wXw headed to Dresden for their first big show after 16 Carat, where the cracks in RINGKAMPF’s partnership burst apart!
Da Mack vs. Bobby Gunns
Yep, they’re at it again, as Gunns continues to antagonise the “Urban German”.
Gunns attacks Mack from behind at the bell, before Gunns grabbed at Mack’s cornrows to help drag him to the mat. A palm strike and an overhead belly-to-belly gets Mack into things, only for Gunns to slap him out of the ring… and into the path of Mack’s girlfriend, who kisses him better. Or at least, I hope it was his girlfriend!
That ignites Mack into a springboard forearm, but the back and forth continued as Gunn thrusted his groin at Mack’s face before jawing at Mack’s girlfriend. A Slingblade stops that, but Mack’s quickly caught with an armbar in the ropes, which leads to some arm and wrist-work on the flyer.
Again Gunns ends up outside and he asks Mack’s’ girlfriend to kiss him better, but instead she gives him a wedgie as a set-up for a PK and a cannonball dive off the apron from Mack. Another Slingblade sends Gunns back onto the apron, where he again catches Mack with the armbar in the ropes, before getting caught up top as Mack brings him back into the ring with a top rope ‘rana!
Another ‘rana follows, as does a top rope cannonball into the ring, but Mack doesn’t make a cover as he instead he goes for the Mack Magic (cutter). Gunns avoids it and hits a German suplex for a near-fall, then a side suplex, before a Mackster Driver (cross-legged Michinoku driver) turned things the other way for Da Mack.
Gunns countered a fireman’s carry into an armbar, before Mack hit This Is It (La Mistica) for the submission by armbar! However, Mack didn’t let go of the hold after the match, so Tassilo Jung reverses his decision and gives the match to Gunns via DQ. A bit of a lame reversal, and I’d have liked the character of Mack’s girlfriend to at least have been seen before this show so we could do more than assume… otherwise though, a pretty decent opener. **¾
“Bad Bones” John Klinger vs. Alpha Kevin
This match came around because Bad Bones seemed to think that Kevin had become a soft touch after beating Marius van Beethoven – to the point where he was late for shows and skipping training, so Bones was here to teach him a lesson and focus him once more.
Kevin fools around early on and gets chopped for his troubles, as Bad Bones is all over him in the opening stages. A half nelson suplex sees Bones throw Kevin into the corner, but Kevin fires back with a clothesline for a near-fall, before throwing Klinger onto the apron… which just has Bad Bones come back in with a slingshot spear. Kevin replies with an Alpha Stunner for a near-fall, but that flurry doesn’t last as Klinger gets the win with a Codebreaker off the middle rope. Not much of a match to be honest, virtually a squash, truth be told, but it was fine for what it was. **½
After the match, Bones throws Kevin back in the ring, just so he could offer his hand to Kevin. So, an arse beating equals respect? Fair enough!
Jaxon Stone vs. Kim Ray
This was one of Ray’s first matches back after injury (with Shotgun matches vs. Maggot and WALTER being taped earlier… our thoughts on the Maggot match will be in our Shotgun review this week).
Ray enjoyed the lion’s share of offence early on as he worked a style that was a million miles away from what we’ve seen so far tonight. A lot of playing to the crowd, as he kicked away at a kneeling Stone in the middle of the ring, to the point where you’d be forgiven for thinking that Kim’s used to working WWE TV style. Stone sets up for a sliding lariat, but instead just slaps Ray… which ends up being a bad move as Ray fires back with slaps and kicks, before Stone rolled to the outside to avoid more punishment.
A clothesline from Stone on the apron gets a near-fall, as the American uses his size difference to whip Ray into the corners, before a GTR-style neckbreaker and the Cutaway (over-the-knee brainbuster) gets him a near-fall. Ray retaliates with more kicks, before he busted out an Exploder suplex and another dropkick for a near-fall.
Stone ducks a roundhouse kick and delivers a hiptoss knee strike, but Ray comes straight back with a second roundhouse kick for the win. Eh, I’m not sold on Kim Ray – it might be ring rust, but we’ve already got one Mike Bailey in wrestling. Give it time and I might be won over, but I just couldn’t get into this. **¾
Street Fight for wXw World Tag Team Championship: London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch) vs. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius al-Ani) (c)
These two had a fun match earlier in the year when wXw played London, and I’m hoping that the streetfight addition will ratchet things up a bit.
The Riots take the fight to A4 before they even hit the ring, but things settle down with al-Ani and Davis in the ring, with Marius hitting a sunset flip and an Exploder suplex to Davis, before Rob Lynch came in and tried his luck with some clotheslines. Absolute Andy comes in dumps Lynch with a spinebuster to almost end the match early.
