With most of the wrestling world’s eyes on New Orleans, wXw continued down their path to True Colors with some rather tricky work to do.
A day after last week’s Shotgun dropped, wXw announced that they’d cut ties with “Bad Bones” John Klinger and as a result, vacated the promotion’s tag titles. How would that be addressed on Shotgun… and indeed, what’ll happen to RISE now they’ve been left without their leader? First, we have a “previously on Shotgun”, recapping the set-up for the Marius al-Ani vs. Absolute Andy TLC match for True Colors… we’re in Oberhausen as is Jeremy Graves for this week’s event.
Thommy Giesen has an interview with Marius al-Ani, pumped for that TLC match. Why? He’s a ninja and the ceiling is his home. See, I wasn’t joking about #CeilingNinja! Marius shrugs off what happened before when they were a tag team, and Marius declares that the only important result is the one in Dresden in a week and a half.
Clips from wXw in London follow, and yes, they have a shrugging, bloody Kelly… we go to an interview with her with Sebastian Hollmichel. Despite the British hospitals, she can’t wait to go back (and trust me, it’s not a “wrestle in England, go to a hospital” deal every time!). At True Colors, Kelly’s got a match against Audrey Bride, a Hungarian who’ll be making her wXw debut… and Kelly admits she probably won the title too early, but she’ll get it back.
Hey, I like how wXw isn’t freezing the entire division while we wait for Toni Storm vs. Tenille Dashwood in May…
Next, Bobby Gunns hunts down Lucky Kid, mad that he sent his errand boy to demand a title shot. Lucky seems bewildered, and does what quite a few people would do… curl up into a ball!
Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci vs. Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero)
There’s a segment that was for the live crowd only that set this match up, as we start with Nero offering five minutes for Dirty Dragan… who’s told not to fall for it, so he forlornly tagged out to Sitoci.
Nero doesn’t offer those five minutes again, as he instead boots down Sitoci, before falling into some headscissors as the Untameable one took over, working on the consultant’s arm. Dirty Dragan felt confident enough to want in though, and although he gets in a flying karate chop, he falls to Nero’s offer of five minutes, which was just a ruse for a fireman’s carry takedown instead. D’oh! A blind tag brought in Avalanche, who squashed Dragan as he was teasing a dive onto Nero, allowing Monster Consulting a chance to take over, with Avalanche’s diving splash getting a near-fall. The mounted punches in the corner continue to rock Dragan, as a sidewalk slam/legdrop combo almost put Dragan away for good.
Sitoci made the save though, but he wasn’t tagged in as Dragan felt he could go it alone… eventually Emil’s tagged in for an elbow drop as he tried to save the match, superkicking Avalanche to the outside before landing a springboard crossbody on Nero. A split-legged moonsault follows next for a two-count as Sitoci nearly caused the upset, before Dirty Dragan offered some advice… and it worked!
After hitting the flying chop, Sitoci tagged in Dragan for an assisted splash, but Avalanche is right back in to break up the cover. He tried to follow up with an avalanche in the corner, but Emil dives in front of Dragan to lessen the blow, but it wasn’t enough as Dragan fell into the Final Consultation (double-team Go to Sleep) and a Rainmaker for the win. A pretty emphatic win for Monster Consulting, who you’d think would have to be in and around the discussion for those vacated tag titles… and it’s back to the drawing board for Dirty Dragan. ***
Smoking Break time follows, as Bobby Gunns is… in front of a net. He’s got a four-way at True Colors, as he’s putting his belt on the line against Lucky Kid, Alexander James and Mark Davis, because for him, one isn’t enough fun. He ends with a direct shot at the “British indy scene”, just because…
They run through True Colors with some jaunty background music for those overdubs…
wXw Shotgun Championship: Bobby Gunns (c) vs. Lucky Kid vs. Alexander James vs. Mark Davis
Audrey Bride vs. Killer Kelly
For the vacant wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) vs. Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) vs. LAX (Santana & Ortiz)
TLC for Andy’s 16 Carat Gold title shot: Marius al-Ani vs. Absolute Andy
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. WALTER
Next up is promo time with Alexander James, who’s asked about that Shotgun title four-way. He’s happy that he’s got a chance to write a new chapter in his fairytale. In the meantime, he writes off the chances of Lucky Kid and Mark Davis, before calling Bobby Gunns a “boy”. Them’s fighting words!
Martina vs. Veda Scott
This one came before the second night of 16 Carat Gold for… reasons… and this match got quite the reputation after it.
There’s a stand-off as Veda stole Martina’s can, only to lose her glasses… and then toss aside the can when the handover was a ruse. Martina’s response? To break Veda’s glasses. Meanie.
Oh, and to take Veda into the corner with some forearms, eventually missing before Martina scored a near-fall with a suplex. A diving clothesline connects as Martina kept up the pressure, before she crashed and burned with a Seshbreaker. Veda gets a dropkick in in response before throwing some forearms, then briefly locks in a surfboard stretch as some forearms from Martina quickly get met with a spear of sorts.
A boot from Martina’s slowly placed in the ropes as Veda kept up the offence, scoring with a stunner-like jawbreaker before going back for the Billy Goat’s Curse, but she falls down and tries for… a STF? Like Lex Luger and his tight t-shirts, I don’t know! Martina kicks away from whatever that was, and grabs a mouthful of beer, spraying it in Veda’s face ahead of her own comeback, throwing some clotheslines before an Ace crusher put Veda down.
All that’s left is a flying crossbody, not a Seshbreaker, but it’s enough for a near-fall. More forearms back-and-forth follow, before I think we got a Slingblade for a two-count. Veda gets back in with a lariat off the middle rope, then an Ace crusher of her own as she looked for the win… only to get sort-of caught with the Seshbreaker. Why which I mean Veda somehow missed the move and fell down from the impact of Martina’s landing as Martina got the win. Well… that was as much an experience on tape as it was live. I try not to be overly harsh in these reports, mostly because I know I’d suck if I ever wrestled, but this was a match that at full speed would have been bearable… that it was at the pace and the Botchamania candidates, we’ve got a collector’s item folks. -**
I won’t incriminate by naming names, but this justified the reputation it got on the balcony.
Next up, we’ve an interview with WALTER ahead of his wXw Unified World Wrestling title shot. Hey, we’re matching t-shirt buddies today! WALTER talked about how he outsmarted RISE, as they went from being a step ahead of wXw to being caught out by a pact that he and Ilja had made. They gave up so much to dethrone RISE – WALTER his title shot… and Ilja gave up wrestling for many months to pull it off.
Now, we’ve got the biggest match in wXw today, a rematch of last year’s Carat finals. It’s gonna be a good one!
The show ends with Sitoci and a depressed Dragan… who are interrupted by Christian Jakobi, who only gets out four words – we have to talk – before we faded to credits. Oh no… is Dragan going to get the talk he feared?
So, this was a Shotgun for the ages – and not for the reasons we expected. If you were wondering Bad Bones’ departure wasn’t acknowledged, outside of the “vacated tag team titles” line. Heck, anything involving him was cut – he was out of the Shotgun intro, the We Love Wrestling tour trailer removed him (and Monster Consulting), and the only trace of Bones left on this show, save for him taking moves, was in the wXw NOW opening sting. Given how far ahead Shotgun is produced, I wouldn’t expect anything to be hinted regarding the matter until True Colors. Sure, Da Mack has been teasing on Twitter that he is the defacto RISE leader, but the announcement from last week sure complicates things – yet somehow doesn’t overshadow what’s looking to be a terrific card in Dresden next weekend.