wXw brought out the ladder match as Chris Colen would have to get through Broken Rules to overcome Bad Bones and become champion!
We’re in Dresden for wXw’s first major event after World Tag Team League, and the ENglish version of this is up really quickly. The pre-show video warns us that on the way to the top, rules – and bones – are broken, as Chris Colen’s found out the hard way.
First though, we’ve got the Warm-Up Battle Royal – with wXw posting the warm-up as a separate file on their wXw NOW service. From Dresden’s Next Step Wrestling, the match featured Alexander Reich, Zeritus, Dynamite Dave (who has a video gamer gimmick), Otto Stahl, T-Nox, Christopher Antoney, Chris Rocke, Sternau, Johnny Rancid, Rick Baxxter and Laurance Roman. The match was won by Roman, and was just like most battle royals you’ve seen, with Roman getting a title shot later in the night – as we’ll cover when we get to it. Perhaps the most memorable incident (or a lowlight, if you’re that way inclined) was this assisted moonsault for Sternau that almost went badly wrong…
Finally! On his return to wXw after 6 years @svtk_marcel was able to do a standing moonsault #wXwBR #wXwNOW pic.twitter.com/q1EzO63zjg
— wXw Germany (@wXwGermany) November 18, 2017
Ilja Dragunov vs. Da Mack
This stems from what happened over World Tag Team League weekend, where Da Mack cost Ilja his world title match by intentionally getting him disqualified – then owning up to it. It’s weird seeing Ilja in the opener… but not as much as a wXw show without Thommi Giesen as ring announcer.
Da Mack has a new facemask for his RISE entrance, and he’s attacked by Ilja at the bell, with the two quickly spilling to the outside from a tie-up. Ilja keeps the match there as they trade hard chops around ringside, before Dragunov smashes Mack into the front row with a back senton.
Back inside, Mack tries to take over with kicks in the corner, but Ilja just catches and pushes him away before resuming with his usual offence. All the chops! Just how we like them! Mack catches him on the top rope and does the Ric Flair press slam… taking Ilja down to the outside via the apron in an awkward-looking fall. A kick to the face stops Ilja from getting back in, and now Mack’s back in control, clearly seeking to get a count-out victory, as seen when he shoves Ilja outside yet again, this time with the Russian catching his throat on the ropes on his way out.
It’s a rather different Mack on show here – gone is all the flashiness and flying… in its place is a ruthless streak that would stop at nothing to neuter Dragunov. Lots of stomps and knees eventually put down Dragunov for a near-fall, but they also seemed to light a fire inside, as he started to play Mack at his own new game.
The Grüße aus Moskau lariat takes Mack down for a two-count, but Ilja’s again caught up top with a roll-up into an uppercut, before Mack goes back to his past with a ‘rana and a Slingblade. A springboard forearm gets Mack another near-fall, but Ilja comes back with a roll-up into a full nelson slam and a Blue Thunder Bomb as the 16 Carat winner edged closer to a win.
Ilja crashes and burns with a back senton off the top, but he’s able to kick out as Mack tries again to capitalise, then flies out into the crowd with a nice tope into the front row! Back inside, Mack rolls away from the back senton, but is oblivious to the Coast to Coast dropkick he’d moved into the path of, as Ilja then finishes off with Torpedo Moscau… but Ivan Kiev and Tarkan Aslan hit the ring to pull out the referee just before the three count.
The RISE beatdown continues as the crowd chanted “RISE is scheiß” in disapproval at the interference… until Chris Colen heads out to make the save! Tassilo Jung recovers just in time to see Ilja hit a second Torpedo Moscau, which proved to be enough for the win. A really enjoyable opener, with Mack showing a lot of fire in his new persona – he needed something that was a total 180 from his last character, and my God, he’s found it here. ***½
Alexander James vs. Jurn Simmons
This was borne out of Massive Product falling apart after the World Tag Team League… and Alexander James being a little too keen to take digs at Simmons and David Starr. James already holds a win over Jurn, with a win in a three-way that was on Shotgun a few weeks ago, so this is a chance for revenge for the former wXw Unified World Wrestling champion.
