On this week’s Shotgun, Mike Schwarz gets his hands on Bobby Gunns, and the big dog of wXw takes on Avalanche in a dog collar match.
Quick Results
Bobby Gunns submitted Mike Schwarz in 16:15 to retain the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship in a Disko Wämmserei (NR)
Leon van Gasteren pinned Rambo in 5:05 (**)
Stephanie Maze, Fast Time Moodo & Killer Kelly pinned Prince Ahura, Maggot & Metehan in 16:20 (***)
Norman Harras defeated Avalanche in 7:50 via referee stoppage in a dog collar match (**½)
We open with a recap of Mike Schwarz winning Shortcut to the Top… and then him being attacked by EZEL last week. Of course, we closed out last week with Mike getting cleared, but he had to have his match without a ring because he was too late. Then we go to Bobby Gunns on the phone to Absolute Andy, upset that he’s having to wait back. Bobby tries to suck up to Andy, while also congratulating “Mikey” for some reason. That segues into Mike Schwarz suggesting a disco brawl for his match with Bobby Gunns, and then we hit the titles.
Sebastian Hollmichel is on commentary, running down tonight’s card – including the Disko Wämmserei, which opens the show!
Disco Brawl for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Mike Schwarz vs. Bobby Gunns (c)
They give this match the big treatment, playing the roll of champions… and there’s been a LOT of big names who’s held the wXw gold in the past. We open with Mike Schwarz commandeering Katja Pilz to film the thing, and the first person he finds is Tassilo Jung in casual gear to referee. Thommy Giesen’s still around, but he doesn’t ring announce. Because there’s no ring. This isn’t going to be your usual match, I fear…
Mike’s gotta look for Bobby Gunns first though, so we wander out behind the Turbinenhalle. Bobby’s car is still there, so they go back inside, where Mikey finds Bobby coming out of the showers, and I’m starting my clock here. Bobby’s bounced off the lockers, then the walls, before they wander into the main hall of the Steffy as the ring’s being torn down. Bobby tries to talk his way out, but he recoils in horror when he’s told what on earth is going on. Gunns hits a PK off a raised wall, but he gets caught and charged into the spiral columns in the Steffy by Schwarz. Another pillar follows as the old OLD wXw entranceway came into play as Mikey said he’d beat Bobby “with one shit hand.” I think that’s what I heard…
Schwarz throws Gunns’ head into the sound desk, which sets the lights off… and who knew the AV desk would control all the lights and screens? Gunns hits back, throwing a can of beer into Schwarz’s head, then rolled into what was left of the ring. Except Schwarz yells at him to leave the ring, as Bobby wanted no part of the brawl. He suckered his way in for a PK off the apron, but Schwarz caught him and powerbombed him onto some speakers. Gunns responds by whipping Schwarz through a fence, aggravating the arm, following up with some elbows before he grabbed the ring bell hammer for some makeshift dentistry, pulling away at Schwarz’s cheek. Chops and kicks follow against the sound desk, as Gunns then went to work on the injured arm, tweaking the wrist and fingers. Schwarz chops back, but is kicked back to the floor before he’s forced to elbow out of a chinlock. Again, Bobby goes back to the arm, kicking at it before he torqued it in another wristlock that forces Schwarz to fight free once more.
Schwarz tries to throw Gunns into the bar, but Bobby leaps up and comes back with a crossbody, before he reached for some cabling that he chokes Mike with. It’s full on Daniel Bryan/Justin Roberts stuff, but Schwarz eventually fights free once more, as things descended into a slugfest. Schwarz yells that he doesn’t respect Gunns, who instantly puts him in a double wristlock… but it’s broken up as Mike pulls him next to a coffee urn and scalds him with the stuff. I mean, his former tag team partner Jaxon Stone loves coffee, but not like that! Mikey stops for a swig of vodka, then cleared a table so he could go for the Schicht im Schacht… planting the champion through the wood.
