Time for a “fill in the blanks” review as we take a look at the warm-up from wXw’s 18th Anniversary show.
Julian Pace vs. Timo Theiss
This one was built during the Road to 18th Anniversary show in Cologne, where Timo Theiss and Norman Harras teamed up against Coast 2 Coast in a losing affair. Afterwards, Theiss turned on Harras afterwards, with Julian Pace consoling Harras afterwards.
Harras was accompanying Pace and his new dye-job here, which is more of a bleached-blonde than we’re used to out of Julian.
The bell rings and we get a rather reluctant handshake before the crowd break into chants of “Timo Scheiss”. Yeah, it is an unfortunate choice of surname. We get the old school playing to the crowd, with the expected boo/yay responses, before Pace stopped Theiss’ attempt at cheapshotting him.
Pace gets thrown out into the front row as he went for his wacky rope runs… he returns, but has the same experience, before Theiss joined him outside as the game of cat and mouse ended in the ring with armdrags. Oh, and with Pace being thrown onto the apron, from where he returns with a slingshot roll-thru neckbreaker. Third time was the charm for the rope running as Pace lands his dropkick, before clotheslining Theiss to the outside, but we still don’t get a dive, as Theiss catches Pace with a forearm before he threatened to throw the speedy one deep into the crowd. Of course, it’s a troll job, as he throws Pace back inside, before Norman Harras confronted him for it all.
Theiss headed up top, but gets caught with an enziguiri that knocks him down as Pace has to backflip off the top before he’s sent into the corner. A short-arm clothesline waits for him next as Theiss gets a near-fall while I get concerned at the number of young voices chanting “Timo Scheiss”. Timo runs into a big boot, but lands another clothesline to keep Pace down, as does a chinlock as the pace slowed down a little more.
Pace flips over a charge into the corner, but he can’t avoid Theiss’ back elbow as the Jetsetter picked up a near-fall. A series of palm strikes from Pace opened the door a little, as do some forearms and a diving shoulder tackle as Pace turned up the, erm pace. There’s a big tornado DDT out of the corner and a standing shooting star press for a near-fall on Theiss, before Pace heads up for a crossbody that’s easily caught, with Theiss turning it into a suplex.
That’s good for a near-fall, with Pace going for a quick roll-up after he got to his feet. He looked to go for a Victory roll, but aborts it before hitting a Code Red… and that’s all folks! A pretty solid match that had the crowd going – but hey, pretty straightforward storylines like this, especially if they involve talent the fans are into, always go well! **¾
Post-match, Pace shakes Theiss’ hand, before Harras did the same… the Christmas spirit came to the wXw academy, or so it seemed as Harras stopped Theiss from cheapshotting Pace, sending him packing with a German suplex for the hell of it. We then see Dan Mallmann and Sebastian Hollmichel at the end of the Warm-Up segment, thanking the entire wXw crew with a present…
…except they’re interrupted by The Crown, who hit the ring as Jurn snatches the microphone. He’s not happy there’s a present in the ring, calling the entire Warm-Up a joke. Jurn goes to slam Mallmann through the present, except Avalanche and Emil Sitoci make the save. But they don’t, because Jurn does what you should always do in wrestling – not freeze when you hear someone’s music!
Dan’s slammed through the wooden box, which Avalanche quickly found was full of random t-shirts. Like old Austin Aries shirts, just to be random. They check on Dan, before Emil and Avalanche start chucking Dog Eat Dog t-shirts to the crowd to make sure folks ended what I believe was the last-ever warm-up happy.