The final Shotgun before the summer was a loaded affair, as the tag title picture was front and centre once again.
We’re in Munster for the last Shotgun before the summer break – and after a quick rundown of this week’s show from Alan Counihan, we’re interrupted by RISE!
Pete Bouncer acknowledges what’s happened to them on this tour, and how the rightful wXw tag team champions don’t have their belts because those rotters Jay FK have stolen them. Jay FK are invited out, but instead out come Monster Consulting, who are sad that they’re not going to be able to give anyone five minutes tonight. Avalanche has one question: why do RISE keep interfering in their business? Bouncer’s less than helpful answer gets the expected reaction, and oh look, here’s Jay FK with the belts! They lay out everyone, but as Monster Consulting make a comeback, out comes Tassilo Jung and Christian Jakobi to make the peace.
Insert a missing scene, and tonight our main event is another 3-way tag team match!
Prince Ahura vs. Bobby Gunns
With his Pretty Bastard tag team partner Maggot on the shelf, Prince Ahura has found his chances limited as of late… so his outing against Bobby Gunns is the perfect opportunity.
Gunns is the early aggressor, charging into and stomping on Ahura at the bell, but the Bastard comes back, leaping over Gunns in the corner before getting decked by an uppercut. A hiptoss almost dumped Gunns on his head, a body part that Ahura keeps on targeting as an enziguiri to the back of the head and a bicycle kick leaves Gunns on the defensive. Bobby replies with a diving European uppercut off the top though, leaving Ahura in place for a low dropkick that nearly ends the match… and from the kickout Gunns is right into a single-leg crab that forces Ahura into the ropes. From there, Bobby works over Ahura’s arm and trips him back down as this remained insanely one-sided.
Ahura finally makes a comeback with a zoomed-in crossbody out of the corner… but a second one’s caught and turned into a trapped armbar a la the Rings of Saturn, and that forces the submission. Pretty straightforward, all told, as Gunns keeps his momentum high going into the autumn tour. ***
There’s a trailer for some OTT content that’s coming to wXw Now next month… drop in on it if you haven’t seen it already, especially the Homecoming show from this past February!
Absolute Andy’s out in his summer casual gear, doing the smart thing of not wearing anything black. He tells us he’s been a record four-time tag team champion, an East Germany and Middle Germany Cup winner (but not West…), a wXw heavyweight champion and most recently… 16 Carat Gold winner. On August 4, Andy vows that Ilja Dragunov’s losing his title… because that’s when he’s cashing in his title shot: at Shortcut to the Top!
They replay the finish of the Marius al-Ani vs. Ivan Kiev Shotgun tournament match from a few weeks back, and that bleeds into a video promo with al-Ani, who vows that Veit Müller will be dragged into the darkness as Marius gets closer to the wXw Shotgun title. I’ll tell you one thing, these promos are making this tournament mean something – even if it is “only for a title shot”.
Veit Müller vs. WALTER
Consider this a warm-up of sorts… iron toughening iron. That sort of thing.
The huge match for Müller starts with WALTER being taken into the ropes by the man some had affectionately called “Baby Walter”… but Müller messes up by throwing some chops. You know what that eventually means! But Veit keeps on top of WALTER, at least until he goes for a slam, as der Ringgeneral fights free and starts to trade shoulder blocks with die Keiler. Despite edging ahead, WALTER falls to a Müller bulldog off the top rope, before he connects with his first CHOP! The first of many. Poor Veit.
A Boston crab keeps Müller down, but again we get a rope break as WALTER stayed on top of Veit, with a snapmare and a chop drawing a near-fall. The butterfly suplex gets a similar result, before a Gojira clutch almost led to the RINGKAMPF German… but Müller escapes and tries for a slam. It didn’t work. Again. WALTER keeps hold of Müller’s wrist as the barrage of chops resumes, marking up Veit good and proper. Müller ducks one and comes back with some clotheslines, eventually taking WALTER off his feet for a near-fall. There’s more chops from WALTER, but Müller ducks them all and even goes for a backslide… but it’s not enough as WALTER recovers with a Gojira clutch, which Veit again escapes before hitting the Andre slam! Müller celebrates a little too much from that though, and wanders into a small package as WALTER snuck out the win. A hell of a match from Müller, and a typical wXw outing as the “undercard guy” was put over strong despite falling to defeat. ***½
Backstage, Müller and WALTER are chatting… and WALTER imparts some knowledge on the Boar. Apparently Axel Dieter Jr. saw something in him, and WALTER’s been asked to keep an eye on him… it seems big WALTER likes baby Walter, and as long as Veit stops moping around, he can go somewhere in wrestling. First stop, the Shotgun title, perhaps?
