Kenny Williams will face Tiger Turan on next week’s show. This was set up in a backstage segment on Thursday’s episode. Williams promised to not only defeat Turan but also unmask him and prove he is Amir Jordan.
NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura will team up with Sarray to face the team of Eliza Alexander and Xia Brookside next week as well. Alexander and Brookside confronted Sarray in the gym on Thursday’s show and Satomura came to her defense.
The match between Williams and Turan was filmed on Wednesday, June 22 from BT Sports Studios in London. Eliza Alexander & Xia Brookside vs. Meiko Satomura & Sarray was filmed the following day from the same venue.
The full lineup for next Thursday’s edition of WWE NXT UK is as follows:
Kenny Williams vs. Tiger Turan
Eliza Alexander & Xia Brookside vs. Meiko Satomura & Sarray
Six wrestlers and two referees in NXT have been released by WWE.
Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Kavita Devi, Jessamyn Duke, Ezra Judge, Skyler Story, Vanessa Borne, Alexander Wolfe, and referees Drake Wuertz and Jake Clemons have been released from the company. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful was the first to report the cuts, and more are expected.
Wuertz had been a referee for the NXT brand since 2014, and had been seen as recently as this week’s episode of NXT. Wolfe signed with WWE in 2015. He also appeared on last night’s NXT, where he was laid out by members of Imperium after they turned on him. Devi had been training at the WWE Performance Center since 2017, Duke since 2018, Judge since 2019, and Borne since 2016. Story, who previously worked under the name Brandi Lauren in EVOLVE, had started with the company in October.
Fightful additionally reported that Wuertz had “nuclear heat brought on by himself” for the better part of a year. He had to be warned about attending events without a mask and not being vaccinated, and was known for loudly criticizing wrestlers for getting vaccinations or even flu shots. Additonally, there was an incident last year where he stormed out of a Triple H speech prior to the In Your House event. Wuertz left after Triple H mentioned that “(paraphrasing) that all people, races, genders, and religions were welocmed,” with Wuertz becoming upset once relgiion was mentioned.
Wuertz has made controversial statements in recent weeks, most recently at a Seminole County Public School Board meeting back on May 11. In his statement to the board, Wuertz argued that wearing masks in schools assists predators who “wish to prey upon our children”. At a Semionle County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Zoom wearing NXT attire earlier this month, he argued against the mask mandate in the county, saying that “child sex traffickers love COVID masks.”
Prior to signing with WWE as a referee, Wuertz wrestled regularly in CZW under the name Drake Younger.
Three matches have been added to the card for next week’s NXT episode.
– The NXT Cruiserweight Championship will be on the line as Kushida defends against Santos Escobar in a two-out-of-three falls match on NXT next Tuesday. Kushida became champion by answering Escobar’s open challenge three weeks ago and defeating him to win the title.
On last week’s NXT, Legado del Fantasma (Escobar, Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde) defeated Kushida & NXT Tag Team Champions MSK (Wes Lee & Nash Carter) in a six-man tag match. That match was set up when MSK saved Kushida from an attack by Legado del Fantasma the previous week. The attack happened after Kushida issued his own open challenge and defeated Oney Lorcan to retain the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.
– NXT Champion Karrion Kross vs. Austin Theory in a non-title match is also set for next Tuesday’s NXT. It will be the first time Kross has wrestled since winning the NXT Championship from Finn Balor at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver last month.
Theory and NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano laid out Kross on NXT tonight. Gargano and Theory tried to meet with NXT general manager William Regal earlier in the show, but they couldn’t because Scarlett was in Regal’s office when they got there. Gargano called himself the number one champion in NXT. After an interaction between Theory and Scarlett during the segment, Regal later informed Theory that Scarlett made sure that Theory will be facing Kross next week.
Kross cut a promo on tonight’s show but was interrupted by a line of potential challengers. Kyle O’Reilly first appeared, followed by Pete Dunne and Balor. After a brawl broke out, Gargano and Theory ambushed Kross when he was the only one left in the ring. Kross tried to fight them off, but Gargano and Theory gave Kross stereo superkicks. Gargano then laid out Kross by hitting him with the North American title belt.
Gargano and Theory were shown leaving the building immediately after laying out Kross.
– Plus, Killian Dain vs. Alexander Wolfe will take place on NXT next Tuesday. Wolfe’s Imperium stablemates Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner defeated Drake Maverick & Dain on NXT last week. Aichner & Barthel hit the Euro Bomb on Maverick to get the win after Barthel had sent Dain into the ring post.
Going into last week’s tag match, Maverick was worried that Dain was going to turn against him and join Imperium. There was a moment during the match where Barthel ordered Wolfe to hit Dain with a steel chair. Wolfe, who was formerly a member of SAnitY with Dain, went to hit Dain with the chair but ultimately couldn’t do it. But Wolfe stood in Dain’s way when Dain tried to send Barthel into the ring post. That gave Barthel time to reverse the move and lay out Dain instead.
Here’s the updated lineup for next Tuesday’s NXT:
NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez defends against Mercedes Martinez
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Kushida defends against Santos Escobar in a two-out-of-three falls match
Non-title match: NXT Champion Karrion Kross vs. Austin Theory
The Hunt defeated Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster
Full rundown —
– The show opened with a graphic paying tribute to Pat Patterson.
– A graphic plugged tonight’s Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews vs. The Hunt match. A video then recapped the history of their feud.
Rampage Brown defeated Saxon Huxley
Huxley provoked Brown last week at the NXT UK Performance Center, leading to this match.
This was a clash of big men and Huxley looked good with a bunch of offense. In the end, Huxley came off the top but got caught with a powerslam and fell victim to Brown’s Doctor Bomb.
– During media day at the Performance Center, Joseph Conners was interviewed while Jinny also gave an interview in the background. Piper Niven stormed in and attacked Jinny until things were broken up by a bunch of officials.
– Another video looked at the Andrews & Webster/Hunt rivalry.
– Saxon Huxley came backstage where he was told “better luck next time, bro,” which he kept muttering to himself.
Aoife Valkyrie defeated Aleah James
After a fast opening sequence, James looked flustered. She used some creative offense, but Valkyrie hung with her and kept outwrestling her. Valkyrie won with a top rope guillotine leg drop.
– Pretty Deadly interviewed each other in a fun segment, talking about how they had victories over The Hunt and Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith. They challenged Gallus and said they would be the new NXT UK Tag Team Champions.
– Another video hyped Andrews & Webster vs. The Hunt for later.
Joe Coffey defeated Alexander Wolfe
The rest of Gallus and Imperium were banned from ringside for this match.
They traded holds and counters on the mat early on, with Wolfe getting the better of the exchange. Coffey came back with jabs and punching combinations. Wolfe worked over Coffey’s arm. Coffey hit a suplex, but he further injured his arm in the process.
They kept stiffing each other until Coffey launched himself over the top rope from the apron with a shoulder block, hit the Glasgow Sendoff into the corner, and followed with a lariat to the back of Wolfe’s head and All the Best for the Bells for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Gallus came out to celebrate with Coffey.
