Axel Tischer bid farewell to wXw back in 2015 as his last match before NXT saw him team up with Franz Engel to take on the Schilds.
Quick Results
John Klinger pinned Marius al-Ani in 11:09 (***)
Robert Dreissker pinned Ivan Kiev in 5:48 (**¼)
The Rotation, Big Daddy Walter & Axel Dieter Jr. pinned Kevin Roadster, Marius von Beethoven & Karsten Beck in 17:41 (***¼)
Ilja Dragunov pinned Da Mack to retain the wXw Shotgun Championship in 7:00 (***)
Absolute Andy pinned Kim Ray in 15:14 (***¼)
Axel Tischer & Franz Engel pinned Vincent the Beast & Bobby Gunns in 12:39 (***¼)
Nope, I had no idea where Apolda was before this show… it’s the end of a three-day weekender that spanned two countries, as we’re in the Stadthalle in the town of Apolda, which is between Leipzig and Erfurt if you’re familiar with Thüringen. Christian Bischof and Tassilo Jung are on headsets to start…
John Klinger vs. Marius Al-Ani
Klinger picked up an early one-count from a shoulder tackle, before al-Ani made some headway with armdrags.
A dropkick keeps Klinger down, before the pair traded pinning attempts ahead of a standoff. Marius kicks Klinger to avoid a back body drop, then scored a slingshot sunset flip for a one-count as the local lad continued to look for an upset.
Klinger’s right back out of the corner with a shoulder block, before he took Marius in for some mounted punches. They’re shoved away momentarily though, before a back body drop took Marius down for a two-count. Marius is quickly back with a bridging German suplex for a one-count, then a scoop slam after he’d sidestepped Klinger coming off the ropes.
A flying ‘rana keeps Klinger down, but Bad Bones goes back to the shoulder tackles before coming close to the win from a crossbody. Marius’ short-range clothesline dumps Klinger after the pace had quickened, while a side suplex kept Marius ahead, leading to a diving uppercut to the back for another two-count.
Klinger goes for a dive, and wipes out al-Ani at the second attempt… a missile dropkick back inside continues the turnaround, until Klinger ran into a leg lariat as Marius almost picked up the shock win there. Klinger manages to catch Marius with almost a inverted uranage, following up with a Decapitation kick for a near-fall, while another bridging German suplex nearly wins it for Marius again as we crossed the ten-minute mark.
al-Ani heads up top but gets delayed by Klinger… who brings him down with an avalanche Codebreaker instead. That’s good for a near-fall, before Klinger added a buckle bomb and the Wrecking Ball knees for the win in a decent opener, with Marius getting way more than I’d expected coming in. ***
Ivan Kiev vs. Robert Dreissker
I have a bad feeling about this for Ivan…
The opening lock-up sees Dreissker throw Kiev aside, trapping him in the corner with some body blows until the referee forced a separation. Kiev looked to fight back with a RVD-esque springboard kick, before he landed on his feet out of a back body drop and added some more kicks… only for Dreissker to lay him out with a clothesline.
Dreissker catches a springboard crossbody and turns it into a slam for a two-count, before Kiev sidestepped a charge in the corner and began a fightback… which ended with a swift back elbow as Dreissker caught him off the ropes. A back senton squashes Kiev seconds later for a near-fall, but Ivan keeps chipping away with forearms before a dropkick took Dreissker outside.
Kiev leaps into Dreissker with a crossbody off the top to the floor, before a frog splash back inside almost got the unlikeliest of wins. In the end though, Dreissker’s able to catch Ivan with a Samoan drop for a near-fall, before he pulled him into the Boulder Dash for the win. **¼
Karsten Beck & Reich Und Schön (Kevin Roadster & Marius van Beethoven) vs. Axel Dieter Jr., Big Daddy Walter & The Rotation
A motley crew taking on Karsten Beck’s lads here – and Beck wants no part of Walter early on as they’re keeping that feud going after Carat.
Beck immediately backs off into the corner on a wristlock, tagging in Marius van Beethoven… then provided a distraction as Reich und Schön briefly double-teamed Walter. At least until he hit a double clothesline, some boots, and the old fashioned noggin knocker. A stalling suplex followed for Marius, who then had to deal with uppercuts from Axel Dieter Jr.
