Hot on the heels of 2016’s World Tag Team League, we’ve got a whole lotta fall-out!
We’ve got matches form Leipzig and Nuremberg on tap this week, but first what’s left of Rico’s voice introduces the show… then pitches to Karsten Beck’s return over the weekend, and we jump to that. We join Beck in the ring as he recaps how quickly he went from diagnosis to having brain surgery. Remember, barely four months earlier, Beck had won the Shortcut to the Top match, in what’d prove to be his final wXw match. Anyway, Beck talks about all of the people who reached out to him and thanks everyone who did.
Beck’s a little more reflective as he talks about his career to date, summarising himself as “not a model athlete”. Karsten thanks the wXw crew and fans, then announced that while he didn’t have a date for a return, he’s not retiring… even if after chemotherapy his chances of a return are only 1%, he’s going to take them.
…and then came the interruption, as Christian Michael Jakobi came through the crowd to hug Beck and add a few words to it all. Jakobi tells the crowd how Beck joined the wXw dojo over a decade earlier, and made it “in spite of” having to train with he and Tassilo Jung, before he couldn’t resist making a jab about the time wXw went to the USA and took their best wrestlers with them. And Karsten too. Jakobi reveals the rib of wXw booking Beck against Necro Butcher and Nick Gage on that tour… then talked about how Vince Russo decreed that Beck should be “the guy” in wXw, before recapping when he got the news from Karsten back in August.
Things then go a little dark when Jakobi changed gears and called Beck a failure, because he “didn’t capitalise on what wXw did for him”. Understandably, Beck was furious with that, and this my friends, was the planting of the seed that led to Jakobi’s character becoming that of an “evil authority figure”. I don’t want to say “Mr. McMahon”, but given that Jakobi was the managing director of wXw at the time, the comparisons are there. The pair got into a shoving match, which led to RINGKAMPF saving Jakobi’s back… of course. Christian got a little mouthy when he had Thatcher, Junior and WALTER in front of him, as Beck was forced out of the building.
Back in the studio, Rico recaps how Da Mack was offered a spot in RINGKAMPF… only to rip apart the shirt and turn down CMJ…. while throwing out some choice words. Mack had words for others, calling WALTER “simple minded”, and Axel Dieter Jr. “naive”. Uh oh. Mack dissects the word “RINGKAMPF”er, and then said he had friends in the locker room who “thought like him” as we looked to be heading towards a feud with RINGKAMPF. We flash forward to RINGKAMPF squaring off with Da Mack and Mike Bailey, with predictable results. Including a murderous big boot from WALTER before security came to break it up, followed by Absolute Andy, Marius al-Ani and the Rotation joined in. Sounds like a movement. Wow indeed…
Next week: CMJ is going to explain why what happened happened…
In the meantime, Rico talks about new content added to wXw NOW, including 2006’s 16 Carat Gold. Something to enjoy “in all of its shadiness”. I’m sure he means the lighting…
Julian Nero vs. Alpha Kevin vs. Bad Bones vs. Jurn Simmons
This one’s from Leipzig, with Jeremy Graves on the call, and we get going with Simmons knocking Alpha Kevin to the outside, while Bad Bones similarly dispatched Julian Nero.
A square-off between Simmons and Klinger leads to the pair trading shots, with Bones hitting some mounted punches in the corner before catching Jurn with a dropkick. Klinger lifts Simmons to the outside, as Julian Nero returned… but he met a similar fate, eating a knee drop and some chops before a back body drop took Nero into the corner. Nero quickly takes over with Wade Barrett’s Wasteland, before Alpha Kevin snuck in and found some luck with an Exploder. He then ran into a big boot. Ow. Jurn’s back to join in on the kicking Kevin’s getting, but Bad Bones events things up by taking Nero outside… so Jurn has to deal with Kevin himself, landing a dropkick and a sweet kip up.
Jurn shows off with a forward roll, but walks into a missile dropkick from Bones as Nero resumed his alliance with Simmons, hitting a big boot and a knee drop as the bad guys double-teamed Klinger. Bones eventually gets free, shoving Jurn into Nero before scoring a roll-up on Simmons for a near-fall. A powerslam follows, as does a spear attempt, but Jurn just boots Klinger to the outside. Back comes Kevin with Dusty punches to Jurn, before Nero breaks up a back suplex… a double-team whip sees Kevin just bounce out of the corner. They try again, but Kevin avoids it as he hits his back suplexes on Nero, then Jurn, before a double axehandle off the top’s caught and turned into a belly-to-belly by Jurn. Klinger capitalises with an elbow off the top before Jurn could get back to his feet, following up with leaping forearms in the corner and a Bonespear.
Klinger builds up momentum, but eats a Massive Boot from Jurn, who then went back after Kevin… only to get hurled to the outside as Nero obliterates Kevin with a Sick Kick. Nero tees up for Bad Bones, eventually landing a big boot before an attempt at Cross Rhodes was countered into a crossface for the submission. A big win for Klinger in this non-title four-way… and if you look at the hard camera after the final bell, you’ll see an easter egg of someone walking to the back. Not in canon, of course! ***¼
Backstage, questionable sounds from Cerberus as Adam Polak bemoans how they lost the tag titles. Polak seems almost mad at them losing the tag titles, but Dirty Dragan has something to sooth him…
Rico’s back in the studio as he reminds us that Dirty Dragan took a pounding at the hands of John Klinger at Tag League… then it’s over to the Event Center as Nico Schmidt is building to the 16th Anniversary show. WALTER, Jurn Simmons, A4, Marty Scurll, Da Mack, Bad Bones, Kevin Roadster, Chris Colen, Cerberus and… Adam Cole all make the reveal trailer. Nico tells us Adam Cole’s getting a shot at the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship at the Anniversary show. He also tells us that Cody Rhodes will be part of 16 Carat in 2017 (remember the crowd surf?)… and reminds us of the We Love Wrestling tour that was also announced for 2017.