– Jordan Devlin cut a promo on why he wanted Sid Scala to find him challengers for his NXT Cruiserweight Championship. He quoted Ric Flair, saying “to beat the man, you got to beat the man.” Devlin said starting next week, he would offer an open challenge to all comers.
– A graphic announced the debut of Noam Dar’s Supernova Sessions interview segment for next week.
The Hunt (Wild Boar & Primate) w/ Eddie Dennis defeated Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster
Webster & Andrews stormed to the ring and attacked The Hunt, then they brawled around ringside before the bell had even rung.
When it finally did, Webster and Andrews hit a double enzuigiri on Boar. Webster then wiped Boar out with a dive, followed by a moonsault onto his back by Andrews once Boar got back into the ring. Boar turned the tables and beat on Andrews. Andrews eventually tagged Webster, who ran wild on Boar, hitting a hurricanrana off the apron to the outside. Webster followed with a cannonball senton onto Primate. Webster and Andrews quickly tagged in and out and hit some creative offense on Primate.
Primate came back with a release German suplex, followed by Primate launching himself onto Webster in the corner. Andrews managed to tag in and hit a double DDT on both members of The Hunt. Webster and Andrews then hit stereo somersault dives onto The Hunt to the outside. Primate almost got pinned, but Dennis threw Boar into the ring to break it up.
Boar disposed of Webster and The Hunt began to dismantle Andrews. With some assistance from Webster, Andrews hit Stun Dog Millionaire on Primate. Andrews went to the top trying to finish the match off, but Dennis violently threw him off the top rope. Webster went to attack Dennis, but Boar took him out at ringside. Primate hit a vicious spear on Andrews, then The Hunt hit a Death Valley Driver/sit-down powerbomb combination for the victory.
Dennis celebrated with his team in the entranceway while Andrews and Webster were distraught in the ring.
Next week —
The Jordan Devlin open challenge begins and Noam Dar’s Supernova Sessions debuts.
Two matches have been announced for next week’s episode of NXT UK.
Ilja Dragunov & Pete Dunne will take on WALTER & Alexander Wolfe in a tag team match on NXT UK next Thursday (October 15). The Heritage Cup tournament will also continue on the episode as Dave Mastiff and Joseph Conners face off in a first round match.
Dragunov & Dunne vs. WALTER & Wolfe comes in advance of Dragunov challenging for WALTER’s NXT UK Championship on the Thursday, October 29 episode of NXT UK. Dragunov saved Dunne from WALTER and Wolfe at the end of last week’s NXT UK episode. Dunne had been the special guest referee for Noam Dar and Wolfe’s first round match in the Heritage Cup tournament. Wolfe blamed Dunne for his loss and went to attack him after, but Dunne fought him off. WALTER then came down and helped Wolfe until Dragunov made the save.
Dar and A-Kid have advanced in the Heritage Cup tournament and will face each other in the semifinals. The winner of Mastiff vs. Conners will face the winner of Trent Seven vs. Kenny Williams in the semifinals.
Heritage Cup matches have the following rules:
There will be six rounds for Heritage Cup matches. Each round will be three minutes.
There will be 20-second breaks between each round.
All matches are two-out-of-three falls.
Falls can be won by pinfall, submission, or countout.
Once a fall occurs, the round ends.
Once someone has won two falls, they are declared the winner and they advance in the tournament.
If there’s a disqualification or knockout, the match ends without the need for two falls.
If a match goes the full six rounds, whoever is ahead on falls wins.
The Heritage Cup will be defended as a championship under the same rules following the tournament.
Kenny Williams won the Heritage Cup Wild Card triple threat match, beating his tag team partner Amir Jordan and Ashton Smith in a fun match. Williams will face Trent Seven in round one of the Heritage Cup tournament.
Jinny defeated Xia Brookside for the third time those two have met on NXT UK. Jinny cut a promo after and called herself the queen of NXT UK
Noam Dar defeated Alexander Wolfe 2-1 in a first round match in the Heritage Cup. Dar scored the first fall off a roll-up in round two, while Wolfe got a fall in round four after a bridging German suplex. Dar then hit the Nova Roller on Wolfe after special guest referee Pete Dunne had reprimanded Dar for cheating before the finish. After the match, Wolfe and Dunne got into it, leading to WALTER and Ilja Dragunov joining the fray.
Full rundown —
The show opened with a graphic for tonight’s Heritage Cup tournament first round match: Alexander Wolfe vs. Noam Dar with Pete Dunne as the special guest referee. We then went to the Wild Card triple threat match to determine the final participant in the tournament. The winner of the triple threat will face Trent Seven in round one.
Heritage Cup Wild Card triple threat match: Kenny Williams defeated Ashton Smith and Amir Jordan after pinning Smith following a tornado DDT (9:25)
Kenny Williams was shocked that his tag partner Amir Jordan was in the match. Jordan and Williams briefly teamed up to get Smith out of the ring but then squared off. They traded roll-ups but then got hit by a double clothesline from Smith. All three men traded flash pin attempts before Jordan hit a crossbody on Smith for a two count.
Williams hit a springboard headbutt that threw Smith off the apron. He then followed with a dropkick through the ropes but got caught on a dive. Jordan also hit a dive, sending everyone tumbling.
Back in the ring, Smith took over and dominated the match, sending Williams to the outside. Smith then went for a superplex on Jordan, who went for a sunset flip instead and got the assist from Williams to hit a powerbomb on Smith.
Smith still was strong, sending Williams into Jordan and then hitting a Blue Thunder Bomb on Williams for a near fall. Jordan hit a flatliner on Smith for another near fall.
Jordan and Williams traded strikes. Smith threw Jordan to ringside but got hit with a hurricanrana by Williams. Smith hit a slam on Williams, but Jordan came off the top with a Swanton Bomb to break up the pin. Jordan then covered Williams for another near fall. Jordan was sent to the outside once more by a superkick from Smith. Williams countered a slam from Smith with a tornado DDT for the pinfall victory.
– A video aired on Jinny and Xia Brookside ahead of them facing off later tonight.
– In another video, Eddie Dennis talked about his superior intelligence and how he aligned with Pretty Deadly last week.
– A clip from earlier in the year where Mark Andrews was attacked backstage was shown. Nobody has taken credit for the attack still. Andrews walked into the arena with Flash Morgan Webster and said he was back.
Jinny submitted Xia Brookside with an STF (6:33)
Brookside escaped an arm twist, which Jinny mockingly applauded her for. Brookside escaped some more attempts, then hit a dropkick on Jinny. Jinny came back with a kick to the stomach and took Brookside down for a pinfall attempt. Brookside took Jinny down with a headscissors off the ropes, then went for a monkey flip that was either blocked or botched.
Brookside was aggressive with a corner attack and a number of pinning combinations for some near falls. Brookside figure foured Jinny’s legs and kicked at her knee, then continued working over the legs. As the referee was talking to Brookside, Jinny hit a hard right hand for another near fall.
