Tag: 16 Carat Gold

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 preview: The wrestling world descends upon Oberhausen

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

This coming weekend, the wrestling world will be looking to Oberhausen, Germany, once again.

The mid-sized city of about 210,000 people usually doesn’t have all that much going for it. There’s the CentrO (one of the biggest malls in Europe), a concert arena that both WWE and WCW ran in the past and that hosts a number or musicals throughout the year. Besides that, it’s neither very pretty nor very important on a global scale. About 20 minutes from the Düsseldorf airport, it sits amid the Ruhr area, which isn’t exactly the most inviting part of the country you could venture to.

And yet, this coming weekend, about 1600 wrestling fans from all around Europe and the world will come to this town, pack the Turbinenhalle, a concert arena that usually hosts either metal concerts or techno parties and generally go crazy as the 15th annual wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament starts this Friday, led in by a more intimate Inner Circle show on Thursday, hosted at the wXw Academy in nearby Essen.

Besides the three-day tournament, there will also be an AMBITION tournament (shoot style wrestling, much like Bloodsport, which was somewhat inspired by the format), a showcase for promotions from all around the world, which are features on the promotion’s wXwNOW streaming service, another show taped for the service on Sunday afternoon, and a morning show by WrestlingKULT, a smaller German indy promotion that runs the KULT Tempel, a smaller arena right next to the bigger Turbinenhalle.

There also will be an afterparty going on after the show on Saturday, so those so inclined can enjoy wrestling related activities from 10 AM to about 4 AM the next day. No wonder some call this weekend the European version of WrestleMania. Looking at some of the 130 participants that competed (and will compete) at 16 Carat over the years, the star power certainly is there.

Past Participants: A Who’s Who of Indie Stars

Some of the winners and runner-ups of previous tournaments: Tommy End (Aleister Black, twice), WALTER, Chris Hero (Kassius Ohno, twice), Zack Sabre Jr., El Generico (Sami Zayn), Ilja Dragunov, Sami Callihan and SHINGO are among the more well-known names who took home the 16 Tournament Cup in the past as well as German mainstays “Bad Bones” John Klinger, Lucky Kid, Absolute Andy, and Baron von Hagen.

Other names that made the finals since 2006 include Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), Drake Younger (current NXT referee Drake Wuertz), Axel Tischer (Alexander Wolfe), Axel Dieter Jr. (Marcel Barthel), and David Starr.

They were joined by a who’s who of names now or formerly active in either WWE/NXT, AEW, ROH, or Japan: ACH (formerly Jordan Miles), Adam Cole, Angelico, Cedric Alexander, Chris Brookes, Chris Sabin, Chuck Taylor, Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro), Cody Rhodes, Colt Cabana, Daisuke Sekimoto, Davey Richards, Donovan Dijak(ovic), Doug Williams, Drew Gallowy (McIntyre), Eddie Kingston, Fenix, Fit Finlay, Go Shiozaki, Jimmy Jacobs, Johnny Gargano, Johnny Moss, Jonah Rock (Bronson Reed), Jonathan Gresham, Keith Lee, KUSHIDA, Mark Haskins, Martin Stone (Danny Burch), Marty Scurll, Matt Jackson, Matt Riddle, Matt Striker, Matt Sydal, Nick jackson, Nigel McGuinness, PAC, Paul London, PCO, Pentagon Jr., Rey Horus, Ricky Marvin, Ricochet, Rocky Romero, Shane Strickland (Isaiah Swerve Scott), Silas Young, Super Crazy, Timothy Thatcher, Tomasso Ciampa, Travis Banks, Trent, Trevor Lee (Cameron Grimes), Tyler Black (Seth Rollins), Uhaa Nation (Apollo Crews), Will Ospreay, and Yuji Okabayashi all were part of one or more tournaments over the years.

You can just imagine some of the matches those guys put on.

The 2020 lineup

This year feels a tad different than past year as some of the indie star power isn’t there. wXw entered into a relationship with WWE at some point during the past 18 months, so some names currently affiliated with AEW or ROH seem to be off limits. Nonetheless, when WWE pulled Lio Rush from competing at the tournament today, wXw stepped in and booked Jeff Cobb, who was been affiliated with both rival promotions recently, but is a free agent for all intents and purposes. The rest of the field also looks intriguing.

Another name who canceled, due to the recent coronavirus outbreak in Europe, was Alex Shelley who cited health risks as he works in the medical field and has a lot of immunocompromised patients who he did not want to put at risk. He would not have been in the tournament, but was scheduled to appear as a special attraction on Saturday.

Melanie Gray, who would have made her return to Oberhausen as she lost a loser leaves town match in January 2019 and just won a match to allow her to appear in the city again last month, injured her knee in training and looks to be needing surgery, so she is out. Veit Müller, the sole remaining full-time member of Ringkampf, the original Imperium group, also canceled his appearance for the weekend.

wXw just announces first round matches but no brackets, so each day, the matches from the second round up are a surprise to the fans:

Marus Al-Ani vs. Cara Noir

Al-Ani, a wXw regular, enters the 16 Carat for the fourth time, making the second round in his 2017 debut, but eliminated in the first round in both 2018 and 2019. Coming off a recent suspension (he actually slapped a fan who insulted him in late September 2019), he looks to advance to the wXW main event picture and a good showing might put him there. A smaller but very muscular and athletic wrestler, he also regularily competes at various fitness themed competitions on TV and also had some smaller TV roles.

Noir, the current PROGRESS champion, is a unique character. Known as “The Black Swan” of pro wrestling, he has a unique entrance and great ring costume and is no slouch in the ring as some of his past matches with PAC or Mike Bailey showed. He makes his wXw in-ring debut here as he challenged Al-Abi during January’s Back to the Roots marquee event. Both men need to make an impact here, so it’s hard to make a prediction.

Jeff Cobb vs. Alexander James

Cobb, the former Olympic athlete is one of the hottest and most sought-after wrestlers of 2020. Attached to ROH until recently, he made his AEW debut as Chris Jericho’s paid mercenary several weeks ago ago and is expected to return to New Japan later in the year. He is an impressive wrestler, a great worker, and has a very charismatic personality. As a late replacement for the aforementioned Lio Rush, I’m not sure how he figures into the plans, but the fans will certainly love him. He was supposed to be in the 16 Carat a few years ago, but had to cancel due to Lucha Underground tapings at the time, so it’s a bit of poetic justice he now enters the tournament as a late replacement.

The dastardly Maryland native James enters the tournament for the second time after losing in the first round back in 2018. Originally trained by Drew Gulak, he has progressed to become an accomplished worker and semi-regular with wXw. He is a trainer at the wXw Academy and generally has a very technical, albeit brutal, style and is great on promos. He recently lost a blood feud against former tag partner and best friend Jurn Simmons and certainly could use a win to bounce back from his recent losses. I still see Cobb going over here and James possibly being motivated for even more drastic measures, especially since his real-life relationship with fellow wXw import Killer Kelly was recently burst as part of the show.

Bandido vs. Julian Pace

Making his wXw debut, Bandido is arguably is one of the hottest names in indie wrestling today and has tournament experience, winning PWG’s BOLA tournament this past September. His first major U.S. appearance was as part of the first All In main event, where he teamed with Rey Mysterio and Rey Fenix against the Golden Elite. Since, he has become a regular in ROH and also appears in CMLL as well as in New Japan. A good performance in 16 Carat would certainly also make him more of a household name in Europe where he already performed for both PROGRESS and RevPro.

Pace is a wXw success story and a testament to their wrestling school. He made his debut nearly four years ago and had no prior wrestling experience before starting to train at the school in Essen, Germany. Within a few years, he became one of the best, quick high flyers in Europe and has incredible speed and athletic ability. He began showing more charisma and intensity over the past year and certainly will be one of the building blocks for the company going forward. A win over Bandido would be the biggest win in his career and would make him a bigger star before his home crowd. This is his first time in 16 Carat and will certainly not be his last.

Daniel Makabe vs. Eddie Kingston

Makabe, already a veteran of 16 years, has largely flown under the radar on the U.S. indie scene until recently. The Canadian grappling expert is a regular with 3-2-1 BATTLE! in Seattle, where he had an awesome match series against fellow mat expert Timothy Thatcher. He recently also wrestled for Beyond, Black Label Pro and DEFY, so he is starting to built up his indie reputation. He also seems like one of the genuine nicest people in wrestling and got very emotional last October during a media event where he talked about what the Thatcher match series and his opponent’s appreciation meant to him. He first appeared for wXw’s AMBITION 11 tournament over SummerSlam weekend in August and later was booked in Germany for World Tag Team Festival this past October.

Kingston has been around even a year longer than Makabe, but was featured on a more prominent stage over the course of his career. A veteran of the indies, he appeared for ROH, EVOLVE, CZW, CHIKARA, AAW, Impact, Beyond, House of Hardcore and many others and recently also has been more active in Europe, wrestling for promotions such as RevPro, PROGRESS, OTT, ATTACK!, Fight Club: PRO and Schadenfreude & Friends to name a few. Kingston appeared at 16 Carat back in 2013 and wa scheduled to team with David Starr at Tag Festival this past October, but had to pull out due to a family emergency.

Both men would benefit from a win here with Makabe looking to be the more logical choice to go over due to him maybe being able to make a second home here in Germany, much as Thatcher did in the past.

Chris Ridgeway vs. Mike Bailey

Ridgeway is one of the rising stars coming out of Europe and breaking out internationally. The 26-year old with a martial arts background extensively toured with NOAH in recent months, where he joined the Stinger stable and participated in the Global Junior League. He started in 2012 and was trained by Robbie Brookside and Johnny Moss, both men currently working in the WWE’s developmental system on both sides of the Atlantic. He may well be on WWE’s radar and a good performance with one of their partner promotions could raise his stock.

Bailey is one of the most talented workers in recent years, but unfortunately can’t show off his ring prowess in the U.S. as he tried entering the country on a tourist visa in order to wrestle, got caught, and banned from the for five years, a ban that should be lifted next year. A martial arts aficionado himself, he incorporates the style with exciting high flying action and has repeatedly enchanted wXw fans with his matches. The Canadian native has made Europe his second home, and appears for promotions such as wXw, GWF, RevPro, OTT and Fight Club: PRO on a regular basis. He also is a semi-regular with DDT in Japan and a number of indies in Canada. Bailey competed at 16 Carat in the past, getting eliminated in the first round in 2016 and making round two in 2017.

