We have a look at a surprisingly sublime Shotgun, as wXw’s blooper reel included three never-before-seen matches from their We Love Wrestling Tour…
Emil Sitoci, Jaxon Stone & Marius van Beethoven vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger, Marius al-Ani & Chris Rocke
It’s straight into action too, as we go to Erfurt in June for this match, and Rocke is the latest in a series of guys who’ve been around the block but haven’t been a regular here. We opened with Sitoci and al-Ani trading springboard armdrags before al-Ani’s pop-up powerbomb got countered into a ‘rana.
Next up is Bad Bones and Jaxon Stone – with Bones getting cheered as this was taped before he joined RISE – and Bones is all over Stone with some mounted punches early on. Chris Rocke comes in too, and quickly drops van Beethoven with some dropkicks and leg lariats. We get the two Marius’ for a spell, with al-Ani easily blasting van Beethoven with uppercuts before Emil Sitoci cut-off al-Ani’s dive by kicking him in the head as he went to the ropes.
Sitoci comes in with a gutbuster to al-Ani, then a split-legged moonsault for a near-fall, before Jaxon Stone got the tag as the bad guys cornered al-Ani for a spell. Rocke drops van Beethoven with a sit-out front suplex for a near-fall, gettin’ rowdy with K-Kwik’s old finish, before a sneak big boot from Jaxon Stone earned an eventual two-count after the referee took an age to make a count.
Rocke continued to take a pounding as Stone ground his face into the mat, before taking a hard clothesline as Bad Bones broke up a pin attempt before it got going. That just distracted the ref as Rocke got mugged some more, with Klinger’s protestations getting him that token €20 fine. Eventually Rocke makes the tag into Bad Bones, who cleared house with a crossbody on Stone, before landing a slingshot spear off the apron to Sitoci.
Stone’s forced to kick out of a superkick to the head as van Beethoven came in to try and make a save… but he’s taken out with an al-Ani Exploder as the ring fills up again, leading to our parade of moves before the local lad Rocke took down Stone and van Beethoven with clotheslines. A pop-up powerbomb from Stone’s blocked, as Rocke lands a tornado DDT instead, before van Beethoven kills him with a dropkick… only to turn around into a flying Codebreaker from Bones, and a frog splash from al-Ani… who was apparently legal and earned the win. A fun trios match – plenty of mayhem and perfectly acceptable wrestling for any show, not just house shows! ***¼
We get some bloopers next as Thomas Giesen struggles to open up a promo with Kim Ray, before Rico Bushido somehow taped a promo with a full schedule on the wall. More out-takes include Bobby Gunns in the shower, Ilja Dragunov pulling down his shorts, and Bad Bones doing a backstage promo with A4 as a match was happening. Oh, and Dirty Dragan living up to his name!
Alpha Female vs. Melanie Gray
We’re off to Stuttgart from last April for this one, with Melanie Gray renewing acquaintances with Mae Young Classic competitor Alpha Female. Gray has to sidestep an early charge in the corner, but Alpha quickly takes over using her power to take down Gray and club away on her with a barrage of forearms for some near-falls.
Some big boots get Gray free, but they barely faze Alpha, who leans into some clotheslines before falling to a spear for another near-fall. Alpha quickly returns with an Anaconda Vice to try and force a submission, but Gray squirmed her way to the ropes to force a break as Alpha continued to dominate.
Eventually Gray fought back, knocking down Alpha with a back elbow off the middle rope for a near-fall, before escaping a powerbomb and dropping Alpha with a Northern Lights suplex that she bridged up for a near-fall. The pressure kept up with a back senton, but a simple spinning backfist knocks Gray down once more as the pair ended up throwing bombs on the apron.
Somehow Gray fought free and teased a piledriver, but Alpha fought out and dumped her with a vicious death valley driver on the apron! Another powerbomb in the ring is countered out of as Gray gets a neckbreaker for a near-fall, but she misses a slingshot senton as Female again gets a bodyslam in for yet another near-fall, before a small package out of nowhere gets Gray a rather unpopular win! This was a heck of a match, and these two have had some really good outings that have flown under a lot of radars this year. Check this one out! ***¾
A trailer for the wXw women’s championship tournament airs, before we’re back to the bloopers. This time it’s confused David Starr (with a Mack cameo), Da Mack trying to do a “sad Moonwalk” before Lex Lugering his way into a locked door, and corpsing Jurn Simmons!
The fun continues with A4 doing a promo that ends with a sheet of paper… and finally someone made that joke, which cracked up Andy to no end.
Speaking of Andy, we’re back with him looking at art as A4 have more bloopers, as do RISE, who discover the annoyance of creaky chairs whilst Francis Kaspin finds out how much dogs can ruin a promo.
RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Axel Dieter Jr.) vs. Mike Bailey & Jurn Simmons
Our main event comes from Chemnitz in April, and it’s a long one! WALTER and Jurn open up clattering into each other with shoulder tackles, before Jurn caught a kick and clocks WALTER with a right hand as der Ringgeneral stuttered a little in his opening exchanges.
Axel Dieter Jr comes in and struggles to defend himself from Mike Bailey’s barrage of kicks, but WALTER quickly came to his partner’s aid, pulling “Speedball” off the apron as he went for a springboard into the ring. The action quickly spills outside as Bailey took down RINGKAMPF with a moonsault off the bar, before WALTER straight up murdered Bailey with a German suplex in the ring for a near-fall.
WALTER and Axel kept Bailey isolated in the ring, but a missed knee looked to have cost RINGKAMPF as Dieter hung himself in the ropes, only for WALTER to tidy things up as the onslaught continued. It’s quite a methodical approach to things from RINGKAMPF, who kept the smaller Bailey in… but somehow Speedball was able to fight back, but Axel pulled down Simmons off the apron to prevent a tag out a WALTER dropped Bailey with a gutbuster for another near-fall.
Finally Jurn gets tagged in as he flew in with a crossbody to WALTER, before dropping Axel with a uranage. Dieter comes straight back as he and Jurn windmilled punches on each other, before Simmons’ shoulder tackle knocked him down… Axel returns with the Hamburgerkreuz for a near-fall, before a leap off the top just earns him a punch to the gut by Simmons.
A Doctor Bomb follows, but Jurn can’t capitalise and make a cover, but he can bring in Bailey… who gives as good as he gets from WALTER, and almost scores with a standing Shiranui, only for WALTER to shrug him off and blast the Canadian with a lariat for a near-fall.
Bailey nearly nicks it again with a roll-up out of a wheelbarrow, before the moonsault double-knees flatten WALTER, who then takes a roundhouse to the head for a near-fall. A German suplex is avoided by Bailey, who then tries for the shooting star knees to WALTER… but those miss as a Gojira clutch ends up taking the Canadian down to the mat. Jurn breaks it up by dumping Axel onto the pile with a spinebuster.
Things almost end not long afterwards when Bailey hits a double knee drop off the top rope to assist a Simmons slam, but RINGKAMPF again target Speedball, who ‘ranas out of a powerbomb/uppercut attempt, as he then sends Axel off the top with another ‘rana. The flying continues with a top rope Butterfly suplex from WALTER to Simmons , as RINGKAMPF then finally get off the powerbomb/uppercut combo as Axel scored the decisive pin. ****¼
A hell of a main event to bring to an end a loaded episode of Shotgun that had three matches that you should not sleep on!