It’s been a while since wXw dropped an episode of The Next Generation – so let’s take a look at the Pretty Bastards!
The first two episodes of this show have been a little cursed, with Benjamin van Es having lost his Academy cup since his episode went out over a year ago, while Timo Theiss has been out of action through injury since April. We open with Maggot and Prince Ahura introducing themselves. They’ve been training for about ten years, but actually wrestling for less than half of that. Maggot grew up loving Edge, while Ahura had no role models in wrestling… and then we jump straight to action.
Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) vs. Strong Hearts (T-Hawk & El Lindaman)
This was taped at the wXw Academy Scouting The Next Generation 40 show back in August, when the Strong Hearts were in town for Shortcut to the Top.
Andy Jackson explains that the Pretty Bastards were added to World Tag Team Festival because of Julian Pace’s injury that “he had to suffer.” A weird turn of phrase that makes me wonder… is Andy responsible? I kid…
There’s some playing to the crowd early as Maggot got the crowd going ahead of a waistlock from T-Hawk, who switched up into a cravat and a snapmare, as he took down Maggot in the opening moments. Maggot’s quickly out and back with a shoulder tackle and a teardrop suplex, before El Lindaman and Prince Ahura tagged in. Feinted kicks from Ahura led to Lindaman catching one before he stomped on Ahura’s back. Ahura catches a punch, then grabs a headlock so he could sneak in a punch to the head before he pushed down Lindaman with his foot for a near-fall. A chinbar’s next from Ahura, along with a kick to the back, before Maggot’s back in for an electric chair splash for a near-fall.
Maggot keeps Lindaman down with a chinlock and some clubbing blows, before Ahura came in and got thrown into his own man. Lindaman gets thrown into his own corner, which backfires as he tags out after some Exploders took the Bastards down. T-Hawk’s back with chops, before a Sky High powerbomb almost put away Ahura. Lindaman’s back to finish it, deadlifting Ahura up for a German suplex, which gets countered into a roll-up before Maggot returned with that Edge influence, landing a spear for another near-fall. T-Hawk runs in to stop the double-teaming, landing a pop-up knee and some chops on Maggot… a flip-out back suplex from T-Hawk continues the momentum, only for Lindaman to quickly put away Maggot with a German suplex for the win. That felt pretty short, but the Pretty Bastards looked solid on offence – but were virtually outclassed when the Strong Hearts were on top. ***
Compared to the older episodes of The Next Generation, this was a bit weird – the opening bit with Maggot and Ahura didn’t really reveal much about their back stories. Still, for a 15 minute episode, this was in and out and a very easy watch if you’d barely seen the Bastards beforehand.