The Rotation vs. Puma King

Rotation is another homegrown talent of wXw, originally starting out in the Westside Dojo, the wXw Academy’s predecessor. An exciting high flyer on the small side, he toured with DTU in Mexico a few years ago and noticeably improved his style there. He is spectacular as a flyer and knows his lucha, so pairing him with anybody with a similar style always is a good idea. He buffed up a bit over the past year, which seems to have made him less injury prone. He is part of wXw’s trainer staff at the academy and had been booked for a UK tour with ROH. He also had a hand in training the aforementioned Pace, who he joins in making his 16 Carat debut.

Puma King, the son of El Felino and nephew of Negro Casasm has been a mainstay with CMLL for most of his career before joining rival promotion AAA in mid-2018 as part of Liga Elite. He made his U.S. debut in 2019, wrestling for promotions such as Impact, MLW, PWG, GCW and APW. He appeared for NJPW through the NJPW/CMLL working agreement and after leaving CMLL, he returned to Japan to wrestle for DDT in 2019. The 29-year-old is an exciting luchador and should have a great match with Rotation. He has teamed with Black Taurus in the past, so a loss by either man in an early round would probably mean seeing them in some exciting tag team action over the rest of the weekend.

Shigehiro Irie vs. Black Taurus

Irie, a Japanese journeyman wrestler, has been touted as some as the next incarnation of Daisuke Sekimoto. While not quite there yet, he has an impressive, burly physique and is a very good-to-great worker. He generally enters into “Beast Mode” at some point during his matches and displays his raw power, fulfilling the crowd’s desire of “Auf die Fresse” (beating somebody up). The 31-year old was a regular in wXw from December 2018 until March 2019 and also appeared for their Amerika ist Wunderbar show over WrestleMania weekend in April before briefly returning at the Shortcut to the Top battle royal this past August.

He wrestles everywhere from AJPW, BJW, DDT, Wrestle-1 and ZERO1 in Japan to wXw, PROGRESS, RevPro, ATTACK! and Fight Club: PRO in Europe to MLW, SMASH and Black Label Pro in North America. He certainly is a crowd favorite and someone who could easily make round three or even the finals without feeling out of place there.

Taurus made his debut for AAA in 2012 as Machine Rocker as part of Los Inferno Rockers and feuded with Los Psycho Circus. After departing AAA in 2016, he took up the mantle of Black Tauro and also wrestled for CMLL, The Crash, and IWRG, among others. He returned to AAA in 2018 and also started making appearances in the U.S., working for promotions such as Impact, MLW and PWG. A rather burly wrestler for lucha standards, he is nonetheless an impressive flyer. He teamed with Puma King in the past and also clashed with Bandido as part of a six-man effort in PWG in the past, so even if he doesn’t get very far in the tournament, we certainly will get some exciting matches out of him this weekend.

Lucky Kid vs. Jurn Simmons

Lucky Kid won last year’s tournament (after being eliminated in round two one year earlier), beating Timothy Thatcher, Axel Dieter jr. (Marcel Barthel), Ilja Dragunov, and upsetting WALTER in the finals. A former tag team specialist with Tarkan Aslan in the Young Lions, Lucky broke out as a singles star over the past few years. He made his PWG debut over BOLA weekend and was booked for a UK tour with ROH last year, teaming with Kyle Fletcher and replacing the injured Mark Davis. He was part of the RISE stable in wXw and still is associated with Schadenfreude in many of the UK indy promotions, including their own Schadenfreude & Friends league.

Fan support has dwindled in recent months as Lucky seemed lost in the partly aborted RISE vs. Schadenfreude feud when Mark Davis got injured and Chris Brookes got an offer to work for DDT in Japan. He quickly disposed of his former RISE associates Pete Bouncer and Ivan Kiev and got some wins in recent months, but certainty hasn’t arrived where someone who won Carat one year ago should be. Recently, a mysterious big eye appeared on the screen, distracting him in a four-way match eventually won by Simmons, so maybe a new storyline opportunity will pop up here if that person is revealed. The wXw office certainly knows about the problem and have assured fans that they have a way to fix things.

Simmons is a powerhouse from the Netherlands who seemingly has it all: a great look, good in-ring abilities, and tremendous promo skills when he is on. Quick-witted and with a good sense of humor, he equally works as a face and as a heel, even though he seems to prefer the latter role. A former wXw Unified World Wrestling champion, he fell from grace a few years back. Being stuck in the midcard, he teamed with Alexander James as The Crown, an alliance that ended when James turned on him after their first round loss at Tag Festival last year. They were involved in an intense, albeit somewhat lackluster feud, which culminated with Simmons standing tall after a bloody barbed wire cage match in January, looking to go on to bigger and better things.

As with Lucky, a win here might be the first step in catapulting him back to the main event scene, where many longtime fans believe he belongs. This certainly will be a match that both men need to win badly.

Alternate Four Way: Rust Taylor vs. Scotty Davis vs. Norman Harras vs. Hektor

The winner gets into the tournament if somebody gets injured. Honestly, all four deserve a spot.

Other highlights:

A number of title matches are scheduled for the weekend, some with high stakes while others will progress or culminate storylines:

wXw Tag Team Champions The Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) vs. Jay-AA (Absolute Andy & Jay Skillet) (Friday)

These two have been clashing for a while now, leading to the de facto face turn of Jay-AA. who are super over with the fans as an entertaining comedy act. All four are good workers and this should be a great, fun match. The Bastards should keep the belts here as the story can be drawn out until the summer.

wXw World Unified Wrestling Champion Bobby Gunns vs. David Starr in a title vs. career match (Saturday)

Gunns won the title in a four way with champion Timothy Thatcher, Ilja Dragunov, and Starr back in December (Thatcher signed with WWE around that time), becoming a two-time champion. He since was on the losing end of the “Käfigschlacht” in January, a single cage, War-Games-style match against Starr, Avalanche, Julian Pace, and Leon van Gasteren, teaming with his stablemates Norman Harras and The Pretty Bastards.

He then defeated Avalanche in Hamburg at Dead End in February after interference by his stablemates. Starr, the current OTT and SWE champion was involved in a heated feud with Dragunov over the past few months, finally beating him in an unsanctioned match. He challenged Gunns to a title match and put his own career on the line, claiming that he had to come through since he neither won 16 Carat nor beat long-time rival WALTER in the past.

The stakes are high and there are some possibilities either way. Starr could lose and depart wXw, the promotion that put him on the map in Europe and arguably the international indie scene too. In a statement, he talked about what it would mean to him to be gone from wXw. If he wins, there is the possibility of facing WALTER, the man he never beat, down the line and finally catching his white whale, so to speak.

Starr is very outspoken and anti-establishment, looking to progress unionization and healthcare for those in the business. Some speculate he could leave for a bigger promotion. Then, there is also the question of who wins 16 Carat as that leads up to the big program over the summer. While some see Jurn Simmons as the favorite, Simmons vs. Starr has been done in the past and while those matches were good, it’s not something new.

Gunns’ title reigns have been somewhat lackluster with his new stable not quite living up to the standard of previous big heel stables in the company. They are comprised of young talents with good in-ring skills and great charisma, but they still need to click. Gunns winning on the big stage (he was in the main events of 16 Carat and World tag league/Festival shows in the past) would certainly legitimize him to a bigger audience. Again, the future program with the 16 Carat winner would be key here, so those who believe Gunns will win, see either Julian Pace or Shigehiro Irie as the winners. Gunns has history with both men.

In theory, we could see some kind of screwjob or no contest finish, but wXw usually doesn’t do those at these kinds of shows, and it would be a mistake to try it out in front of their biggest crowd at the biggest show of the year.

AMBITION 12 (Saturday at noon)

This is the 12th installment of wXw’s shoot style concept that started in 2010. After almost being cancelled after four installments due to little fan support, putting it on at festival weekends with more sophisticated international fans on hand gave the concept a second lease on life and inspired similar concepts in the UK and the U.S.

These shows are always fun and unique, which makes them both special and must-see. Previous winners include Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), Rico Bushido, Axel Tischer (Alexander Wolfe), Zack Sabre Jr., Sasa keel, Carnage, Matt Riddle, Timothy Thatcher, Shigehiro Irie, and WALTER.

First round matches scheduled are Mike Bailey vs. Scotty Davis, Kevin Lloyd vs. Daniel Makabe, Vincent Heisenberg vs. Chris Ridgeway, and Tyson Dux vs. Rust Taylor in addition to the superfight and a “Next Generation fight” of Ethan Allen vs. Luke Jacobs.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (AMBITION 12 superfight – Saturday)

Those two 50+ year old shoot style legends will battle it out in a fight for the ages. Ishikawa has been in for AMBITION last year, where he battled protege Timothy Thatcher and again for the promotion in Toronto past August. Ikeda can go with him hold for hold, and those two have teamed and wrestled numerous times over the past 25 years. If you are into MMA, Bloodsport events, or any other kind of grappling, this will be the match for you.

wXwNOW Showcase (Saturday afternoon)

wXwNOW is wXw’s streaming service, which also includes a number of other promotions from Europe and around the world. Those promotions will get the chance to put on one match each to showcase their talent, style, and unique brand.