It’s a rather tentative opening spell as James tries to work over Simmons with a knucklelock, before deciding to go for strikes. That probably wasn’t the smartest move, as Jurn’s size difference allowed him to hit back, and throw James hard into the turnbuckles ahead of some avalanche attacks as the Dutchman threatened to make this look easy. James stops Jurn in his tracks though as he went back to the arm, hitting a stomp onto it off the top rope as he looked to soften it up for that Coat of Arms submission…
A suplex from Jurn looks to stop all that, but he’s quickly dragged down into a flapjack as the “Prince of Pro” locked on the Coat of Arms… but they were a little too close to the ropes as Jurn’s able to break the hold. AJ keeps going for the arm, so Jurn throws a couple of clotheslines and a back body drop to get some freedom. Problem was, that damage to the arm was stopping Jurn from making any decent kind of pinning attempt.
James’ arm wasn’t having any such trouble, which allowed him to hit a pumphandle fallaway slam for a near-fall, before escaping a piledriver attempt and following up with a Tower of London. Just like that, Jurn responds with the Massive Boot for a near-fall, then a gutwrench powerbomb… but the arm’s still bothering him!
James tries to get the win with some roll-ups, with Jurn kicking out of a jack-knife cradle before throwing the American across the ring with a series of suplexes, as another Massive Boot left Alexander down again… but he can’t quite follow up with a piledriver, and out of nowhere James nails him with the Prince’s Throne (the Bloody Sunday DDT) to seal the shock win! A hard-fought win, with James now 2-0 against Jurn in the past few weeks – and it’d be fair to say that neither of those wins were undeserved as Alexander’s latest wXw tour is proving rather fruitful for him. ***¼
wXw Shotgun Championship: Laurance Roman vs. Ivan Kiev (c)
A throat infection meant that Marius al-Ani was forced out of the show, so we needed a new challenger for Ivan Kiev. That spot was taken up by Laurance Roman, who won the pre-show Next Step battle royal, earning him his first “big show” appearance for wXw since they were in Dresden earlier this year for True Colors.
Those “RISE is scheiß” chants returned for this one, which might be why Kiev was looking to end this early with a series of roll-ups. Roman survived and took down Kiev with a running uppercut as the local lad tried to cause the upset… but Kiev was wise to it, and quickly took him down with almost a Massive boot as he looked to be in control. An Arabian press from Kiev misses as Roman tries to mount another comeback, connecting with a High Fly Flow-like crossbody for a near-fall. Some clubbing forearms to the lower back puts Kiev back in control, with a fallaway slam edging him closer to victory… but again, Roman fought back and hits another crossbody, taking Kiev down on the outside.
Roman tries for an Exploder, and eventually sends Kiev into the corner, but it’s still not enough. Another attempt to jump off the top’s blocked by Kiev, but his superplex attempt is fought off, only for Kiev to come back with a ‘rana as Jakobi on commentary chastises Roman for taking too long to follow up… and sure enough, a death valley driver from Kiev moments later secures the title defence. This was fine given the circumstances, but given how rare Roman’s used in wXw, it was hard to see anything but a Kiev win here. **¾
No Disqualification, Tornado Elimination match for wXw Tag Team Championship: Bobby Gunns & Jaxon Stone vs. RINGKAMPF (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) (c)
Is that enough stipulations for you? Bobby Gunns’ ongoing fight with RINGKAMPF… and his attempt to blind Timothy Thatcher by stubbing a cigarette in his eye, led to this multi-layered match. I’m pretty sure RINGKAMPF will want something to do with Jaxon Stone’s lookalike and those knock-off t-shirts he was hawking too…
RINGKAMPF rushed the ring to get this one underway, taking the fight to their challengers right from the off. They’ve got two referees on hand for this match, which saw Jaxon Stone get barged down by an early WALTER shoulder tackle, before having his fake RINGKAMPF shirt ripped off.
Can you guess what WALTER did next? If “chop” was your answer, you win. Jaxon tries some too, but it just angered the Austrian, who kept up the beatdown as Timothy Thatcher kept Bobby Gunns down on the outside. A clothesline from WALTER takes Jaxon outside, just in time for the other pairing to make it into the ring – with Bobby Gunns making use of the no-DQ rule as he caught Timmy in an armbar in the ropes for a prolonged period of time.
WALTER returns to help double-team Gunns, who takes the RINGKAMPF German suplex and a butterfly suplex… but Jaxon returns with a chair as they start to double-team WALTER with the furniture, with Gunns targeting the arm. Their offence quickly gets halted when WALTER reverses a double suplex attempt, before his powerbomb attempt was countered into an armbar, with an added chairshot as the Sleaze Team looked to get rid of the big man.
