This week on Shotgun, tag team confrontations are the order of the day as both the men and women’s wXw champions are in action!
We’re still in Bielefeld, with “Big Match” Alan Counihan taking his turn on the English language call this week. First, we’re backstage with Monster Consulting and Christian Jakobi. Julian Nero’s mad that they still don’t have their belts… but Jakobi shifts the blame back to them because they had the titles snatched from them. Since Avalanche and Nero were arguing with RISE when they had the belts stolen, Jakobi reckons those two teams should go at it again…
WALTER’s next, and he’s a lot to do… but first, in come Pete Bouncer and Ivan Kiev. They’re still annoyed at the whole tag title situation, and feel like they can’t wait until Shortcut to the Top to get at Jay FK. WALTER’s solution? Go to the ring and air your grievances in public and see what happens.
LuFisto & Melanie Gray vs. Killer Kelly & Toni Storm
Having sparked from their separate matches at wXw’s Hamburg show last month, this match quickly spilled to the outside where Kelly was going hog wild with PKs off the apron.
Toni gets in on the act with a tope, with Kelly collecting a near-fall on LuFisto from there… but there’s fists continuing to fly outside as we’re back on the floor. LuFisto looked to take over on the native of Portugal, who’s having to defend herself AND Jurassic Park here, but Kelly ends up in the wrong corner as the bad girls started to wear down on her. Referee Tassilo Jung’s distracted by Toni Storm, meaning he can’t count Melanie’s cover… so instead Gray seemed to go for the Mella-dram, only for Kelly to shove off. A jawbreaker keeps her free, but a spear from Gray puts a stop to things for a near-fall. LuFisto’s back in to keep the beatdown going with headbutts to the back, before pulling Kelly into a camel clutch… with a cheeky low dropkick from Gray to boot.
LuFisto chops away on Kelly in the corners, as the one-sided nature of the match continued. A butterfly suplex from the Canadian’s good for a near-fall, as LuFisto again tries to bait Toni into the ring… which was the cue for a fightback as some kicks, a cravat and knees left LuFisto helpless. The Shibata-ish dropkick looked to follow, but LuFisto pulls her into the corner for a cannonball instead as Toni needed to break up the cover to keep the match alive.
LuFisto got distracted, and that allowed Kelly to hit a back suplex before making the hot tag to Toni, who ended up leaping into a swinging side slam… only to turn it into a DDT! Toni looks to go for a German suplex, but it turns into duelling Germans… duelling Shibatas and duelling hip attacks as the good guys enjoyed a flurry of offence. Toni looked to finish off with a Strong Zero, but Melanie rolls her up for a near-fall, before landing the swinging side slam to put Toni in the wrong corner.
Another tag brings in LuFisto as they keep Toni cornered, with boots to the head almost putting the Aussie away. A cradled DDT comes even closer for LuFisto, as Killer Kelly makes the save, before shoving her opponents into each other, as an enziguiri and a Strong Zero to LuFisto was enough for the win! Another enjoyable outing as the good guys started strong, weathered the storm (pun not intended) and came out on top. A killer storm, eh? ***
We’re outside with Marius al-Ani on a sofa… where he’s interrupted by a flying Killer Kelly with a pack of Haribo! Another gift from Toni, I’d guess? Kelly’s really happy about how London went (as well she should), while Marius is happy about making the semis of the Shotgun tournament. But first, Marius is off to Spain, as the pair of them dream of the Mediterranean. I should be jealous, but London’s having a heatwave right now so…
Another Shotgun tournament recap leads us into a promo package for TKO. This time he has his baseball cap on the right way, as the “heaviest high flyer” looks forward to facing Lucky Kid in the semis.
We’re with Bobby Gunns next for an outside Smoking Break… standing in the rain, because it’s too hot indoors. He’s focusing on the Shotgun title tournament, running down TKO (“some kind of rapper, and that’s kinda weird”), Veit Müller (“you’re from Hamburg… you’re unable to be excellent”), Marius al-Ani (“looks like a fitness hipster”) and Lucky Kid (“he needs to be locked up… he’s acting like he’s the German Hiromu Takahashi… the only thing missing is his plush toy, but with Tarkan he’s got that already”). Scathing! In the end, Prince Ahura interrupts Bobby’s Raucherpause, and we get a challenge for a match between them next week!