  • Brent Banks vs. Tyson Dux vs. Tarik vs. Sebastian Suave (SMASH Wrestling from Canada)
  • Joe Gacy vs. Anthony Greene (CZW)
  • Kaiden vs. Rizo (White Wolf Wrestling from Spain)
  • Lexa Valo vs. Kat von Kaige (British Empire Wrestling)
  • Peter Olisander vs. Emeritus vs. Michael Fynne (Bodyslam Pro Wrestling from Denmark)
  • Carnage vs. Mexxberg (Wrestling KULT from Germany)
  • Luca de Pazzi vs. Nicolo Inverardi (Wrestling Promotion RIsing Sun from Italy)

wXw Shotgun Champion Avalanche vs. Ilja Dragunov (Sunday)

The build to this was basically Dragunov challenging Avalanche backstage after being involved in the post-match angle of Avalanche vs. Gunns. Those two have been both teammates and opponents in the past, and this looks to be a great strong style match. Avalanche should win as Dragunov is under a WWE contract and not available at all times.

wXw Women’s Champion Amale vs. TBA (Sunday Night)

Amale was supposed to wrestle Melanie Gray, who recently won the right to return to Oberhausen after losing a loser leaves town match to Toni Storm in early 2019. Unfortunately, Melanie injured her knee and seems to need surgery. Amale beat all of the regular women and all of the fly-ins put in front of her, often cheating, and Melanie was the last hope to beat her. It’s everyone’s guess who will be her opponent with Killer Kelly being the most logical name as she was the one facing Melanie in a number one contenders match.

Amale also has been involved in a storyline with Director of Sports Karsten Beck who seemingly has the hots for her, but there also is Levaniel, the “Prince of the Stars”, who seemingly has some love for Amale. I expect some kind of love triangle or angle-heavy conclusion of this storyline over the coming months.

Yuki Ishikawa & Timothy Thatcher vs. Daisuke Ikeda & WALTER (Sunday)

Playing off the previous match, this will be Thatcher’s wXw farewell for the time being as he teams with his mentor against former friend WALTER and Ikeda. This will be gruesome, hard hitting and a strong style battle for the ages, plus probably a very emotional farewell for the man that Oberhausen lost its heart to over the years.

Even more wrestling

A wXwNOW feature event is scheduled for Sunday afternoon which will feature WALTER. Also, Wrestling KULT from Germany runs a morning show on Saturday at 10 AM featuring wrestlers such as Absolute Andy, Tom LaRuffa, Carnage, Rico Bushido, Norman Harras, Julian Pace, and others.

The kickoff to the weekend happened with Inner Circle at the wXw Academy last night featuring a secret lineup. This was a fun show with some very good matches, especially the main event of Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda beating Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe. 

Lio Rush pulled from wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament, Jeff Cobb added

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Ahead of the tournament starting on Friday, wXw has announced a change to this year’s 16 Carat Gold.

Jeff Cobb is replacing Lio Rush in the three-night, 16-wrestler tournament. wXw wrote that the change was made due to Rush being pulled by WWE: “Unfortunately WWE has pulled @itsLioRush from #wXw16Carat due to his WWE schedule. We are as dissapointed about this as you are. We are excited to confirm @RealJeffCobb as Lio’s replacement for #wXw16Carat.”

16 Carat Gold is taking place in Oberhausen, Germany this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The first round matches are:

  • Marius Al-Ani vs. Cara Noir
  • Jeff Cobb vs. Alexander James
  • Bandido vs. Julian Pace
  • Daniel Makabe vs. Eddie Kingston
  • Chris Ridgeway vs. Mike Bailey
  • The Rotation vs. Puma King
  • Lucky Kid vs. Jurn Simmons
  • Black Taurus vs. Shigehiro Irie

It was also announced yesterday that Alex Shelley, who was only set for 16 Carat Gold night two, would no longer be appearing. wXw posted a statement from Shelley and tweeted: “We regret to inform you that [Alex Shelley] won’t be at #wXw16Carat. As Alex works with immunocompromised patients in a clinic in his real job, he cannot risk exposing himself to a possible infection with the corona virus by traveling to Germany & wrestling.”

On the Friday, March 13 episode of 205 Live, Lio Rush will be one of the captain’s in the NXT vs. 205 Live originals Captain’s Challenge match. The 10-man elimination tag match will be Rush, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Tyler Breeze, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Tony Nese, Mike Kanellis, Brian Kendrick, Ariya Daivari & Jack Gallagher.

wXw 16 Carat Gold night three results: Tournament winner crowned

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

Over the past few years, each of the three nights of wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament had a bit of a unique emphasis on how it was presented.

Night one usually establishes the tone and showcases all participants as characters and workers. Night two is more angle-heavy with strong accentuation on storyline progression, surprises, and the story about the big World title match that has had months of build. Night three has big drama, unique matches, and opens a new chapter for how stories are being told over the following months.

In that regard, night three of the 2019 tournament delivered perfectly.

Hardly has a 16 Carat Gold tournament final ever been as dramatic, telling a story of hardship and how to overcome it, and helped establish a performer as a main event talent from that point forward. Rarely has a six-man tag featured talent from wXw, WWE, Big Japan Wrestling, DDT, and a founder of a respected shoot-style promotion.

And as far as the following months go for wXw, they may never have had such a unique mix of intriguing storylines to look forward to in the months to come. And rarely has there been a weekend in wXw that was so obviously a changing of the guard and putting new talent in the front row, while still counting on established stars to back them up and supplement them as supporting characters.

Lucky Kid single-handedly defeated 2017 winner Ilja Dragunov and all the participating RINGKAMPF members, submitting WALTER in the finals in dramatic fashion to win the tournament this year.

Lucky (real name Metehan Kocabasoglu) just turned 26 one week ago but is already a veteran of more than 10 years in the business. The young man from Berlin with Turkish roots originally was looking at a career in soccer and almost got signed to a developmental deal with a big team, which fell through due to a last-minute knee injury. When a friend from his school, Cem Kaplan, told him about wrestling training, he figured he’d try his luck at that.

Lucky trained at the GWF wrestling school in Berlin and was a mainstay there for many years. He teamed with Kaplan until 2014 and then started teaming with fellow GWF mainstay Tarkan Aslan. It was this team, the Young Lions, that first brought him to wXw in 2015. And in 2017, they became regulars on the roster.

Upon their re-debut in 2017, they immediately were founding members of the RISE stable, and in that capacity, dominated storylines all throughout the past few years. Around the same time, Lucky, who also had done two tours with Kaientai Dojo of Japan in 2015 and 2016, started improving more and more and also received additional bookings in the UK, competing for Defiant, Fight Club: PRO, RevPro, OTT, Southside, ATTACK!, and others over the past two years.

Lucky is on the smaller side at 6′ and 180 lbs, but very athletic, with unique charisma and has a child-like charm to him that endeared him to fans, even when he still was a heel. He probably modeled his in-ring behavior off the kind of crazy hyenas from the Disney movie “The Lion King” and uses a signature expression of “BLAAAH!” in his matches. I would probably compare him best to a young Sean Waltman in terms of size, style, and abilities, as he is a very solid technical worker who also has great speed and flying moves.

Besides the tournament, the show also had some unique matches, as WWE’s Alexander Wolfe teamed with wXw’s Timothy Thatcher & Veit Müller to take on the Japanese all-star team of Daisuke Sekimoto (BJW), Shigehiro Irie (DDT) & Yuki Ishikawa (founder of BattlArts).

After the match, WALTER and Axel Dieter Jr. came out and the four original RINGKAMPF members surrounded Müller, who had been trying to prove himself to WALTER and Thatcher in recent months. WALTER went to choke him out, but it was just a playful ruse, as they handed him a RINGKAMPF shirt and formally inducted him into the stable.

They all shook Müller’s hand and Wolfe left the ring, bidding farewell to Germany for the time being. Thatcher shook Müller’s hand but refused to do so for WALTER and Dieter, looking to effectively leave the stable.

Later on the card, Dieter returned for a one-time reunion with former tag team partner Da Mack, reviving their old Hot & Spicy theme and defeating wXw regulars Jay FK.

Schadenfreude, which as of now consists of Chris Brookes & Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher), took on the Lucha Bros. (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix) & Rey Horus (Dragon Azteca in Lucha Underground) in a crazy semi-main event six-man tag. They also came out on the stage after Lucky Kid had won and celebrated with his RISE brothers, but instead of confronting them, just clapped and left.

Both Lucky Kid and Thatcher belong to Schadenfreude in Fight Club: PRO, so them being part of wXw now opens all kinds of possibilities, not to mention that they kicked WALTER out of the original group, when Thatcher attacked him a few weeks ago.

In addition to these stories, there are others that will eventually play out over the next few months: what will David Starr do to overcome his obsession of beating WALTER? There are possibilities there, including going down the path of a Gargano/Ciampa storyline of Starr eventually dropping his core beliefs in order to achieve his goal.

What will the future hold for Julian Pace, who looked tremendous all weekend, including in a crazy brawl at a WrestlingKULT show on Saturday morning and winning a four-way with established stars? He is in a feud with Emil Sitoci now, one of the most talented wrestlers in Europe from the previous generation and working with him will certainly benefit him.

What’s in store for Marius Al-Ani, who got to beat Alexander Wolfe and got a tremendous rub from it? And how will the next chapter in the story between newly-crowned World Champion Bobby Gunns and former champ Absolute Andy play out, especially as there was some foul play in the title win?

Also, how will the signing of WALTER and Ilja Dragunov (in addition to Killer Kelly and Toni Storm) to WWE affect the product going forward? After a slight slump in storyline progression, with an unusual number of holes and quirky transitions, wXw’s creative team seems to be back firmly in the saddle and ready to continue pursuing their goal of telling the best stories in the business with a group of talented people.

wXw sold 1,341 tickets, which was more than on Friday and a bit less than on Saturday.

16 Carat Gold tournament semifinal match: Lucky Kid pinned Ilja Dragunov in 14:12 after a 450 splash

This was a brutal affair, with Dragunov beating up Lucky and the smaller man showing more heart than brains in trying to fight back.

Dragunov wiped Lucky out with a dive into the first few rows of chairs early. Dragunov popped right back up from a Liger Bomb, then went into chopping the hell out of Lucky and hit him with a swiveling lariat for a near fall.

Lucky hit a missile dropkick, but Dragunov came right back with a Death Valley Driver into the corner, then followed it up with a Coast-to-Coast and Burning Hammer. Dragunov went for Torpedo Moscow, but it was a ruse by Lucky as he rolled him up for a close near fall.

In a cool spot, Lucky went for his handspring back elbow off the ropes — and Dragunov drilled him with a Torpedo Moscow in the stomach while he was upside down for a super close near fall that had the crowd going crazy.

