{"id":28503,"date":"2025-03-15T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/?p=28503"},"modified":"2025-03-15T16:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T16:31:32","slug":"wxw-ambition-16-march-08-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/reviews\/wxw-ambition-16-march-08-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"wXw AMBITION 16 (March 08, 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s all about the Cowboy and the Astronauts as Thomas Shire looked to go all the way, while the Fighting Detectives took to the mat for the main event.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>Quick Results<\/b><br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; First Round: Thomas Shire defeated Yuto Nakashima in 2:11 (**\u00bd)<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; First Round: Zozaya defeated Dieter Schwarz in 4:36 (**\u00be)<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; First Round: Danny Jones defeated Fast Time Moodo in 3:56 (**)<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; First Round: Liam Slater submitted Icarus in 5:20 (***)<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; Semi-Final: Thomas Shire defeated Zozaya in 3:29 (***)<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; Semi-Final: Danny Jones submitted Liam Slater in 2:53 (**\u00bd)<br \/>\nMasha Slamovich defeated Jane Nero in 1:41<br \/>\nAMBITION 16 &#8211; Final: Thomas Shire submitted Danny Jones in 3:35 (***)<br \/>\nFuminori Abe submitted Takuya Nomura in 13:37 (****\u00bc)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; In the next week or so, I\u2019ll 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aufdiefresse.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AufDieFresse.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WHYHmYWOAzM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A quick turnaround has us back inside the Turbinenhalle for the day\u2019s second show, and after the initial parade of entrants, we\u2019re underway with commentary from a rather understated Mett Dimassi.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 First Round: Thomas Shire vs. Yuto Nakashima<\/strong><br \/>\nNakashima tried to control things early on, rocking Shire with palm strikes that sent the American into the ropes.<\/p>\n<p>Knee strikes from Nakashima eventually find Shire\u2019s head for another standing ten-count, but Shire gets back to his feet. Shire starts another exchange of strikes, this time slapping down Yuto after a caught kick, before a simple right hand knocked Yuto down and out for the count. **\u00bd<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 First Round: Dieter Schwartz vs. Zozaya<\/strong><br \/>\nSchwartz is rocking something of a Catch Point-like gimmick, calling himself the Catch Connoisseur, while Zozaya has a legitimate wrestling background, having gone into amateur wrestling before he was old enough to train professionally.<\/p>\n<p>Zozaya looked to control Schwartz from the off, before an overhead suplex took Schwartz down into the corner. More suplexes had Dieter in trouble, but Zozaya\u2019s unfamiliarity with the rules created an opening as the German came back with a front kick and a German suplex.<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz was admonished for a cheapshot in the corner before Zozaya charged back out with a takedown, which followed into a Cattle Mutilation that ended in the ropes. Returning fire with a European uppercut, Schwartz had looked to get a stoppage, then again with a Rings of Saturn, only for Zozaya to roll up and hit a de Madrid al Cielo death valley driver for the TKO stoppage. **\u00be<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 First Round: Fast Time Moodo vs. Danny Jones<\/strong><br \/>\nMoodo had talked up winning AMBITION &#8211; with Axel Tischer then going on to win Carat for a KxS double-header.<\/p>\n<p>A scrappy start led to Jones taking down Moodo, who retaliated with a kick after a break in the ropes, only to get taken down again by Jones. Danny tries for a cross armbreaker, but Moodo slips out into the mount ahead of a triangle armbar, which Jones manages to powerbomb his way out of.<\/p>\n<p>Moodo breaks in the ropes after getting caught with a rear naked choke\u2026 and another cheapshot opened up Jones for more kicks\u2026 but a simple slap after another flurry of kicks proved to be enough for Jones to get the win. **<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 First Round: Icarus vs. Liam Slater<\/strong><br \/>\nRefusing a handshake, Icarus starts us off with an attempted takedown, only for Slater to block it as the Hungarian rolled into the ropes to stop any momentum from being built.<\/p>\n<p>The ropes again save Icarus from a takedown, but rather than let go of the hold he goes after Slater\u2019s neck, forcing the referee to separate the pair and reset things. Back-and-forth forearms end with Slater getting thrown into the corner with a release German suplex, before Icarus looked to force a stoppage with a bulldog choke.<\/p>\n<p>Things switch up to a rear naked choke, but Slater rolls into the ropes for a break, before he returned with a sugar bag throw to slam Icarus down to the mat. An uppercut followed to the Hungarian, who returned with an overhead suplex before Slater rolled through another suplex and into a Kimura for the submission, despite Icarus\u2019 attempts to go for the eye. ***<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 Semi-Final: Thomas Shire vs. Zozaya<\/strong><br \/>\nShire\u2019s still rocking the singlet after his rapid-fire win over Yuto Nakashima in the opener.<\/p>\n<p>Shire stuffed Zozaya\u2019s attempts at a takedown to start, but couldn\u2019t avoid a standing dropkick from Zozaya that took him into the ropes. A front chancery from Shire\u2019s turned into a Northern Lights suplex, with a cross armbar following from the Spaniard, only for Shire to get to the ropes to force a break.