The Fallout from FAN is the centrepiece this week on our look back at retro Shotgun!
It’s another bumper episode, weighing in at over an hour… we open with Rico in the studio, plugging wXw NOW for the full version of FAN. This week, we’ll look at the title vs. title match and the fall-out from it… RINGKAMPF vs. A4… plus what happened with Cerberus at FAN? But first, they hype up the Warm Up show from FAN – and we get the dark match!
Aaron Insane vs. Kim Ray vs. Mike Schwarz vs. Alpha Kevin
Alan Counihan’s on the call as we’re in the Turbinenhalle for this… opening with Mike Schwarz goozling Kim Ray to the outside.
Kevin, Insane and Schwarz buddy up, before Schwarz went after Kim Ray – only to be stopped by Ivanov, Kim’s bodyguard. Schwarz gets caught with a knee as Ray went back to the ring, only to get caught by Kevin and Insane, who trade bodyslams before Schwarz came in and caught Ray with a Rhein-Ruhr Schwinger – a Black Hole Slam – for a near-fall. Kevin breaks that up, and Roadster has to avoid a chokeslam as Schwarz was far from happy at that. A handshake just gets Kevin a fallaway slam, before Insane went nuts with clotheslines. A kick from Ray stops that, but Kevin gets his way free and starts with shoulder charges for all, only to get lifted to the outside.
Kevin looks for a sunset flip, but Insane helps him with a leg lariat as Schwarz broke up the double pin… before Schwarz dumps Kevin with Snake Eyes. A spinning side slam from Kevin has Insane down, only for Kevin to eat a full nelson bomb, before Kim Ray returned to try and sneak out a win. In the end, the flurry ends with a chokeslam from Schwarz on Insane… before Kim kicked down Schwarz, as a DDT to Insane looked to get the win… but Ivanov distracts the referee as he stopped Schwarz from breaking up the pin. Kim Ray gets mad at that, and after distracting himself, he eats a spike Alpha Driver as Kevin left with the W. The crowd was a little quiet for this, but this was a decent four-way to get things going on the show. **½
They plug the Shotgun Livetour, as this was back in the day when companies were able to run shows…
Backstage, Adam Polak’s looking for Dirty Dragan, who had been denying Adam his addiction… we then cut to the Warm-Up show as Cerberus attacked Sebastian Hollmichel, only to destroy some crew members as well. We then cut to FAN, with Dirty Dragan luring out John Klinger for an assault by Cerberus, complete with the Shotgun theme song overlaid on top. It’s like a wacky version of the New Jack brawls… which ended as Chris Colen made the save for Klinger. Later that evening, Cerberus – sans Adam Polak and Dirty Dragan – retained the tag titles over the Legion… and we cut to Polak and Dragan backstage. Polak’s very sweaty and making some, shall we say, questionable noises. Innuendos!
Except Adam then seems to pass out, so Dragan takes some money from Polak’s shirt pocket before he looked to snooze himself.
Nico Schmidt’s in the not-Event Centre as he plugs some matches for future shows. Chemnitz gets Cerberus defending the tag titles against A4… Nürnberg gets Absolute Andy vs. Hakeem Waqur, WALTER vs. Marius al-Ani, Timothy Thatcher vs. Bobby Gunns, and Kim Ray & Ivanov vs. John Klinger & Chris Colen in a World Tag Team League Qualification Series match. The next night in Munich, Leah Vaughan takes on Melanie Gray, along with the next step of that qualification series match…
Back in the studio, Rico is LOUD – because he’s amped about the title vs. title match, which we’re getting to see from FAN… next!
wXw Shotgun Championship vs. wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Da Mack vs. Jurn Simmons
Mack got a Michael Jackson-themed entrance. Thriller. Jurn gets dancing girls and pom poms…
Rico is our commentator here as we start with Da Mack sweeping Jurn’s legs before an early shot at the Mack Magic cutter ended up with him being heartily shoved to the floor – where he crashes into the knees of a fan in the front row. Jurn follows him outside, brawling with him around ringside, stopping to get into it with a fan before he dropped Mack onto the raised walkway. Jurn leaps up to the stage as he teases a piledriver onto the walk way, but ends up dishing out a back body drop to throw Mack back into the ring. Back inside, Jurn uses his power to wear down Mack, throwing him into the corners, before Mack came back out with a springboard enziguiri from the middle rope.