Dragunov rained down Danielson-style elbows on Lucky as he prepared for another Torpedo Moscow. As he was about to hit it, Lucky fell down again.

Dragunov was in a rage, screaming at Lucky to get back up. He eventually did, but avoided a third Torpedo Moscow. Lucky avoided him and Dragunov crashed into the turnbuckles. Lucky then hit a 450 splash and picked up the win.

16 Carat Gold tournament semifinal match: WALTER submitted Avalanche in 11:36 with a double wristlock

The story here was that WALTER is a former mentor and tag team partner of Avalanche, which did nothing to prevent WALTER from displaying “total hardship” on his former protege.

WALTER pointed at the 16 Carat sign over the ring, but when Avalanche looked up, he got nailed with a big boot. Avalanche came back with a back body drop, slam, and DRSKR Bomb in an attempt to end the match early, but WALTER reached for the ropes during the pin. WALTER took a Flair bump off the top and a big splash for another two count.

They brawled outside, including Avalanche taking a nasty spill over the top and hitting the walkway ramp awkwardly with his elbow and shoulder. WALTER, now seeing a target painted on the arm, started working it mercilessly. After a Fujiwara armbar, WALTER followed up with a huge German suplex and even bigger powerbomb for another near fall.

Avalanche went for a powerbomb of his own and slightly collapsed upon execution, but still brought down WALTER safe. He hit another DRSK Bomb, but upon impact, WALTER grabbed his arm for the double wristlock and Avalanche had to tap.

Six-man tag team match: Daisuke Sekimoto, Shigehiro Irie & Yuki Ishikawa beat Alexander Wolfe, Timothy Thatcher & Veit Müller in 11:02 when Irie pinned Thatcher after the Beast Bomber

Ring announcer Thommy Giessen told us that the next match would be one of the unique bookings made possible on such a weekend. The crowd went crazy for Wolfe and got in a frenzy when he was joined by RINGKAMPF aspirant Müller and founding member Thatcher. The fans got even more giddy when it became clear they would face the three popular Japanese wrestlers.

Thatcher coached Müller against Ishikawa, before tagging in himself against his mentor. Sekimoto came in next and Thatcher belly-to-belly suplexed him off the ropes. After some more tags, Wolfe hit a German suplex on Irie. Irie blocked a sunset flip by Müller and then piledrove Thatcher on top of him in a unique move.

Sekimoto put Müller in the Torture Rack, as Ishikawa locked Thatcher in an Octopus Hold, but Wolfe came in and broke both up. Müller actually picked up Sekimoto for an airplane spin, which left both men dizzy. More tags were made — until Sekimoto hit another German on Thatcher and Irie hit the Beast Bomber for the win.

After the match, WALTER and Axel Dieter Jr. came out to introduce Müller into RINGKAMPF, as mentioned above.

wXw Women’s Championship match: Toni Storm retained against Killer Kelly in 12:56 with a cradle

They had a great video package before the match, telling the story and friendship of both women over the past 18 months in wXw. In short, while Storm beat Kelly for the title, they were great friends and a tag team afterwards until Kelly showed compassion for Melanie Gray, who Storm sent packing out of Oberhausen after a loser leaves town match.

Kelly picking up the Women’s title after winning a non-title three way in Hamburg last month didn’t help matters as Storm went off on Kelly, telling her she’d be nothing without Storm and that “Killer Storm,” their former team, was over.

Kelly was really over as a face and Storm was booed like crazy. They did the Frye-Takayama spot early and Storm missed a hip attack but hit a headbutt. Storm threw her to ringside and set up Kelly for another hip attack on a chair but missed and crashed into the chairs as Kelly moved.

Storm then threw her into the stairs anyway and wanted a countout victory, but Kelly was back in by five. Storm hit three consecutive Germans and went for a hip attack in the corner, but Kelly escaped, and as they battled on the ropes, managed to trap Storm in a spider dragon sleeper.

They brawled up the ramp and Storm hit a Storm Zero piledriver at the entrance area, but Kelly made it back into the ring in time.

Storm pulled out Kelly’s mouthpiece and put it in her own mouth, then hit a dropkick in the corner. Kelly rose up, hit a head kick, reclaimed her mouthpiece, and hit a corner dropkick of her own. Storm hit another German and another Strong Zero, but Kelly managed to kick out, much to Storm surprise.

Storm ran into a Death Valley Bomb by Kelly but also kicked out at two. Kelly went to hit more dropkicks, but Storm managed to cradle her off an attempt and picked up the narrow victory.

Tag team match: Hot & Spicy (Axel Dieter Jr. & Da Mack) defeated Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) w/ Pattuse

Jay FK came out and complained about not being featured enough this weekend. They claimed they would now stop the show and turn it into a meet and greet with them.

Karsten Beck came out and told them he had two opponents for them ready. “Nordish by Nature” hit and the crowd exploded, as Axel Dieter Jr. and Da Mack appeared, reforming their successful team, Hot & Spicy, for one night only.

Skillet attacked Dieter right away, but he was quickly overwhelmed by European uppercuts. Mack was in and got distracted by Kaspin, resulting in Skillet hitting him from behind for the quick advantage.

Skillet had Mack on the ropes, but he got pushed off and hit with a flying kick, allowing the Mackster to tag out to Dieter. Dieter managed to hit a double blockbuster from the top on both Jay FK members. Hot & Spicy then hit Pattuse, their double enzuigiri finish, for the victory. This was a great feel-good moment on the show.

Six-man lucha rules tag team match: Schadenfreude (Chris Brookes, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated The Lucha Brothers (Fenix & Pentagon Jr.) & Rey Horus in 10:29 when Brookes pinned Horus after a double underhook piledriver

This was an insane match with way too much happening to describe here. The semi-main on day three always has a crazy tag or multi-man spotfest match, but this one just might have taken the cake.

Some highlights: Aussie Open hitting a double-team GTS on Horus, followed by dual superkicks. Fenix hitting a huge tope in the crowd. Pentagon assisting a super dropkick by Horus, who ran down the ramp and got propped up by Penta. Horus with a standing Spanish Fly on Fletcher, followed by a springboard cutter by Brookes, followed by a superkick by Penta. A Gold Coast waterslide by Davis with a simultaneous tope by Fletcher. A triple superkick by the lucha team, followed by a pop-up tope con giro by Horus to the outside, followed by a top rope senton by Fenix to the outside, followed by a tope con giro by Penta on the outside. A super Canadian Destroyer from the top rope from Fletcher!

The finish came from a triple superkick by Schadenfreude, followed by an Aussie Arrow on Horus, a pull-up piledriver by Davis, and a Praying Mantis Bomb for the win. Just watch it when it comes out on VOD in a few days.

16 Carat Gold tournament finals: Lucky Kid submitted WALTER with the RISE Lock

Intense atmosphere at the start, as Lucky avoided a charge but quickly got murdered with chops, a sleeper hold, and a big boot. His face was rubbed into the mat and he was thrown to the outside.

Lucky managed to flip over on a German suplex, then sent WALTER to the outside and feigned a tope. He then connected with a springboard dropkick as WALTER went back inside. Lucky followed with a tope con giro.

WALTER, ever the bully, then suplexed Lucky onto some chairs. Lucky hit a dragon screw as WALTER went back into the ring, but he got caught in a Boston crab, crossface, and Fujiwara armbar in quick succession. WALTER started working over Lucky’s elbow in the armbar.

WALTER kept pummeling the smaller man, who caught him in a small package for the near win. WALTER transitioned a Gojira clutch into a powerbomb for another two count.

They brawled on the top rope, and Lucky managed a rana in mid-air off a top-rope powerbomb, which was an amazing visual. Lucky hit an Asai DDT and went for a crossface, but WALTER managed to stand up and pull Lucky into position for a tombstone piledriver for another near fall.

WALTER got Lucky on the top rope once more and wanted to go for a butterfly suplex, but Lucky escaped and turned it into a powerbomb of his own. Lucky once more tried La Mistica into the RISE Lock, but WALTER powered out and turned it into a huge uranage slam for another near fall as the crowd willed Lucky to survive.

WALTER locked in another Gojira clutch, but Lucky managed to roll back on it for a near fall, then hit a number of running double foot stomps, two consecutive 450 splashes off the top rope, and finally locked in the RISE Lock (crossface) in the middle of the ring, until WALTER tapped out to a huge pop!

Lucky couldn’t believe he actually won, needing a few more minutes in the corner to comprehend what just happened as his RISE brothers, Ivan Kiev and Pete Bouncer, came into the ring to celebrate with him. WALTER begrudgingly shook his hand before leaving.

After a few minutes of celebration, Schadenfreude came out on the stage. But instead of confronting RISE, they just clapped for Lucky and left. A great ending to an amazing weekend of wrestling in Oberhausen.

Other events —

wXw Road to New York (taped March 10, 2019 in the afternoon for a release on wXwNOW on March 22) — Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen, Germany — Attendance: 425

– Absolute Andy pinned Vinnie Vortex after an F-5

– wXw Shotgun Championship match: Marius Al-Ani retained against Jurn Simmons after DK

– Crowchester vs. Lucas Robinson went to a no contest when Al-Ani attacked both men.

This led to Julian Pace, Emil Sitoci, and Leon van Gasteren running in.

– Wesna pinned Yuu

– Contract match: Pretty Bastards (Ahura & Maggot) pinned Arrows of Hungary (Dover & Icarus)

– Emil Sitoci & Marius Al-Ani beat Julian Pace & Leon van Gasteren

WrestlingKULT #11: Früh Choppen — Kulttempel, Oberhausen (March 9) — Attendance: 200 (sold out)

– Tag team match: Hollandse Glorie (Johnny Evers & Mot van Kunder) beat Schwinger Club (Gerrit Wiebenson & Rick Baxxter)

Fun comedy match with some sexual stereotypes.

– Four-way match: Vinnie Vortex beat Kevin Roadster, Matthias Bernstein, and Timo Theiss

– Three-way match presented by Wrestlegate (UK): Sean Kustom beat Robbie X and Senza Volto

This was the best match on the show, with all three looking excellent.

