wXw continued their path to Frankfurt as the latest edition of Shotgun featured a long-awaited reunion!
This is how the episode starts – a fridge being opened… but the camera pans back to show WALTER grabbing a lager out of it, as Timothy Thatcher returned! They’re in matching RINGKAMPF polo shirts, and we get Timmy cracking wise about how “I move over to Germany and you go to California, how’s that work out?” Oh my God, Timmy’s a comedian! He refers to the challenge to WALTER by “The One” Bobby Gunns. Well, he is an ass, man. WALTER says he won’t go easy on Bobby, and we fade out!
Melanie Gray’s backstage looking for something… but she finds that list that Alpha Kevin made. Which wXw helpfully translates, and I’m sure you can all appreciate the sudden intake of air. Mella is NOT happy…
They play the aftermath of the tag match from the FAN pre-show, where Julian Nero consoled Toni Harting, then called him the future. Nero then turned his attention to someone from wXw’s present who was sitting in the crowd. He was talking about Da Mack, who’s not allowed to Hamburg as per the stipulation of his loss to Bobby Gunns earlier in the year. The upshot of this is that because he’s gone from Cruiserweight Classic to being part of the crowd, Mack was offered some services… of Nero Consulting.
So we then go to Toni (who Julian keeps calling Anton… I can relate), as Nero tries to coach him some more. Da Mack walks in, and all of a sudden Nero has bigger fish to fry; it seems Mack’s a little resistant to Julian’s offer, but he’s talked around, and I guess they’re part of the team?
Ear-worm time! I’ve run through the teams for next month’s World Tag Team League and Femme Fatale double-header, and I really need to learn German karaoke songs.
Next up, we’ve Dirty Dragan and Young Money Chong! They’re rather excitable, because Chong wants to do a song… Dragan’s using forks as drumsticks as Chong drops some bars, with an annoying horn effect on his phone too. That so needs to be their entrance music! They’re interrupted by Jay FK, as Skillet and Kaspin come over to gloat over their prior win. Chong tries to make a sick burn, and it leads to a pull apart… and a match for later.
A plug for wXw’s Inner Circle event – on October 5 – reveals a change to the card. With Dave Crist not coming over for the World Tag Team League, the double iron man match is out, and in in its place is Homicide vs. David Starr. Alexander James vs. wXw Academy Cup holder Julian Pace joins the card, along with EYFBO vs. Jay FK, Ivan Kiev and Bad Bones vs. Jurn Simmons & Kim Ray, and an Ambition-rules match between WALTER and Timothy Thatcher. Those Inner Circle shows are wXw’s way of paying tribute to their roots – and my word, it is a card that wouldn’t look too out of place on the full tour! If you’re one of the 100 who’ll be there… I’m jealous!
Dirty Dragan & Young Money Chong vs. Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet)
We’re back to Münster from last month for this rematch from the Fight Forever Tour Opener, and we’ve got (Irish) Alan Counihan on commentary as Jay Skillet sidesteps an early Dragan dropkick to get us going.
An early springboard back elbow out of the corner gets a two-count for Skillet, but Dragan takes over… when they can double-team as Skillet seems to have the Dutchmen outsmarted. Chong runs into a boot from Kaspin as a pair of dropkicks takes him down for a near-fall, before he comes agonisingly close to a tag out… only for a Northern Lights suplex to take him away from Dragan.
Finally the double-teaming works as Skillet gets caught in the corner for a neckbreaker as Chong and Dragan go to work, although a hefty bit of that was Dragan just grabbing his bits. A Fisherman’s suplex nearly does it for Dragan, but Skillet’s still got plenty of fight in him, which sees him easily roll away from a middle rope legdrop after Chong took far too long to set up.
Skillet tags in Kaspin, who decked Chong with a leaping big boot and some forearms, before a missile dropkick almost wins it… only for Chong to bounce so far across that he was able to get a hand under the ropes. A double stomp neckbreaker nearly gets Jay FK the win… but Dragan breaks it up and gets slapped either side of a low blow attempt.