Timothy Thatcher comes in next, and rips off his eye patch so he had a better chance of taking on two men at once… but he’s quickly sent into a chair that Stone’d wedged in the corner, ending that flurry. A chair-assisted dropkick keeps WALTER down, but Timmy’s back with belly-to-belly suplexes… only for Bobby Gunns to break the seat of a chair on Thatcher’s head as the momentum continued to swing.
Jaxon busts out David Starr’s Blackheart Buster as Gunns looked to force a submission on Thatcher… but WALTER’s sit-down splash broke THAT up as all four men were left down and out. The helpful Dresden crowd help WALTER recover some more chairs that he threw across the ring – and WALTER’s back in it… until he chops a chair, that is. An implant DDT from Stone onto a chair almost gets us our first elimination, but RINGKAMPF stay alive as Gunns headed out to grab a table from under the ring. German tables don’t tend to go well – just ask Avalanche!
RINGKAMPF start to use some hardware as WALTER smashes a chair on Stone, before Thatcher sets up two of them so Jaxon can get powerbombed through them… and there’s our first elimination! The seats may have been padded, but that looked like a nasty impact… but it’s going to get a lot nastier for Bobby Gunns, who’s now on his own against both halves of RINGKAMPF!
To his credit, Gunns came flying out, but he’s quickly overwhelmed as RINGKAMPF had their way with him. Hell, Gunns even offered himself up for some chops, which went as well as you’d think as the match became massively one-sided with WALTER and Thatcher getting revenge… and then some! It’s the sort of come-uppance that all cocky bad guys ought to get in wrestling, but ever-so-rarely see.
Gunns actually mounted a comeback and hit a pair of low blows before dropkicking WALTER through the table as he threatened to survive and pull off something improbable… before heading outside for a RINGKAMPF bag. Timothy Thatcher disarms him and then shows us what was in the bag… Oh God, it’s drawing pins! Gunns and Thatcher tease throwing the other into the pins – because you know WALTER’s having nothing to do with that – and Gunns actually stomps Thatcher’s face into them. Fucking hell. Yes, that pisses off Timmy as you’d expect, as does the backdrop suplex into the pins… and it’s a throwback to Thatcher’s early days as a more violent wrestler.
WALTER comes back to save Thatcher, throwing Gunns around away from the pins, before Thatcher comes up with another way to finish things… another table! Gunns takes a powerbomb through it in the corner, and all that’s left is for Thatcher to put a foot on Gunns’ prone body to claim the win. My GOD. This was the polar opposite of what you’d expect from RINGKAMPF – and whilst this violent display may not win any match of the year awards, it’ll certainly be memorable as delivering what should have had given the build-up. Despite all the beating, Gunns still won’t shake hands… so the feud must continue? ****
Yes, that is a drawing pin in Thatcher’s nose, many moments after he’d had it stomped into him… and those pins seem to have annoyed WALTER, who reminded us “that’s not what we do”. Hey, if it works, it works, right?
Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci vs. Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) vs. Monster Consulting (Julian Nero & Avalanche)
The winners of this get the next shot at RINGKAMPF… and after what we just saw, that’s definitely not going to be an easy ride for whomever wins this!
There’s ill feeling between all of the teams here, with the most recent incident seeing Jay FK and Monster Consulting exchange words on a recent Shotgun – but it’s Kaspin who starts off, going up against Dragan first, then Sitoci as that particular rivalry’s reignited. Things start to go Jay FK’s way when Skillet tags in,a s he manages a couple of near-falls on Sitoci, who then “punch tags” out to Nero who’d offered five minutes of his time.
Sitoci still doesn’t want five minutes from Nero, and instead opts to get three seconds of his shoulders on the mat. A backpack stunner from Sitoci puts Nero down, but in comes Avalanche – forcing everyone to back away in fear as Tass helpfully points out who Sitoci’s got to deal with next.
Avalanche has fun with Emil, throwing him around with ease… but things turn around when Avalanche is taken outside as Sitoci’s able to dive onto him… before Dirty Dragan teases one, which turns out to be a chop off the apron. Jay FK takes the opportunity to help things break down as Kaspin and Skillet go flying, with Francis hitting a flip senton off the top to the pile on the floor.
