wXw’s “go home” for this week’s True Colors show featured some killer in-ring action, and a curious segment with RINGKAMPF…
We open with Matt Riddle backstage ahead of his “day-butt” against WALTER. Erm… what? The “later today” clip shows it’s not a repeat from anything over 16 Carat weekend either, so I guess that’s a yay!
Next up is a promo from Julian Nero with some funky muzak in the background. He’s now separate from Cerberus, and he’s going to be taking a path of intellect to separate himself from everyone else. It’s a promo that seems almost heelish, but doesn’t send him clearly in either direction.
A recap video from 16 Carat Gold follows, highlighting Ilja Dragunov’s path to the title, and then we’re taken to a promo with Thomas Giesen and Ilja ahead of his match with Avalanche at True Colors. Giesen asks why Ilja’s not challenging for the title and instead provoking a war with Avalanche. Apparently Avalanche must be broken so Ilja can take his place among the biggest names in wXw, and therefore end Ilja’s “long long war”.
Julian Nero vs. Alpha Kevin
Yes, we’re back in Düsseldorf this week for action, and it’s Jeremy Graves on commentary as Alan’s otherwise engaged in Orlando.
They criss-cross the ring early on, but it doesn’t confuse Nero and instead gets Kevin a slap and a kick. Kevin tries to make a comeback, but he misses a missile dropkick and takes a knee drop for a near-fall as Nero takes over. There’s a couple of two-counts for Nero as he stands on Kevin’s belly, but that just sparks a comeback with some right hands and a forearm.
A superplex attempt is blocked as Nero flies in with a diving knee for a two-count, and Nero tries to follow-up by putting Kevin on the top rope. He doesn’t capitalise quickly enough and Kevin flies in with a missile dropkick, before they exchange corner attacks. We get some Dusty punches from Kevin, ending with a back suplex a la John Cena for a two-count.
Nero comes back with a Roderick Strong-esque sick kick, then a reverse DDT, but Kevin kicked out! The Wasteland follows from Nero, but he heads up to the top once more, but he misses a diving knee drop, and allows Kevin to pounce with a La Magistral cradle for the win! A nice, fun little TV opener – I was a little surprised that Kevin took the win given the storylines, but again, this was taped before 16 Carat, when Kevin had a marquee match and Julian… did not. ***¼
They replay clips from the Alpha Kevin/Marius van Beethoven no-ropes match, along with stuff from last week’s Shotgun that built to Kevin against Bad Bones this weekend.
We’re with Melanie Gray backstage… she’s on the phone to someone, and she’s relieved that Kevin’s “back to his old self again”. She’s considering marriage again, but not in the ring… just as she says that, Bobby Gunns wanders in and makes a pass at her, telling her to call him… and that just leaves Mella with a puzzled look on her face.
Another 16 Carat Gold recap video follows, and then we’re backstage with Chris Colen and Da Mack. Mack’s feeling down, because he’s not accomplished anything lately, having been knocked out of the 16 Carat tournament in the first round. He bemoans having not doing anything since losing the Shotgun title to Pete Dunne… and this is very close to a lot of the criticism that he’s been getting as of late.
Colen berates Mack for “whining like a girl” rather than getting up and fighting back. In the end, Colen tells Mack to take his time and refocus and apparently all is well now?
A vignette follows for A4 – Marius al-Ani and Absolute Andy, who, disappointingly, isn’t pointing at a ladies’ toilet sign. They rattle through their nicknames, including “Ninja Warrior”, since al-Ani was on the German version of that show. Hopefully lasting longer than Chuck Mambo (sorry!)
Mike Bailey’s here now with Thomas Giesen. It’s a promo, so there’ll be no kicking here, as “Speedball” talks up his title shot with Jurn Simmons this weekend. Apparently Bailey’s been thinking a lot about that match, but this was just a filler spot as a lead-in to a video package for that four-way.
WALTER vs. Matt Riddle
Another match from that Düsseldorf house show now, and this is our main event this week… this can’t be anything other than great, right?
We’ve got a cagey start with Riddle eventually grabbing a rear naked choke before being taken into the corner by WALTER, who then was taken down as they went back and forth with waistlocks. Before long, WALTER takes Riddle into the corner for a chop, which is reciprocated back and forth, ending with a German suplex that dumped RIddle hard in the middle of the ring.
WALTER kicks at Riddle some more, then slams him before a kick to the back just riles Riddle into a comeback… as they take to kicking and slamming each other for the fun of it. The sit-down splash from WALTER earns him a two-count, before a comeback from Riddle ends with a rear naked choke that’s turned into a German suplex… but you can rarely German Riddle, who pops up, then stays down after a second one.
WALTER ties up Riddle’s legs in a grapevine, forcing him to reach for the ropes, before he just stands and stomps onto Riddle’s boot-less feet. Back in the ring though, Riddle again goes for a comeback, before he takes a boot to the face. An upkick follows from Matt, who manages to land the Bro to Sleep for a near-fall, but he’s quickly taken to the top rope by WALTER, who pulls off a butterfly superplex!
That gets WALTER a near-fall, but the big Austrian takes too long to follow-up as Riddle catches him on the top rope and takes him to the mat with a high-angle brainbuster. A top rope senton (!!) gets Riddle a near-fall, but before long WALTER flattens him with a lariat for a similar result.
Riddle comes back with a flurry of kicks to send down WALTER, before he can only delay a triangle choke, then powerbomb his way free. That spot is never not impressive, as is WALTER’s powerbomb that Riddle kicked out of, before WALTER slaps in the Gojira clutch, and hangs onto it as Riddle tried to roll free.
WALTER hangs on as Riddle walks the turnbuckles in a bid to reverse it a la Bret Hart with the Million Dollar Dream, but eventually Riddle slips out and grabs the Bromission for the tap-out., Well, I was right. This was awesome, and that cannot surprise anyone who’s seen these guys wrestle against each other! ***¾
We’re backstage with RINGKAMPF now, with WALTER and Axel Dieter Jr. all dressed up for their ruminations over what happened at 16 Carat. Dieter doesn’t want to “go down in history as Christian Michael Jakobi’s henchman”, before telling us how he “took the title to England” and “defeated that English dwarf”. By which he means Marty Scurll. Those were highs, but now Dieter is at a low point, and he’s snaps at WALTER for what he sees as a patronising demeanour.
Is RINGKAMPF tearing apart because WALTER seemingly doesn’t see Dieter at the same level… but before we can get too much further, Jakobi comes in to defuse things. Unfortunately, Jakobi only makes things worse as he phrases Dieter’s rematch as a “way to correct his failure”, which just sets off the former champion again – with WALTER joining in on the defence – but Jakobi just takes this as them being united again. A fine segment that really has you expecting another implosion in the not too distant future!
The show wraps up with the card for Saturday’s True Colors show in Dresden:
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Jurn Simmons defends vs. Mike Bailey, WALTER & Axel Dieter Jr.
Ilja Dragunov vs. Avalanch
“Bad Bones” John Klinger vs. Alpha Kevin
Kim Ray vs. Jaxon Stone (from California, who’s wrestled once before for wXw)
Da Mack vs. Marius van Beethoven vs. Francis Kaspin vs. Laurence Roman
Projekt Gold (Robert Kaiser & TinoX) vs. Posse in Effect (Rick Baxxter & The Grannatic) (two teams from the GWF, in a warm-up match that likely won’t air)
All in all, a great episode of Shotgun this week, combining great wrestling matches and a fantastic promo at the end. wXw continues to hit those home runs!