Brookside looked for the Brookside Bomb but Jinny blocked, then snapped Brookside’s head on the top rope. Jinny then locked in a modified STF for the submission.
– After the match, Jinny said she was ruthless and people would witness the new Jinny — the queen of NXT UK.
– A graphic announced Flash Morgan Webster vs. A-Kid in a Heritage Cup first round match for next week. A video feature on A-Kid then aired.
– Another graphic announced that Kay Lee Ray will give a State of the Union address next week.
Heritage Cup first round match (special guest referee: Pete Dunne) Noam Dar pinned Alexander Wolfe after the Nova Roller in 2:56 of round five to win the match 2-1 (14:02)
Pete Dunne entered first, followed by Dar and Wolfe.
Round One —
Wolfe and Dar wrestled on the mat for the first 30 seconds with neither man getting the advantage. They traded more holds but still no man had the clear advantage. Wolfe locked in a cravat, then transitioned into a hammerlock. Dar hit a snapmare and a kick as the round concluded. Both men were handed water during the break.
Round Two —
They grappled for position and Dar stomped Wolfe’s feet. He took Wolfe to the mat and went for a pin, but Wolfe wasn’t in danger. Wolfe pushed Dar’s shoulders down to the mat for a number of pinfall attempts. Wolfe hit a headlock takeover and tried to grind Dar down. Dar got Wolfe down for a backslide for a near fall, then countered a DVD attempt into a roll-up at 2:48 of the round, scoring the first point in the match.
Round Three —
Wolfe immediately took Dar down, then locked in a number of submissions. Wolfe rolled up Dar but only scored a two count. They traded strikes and forearms as the time in the round ran out. As Dunne tried separating both men after the end of the round, Wolfe hit a vicious slap on Dar.
Round Four —
Dar came back with a kick to Wolfe’s knee, then took his legs out and went for another pin but only got two. Dar signaled for the Nova Roller, but Wolfe ducked, hit an axe kick, and then scored a fall with a bridging German suplex at 0:58 of the round to tie Dar 1-1.
Round Five —
Dar countered an attack into an omoplata, but Wolfe countered as well. They traded submission attempts until Dar rolled Wolfe over for another near fall. Wolfe kicked out of another pinfall attempt and Dar transitioned into another armbar. Wolfe hit a flying kneebar but Dar escaped. Dar rolled Wolfe up but grabbed the ropes, prompting Dunne to kick his hand.
As Dunne was checking on Wolfe, Dar hit the Nova Roller (which Dunne narrowly ducked) on Wolfe for the pin at 2:56 of the round. With Dar winning two falls, he got the win and advances to the second round of the tournament. He’ll face the winner of Flash Morgan Webster vs. A-Kid.
– After the match, Dunne refused to raise Dar’s hand. Dar then left. Wolfe berated Dunne in German, telling him he was the reason Wolfe lost the match. Wolfe then went to attack Dunne, who got the better of him by hitting a kick to the head and stomps to the face. Dunne then went for the Bitter End before WALTER came out.
Dunne and WALTER got into a shouting match and WALTER got into the ring, but Wolfe snuck up on Dunne and beat him up. WALTER went to powerbomb Dunne, but Ilja Dragunov ran in for the save and Dunne and Dragunov cleared the ring of Imperium. Dunne and Dragunov screamed at Wolfe and WALTER as the show went off the air. It looks like we may get a tag team match with those four down the line.
Next week —
The Heritage Cup continues with Flash Morgan Webster taking on A-Kid in a first round match. Plus, coming off her brutal title defense against Piper Niven from last week, NXT Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray will give a State of the Union address.
NXT UK’s Heritage Cup tournament is set to begin next week.
The Heritage Cup tournament will kick off with a first round match between Alexander Wolfe and Noam Dar airing on next Thursday’s episode of NXT UK. Pete Dunne will be the special guest referee for the match.
Next week’s NXT UK episode will also feature a triple threat match to determine the wildcard entrant for the Heritage Cup tournament. The participants for the triple threat match haven’t been revealed. The wildcard entrant will round out the lineup for the eight-man tournament.
The drawing for the Heritage Cup took place on this week’s NXT UK. The first round matches for the tournament are:
Joseph Conners vs. Dave Mastiff
Wildcard entrant vs. Trent Seven
Flash Morgan Webster vs. A-Kid
Alexander Wolfe vs. Noam Dar
Dunne was a special guest for the drawing. Wolfe and Dar were the last two wrestlers to be drawn. Earlier in the show, Wolfe had knocked Dar’s phone out of his hands when he wasn’t paying attention to NXT UK assistant general manager Sid Scala talk to the tournament participants about the Heritage Cup draw. They went face-to-face after being drawn against each other and Dar tried to cheap shot Wolfe, but Dunne blocked it, snapped Dar’s fingers, and threw him out of the ring.
There was a backstage segment later in today’s episode where Scala was worried about maintaining order for Wolfe and Dar’s match. Dunne offered to be the special guest referee and Scala made it official.
Heritage Cup matches will have the following rules:
There will be six rounds for Heritage Cup matches. Each round will be three minutes.
There will be 20-second breaks between each round.
All matches are two-out-of-three falls.
Falls can be won by pinfall, submission, or countout.
Once a fall occurs, the round ends.
Once someone has won two falls, they are declared the winner and they advance in the tournament.
If there’s a disqualification or knockout, the match ends without the need for two falls.
If a match goes the full six rounds, whoever is ahead on falls wins.
After the tournament, the Heritage Cup will be defended as a championship under the same rules.
WWE has announced that “following the tournament, the NXT UK Heritage Cup will be defended as a championship under the same rules.”
**********
An eight-man tournament with British Rounds rules will soon kick off on NXT UK.
WWE announced today that the Heritage Cup tournament is coming to NXT UK. Seven of the eight participants for the tournament have been revealed. They are: Flash Morgan Webster, Noam Dar, Alexander Wolfe, A-Kid, Dave Mastiff, Joseph Conners, and Trent Seven.
Here are the rules for Heritage Cup matches:
There will be six rounds for tournament matches. Each round will be three minutes.
There will be 20-second breaks between each round.
All matches are two-out-of-three falls.
Falls can be won by pinfall, submission, or countout.
Once a fall occurs, the round ends.
Once someone has won two falls, they are declared the winner and they advance in the tournament.
If there’s a disqualification or knockout, the match ends.
If a match goes the full six rounds, whoever is ahead on falls wins.
More details for the tournament will be announced on NXT UK next Thursday (September 17). The episode will feature NXT UK’s return to new in-ring action for the first time since events were paused in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tapings for NXT UK’s return are being done at BT Sport studios in London, England with no fans in attendance.
Last weekend’s wXw’s 16 Carat Gold 2020 was a very newsworthy edition with one former top talent (David Starr) reportedly having to leave the company at the urge of WWE while a WWE contracted performer (Alexander Wolfe) is on a temporary deal there through mid-April (or whenever wrestling picks back up again).
