A single light tube death match. Curious? Read on…
We’re diving deep into the wXw NOW library for this one – from Gorefest 2, a show billed as Germany’s first death match tournament, and the only one in Europe. It’s from April 2009 (the day before WrestleMania 25, for those wanting a time capsule of how the indies have changed their treatment of that weekend before, you know…)
So Gorefest 1 was held in Colchester of all places in December 2006, as a co-promotion with X Sports Wrestling (one of Dann Read’s earlier promotions, obviously pre-EVE!) The sequel was a rather more sedate affair, in Troisdorf’s Mehrzweckhalle auf der Hütte, which was one of wXw’s regular venues towards the end of their first decade of existence. So… what’s Zack Sabre Jr. and Karsten Beck doing on a death match show?
Single Light Tube Death Match: Karsten Beck vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
This was a very different wXw… although the core logo remained the same. Baby Karsten Beck and Baby ZSJ sure are a sight with 2020 eyes, eh?
There’s a singular light tube in the middle of the ring, which the two circle around to start, before a lock-up took Sabre into an armbar. Right over the light tube. He teases stomping Beck’s arm into the tube, but instead goes back to a wristlock before Beck held Sabre’s head over it… and then we reset. Another knuckle lock sees Sabre turn the tables as he teased stomping the wrist into the tube, but to no avail as we wash, rinse and repeat, with Sabre almost landing on the tube as he hit an overhead kick to the arm. We get ironic chants of “this is hardcore”, which it is to a degree, as Beck put on the brakes to avoid getting suplexed… while Sabre punted Beck away from a drop toe hold attempt.
Moving the tube away, Sabre snapmares Beck for a PK that gets a near-fall, before some hammerlocked headscissors began to stretch Beck. Another kick has him winded ahead of a suplex, with a back senton keeping Karsten down for a delayed two-count, which led to Sabre almost killing Karsten with a dropkick in the corner. One that had so much force, Zack sent himself to the outside from the impact of it. Beck recovers to trap Sabre in a chinlock that turned into a neck crank, before he bulldozed through Sabre’s attempts to launch a comeback. A slam plants Zack in the middle of the ring for an elbow drop, but he recovers for an Octopus stretch that ends in the ropes.
From the restart, Sabre rolls down Beck into a cross armbreaker, but Karsten rolls him up for a near-fall before powerbombing his way free. A big boot from Beck has Sabre down for another near-fall, with a running knee into the corner following as Beck looked to build momentum. Hey, where’s the light tube gone?
A springboard enziguiri out of the corner catches the back of Beck’s head as both men were left laying. Zack tries to fight on, but he’s caught with a fallaway slam as a crossbody out of the corner’s caught, with Beck continuing to showcase his power advantage. Another leaping knee nearly puts Sabre away, before Karsten went outside for the light tube…
Karsten swings, but Sabre ducks… before a second shot hit the canvas, sending half of the tube flying into the crowd. Sabre punts the remaining half into Karsten with a PK, and that’s enough. A nice little troll job on a death match show, but what were you expecting? ZSJ to be all plunder heavy?! ***
If you keep watching the show, of course you’re getting death match wrestling… and those of you who see wXw live will notice that the ring crew hasn’t changed much either!