Axel’s single-leg dropkick keeps van Beethoven on the back foot as Rotation came in to add to Marius’ woes with armdrags. Walter threatens to make Marius’ bad day worse, but an eye rake gets Marius free as Kevin Roadster was tagged in to take a kicking. Literally.
Junior’s back in to keep things ticking along, trapping Kevin with a bridging hammerlock on the mat, until Karsten Beck came in to stomp it apart. Walter’s stopped from making a save, so Kevin began to pick up the pace with a bodyslam before Beck returned to take down Junior with back elbows off the ropes.
Marius is back to hit a bodyslam for a two-count, then a back elbow of his own, but another Junior uppercut finds its way through as Rotation got the tag back in. Some step-up headscissors have Marius on the ropes, as did some handstand headscissors, before Beck came in behind the ref’s back to lay out Rotation with a right hand.
Kicks from the Rotation offered some hope, but Beck countered some headscissors by lawndarting Rotation into the middle turnbuckle. Marius returns to get a two-count out of a suplex on Rotation, before the camera just about caught a roll-up that Kevin broke up. Beck tags himself in behind the ref’s back to dump Rotation with another slam, while Kevin returned and grounded Rotation with a chinlock.
Beck calls orders from the apron as Rotation’s double-teamed some more, before he broke free with a headlock/headscissors takedown. Kevin accidentally bucklebombs Marius as Rotation again escaped, then finally got the hot tag to Walter, who ran wild with boots to Reich und Schön. A DDT/stunner combo leaves them laying briefly, before Beck came in… and got squashed with an Earthquake splash from Walter.
The champion’s met with a suplex next as Walter picked up a two-count, before Junior came in… and got knocked onto the top rope by van Beethoven and Kevin amid a Blockbuster attempt. Beck goes back to a slam from there, but took way too long to follow up and gets caught with a superplex. A rare superkick from Walter takes out Beck, before Kevin and van Beethoven got dealt with… Junior adds the Blockbuster to Kevin, while Rotation’s Victory over Gravity got the win. This was one of those “a lot of leeway’s given as far as the legal man before the finish” stretches, with Karsten’s crew taking the loss in the end. ***¼
Next up, Kim Ray’s in the ring with a pipe wrench. He brings up the two matches he’s had with Absolute Andy over the weekend, which had less-than clear finishes. He’s what’d a lot by the crowd, and is eventually interrupted by Absolute Andy as we have a pullapart with referees separating them until Kim Ray used the pipe wrench to take out Andy’s knee. They’ll face off later…
wXw Shotgun Championship: Da Mack vs. Ilja Dragunov (c)
Mack looked to control the pace early on, going for a wristlock, then a waistlock as Dragunov ended up breaking free both times.
Mack manages to take down Ilja with some headscissors, but he ends up running into a punch before more headscissors took Ilja into the corner. Dragunov absorbs shots in the corner, then used a Torpedo Moscau-like header to knock away Mack’s springboard out of the corner.
Dragunov absorbs more shots in order to give some of his own, but got caught in a front facelock… he blocks a tornado DDT though, then hit a backfist to take down Mack, following up with some mudhole stomping in the corner. A side headlock from Mack’s thrown aside, but Mack lands on his feet and came back with a neckbreaker, before he Moonwalked his way into a back suplex.
Ilja stays ahead with a suplex for a two-count, before a Greetings from Moscow lariat was ducked. Mack tries to turn it around from there, going for a Mack Magic cutter, but it’s pushed away as Dragunov landed that Greetings from Moscow lariat for the win. Short and sweet as Dragunov swept Mack aside. ***
Absolute Andy vs. Kim Ray
These two went 1-1 over the weekend, albeit with a count-out and DQ win…
Andy and Kim meet on the ramp, with Andy chucking Kim down to the floor as the pair fought around ringside. Eventually they make it inside as the match formally started with Andy chopping Kim into the corner, following up with a back body drop and some right hands as Kim just couldn’t get going.
The referee separates the pair, allowing Kim to sneak in with a dropkick to the same knee he’d attacked earlier in the night… and there’s your turnaround. Kim goes after that knee like a dog with a bone, wrapping it around the rope and dropkicking it for good measure, before he wrapped it around the ring post.
Kicks from Kim see him kick Andy’s leg out of his leg, while a dropkick snuffed out a comeback attempt. Andy chops back, but again Kim goes to the leg, eventually adding a Figure Four – and some cheating in the ropes – before Andy was able to roll the hold over.