Those two stories somewhat overshadowed the actual tournament which had a lot of very good and one insanely great match. The winner was wXw newcomer and current PROGRESS world champion Cara Noir who impressed people with his performance as everything from his entrance to his facial expression and mannerisms up to certain spots in the match seem to be constructed with the high arts in mind.
He beat Mike Bailey in the main event in somewhat of a surprise match as many people had picked Dutch-born Jurn Simmons as one of the sure-fire finalists. The match of the weekend was had by Bailey and Bandido, who did some insane spots and had a match that will probably go down as one of the best, if not the best, in 16 Carat history.
The promotion was super lucky when it came to the COVID-19 virus as on Tuesday after the shows, the government of North Rhine-Westphalia (the state where 16 Carat took place) prohibited all events with more than 1000 people in attendance. Had they run this weekend, they would have had to cancel. COO Tassilo Jung said while they had some sort of backup plan, it would have been a gamble at best and could have meant a massive loss for the company.
The weekend followed the typical formula of establishing everyone on night one, having great and dramatic matches on night two and progressing storylines and saving raw emotion for night three
Here are the highlights of the weekend, followed by results to all the shows:
David Starr leaves wXw, indicates WWE is responsible
The 29-year-old came to wXw in early 2016 when he was a CZW regular through the relationship the two promotions had established that dates back to the early 2000s. He started in WXW (Afa’s promotion in Pennsylvania and no relation to wXw) and mostly wrestled for CZW, Beyond, and a couple of smaller indies in the Northeast. wXw took a chance at him and he quickly showed both his talent and promo skills, becoming a regular over the years as well as a major player in storylines.
He began a feud with WALTER which spanned multiple promotions and lasts to this day with the key being that he never beat WALTER (except for some tag matches where he still never was the one to beat him), held the wXw Shotgun title on three different occasions, and became part of the main event picture.
Being in wXw put him on the map to a number of other promotions in Europe, and he soon started wrestling for almost every major promotion in the UK, including PROGRESS, OTT, Revolution Pro, and Defiant back when there were fewer political issues on who you worked for. He also got noticed by PWG in the US, who started using him in January 2018.
Very outspoken and left-leaning on the political spectrum, Starr idolizes Bernie Sanders to the point he is being billed as “the Bernie Sanders of pro wrestling” among a ton of other nicknames. He moved to the UK in order to be eligible for public health care and is the founder of “We The Independent”, an organization striving to improve working conditions for wrestlers. He is a strong proponent of unionization and has been working with Equity in the UK, the trade union for those in the performing arts (similar to SAG in the US).
Starr is very outspoken about the way some major wrestling organizations conduct their business, publicly calling out both WWE and ROH owners Sinclair repeatedly and also got into a war of words with Gabe Sapolsky of EVOLVE about the payment of some of their talent. He last appeared for PROGRESS on December 30 of last year and hasn’t been mentioned there since which got some people talking.
At the end of January after the two clashed in an eight-man War Games-style single cage match, the match with wXw World Unified Wrestling champion Bobby Gunns was announced for night two of 16 Carat when it traditionally happens. Starr, seemingly out of nowhere, established a title vs. career stipulation. They did a good build up including some tremendous video packages and interviews by both guys and the match felt important, but the buzz seemed to be lower than for similar matches in the past.
The bout started slow but picked up pace and went 41:15 and saw both men give it their everything, kicking out of big moves. Starr messed up his back on a crazy dive where he virtually crashed into the first few rows of seats (hardback plastic chairs) at full speed, while Gunns also hurt his leg when Starr threw him off the entrance ramp as the two brawled around ringside, landing on a set of risers for standing room fans to get a better view of the action. After some fantastic back and forth action, Gunns retained the title with the “Ehrenmann Driver” (“man of honor driver”).
After his loss, Starr cut a very emotional promo and talked about how “freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of consequences” and that he and wXw mutually agreed to part ways. He thanked everyone in the office and said that wXw put him on the map on a major level and that he wouldn’t be where he was if not for them. He talked about CEO Felix Kohlenberg taking a chance at him when he was “just a stupid kid at CZW, begging them to book him and had no idea what he was doing.”
He talked about creative director Dennis Birkendahl taking him to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Starr is Jewish and about 70,000 Jews were killed there during WW II) which he said changed his life forever. He thanked Christian Jakobi, the former CEO who left due to occupational burnout, and said that he helped him out a ton but would hate certain spots in matches which is why they included one today just to piss him off if he watched it. He said he also meant to thank WALTER “But, f*ck WALTER. Who did he ever beat?” He said he felt a certain disconnect with the locker room over the past 2-3 years, but that before this match, people came up to him, saying they loved him. He also said this was goodbye for real, not some intricate storyline or angle.
He tweeted last Monday that “I won’t go into further details regarding wXw on this platform and idk when/if I will in any public setting. Like I said, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences and that this mutual decision was one that neither of us wanted to make. I love wXw & always will.” He was very emotional at the merch table as well, hugging fans and saying goodbye to everyone personally who took the time to walk up to him. Starr himself confirmed to me that this was very much a WWE call.
wXw also thanked him and that they would miss him while COO Tassilo Jung took to Twitter and wrote “It has been an unbelievable ride and I’m gutted it had to end.”
At a Sunday media panel, Jung said there would be some limit on how deep they would dive into the topic of Starr and any possible WWE involvement. He said they sat down with Starr beforehand and told him that after the match, the mic was his to say whatever he wanted to say, basically giving him the chance to keep things within the realms of storyline or let the person behind David Starr speak, and Starr chose the latter. He said they appreciated what he said, the kind words he said, and later posted on social media about wXw and that they would miss him a lot.
He said they would not comment on the decision itself but wanted to make sure that people knew how much they appreciated Starr as a person as well as a talent. He said they made the decision when they set up the match a few months ago. Jung praised Starr for his work ethic and that he always showed up, eager to give his best and help people, stating examples of the four way at their 19th Anniversary show, theior two January shows in France, the cage match in January at Back to the Roots, the Dragunov match in February at Dead End, and Saturday’s performance.
He said Starr went out as an absolute professional and that they hold him in the best regards. Jung said Starr said he’ll always be a wXw guy and they’ll always have his back.
The one thing to say for wXw is that they built this match up, gave Starr a storyline exit so fans would get closure and a reason of him not being there, and giving him a live mic after the show. In PROGRESS, it was seemingly the same deal. There, he simply lost a match to Jimmy Havoc on December 39th and hasn’t been heard from or seen since.
It will be interesting what the future has in store for Starr, who still holds the OTT world title in Ireland and also the SWE (Southside Wrestling Entertainment) title, which now is part of RevPro (who have a working relationship with New Japan) as well as the Liverpool-based TNT world title. OTT seemingly has a relationship with WWE, but it seems less intense than what WWE, PROGRESS, ICW or EVOLVE have.
If you want to take a deep dive into the whole topic, Will Cooling, who also was there this weekend has an excellent article on Starr and his political campaigning among others things over.
