The feud between David Starr & WALTER entered a new year as their first outing in 2019 came in the first round of 16 Carat Gold.
In the weeks building up to 2019’s tournament, Starr demanded to pick his opponent in the first round. Perhaps in hindsight, WALTER shouldn’t have been the surprise it was…
wXw 16 Carat Gold – First Round: WALTER vs. David Starr
Can Starr do it? After years of familiar losses to WALTER, this was the match he picked… can he beat the proverbial “final boss” in the first round?
Starr didn’t bother waiting for any introductions, leaping into WALTER before the bell, but the Austrian quickly caught him in the ropes with a crossface punch… only for Starr to get free and continue with his own clubbering. A cartwheel kick knocked WALTER outside, but the tope’s caught as Starr had to change plans, shoging WALTER into the ring post before Starr came back with a superkick off the apron. The front row clears again… but Starr crashes and burns in an ungodly manner as WALTER just sidestepped his tope. WALTER doesn’t go back to the ring, instead opting to throw away some of the wreckage so he could get to Starr again, following in with a chop then a powerbomb onto the edge of the ring as the Product looked to be in big trouble.
WALTER rolls him back inside to pick up a two-count, before a Boston crab kept Starr in danger… except they were too close to the ropes as Starr reached out for the break. Elbows and forearms keep Starr on his knees as he already seemed to be working on fumes, before he connected with a chop. Problem was, WALTER had much more left, and hit back harder, booting off Starr’s head before a uranage slam led to a near-fall for the Austrian.
In a rare move, WALTER heads up top, but has to shove away Starr before the Product came back with an belly-to-belly superplex to give himself some breathing room. Another strike battle is started by Starr, who superkicks WALTER to his knees, before a suplex counter saw Starr lock in a sleeperhold as he tried to drag WALTER to his knees. Instead, WALTER gets to the ropes… with Starr slapping away the hands as he delivered his own RINGKAMPF German suplex for a near-fall. There were signs of Starr getting tetchy with the referee… but that’s nothing a big boot to the head couldn’t manage. Still, Starr comes back with an attempt at a satellite Destroyer, only for WALTER to counter with a Jig ‘n’ Tonic for a near-fall as both men were digging deep into their bags of tricks. Forearms and a knee to the back sent Starr back to the mat, and back into the corner where WALTER resumed roughing him up with chops as referee Tassilo Jung had to separate the two.
Starr spits defiantly at WALTER… and gets slapped for it as a sleeperhold put Starr back on his rear end, with his escape ending with a quick shotgun dropkick. Somehow, Starr ‘ranas out of a powerbomb and followed in with a Han Stansen for a quick two-count on WALTER. We’re back to the strikes as Starr waffled WALTER with lariats, only to get dropped with another chop… and another… before he somehow got back up to dump WALTER with a Blackheart Buster for a near-fall. A superkick quickly puts WALTER back down as Starr fired up, searching for a Product Placement, with the crowd almost unanimously behind him as he lifted up WALTER and dropped him for a near-fall! Starr stays on top with a barrage of forearms as WALTER was… begging off? Nah, it’s a con as he suckered Starr into a folding powerbomb for a near-fall, then instantly jumped on him with a Gojira clutch as he too looked for the submission.
Starr again escapes and comes back with a sleeper of his own, only for WALTER to scale the ropes and fall back on Starr to break it up… but David is right back in with the sleeperhold, with the Turbinenhalle baying for a tap out. WALTER gets free though, but can’t avoid a lariat to the back of the head, nor a German suplex, as Starr goes back to the sleeper. The crowd roared as they thought WALTER had tapped… and so did Starr, who argued with the referee, leaving himself wide open as WALTER came back in with another rear naked choke, squeezing Starr to sleep… and that was it. He came the closest yet, but still, David Starr cannot put away WALTER. Just what is it going to take?! ****¼
WALTER headed to the back, almost nonchalant as Starr sat in the ring, silently seething as his 16 Carat Gold ends on night one. At time of writing, that was it for David Starr and WALTER in wXw. While Starr would “quit” wXw over WrestleMania weekend a few weeks later, he’d return to the company to be a thorn in the sides of the prima donnas that WALTER and Ilja Dragunov had turned into. Starr would face Ilja a few times in that period, but never WALTER again before he lost to Bobby Gunns at 16 Carat Gold in 2020 – a match that, by Starr’s own stipulation, spelled the end of his time in wXw. There would be a couple more matches (at least, at time of writing): the next one being back in Ireland…