got to sell a cereal bar, which he rebrands as his own cereal bar, putting it over as something that he used to bulk up. The judges reckon Daglur held his own when they expected him to sink… something tells me he and Andy will be the final two, judging from those comments.
Andy Steel vs. A-Buck vs. Maverick vs. Onur Daglur
The judges told the wrestlers to decide who’s the good guys and the bad guys, and we don’t get the tip-off… what we do get though, is Steel and Daglur laying into each other, taking the fight outside, while A-Buck stands on Maverick in the corner.
Maverick leaps out of a slingshot before he low-bridges A-Buck to the outside, as we swap around. In the ring, Daglur stomps on Steel before he wrenches back on him with a chinlock… Steel tries to power out, but A-Buck breaks it up so he could slam Steel and hit an elbow drop as the judges called him out on a lack of selling. Maverick breaks up A-Buck’s beating on Steel in the corner, using a sleeperhold that Steel breaks up with a right hand… and then things go eggy as Maverick goes from corner-to-corner with forearms on Steel and Daglur, or as Doug called it “thigh slapping action!”
There’s a DDT before Steel’s hook kick knocked Daglur down… a suplex from Maverick sends Steel rolling to the outside, and Maverick’s left caught out as a spear from A-Buck almost won the match. Daglur breaks up the pin as he and Buck try to score the pin, and while they get into a shoving match, Steel tries to steal the pin as Maverick’s down for a lot longer than you’d think from a spear… but Buck gets the pin anyway as our “fatal four way” becomes an elimination match as Maverick is out.
Buck breaks up a pin on Steel from the floor as Bad Bones remembered the old days of early 2000s indys, right as Daglur put away Steel with a DDT… and we’re left with A-Buck and Daglur. A strike exchange breaks out, which Buck won out on as he switched up into clotheslines before what was meant to be a full nelson slam led to a jump cut, returning as Buck hit a gutwrench suplex for the win.
After the match, the judges deliberate before revealing the finalists: Andy Steel and *long pause* Onur Daglur.
Well, those two have had a story bubbling throughout the series, so it makes sense! Maverick for me was a very close third… as the show closes with A-Buck vowing to keep pushing on, while Maverick promised to be back. As for the finalists, Daglur said he’d win and fight forever for the GWF, while Steel put over Daglur as a bull, before promising to finish him off like a bullfighter.
That match’ll take place this weekend at GWF’s Showdown… all the best to both men, who’ll hopefully be looking to go one better than last season’s winner Benji, and avoid any kind of flirtation with the Loserweight title! Hey… we never did find out who was meant to be working as face or heel in that four-way!