Cara Noir wins 16 Carat Gold, Mike Bailey and Bandido have the match of the weekend
Noir (real name Thomas Dawkins), the current PROGRESS champion, had his first matches in 2010 to mixed success under his given name and several other monikers. He almost quit the business in 2016, but after a conversation with longtime friend Chris Brookes, decided to develop the gimmick of Cara Noir, the black swan of wrestling, supposedly a former ballet dancer (and computer genius with an MMA background) that was kicked out of the academy for his anger management issues while being harassed there.
He wears swan-like face paint and enters the ring in darkness with just a spotlight on him to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake before a performance in the ring where he brings up his cape of peacock feathers. He is a very unique individual who views wrestling as the ultimate art form and expresses himself through facials, body language, mannerisms, and a unique move set. He does dozens of small things in each match which almost feel like a musical composition. After a few notes, you recognize the composer, but like music, each match is different with different overtures and themes reaching back to earlier spots in the match, and often enough there are unique things he does with certain opponents, exclusive to that match.
Noir beat “Speedball” Mike Bailey in the finals in a very good, dramatic match that went 28:27 and saw both guys put on a great performance. While it was face vs. face, Bailey showed some heel tendencies. Noir, at times, very much played the dying swan. At one point, he took three running kicks to the chest with Bailey becoming more and more reluctant to deliver the punishment and asking Noir to just quit. Noir looked pained by having to go yet another round, but asked Bailey to pull him back up and deliver another kick, the third after which he suddenly powered up. He also hugged Bailey and seemingly told him everything was going to be OK before delivering his own finishing sequence.
They also did some crazy spots like Bailey missing his moonsault knee drop both on the apron and on the steel ramp at one point. Noir kicked out of the Flamingo Driver which looks like a variation of the One Winged Angel. After Bailey missed the moonsault knees on the ramp, Noir hooked in the Blackout sleeper and then left Bailey laying in order to get the countout victory, but Bailey made it back at nine.
The finishing sequence was Bailey hitting a top rope moonsault fallaway slam which Noir narrowly kicked out of and came back with a Madame Guilltone and package piledriver for a kickout by Bailey. Noir finally hit a Blackout sleeper suplex, followed by a Blackout sleeper for the victory by referee stoppage. Noir pulled up Bailey, who still seemed out of it, for a long hug before posing with the trophy up the ramp and in the ring.
Bailey had another great outing the night before, facing Bandido in the match of the weekend. In a near eighteen minute match, they did some unreal spots and had the crowd in the palms of their hands, starting off with duel chants and songs and having people in an absolute frenzy as the match progressed. After a ton of spectacular near falls, the finish was a fisherman moonsault fallaway slam from the top rope by Bandido. Afterwards, the fans starting pelting the ring with money to the point there was fear somebody could get hurt by being hit with a coin. Ring announcer Thommy Giessen then made the call to ask people to throw notes instead of coins.
Both men hugged and even brought Bandido superfan Chris Lawson, who was at ringside, into the ring and put him on their shoulders. From the match itself to the post-match, this was one of those 16 Carat experiences on par with the surprise Ilja Dragunov return, the Alexander Wolfe surprise last year, and Jurn Simmons turning on Karsten Beck to win the world title, an angle no one will forget and will be talked about and featured in video highlights forever.
Bailey beat UK indy and NOAH prodigy Chris Ridgeway in the first round, Bandido in the second, and put away favorite Jurn Simmons in the semifinals. Noir beat al-Ani in round one, eliminated Jeff Cobb in round two and then Eddie Kingston in the semi before going on to win the tournament.
Two other standouts were wXw’s homegrown talents Julian Pace and The Rotation who hung in there move for move and spot for spot with Bandido and Puma King respectively in the first round. Pace, 24, who only has been wrestling professionally for less than four years, is one of the most exciting young workers in Europe today, has great speed and tremendous flying ability and never looked out of place, going toe-to-toe with one of the most amazing wrestlers out there in 2020. He is the first full-fledged graduate of the wXw Academy and was trained, among others, by WALTER and Timothy Thatcher.
Rotation is a similar high flyer and started in 2013 after training at the Westside Dojo, the predecessor of the wXw Academy, before it became a full-time school. After a few years in wXw in an enhancement role, he toured Mexico in the summer of 2015, mostly working for DTU, but also had two matches for AAA. He returned full time in wXw last fall and has been great ever since. He hung with Puma King in many typical lucha spots and did impressive stunts, such as standing on the top rope, jumping up to avoid a punch and landing on the rope again or cartwheeling along the top rope to avoid another attack. Puma King and Black Taurus also both looked good the whole weekend, and hopefully international fans will see more of them outside of AAA.
Simmons, who many saw as the favorite for the tournament, looked impressive, both with an improved physique and a new moveset which included power moves such as a gorilla press and athletic moves like a standing moonsault. Him being eliminated by Bailey was a surprise to many and a return to the main event picture seems imminent.
Alexander Wolfe makes a surprise appearance, wins wXw Shotgun title, gets attacked by Lucky Kid’s new heel group
On Sunday, a wXw Shotgun title match was scheduled between champion Avalanche and Ilja Dragunov, set up after the finish of Bobby Gunns vs. Avalanche at February’s Dead End in Hamburg when they did an angle where Dragunov attacked Avalanche and got beat up.
Most suspected this to be a bonus match of sorts, a hard-hitting battle between two former partners who have always delivered and as a way to get Dragunov on the show the day he was first available after two days of NXT UK tapings.
During ring introductions, ring announcer Thommy Giessen was handed another cue card and announced that the wXw championship board of directors had added a third man to the match at which point the Ringkampf/Imperium music played and Alexander Wolfe appeared to a big pop. Initially this was somewhat lackluster since it was a mix of Dragunov getting added to the world title match against Bad Bones two years ago and Wolfe appearing as a surprise with his old Sanity-gimmick last year.
They had a fun match with Dragunov initially suggesting Wolfe team with him, playing off their previous friendship and NXT UK contracts, but Wolfe refused.
The finish came when Dragunov hit Torpedo Moscow on Avalanche, who fell out of the ring. Wolfe then pinned Dragunov after a sitdown power bomb to win the title to a shocked reaction as nobody believed that to be a possibility.
Wolfe held the then-vacant title in 2014, ironically winning it after the then-champion Dragunov was out with a broken skull after suffering the injury at a WWE tryout in 2013. Wolfe cut a promo, saying that the title meant a lot: it meant that the champion had to be the best and defend it against all comers.
He then put the title down in the middle of the ring and said that he could not take it back with him to the U.S. After some boos, he reconsidered and said “F*ck it. I’ll stay in Germany and defend this title until somebody from the locker room takes it from me, but I’m not going to make it easy for them.”
At this point, the big eye, which had distracted Lucky Kid in matches over the past few weeks including his first round loss to Simmons in 16 Carat, flashed on the screen. As Wolfe looked at it, he was attacked by two burly guys in black shirts (Abdul Kenan and Aytac Bahar, who teamed as Grup Arnasi in the Berlin-based GWF and also were trained there). Lucky ran out and confronted them, signaling to Wolfe to stay back before attacking him and the three then beat him down.
