Royal Rumble weekend got off to a wild start in London earlier today, with wXw’s debut in the city and a live podcast taping!
First off, though, we had the second live Working a Resthold podcast – a line-up that had been changed in the weeks beforehand as a result of those WWE UK contracts. With Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews and Trent Seven unable to make the show, instead we got a swelled line-up still headlined by Marty Scurll and Ryan Smile, whilst Eddie Dennis, Chris Brookes, Doug Williams, Jonny Storm and Jodie Fleisch served as support.
Unlike the first show, there wasn’t as much in terms of set-pieces (we’ve already had Mr Cocko and chop-battles!), but instead what we got was in-depth interviews that were revealing (on some fronts). As a live show, it was certainly enjoyable – whether it gets released as an audio show or not remains to be seen… but if you’re in the area when this show comes to town, jump on board.
You never know who might turn up. Like Jimmy Havoc – who caused a double-table from yours truly at the bar…
So, straight after the show, we hot-tailed it to Tufnell Park, wrongly thinking the show was starting an hour earlier than it did… so we ended up ringside for wXw’s debut in London, and my word, it was an experience. As an all-standing show, ringside for us really did mean “standing touching the apron for the whole show”, with the occasional spot where wrestlers got really close.
So yeah, I had Rob Lynch fall onto me from ringside. Such is life!
The wXw show will be up on FloSlam on Thursday at the extremely-weird time of 5.15pm UK time – or just after noon in the States. We’ll have our full review of that up sometime afterwards, but the show’ll also be posted to wXw Now and HighSpots if you don’t go with the flo(w).
From start to finish, the crowd was hot, and massively invested in almost all of the characters on display. Starting with A4 (Marius Al-Ani and Absolute(ly not) Andy) retaining their wXw tag titles over the aforementioned London Riots.
Travis Banks beat Jody Fleisch in – with Banks a late replacement for Pete Dunne – and again, this was a hot match in front of a receptive crowd. Banks capitalised on a missed 720 DDT and rolled-up Fleisch with a big handful of tights. This had originally been billed as a 16 Carat Gold qualifier, but with Dunne’s departure, that stipulation went.
Two matches full of Big Lads Wrestling came next: first, Robert Dreissker overcame Bad Bones with a Vader Bomb in a typical Big Lads Wrestling match… then we got a number one contender’s match involving Walter – whose promo wasn’t quite up there with Zack Gibson, but those who saw their video ahead of their PROGRESS match this weekend will have gotten it. The former Big Daddy Walter’s opponent? “Massive” Jurn Simmons.
It seems like every time a company makes a debut in a new area, there’s one person who the crowd takes to heart. On this day, in this city, Jurn Simmons wasn’t THAT guy. He was THE guy. The crowd ate up everything that “Massive” Jurn threw our way, taking to him like the PROGRESS crowd did to Matt Riddle a few months earlier. Jurn won his match to become the new number-one contender, and needless to say, he’ll be a huge favourite when wXw return to London on October 28.
After an intermission – and a spot of “dodge Chris Brookes’ water” – Da Mack beat Chris Brookes in the first match of the second half; before Toni Storm and Melanie Gray overcame Jinny and Alpha Female in a fun but brief women’s tag… that served as a warm-up to the anticipated main event of Marty Scurll challenging Axel Dieter Jr for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship – a title that Scurll held briefly at wXw’s 16th Anniversary show at the end of last year.
This was a heck of a main event, one that saw Scurll wear down Dieter for long periods of time, but in the end Marty’s chicken wing cost him as Dieter escaped and used Marty’s own set-up on him as a double leg-nelson forced an unpopular submission. Not to worry – Jurn came out again to eventually overcome Dieter and send the crowd home happy after absorbing a LOT of adulation from the crowd.
Having seen wXw only on demand before, I only had half an idea of what to expect. “London’s Calling” surpassed all of those expectations, and has me more than excited for their return to the Tufnell Park Dome on October 28! If you subscribe to wXw Now or FloSlam – check this show out when it drops later this week!