Los Tranquilos de Japon hit Oberhausen for a special main event as the Pro Wrestling Grand Prix entered its second day.
Quick Results
World Tag Team Tournament Quarter-Final: Marc Empire & Robert Dreissker pinned Kuro & Mecca in 10:34 (***)
König Der Catcher Block B: Adam Priest submitted Joseph Fenech Jr. in 15:24 (***½)
Femmes Fatales 2025 Quarter-Final: Safire Reed pinned Stephanie Maze in 8:55 (***)
World Tag Team Tournament Quarter-Final: Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini pinned Vilmos Gulyas & Gulyas Jr. in 11:36 (***¼)
König Der Catcher Block A: Elijah Blum pinned Bobby Gunns in 10:21 (**)
Femmes Fatales 2025 Quarter-Final: Anita Vaughan pinned Emersyn Jayne in 11:10 (***)
Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI pinned Rambo & Metehan in 14:09 (**¼)
— In the next week or so, I’ll be chatting about this show with Mike Kilby on the Auf Die Fresse podcast. Links to stream that episode when it drops, as well as back episodes are available at AufDieFresse.co.uk
We’re back inside the Turbinenhalle for the second of three shows that day – since the Extreme Wrestling Party started after midnight. English commentary for this matinee-like slot comes from Dave Bradshaw and Ricky Slatter once more.
World Tag Team Tournament Quarter-Final: Hype Dawgs (Kuro & Mecca) vs. Planet Gojirah (Marc Empire & Robert Dreissker)
We’ve got some big lads and Kuro in our opener…
Kuro’s charged down early on by Empire, who couldn’t quite do the same thing to Mecca… but a quick tag to bring Kuro back in had the Hype Dawgs on the back foot almost immediately. Fortunately, Kuro was able to get back into it as he took Dreissker outside for a plancha… before he got popped up onto the side of the apron seconds later.
Back in the ring, Dreissker found himself cornered by Mecca and Kuro for a spell… and when his crossbody out of the corner came up short, things continued to look bleak. At least until Empire came in and squashed Kuro in the corner with some splashes.
Mecca tries to turn it back around, with an assisted Big Ending almost putting Empire away. A second one with Kuro coming off the top was thwarted by Dreissker, but he couldn’t finish off Kuro as Mecca’d returned to powerbomb Dreissker out of the corner, before Mecca’s missed moonsault took himself out of the match.
With Kuro still on the top rope, Dreissker tried to pick up the pieces, but needed Empire to shove Kuro off the top before the double-team muscle buster ended things. This was fine, but the crowd didn’t seem to want to buy what the Hype Dawgs were selling – Mecca looked good for the first time I’d seen him properly, but I’d perhaps look at changing away from the Jeff Cobb-esque gear. ***
König Der Catcher Block B: Adam Priest vs. Joseph Fenech Jr.
Priest was coming in on the back of a loss last night, knowing a second loss here would eliminate him.
Priest’s early offence was as straightforward as it was against the rules, before the recoil from a shoulder block saw Priest bounce between the ropes on the way to the floor. Staying on the floor, Priest wound up Fenech into giving chase… eventually leading to Fenech taking a suplex on the floor.
Seemingly happy with a count-out win, Priest kept throwing Fenech to the floor, but when that didn’t work out Priest had to go back to his usual tricks, continuing to wear down Fenech’s lower back with a Boston crab… but a handspring cutter sparked a quick turnaround, with Fenech coming close from a cannonball, before a handspring kick took Priest outside for a wild tope.
That dive seemed to have hurt Fenech more than it did Priest, but he was able to shake it off and hit a draping DDT… but Priest got his foot under the rope to save his skin. Going back to the dirty tricks, Priest’s eye rake took us past the 15-minute mark, before he dropped Fenech back-first on the top turnbuckle as a prelude to a half crab for the submission. A well worked outing to keep Priest alive for now – but it’s only the start of the comeback. ***½
Femmes Fatales 2025 Quarter-Final: Safire Reed vs. Stephanie Maze
This one started off quick with roll-ups as Reed and Maze tried to end this one in a hurry, but it was Reed who enjoyed the brighter of the two starts as she’d continue to catch Maze off-guard.
Cutting off Reed, Maze hit back with a hammerlock’d clothesline for a near-fall, before Reed found her way back in with a Slingblade – and ended up enjoying a surprisingly-long run of offence given her relative newness to wXw. That’s not to say Maze was a pushover here, but this definitely felt like a match to showcase Reed by having her eliminate a former multi-time champion in Maze.
