David Starr and WALTER continued their skirmishes into 2017, but their first meeting of the year would have a little extra on it…
Following 2016’s World Tag Team Festival, Christian Michael Jakobi and RINGKAMPF had been looking to exert some more pressure in wXw. That abuse of power led to a battle for the role of the head of wXw’s championship board of directors, with the recently-retired Karsten Beck hoping to snatch that spot in this match: as a loss for RINGKAMPF would also mean that CMJ would relinquish that role.
Commentary comes from Rico Bushido…
February 24, 2017 – Dead End XVI – RINGKAMPF (Axel Dieter Jr & WALTER) vs. Jurn Simmons & David Starr
Not including WALTER’s pre-match promo, which drew chants of “same old shit”, this match went almost half an hour. Starr and Dieter start by trading wristlocks, before they tag out, and curiously we’re going straight to Jurn vs WALTER, with the latter hitting a big dropkick to Massive Jurn, who replies in kind.
We’re back to Starr and Dieter, with the Shotgun champion lighting up the wXw World champion with chops in the corner, before reversing a suplex to take down Dieter. WALTER low bridges him to the outside, as Starr bounces of the apron with a back suplex, but Jurn Simmons has the referee distracted to prevent from any count being made. That’s where the match swung in RINGKAMPF’s favour, as WALTER tagged in and hit a leaping seated splash onto Starr for a near-fall, before Starr was forced to throw his way out of a sleeperhold. A huge back body drop takes WALTER into the corner, but Starr is unable to capitalise as Dieter ran in and knocked Jurn off the apron. We get a couple of announcements from Thomas Giesen, but these are totally ignored on commentary – my best guess is that they were public warnings, but since they weren’t acknowledged, I guess they couldn’t have been too important.
Dieter levels Starr with an Air Raid Crash for a near-fall after WALTER had knocked Jurn off the apron. Starr recovers and lands a series of clotheslines to the big Austrian, who is eventually knocked down with a DDT in the ropes, then another clothesline as we finally get to see Jurn and Dieter. Simmons blasts into the world champion with shoulder charges in the corner, before throwing Axel with ease out of the corner. An Oklahoma Stampede follows for a near-fall, before Dieter counters a powerbomb with an enziguiri, only to see his Landungsbrücke countered into an uranage by Jurn.
Simmons gets caught up top as Dieter DDTs him to the mat, before WALTER’s tagged back in to pick apart at the downed Dutchman, grabbing a sleeperhold then a German suplex as Simmons was thrown around with relative ease. Jurn came back with a sit-out gutwrench powerbomb for a two-count, but WALTER gets a discus lariat as Starr tagged himself into the match… and promptly had his head kicked right off by WALTER. Starr came back and dropkicked Dieter off the middle rope as he took too long taunting the crowd, before Starr pulled one out of Edge’s old playbook with the Edgucator – the modified standing sharpshooter. Jurn took care of WALTER with a torture rack, which was the cue for Jakobi and Beck to hit the ring, with Beck taking CMJ down with a sleeperhold too as the babyfaces were firmly on top.
Somehow Dieter broke free and rescued the match, but he took a piledriver from Jurn as WALTER’s run-in led to him taking a German suplex, with Jakobi pulling out referee Tassilo Jung to prevent the three-count from being made. Karsten Beck was quickly on hand to shoo Jakobi into the ring as those two faced off. Jakobi begged off as Beck looked to lay him out, before Karsten blocked a low blow and instead went for a Samoan drop… but Jakobi got the low blow in as WALTER booted Beck out of the ring.
With that side-show taken care of, we’re back to the tag team match, which again boiled down to Jurn vs. Axel, with those too teeing off on each other. A slap takes down Dieter, who’s then clotheslined to the outside where Jurn joins him, teasing a powerbomb on the stage. Instead, Dieter slips out and drops Jurn with a DDT as WALTER gets to his feet and towers over Starr back in the ring. They exchange shots, with Starr ducking under some punches before knocking WALTER to the floor, then landing a dropkick to take down Jakobi.
Starr lands a pair of topes to wipe out WALTER, then Jakobi, with that latter one almost surely going to cost him down the line, before Dieter cuts off a third tope and almost stole the win with a roll-up. There’s more back and forth as Axel catches Starr in a double leg nelson, but Starr makes the ropes, before his plucky comeback ended with a powerbomb/uppercut combo from WALTER and Dieter. That got RINGKAMPF another near-fall, as they kept battering Starr, who spat back at their faces before unloading with forearms.
A crucifix bomb got Starr a near-fall on WALTER, before going back with more shots, until WALTER blasted him with a lariat. A huge powerbomb follows, and that’s enough for the win – ending over half an hour of a glorious tag team main event that’s well worth your time. These are rapidly becoming a staple in wXw, and a good way of headlining shows that are a stop-off towards the bigger cards. ****¼
Starr and WALTER would lock horns again a month later as they’d be paired up in 16 Carat Gold – but by the end of 2017 the feud would start to move outside of Germany…