Bobby grabbed onto Tassilo Jung’s shorts to stop him waving the match off, but Schwarz stomps away at him before they marched back towards the ring. Kicks from Bobby have Schwarz back in trouble, before Schwarz throttled him and… hit the ring post with a chair. Bobby grabs that chair and aims for the arm again, before he pulled a page out of EVIL’s book. Hitting a home run with some chairs looked to KO Schwarz, but Gunns pulls him back up to put the arm through a chair for an assisted Swish armbar, and there’s the submission. I have no idea how you’d begin to rate this. This wasn’t a match as such, nor was it the “cinematic” match style – but it worked on the level of showing that Bobby Gunns was “the better man”… and he did it without any help. Also, pops for Thommy for doing the ring announcing afterwards…
ONE HOUR LATER… Bobby and his Bastards are celebrating with champagne before Emil Sitoci wandered in. He wants his title shot against the Bastards, and Dirty Dragan’s back from hospital! Maggot tries to talk their way out of the match, saying that “this team” gave up their match, so they lost their shot. In walks Absolute Andy and Leon van Gasteren to take the piss, and steal more Moet. Andy books the title shot anyway, which winds up Bobby some more… they jaw jack as it looks like they’re again teasing something between them, but we instead get Bobby’s Bastards against Sitoci, Dragan, Leon and Andy for next week.
Backstage, Senza Volto is chugging a bottle of water when he’s interrupted by Levaniel. He’s trying to connect with the Frenchman so he could try and figure out why he’s being left on read by Amale. Except Senza doesn’t know her, and is of no use to him…
They recap Hektor beating Jurn Simmons last week, and now Hektor’s chewing out Marius al-Ani for his behaviour. He’s unhappy that Marius gloated afterwards, and things are now rather more terse between the two of them.
Rambo vs. Leon van Gasteren
Both these men are veterans, but this is apparently a first-time match according to Cagematch.
We get going with Rambo charging down Leon with some shoulder tackles early on, before Leon ducked a clothesline, slid under Rambo and took him down with a series of armdrags. A dropkick has Rambo in the corner, where he followed up with chops before an attempt at a stunner was pushed away, with Rambo returning with a tiltawhirl slam for a near-fall. The Steffy crowd sings Leon’s old song as Rambo punched away on him in the corner, leading to a forearm for another two-count. An eye rake has Leon back down as he then got out of a package piledriver… before running into an overhead belly-to-belly as Rambo almost got a win. An Irish whip takes Leon into the corner, but he boots Rambo away ahead of a missile dropkick off the middle rope.
A satellite DDT follows for a near-fall on Rambo, who avoids a death-valley driver and responded with a sit-out powerbomb that looked to drop Leon right on his shoulder. Somehow Leon kicks out, before he flipped out of a package piledriver to hit a Stunner for the win. I don’t know if they had plans for more, but the shoulder injury clearly curtailed the match, and left Leon in a lot of pain, but he was able to finish the job. **
They replay Metehan’s demolition of the Rotation from last week, before we cut to Goldenboy Santos consoling Rotation. He tells Rotation that one day he’ll reach his goals… with nary a mention of how his rumour got Rotation in the mess to begin with.
They replay Sara Leon and Baby Allison doing well in Shortcut to the Top until they turned their sights on each other… because Sara Leon is in action soon. But first, we see Sara chewing out Allison for what happened at Shortcut to the Top. Killer Kelly tries to play peacemaker, as the “good girls” walk off…
Next up, Norman Harras is backstage as the Pretty Bastards approach. He’s got his dog collar match later on, but they don’t care – the Bastards want him to ask EZEL for a favour. Off he goes…
Sara Leon comes out for a match, but she’s attacked in the aisle by Baby Allison… and that’s her match off. Fair enough.