Dragan tries to capitalise when Avalanche rolled back in, but his DDT is nowhere near enough. Nor is the Bronco buster, as Avalanche just squashes him in the corner as a Parade of Moves breaks out, ending with Avalanche eating a side Russian legsweep and a split-legged moonsault from Sitoci. Like Tass, I have no idea who the legal man is here…
The neckbreaker/double stomp combo from Jay FK keeps things rolling, but Nero storms in with Wasteland to Dragan, only to take a Snapmare Driver from Sitoci. Dragan accidentally nails his own man, thinking it was anyone else, and rather than capitalise on the distracted Dragan, Jay FK tried to go for Avalanche.
Bad idea: he just dumps the pair of them with a Samoan drop at the same time, as Dragan then takes a Final Consultation (double-team Go To Sleep), before his former Cerberus pals pin him for the win. An enjoyable outing, but parts of this didn’t click much with me – that whole finishing series felt a little hurried, but this (and their match on Shotgun this week) at least established the Nero/Avalanche tandem. ***
wXw Women’s Championship Tournament: Jinny vs. Martina
We’re down to the final few matches here, but with Martina already in the finals, all she can do is play spoiler – and look to get revenge for the loss she suffered in Bielefeld last month. They translated Martina’s entrance into German – and not just the “leaving her 42 kids at home” part either. It’s not like I should be surprised at wXw’s attention to detail.
Martina needs a drink before she can face Jinny, but she spends too long playing to the crowd and Martina’s nearly rolled up for the flash pin! We’re joined by WALTER on commentary, which is throwing up so many questions – and out of the gate, WALTER’s throwing shade in Martina’s way for not taking it seriously.
In the ring, Jinny blocks a dive with a high kick, then drags Martina outside for some chops around the front row. Martina fights back though, and takes Jinny back in… only to get caught on the top rope and thrown down as Jinny took over once more. A stalling suplex looks to get Martina back in it, but she’s showboating again with some dancing that disgusts WALTER. Of course, Jinny outsmarts her and almost makes her pay for that time wasting, before she gets caught in a Tarantula-ish hold in the corner.
In the middle of that, Martina got another drink, which she eventually sprays at Jinny before a Stunner almost does it. Martina ducks a Rainmaker and hits a Rock Bottom, before trying again for the People’s Elbow… but an up-kick from Jinny cuts it off again. She tries for a Pedigree, which Jinny again avoids and counters with a Rainmaker. Regardless, Martina was never too far from it, and after avoiding the Makeover (middle rope X Factor), Martina heads up top and gets off a missile dropkick (rather than the top-rope lungblower) to snatch the win. Pretty decent stuff, with Martina solidifying her spot in the finals after a fairly short outing. **¾
In case anyone from wXw is reading: this match has made me want to hear WALTER do more guest commentary. Especially for matches involving wackier characters… perhaps an idea for an upcoming wXw NOW series?
With just one match left in the round-robin portion of the tournament, here’s the standings:
1. Martina (4-2; 12pts)
2. Melanie Gray (3-3; 9pts) ***
3. Jinny (2-3; 6pts) **
4. Killer Kelly (2-3; 6pts) *
* Killer Kelly replaced the injured Pauline and takes her record going forward; ** Jinny was awarded a win via forfeit over Melanie Gray as the scheduled match over World Tag Team League weekender couldn’t happen due to injury; *** Melanie Gray was awarded a win via forfeit over Jinny as their scheduled match on November 11 in Lippstadt didn’t happen due to travel issues
Those travel issues for Jinny, ironically, seem to have cost her a spot in the final: at best, Jinny can only tie with Melanie Gray on 9 points (if she beats Killer Kelly on the tour stop in Fulda). However, the tournament’s tie-break rules mean that whomever won last between any tied participants wins out… and since Jinny had to forfeit the last match with Melanie, she’s out. Harsh, but those are the breaks!
Ladder Match for wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Chris Colen vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger (c)
For the second year in a row, ladders were in play for a Broken Rules main event – and perhaps Chris Colen tempted fate by climbing a ladder on the stage during his entrance?