– Women of KULT Championship match: Amale Winchester pinned Melanie Gray to win the title

– Singles match: Carnage beat Demolition Davies for a title match at #WrestlingDeutschland II

– WrestlingKULT Championship match: Three-way: John “Bad Bones” Klinger beat Kay Jutler and Tristan Archer to win the title

#WrestlingDeutschland II — Steffy, Oberhausen (March 9) — Attendance: 390

This was a showcase event for some smaller German promotions and schools.

– Multi-promotion battle royal: Lukas Robinson won in 6:59

– wXw Wrestling Academy: Vinny Vortex, The Rotation & Norman Harras beat Timo Theiss, Levaniel & Bailey Matthews in 9:33 when Vortex pinned Theiss

– Next Step Wrestling: Laurance Roman retained against Ronny Kessler in 6:30 after a frog splash

– Mad Wrestling Association (MWA): Three-way dance: Fynn Freyhardt beat Nickolas Kluth and Crowchester after pinning Kluth

– German Wrestling Promotion (GWP): Mixed tag: Keesa the Bambi & Chase Jenkins beat Bruder Chaos & Xara Grace in 4:35

– Championship of Wrestling (cOw): Blackwell beat Jester in 4:26 after a brass knuckles shot

– German Hurricane Wrestling (GHW): Pretty Bastards (Prince Ahura & Maggot) beat Keel Holding (Michael Isotov & Sadistico) in 5:50

– WrestlingKULT: John “Bad Bones” Klinger retained against Carnage in 10:30 after a schoolboy

wXw 16 Carat Gold night two results: WWE’s Alexander Wolfe appears

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

The second day of Germany’s wXw 16 Carat Gold 2019 managed to put an exclamation point on the fact that wXw is probably the premier wrestling promotion in Europe right now.

The match quality and in-ring work was even better than on day one in many matches — and the show nicely managed to progress the stories for a number of characters like WALTER, Lucky Kid, and Avalanche.

Also, for the second year in a row, wXw managed to blow the roof off the place with a surprise that virtually nobody saw coming. Former wXw wrestler and current WWE main roster member Alexander Wolfe (formerly known as Axel Tischer and Axeman in wXw) made a surprise appearance to answer an open challenge of wXw Shotgun Champion Marius Al-Ani.

Al-Ani was in the ring for the semi-main event spot of the show to issue his challenge. wXw Director of Sports Karsten Beck came out and asked if he was serious and said that he had met someone backstage who might be interested.

Most people probably expected the return of Bad Bones John Klinger here, who was suspended for some sort of backstage snafu shortly after last year’s Carat, had been on two smaller shows in the same arena complex that day, and was openly wandering around the show for the first time since leaving the promotion. Instead, as the lights went out, air raid sirens started playing and a spotlight appeared on the screen.

After a few seconds, the SAnitY theme hit and — as people recognized what was going on — there was a pop that rivaled the surprise return of Ilja Dragunov last year as people went nuts for Wolfe, who came out in his WWE gear, removed his shirt to reveal a RINGKAMPF one (as he is one of the members of that stable), and went to the ring. He had a great match with Al-Ani but came short of winning.

The other highlight on the show was the final ascension and World title win of Bobby Gunns, 26, who finally managed to best Absolute Andy. As was the case in his match back in October with Dragunov, the rabid mixed German/UK crowd chanted “Gunns, Bobby Gunns” throughout the match, only this time it felt like it didn’t happen as organically as it did before.

The promotion very much bet on the chant happening again, with them repeatedly hyping the previous chant that lasted 14 minutes straight and them putting this match on before the same crowd. While it certainly is a cool thing to brag about, the problem is that it felt like the chant being more over than the wrestler. And as history has shown, especially with the “What!?” chants in WWE, giving fans an easy way to put themselves over in a match can come back to haunt you in the end.

Now, I am not saying that this will happen, I am only fearing that if fans are being conditioned to chant this, whether it is warranted or not, it might eventually become a distraction in Gunns’ matches in the future and may hurt him as a character. While it’s certainly a nice tool and a unique thing, Gunns is more than talented enough, both as a worker and a promo, that he does not need this as a crutch.

The match itself was very good, but the continuous chanting also distracted from it, as virtually no natural reactions such as pops, boos, or other chants to fire up the face or heckle the heel had a chance to get started — and the immense noise in a way also felt a bit like the match was just on mute on the other hand.

In tournament news, WALTER, Dragunov, Lucky Kid, and Avalanche advanced to the semifinals. WALTER beat Fenix, who he inadvertently unmasked twice in the process and seemed to cement a heel turn that had started the previous day with his victory over David Starr. Dragunov defeated Pentagon Jr. in a great match, Lucky pulled out another surprise over RINGKAMPF member Axel Dieter Jr., and Avalanche bested Japanese powerhouse Shigehiro Irie.

Elsewhere, Aussie Open won the wXw Tag Team titles with some help by Chris Brookes and subsequently founded the wXw incarnation of their Schadenfreude stable, putting Lucky Kid in a precarious situation, as there was tension between the RISE and Schadenfreude stables which he both belongs to.

wXw had 1,510 tickets sold, making this their biggest crowd ever.

Killer Kelly & Yuu defeated Toni Storm & Wesna in 9:32 when Kelly pinned Wesna after a Death Valley Driver

A surprise match as Storm wasn’t expected to be here until the next day for her match against Kelly and Wesna. Storm got in Kelly’s face early on and played the cocky heel champion here.

The finish saw Storm eat a double team buckle bomb and Kelly pick up Wesna for the DVD, which she initially struggled with, for the win.

David Starr promo

David Starr came out after losing to WALTER the night before and was devastated that he didn’t defeat WALTER.

Starr apologized for an interview he did with Rico Bushido and Alan Counihan after the match the previous night and how he conducted himself (Alan later told us that he legit never was as scared as he was during this interview, so I guess this is something to look forward to once the show gets released in a few days).

Starr said that we all knew that WALTER tapped out and that he was a coward. He was here for two things only (beating WALTER and winning Carat) and now that both of those are out the window, he was sorry, but he would not be competing in any matches for the rest of the weekend and didn’t want to be part of some multi-men dream match that internet fans can fawn about.

Starr left, as devastated as he had entered.

16 Carat Gold tournament quarterfinal match: Ilja Dragunov pinned Pentagon Jr. in 10:37 after Torpedo Moscow

As was to be expected with these two, this was another tremendous offering, with the crowd going into a “this is awesome” frenzy even before the match kicked off. There were hard strikes, chops, kicks, flips, and a ton of charisma between these two.

A big enzuigiri by Dragunov literally blew the taste out of Penta’s mouth as spit went flying everywhere. Highlights were Penta getting a near fall with a pumphandle driver and Dragunov coming back with a Death Valley Driver into the corner.

Dragunov hit a back senton, then did a headstand in the corner off a whip and Penta superkicked him off from that position in a spot that looked both cool and dangerous. Penta at one point also hit his package piledriver on the apron.

Penta went to break the arm, but Dragunov countered out and hit a series of elbows, only to get caught with a backcracker. The finish came with a lariat, swivel lariat, and Torpedo Moscow and Dragunov progressed to the semis. The match was far better than I can even begin to describe here.

16 Carat Gold tournament quarterfinal match: Avalanche pinned Shigehiro Irie after a DRSKR Bomb

This was a mean guy hoss fight. Irie came off of winning AMBITION 10 in the afternoon and Avalanche came off the street fight the day before, so both had proven their worth in battle and were now scheduled to clash.

Avalanche managed to tackle Irie right away, sending him to his butt. Avalanche hit a belly-to-belly and a running sunset flip for a two count.

Irie hit a splash off the top for a near fall and a Beast Bomber for another one. They traded strikes and elbows and at one point, corner charges, culminating with Irie hitting a running corner-to-corner cannonball.

Finally, Avalanche hit a fallaway slam and the DRSKR Bomb for the win. 

Four-way match: Julian Pace defeated Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto, and Rey Horus in 8:17 after pinning Horus with a small package

Fun match with a unique cast. Everyone ganged up on Sekimoto early, who did the roar spot to send everyone flying. Horus tried a shoulder block and literally spun around his axis as he bounced off the big man. An enzuigiri by Pace connected, but Sekimoto pressed him over his head and threw him to the outside onto Brookes and Horus.

A four way chop-around started, with Pace getting the worst of it from Sekimoto. Pace hit his Vollgas Code Red on Brookes, which looked impressive with a guy that size. Another match highlight was a tower of doom German suplex spot, with Sekimoto German suplexing a full stack of opponents from the top rope in one of the coolest spots of the night.

Eventually, Pace picked up the win with a small package on Horus.

After the match, as Pace cheered, Emil Sitoci in a hoodie with new music and graphics hit the ring and gave Pace two spinning piledrivers. Sitoci is great, but by this point his number of unexplained turns may rival that of the Big Show.

16 Carat Gold tournament quarterfinal match: WALTER submitted Fenix in 11:45 with the Gojira clutch

This was amazing — and these two got together like peanut butter and jelly. WALTER was so great being the grumpy big mean guy who would cancel any cool move Fenix pulled out.

Fenix wanted to do a cool back handspring move? Let him try that while eating a lariat to the back of the head. He wanted to fly at WALTER? Sure, have another lariat to go with that. Fenix wanted to do a cool springboard move? Try that with your leg kicked out from under you. WALTER was mean and Fenix flipped in a symphony that most probably would have watched for hours on end.

There were “Big Daddy Sellout” chants for WALTER early, courtesy of the David Starr performance the previous night. Fenix did the Matrix duck on a chop early on, which was a cool visual. WALTER ripped on Fenix’s mask but used a bit too much power as he ripped about half of the mask off and a lot of Fenix’s face was exposed.

What was worse was when the mask fully came off on a top rope powerbomb by WALTER, sending the ref scurrying to put it back on while Fenix covered his face. It came off again a second time on a cutter by Fenix, until somebody brought him a spare mask to put on.

The finish saw WALTER, after trying about everything in his arsenal, put on the Gojira clutch and with the other hand, pull off Fenix’s mask, forcing him to tap to protect his identity. The crowd and the ref were furious, but I guess there are no rules against being a d*ckhead.

