Our jump back in time for Shotgun Plus takes us to the Markthalle in Hamburg, as Hot & Spicy clashed for the Shotgun title!
As always, we’re joined in the studio by Rico Bushido, who reminds us that the Hamburg show from the Shotgun Livetour is on wXw NOW… but we’ll be seeing bits of it on Shotgun today. We’ll also be given the groups for 2016’s World Tag Team League…
But first, they replay Marius van Beethoven attacking Alpha Kevin, and clips from the tag match in Hamburg between Alpha Kevin and Melanie Gray vs. Jurn Simmons and Alpha Female… along with Marius’ latest attack after the match as Jurn just walked off nonchalantly. The gist of this: there’s a new Alpha in wXw…
After the match, we see Marius and Alpha Female approaching Jurn Simmons. Jurn breaks the news that he’s done being Marius’ “babysitter”, and drops the name “Marquee Player” for himself, as that old group goes their separate ways. Meanwhile, Aaron Insane is with Alpha Kevin, who tries to tell him he’ll get over what’s going on… while also planting the seed that he thinks Melanie “isn’t honest” with Kevin. Seeds of doubt. Of course, Kevin refuses to believe him, as Emil Sitoci wanders by and tells Kevin “if (Melanie) is so great, why don’t you marry her?”. The response from Aaron was fantastic, as he saw what was coming…
Nico Schmidt runs down some matches for the upcoming weekend – Nürnberg’s still getting Absolute Andy vs. Hakeem Waqur, along with Marius al-Ani vs. WALTER, and Kim Ray & Ivanov vs. Bad Bones & Chris Colen in the first leg of the World Tag Team League qualifying gauntlet. Munich gets Jurn Simmons vs. Günter Schmid, Leah Vaughan vs. Melanie Gray. There’s also stuff for Basel in October, a rare trip to Switzerland, as Axel Dieter Jr. faces David Starr.
We get a video package of Günter Schmid, ahead of his match with Jurn. Apparently, Günter had to beat Thunderhawk at a wXw academy show to get the spot… and yes, he was able to overcome the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-themed grappler…
Rico’s back in the studio to recap the match between Emil Sitoci and Marty Scurll at FAN… and then we’re backstage as Marty’s happy they stole the show. Scurll seems to call it evens based on stolen wins, but Emil sounds a little sore that Marty’s tagging with ZSJ for the World Tag Team League rather than him as the tensions quickly returned.
Johnny Evers vs. Bobby Gunns
This one’s from Hamburg, and we’ve got Alan Counihan on commentary…
Gunns was looking to get back on track after losing to Tengkwa at FAN, and he started by taking down Evers early on, but the Dutchman’s back with a side headlock… then with a shoulder tackle, before he ran into a headlock takedown. Another exchange led to a rolling armbar for Gunns, but he loses Evers who returns with clotheslines and a suplex as he picked up a two-count. Gunns recovers to hit a dropkick in the corner for a near-fall, as he then began to work over Evers’ arm, kicking away a forearm shot before stomping on the elbow. Bobby kicks Johnny’s leg out of his leg, before making the Dutchman look at it, and that fires up Evers as he boxes his way back in.
A big boot and a back senton has Gunns in trouble ahead of an Exploder, before a wheelbarrow suplex allows Gunns to roll out into a cross armbar for the submission. Pretty straightforward stuff – live in Hamburg, Gunns would have another match, a loss to Bad Bones, before embarking on the herculean unbeaten run that is still alive in 2020! **½
Backstage, Gunns heads into the locker room and finds Evers bag… he’s still a bit sour over losing to Tengkwa, so Gunns chucks out the bag of “the friend of fake Rey Mysterio”, tossing it down a stairway.
CMJ’s in the wXw NOW center, plugging the new releases in the past week. Yes, the Hamburg show’s there, plus another episode of Conversations, Power of Three, and a documentary about the wXw Academy…
wXw Shotgun Championship: Axel Dieter Jr. vs. Da Mack (c)
We get going… and it’s neither hot nor spicy as the pair took their time engaging, but it was Junior who got the upper hand early as he took Mack into the corner.
Wash, rinse… but don’t repeat as Mack returned the favour, which Junior didn’t appreciate, as Mack began to work holds. Starting with a hammerlock, which Junior flips out of, but a leg sweep keeps the challenger on the deck. Junior recovers and grounds Mack with a bridging hammerlock, before he switched into a headlock that Mack just hand-walks out of. Going back to the side headlock, Junior gets some pinning attempts in, before a fight back from Mack almost led to a Hamburgerkreuz… but Mack slips out, only to get taken right back into the corner. Junior finally shows some more aggression with a cross-chop to the throat, which got the crowd on his back, as he began to wear down Mack with armbars, before a bridging capture suplex almost wrapped things up.