Lucky then cut a fiery, bitter promo as it was important to him to explain what he was doing here. He had been a part of various groups over the past few years and slowly lost his honor and his identity in the process. In RISE, he was the crazy guy; with Schadenfreude, he was the stupid, childish kid; with The Purge (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer), he was their good friend Lucky. Now, he was the leader of his own group and would go by the name his mother had given him, Metehan (his actual real first name; he has Turkish roots but was born in Germany).
He said he would get everything back that was taken from him and that his new group would be called Ezel (which is Turkish for “Eternity” based on a show of the same name that seemingly aired in Turkey years ago). He slapped each of the Grup Anarsi members and then proceeded to beat down Wolfe some more.
Wolfe has since been confirmed for five upcoming shows (3/28 in Frankfurt, 3/29 in Erfurt, 4/17 in Limbach-Oberfrohna, 4/18 in his hometown of Dresden, and 4/19 in Leipzig). No matches have been confirmed, but matches against former champion Avalanche, Dragunov (maybe in Dresden as Dragunov was injured when they last wanted to do the match there in November), Metehan, and possibly a tag match against Grup Anarsi al seem like logical choices.
Shoot style reigns supreme with AMBITION 12 thanks to two young guns and a senior citizen BattlArts superfight
AMBITION, wXw’s take on the shoot style concept, keeps playing an important part at these big festival weekends. After almost abandoning the concept after four events (plus an almost forgotten AMBITION on the Road mini-tournament) back in 2013 due to low attendance, they brought it back as an experiment in October 2014 as part of the World Triangle League weekend with much better success as the hardcore fans in town from all over Europe ate the unique show up.
They moved it to March in 2016 and it has been a part of 16 Carat weekends ever since, expanding to a show in Toronto over SummerSlam weekend last year, as well as a “Wildcard Edition” this past October. Last year’s AMBITION 10 and AMBITION 11 in Toronto also featured Yuki Ishikawa, the legendary founder of BattlArts, who seemed to have the time of his life in his fights.
AMBITION also undoubtedly inspired concepts such as Bloodsport over WrestleMania weekend and Tetsujin: Hybrid Wrestling in the UK, which even added two more shows after its initial one shot event. It was at the final Tetsujin show in November, where Tassilo Jung, who is also wXw’s head referee, officiated some matches as Tetsujin and wXw had worked together from the start. It was there that he saw Ethan Allen and Luke Jacobs, the two members of the England-based Young Guns, have a match against each other and immediately offered to bring them in for AMBITION.
While both men are barely of drinking age (in the UK, at least), they trained at some of the premier schools of the country and put an intensity into their AMBITION match that would put more established grapplers to shame. Allen won their bout by submission, but both men won over the hearts of those in the Turbinenhalle that day. They also prevailed at the Jay-AA Tag Team Experts Wild Card Tournament later that night, a fun, parejas increibles style gauntlet, supposedly decided by an app that Absolute Andy programmed on the fly the night before (including creating all the graphics for it).
Then, there were Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda, longtime rivals and partners, who have been in the ring with each other on close to 100 occasions dating back to 1994 and at least 60 times in BattlArts. They gave people a first taste of what to expect when they teamed with each other against Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe at the Inner Circle show, a prelude to the 16 Carat string of events. This was a dream match, especially for Makabe who traded BattlArts tapes as young as 14 and idolized Ishikawa ever since. He told me a story of when he first met Ishikawa in Toronto last summer. He told him about it and Ishikawa was baffled that some kid in the U.S. actually got his tapes from Japan. It was then when he told him “Maybe, one day, you and me, we work together”.
In their AMBITION fight, the impression people got was that they legitimately tried to end each other then and there. Never before have I seen two men aged 52 and 53, respectively, hit each other so hard with punches, slaps, kicks and shoot headbutts and getting so much joy out of the process. The headbutts especially were something else with both men having huge bumps on their forehead, but who am I to tell those two men what to do or not do. This was a fight that people should go out of their way to see.
They faced each other one more time the next night as Ishikawa teamed with longtime protégé Timothy Thatcher who had his farewell match in wXw for the time being against Ikeda & WALTER. Those four, the answer to the trivia question of who you would want to back you up in a bar fight, had another hell of an outing as you would expect from them. This was another symphony of violence, especially when Ishikawa no sold WALTER’s chops. Thatcher submitted Ikeda in an armbar after which the four men paid each other their respects.
Thatcher then refused to address the crowd and indicated he would choke up and cry if he did. Then, when the whole roster came out on the stage to say goodbye, he could not handle it anymore and left the ring through an exit by the crowd. Thus ended the era of Timothy Thatcher in wXw, the last and only real man in the world, who is kind enough to let us lesser men live in it.
Alexander James is an abusive boyfriend, Killer Kelly is no longer with NXT UK
A story that progressed throughout the weekend (and on World Women’s Day, nonetheless) was the story of Alexander James being an abusive, toxic boyfriend to his girlfriend Killer Kelly.
The backstory was that Kelly came out during a James vs. Jurn Simmons Singapore cane match back in December in order to stop James from putting a beating on Simmons, at which point, AJ shoved her down.
Kelly, who wrestled and beat newcomer Stephanie Maze (an Alex Wright trainee with a kickboxing background) at Inner Circle, then came out during James’ tournament match against Jeff Cobb on Friday to cheer him on. James didn’t take kindly to it, screamed at her, and ordered her to the back before eventually losing to Cobb.
On Saturday, James came out and demanded the best challenger available, at which point Alpha Kevin came out who James quickly beat with a cobra clutch. Kevin had his girlfriend, Melanie Gray, with him who was on crutches due to a knee injury. James kept attacking Kevin and also shoved down Gray, who entered the ring despite her injury to help out her boyfriend. Kelly came out to confront James, but in a backstage promo later, was defending him to Kevin and Melanie, claiming that he had a hard time and needed support. Melanie then told Kelly that she would show her what real support looked like and offered Kelly her title shot against Amale the next day.
Then, at Sunday’s Feature event, which was taped in the afternoon, Kelly and Stephanie Maze beat Valkyrie and Baby Allison with Maze getting the deciding pinfall. A furious James came out again and berated Kelly, telling her he lacked the killer instinct she once had and asked why she let a rookie get the deciding win. He also threatened to punch Maze at that point and sent Kelly to the back to watch what a real killer looked like after which he faced and beat CZW champion Joe Gacy.
On Sunday, Kelly (who refused the shot) had another backstage promo with James where he again told her she was wasting chances and how she got opportunities he never got and never used them to her advantage. Kelly and Gray then presented Maze as the new surprise challenger for Amale, who eventually beat her. James then came out once more and again berated Kelly, beat down Kevin and Levaniel, and threatened to beat up Melanie, telling Kelly to decide between the love of the fans or the love of him. Kelly, seemingly choosing James, sulked to the back while James beat up Kevin some more.
The promos here were really good and I am intrigued to see where the story goes as it gives both James and Kelly something to do, and also can involve Melanie while she recuperates her injury, plus Kevin, Levaniel, and possibly Amale and Karsten Beck when he returns.
