wXw’s annual Femmes Fatales tournament provided a welcome distraction from all the tag matches… and something rare for Dirty Dragan!
48 hours before the start of the tournament, wXw announced that Pauline would be forced to miss the tournament, and the remainder of the Women’s Championship Tournament through injury. With no replacement forthcoming here, Wesna earned a bye to the semi-finals.
We opened with a video package not unlike the one heralding the Women’s Championship Tournament, before Verena Fischer kicked us off. Christian Michael Jakobi’s got a trophy, and that led to the traditional parade of entrants.
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Quarter-Final: Toni Storm vs. Jinny
A nice spot of ground wrestling gets us going, as Jinny and Toni’s early series blew up when Jinny decided to go for a ‘rana. Jinny enjoyed the opening spell on offence, hitting a suplex for a near-fall before she literally walked over her.
Toni finally mounts a comeback, powerbombing Jinny into the corner before a hip attack and a Northern Lights earned her a two-count, but Jinny hit back quickly with a Makeover out of the corner. Toni kicked out at two, so Jinny pounds her, only to run into a Rainmaker boot, a German suplex and the Strong Zero piledriver for the win. Fun stuff to get us going! ***
The crowd cheered for the confirmation of Jinny’s elimination. Funny that.
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Quarter-Final: Viper vs. Melanie Gray
Viper tried to bull through Gray early, but Mella stood firm before sidestepping the Scotswoman. A missed back senton from Gray meant that she was vulnerable for one from Viper, and that’s where the offence spawned.
Gray looked to have little answer for Viper’s power, eating an avalanche in the corner before a cannonball took her down once more. A Vader bomb out of the corner misses, and that opened the game back up for Gray, who returns fire with forearms. Once she hit the back senton, a top rope senton bomb crushes Viper for a near-fall as the match remained open.
Gray keeps up the offence with a spear onto the apron, knocking Viper down to the floor, but the Scotswoman came back, catching Gray with a powerbomb out of the corner, then a Viper Driver to ensure the win. That’s both women in the championship tournament match later tonight out here in the first round! **¾
Like last year, these matches are proving to be pretty short, but pretty good for the time they’re getting.
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Quarter-Final: Killer Kelly vs. Laura Di Matteo
Lots of kicks early from Laura, who had the Portuguese Kelly reeling with an early enziguiri, but the debuting Killer Kelly fires back with kicks of her own – including a diving dropkick into the corner.
Both women are sporting MMA-inspired characters, which makes this a nice stylistic match-up, but Kelly appeared to be the favourite in Oberhausen. Kelly throws forearms to take Laura down, but instead a kick does the job before some rolling Germans gets her a two-count.
Kelly tries for a ripcord kick to the head, but Laura escapes into a comeback, landing a springboard dropkick for a near-fall. Laura tries to drag Kelly into her grounded Octopus, but it’s fought out of, but that only delayed things as a swift Russian legsweep downed the Portuguese Killer, and into that Octopus for the submission. Fun, but short. It won the crowd over, to the point where her merchandise table had LONG queues before the evening show. I’d like to see more of Kelly, but she’s got some decent stuff in her arsenal. **¾
Before interval, Christian Michael Jakobi heads out. He announced that the winner of the Femmes Fatales tournament would get a shot at the Women’s Championship at Back to the Roots in January 2018. He then made a further announcement, of a matinee show during 16 Carat weekend called #WrestlingDeutschland. It’ll be held on March 10, featuring matches from various German promotions… and the GWF had an open invitation pitched to them here as well.
For those wondering, yes the AMBITION tournament will still be happening. Three shows in one day in Oberhausen. That is going to be an insane day of wrestling.
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Semi-Final: Viper vs. Laura di Matteo
With only the interval behind her, Laura’s back out for this semi-final – and she’s having to use her speed to outfox Viper… who willingly threw bombs her way.
Viper toyed with, then squished di Matteo with a back senton. A brief comeback ended when a missile dropkick missed, before a tornado DDT was countered into a release Northern Lights as Viper seemed to be coasting to victory.
The diving crossbody and back senton nearly did it for Viper, but she misses a back senton off the middle rope and that sparks another comeback. A missile dropkick connects from Laura, as does a tornado DDT, but it’s not enough as Viper resisted an Irish whip and quickly pulled Laura into a Viper Driver to book her spot in the final. Fun David vs. Goliath stuff, especially with the time they had. ***
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Semi-Final: Toni Storm vs. Wesna
Wesna got a pretty good reaction, then flipped off the crowd for chanting for Toni. They deserved it.