We quickly switch to Killer Kelly, Fast Time Moodo and Stephanie Maze last week setting up the trios match for this week… and then it’s back to Norman Harras and the Bastards, who are waiting for EZEL. Abdul and Aytac turn up… but they don’t want to play ball and “hand over control” to Ahura. Prince Ahura puts his foot in it again as he tried to say the tag titles were better than Metehan’s Shotgun title… Maggot talks him around while Norman corpses, as it looks like Ahura’s happy to let Metehan take charge. Things break down into an argument again as Maggot pointed out they got backlash for what happened to Dragan and Sitoci a few weeks back. Norman cools things down and underlines that Metehan will take charge… and responsibility. He tries to go and get ready for his match with Avalanche, but Ahura won’t let him…
Backstage, Moodo and Maze are sparring as Killer Kelly walks in to give them a pep talk. If they win all three of them get title shots, remember…
Fast Time Moodo, Stephanie Maze & Killer Kelly vs. Metehan & Pretty Bastards (Prince Ahura & Maggot)
There’s high stakes for this one, with title shots a-plenty on the line. Norman Harras is out with the Bastards, while Abdul and Aytac are still suspended.
Moodo and Ahura start us off, but Ahura’s got eyes for Stephanie Maze as he tried to sweet talk her. At least until Moodo kicked him in the leg. Ahura returns the favour, before the squeaky ring serenaded us as Ahura feinted some more kicks. Moodo shows off some kicks of his own, so Ahura dances… and gets caught in the corner as Moodo swung his way again. Another kick to the leg stings Ahura, who’s then tripped to the mat. Metehan is unhappy with being tagged in, as Killer Kelly tagged herself in. He wants no part of her, so in comes Maggot, who had no such problems, as he hit Kelly with a palm strike. A second one’s blocked, as Kelly hits some short-arm clotheslines, before flinging Maggot across the ring with a butterfly suplex for a two-count.
Maggot picks Kelly up in a Fireman’s carry, but she slips out as Maze tags in to go to work with some mid kicks, following up with a low dropkick for a two-count. Maze misses a rear spin kick and gets taken down for some ground and pound by Maggot, before an Irish whip took her into the Bastards’ corner… with Metehan again stepping aside as he wanted no part of the man-on-woman action. Ahura’s back for a snapmare and a kick to the back, which stung Maze for a two-count, before he tried to choke Maze with the bandanna. Referee Tassilo Jung is distracted as Maze reverses it and chokes Ahura with his own headwear – prompting excellent protests from Norman Harras at ringside who’s told to shush. Ah, Tass should have told him to heel…
Maze and Moodo double-team Ahura with kicks before a high/low gets Moodo a near-fall. He follows up with more kicks before a scissors kick dumps Ahura for a two-count. Metehan comes in for the “eeyore” chants (because Ezel sounds like “Esel” – the German for donkey)… and the Shotgun champion helps turn the tide as he held Moodo by the arm for a flying headbutt from Maggot. Another kick to the back stings Moodo for a near-fall, before a missed enziguiri allowed the Bastards to capitalise as they continued to wear him down. Metehan’s back to punt Moodo in the ribs, before he knocked him into the corner with some elbow strikes. An eye rake on the top rope from Metehan would have led to a pin, but Tass won’t count it, as Moodo began to fight back… only to get dumped with a uranage and a standing stomp for a near-fall.
Ahura’s back in, elbowing Moodo in the corner before throwing him outside for Metehan and Norman Harras to take their shots. Back inside, Ahura stomps the hand of Moodo, following in with more kicks before he took out Moodo’s leg for another near-fall. A backfist from Moodo helps him get back into it, but a rising headbutt from Ahura stops him in his tracks… only for a spinning heel kick to take Ahura down. Tags bring in Maggot and Kelly, with Kelly again landing some clotheslines to take down the tag team champion. Maggot then tries to help Ahura avoid a German suplex, but to no avail, as Kelly then caught Ahura with a cross-chop to the throat, before she hit a Vale de Morte, taking Maggot into Ahura’s family jewels.