A replay from Sitoci vs. Dragan last week airs, and we’re with a despondent Dragan. Please don’t use that as a nickname, it sucks. Sebastian Hollmichel tries to empathise with Dragan, who thinks there’s nothing else left for him to do… especially as he’s comparing himself to Emil Sitoci. Yeah, “comparison is the thief of joy”. Sebastian tries to nudge Dragan into getting therapy, but Dragan just walks off…
They recap the last few weeks with Absolute Andy, Ilja Dragunov, WALTER and Alexander James… and that means that (once Ilja’s blown out my speakers), it’s main event time!
Alexander James & Absolute Andy vs. WALTER & Ilja Dragunov
We have a jump start as Andy and Alexander attack Ilja and WALTER from behind… but WALTER quickly powers through it as the As were left on the mat courtesy of some slams!
Clotheslines take Andy to the outside as James is suddenly left begging off… but to no avail as he’s a victim of a cheeky chop from WALTER! Ilja throws one in too, as the Prince of Pro was pretty much a chopping bag in the early going. A back senton gets an early near-fall for Ilja, who’s back in with chops… and poor James. Poor, poor James. WALTER sets him up for the sit-down splash, but he decides to knock Absolute Andy off the apron… and that gives James a brief comeback, only for his dropkick to get caught and turned into a Boston crab.
Absolute Andy tries to chop away the Boston crab, but WALTER just absorbs them as “der VeterAAn” and “der Ringgeneral” squared off. One chop quickly put the Carat winner down to the mat with a thud! It also distracted WALTER for long enough for James to knock him to the outside, as underhanded tactics put the bad guys in control. WALTER’s in the rather unusual position of being worn down on as Alexander and Andy double-team WALTER before a Muta Lock from James forced WALTER into the ropes. Andy gets a little too arrogant, flipping off Ilja as he teased a powerbomb on WALTER… but der Ringgeneral fired back, only to see Ilja pulled off the apron as he reached for a tag. More double-teaming saw James deck WALTER with a ripcord elbow to the head, before we get the classic bad guy tag team spot of the cheating abdominal stretch. Of course, after they go back and forth with the hold, tagging in and out as WALTER broke the hold, the Austrian finally gets free and gets the white hot tag to Ilja!
Dragunov pelts James with clotheslines, before a crucifix bomb left the American laying, only for Andy to cut off a Torpedo Moscau and attempt an A-Klasse. Ilja escapes and lays into him with machine gun-like slaps, before dropping AJ with a knee strike as a lariat puts Andy down on the mat. Torpedo Moscau’s next, but Andy’s not the legal man, as we spark a Parade of Moves, ending with a superkick from the Eagle to WALTER! A replay breaks down that last flurry move-by-move (thanks guys!), before Ilja and Andy exchange chops like they were going out of fashion.
An eye rake from Andy stops Ilja in his tracks, but chops put Dragunov back in it before a Chernobyl bomb almost ended the match. Ilja’s right back up when Andy busts out a ‘rana, but a spinebuster puts the champion down as Andy rolled into a Sharpshooter. Alexander James tries to hold WALTER back, but he ends up being powerbombed onto Andy to break up the hold… and it’s WALTER who’s back in with a shotgun dropkick to Andy, who blind tags out. In comes James with an O’Connor roll for a near-fall, only to get pushed into Torpedo Moscau from Ilja, who wipes out Andy with a tope before a powerbomb from WALTER in the ring puts away AJ. A breathless war from start to finish – and with the long-term direction being Andy/Ilja, I sure as heck wouldn’t mind even a brief singles feud between Alexander James and WALTER down the line! ***½
That brings another solid episode of Shotgun to a close – two fantastic tag team wars characterised the company’s current champions and directions in a week that saw some of their biggest names begin to branch out on an international scale, with Killer Kelly on the NXT UK shows, and the announcement of Ilja Dragunov taking part in PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles later this year. As we’ve been saying for a while, don’t sleep on wXw, some of the best wrestling product in Europe is right under your nose!