Tremendous match everyone should watch, a bit hampered by the unintentional coming off of the mask, but in a way, that added a bit of realism to the whole affair.

16 Carat Gold tournament quarterfinal match: Lucky Kid pinned Axel Dieter Jr. (NXT/NXT UK’s Marcel Barthel) in 14:42 with a rolling reverse prawn hold

Another very good match between these two. It was actually their first singles match, after they had only faced off in tag team matches before. Dieter started out strong and bounced the smaller Lucky Kid around. He did his “Nein!” Spot, which he also does on NXT. Lucky pulled off some of his antics, screaming “NEIN!” back at Dieter, who was in no mood for these antics.

Dieter suplex Lucky into the corner and then back on the mat, before finally disposing of him and throwing him out of the ring a number of times. Dieter was going for the countout victory and repeatedly told Lucky to stay down. Lucky at one point hardly beat the count, making it in after the nine count. Dieter showed some more heelish tendencies here and the fans actually started to boo him and cheer Lucky more.

Lucky hit a missile dropkick and went for La Mistica, but Dieter transitioned it into a choke. Lucky rolled through for a near fall. Lucky then hit La Mistica into a crossface until Dieter made the ropes. Dieter went for a top rope uppercut that was blocked, but he hit a lariat for a near fall anyway.

As Dieter got more and more frustrated, Lucky suddenly rolled him up for the upset victory and has now defeated two members of RINGKAMPF!

wXw World Tag Team Championship tornado three-way match: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated RISE (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer) and Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) in 9:50 to win the titles

RISE and Aussie Open got rid of Jay FK early on and battled among themselves. When Jay FK were back in, they took over for a bit until Davis picked them both up for an impressive double slam. Aussie Open hit a double-team running Iconoclasm and Fletcher also hit a tope on RISE on the outside. Skillet then took a hanging neckbreaker for another near fall.

Kaspin came in with the belt and laid out Fletcher, but Chris Brookes appeared and pulled the referee out of the ring. Of course, Brookes and Jonathan Gresham lost the finals of the World Tag Team League to Jay FK back in October and also are associated with Aussie Open in the Schadenfreude stable.

Aussie Open then hit a sliding punch and Fidget Spinner on Skillet to win the match and the titles.

Post-match, Aussie Open and Brookes got together and displayed the Schadenfreude banner, a super-group which was established in Fight Club: Pro, which also includes Gresham, Kid Lykos, Timothy Thatcher, Jinny, and Lucky Kid, who is also a member of RISE — who just had lost the titles.

Of course, RISE went to confront Schadenfreude, prompting Lucky Kid to run out and try to play peacemaker, which he mostly succeeded in. For now.

wXw Shotgun Championship match: Marius Al-Ani retained against “Axeman” Axel Tischer (WWE’s Alexander Wolfe) in 14:32 after a frog splash

Al-Ani came to the ring to issue an open challenge to anyone in the back. Karsten Beck came out and said there was someone in the back who probably had some issues with what Al-Ani had been saying.

As the lights went out, a spotlight appeared and the SAnitY theme played. The crowd went berserk, as Alexander Wolfe, the former Axel Tischer, came out. He went wild on Al-Ani to kick things off.

They went into the crowd brawling, then Al-Ani hooked on an ankle lock back in the ring. Wolfe turned an armbar attempt into a brainbuster for a near fall.

Wolfe followed up with a number of uppercuts, a flying clothesline, and a bridging German suplex for another near fall. Al-Ani came back with an exploder and took Wolfe outside before hitting his dive over the post.

Back inside, Tischer went for a superplex but got his eyes raked, hit with double knees, and then a big frog splash by Al-Ani got the win.

wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship match: Bobby Gunns submitted Absolute Andy in 26:03 with the SWIFT armbar to win the title

They had really cool entrances, with Gunns coming in through the back of the venue through a lot of smoke and a spotlight on him, while Andy basically descended from the heavens on a platform veiled in white.

The crowd was crazy from the get-go, with the above mentioned “Gunns, Bobby Gunns” echoing through the arena for virtually the entire length of the match.

Andy went for a cheap shot right away, but Gunns thwarted it. Gunns worked the arm and even got in a rope-assisted armbar by escaping an F5 attempt by Andy. They traded clotheslines and uppercuts and Andy tossed Gunns to the outside.

Back inside, Andy locked in a figure four and used the ropes for assistance. Gunns gritted through it and eventually turned the move around. Gunns came back with a superplex and German suplex for a near fall.

Andy rolled through a flying SWIFT armbar for a near fall, then hit a huge spinebuster. Gunns averted an A-Klasse, transitioned into a triangle and then a rear naked choke, but Andy wouldn’t quit just yet. Eventually, Andy managed to transition the move into an F5 for another close fall.

Andy got his belt and wanted to use it, but referee Tassilo Jung stopped him. Andy then wanted to leave, but Gunns’ brother, Vinny Vortex, came down the ramp to stop him. Vortex clotheslined Andy into the ring and Gunns applied another armbar, but Andy got his foot on the ropes.

Gunns went for a superkick, but Andy turned it into an F5 attempt and eventually hit the A-Klasse for a close near fall.

Andy went for the belt again. Vinny stopped him — but Andy moved out of the way of Gunns, who accidentally charged into his brother and threw him off the apron, allowing Andy to hit another A-Klasse. Gunns narrowly kicked out again.

Andy’s superkick missed, and after some back and forth low-blow attempts, Gunns actually hit one right in front of the referee, who was aghast and conflicted about what to do. In the end, he covered his eyes and decided he didn’t see anything, finally paying Andy back for all the cheating he had committed in all the matches over the past year.

The crowd exploded as Gunns won with the SWIFT armbar. The new champion celebrated his victory in the ring with his brother.

Other events —

AMBITION 10 — Trubinenahlle 1, Oberhausen, Germany (March 9, 2019) — Attendance: 513

This was a UWF/RINGS/BattlArts style tournament, which is really fun for fans of that style.

Quarterfinals: Rico Bushido defeated Veit Müller via TKO

Quarterfinals: Punch Drunk Istria defeated Danny Jones via submission

Quarterfinals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Laurance Roman via submission

Quarterfinals: Chris Ridgeway defeated A-Kid via submission

Semifinals: Rico Bushido defeated Punch Drunk Istria via TKO

Semifinals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Chris Ridgeway via TKO

BattlArts Superfight: Yuki Ishikawa defeated Timothy Thatcher via submission

Ishikawa is Thatcher’s mentor and former trainer — and Thatcher was greatly influenced by BattlArts. They had a mean, stiff match and gave each other nothing.

Ishikawa finally got the win, besting his former student and the two shook hands and embraced afterwards.

Finals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Rico Bushido via submission

wXw 16 Carat Gold night one results: WALTER vs. David Starr

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

Day one of the 2019 16 Carat Gold tournament is in the books — and it was a very strong show with very good to great matches.

Fenix vs. Rey Horus, Timothy Thatcher vs. Lucky Kid, Ilja Dragunov vs. Daisuke Sekimoto, and WALTER vs. David Starr all were tremendous in their own ways, while the rest of the matches were not too far behind. The show was a really strong opener on what promises to be a great tournament and a fun weekend of wrestling.

wXw had about 1,300 fans in the main arena of the Turbinenhalle complex, featuring a number of freshly opened balcony areas. For Saturday, there are 1,500 tickets sold and Sunday should have another 1,300+.

The crowd, a mix of German casual and hardcore fans and a rowdy contingent of hardcore fans from the United Kingdom and Ireland, were lively and loud all night and will probably continue to be for the days to come.

Alternate four-way match: Veit Müller defeated Julian Pace, Kyle Fletcher, and Leon van Gasteren after hitting Pace with a DDT

Fun opener with three young and one experienced (van Gasteren) wrestlers. Pace at first overwhelmed everyone with his speed, but he was then quickly ganged up on.

Müller, who is aligned with RINGKAMPF, was the most over guy and was cheered wildly. They did a tower of doom spot and Müller at one point took a Flair bump but got dropkicked to the floor. Pace hit a Code Red on Fletcher for a near fall, then tried to follow up with a BME-style moonsault but got thwarted.

Müller eventually hit the DDT on Pace for the win.

Karsten Beck was brought out as the director of sports with the 16 Carat trophy and everyone paraded into the ring for a picture.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Axel Dieter Jr. defeated Marius al-Ani with a release Landungsbrücken suplex

It was surprising to see Axel Dieter Jr. (Marcel Barthel in NXT/NXT UK) so early in the card. The crowd was into him a lot, but he didn’t get quite the hero’s welcome he got back in December and the pops were still a bit low in the beginning.

They worked a very good match with Dieter hitting a lot of his spots, like a number of variations on a European uppercut, the Landungsbrücken suplex, and the headstand to escape from a headlock.

They did a sick-looking spot where Dieter dove through the ropes into the ring from the apron with a spear, while al-Ani did a scissors kick right into his neck with Dieter taking a brutal-looking bump on his head. Dieter went for the Axel Dieter (senior) special submission. al-Ani rolled out of it, only to be caught in the move right again.

al-Ani tried for a frog splash, but Dieter got his knees up. They traded yay/boo punches and Dieter finally hit a release Landungsbrücken suplex to pick up the victory.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Rey Fenix pinned Rey Horus after a sit-out Muscle Buster

This was a crazy lucha match with lots of insane flips, counters, and flying action. Fenix got to show off his incredible sense of balance pretty much right away, as he jumped from the middle to the top rope and back with ridiculous ease to avoid and counter arm drags.

Horus, not to be outdone, then hit a tornillo arm drag. Seconds later, Horus did a tope con giro over the turnbuckle to the outside. This had the crowd going crazy just minutes into the match.

As Horus missed a move and was sitting on the middle of the rope, Fenix jumped on the top turnbuckle and virtually ran along the top rope with a soccer kick to Horus’ head. Wow. Fenix ate a DDT and a Spanish Fly for a near fall.

Fenix cleared the ropes 619-style on a whip-in and grazed a fan’s head in the process. The fan thankfully took it in stride. Fenix then got the win with a sit-out Muscle Buster.

