It’s back to familiar territory, as David Starr and WALTER had to widen their focus a little as they were put in a four-way for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship.
March 24, 2018 – wXw – We Love Wrestling: London – wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: David Starr vs. Travis Banks vs. WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov (c)
A change from our scheduled main event (since the previously-announced WALTER vs. Travis Banks match had become part of a story somewhere else…), meant that David Starr had another crack at WALTER, albeit in a four-way match. Would he focus on the title… or would he insist on going through der Ringgeneral? Given how hard his focus was on WALTER once he came out, it was perhaps a little obvious…
Let’s talk a little about Ilja Dragunov. At the age of 24, he’s got an immense connection with the crowd from the second his music hits to the second he goes back through the curtain. A talent that you cannot teach, nor buy – and is more than worth his weight in gold to wXw and any promotion he’s in. There was perhaps no clear favourite for this match, and we started with Travis Banks trying to clear house before we quickly settled down to WALTER and David Starr, whose death stare barely wavered in the opening moments. Starr tripped WALTER, but the Austrian had way too much power left in him… as we saw with the first of many chops that decked Starr. Travis Banks gets one too, before Starr low-bridged WALTER to the outside as the action stayed at a high pace.
Banks’ kicks knocked Starr down, just as Ilja joined the fray, and yes, those two threw bombs at each other, ending with a backhanded chop from Ilja – all in front of a gobsmacked Tassilo Jung. Lariats from Ilja kept Banks down, but WALTER’s back in to carve up Ilja’s chest with more chops, before he booted the champion’s face clean off. Holy crap!
We’re back to WALTER and Banks, with the Kiwi throwing some kicks to the chest, before hitting a leg sweep and a diving knee to take WALTER down. Everyone’s on the outside all of a sudden, and now it’s dive time as Banks looked for a PK off the apron… and gets dumped onto the apron with a back suplex from WALTER. Starr tries to fly and gets powerbombed onto Banks instead, after a brief chop, before Ilja finally takes down WALTER with a thunderous tope!
Back inside, Ilja knocked Starr onto the apron, but the counters take Ilja into a full nelson backbreaker on Starr, before Banks breaks things up and tries his luck with chops. You can guess how loud they were… and who won out. There’s some three-way interplay that ended with Starr dumping Banks and Dragunov with duelling Cherry Mint DDTs on the apron, before countering a Kiwi Krusher into a Blackheart Buster for a near-fall on Banks.
The same three trade chops, although it’s Ilja doing most of the dealing before WALTER shows them who’s boss. WALTER riles up Ilja ahead of their match at True Colors, throwing some kicks to Ilja, who tries to throw some chops… and you know how that ends, as we got a taste of last year’s Carat final. Unbesiegbar is the word though as Ilja keeps getting up, just to have more clouds of sweat chopped off of his chest, before a paintbrush-like slap decked Ilja… then Starr… then Banks. OUCH. Starr got back up, but WALTER’s in the mood for a killing spree as he boots everyone… only for Ilja to show that being unbesiegbar perhaps isn’t the best thing when you’re against WALTER. FINALLY Starr and Dragunov block a chop as WALTER finally gets triple-teamed in the corner as everyone figures out that’s their only hope… before their quick alliance blew up.
Alliances were the way forward, but WALTER’s able to get past them all with thunderous boots before a butterfly suplex saw the one man Austrian wrecking crew take down Ilja… before Travis Banks knocked him down with a Slice of Heaven. David Starr almost broke his streak by stealing the pin, but WALTER kicks out, and kicks back into things after breaking free of a Product Placement. The Gojira clutch led to Starr getting dragged to the mat, but Ilja breaks it up with a back senton off the top to keep the match – and his title – alive – before a Torpedo Moscau was caught with another Gojira clutch! WALTER’s thrown away though, and Ilja finally connects with the Torpedo Moscau… only for Travis Banks to break it up! A Kiwi Krusher sees Banks come close, before his Slice of Heaven is rudely broken down by a boot from WALTER.
David Starr nails a pair of Han Stansen lariats – one to WALTER, and another to Ilja – but Dragunov’s back up with one of his own, before the Torpedo Moscau finally ended things… a brutal, fun and frantic match that packed a lot into its fifteen minutes. Gotta love a sprint – and with David Starr perhaps taking too long to focus on WALTER, it led to an emphatic win for Ilja Dragunov who had to beat off some stiff competition to walk away with his title. ****½
Next up for WALTER and Starr was Defiant just days later as they’d have a no rope-break rematch…