Davis cuts off al-Ani as he tried to hit the leapfrog over Andy onto Lynch, and we’re back outside as Lynch’s tope takes him into the front row! Marius cuts off another tope by whacking Lynch with a chair in the ropes, before a double-team suplex nearly ended things for Lynch. al-Ani finally hits that leapfrog splash onto Lynch, who manages to avoid a follow-up F5 and missile dropkick as the Riots now take over.
al-Ani takes a chair to the midsection from Davis, before a combination ending with a back senton prompted Andy to come back in… and take a double-team chokeslam. The crowd is heavily on the Riots’ backs, but A4 manage to stay in it, taking the fight out of the ring again, with Lynch taking a back suplex onto the apron whilst Davis and Andy brawl around the crowd.
Lynch gets caught up top with a belly-to-belly superplex, as the other two continue to fight onto the stage – and yes, wXw have a second referee it seems for this! Andy disappears and returns with a table… and a knowing grin, but Davis flattens him with a back senton before that table can be set up. A Kendo stick comes into play, but it’s used on Davis as a Sharpshooter from Andy ties him up on the stage… but in a street fight, the decision’s got to be rendered in the ring, so Rob Lynch saunters up the aisle and whacks Andy with the Kendo stick to free his partner.
The Riots now target Marius with the Kendo stick as they carry the ring steps onto the entrance ramp, and it’s used to deliver a spine tombstone onto the aisle, with Lynch leaping off those steps. Absolute Andy’s next, as Wrestling Logic dictates he must take a chokeslam through the table he brought with him, which leaves al-Ani alone to take more punishment back in the ring, including more Kendo stick shots and a rope-hung back senton.
Absolute Andy’s stirring and crawling down the aisle as Marius is forced to kick-out, before he countered a District Line powerbomb into a ‘rana. Davis quickly replies with an Air Raid Crash, then turns around into an enraged Andy, who leads up to an Absolute Knee Drop and a superkick… but Lynch’s spear stops him from capitalising on things.
The hell? Andy goes under the ring for a monkey wrench?! Lynch ducks a wrench shot and takes a spinning heel kick, before A4 go for a double-team headlock driver, only for the Riots to cut it off and turn it into a slingshot spear for another near-fall. The District Line follows for a near-fall, but Andy comes back with a wrench shot before the double-team headlock driver should have won it, only for Davis to have pulled out the ref.
A tope across the corner from al-Ani takes out Davis after he’d used a chair on Andy, and now Marius grabs another table, then places Davis on it before Andy grabs a big ass ladder. Davis rolls off the table, so Andy F5’s him through it before Marius hits a frog splash off the ladder for the win! Well, this ticked the boxes of the street fight, but a lot of this seemed to be flat as the Dresden crowd perhaps didn’t know who the Riots were. A fun match, but with the right build, this could have been so much hotter. ***½
Laurance Roman vs. Marius van Beethoven vs. Scotty Saxon vs. Francis Kaspin
A home-grown four-way here, and yes, Marius still has problems saying “gold” without sounding like he’s climaxing. He starts the match getting battered around the ring with punches, before we settle down to Roman and Kaspin in the ring.
Saxon, the biggest of the four, gets involved and watches Roman and Kaspin bounce off of him, before a double-team clothesline takes him down. We get the usual disagreement over “who’s getting the pin”, which van Beethoven tries to capitalise on, but it’s not long before Saxton returns to lay waste to the smaller guys again.
A spinning powerslam gets Saxon a near-fall over Roman, before a top rope crossbody gets Kaspin another near-fall. More interference from Marius sees him pull down Kaspin as he tries to bribe Saxon into laying down for him… that doesn’t work, so Saxon just press slams Marius to the floor.
Back inside, Kaspin trips Saxon and lands a dropkick, before a springboard bulldog gets him the win out of nowhere. This match was alright, but was just there – it’s clear that wXw are looking to set up Kaspin for something, but a four-way against Marius and two guys who barely get TV time probably wasn’t the way to do it. Decent, but this never really got into gear. **½
Avalanche vs. Ilja Dragunov
This was set-up on the back of 16 Carat – with the former Robert Dreissker wanting his former Cerberus stablemate despite losing to him in the first round of the tournament. Fair enough!
It’s hard hitting as a grudge match should be, and quickly spills to the floor for some back-and-forth shots, before Avalanche makes the mistake of throwing Ilja back inside, as he quickly returns with a tope, then a back senton into the front row… but Avalanche quickly responds by Jimmy Havoc’ing him, as Ilja’s thrown into several rows of chairs.
Back inside, Avalanche misses an elbow and takes a senton, before he reverts to type and just launches Ilja across the ring with ease. A sit-down splash counters a sunset flip, before a Samoan drop gets the Avalanche a near-fall. Dragunov lands a sunset bomb to escape a superplex, then runs in with a Torpedo Moscau for a near-fall, before he takes too long to play to the crowd and gets squashed with an avalanche and a cannonball for another near-fall.
