We’ve got two familiar faces in the final block A match of the week as Avalanche and Metehan lock horns.
Nico, Dään and Hektor Invictus are on the panel once more… but Hektor isn’t gloating about his correct prediction yesterday, particularly since it meant Cara Noir leapfrogs him in the standings. Hektor’s hopeful of beating Cara Noir when they meet, as it’ll boost his spot…
They move onto today’s match, mentioning Metehan’s wins in Kutenholz and in the Shotgun title tournament. Of course, Hektor lost to Metehan in the finals of that tournament – and suggests that Avalanche won’t lose three in a row.
Backstage, Andy Jackson’s with Metehan… and is already on the defensive when he brought up how Metehan had “help” to beat Avalanche in the past. Meanwhile, Avalanche is much more mild-mannered, even when they brought up that recent past. Avalanche notes that Metehan’s “foot boys” aren’t allowed at ringside, so it’ll finally be a fair fight.
Catch Grand Prix 2020 – Block A: Metehan vs. Avalanche
Metehan gets “Eeyore” chants because of the Ezel/esel/donkey thing…
Round 1: It’s far from a measured start here, with Avalanche and Metehan raking each other’s eyes to start with. That’s a pair of €20 fines right there. Avalanche goes back with a waistlock, then a full nelson that Metehan tries to break out of… and when he does, Avalanche just switches the hold to a side headlock. That turns into a takedown, but Metehan fights up and throws Avalanche shoulder-first into the corner, before landing some leaping forearms… but a nice back body drop propels Metehan skyward, before a Beele hurls Metehan into the corner. There’s a shoulder-tackle after the bell, but that doesn’t get a warning because the move was in progress…
Round 2: Metehan starts by trying for a low dropkick, but he misses as Avalanche splashed him for a two-count. Elbows and forearms keep the Shotgun champion down, before Avalanche chokes Metehan in the corner… which led to a yellow card as Metehan was baiting Avalanche into fines and bookings. Some shots from Metehan just earned him an elbow strike, before a chinlock keeps him down, at least until there was a rope break, which Avalanche adhered to. Still, he comes back with some kicks and an Irish whip, but Metehan avoids a splash into the corner, only for his slingshot DDT to get caught and turned into a fallaway slam. A corner splash follows, but Metehan lands a low dropkick from there, before some Danielson elbows looked to force a KO… only for Metehan to rake the eyes once more as time runs out. That gets him a yellow card as well…
Round 3: Avalanche elbows and clotheslines Metehan to start, but can’t get a Samoan drop going as Metehan threw him outside. Rolling back in, Avalanche eats a springboard dropkick, then a springboard DDT for a near-fall. Metehan keeps on top of him with slaps, before an overhead chop to the chest and more trash talking wound up Avalanche into throttling him… with Metehan smiling as he “directed” the choke and watched as a second yellow card was issued. There’s another €50 fine as Avalanche argues, which meant the ref misses a low blow from Metehan, with the Evil Eye landing… but Avalanche rolled a shoulder up at two… so Metehan chokes Avalanche before getting the three-count. A rather unsatisfying end to a match that saw Metehan bait his opponent – and Avalanche fall for all the dirty tricks en route to an expensive loss.
Result: Metehan pinned Avalanche at 2:23 of Round 3 (***¼)
Post-match, Nico Schmidt interviews Metehan, who’s up to joint third place with that win… but of course, the talk of the future match with Bobby Gunns is top of the agenda. Metehan threatens Nico for that, then demanded that he repeat that he’d beaten Avalanche three times in a year.
Meanwhile, Avalanche was angry at how all of those losses to Metehan this year were far from clean, and also felt aggrieved by the dodgy officiating. I’ll say! Of course, all this means that Avalanche’s lost his top spot in the group, but with a week off, Avalanche has plenty of time to stew before his final two matches: against Bobby Gunns, then Anil Marik.
Before we wrap up, we’ve got referee Tassilo Jung addressing Avalanche’s complaints. Tass mentioned how Avalanche was prone to losing his temper in matches, and that all of the yellow cards going both ways were justified. Andy Jackson brought up the low blow that Tass missed though, which caught the referee by surprise… so Tass took responsibility and offers an apology for missing that shot right to the ding-ding. I wouldn’t want this after every match with dodgy calls, but having the officials explaining their decisions was a nice touch given the sports-like presentation wXw’s gunning for here.
Standings
Block A
Bobby Gunns (3-0; 6pts)
Avalanche (2-1-1; 5pts)
Cara Noir, Metehan (2-1; 4pts)
Hektor Invictus (1-1-1; 3pts)
Fast Time Moodo (1-3; 2pts)
Anil Marik (0-4; 0pts)
Block B
Senza Volto (3-0; 6pts)
Marius al-Ani (2-0; 4pts)
Tristan Archer (2-1; 4pts)
Prince Ahura (1-1; 2pts)
Vincent Heisenberg (1-2; 2pts)
Emil Sitoci (0-2; 0pts)
Norman Harras (0-3; 0pts)
Disciplinary: €2265 of fines; sixteen yellow cards and one red card.
On Thursday, block B kicks off for the week with Prince Ahura taking on Senza Volto.