Metehan thinks about getting involved, but he takes a forearm and a dropkick to the outside, before Maggot was thrown into a spear on Kelly. Stephanie Maze comes in as I lost track of who’s legal… she kicks and chops away on the Bastards, only to get caught with a palm striker and a cutter, before she’s Alley Ooped by Maggot… but she counters the knee strike into a roll-up for the pin! Kelly, Moodo and Maze get their title shots – and Metehan is beside himself! Going over 15 minutes, this was a rare modern-day Shotgun match that got time, and while the “Metehan won’t fight a woman” angle kinda limited things in this match, it makes for an interesting story now, now that he has to fight Killer Kelly down the line. ***
The Bastards argue with Norman Harras at ringside as they’re understandably furious with having another team in line for a title shot…
Somewhere… Levaniel is on his laptop and he finally gets hold of Amale, whose internet sure reminds me of the days when my connection would drop out for the hell of it. He’s not buying Amale’s excuses about bad WiFi, but c’mon man, you can smell those pixels! She tries to tell him she’s taking time off of social media, but of course Levaniel’s following her on Instagram and has seen the gym selfies. Levaniel’s clearly threatened, and accuses Amale of lying. It’s like being around a teenager… and he wanders off to “fight these men” who are after her.
Backstage, Hektor’s chatting with Jurn Simmons. He wants another match, so he can win “with honour”, but Jurn’s a little distracted. Hektor’s clearly pissed off, and I’m guessing this is going to lead to him snapping because nobody seems to take him seriously.
They replay the Big Dog of wXw having his dinner the other week, along with all the teasing he got from Bobby’s Bastards, and the set-up for tonight’s Dog Collar match.
Dog Collar Match: Norman Harras vs. Avalanche
The dog collar’s there to make sure Norman doesn’t try and go walkies…
The crowd mock Norman with dog noises, as Avalanche is out already wearing the collar. Norman wanted no part of it though, and he ends up catching Avalanche with an uppercut before the bell. Elbows follow, then a running boot before he used the chain to knock down Avalanche. The bell’s still not rung, as Harras tries to wear down Avalanche before he finally strapped it onto his neck. Harras uses the chain to punch Avalanche in the back, but an overhand chop stings as Avalanche tried to fight back. Another chain shot gets Harras a two-count, before he called out the Pretty Bastards for help… they appear at ringside as Harras keeps going with right hands before he used the chain across Avalanche’s face.
Avalanche fights back, using the chain to pull Harras towards him for some right hands, but Harras runs in with a knee to the ribs for a near-fall. Norman puts the boots to Avalanche next, using the chain again to wear him down for another two-count, before he grabbed the chain and took Avalanche walkies. Except Avalanche stands up and hits a big back body drop to buy himself some time. The comeback continues as he blocks some left hands and fights back with forearms to Harras, but Norman kicks away another back body drop before running into a Samoan drop for a near-fall. Harras boots Avalanche, but can’t avoid a splash in the corner as Avalanche took him up for a superplex…
But a headbutt from Harras knocks the big man down. He took too long following up, as Avalanche pulls him off the top rope with the chain, before he found enough to low bridge Avalanche to the apron. Stephanie Maze and Fast Time Moodo come out to stop the Bastards taking their shots, as Avalanche pulls Harras to the outside… and things have broken down here. Maze gets posted, while Moodo eats a cutter from Maggot, before he’s tossed outside. Avalanche makes it back inside to get rid of the Bastards… only for Harras to come back in with a low blow, then a chain-assisted choke as the referee was forced to stop the match. Norman gets some measure of revenge for the meaty chunks he was forced to eat earlier, and he did it all by himself.
The show ends with Norman and the Bastards celebrating over Avalanche’s fallen body… as we’re reminded that next week it’ll be Bobby Gunns, Norman Harras and the Pretty Bastards vs. Absolute Andy, Leon van Gasteren, Emil Sitoci and Dirty Dragan… while we also get Hektor Invictus vs. Jurn Simmons.
This might well be an episode of Shotgun that you’ll either love or hate. The disco brawl to start the show was certainly different, and unlike much else I’ve seen before. That being said, that seemingly being the pay-off to Shortcut to the Top will upset some, I feel, while Norman Harras getting his revenge for being embarrassed a few weeks ago puts him back on track.