Simmons cuts him off, before a Slingblade and dropkicks took down the unified champion, as Mack keeps up with a clothesline off the top rope. It’s enough for a near-fall, as a Rolling Thunder just about landed as Mack picks up another two-count, and he follows up with chops and another enziguiri as he proceeded to wear down Jurn. A small package gets Mack a near-fall, but he’s brought down to earth with a bump as Jurn hits the ropes at the right time. Somehow, Mack gets back up and goes for a satellite DDT… but Jurn counters into a spinebuster as he regained momentum, hauling Mack into a torture rack for a delayed muscle buster as Jurn was beginning to play with his prey.
Problem was, Jurn took Mack too lightly as he misses a charge and sends himself outside… with Mack following with a flying bodypress. Returning to the ring, a flying forearm drops Jurn for a near-fall, before a springboard neckbreaker kept the Shotgun champion on top. Hardly a neutral commentator, Rico champions Mack as he came in with a La Mistica, but Marius van Beethoven comes out to distract the referee. Axel Dieter Jr. – Mack’s Hot & Spicy tag partner – gets rid of him, but the distraction costs Mack as he eats a DDT for a near-fall. Junior stays at ringside to cheer for Mack, but he can only watch as a military press spinebuster nearly puts Mack away. Out of nowhere, a cutter drops Jurns as the Fujiwara armbar had the unified champion in trouble, only for Jurn to power back up with a death valley driver as he trolls us with John Cena taunts.
A Mack Magic springboard corkscrew press has Jurn back on the mat, before Jurn crashes in with a Massive Boot to restore his advantage. A piledriver follows, but Axel Dieter Jr. rushes in to break up the cover, attacking Jurn as the match is bizarrely ruled a no-contest… and that, my friends, is seemingly the start of how Hot & Spicy became history. A pretty good match, but one that I could see upsetting fans at the time given the stipulations. ***½
We cut to Axel Dieter Jr. backstage, as Da Mack confronts him about what he just did. Junior says Mack should be grateful for him saving him his title, but Mack reckons Axel did it to save his own shot at the Shotgun title in Hamburg next week.
Back in the studio, Rico tells us how Alpha Kevin challenged Jurn Simmons after that match… but clips show us how Jurn beat Kevin, before we return to FAN as Marius van Beethoven came in to hug his Reich und Schön tag partner. Except… that wasn’t the end of things, as Marius uses his crutch to beat down Kevin. The gasps in that room were a thing of beauty as van Beethoven wore out his crutch on Alpha Kevin. Melanie Gray ran to make the save, shielding her man, before she was given a surprise: Alpha Female makes a debut to beat her down, laying out Melanie with a Dominator. So would begin a glorious feud between Kevin, Melanie, Alpha and Marius, which would take a turn into a rare intergender match in wXw, and culminate in a no rope smatch at Carat the following year.
Backstage, Marius van Beethoven is looking for Jurn, but the champion’s locked himself away as it’s revealed that the turn on Kevin was planned all along. Speaking of Kevin, he’s licking his wounds having lost his best friend and tag team partner.
From there, it’s back to the Event Center with CMJ, as he runs down the Hamburg show “tomorrow”. Alpha Female’s debut match will be in Hamburg, teaming with Jurn Simmons to take on Melanie Gray and Alpha Kevin… that show’s also got Da Mack defending the Shotgun title vs. Axel Dieter Jr… Bad Bones vs. Damian O’Connor… WALTER vs. Absolute Andy… and Timothy Thatcher defending the EVOLVE title vs. Marius al-Ani.
Jakobi’s not done – there’s talk of 2016’s World Tag Team League. That’s the year featuring Death By Elbow, JML, A4, Los Güeros del Cielo (now better known as TH2 in AEW). Drew Galloway’s also been added to that weekender, which is quite timely in retrospect!
We’re reminded of Tengkwa’s run-in with Bobby Gunns on Shotgun two weeks ago… and then clips of their match at FAN, which Tengkwa handily won. They’re clips from wXw’s Facebook Live stream at that show, with Tengkwa announcing he’s here to stay…
Back to CMJ, who plugs wXwNOW and the five-camera release of FAN. Even in 2016, wXw were ahead of the game when it came to production values. Insert your favourite joke about other indies here… Jakobi plugs the quick turnaround for the upcoming Hamburg show, plus future wXw NOW content.
World Tag Team League 2016 Qualifier: RINGKAMPF (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) vs. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani)
This is our Shotgun Plus main event, taken from FAN… so that means Rico is still on the call. At the time, they were still trying to call A4 “The Four”. You can guess which name stuck.
