After falling to WALTER again in Hamburg, David Starr’s next crack at the Austrian would come in the first round of 2017’s 16 Carat Gold…
With Christian Michael Jakobi still in charge of wXw’s Championship Board of Directors, Starr would have to force his way into title contention… but the draw for 16 Carat Gold would give “The Product” a heck of a roadblock.
March 10, 2017 – 16 Carat Gold 2017 – Night One – 16 Carat Gold 2017 – First Round: WALTER vs. David Starr
Going in, the story here was that Starr could not beat WALTER in singles action. Sound familiar? Perhaps in night one’s main event, Starr could change that around? Perhaps his lucky trunks, with tape covering over something on the side, could help?
Starr unloaded on WALTER from the opening bell, tripping the big guy up before sending him outside… but “der Ringgeneral” caught a tope and squashed Starr against the ringpost as WALTER took over. A single, gunshot-like chop decks Starr, who rolled away from a sit-down splash as he tried to use WALTER’s size against him, landing a superkick to the shin to take WALTER into the corner. WALTER catches Starr in a sleeperhold, before flipping it into a German suplex… but Starr landed on his feet and sent WALTER charging onto the catwalk, only to leap into another sleeper that he had to break free of. Second time was the charm for WALTER’s sit-down splash, as he collected a two-count from it, before sinking down on Starr with an armbar.
A side suplex makes Starr pop up – then fall back down to the mat – before a brief comeback ended with a shotgun dropkick from WALTER. Starr countered a powerbomb into a DDT, then shocked the big guy with an over-the-knee brainbuster as they started trading forearms. With mixed success. Needless to say, Starr’s chops and forearms weren’t quite as effective… Starr hits WALTER with an apron DDT after coaxing the Austrian into a dive, before a clothesline sent WALTER to the outside where he took a series of topes as he looked to force a win via count-out. WALTER popped up at nine to roll inside for some more stomps, before catching Starr in an ankle lock as the man of a million nicknames was trying for something else.
WALTER turned the ankle lock into a German suplex, then followed up with a butterfly suplex for a two-count, before he was caught up top as Starr went for a superplex. Despite being pushed down, Starr popped back up for a belly to belly superplex instead, then rolled upside WALTER for a sunset flip for another near-fall, leading to the crowd starting a chant for the Product Placement.
WALTER easily powered out of the strait-jacket German suplex, but was helpless as Starr ran in with some rolling elbows to the back of the head, only to recover with a German suplex and a lariat to force another near-fall out of Starr. The crowd continued to will Starr onto victory, especially as he invited WALTER to kick him some more. That turned into a flurry of strikes, ending with WALTER grabbing a sleeperhold which turned into a sleeper suplex, then back to a sleeperhold as referee Tassilo Jung was forced to wave off the match as for the first time in memory, the “arm drops three times spot” led to the arm dropping three times. This was bloody fantastic. Starr’s still looking for his first singles win over WALTER, whilst the Austrian continues to cement his place as one of the best that the world wasn’t seeing enough of yet. ****¼
We’ll skip over their tussles during the 2017 Shortcut to the Top match, as the next proper outing between WALTER and David Starr would be back in Oberhausen for the finals of 2017’s World Tag Team League…