Ray tries to stay ahead with an Exploder, but Andy elbows it away before he tried to go for a Sharpshooter. It’s fought off as Kim managed to regain the upper hand, going back to the knee in the corner. A boot out of the corner led to a spinebuster as Andy bought himself some recovery time, following up with right hands, a slam and an Absolute knee drop for a delayed near-fall.
Kim lands on his feet amid a F5 attempt and charges back with a STO to try and steal a win, before an attempted superplex was pushed away. At the second attempt, Andy knocks Kim down and joins him with an elbow drop off the top… but it jarred the knee too much and Andy couldn’t go for a cover. Instead, he cues up for a superkick, only for Kim to pull referee Ronny Rudolph into harm’s way.
With no ref, Kim hits an Exploder… but Kim does the stupid thing and goes for a cover despite literally pulling the referee into the path of a superkick seconds earlier. Heading outside, Kim pulls a chair apart from the front row and chucks it into the ring… but Andy kicks away the chair and rolls Kim into a Sharpshooter. Of course, Kim taps, but Andy doesn’t immediately let go.
When Andy did, he eyes up the chair, but instead pulled out the pipe wrench from under the ring. The wrench is used to spin Kim to the mat, before hitting a F5 in time for Tassilo Jung to run down the aisle and slide under the bottom rope to count the three count. ***¼
Axel Tischer & Franz Engel vs. Die Schilds (Bobby Gunns & Vincent The Beast)
This was the Axeman’s final match in wXw before heading off to NXT… and we’ve got the thick end of half an hour left on the VOD, but I suspect there’s a fairly lengthy farewell speech for me to skip over as we’re in the pre-subtitles era of wXw.
Engel and Gunns start us off, with Engel getting shoved to the mat from the opening lockup, before Vinny the Beast tagged in. Engel’s dropkicks barely fazed him, but headscissors did as Tischer tagged in and hit a delayed suplex for barely a one-count. Some double-teaming allows Tischer to hit a slam before he dumped Engel onto Vinny… and then they turned their sights on Gunns for a spell.
Vinny’s back as more double-teaming ends with Tischer having his own partner powerbombed into him, allowing the Schilds to stomp away on Engel for a spell. A Dragon screw from Gunns take Engel down for a two-count, before Vinny came in and antagonised Tischer into… creating a distraction as Engel took another kicking.
A side suplex followed from Vinny, then a clothesline as Engel was having trouble getting back into things. Vinny takes Franz back to the corner as Gunns tagged in to hit some uppercuts, before Engel’s comeback was cut off with Gunns’ boot and a cheapshot from Vinny on the apron. Another dropkick from Engel bought him time, but Vinny charges Tischer off the apron as the Schilds again got their kicks in – threatening still to ruin Tischer’s farewell.
Engel tries to take down Vinny with a crossbody, but it’s countered into a slam for a two-count, before Engel escaped a double-team, landing a swinging DDT before finally tagging in Tischer. The Axeman runs wild with swinging clotheslines and chops, before he blocked an attempted O’Connor roll from Gunns.
A boot gets Tischer a two-count as he then brought Engel back in to hit a Rocket Launcher onto Gunns for a near-fall. Vinny breaks it up, then chucks Tischer outside as we’re back to double-teaming Engel with a wild step-up dropkick into him in the corner from Gunns. An Alabama Slam/German suplex combo gets Gunns a near-fall as Tischer breaks up the pin, while a spear took care of him again.
Engel tries for some headscissors, but Vinny blocks them as Gunns came back with a dropkick… only for Tischer to intervene as Engel almost nicks the win with a roll-up. Tischer tags back in from there, hitting a flying clothesline off the top to Gunns before Vinny’s grounded lariat kept the Parade of Moves going. A low bridge and gamengiri took Vinny outside, with Engel joining them by way of a moonsault off the top, before Vinny was rolled back in to take a Ligerbomb from Tischer for the win. ***¼
Post-match, the entire roster came out to cheer off Tischer, who had his customary speech… once they figured out how to fix the mic, before the roster hit the ring for hugs and to throw Tischer into the air to celebrate.
All in all, the Apolda show was what it was – a show that was highlighted by Axel Tischer’s farewell, with little else going on as we had over a month to go until wXw’s next showcase event.