A backslide from Mack proved to be a worthy counter to an uppercut, as the champion forced his way back in, landing a knee strike before a Slingblade brought Junior down. A Mack Magic cutter’s caught as Junior crotches him on the top rope ahead of a springboard uppercut for a near-fall, following up with a diving uppercut as Junior kept piling on the pressure. The Hamburgerkreuz follows as Mack leaps off the top rope into the move, but Mack builds up another comeback as we crossed the 15 minute mark, cracking Junior with a knee before an attempt at La Mistica was pushed off. The Axel Dieter Special follows from Junior, but Mack’s able to swivel into the ropes for a break… with Junior throwing in a cheeky kick for afters. Mack manages to find a second wind, landing a Slingblade and a springboard enziguiri off the top for a near-fall, before the Mack Magic Upside Down Crack Smash finds its mark.
Back-and-forth chops follow as Mack broke into a La Mistica… but Junior gets free and reapplies the Axel Dieter Special, only for Mack to roll back and nearly get the sneaky pin. Mack breaks the hold, then rolled back to get the nearest of near-falls, before another flurry from Junior ended with him leaping into a cutter for a near-fall. Junior crashes into Mack with a dropkick after wedging him in the ropes, as a Landungsbrücke is teased… but Mack rolls through for a two-count before another La Mistica forces Junior to tap in the middle of the ring. Perhaps a little lacking in terms of crowd reactions, but this was a cracking match with Junior heeling a little… albeit to no avail. ***¾
Post-match, Junior refuses to shake hands, as he joins his RINGKAMPF buddies WALTER & Timothy Thatcher on the stage… before we flash to Mack’s post-match interview, where he took a dig at how Junior “should have been the first one (of the team) to have singles success”. That then turned into Mack hinting that the pair should just go their separate ways.
Backstage, Mack and Junior came face to face, as Timothy Thatcher provided the bodyguard duties. Enter Jurn Simmons as we have a love in between three men with three shiny titles. Jurn calls himself the one true champion, taking shots at a “boring” Thatcher before exiting stage left.
CMJ’s back in the Event Center to announce stuff for 2016’s World Tag Team League. Group A: was Jack Evans/Angelico, Starr/Strickland, Bate/Seven and the winners of the qualifiers series. Group B was Andy/Al-Ani, Dragunov/Nero, Dunn/Hero and ZSJ/Scurll.
Jakobi also announces the 2016 Femmes Fatales line-up. Nixon Newell’s out, but the new line-up is Pollyanna, Jinny, Melanie Gray, Leah Vaughan, Dahlia Black, Laura di Matteo, Alpha Female, Queen Maya, Alexis Rose and Shanna. There’s one more announcement: Jurn Simmons will defend the wXw Unified World Championship against Drew Galloway over that weekend…
Back to Rico now as he pitches to the Shotgun Plus main event, also from Hamburg…
EVOLVE Championship: Marius al-Ani vs. Timothy Thatcher (c)
Shockingly, this was the tenth time the EVOLVE title had been put on the line in Europe. Thank Drew McIntyre’s multiple defences of it in the UK for that!
They grapple at the opening bell, with al-Ani taking down Thatcher in a bid to work over his legs in the opening stretches. It remains mat-based though as Thatcher got on top, trapping al-Ani in a key lock, rolling him down to the mat… but Marius gets free and bridges in a key lock of his own, but Thatcher gets free and teased a chicken wing before Marius got to the rope. Wash, rinse, repeat as al-Ani keeps going for the legs, as Hamburg looked to get a little restless with the mat-based stuff. A grounded armbar sees al-Ani roll Thatcher to the mat, but from the kick-out Thatcher goes to a leg lock, ending in the ropes as we reset. Marius takes Thatcher into the buckles, but ends up getting sent into the ring post as Thatcher dragged him into the ring with a Tower of London.
A floatover suplex from Thatcher gets a two-count, but Marius stops the momentum with a dropkick for a near-fall, as the pair again scramble on the mat. Thatcher lifts Marius away before he stomped on the arm, before taking Marius to the top rope… but the superplex is pushed away as Marius instead goes for a frog splash that misses. Thatcher can’t quite take advantage as he runs into an overhead belly-to-belly, before a running knee gets al-Ani a near-fall. A second try sees Marius get lifted to the apron, but he’s able to clothesline Thatcher ahead of a slingshot elbow drop. The match descended into a slugfest before Thatcher grabbed a rear naked choke… but a back suplex breaks it as Marius went for a death valley driver. He follows that up with another frog splash, but this time Thatcher gets the knees up before a roll-up gets a near-fall as the match neared its climax.
Marius’ wheelbarrow German suplex almost does it, before Thatcher ducks a spinning leg lariat and put al-Ani away with a simple headbutt. A real good mat-based affair – but throughout, I couldn’t help thinking that the EVOLVE title stip made this a foregone conclusion. ***½
Next week: Alpha Female and the LDRS have interviews as we edge closer to World Tag Team league…
So, Shotgun on wXw NOW continues its solid run in terms of in-ring action, while throwing in more of the backstage segments that characterised the show. That being said, the second half of Shotgun is already showing its hand as being very wrestling-heavy – perhaps a sign of having two forms of Shotgun? It’ll be interesting to see how the Shotgun format handles its first marquee event – World Tag Team League – and how that morphed throughout the rest of its run…