Fresh off of Hamburg, all thoughts turn to wXw’s next big show as we found out Eddie Kingston’s opponent for Drive of Champions.
Quick Results
Jane Nero pinned Diana Strong in 7:59 (**¾)
— In the next week or so, I’ll be chatting about this show with Mike Kilby on the Auf Die Fresse podcast. Links to stream that episode when it drops, as well as back episodes are available at AufDieFresse.co.uk
We’re days removed from True Colors this past weekend – and you know what that means. Mett Dimassi opens up Shotgun and quickly pitches to highlights.
First – the Tihanyi/Tsuji main event… then Laurance Roman beating Elijah Blum in their tag match… Quick & Dirty’s efforts against Planet Gojirah… and Dennis Dullnig’s cheating backfiring against Axel Tischer.
Backstage, we’ve got comments as Zoltan tried to console Nick Schreier, who was a little confused over what was going on with Laurance Roman. Nick hypes up Zoltan’s next two title defences against Ricky Sosa and Kuro… before Zoltan asked Nick about his plans. Nick wants to take some time off to compose himself.
Laurance Roman approached Elijah Blum, all cocky because he’d just beaten him… Roman wants a shot at the belt he won two years ago at Drive of Champions. Of course, Laurance made a point of calling that out, but Blum referenced that it’d been a while since Roman had beaten him in wXw (November 2022, in fact, for those checking.)
Jane Nero’s still calling herself the wXw Women’s World champion and vows to shut up Dani Luna at Drive of Champions. It’ll not be a title match though, but only because Jane’s still sore over Dani cancelling on her before…
CSI’s agitating Nick Schreier, since he hasn’t moved from that sofa. Nordino and Luca seem happy that Nick’s off to Italy, and they all celebrate with some half-eaten tiramisu. CSI seem to think they should have a tag title match by way of their two wins over 10/10 Next Level. Schreier tells them to call the “vacuum cleaner guy” (Robin Christopher Fohrwerk), and CSI argue over the admin.
Ahura’s holding court with Niklas Bock… Niklas seemed dejected that his tag match with Ahura didn’t happen, but he’s told that he’s got a good thing going with Quick & Dirty. Ahura mentioned he was on the verge of getting booted out of wXw many, many times, and told Bock and Brand to keep hustling.
Dennis Dullnig accused Axel Tischer of cheating – since he’d been knocked out for 20 seconds but still had the title. Way to not mention why he was down for that long! There’s a hell of a burn from Tischer (“bread can grow mould… what can you do?”) as he took aim at Dullnig’s failures. Of course Dullnig wanted a rematch, but Tischer’s ready to move on. Dullnig baits Tischer into a four-way – with Katsuya Murashima and Dieter Schwartz added to the mix.
Robin Christopher Fohrwerk’s next, telling us the Greedy Souls have a shot at the tag champions at Drive of Champions. He’s interrupted as presumably CSI found their Italian mobile phones… but Robert Dreissker can’t understand what they’re saying.
Mett and Ben Thamer confirms the Drive of Champions card to this point…
wXw World Tag Team Championships: Greedy Souls (Brendan White & Danny Jones) vs. Planet Gojirah (Robert Dreissker & Marc Empire) (c)
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Laurance Roman vs. Elijah Blum (c)
Eddie Kingston vs. Peter Tihanyi
wXw Shotgun Championship: Katsuya Murashima vs. Dieter Schwartz vs. Dennis Dullnig vs. Axel Tischer (c)
Jane Nero vs. Dani Luna
Kanji vs. Orsi
wXw European Championship: Kuro vs. Zoltan (c)
Ahura & Jun Akiyama vs. Cowboy Way (1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire)
And on the back of that loaded line-up, it’s off to Hamburg for our main event!
Jane Nero vs. Diana Strong
Nero’s still rocking the wXw Women’s title… while 10/10 Next Level only get introduced as a tandem. Schäde. Unfortunately, that meant that Aleksander Bellamy had to take matters into his own hands and bust out the elongated O’s…
We get going with Strong backing Nero into the corner, before she had the favour returned, in addition to Nero grabbing a handful of hair. Strong quickly returned with a shoulder tackle, before she caught a kick and instead went for a bodyslam. Nero went for the hair to get herself free though, before Alex Duke’s distraction stifled Strong’s attempt to get back in it.
A clothesline to the back of the head took Strong down, as did a front suplex as Nero was happy to pick her spots here. Nero stays on Strong in the corner, at least until the Pole vaulted over her… and just as I was about to apologise for an accidental pun, Nero’s right back in with a clothesline and a grounded sleeperhold.
Finally Strong broke free and returned fire with a missile dropkick off the middle rope, before she added some clotheslines and slams to build up steam. Strong’s ripcord fallaway slam’s escaped as Nero hits a full nelson slam instead, before Strong baited Nero into an inside cradle for a near-fall. From there, Strong kicks at Nero’s knee, then scored with the front slam.
Strong looked for a Vader Bomb from there, but Alex Duke and Aleksander Bellamy pull Nero to safety… and once Strong found there was no water in the pool, Nero rushed back in to hit a sliding clothesline, then a Twist of Fate for the win. A solid outing, with Nero still needing help to get the win, despite having the lion’s share of the match. **¾
Don’t turn off! We’ve got more from CSI, as Nordino’s bemoaning giving Nick Schreier all of the tiramisu. Problem is, Nick lost his spoon while eating it, and an angry Robin Christopher Fohrwerk interrupts… only to get his face shoved in the remaining tiramisu. Screenshot worthy!
A flying chair from Robert Dreissker offscreen wipes out Nick Schreier as the tag champions chase away CSI… as we go off air with the news that they’ve been added to the tag title match, complete with a graphic that made it look like Nordino’s holding a blue light tube.