wXw continues their build to True Colors later this month with another episode of Shotgun!
We open with ring announcer Thomas Giesen who’s backstage with the new wXw Shotgun champion Emil Sitoci. Giesen flips to English as Sitoci says he wants to make some changes… because “last time I checked, the Product really sucked”. Punny. He’s got a list… more abs on show; every other week should be “Stripper Week” (which draws an approving nod from Tommy Giesen), and bans for Jurn, Mack and Karsten Beck. Yeah, that’s gonna fly!
In comes someone from the ring crew, and now Sitoci leaves for another meeting. Fair enough!
They replay a video package from 16 Carat Gold, then we’re back to Alpha Kevin along with a trainee. Kevin remarks that Bobby (Gunns) has been like a bull in a china shop… but he’s quickly stopped by John Klinger who’s mad at Kevin for skipping training and showing up late. This is leading to a match at True Colors in Dresden. Yeah… there’s been better set-ups for matches!
Avalanche vs. Francis Kaspin
We’re back to the March 4 house show in Düsseldorf for this, and it looks like Avalanche has ditched his real name here. No entrances, and we start with the bell… and a spot of Avalanche manhandling Kaspin away from a headlock attempt.
A back senton comes up dry, but Avalanche keeps swatting away Kaspin like an annoying fly… then he takes him into the corner for some punches to the gut. Kaspin makes a comeback of sorts, but gets cut-off with a back elbow and some more punches, before he low bridges Avalanche to the outside. We get a dropkick and a baseball slide to the outside, before Kaspin struggles to roll Avalanche back in.
From there, Avalanche hits a massive body attack to overwhelm the youngster, then a big splash for a near-fall. It’s all Avalanche for a spell as he biel throws Kaspin, then easily nudges away a crossbody attempt. The back senton follows with ease, but still Kaspin kicks out, before he’s swatted down with a clothesline.
Kaspin tries to outstrike the Avalanche, but he finally scores with a dropkick that sent the big guy into the corner. Some forearms keep Avalanche rocked, and after shrugging off a charge into the corner, Kaspin lands a top rope crossbody for a near-fall! A missile dropkick follows for another near-fall, but Avalanche rebounds with a Samoan drop for a near-fall, then finishes off Kaspin with an avalanche in the corner, and an Avalanche bomb out of the corner for the win. A really fun TV match, Kaspin showed a lot of fire but in the end his size was his downfall against the much bigger Avalanche. ***¼
Speaking of, we’re now backstage with Avalanche and Julian Nero, who congratulates Avalanche on making the right decisions in getting rid of the Dirty Dragan and Adam Polak. Nero almost teases an original Cerberus reunion, but he also knows that Avalanche and Ilja want to strike out on their own. In the end, Avalanche thanks Nero for looking out for him, and they shake hands.
They replay the announcement of the rest of the year’s dates – something I’m still impressed with that a company wXw’s size has these sorted and announced… and we’re not even in April yet!
More from backstage, and Dirty Dragan’s on the phone with someone. Dragan reckons he runs the place, and he’s inviting someone to join him to “rule the world”. It looks like his mystery man’s agreed to come and join his hot pink suit!
A video package follows for Inner Circle 3, then we go to another backstage segment. Tommy Giesen barely gets his introductions in as Christian Michael Jakobi shoos him away – it’s a subtitled segment with CMJ, his iPad and RINGKAMPF… well, WALTER & Axel Dieter Jr, to be precise. Jakobi has a declaration for Jurn Simmons’ first title defence at wXw’s True Colors show. Axel Dieter Jr’s claimed his rematch… but it’s not going to be one-on-one: it’s a four-way with Jurn, Axel, WALTER and Mike Bailey. That’ll be quite the match.
They run down the card so far for True Colours: Jurn Simmons defending the wXw Unified World Wrestling title against Axel Dieter Jr, WALTER & Mike Bailey; Bad Bones vs. Alpha Kevin; and Ilja Dragunov vs. Avalanche.
RINGKAMPF (Axel Dieter Jr. & Timothy Thatcher) vs. David Starr & Jurn Simmons
We’re back to Düsseldorf on March 4, and yes, the belts are in the wrong places here! There’s a massive light above the ring that’s making everyone standing in its beam look pasty white – which is quite the feat for some of these folks. It’s a very back-and-forth opening as we quickly move to Simmons against Thatcher, which is where the power starts to come into play as Thatcher takes a backbreaker for an early near-fall.
Thatcher grounds Jurn with an armbar as he brings Axel Dieter into the match to continue the ground-based offence, but after taking some chops, Simmons suplexes Dieter before David Starr flies into Axel with his Violence Party (chop/forearm combos). A gutwrench facebuster gets Starr a two-count, before he goes flying with a trio of topes to Thatcher on the outside!
We get some double-teaming from Starr and Simmons, as a dropkick-assisted slam gets Jurn a two-count, and he keeps up the pressure on Axel with suplexes for more near-falls. Christian Michael Jakobi gets involved at ringside, as he tries to trip Starr, and that distraction gives Thatcher the chance to hit a Saito suplex. And gurn. Thatcher grabs Starr’s neck as the then-Shotgun champion’s worked over, which gives a chance for them to run down some upcoming show dates… and dates for David Starr’s return to wXw too.
Dieter grounds Starr with a front facelock, then Thatcher decides that isn’t fun enough, so he goes for a modified camel clutch instead. Starr almost was able to tag out, but Dieter runs in and knocks Simmons off the apron to keep the isolation going, before landing a diving European uppercut to keep Starr on the mat. Thatcher returns for some gutwrench suplexes, but Starr comes back by superkicking Dieter off the apron, before DDTing Thatcher as he finally makes the hot tag to Simmons.
A short-arm clothesline takes down Dieter, before a uranage drops Thatcher. Axel’s thrown to the outside by Jurn, which lets the then-number-one contender drop Thatcher with a piledriver… but Jakobi pulls out the referee and blames a fan for it. The referee sees through it all and ejects Jakobi, who sells the shock admirably. By kicking the ring post. Awesome stuff.
Back inside, Simmons dumps Dieter with a release Falcon arrow to Thatcher, who then eats a rolling forearm from Starr. Dieter rushes in with an Air Raid Crash to the Jewish Cannon as the pace quickens… Doctor Bomb to Dieter. Enziguiri to Simmons, who replies with a Massive Boot to Thatcher… they degenerate to back-and-forth strikes in the corners, before we’re left with Dieter and Simmons standing alone. More strikes from them end with a Dieter slap and a Cactus Jack-esque clothesline as they head to the outside.
Starr and Thatcher resume hostilities, but it’s all Thatcher with a butterfly suplex, then an armbar, before Starr works free into a JML Driver 104 (crucifix floatover into a Destroyer) for the win. A fun, main-event style tag match – and this was apparently Starr’s Shotgun send-off. What a way to go! ***¾
We end the show with a backstage segment with Jakobi and WALTER. Jakobi’s moaning about his job, and WALTER just laughs it off because “it’s just the people you have to deal with”. WALTER takes a shot at Karsten Beck, which keeps those seeds growing, especially as they end with Jakobi laughing off the prospect of Beck completing his recovery and starting a fight…
Back to business as usual with Shotgun this week then, and a show that set more matches for next the True Colors show that’s next weekend (that snuck up quickly on us all!), whilst continuing to tease for bigger things ahead… Heck, it’s only 45 minutes and you get two good wrestling matches this week. Watch this show!