<\/p>\n<p>Zozaya pounces on the restart, leaping on Shire\u2019s back for a rear naked choke, taking him down for a triangle choke\u2026 which Shire this time broke up with a powerbomb to dump Zozaya onto his knee. An exchange of strikes ends things though, as Zozaya charged into a knee strike from Shire\u2026 and it\u2019s lights out from there! ***<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 Semi-Final: Liam Slater vs. Danny Jones<\/strong><br \/>\nObviously, the winner of this gets Shire in the finals\u2026<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve a tentative start to proceedings, as Jones threw aside Slater in his search for the arm, before a Dragon screw from Slater turned into a Stretch Muffler on the mat. Slater continued to work the leg, but strikes from Jones prevented a half crab before a palm strike led to Jones diving in on Liam with a rear naked choke for the quick stoppage. **\u00bd<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION Super Fight: Jane Nero vs. Masha Slamovich<\/strong><br \/>\nJane Nero was a show-day replacement for the injured Stephanie Maze &#8211; but Nero was pretty much on the back foot from the off with Slamovich taking her down for a cross armbar in the first thirty seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Slamovich transitions into an ankle lock seconds later, but the ropes force a break before Masha just swarmed Nero once again, going for a cross armbar. Nero punches her way free, boxing Masha into the corner, only to get KO\u2019d with a leaping knee in return\u2026 and that\u2019s your lot! Masha certainly not getting paid by the hour here!<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION 16 Final: Danny Jones vs. Thomas Shire<\/strong><br \/>\nShire had been runner up in the last two AMBITION tournaments &#8211; and was hell set on it not being a hattrick.<\/p>\n<p>Jones used that against Shire, sidestepping a charge and returning with a German suplex before a double underhook suplex sent Shire down into the corner. Another German suplex took Shire right back down after he\u2019d fought back to his feet\u2026 but third time was the charm as Shire hit a suplex of his own to cut off the Welshman.<\/p>\n<p>Back and forth uppercuts rock both finalists as Jones edged ahead once more with a right hand\u2026 but while that shot ended his first two matches, Shire again pulled himself back up, only to take another palm strike. Throwing off a rear naked choke, Shire charged in with a front chancery\u2026 and that\u2019s enough to force the submission as third time again as the charm for Shire in AMBITION. ***<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMBITION Super Fight: Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe<\/strong><br \/>\nOctober 2023. April 2024. March 2025. It\u2019s a pairing that\u2019s produced magic in two continents already, and under Battlarts rules, the fighting detectives did it again.<\/p>\n<p>Nomura took things to the mat in the opening seconds, but Abe\u2019s quickly able to counter with headscissors as he looked to do something simple &#8211; punch the hand of Nomura. It\u2019s too early in the match for that though, but a straight up fist to the forehead had more luck as Abe retained control on the mat.<\/p>\n<p>A headlock takedown puts things back on the deck, but a snapmare gets Nomura free ahead of a kick to the back. Sneaking in a strike, Abe rolls down Nomura, who tried to start another fist fight\u2026 albeit with balled fists to the forehead, which Abe laughed off as he locked in a Scorpion deathlock that ended in the ropes ahead of some scrappy swipes from both men.<\/p>\n<p>Abe\u2019s front facelock is slipped out of as Nomura instead rolled things down to the mat for a Kimura, but Abe bites at Nomura\u2019s thigh to try and break the hold. It doesn\u2019t work, so he\u2019s forced to go for a more conventional rope break instead. Firing back, kicks trap Nomura in the corner as Abe began to settle into a groove, blasting his regular tag partner with kicks on the mat before another series of punches to the top of the head left both men in pain.<\/p>\n<p>Nomura blocks a kick and turns it into a suplex, before he slapped Abe into the corner as a series of forearms left Abe needing that standing ten count to get himself back into it. Which he does, with a front kick\u2026 only to get dragged down in an armbar. Nomura switches it up into a leg lock, which Abe broke with\u2026 erm\u2026 a thumb in the bum.<\/p>\n<p>A swift headbutt seconds later was less humiliating as Abe continued to rain down blows, only to get taken back into the ropes with a headbutt. He tries again, elbowing at Nomura\u2019s neck before a head kick took Nomura to the mat, with a follow-up short distance knee strike almost ending things as Nomura baited Abe in by playing possum, catching him with a Fujiwara armbar. It morphs into a cross armbar, but again the ropes save the day for Abe, before he clattered into Nomura with a dropkick off the ropes.<\/p>\n<p>Nomura\u2019s wise enough to avoid an Irabu punch, but couldn\u2019t duck the second one before the pair just cracked each other with headbutts. A couple of thunderous clotheslines from Nomura almost shuts this down as Abe looked to be running on empty, even more so when he\u2019s dragged down with a rear naked choke\u2026 but Abe\u2019s able to break free with a toe and ankle hold, before he rolled in for a knee bar on Nomura for the submission. This more than lived up to my expectations &#8211; if you\u2019ve seen either of their prior meetings, you know what you were getting, and it more than delivered live. ****\u00bc<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s tempting to look at the results and skip straight to the main event &#8211; but the beauty of AMBITION is that flash finishes are the norm &#8211; which means you can\u2019t really switch off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s all about the Cowboy and the Astronauts as Thomas Shire looked to go all the way, while the Fighting Detectives took to the mat for the main event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"wXw AMBITION 16 (March 08, 2025) recap - #wXw16Carat - It\u2019s all about the Cowboy and the Astronauts as Thomas Shire looked to go all the way, while the Fighting Detectives took to the mat for the main event.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[690,6,829],"tags":[7026,7091,1671,6718,5260,6223,186,6825,1040,4879,2072,5098,454,5605,6923],"class_list":["post-28503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-european-indies","category-reviews","category-wxw","tag-16-carat-gold-2025","tag-ambition-16","tag-danny-jones","tag-dieter-schwartz","tag-fast-time-moodo","tag-fuminori-abe","tag-icarus","tag-jane-nero","tag-liam-slater","tag-masha-slamovich","tag-takuya-nomura","tag-thomas-shire","tag-wxw","tag-yuto-nakashima","tag-zozaya"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73vbt-7pJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wxw-ambition16-screen.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28512,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28503\/revisions\/28512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}