Dirty Dragan’s out to ringside next, and he’s got something to tell us. He’s not here to wrestle, he’s here to tell us his insecurities. This is hitting me a little close to home, as he tells the crowd about how he’s been repeatedly betrayed… and how the binary nature of wrestling (you either win or lose) is getting to him. Dragan reckons he’s a weakling who has nobody to turn to, apart from the fans, and so he makes a promise to the fans – he’s made an appointment with a therapist, and it all starts next week… so he won’t be back until he’s ready. Now THAT’S cool and strong in its own way.
They run through the card for Shortcut to the Top in August…
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Absolute Andy vs. Ilja Dragunov (c)
wXw Shotgun Championship: Tournament Winner vs. Bobby Gunns (c)
Shortcut to the Top: in the graphic they show WALTER, Lucky Kid, Marius al-Ani, Dirty Dragan, Emil Sitoci, Veit Müller, Juvenile X, Julian Pace, Ivan Kiev, Pete Bouncer, Julian Nero, Avalanche, Francis Kaspin, Jay Skillet, Laurance Roman and two folks I can’t identify…
Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) vs. RISE (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer) vs. Jay FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin)
From the look of it, the opening segment bled into this, and we start with Jay FK threatening to walk out… but Christian Jakobi appears on the stage to wag his finger at them.
They shove him, he shoves back, and hey, there’s Monster Consulting to issue some punishment as the upstarts were thrown to the wolves that were RISE and Monster Consulting. Finally Nero and Avalanche get their belts back, and quickly give them to ring announcer Thommy Giesen via Tassilo Jung, as our match gets underway with some more shoving, this time between RISE and Monster Consulting.
Except in the background, Jay FK looked to try and steal the belts again, before returning to the ring to get their arses handed to them again. All the forearms! Eventually it backfires as Jay FK hit back with a Jay Skillet neckbreaker to Nero… before Francis Kaspin found himself on the receiving end again as Avalanche and Bouncer used Kaspin as a dummy for a barrage of clotheslines.
With Skillet pulling Kaspin from the ring, the two went after each other as RISE started to edge ahead with a Blockbuster-assisted legsweep to Avalanche. Nero comes back to clear out RISE with a knee and Wasteland… but Kaspin nicks in with a back cracker to Nero as Jay Skillet tried to steal a pin on Kiev. That makes Jay FK even more arrogant, if it could be possible as they tried to keep the true tag team champions out of the ring.
Problem was, they couldn’t keep Pete Bouncer out, but they dealt with him… or at least they thought they had, as Ivan Kiev makes a save with a legdrop-assisted sidewalk slam that gets a near-fall over Skillet before Kiev looked to head up top… only for Avalanche to break it up. The champions tease a the Final Consultation (a double-team Go To Sleep) to Bouncer, before Avalanche makes do with squashing him in the corner as Nero eats a leg lariat amid one big Parade of Moves!
In the end, Jay Skillet goes a little TK Cooper too much, mocking the champions as he’s taken down by Bouncer, but the Parade rolls on as Avalanche wiped out Kiev with a pumphandle slam, only to take a Bouncer DDT… Pete keeps up with a full nelson slam to Skillet, but he’s caught from behind with a belt shot from Francis Kaspin, and that’s enough for him to get the win! Really breathless stuff at the end, but I’ll be glad for this summer break as we’re really needing a definitive blow-off in this storyline. Especially because… ***¼
After the match, Monster Consulting catch Kaspin and lay him out with the Final Consultation, then a pop-up Rainmaker. The crowd roar when Monster Consulting pull out a table, and that hardware’s destined for Jay FK, with Kaspin getting driven through Skillet in the corner as the wood goes crack! With them down, RISE regain the tag titles… and hand them back over to their rightful owners. A satisfying end to proceedings then!
That’s all for Shotgun for this season – the next few weeks will be special episodes, with unreleased matches and the infamous blooper reel, which of course we’ll be covering before the new season resumes on July 25 with the Shotgun contender’s tournament matches.