Maze avoided a Warhead, countering with a knee-strike before Reed hit back with a German suplex out of the corner as a prelude to the Warhead for the win. ***
Backstage, Mett Dimassi’s with Metehan and Rambo – Metehan’s seemingly chill with how Aleksander Bellamy cheated to beat him in Bad Hersfeld, because he knows Bellamy has to live with what he’ll become if he keeps on that path. Fair enough. They’re more focused with facing Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI later on…
World Tag Team Tournament Quarter-Final: The Gulyas Bros (Gulyas Jr. & Vilmos Gulyas) vs. Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku)
Some proper big lads on display here – and some new gear too…
The more-experienced Violence is Forever enjoyed the better of the early going against the Hungarians, at least until they were able to isolate Ku with some double-teams. Things changed with Garrini coming in, lariating Gulyas Jr. in the middle of the ring before a bridging German suplex almost won it.
A Gunnslinger from Vilmos slammed the brakes on Ku amid a Parade of Moves, before the Gulyases hit back and set up for the ol’ Crossfire on Garrini. Ku made the save ahead of a high/low double-team on Gulyas Jr., only for Ku to get squashed with the Crossfire knees for a near-fall.
Right hands from Ku and Gulyas Jr. seemed to be teasing Ku bloodying himself again, but luckily there was no red stuff here as the veterans held on and put Vilmos away with Chasing the Dragon. Much like a lot of this weekend, this was solid, but had plenty to suggest that a bigger match could be teased out of this combination. ***¼
König Der Catcher Block A: Bobby Gunns vs. Elijah Blum
Neither of these guys got their tournament off to the best start yesterday – a loss would likely eliminate Gunns, and would definitely knock out Blum at this point.
Unlike his first match with al-Ani, Gunns hit the ground running, but Blum seemed to be expecting it… only for an early attempt at his Parting Gift finisher to get countered with an armbreaker.
The match slowed down somewhat after that, allowing Gunns to pick his spots with some success, at least until Blum hit back with a crossbody. Gunns was able to escape the Total Depravity as he returned with a cross armbreaker, only for Blum to hit that spinning Angle Slam seconds later.
Gunns tried to get back in it with the Swish Armbar, but Blum was able to withstand it… and after trading shotgun dropkicks, Blum was able to sneak out the win with a Sliding D out of nowhere. This felt a little flat at times, but was a much needed win for Blum as Bobby Gunns was all-but-out of the tournament with that loss. **
Backstage, Laurance Roman’s upset that Nick Schreier’s a) still dressed in his Spike Dudley gear and b) hungover from partying last night. Those cracks are already appearing, huh?
Femmes Fatales 2025 Quarter-Final: Emersyn Jayne vs. Anita Vaughan
The winner of this gets Orsi in the semi-finals in show 3…
Emersyn looked to wind up Anita with her own chant early on… and of course that sparked a response, with the match heading outside for Emersyn to parkour over Anita’s swipes on the apron, before she got caught and dropped onto the side of the ring.
Back inside, Vaughan’s suplex kept her ahead for a moment, but Emersyn tried to shut things down with a mounted sleeper. Anita almost won with a Ki Krusher, only for Jayne to return fire with the Shadowfax baseball slide German suplex as things remained pretty even.
A German suplex while Emersyn Jayne was on her knees nearly did it, but the back-and-forth finally came to a head with a sit-out powerbomb that put last year’s winner into the semis. Another good outing to wrap up the quarter-finals. ***
Metehan & Rambo vs. Los Tranquilos de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito)
Unsurprisingly, this was Naito and BUSHI’s wXw debut, and as a match this was perhaps one of those that had the potential to disrupt current storylines the least.
Metehan wanted to start against Naito, but we know that Naito doesn’t start his matches like he’s shot out of a cannon, as the pair eventually locked up and traded wristlocks. After being spat at, Metehan went after Naito… but the sliding punch missed as we hit a pose-off before tags brought in Rambo and BUSHI. It should be noted that Rambo again got the better reactions out of he and Metehan…
Rambo had more luck, charging down BUSHI off the ropes before Metehan looked to keep up the momentum with a neckbreaker. Things spilled outside as BUSHI raked Metehan’s eyes, while a delayed neckbreaker from Naito kept things on track as this started to settle into something of a greatest hits special.
Rambo’s back, but misses a splash off the top rope before BUSHI wandered into an inside cradle from Metehan. That sliding punch followed, but Naito broke up the pin… and things almost looked like we’d get an upset as Metehan’s uranage and Rambo’s frog splash on Naito forced another break-up… but when Naito kicked out Rambo’s package piledriver, you sensed the upset was off, and when BUSHI’s mist set up for Naito’s Destino, all bets were off. Pretty much what you’d expect from 2025 Tetsuya Naito – alright, but a far cry from his best. **¼
We’re getting towards the business end of all three tournaments, but without the Los Tranquilos de Japon appearance, this easily could have been seen as a throwaway matinee show.