Still legal in the ring, Skillet catches Chong with a brainbuster, then a snapmare driver – sending a message to Emil Sitoci’s goons – for the win. This was quite fun – Jay FK are quietly becoming quite the team; they just need more matches! ***
Speaking of them, Jay FK had a backstage interview with Thomas Giesen. After covering the headlock driver we just saw, Giesen brings up a match that’s booked for September 30 in Frankfurt: Emil Sitoci vs. Jay Skillet. That adds to an already impressive card featuring that elimination tag between RISE (minus Chris Colen) vs. the wXw home team (Jurn Simmons, Ilja Dragunov, David Starr and A4); Melanie Gray vs. Martina in the wXw Women’s Championship Tournament, WALTER vs. Bobby Gunns; Alexander James vs. Timothy Thatcher; and finally Da Mack vs. Avalanche.
Next up we have a screaming match as Melanie Gray confronts Kevin about his list. She’s mad about the list and Kevin leaving it backstage, and I think my speakers just blew out. Poor Markus Weiss was in the wrong place at the wrong time as Gray left the room and shoved him in frustration.
Avalanche vs. Jurn Simmons
Yep, it’s Münster again for the main event – and it’s big lads wrestling!
The lads take each other into the ropes as they jockey for position from the opening tie-up, and it’s incredibly even with plenty of escapes and counters – until Simmons drew first blood with a dropkick. Avalanche runs in to try and catch out the former champ, but a headlock takedown subdues him.
Eventually Avalanche frees himself and hits a shoulder tackle, but Simmons comes back with some shoulders in the corner, then an Irish whip that dropped Avalanche in the opposite corner. Simmons goes for a slam, but Avalanche is too big for him, and we get a big splash instead as the Monster of a Man looked to assert himself.
A rear chinlock keeps Jurn down for an elbow drop, before they jockey over a suplex, with Avalanche coming out on top there. Simmons finds himself in deeper trouble after a back senton – and this is a position we are simply not used to seeing Jurn in!
Jurn manages to fire back with a clothesline out of the corner, and we’re back to the Irish whips as the Marquee Player gets to show off his strength. An attempted piledriver’s escaped with a back body drop from the Avalanche, so Jurn tries to wear him down some more, and my God, Jurn busts out a High Fly Flow! He’s been watching his Tanahashi tapes!
Just like that though, Avalanche hits back with a cannonball in the corner as Jurn took too long to capitalise, as a pumphandle slam followed. That left Jurn in prime place for the Dreissker Bomb, but he gets up and powerbombs Avalanche out of the middle turnbuckle. A Massive Boot leaves Avalanche back on the mat, but just as Jurn teases a moonsault we see… a shadowy figure on the stage?
It’s Pete Bouncer! He distracts Jurn as Ivan Kiev slid into the ring and gave Jurn a low blow before disappearing! Avalanche is able to capitalise with the Boulder Dash (Blue Thunder Bomb), and just like that, with a huge assist, Avalanche is able to get the upset win! A pretty solid main event – and whilst the run-in finish may have been a little weird live, it played in beautifully with the ongoing storylines. ***¼
From there, we go to Bad Bones John Klinger playing air guitar as he’s posing for photos. It seems that Thomas Giesen’s in a hurry to get his photo taken too, but Klinger’s getting egged on by the Young Lions. RISE is bullying poor Giesen, who’s not happy that they’re still in Hamburg after midnight taking photos. Lucky Kid is good at playing the maniacal loose cannon, even in a language I don’t fully understand.
Eventually we get to Pete Bouncer, the lone RISE member without a belt. You get the feeling it’s being done out of pity, and Bones has had enough as he only wants photos with the champions. It’s not even like wXw has another title for Bouncer to win! Sebastian Hollmichel tries to send RISE on their way politely, but they’re being dicks… so Thommy gets dragged in for this wonderful snapshot:
Finally RISE leave, as Thommy and Sebastian talk about how they predicted this weeks ago. Giesen finds it impressive, Hollmichel finds it remarkable, and it’s time for more photos to end the show!
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – wXw (via Shotgun) is perhaps one of the best promotions going right now for progressing storylines; and crucially, having more than one of them running at a time. Sure, the language barrier may be off putting, but if you have wXW NOW or the HighSpots Network, give the English version of Shotgun a try. The stories don’t insult the intelligence, and almost always pay off in a way that leaves you feeling rewarded.
Don’t let language or other boundaries get in your way of some good wrestling TV!