WALTER and Jurn Simmons headline this week’s Shotgun as more ground was laid ahead of September’s trip to Hamburg for FAN.
First we open with Jay FK. Skillet and Kaspin talk about their win at the Fight Forever tour, and whilst Jay is happy with the win, Francis isn’t. He’s more pre-occupied with RISE…
Another clip from the Thumbtack Jack documentary airs. That’ll be up on wXw NOW on August 25 for those who want to see it.
Next is Julian Nero… he’s with Toni Harting, who he’s enlisted as help… because he’s got a Nero Consulting polo shirt too!
Julian Nero vs. Pete Bouncer
This was the dark match from the Fight Forever tour opener earlier this month in Oberhausen… they cut out the pre-match deal where Bouncer interrupted some fan’s opportunity to get five minutes of his time to change his life.
Nero offers his business card, but Bouncer slaps it away, and we get going with trading shots! A diving knee keeps the RISE man down, as Alan on commentary announces a six-man tag for the FAN show in Hamburg: RISE – the Young Lions & Pete Bouncer – vs. A4 (Marius al-Ani & Absolute Andy) & Kim Ray.
Bouncer knees Nero in the corner as he starts working over him, stomping over the knee of the tall Nero, before a low superkick knocked Nero down some more. It’s pretty straightforward stuff, with Nero eventually getting a shot in with a knee off the middle rope before booting away the RISE guy.
More boots and knees take Pete down, but the damage to the knee means that Nero can’t hold up Bouncer, and so normal service is restored. A reverse DDT follows for a near-fall, but Nero manages to escape a double underhook DDT and hit the Wasteland. Nero heads up top for a top rope knee drop, which connects, and that’s the win! A basic match – not much to write home about, but a good outing for both men. **½
We go backstage next where Absolute Andy is apologising for losing his cool in the tag team match at the Fight Forever opener. Marius al-Ani, Jurn Simmons and Kim Ray were there too, with only Jurn speaking in English… Simmons acknowledges that everyone’s underestimated RISE, but Andy suggests that they have to be a unit in order to fight back.
Dirty Dragan’s backstage now with Emil Sitoci… who’s unhappy at losing in Oberhausen. Emil buries him a little, but he wants Dragan to apologise to his penis. I am not making any of this up. Sitoci wants Dragan to beat Kaspin… so I expect another sneak attack? Especially if Dragan’s back on the pills…
Laurance Roman vs. Alexander James vs. Toni Harting
We’re off to Erfurt in June for this one, and we start with hiptosses and dropkicks! Roman hits a crossbody to Harting and James early, then goes to work on the newcomer Harting… but Toni takes him into the corners for some forearms instead.
Toni cuts off an on-rushing James, but falls to some uppercuts instead as the three-way melee continued. Roman’s kicks keep James at bay, as does a ‘rana, before Harting returns to kick Roman in the gut. A spin-out suplex follows from Harting as Roman rebounds with a huge DDT to James, spiking the American in the middle of the ring!
Harting looks for a superplex on Roman, but instead James cuts them off for a Tower of Doom, before the three trade shots back and forth, forearms, boots and uppercuts. Harting’s rolling elbow cuts off a backslide, but the shots keep coming until Harting hits a TKO for a near-fall.
James and Harting trade uppercuts, before James catches Harting on the apron and brings him back in with a Tower of London for another two-count – with Roman making the save. A flapjack facebuster comes next from Laurance as they keep racking up two-counts, before a clothesline from James drops Harting – and dumps Roman on his head – as a high-angle Bloody Sunday DDT gets the win. A pretty good three-way – all action without too many of the annoying tropes! ***
Next up is another Smoking Room segment with Bobby Gunns. Complete with a health warning taped to the table! He’s happy that Alpha Kevin is at home crying, but he moves on from that as talk turns to Timothy Thatcher. Gunns wants to renew rivalries with Thatcher, especially because he felt cheated when they fought almost a year ago for the EVOLVE title. So we’re getting a rematch at FAN!
They run down the card for the Fans Appreciation Night show: Thatcher vs. Gunns; David Starr vs. Flip Gordon vs. Ivan Kiev for the Shotgun title; Bad Bones John Klinger vs. Jurn Simmons for the wXw Unified World Wrestling title, RISE (Young Lions & Pete Bouncer) vs. Kim Ray & A4; Dirty Dragan vs. Francis Kaspin, Ilja Dragunov vs. Avalanche in a street fight for the number one contendership. Guess what… it’s in Hamburg, so there’ll be no Da Mack either.
Next is Rico Bushido who’s with Adam Polak to run down the Dragunov/Avalanche match. Of course, Polak used to manage both guys as part of Cerberus, and he’s a lot more bearable here than on commentary. They’re building this as the rubber match between the two, as Polak predicts a night of chaos… before picking Ilja as the winner.
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: WALTER vs. Jurn Simmons (c)
We’re back to Erfurt for our main event, taped when Jurn was champion… so we can probably guess the result, but let’s enjoy the ride, eh? Especially as it’s a rematch of that great London’s Calling bout from January!
It’s a bit of a slow start as they nullify each other, as he pair neutralise each others knuckle locks before WALTER flew in with a dropkick. Jurn tries a suplex but instead has to make do with a slap as WALTER’s attempt at a repeat dropkick fell short as Simmons hung onto the ropes. Clotheslines from Jurn just stagger WALTER, who slaps in a Gojira clutch, but can’t quite get the German suplex off after slapping away the rope break.
Jurn tries to fight back with some boots, but he just gets some chops before launching the Austrian up into a back body drop. WALTER responds by kicking away Jurn’s leg and then throwing him with a butterfly suplex for a near-fall. Commentary goes a little funny as WALTER tries for a submission, but the Austrian’s able to keep the upper hand as he keeps kicking away the champion’s leg, sending Jurn down time and time again.
We go to back and forth with forearms, but WALTER’s back to the Gojira clutch before a shotgun dropkick launches the champ into the corner. Simmons escapes a powerbomb and dumps WALTER with a lariat, only to get another one in return as the trade-offs continue! They pick up with shots in the corner, before Jurn replies to a German suplex with a uranage, as his attempt at a piledriver ends when WALTER drops down and grabs an ankle.
The ankle lock keeps Jurn grounded, but he gets up and hits another German suplex to keep himself in the match… before missing a charge into the corner and taking a German out of it. WALTER heads up top, but Jurn catches him and brings him down hard with a superplex! A Massive Boot follows, and it’s just a matter of time as the Simmons piledriver dumps WALTER for the win. A fun main event, plenty of hard hitting, and not overly long either. Really enjoyable stuff to wrap up the show! ***¾
Another promo for the Thumbtack Jack documentary follows, then we have a promo with Bad Bones. He’s bitter about how wXw saw him as disposable – yet dependable as well. There to deliver the big match when the imports came to town, but not important enough to put on top. Klinger tells us that in all that time that wXw was ignoring him, the virus was growing… and now, he really is the number one in wXw.
That’s all for another week in wXw – another fun show, with a tremendous main event, and more build towards FAN in a few weeks. A run of the mill show, perhaps, but the promos this week tremendously built up the, erm, rise of RISE. The story is still young, but it’s ever so intriguing!