Amazing match, with some money being thrown into the ring after. BattlArts founder Yuki Ishikawa sat with us in the press section and seemed to have the time of his life watching this.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Shigehiro Irie pinned Chris Brookes after a Beast Bomber

They one-upped one another with playfully adjusting each other’s knee pads early on. Brookes offered a handshake, which Irie accepted, then bowed, which Irie also mirrored, only to be slapped into the back of the head. Irie answered by pouncing Brookes halfway across the ring. Brookes avoided a sit-down splash and came back with a senton on a doubled-over Irie.

Irie escaped a brainbuster attempt, felled the bigger man with a headbutt, and hit the sit-down splash for a near fall. Irie removed his elbow pads and went for a Beast Bomber but got rolled up.

Brookes followed with a slingshot cutter and Praying Mantis Bomb for a near fall, then locked in an Octopus hold, countered into a Death Valley Driver, and followed with a cannonball senton into the corner. Irie then hit a Beast Bomber and picked up the win.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Lucky Kid pinned Timothy Thatcher with a roll-up

An excellent video package on Thatcher aired before the match, where he talked about his upcoming AMBITION match against his mentor (Yuki Ishikawa) and also how much wXw and RINGKAMPF had meant to him over the past few years.

Thatcher said that RINGKAMPF being his family wasn’t just something he said but something he 100 percent meant. Thatcher said he made two very close friends in WALTER and Axel Dieter Jr., something he usually doesn’t do in the wrestling business.

Thatcher said that they made decisions for themselves, as screenshots from Twitter of WALTER joining NXT UK were shown, while he had made decisions for RINGKAMPF. He said that if he met either of his two former RINGKAMPF brethren in the tournament, he wouldn’t hold back.

To accentuate Thatcher’s emancipation from RINGKAMPF, he also no longer came out to Antonín Dvorák’s New World Symphony but rather Lonesome Boatsman by the Dropkick Murphys.

This was a rematch from last year’s tournament — and Thatcher right away showed he was serious about winning as he started to beat the ever-living hell out of Lucky, seemingly also wanting to declare independence from Fight Club: Pro’s Schadenfreude stable in addition to RINGKAMPF.

The crowd adored Thatcher, and while they loved themselves some Lucky, they were firmly behind Thatcher on this one. Lucky early on did his leg-hugging spot, but he got slapped and gut-wrenched halfway across the ring for his trouble. Thatcher manhandled Lucky Kid with a chicken wing, butterfly suplex, and cross armbreaker.

Lucky briefly managed to get some offense in, but missed on a missile dropkick and Thatcher locked in a single-leg Boston crab. Lucky made it out and connected on a second missile dropkick, but he got caught in a Fujiwara armbar. Lucky managed a roll-up out of that position but quickly got beaten down again. Thatcher hit a top rope belly-to-belly and got a cross armbreaker — but Lucky made the ropes.

They traded palm strikes and Lucky managed a small package off a German suplex attempt, then followed up with a roll-up for the upset win.

The crowd briefly was shocked, as was Thatcher, who looked pissed and upset and quickly left the ring, just as Lucky looked shocked at his own victory in the ring. Interesting result, with Thatcher being pushed with that tremendous video package and being considered one of the favorites to win the tournament this year.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round falls count anywhere match: Avalanche defeated Jurn Simmons after a Dreissker Bomb off a balcony barrier onto the ramp

A crazy, brutal brawl that also seemingly served as the blow-off to their feud.

These two had problems starting as far back as last October after Avalanche’s partner Julian Nero got hurt and Simmons and partner in crime, Alexander James, mocked Avalanche. They traded wins in tag matches, as Avalanche tried out a number of partners, then segued into singles matches that left no clear winner, once going to a double countout, then a no contest as Simmons sped away in a car in their latest no countout match.

Simmons hit his massive Boot right out of the bat, but Avalanche no sold it and went for a Boulder Dash for a near fall, all in the opening minute. They brawled right to ringside and Avalanche got suplexed into a row of chairs.

They kept brawling and Simmons suplexed Avalanche into a raised metal stand, which left an Avalanche-sized dent in the metal. They brawled towards the stage and then out of the arena, as footage of the continuing brawl in the bowels of the Turbinenhalle aired on the big screen.

They brawled around a storage area, hitting each other with everything under the sun and trading a number of pinfall attempts on various stacks of stuff. Simmons hit Avalanche with a sheet of metal, then went to choke him out, but Avalanche wouldn’t quit.

Avalanche found some metal steps backstage and leapt off them, but Simmons moved and he crashed into a pile of stuff. Simmons found a kendo stick, as those just lie around backstage at arenas everywhere. They brawled back into the beginning, with Simmons beating down Avalanche with his stick and even snapping it off Avalanche’s back.

They ended up back in the ring, where Simmons had Avalanche down and actually cut a promo on him, telling him he was superior in every way. Simmons said he was about to slay the Monster of a Man, then went for the decapitation-style hit on the back of the neck with the kendo stick, just to have Avalanche come back and wrestle the kendo stick out of Simmons’ hands

They brawled back into the crowd and up the stairs, where Simmons tried to climb over the barrier of a flight of stairs, around ten feet off the ground and the metal ramp they brawled on earlier. Avalanche knocked him off, then climbed the barrier himself and hit a Dreissker Bomb off the barrier onto Simmons on the steel ramp for the pin and the victory.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Pentagon Jr. defeated Mark Davis after a leaping Destroyer

Penta offered a hand shake, but just put the Cero Miedo hand gesture in Davis’ face. On the second attempt, Davis slapped Pentagon’s hand so hard his glove flew off.

A number of punches and leg kicks were ended as Davis hit a sit-down splash on Penta. Davis tried for a superplex but got thrown off and hit with a double foot stomp. Penta went for a piledriver, but it got countered into a Gold Coast Waterslide for a near fall.

Penta hit a springboard backcracker, but the leaping Destroyer got blocked. Davis hit a sliding punch, but Penta then rolled out of a pull-up piledriver and caught Davis’ arm. Penta snapped it, then hit the leaping Destroyer for the win. 

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Ilja Dragunov pinned Daisuke Sekimoto after Torpedo Moscow

Holy crap. This was an all-out, hard-hitting war between these two, as was to be expected and they did not disappoint for even a second. Dragunov, at one point, probably tried to set the record for most strikes thrown in a wXw match, as he just blasted Sekimoto with slaps and palm strikes for probably at least 30 seconds straight.

They locked up and Sekimoto went for a cross armbreaker, but it was countered as they fought on the mat. Sekimoto hit the first chop of the match. Dragunov retaliated with a lariat that missed, then ate a uranage backbreaker as he bounced off the ropes and into the ring.

Another chop dropped the mad Russian, followed by a vertical suplex and a Boston crab, which he eventually escaped. They traded brutal chops and forearms, which Dragunov seemed to revel in, asking for more.

Dragunov hit some clotheslines and lariats that sounded as brutal as they looked. He hit a Saito suplex and went for a back senton off the middle of the ropes but missed. Sekimoto then hit a gutwrench and locked in the Sharpshooter, but Dragunov made the ropes.

Sekimoto hit a big splash for another near fall. Dragunov came back with a swiveling lariat, but Sekimoto avoided it and hit a German suplex and a lariat of his own. Sekimoto followed with an enzuigiri that had Dragunov on his knees, but Dragunov got back up and hit a Death Valley Driver into the corner, followed by another back senton for a two count.

Dragunov then finally hit Torpedo Moscow for the win to advance into the next round.

16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: WALTER beat David Starr by referee stoppage with Gojira clutch

This match was preceded by another great video package, chronicling the history of WALTER and Starr and focusing on Starr never being able to beat WALTER before, no matter where in the world they wrestled.

Starr talked about all the things he had accomplished before — but the one thing he failed at every time was beating WALTER. He said he was obsessed with beating him, while clips of WALTER aired where he said Starr was an egomaniac who only thought about himself. Starr picked WALTER to be his first round opponent. Words can hardly do this justice, just watch it yourself if you have around four minutes to spare. Starr was a tremendous promo with great emotional range here.

Starr went to attack WALTER right away before any introductions, but the big Austrian clobbered him with a forearm across the face. Starr was not impressed and kept attacking.

They ended up at ringside and Starr drove WALTER into the post. He then badly crashed and burned on a tope as WALTER sidestepped and Starr flew full speed into the first few rows of chairs in a crash that looked horrifying.

Starr was okay to continue and quickly found himself locked in a Boston crab back in the ring. As Starr escaped that, he was hit with a uranage slam for a near fall. WALTER went to the top, but Starr was right there with him and hit a belly-to-belly off the top.

They traded more strikes, then Starr leapt on WALTER’s back and tried to apply the big man’s own sleeper hold. As WALTER went to reach for the ropes, Starr slapped his hands away and hit a German suplex, which is a sequence WALTER usually does in many of his matches.

They went back and forth for a few minutes and WALTER had Starr down on is knees in the corner, when Starr, whose mouth was bloodied up by that point, defiantly spat a gob of blood on WALTER’s chest in a great and disturbing visual. WALTER rubbed the blood off, then proceeded to slap Starr and lock in a sleeper of his own.

Starr got out but was immediately hit with a shotgun dropkick. Starr used a rana to get out of a powerbomb attempt and followed with Han Stansen for near fall. Starr tried lariat after lariat but got chopped down with hard blows to the chest. He managed to hit a Blackheart Buster for a near fall.

Starr hit a superkick, then hit the Product Placement for another close near fall that had the fans at the edges of their seats. Starr hit a number of forearms and WALTER actually begged off, but it was a con as he quickly hit a quick powerbomb and got the Gojira clutch as the crowd started booing.

Starr escaped and tried his own sleeper, but WALTER scaled the turnbuckles and fell back, breaking the hold. Starr, like a terrier, quickly locked in his own Gojira clutch again, then as WALTER escaped, hit a lariat to the back of the head, a German suplex, and another sleeper.

WALTER was down and the hold was locked in tight as the crowd roared for him to tap and Starr to finally beat him. WALTER eventually tapped, getting Starr to release the hold, but before that he had smartly positioned his foot under the rope — which he quickly pointed out to the referee, so the match continued.