Kelly also confirmed that she is no longer with NXT UK, which was obvious since she appeared for RevPro at their March 1st show, attacking Giselle Shaw and also wrestlling for EVE twice in non-dark matches after last being at NXT UK in October. Kelly also is the first female Ringkampf brand athlete.
Maze has a good look and good movement, but still is very rough around the edges and needs to improve her ring speed and precision. Then again, she started just over two years ago and had only around 60 matches, so changes should be noticeable soon especially if she spends more time at the wXw Academy.
As far as Beck (who is an on-screen GM as the “Director of Sports”), Jung said at the media panel that he had some issues (possibly medically related as he had surgery for a brain tumor twice before) but they would not comment on it and said they’d let him talk about what they were on his own time, and when those things were sorted out, he would probably be back.
wXwNOW Showcase a success, CZW returns to Germany
wXw’s streaming service wXwNOW features a plethora of different promotions from all around the world. Seven of them joined forces to present the wXwNOW Showcase with each of them presenting once match. The Showcase followed the somewhat ill-received #WrestlingDeutschland shows of the past two years which had a similar concept for smaller promotions in Germany. While the first show was fun, the second was mostly abysmal with many bad matches and talent clearly not ready for a bigger stage.
The Showcase was generally considered a success with every promoter very happy about it and most matches being good and well received by the crowd, especially the ones put on by CZW (wXw’s longtime U.S. partner promotion), SMASH (Canada), Rising Sun (Italy) and White Wolf Wrestling (Spain). DJ Hyde, the owner of CZW, came out after the Joe Gacy vs. Anthony Greene match and announced that CZW would return to Germany on November 14 in Frankfurt and would also “bring the ultra violence”. The date will be a doubleheader with CZW promoting an afternoon show and wXw promoting in the same venue in the evening.
Odds and ends from various panels and informal talks
Tassilo Jung said that they were monitoring the WWE Network situation closely and could not say what it meant for them or if anything would be changing regarding a multi tier system and their content eventually being on the Network. He said they didn’t have that level of access to WWE management and basically followed the situation of Michelle Wilson and George Barrios being gone from the company just like everybody else.
They also said that they did not see WWE pulling talent or having NXT UK tapings head to head as a major problem as they saw during the Tag Festival with all the late cancellations and that they could work around it. He said Lio Rush very much had been the top draw as most tickets moved after he was announced. He said WWE offered them a replacement but would not comment who it was. At that point, they had already gotten Jeff Cobb, who was available that weekend.
It looks like Veit Müller has burned his bridges with wXw for the time being as he told them just four days in advance that he would not be there. He pulled out of most of the Tag Festival in October due to complications his wife had with his pregnancy which was totally understandable. Jung said the minimum they expect from their talent is to show up to work and how they would not work with Müller for the time being. Müller later posted a tweet with his child, saying “some things are more important than wrestling,”
Francis Kaspin is out with a herniated/bulging disc. He tried various methods of therapy, none of which have really worked. They brought him in after his injury, but he eventually said he’d prefer not to come as each long car drive back and forth really hampered his progress in recovery. They will see when he feels better to incorporate him back into storylines.
They haven’t talked to Jazzy Gabert since she quit NXT UK, but no door ever is closed in wrestling and they’d be open to work with her again if the right opportunity arises.
They also were very understanding of the whole Alex Shelley situation and hope they will be able to bring him in one day. Felix Kohlenberg was been waiting for more than a decade to book him.
Killer Kelly seemingly quit NXT UK, but did not want to further elaborate on it. She appeared for RevPro and EVE in the UK after she last was at NXT UK tapings in early October. She also now is the first female Ringkampf athlete for their sports apparel/merchandise brand.
DJ Hyde talked extensively about the various deal they had for streaming their content, including wXwNOW, their own CZW Studios (on Pivotshare), IWTV, and FITE TV as well as Stone Cutter Media where they put old content on PPV around the world through Steve Karel, who also was instrumental in the old ECW television deals. He said while he didn’t have all the data yet, the FITE TV numbers looked really good. He said it was a challenge to upgrade old tapes to be HD ready and how each iPPV they did was a struggle as the money will not come in for months. He said they would be simulcasting their first show on IWTV and FITE TV and also would get on PPV soon.
Methehan (the former Lucky Kid) reiterated to me that his new group, Ezel, was not to be understood as any kind of Turkish nationalist group and that he very much considers himself German as he was born and raised in the country.
The full 39-minute media panel with the wXw office can also be viewed here.
Julian Pace pinned Rust Taylor after the Best Moonsault Ever (9:22)
Avalanche pinned “Goldenboy” Santos after a DRSKR Bomb (6:44)
Four Way: Marius Al-Ani beat The Rotation, Hektor and Vertigo after pinning Vertigo with a Diamond Driver (4:24)
Jay Skillet pinned Absolute Levandy (Levaniel) after an FtY (9:57): Pure comedy gold, with Levaniel doing a spot-on Absolute Andy impersonation
Killer Kelly pinned Stephanie Maze after the Carnation Revolution (9:17)
Shigehiro Irie pinned Scotty Davis after a Beast Bomber (8:30)
Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa beat Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe when Ikeda pinned Ridgeway after a high kick (17:44): Super fun shoot-style match with everybody being great at the style
Alternate Four Way Dance: Rust Taylor defeated Levaniel, Hektor & Scotty Davis when he tapped out Levaniel with the Rings of Saturn (6:30)
16 Carat Gold first round: “Speedball” Mike Bailey pinned Chris Ridgeway after a Flamingo Driver (12:55)
16 Carat Gold first round: Jurn Simmons pinned Lucky Kid after a piledrive (4:32): The eye appeared again at the beginning of the match, prompting Lucky to almost get pinned right away
16 Carat Gold first round: The Rotation pinned Puma King after Victory over Gravity (8:57)
16 Carat Gold first round: Eddie Kingston pinned Daniel Makabe after the Backfist to the Future (9:33)
16 Carat Gold first round: Bandido pinned Julian Pace after a Top Rope Fallaway Moonsault (9:39)
16 Carat Gold first round: Shigehiro Irie pinned Black Taurus iafter a Beast Bomber (10:30)
16 Carat Gold first round: Jeff Cobb pinned Alexander James after Tour of the Island (12:44)
16 Carat Gold first round: Cara Noir beat Marius Al-Ani via ref stoppage after Al-Ani passed out in the Blackout Sleeper (11:32)
wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jay AA (Jay Skillet & Absolute Andy) beat Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) (c) after a belt shot and the JAA-Klasse (15:47): This was a fun, very good match. Bobby Gunns and Norman Harras came out at one point, handed the belts to the bastards who clocked Jay-AA with them but didn’t get the pin; referee Tassilo Jung then caught Gunns and Harras in the ring with the belts a second time and threw them out, allowing Jay-AA to use the belts and then hit JAA-Klasse for the win and title change.
