It’s a supersize episode of Shotgun this week as some of wXw’s finest hit the ring ahead of Frankfurt this weekend.
Thomas Giesen opens us up with WALTER, who addresses Bobby Gunns’ comments from last week’s Smoking Break. WALTER says he’s not distracted, and his travels are only to improve himself… he reckons he won’t lose to Gunn’s shenanigans, and he’ll make sure Gunns feels RINGKAMPF’s “absolute severity” in Frankfurt.
Cue a Bobby Gunns music video, which nicely packages Gunns’ smugness and the challenge he faces this weekend. Perhaps beating WALTER might just get him in line for a title shot.
Up next: Oliver Carter and Cash Crash are in wXw catering. They’re pigging out on cakes, and making fun of Absolute Andy. In front of Marius al-Ani. Who took exception to them calling his partner “Fat Andy”. Except he walked in and grabbed a big slice of cake. AWESOME.
Cash Crash & Oliver Carter vs. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius al-Ani)
So, that incident in catering leads to this… and for those who wonder these things, yes, it’s the same Oliver Carter who did a Rev Pro Cockpit show earlier this year. We’re in Ludwigshafen for this one, and the upstarts tape the piss out of Andy right at the bell.
al-Ani grounds Carter early, before Andy had a go with Cash Crash, sending him to the outside early on as the Swiss pairing looked to frustrate A4. It didn’t work. A4 worked rings around Crash, who tries to restrain Andy with a headlock… but all those cakes just gave him extra girth for a shoulder tackle!
Marius al-Ani cuts off the attempted interference from Carter with a top rope crossbody… but the Swiss take over as they baseball slide Andy to the outside. Andy tried to fight back with chops, but he’s quickly grounded and double-teamed as Marius’ efforts to alert the referee just made things worse.
Finally Andy gets back in with a back cracker before tagging in al-Ani, whose fiery offence was too much for Crash, as it ended with a kip up into an Exploder. He followed up with something that looked to be a cross between a Kotaro Krusher and a ‘rana, which may not have looked pretty but did the job, before the Swiss again caught A4 on the hop as a leg sweep on the apron left Marius out on the floor.
Absolute Andy’s protestations to referee Tassilo Jung got him a 20 Euro fine, as al-Ani was left in there for a long while. He finally gets the tag out, with Andy clearing house with chops and right hands, before dropping Carter with a walking suplex. Crash eats an Absolute Knee Drop, only for Carter to make the save as Andy was going for a superkick.
In the end, Carter eats some nice double-team offence from A4, with a wheelbarrow suplex dispatching him as Crash looked set to take an A4… instead he slips out as Andy took a Rocker Dropper/Flatliner combo for a near-fall. Not seen that pair before! The Swiss newcomers looked to be getting closer to a shock win, but Andy fires back with an F5 to Crash before al-Ani returns to nearly get the win with a wheelbarrow instead. Eventually, al-Ani grabbed Carter with a modified crucifix submission as Andy restrained Crash with a Sharpshooter… but we get two rope breaks as the Swiss continued to frustrate the former tag champs.
A Space Flying Tiger Drop from Carter leaves Andy laying as we moved into a series of dives, but al-Ani’s tope turned things back around as Crash eats the assisted leapfrog splash, before Carter gets dropped with the A4 assisted Stunner for the win. This was a really good outing for everyone – you could argue that 18 minutes was way too long given the disparity in places on the roster, but if you can get past that and see this as a fierce showing by the newcomers, there’s a good match here. ***½
Next up is Da Mack, who’s celebrating his win against Koray three weeks ago! Julian Nero wanders in and tries to give Mack a pep talk for his number one contender’s match for the Shotgun title this weekend. Is Avalanche going to be too much, too soon for Da Mack? Apparently Nero had a hand in getting the match booked… if only to help get Mack back on track.
They run down the card for Frankfurt on Saturday – it’s a good one – before a video package follows to build up that 5-on-5 elimination match between RISE and Team wXw. This did a really good job building everyone in the wXw home team, and if you hadn’t seen any of the story so far, you could watch this and have a really good understanding of why this is happening. Just what a video package should do!
We go from there to footage of Ivan Kiev trying to train Pete Bouncer. He’s had a miserable losing run, has old Peter, and it seems that Ivan’s putting in the hours to help snap that streak. The Young Lions arrive, but they just want Ivan… and the seeds continue to grow!
An Emil Sitoci hype video follows, just in case you forgot who he is. Christian Michael Jakobi talks him up, as does Tassilo Jung… which is a bit odd since we’re meant to hate him. At least they give you his social media so you can reach out to him if you’re not like the guy above who so gleefully expressed his feelings for the former Shotgun champ!
Jinny vs. Thunder Rosa
Off to Cologne for this one, as Jinny warms up for her first Women’s Championship Tournament match with an outing against Thunder Rosa – perhaps better known as Lucha Underground’s Kobra Moon.
Jinny’s unimpressed with Rosa’s happy clapping antics, as the two start off on the mat, before Jinny whips Thunder from corner to corner. This is just a background for commentary to rattle through the insane World Tag Team League weekender that’s in a little over a week’s time… but Alan stops as Jinny kicks away on Rosa in the ropes before a discus forearm left the luchadora down for a two-count.