That wakes the crowd into chants of “unbesiegbar”, and somehow Ilja manages to deadlift and hold Avalanche into a side suplex! Holy crap, Ilja’s deceptively strong… Avalanche hits back immediately with a superplex after catching Ilja up top, but he misses another cannonball into the corner, as Ilja capitalised with a back senton off the top rope! Just like that, the tide turns again as Dragunov runs into a spinning Blue Thunder Bomb for another two-count, before yet another avalanche attempt is cut-off with a clothesline.
Dragunov keeps up with more corner clotheslines, before the referee gets thrown to the outside by Dragunov as he tried to separate the pair. The two keep beating on each other as more referees hit the ring, but Avalanche powers back up as more security and trainees hit the ring, and it looks like this is being waved off. I wasn’t too keen on the non-finish, but wXw don’t do too many of those, and this match had been hard hitting throughout until then, so it wasn’t too hokey. ***¾
Ordinarily, I’d query why they booked this if the plan was to do a non-finish, especially as both men are on the ascension in wXw, but this managed to keep them both strong I feel.
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: WALTER vs. Mike Bailey vs. Axel Dieter Jr. vs. Jurn Simmons (c)
WALTER and Dieter seem to pair up – as you’d expect from the RINGKAMPF duo – and indeed, they turn their sights onto Simmons and Bailey in the early going. They then decide to try and get Bailey working with them against Jurn, but Speedball decides to boot away RINGKAMPF and have a go himself, which didn’t work out too well for him…
An Asai moonsault sees Bailey take down Axel, but Jurn’s threatened dive ends when WALTER hits a lariat, and we’re paired off again as RINGKAMPF now look to wear down the champion. Axel Dieter seems almost surprised when WALTER tells him to cover Simmons, but after Jurn kicked out, the two challengers had to deal with Bailey for a moment, before a butterfly suplex from WALTER got Axel another near-fall.
You can tell WALTER’s slowly getting frustrated as he perceives Axel to be unable to finish his work, and that can only have increased when Dieter took a series of kicks from Bailey before catching him in the Axel Dieter Jr Special. At the same time, Simmons holds up WALTER in a torture rack, before throwing him down to focus on the former champion, but the Austrian WALTER comes back with a rear naked choke to Jurn… which Bailey breaks up with the moonsault knees for a near-fall.
A Human Centipede of German suplexes finally succeeds when Jurn sparks the massive chain, before a piledriver from Simmons is blocked by WALTER, who then eats a Rock Bottom. Axel avoids a piledriver next, then chops away at Simmons and Bailey, before a pair of piledrivers sees Simmons give a regular piledriver to Speedball, and a belly-to-back piledriver to Axel. Jesus Christ, that was insane.
WALTER pulls Dieter back into the ring after that piledriver as RINGKAMPF looked to finish Simmons with a powerbomb/uppercut combo, but Jurn powers out and inadvertently holds up WALTER for the shooting star knees from Speedball. Things break down a bit as RINGKAMPF turn their attentions to Bailey, who takes that powerbomb/uppercut with WALTER shepherding Axel into a cover… but Jurn pushes the Austrian onto Axel to break it up… and then the pair get into an argument.
Dieter thinks WALTER broke it up intentionally, which leads to a lot of finger prodding before Bailey coaxes WALTER into a corner dropkick on his partner. Bailey takes a powerbomb from WALTER for a near-fall as Axel recovers to break that up… and now we get into a shoving match as RINGKAMPF explodes! The Hamburger Kreuz (Air Raid Crash) takes down WALTER, as does a running European uppercut, but Jurn Simmons flies in with a moonsault to an unsuspecting Dieter to snatch the win! A fantastic four-way which really kicked off a major storyline for Axel Dieter Jr’s final weeks in the promotion… not too spotty or as disjointed as the earlier four way, but a good main event nevertheless. ****
This isn’t a show we should be comparing to 16 Carat Gold, lest we make the inevitable comparisons to WrestleMania and Payback. This was a solid show, with some decent action, but aside from the main event there’s not too much that you need to see. It’s a fun show to watch, especially for the Dragunov/Avalanche brawl, but if you’re pushed for time, you can get away with skipping everything but the main event and relying on Shotgun to fill in the blanks.
After the show, it was revealed that Axel Dieter Jr would be leaving wXw for pastures new, rumoured to be WWE/NXT… which will tell you why the trigger’s gotten pulled on the RINGKAMPF split. His last show for wXw is a special “farewell” show in Oberhausen on April 30, which will be emotional and memorable in equal measures.