Andy and WALTER start us off, but WALTER’s quickly in with chops, as Andy fires back to give us some back-and-forth. WALTER switches up with uppercuts before they moved to shoulder tackles as Andy finally won out with a clothesline. Tags bring in Thatcher and al-Ani, as we have a spot of grappling, but Thatcher finds a way through as he works Marius’ wrist. Marius escapes and hammerlocks Thatcher to the mat, but Marius wants the big man… but Thatcher isn’t willing. A takedown sees Thatcher go for a half crab as CMJ joins commentary, quite timely too as it’s a RINGKAMPF match. WALTER comes in to chop Marius, so they go back and forth with shots until Marius ran into a chop.
WALTER misses a seated splash as Marius tries to sneak in the win… while he continued to keep the momentum with a leapfrog/dropkick combo as WALTER hurried tagged out. Andy’s brought in too to help with a double-team suplex and double back elbows as CMJ cracked wise. Al-Ani comes in to do the old Beverley Brothers leapfrog/back splash before WALTER came in to wrestle control of the match, focusing on Andy. He tries to fight back with chops, but WALTER just decks him for a STF, while Thatcher tags in to keep Andy down with a chinlock. Thatcher works over Andy’s arm as CMJ explained away the change in tactics for the RINGKAMPF lads, while a rebound belly-to-belly from Thatcher looked to keep the pressure on… only for Andy to fight back with a back cracker.
Marius returns as he clobbers Thatcher with lariats, leading to an overhead belly-to-belly, then a slingshot elbow drop as RINGKAMPF were looking to be in trouble. A tope lays out Thatcher on the outside, while Andy avoids a WALTER powerbomb, sending him outside so the Eagle could fly! Marius flies again with a plancha into RINGKAMPF, as A4 looked to force their way in… With Andy being thrown outside, Thatcher dumps al-Ani with a Tower of London out of the corner for a near-fall, before WALTER returned to ragdoll Marius with gutwrench suplexes. Thatcher does the same as things looked easy with the pair going back-and-forth, almost putting away al-Ani in doing so.
Thatcher’s back with some North-South knees to al-Ani, along with another chinlock as WALTER came in with a seated splash. Marius offers some more fight, but he’s tossed with another suplex before he caught WALTER with a spinning heel kick. Andy gets the tag back in as he tried to pick apart the worn-down WALTER, dishing out a big back body drop before a stalling suplex made CMJ drop the S-bomb. From there, Andy’s call-and-refrain looked to set up for a knee drop, but instead he has to make do with a side suplex, before the Absolute knee drop left WALTER in a heap. A superkick follows, catching WALTER on the way to a near-fall as the Turbinenhalle continued to swelter.
WALTER booms back with a shotgun dropkick, but Thatcher tags in and runs into a spinebuster as Andy follows up with a Sharpshooter. WALTER tries to make the save, but Marius jumps him… only to get powerbombed onto the pile! More back and forth leads to Andy getting thrown into a clothesline from WALTER, while a Saito suplex from Thatcher nearly ends it all, but Marius turns it around with a missile dropkick before an Andy spinebuster on Thatcher and a frog splash from al-Ani secured the win. A hell of an outing for WALTER & Thatcher in their first match as a tandem – but they were out-classed by a slightly-more-experienced A4, who secure their spots for World Tag Team League. ****¼
From there we’re taken backstage as Thomas Giesen’s interviewing Marius al-Ani. Or Marian al-Ani, as the lower third called him. Thommi talks up Marius’ recent history, and his match with Timothy Thatcher for the EVOLVE title. Marius credits it all down to being a hard worker, before noting how he and Andy are the only German team in the World Tag Team League that year. Marius vows to beat Thatcher in Hamburg as he’ll show No Bullshit, Again.
Rico signs off in the studio as he recaps the Hamburg show, and that’s our show. So, for week three of the wXw NOW era, Shotgun was an absolute home run of a show, aided by two fantastic matches out of FAN, and some of what’d become Shotgun’s hallmark in backstage segments and story-telling.
While giving away two matches from FAN may appear to be a weird move, it’s important to remember that wXw were producing two versions of Shotgun – one that mostly featured clips, and this version that gave away the full matches. In essence, you’re already paying for wXw NOW, so Shotgun at this time was a touchstone for those who didn’t quite have time to keep up with every show going on.