This week on Shotgun: Pirate Timothy Thatcher in action! Women’s Championship Tournament and… I swear that’s Jaxon Stone’s doppelgänger.
Shotgun opens with Chris Colen in what I swear was the same room he was attacked in by RISE earlier. Bad Bones is with the rest of RISE, and he’s bragging that Colen can’t wrestle at Broken Rules anymore… but Christian Bischof walks in with a message from Christian Michael Jakobi. The match is still on… and Bones is mad as hell about it.
Kudos to that_ink for translating Bones’ cursing!
Next up, we’re with Bobby Gunns, who’s conducting trials for RINGKAMPF. First up is referee Markus Weiss and the newest German athlete: Hans Krueger. I laugh heartily… you’ll see why later.
Steven Pena vs. Timothy Thatcher
This is the second match on Shotgun for the American trainee Pena, who looked impressive over World Tag Team League weekend. He’s got a monster test here against Timothy Thatcher, as Jeremy Graves on commentary lets us know.
Thatcher has Pena’s number early on as commentary tells us that Timmy’s on his own here as WALTER is in America on tour. Not that he needs it, as Timmy effortlessly works into a single crab, but Pena manages to sneak in a pump kick as he got a pinning attempt in. Heck, that even gets followed up with some offence, including a bicycle knee to the temple.
Just when we thought Thatcher was on the back foot, he snapped back in with a belly-to-belly off the ropes, right as commentary tells us that the Sleaze Team of Jaxon Stone and Bobby Gunns have been granted a tag title match at Broken Rules. Pena keeps it even, but he worked his way into an accidental RINGKAMPF butterfly suplex, before replying with an… ushigoroshi?!
Pena’s getting a LOT more offence in than he did against Jaxon Stone a few weeks back, but in the end Timmy’s experience was the difference as he hit a bridging butterfly suplex that turned into a double chicken wing, and Pena’s forced to tap. Excellent finishing from Timmy, and Pena showed a fair bit of promise as well… ***¼
We’re back to the “RINGKAMPF” try-outs… Weiss and “Krueger” grapple, before “Hans” rapidly tapped out. Still, at least he nailed the pose.
Next up, WALTER’s backstage with Jurn Simmons. They talk about the “mistake in London”, before WALTER tries to coax Jurn into keeping the Massive Product team going. Jurn seems to think the issue’s all with David Starr, but WALTER reckons it’s Alexander James who’s stirring the pot. That leads us to the announcement of Alexander James vs. Jurn Simmons at Broken Rules…and to an Alexander James interview! AJ calls himself “royalty in the (wrestling) ring”, and notes that he beat Jurn Simmons in Bielefeld a few weeks earlier. Another win will propel him to the top… and there’s no arguing with that, as James tells us that “there are Princes, because Kings are made to fall”. Good exit line there!
wXw Women’s Championship Tournament: Jinny vs. Martina
We’re still in Bielefeld for this round, and yes, Jinny’s still loved. She boots Martina’s jewelry away, which is enough to anger the Dubliner into catching Jinny with a Bronco Buster in the corner. Jinny rebounds quickly with a Japanese armdrag as commentary notes that whilst Martina’s currently the top points scorer, Jinnys’ got more matches left. Not if she keeps taking stalling suplexes though…
A missed back senton gets Jinny right back in it again, and she’s peppering Martina with knees in the corner as the crowd chants for “beer”. Eventually Martina gets the hint and grabbed a fan’s beer as Jinny jawed with the crowd… and it seemed to help a little. A forearm and a Northern Lights suplex signalled the start of the comeback, only for Jinny’s seated surfboard to trap Martina once again.
Somehow, Martina managed to break free and grab her can… and just like Popeye, it inspired her once more! Some forearms take us to a German suplex as Martina looked to finish off the Fashionista, but she crashes and burns with a back senton off the top, allowing Jinny to hit a Rainmaker… and that’s the win! A smartly-worked match for Jinny, who let Martina effectively beat herself there. **¾
Per wXw-wrestling.com, here’s the standings of the tournament after last weekend’s swing of shows…
1. Martina (3-2; 9pts)
2. Jinny (2-1; 6pts) **
3. Killer Kelly (2-3; 6pts) *
4. Melanie Gray (2-3; 6pts) **
* Killer Kelly replaced the injured Pauline and takes her record going forward; ** Jinny was awarded a win via forfeit over Melanie Gray as the scheduled match over World Tag Team League weekender couldn’t happen due to injury
Remaining matches: Jinny vs. Melanie Gray (November 11, Lippstadt); Martina vs. Jinny (November 18, Dresden – Broken Rules XVII); Jinny vs. Killer Kelly (December 9, Fulda); Finals (December 23, Oberhausen)
We’re back to Bobby Gunnz’s RINGKAMPF try-outs. “Hans Krueger” takes a chop, and squeals like a baby. I really want one of Hans’ premium KampfRing bootleg shirts…
Another backstage promo as Christian Bischof’s set to record, but Thommi Giesen borrows the microphone to eavesdrop on RISE. They’re mad about Da Mack joining them without Bones telling them, especially since they feel they have a big problem with Ilja. Ah, that covert Giesen recording… he’s a sneaky, sneaky man!