Toni quickly knocked Wesna to the outside for a suicide dive, but Wesna fought back… only to get put in a chair and kicked out of it by the Aussie as they fought in the crowd. Things quickly got insane when Storm suplexed Wesna onto some chairs in the third row – and these weren’t folding chairs either!
Finally they got back inside where Wesna choked Toni on the bottom rope, but Storm kicked back as the pair exchanged suplexes for fun, before a ripcord into a back heel kick almost got Toni her spot in the final. Wesna kicked out though, before blocking a Strong Zero piledriver and almost winning it with a Tiger Driver. Storm found enough to kick out though, then headbutt and deliver a back cracker to the veteran… except Wesna caught her up top and dragged her down with a death valley driver for a 2.999 count from Tassilo Jung!
A back body drop gets Wesna out of a Strong Zero, but again it just delays things as Storm finally hit it – and booked her spot in the final. Easily the best so far on this show, and wonderful stuff that went all over the place. ***½
Jaxon Stone heads out for some non-tournament action (of course). He’s getting a good heel reaction just for being here. He reckons he’s the most talented and beautiful on show today… we’ll be the judge of that! He’s upset there’s a whole show dedicated to women’s wrestling, when there’s not one for him. He’s quickly interrupted by Dragan, who has a mic too.
Dragan stands up for women’s wrestling, or more precisely, women.
Jaxon Stone vs. Dirty Dragan
This is our 3,200th match of the year… oh lord. Jaxon and Dragan take turns to do the coat gimmick, before Dragan slaps away Jaxon’s taunt. Whatever works!
After spanking Stone, who tripped coming back into the ring, Dragan hits a leaping hip attack, before throwing another few hip attacks. Hopefully Toni uses some of hers in the main event? A leaping sit-down splash follows before he gets knocked down as he went for “a big ass off the top” as Stone mounts a comeback.
Jaxon throws in some hair-mares, before a handstand ‘rana out of the corner took Dragan down for a near-fall. A Thesz press gets Dragan back in, but things get a little farcical as the reversals led to the ref being rolled around, as Stone then missed a sit-down splash of his own.
Dragan makes him Eat Defeat, leaving the American in the corner for… a missed Bronco Buster as Stone comes back with a fallaway slam for a two-count. Stone went under the ring for some pillows. Dragan of course no-sells it, because it’s a damned pillow, not a chair. Dragan sneakily moves the pillow so he lands on it during a DDT, and that allowed him to dump Jaxon with a DDT of his own for the win to “save women’s wrestling”. Farcical, but good comedy – especially since the slew of withdrawals reduced whatever chance we had for another women’s match on this show. **½
Hey, Dragan gets a win!
Femmes Fatales 2017 – Final: Viper vs. Toni Storm
You’ll not notice this on the VOD, but Toni’s been using Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” here. That usually is the signal for me to leave a certain show…
Anyway, the winner of this gets the first shot at the new/uncrowned wXw Women’s Champion in the new year at Back To The Roots, and we start with Viper working over Storm’s arm. A hammerlock’s easily escaped, as Viper tries to pin Storm with some knuckle locks, but that doesn’t work as they run through the neck bridge spot before shaking hands… and a headbutt for good measure.
Viper snapmares Storm out of the corner and into a stranglehold, before she set about flattening Toni with a back senton and a big splash. That’s only good for a two count, as Storm countered a Viper Driver into a back cracker, before escaping from a cannonball into the corner. A single hip attack left Viper down, but the Scotswoman elbows free of a German suplex and hits a backdrop suplex instead.
Storm rebounds with a German suplex off the middle rope, but the Strong Zero doesn’t quite do it as Viper’s got something left in the tank! A Viper Driver follows for a 2.99 count from Tassilo Jung, so she tries to beat down Toni with headbutts, only to get dropped with a ripcord spinning heel kick instead! A swandive headbutt then get the win, and Toni Storm gets the trophy – and the title shot! Fun stuff to end the show with – and a hard fought final too! ***¼
Overall, Femmes Fatales was a good, compact show – well under two hours long with interval… if you want long matches, this isn’t the show for you, but if you don’t care about that… then this is well worth a watch if only to see some different faces. It’ll be up on wXwNOW.de on Monday!