WALTER’s still on commentary for the main event, which started with Colen instantly going outside for a ladder… but Bones just as quickly shoves it back under the ring as he looks to throw Colen into the ringposts. Bones took it onto the stage, where Colen reverses a suplex as he finally grabs the ladder there… but he’s again thwarted as Bones just slams him onto the ladder instead. After heading back to the ring, Bones finds a ladder – but it’s only half of one, so he can’t climb it by himself. Instead, Tarkan Aslan comes out to help hold it up, but it’s laughably too short, and all it’s good for is for Tarkan to play Terry Funk with it. Except all it does is dizzy himself as Colen gets rid of the Young Lion with a superkick.
More weapons come in as Colen pops the back of a chair on Bad Bones’ back, before going back to the stage for that big ladder. Bones stays on top though, throwing himself into Colen with a low-pe as WALTER correctly notes that we’re watching a fight as opposed to a wrestling match. That point’s underlined more as Bones collects chairs, arranging them in a circle by ringside… but that’s left for later.
After Bones stopped himself from running into a ladder in the corner, Colen plants him with a uranage – and we finally see our first attempt at climbing a ladder… interrupted by Ivan Kiev, who plants Colen with a leg lariat off the top rope before removing the ladder. Yep, RISE is playing the numbers game again!
Colen gets revenge with a uranage to Kiev, who he then tries to put through some chairs… only to decide to throw him to the outside as Bones returned to back body drop him through those chairs instead, as Bones goes back to the pile of chairs he’d built at ringside… which WALTER correctly labels as “dangerous”.
Bones tries to climb the ladder, but Colen catches him up top as the pair punch it out… leading to Bones getting knocked into another ladder in the corner, which rebounds him back towards Colen, sending the Austrian challenger crashing off the original ladder, seemingly busting open Colen’s eye as the match quickly veered towards the dangerous, when Colen dropped Bones on his shoulder with a German suplex.
The ladders come into play as Wrecking Ball knees sent Colen into one ladder, before he was DDT’d onto another, giving Bones more time to continue on that piece of art he was making with chairs – and it’s clear he’s done with it, as the champion teased taking Colen through the pile. He didn’t do it, so the crowd mock Bones for having “No balls”.
They’re insane.
To prove it, Bones teases superplexing Colen into the pile, but the Austrian frees himself and instead ends up shoving Bones off the apron and into that pile. Before Colen can capitalise on that, Ivan Kiev and Tarkan Aslan hit the ring again… until Ilja Dragunov comes out to repay Colen for earlier! A double clothesline gets rid of Kiev and Aslan as WALTER loses his mind, before Colen hits a plancha tope into them outside.
For some reason Bad Bones takes out Ilja with a double arm DDT, but that just gave Colen a chance to arm himself – and that he did, as he smashed a kneeling Bones with a chair. Rather bizarrely, Colen sets up a ladder bridge and props Bones onto the bridge… so he can target Bones’ hand with another chairshot as Colen thought he’d be able to just grab the title…
But Bones gets up and counters… only to get punched in the balls as he falls off into the ladder bridge! Colen still can’t get the title, as just as he was about to grab it… the belt rises?! We see that Da Mack was on the balcony, pulling the rope that held the belt taut… so the title rises out of reach just as the rest of RISE hit the ring. Da Mack joins them with a springboard Mack Magic cutter off the ladder, and despite Bad Bones being flat on his back, it looks elementary – even more so as Da Mack marched Bones up the ladder on his shoulders, enabling the RISE leader to capture the belt and retain his championship.
This was fine for a main event – not too heavy on the wacky, career-shortening bumps, as they continue to solidify Bad Bones as unstoppable with RISE behind him. Let’s be honest – RISE always play the numbers game, so we shouldn’t have expected anything different here. ***½
It seems to me that the only way they’ll be able to stop any RISE interference is with some kind of wall… Hey, don’t wXw usually bust out the Käfigschlacht (cage match) in the new year?
The show ended with Ilja Dragunov staring down Bones and RISE from the ring, as Broken Rules came to an end. An exciting event from top to bottom – with RINGKAMPF stepping out of their comfort zone perhaps being the most memorable part of the show, along with Da Mack again saving Bad Bones’ title, this time taking inspiration from the 1999 King of the Ring. Except we actually found out who dunnit!
It’s business as usual for wXw: good wrestling, solid storylines and everything wrapped up in a tidy package. You might not like how RISE are running roughshod, but you can’t help but admire the bigger picture that’s being maintained here.