Block A comes to a head today as the Catch Grand Prix sees both of wXw’s male singles champions collide.
Anything but a loss for Metehan today will send him through to Sunday’s Catch Grand Prix final – but the history book shows that Metehan, under his old name, has never beaten Gunns one-on-one, having lost in all of five prior attempts. Remember, the winner of the block gets at least 20% of the prize pool (60% if they win the tournament), while whoever ends as block runner up gets just the 10% of the €7,000 pot. No word on where the €4k-and-growing fines are going…
For the final time this week, Fast Time Moodo joins Nico and Dään on the preview panel. Nico calls this a match between “business partners, friends, and maybe soon, enemies” before running down the block as Dään goes through the remaining permutations. A win for Bobby Gunns means it’ll be he and Cara Noir representing the block in the final, anything else and it’s Metehan winning the block.
Fast Time Moodo wonders out loud if there’s been any deals done – or whether someone will take a dive. He notes that Bobby’s never lost to Metehan before, but there’s a first time for everything. He picks Metehan, by the way…
As for the pre-match promos, Metehan’s pissed that Bobby went against his word – that he’s a taker, not a giver. Metehan reiterates that he’s going to win this for the sake of his family… and again, we hear nothing from Bobby Gunns, who rejected his opportunity for an interview. Hmm.
Catch Grand Prix 2020 – Block A: Metehan vs. Bobby Gunns
Round 1: Gunns and Metehan stared each other down before the bell… when we get going, they both expect the other to lay down, before Gunns pulls the referee in front of him when it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. Prince Ahura tries to run in to attack Metehan, but Norman Harras rushes in to trip him as those two get into an argument. Someone’s gonna be in the dog house…
The match breaks down before it can even get going, before Ahura hook kicked the referee. Markus Weiss comes in to wave off the “match”.
Result: Bobby Gunns and Metehan went to a double disqualification at 1:31 of Round 1 (NR)
In the melee, it’s announced that the match was a double DQ, which gives both men a point. Rotation, Feyyaz Aguila and even Alexander Buchholz – who was dragged away from his office desk to be impromptu security – were among the crew trying to settle things down.
Andy Jackson tries to get a word with Bobby Gunns, but gets shooed away as Metehan realises what’s happened. He lays out Andy as he loses his temper, as they throw up the final standings. Metehan may have finished joint top of the block, but losing to Cara Noir at the start of the tournament means he finishes second on tie-breakers… and so does not make Sunday’s final. That means Metehan gets just the €700 share of the prize pot – which doesn’t even cover the fines that he’d racked up in the interim!
Standings
Block A – Final
Cara Noir (4-1-1; 9pts)
Metehan (4-1-1; 9pts)
Avalanche (3-1-2; 8pts)
Bobby Gunns (3-1-2; 8pts)
Fast Time Moodo (2-4; 4pts)
Hektor Invictus (1-4-1; 3pts)
Anil Marik (0-5-1; 1pt)
Block B
Marius al-Ani (5-0; 10pts)
Tristan Archer (4-1; 8pts)
Senza Volto (4-2; 8pts) * eliminated
Prince Ahura (2-3; 4pts) * eliminated
Norman Harras; Vincent Heisenberg; Emil Sitoci (1-4; 2pts) * eliminated
Disciplinary: €4155 of fines; thirty yellow cards and one red card.
Tomorrow, we start the final matches of block B as Prince Ahura takes on Emil Sitoci – and I suspect there’ll be some implications from what we saw today for Ahura!