The ruthless streak in Jinny left Rosa unable to do much, taking a running knee into the corner before she finally gets something in, getting a sunset flip before seguing it into an Anaconda Vice-ish submission. Jinny’s long legs force a break via the ropes, before she tripped up Rosa’s attempt at a kick and dragged her into a modified Figure Four. Another rope break follows as Rosa tried a comeback with elbows and clotheslines, following in with a floatover suplex for a near-fall.
A death valley driver spiked Jinny on her head for a near-fall, before she hit the Hurts Donut – full nelson into a facebuster – for another two-count. She tries to pull up Jinny into a tombstone, but she escapes, and lands the Acid Rainmaker out of nowhere for the pin… with Rosa kicking out dead on three just to add some confusion. This was alright, but Rosa had her bad moments here. **¼
Jinny stays on for a promo with Thommi Giesen… gracious in victory as always. She reckons the fans are trying to put her off with their bad sense, before heeling on Germany. This segues into a promo on Melanie Gray, and the heeling continues as she takes a cheapshot on the list that Mella found. No holding back, eh?
We get a video for the Jay Skillet vs. Emil Sitoci match in Frankfurt on Saturday. This is why Shotgun’s so long this week – all the recap videos… and that’s a good thing!
Massive Product are backstage preparing for their World Tag Team League run. David Starr won this last year with the man we don’t speak of in wXw, but he wants Jurn Simmons to focus. Oh God, they’re the Mega Powers of wXw!
RISE (“Bad Bones” John Klinger & Pete Bouncer) vs. RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher)
We stay in Cologne for our main event, and it’s a monster one… although I think we have a good bet on who’ll eat the fall here.
WALTER and Bones start us off with some energetic headlock takedowns, before Timmy and Pete have a go. Bouncer at least got some shots in before Thatcher grabbed a cross armbreaker which forces Bones to make a save as we have a rather staccato opening phase.
Back inside, Bouncer, erm, bounces around as RINGKAMPF work over his knees. It’s good stuff with WALTER and Thatcher breezing through Bouncer, who continued his run as the weak link in RISE, before Bad Bones made a blind tag and was able to slingshot into a spear on WALTER. The Austrian hits back with chops though, before getting whipped hard into the corner.
Bouncer looked to enjoy some offence, but WALTER quickly escapes and hits a suplex. Thatcher does the same as RINGKAMPF again bounce around Bouncer, with a gutwrench suplex from WALTER making this look easy. Thatcher does the same, and whilst this may be one-sided when Bouncer’s in, it’s an extraordinarily efficient performance from RINGKAMPF.
Finally Bouncer gets a move in as he takes down Thatcher with a neckbreaker after some interference from Bones, who tags in and works over Thatcher’s legs. A wishbone leg splitter from RISE left Thatcher in some agony, and finally RISE are able to get something going, even if it’s with underhanded moves like eye rakes.
Rolling Germans from Bones lead to a half-and-half that almost gets the win over Timmy, and he keeps up with those suplexes as Thatcher becomes RINGKAMPF’s fall guy for a while. Then Bouncer tags back in, and whilst he’s good with picking some shots, he quickly tags back out to Bones who looked annoyed with Bouncer’s lack of self-belief.
That gets RINGKAMPF back in as WALTER unloads on RISE briefly, dishing out German suplexes to Bouncer, before a Gojira clutch to Bones was broken only by a mule kick. The ref missed that as Thatcher and Bouncer had his attention, before returning to count a near-fall from a double-arm DDT as Thatcher made the save.
Things break down as the ref loses control, and we get a mini Parade of Moves as a Codebreaker from Bones leads to him taking a shotgun dropkick from WALTER, who traps Bouncer in a Gojira clutch… which gets broken up when Bones gives Thatcher a German suplex onto the pile.
Bones keeps up with a superkick to Thatcher, only to get booted to the outside by WALTER as Bouncer’s left pray for another boot, then a huge lariat… and yep, he’s the crash test dummy as a butterfly into a powerbomb from WALTER sets up for a Gojira clutch as Bouncer is forced to tap! Wonderous stuff from RINGKAMPF, who made fairly light work of the Unified World Wrestling Champion and his weak link of a partner. ***¾
That’s all for this week’s hefty episode of Shotgun. A lot of video packages whetted the appetite for Saturday’s show in Frankfurt, and of course, next weekend’s World Tag Team League. It’s going to be hectic few weeks for wXw, but it’s going to be a LOT of fun!
But first – the feature event in Frankfurt, headlined by the 5-on-5 RISE vs. wXw elimination match. Your card for that: RISE (Bad Bones, Ivan Kiev, Pete Bouncer & Young Lions) vs. wXw (Jurn Simmons, David Starr, Ilja Dragunov & A4); Avalanche vs. Da Mack for the next shot at the Shotgun title; Emil Sitoci vs. Jay Skillet; WALTER vs. Bobby Gunns; Timothy Thatcher vs. Alexander James; and Women’s Championship Tournament action as Jinny faces the debuting Martina.
The show’ll be up on wXw Now on Monday; we’ll have the review up before we head over to Oberhausen for the World Tag Team League!