As Starr argued with the referee, WALTER snuck in and locked in another tight Gojira clutch, trapped Starr’s arm, sank in the hooks with a bodyscissor, and finally sent Starr to sleep as the referee checked his arm and Starr could not keep it up.

The crowd booed as WALTER celebrated, even snatching a RINGKAMPF scarf from a fan, posing with it on the ramp, then throwing it back into the crowd. Starr looked devastated as he slowly slunk down the ramp and to the back.

Interesting booking here, with both Thatcher and Starr not being able to fulfill their quests or even make it out of round one. As wXw usually are very good at telling stories, it will be intriguing to see where things go from here for those two for the rest of the weekend and the upcoming weeks and months.

Other events — 

wXw Inner Circle 8 at the wXw Academy (March 7, 2019) — Attendance: 170 (sold out)

– David Starr defeated Jay Skillet in 7:27 after a powerbreaker

– Chris Brookes defeated Francis Kaspin, Julian Pace, and Avalanche in 5:45 after an underhook piledriver on Kaspin

Avalanche wore a plain black singlet as a tribute to King Kong Bundy here.

– Jurn Simmons defeated Kyle Fletcher in 9:05 after a low blow and a piledriver

– Ilja Dragunov defeated Mark Davis in 12:06 after Torpedo Moscow

Super hard-hitting match.

– Killer Kelly defeated Yuu in 7:55 after Carnation Revolution

– RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) defeated Yuki Ishikawa & Shigehiro Irie in 24:43 when Thatcher submitted Irie in a Fujiwara armbar

This was an amazing match, especially if you enjoy submission-based strong-style matches. Thatcher and Ishikawa meet again on Saturday in the AMBITION super fight, in a UWF-style match.

16 Carat Bowled — Oberhausen Open II (March 8, 2019)

This was a fun bowling tournament taking place after the action of day one, featuring fans and a big number of current and former wrestlers and wXw officials, officially endorsed by wXw and organized by the two Sarahs of the similarly named podcast.

wXw 16 Carat Gold night two results: World title match surprise

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by Markus Gronemann from Oberhausen, Germany, for F4WOnline.com

wXW 16 Carat Gold night 2 and the big world title match are in the books and the promotion really delivered big on a big Saturday of wrestling here.

– wXw Tag Team Title Shot Four-Way: RISE (Da Mack & Ivan Kiev) defeated Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet); Mark Haskins & Matt Sydal; and Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero)

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: Keith Lee defeated Chris Brookes

Lee did some impressive power spots and is really over here.

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: Timothy Thatcher defeated Lucky Kid (w/Tarkan Aslan)

This would be match of the night on some cards. Kid is like a crazy hyena at times and Thatcher is no-nonsense. Tremendous match.

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: David Starr defeated Travis Banks

Another good outing for both guys.

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: Absolute Andy defeated Matt Riddle

Riddle again hit a flying knee like against Mack the day before for the five second win, but Andy got his foot on the rope and the ref restarted the match. This was brilliant because Andy only advanced the day before because the ref didn’t see Maris Al-Anis’ foot on the rope. They had a really good match that Andy won with a top rope F5.

– Alexander James defeated Jonah Rock

This was a good, but not great, big guy vs. technical smaller guy.

– wXw Shotgun Champion Bobby Gunns defeated Mike Bailey

This was a tremendous match with tons of near falls and near submissions. Gunns finally tapped him with a Fujiwara armbar.

– wXw Women’s Champion Toni Storm defeated Melanie Gray

This was arguably the best women’s match in wXw and maybe in Germany ever. They worked a hard style including dives and brawling around the ring. Both unsuccessfully went for their finishers right from the opening bell. Gray hit Storm’s snap piledriver for a near fall. Storm picked up the win with her piledriver in as good as any title match in wXw you’ll see

– Ilja Dragunov defeated John Klinger (c) and WALTER to win the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title in a three-way

The match, which was supposed to see WALTER challenge for the world title held by Bad Bones John Klinger, had a secret stipulation which WALTER got to announce before the match. He said he owed someone a favor and made it a three way involving the returning Ilja Dragunov, who most had considered to be retired. When he came out, the 1050 fans in attendance virtually blew the roof off the place.

The match itself was emotional, hard-hitting, and a highly dramatic affair, masterfully orchestrated and executed by three of the very top workers in Europe at this time. Think last year’s WALTER/Ilja Carat finals, but tuned up to 11, and including one of the most hated champs in recent history. I highly recommend anybody watch it as soon as it gets released in a few days.

WALTER & Ilja attacked Bones and the other RISE members tried to interfere, but were thwarted by WALTER & Ilja and then Avalanche, Julian Nero and Thatcher came out to remove them from the arena. After some teamwork, WALTER kicked Ilja in the head and the chopfest began with Ilja’s chest being raw, bloody meat after a few minutes. They threw one of the guys outside a few times and worked single spots. It culminated more and more with near falls and near submissions and the crowd was buying into all of them.

Dragunov eventually won the title after removing WALTER from the ring, hitting his Torpedo Moskau charging headbutt on Bones for a near fall, and then suplexing Bones on his head and hitting another Torpedo Moskau for the clean win.

The crowd was going crazy. Fireworks went off and Ilja got on the mic and told his son Konstantin that “Daddy had made it“ and that he was back, didn’t know if he still had the energy in him to do this match, but he had and his reign would be “UN-BE-SIEG-BAR” (unbeatable, his catch phrase).

**********

There were four shows here Saturday, one a joint effort of six German promotions organized by wXw, one smaller local show, AMBITION 9 and Carat Night 2. Here are some quick results:

WrestlingKULT: Kult goes Carat

– International Cult Cup Title #1 Contendership three-way: Italian Dream defeated Julian Pace and Toby Blunt

– Keel Holding (Aaron Insane & Sasa Keel) defeated Soldiers Of Fortune 2.0 (Andrei Ivanov & Sean Lucas to win the WrestlingKULT tag titles

– International Cult Cup Title #1 Contendership three-way: Kris Jokic defeated Mark Benjamin and The Rotation

– Johnny Evers & Mot van Kunder defeated Muskelkater (Michael Schenkenberg & Toni Harting) to become #1 contenders for the WrestlingKULT tag titles

– Melanie Gray defeated Amale Winchester and Killer Kelly and Shanna in a four-way to become the first Women of KULT champion

– Tristan Archer defeated Dominik Brackner to win the WrestlingKULT champion

AMBITION 9 (shoot style promotion)

– AMBITION 9 first round match: Timothy Thatcher defeated Alexander James

– AMBITION 9 first round match: Bobby Gunns defeated Marius Al-Ani

– AMBITION 9 first round match: Mike Bailey defeated Jonah Rock

– AMBITION 9 first round match: David Starr defeated Laurance Roman

– AMBITION Superfight: Matt Riddle defeated WALTER by ref stoppage

– AMBITION 9 semifinals: Timothy Thatcher defeated Bobby Gunns

– AMBITION 9 semifinals: Mike Bailey defeated David Starr

– AMBITION 9 finals: Timothy Thatcher defeated Mike Bailey

#WrestlingDeutschland (showcase for smaller promotions and schools)

– Icarus defeated Tristan Archer (GWP)

– Lukas Robinson & Matthias Bernstein defeated Rock’n Roll Radicalz (Fynn Freyhart & Tim Karstens) (MWA)

– Schwinger Club (Brent Rogers, Gareth Noah & Rick Baxxter) defeated Chris Rocke, Laurance Roman & Zeritus (Next Step Wrestling)

– Kris Jokic defeated Italian Dream and Senza Volto to win the vacant International Cult Cup title (WrestlingKULT)

– Julian Pace & Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) defeated Marius van Beethoven, Timo Theiss & Timo Zimone (wXw Wrestling Academy)

– Maximum Wrestling European Cruiserweight Champion Michael Knight defeated Ivan Kiev

wXw 16 Carat Gold night one results: Thatcher, Riddle, WALTER

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by reader Markus Gronemann from Oberhausen, Germany

Pre show they introduced the champions Bad Bones and Bobby Gunns and their challengers, WALTER and Mike Bailey..Bones wanted to know the stip for the world title match which Walter gets to choose but instead got a tag match for tonight.

– Dark Match: Emil Sitoci defeats Ivan Kiev and Julian Nero and Julian Pace in a tournament alternate four-way match.

Sitoci earned Jurn Simmons’ spot in the tournament.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Keith Lee defeats Avalanche

Both guys were over with the crowd. Lee won, showing off impressive power spots.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Chris Brookes defeats Alexander James in a fun match.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Lucky Kid defeats Matt Sydal

This was an early show stealer as Kid is really good and Sydal was amazing too.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: David Starr defeats Emil Sitoci in another good outing by both men.

– Mike Bailey & WALTER defeat Bobby Gunns & John Klinger

Wild brawling and hard hitting stuff as you might expect from those four. Bailey got the pin on Gunns with his moonsault body press.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Matt Riddle defeats Da Mack

Huge surprise as Riddle hit a flying knee right at the bell and won in just five seconds for a great visual. Mack sold by falling off the ramp twice on his way backstage.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Travis Banks defeats Mark Haskins

Very good, but crowd wasn’t into it.

– 16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Timothy Thatcher defeats Jonah Rock

They played a tremendous package on Thatcher from the latest Shotgun episode before the match where he talked about what wrestling in Germany, Ringkampf, and winning the tournament means to him. This was a physical match with Thatcher picking up the win via armbar.

–  16 Carat Gold Tourney 1st round: Absolute Andy defeats Marius Al-Ani

This was a new main event as Starr/Simmons fell through. These two have a big grudge as Andy turned on Al-Ani mid match in October. Al-Ani started with his Uso style dive over the post to the outside onto Andy. This was a wild brawl, hard hitting, and overall great with tons of near falls. Andy used his wrench to almost win. The finish came when Andy distracted the ref, hit a mule kick cheap shot, and a superkick.. Al-Anis’ foot was on the rope but the ref missed it, so we’ll see what happens tonight.

Night two of the tournament happens on Saturday.