We’re back to WALTER, who is on the sofa this time with Marius al-Ani. Seems like WALTER’s playing agony uncle this week with broken-up tag teams… this time WALTER tells Marius he has to focus on himself, and that he doesn’t have to prove himself anymore. The pep talk leads into a match for Broken Rules: at least, it does if al-Ani took the hint and asked the office for a Shotgun title shot.
Spoiler: he does.
Even more from the RINGKAMPF trials. Bobby awards “Hans” with the RINGKAMPF scarf, and you know what, I think that *might* be Jaxon Stone’s brother.
Another quick cut takes us to the real RINGKAMPF. Timothy Thatcher’s mad that they tried to take his eye, but he doesn’t really want to deal with them anymore. WALTER’s made a decision though: they’re going to take out Gunns and Stone at Broken Rules… in a no-DQ tornado match!
Chris Colen vs. Avalanche
We’re staying in Bielefeld for our main event, and it’s the now-former RISE member Colen headlining for the second week in a row. His hand’s not taped up as much this week, and so there’s no obvious bullseye as he tried to spark a test of strength against Avalanche.
Avalanche pushes him down early, then keeps him down with a shoulder tackle. Colen’s forced to use his speed to get in a receipt, taking Avalanche outside for a plancha that took out Avalanche’s arm. It didn’t have too much effect though, as Avalanche suplexes Colen back into the ring for a near-fall, as the Monster of a Man kept the pressure right on.
Colen chops his way back in, but some clubbing forearms from Avalanche snuffed that out. It needs Colen running off the ropes with clotheslines to knock the big man down, before a suplex almost gets the win. It seems knocking down a big man causes shocks! Some right hands in the corner knock down Avalanche for a running boot, but a Samoan drop out of nothing turns things back around.
A cannonball in the corner squishes Colen for a near-fall, but Colen avoids a Dreissker Bomb by getting a foot up, then hits a uranage. There’s no pinning attempt made, as Colen goes up top for an elbow drop… and that gets what looked to be an unpopular result. On paper, it’s a guy going for the world title against someone who (so far) isn’t on the next show… so it makes sense. I think the crowd may have reacted better had they known about the RISE segments, but it is what it is. Heating up Colen for Dresden! ***
The show ends with bad Bones on the phone to Christian Jakobi, and he threatens to give the fans the “ultimate RISE to the top”. It seems Bones has made his title defence… a ladder match. Good God. That’s certainly amping up things, and putting the ball in Bones’ court as Colen’s bad hand will hinder his climbing.
They confirm that change as we ran down the Broken Rules card to finish the show…
Ladder Match for wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Chris Colen vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger (c)
wXw Shotgun Championship: Marius al-Ani vs. Ivan Kiev (c)
Tornado Match for wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jaxon Stone & Bobby Gunns vs. RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) (c)
Ilja Dragunov vs. Da Mack
Alexander James vs. Jurn Simmons
wXw Women’s Championship Tournament: Martina vs. Jinny
Next Step Wrestling Battle Royal
Another solid episode of Shotgun, and we’re pretty much locked down for Broken Rules in a little over a week. It’s amazing how one TV show – 40 minutes long, this week – has fleshed out a big show and made it a must watch event? On paper, I’m not expecting too many shocks at least in terms of results, but don’t be too surprised if we get something else in the RISE storyline. It’s quite clear from the seeds being planted that there’s unhappiness over Bad Bones’ actions, from the arrival of Da Mack to his handling of Pete Bouncer.
Intrigue is always a good thing in wrestling, isn’t it?
Next week’s Shotgun report may be a little delayed as we’re out of the country – however, we’ll be making up for it with a whole week of retro wXw reviews, featuring Superstars of Wrestling, World Tag Team Tournament and a show featuring the tag match that was hyped as the best in mainland Europe: yes, we’ve finally gotten around to seeing Hot & Spicy vs. the AUTsiders!