They replay David Starr & Shane Strickland winning the World Tag Team League… and the post-match announcement from the JML pair were to defend them in a TLC match. We then pan to A4 on the balcony, with Marius al-Ani about to bug Felix Kohlenberg to get added to the match. He had to convince Andy of it though…
Anyway, that was confirmed: JML vs. A4 in a TLC match for the tag titles. File that under “didn’t happen” for various reasons. Also at Broken Rules – Chris Colen vs. Ilja Dragunov and Lio Rush vs. Emil Sitoci.
Rico’s back to recap the Alpha Lovers’ wedding… which was interrupted by Alpha Female and Marius van Beethoven, with Melanie Gray getting chokeslammed off the stage. We’re also told of Pete Dunne winning the Shotgun title, and we pitch to Christian Bischof with Dunne. I swear Christian with a massive beard was a ring announcer on some of the earlier Shotguns…
Anyway, Pete Dunne and a t-shirt I may have bought years ago tells us this wasn’t his debut… but it was the wXw debut of the Bruiserweight. October 14, Dunne faces Lio Rush in a title defence, and that’s a short-and-sweet interview.
WALTER vs. Marius al-Ani
We’re in Nuremberg for our main event as the post-Tag League Shotgun dots around a bit…
WALTER starts off with a headlock takedown to Marius, but the Austrian misses a sit-down splash early before trading off dropkicks with al-Ani. Shoulder charges trap Marius in the corner, before WALTER nonchalantly clotheslines away a leapfrog from al-Ani as the sit-down splash gets a near-fall. A leapfrog and a dropkick gets Marius on top as WALTER scurries outside, before a faked-out dive suckered WALTER into place for a over-the-turnbuckles plancha from al-Ani! WALTER gets some revenge as he dropped al-Ani on the ring apron with a back suplex, before chops restored order back in the ring.
A simple slam drops Marius in the middle of the ring, but he recovers to clothesline WALTER from the apron as the Austrian was dropped ahead of a slingshot elbow back into the ring. Marius keeps up with a dropkick, but is foiled on an O’Connor roll as WALTER just obliterates him with a big boot! Chops follow, as do uppercuts, which briefly wakes up al-Ani until another chop decks him. WALTER grounds al-Ani with an overhead wristlock, before he muscled up al-Ani into a gutwrench suplex for a near-fall. Marius tries to recover, but has to flip out of a powerbomb before catching WALTER with a spinning leg lariat. A death valley driver looked to follow, but he loses WALTER and ends up pancaking as the Austrian lands another gutwrench for a near-fall.
Another comeback from Marius sees him shoved off as he went for a springboard DDT out of the corner, but he’s able to hit one anyway, countering out of a DDT having just eaten the shotgun dropkick. Al-Ani lands the death valley driver eventually for a near-fall. WALTER hits back with a fireman’s carry gutbuster for a near-fall – in a move you’ll probably not see him pull off much – before he went up top and threatened a big splash…
…except al-Ani gets up and joins him there, only to get shoved down as WALTER ends up eating a dropkick and a superplex, before al-Ani quickly went back up top for a frog splash… only to land on WALTER’s knees. One quick powerbomb later, and that’s the win. A valiant effort from al-Ani, but one mistake was the ruin of him against a much more experienced WALTER. ***½
Nico Schmidt’s back to tell us that Axel Dieter Junior’s off the Shotgun Live tour until mid November due to the knee injury that ruled him out of World Tag Team League. More matches follow: Borken gets Cerberus vs. JML for the tag titles… Pete Dunne vs. Lio Rush… and WALTER vs. Chris Colen. Bielefeld’s card saw Marius al-Ani vs. Shane Strickland, Lio Rush vs. Da Mack, and David Starr vs. WALTER. I heard that one was good. Stuttgart was getting JML vs. A4 (reopen that “didn’t happen” file…), WALTER vs. Marty Scurll… Karlsruhe got a reunification of Emil Sitoci & Marty Scurll vs. A4 and Alpha Female vs. Toni Storm.
A quick jump cut takes us to clips of Mike Bailey vs. Jurn Simmons from World Tag Team League, before Christian Bischoff’s with Jurn. He’s feeling good after that win… and that confidence doesn’t waver when he’s told he’s facing Adam Cole at the 16th Anniversary show. In walks Marty Scurll… who tries to talk his way into a title match. Jurn takes offence at having to share screen time, and storms off… as we’re told by Rico that we’ve yet to hear what’ll happen as the show comes to an end.
Another solid episode of Shotgun – one that covered all the big news coming out of World Tag Team League, while setting up for the remaining big shows of the year. Shotgun was on a roll as the finishing line for 2016 approached!