First Round Match: Daniel Makabe submitted Kevin Lloyd with an STF
First Round Match: Chris Ridgeway beat Vincent Heisenberg via TKO after a head kick: Heisenberg replaced Veit Müller here and is actually the son of Baron von Hagen, the first ever 16 Carat Gold winner back in 2006
First Round Match: Rust Taylor submitted Tyson Dux with a modified double arm bar
First Round Match: Scotty Davis submitted “Speedball” Mike Bailey with an arm bar/hammerfists combo
Next Generation AMBITION Fight: Ethan Allen submitted Luke Jacobs with a double arm stretch and kicks to the back: Really impressive performance by those two, they should be back in wXw soon and will also debut for PROGRESS at the end of the month
Semifinal: Daniel Makabe submitted Scotty Davis with an upside down armbar headscissors combo
Semifinal: Chris Ridgeway beat Rust Taylor by TKO after a head kick
AMBITION Superfight: Daisuke Ikeda knocked out Yuki Ishikawa with a punt kick: This was unreal violence between two senior citizens who looked to kill each other with death
Finals: Daniel Makabe submitted Chris Ridgeway with an Indian-style Cattle Mutilation
16 Carat Gold quarter final: Cara Noir submitted Jeff Cobb with the Blackout Sleeper (11:40)
16 Carat Gold quarter final: Eddie Kingston pinned The Rotation after a Backfist to the Future (9:26)
Marius Al-Ani pinned Daniel Makabe after a Diamond Driver (9:44): This was preceded by a backstage segment, where Al-Ani challenged Makabe after his AMBITION 12 tournament win earlier in the day
The Young Guns won the Jay AA Tag Team Experts Wildcard Gauntlet (24:09): The build-up to this was hilarious, after Andy cracked up the crowd with his dad humor, then claimed he had designed a graphic for the match with the “paid version of Microsoft Paint” and studied color theory for it, plus he had developed an app which would randomly choose partners for the gauntlet.
Puma King & Julian Pace beat Leon van Gasteren & Lucky Kid when Puma pinned Lucky after a sitdown powerbomb (5:42): This had Pace and van Gasteren, actual tag partners against each other, which Pace was upset about
Black Taurus & Avalanche beat Puma King & Julian Pace when Taurus pinned Puma King (4:22)
Black Taurus & Avalanche beat Tarik & Norman Harras when Taurus pinned Tarik after a Spinning Fishermans Buster (3:42): Harras and Tarik didn’t get along, leading to a challenge and an eight men tag at the wXw Feature Event taped on Sunday afternoon, where harras, The Pretty bastards and Oliver Carter faced The Four Pillars of SMASH
Black Taurus & Avalanche beat DJ Hyde & Levaniel when Avalanche pinned Hyde after a DRSKR Bomb (0:46): This was amazing. Hyde was upset that Levaniel, who does a sleazy “Prince of the Stars” gimmick, where he claims that he has a castle in the sky, sees the most shooting stars in the sky and wants to spread “the love” was his partner. While Hyde was getting beat up in the ring, Levaniel, totally oblivious of what was going on, cut this amazing promo about how his father was a death match wrestler, who made him sleep in broken glass and would set his blanket on fire before putting him to bed. Hyde then chased him away.
Scotty Davis & Chris Ridgeway beat Black Taurus & Avalanche when Davis submitted Taurus in the Rolling Prawn Hold (2:01)
The Young Guns (Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs) beat Scotty Davis & Chris Ridgeway after a Gotch-style Piledriver/PK combo on Davis (7:36) to earn a shot at the wXw tag team championship
Alexander James submitted Alpha Kevin in 2:02 with a cobra clutch: James kept attacking Kevin, then shoved down an injured Malenie gray who came to make the save; Killer Kelly then came out to confront him
16 Carat Gold quarter final: Mike Bailey pinned Bandido with a Meteora Dream (17:36): Unreal good, match of the weekend. The fans showered both men with money afterwards and it was one of the all time great 16 Carat matches
16 Carat Gold quarterfinal: Jurn Simmons pinned Shigehiro Irie after a piledriver (9:01)
wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship – Title vs. Career: Bobby Gunns (c) pinned David Starr after an Ehrenmann Driver (41:15)
wXw We Love Wrestling Feature Event (March 8, 2020/afternoon – attendance: 450, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)
This takes place chronologically between Night 2 and Night 3 as far as storyline progression goes
Four-Way-Dance: Scotty Davis beat Daniel Makabe, Rust Taylor & Anthony Greene after pinning Greene with a Spinning Fishermans Buster (7:59)
Eight-Man-Tag-Team Match: Pretty Bastards, Oliver Carter & Norman Harras beat The Four Pillars of SMASH (Tarik, Sebastian Suave, Tyson Dux & Brent Banks) when Carter pinned Suave after a Redlight Driver/springboard moonsault combo (16:43)
Marius Al-Ani pinned Chris Ridgeway after a Diamond Driver (6:35)
Stephanie Maze & Killer Kelly beat Baby Allison & Valkyrie when Maze pinned Allison after the Black Mass (7:24)
Alexander James submitted Joe Gacy with a corba clutch (7:04)
wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jay AA (Jay Skillet & Absolute Andy) (c) beat The Young Guns (Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs) after the JAA-Klasse on Jacobs (14:42). Bobby Gunns, Norman Harras, Oliver Carter and The Pretty Bastards attacked Jay-AA after the match, until Julian Pace and Scotty Davis made the save
WALTER pinned Shigehiro Irie after a big splash of the top rope (12:51)
16 Carat Gold semi-final: “Speedball” Mike Bailey pinned Jurn Simmons after a Flamingo Driver (10:40)
16 Carat Gold semi-final: Cara Noir submitted Eddie Kingston with the Blackout Sleeper (8:15)
wXw Women:s Championship: Amale pinned Stephanie Maze after the Champions Maker (9:06) Maze replaced the injured Melanie Gray here, after Killer Kelly refused the shot since she believed she hadn’t earned it; after the match, there war another scene with Alexander James and Kelly
Special Attraction Tag Team Match: Timothy Thatcher & Yuki Ishikawa beat WALTER & Daisuke Ikeda when Thatcher submitted Ikeda with an arm bar (16:42)
wXw Shotgun Championship: Alexander Wolfe beat Avalanche (c) & Ilja Dragunov after pinning Dragunov with a sit-down power bomb (12:44)
Bandido, Julian Pace & Jeff Cobb beat Puma King, Black Taurus & Hektor when Bandido pinned Hektor with the 21 Plex (12:28)
16 Carat Gold finals: Cara Noir beat Speedball Mike Bailey via ref stoppage in the Blackout Sleeper (28:27)
Taped at Coventry Skydome in Coventry, England on March 6, 2020
Quick results:
Former ring announcer Andy Shepherd is the new color commentator for NXT UK alongside Nigel McGuinness
Finn Balor appeared in NXT and called out WALTER, then thwarted an attack by Imperium
Piper Niven vowed to do something about Kay Lee Ray, who she called ‘evil’
Pretty Deadly beat Dan Moloney & Dereiss Gordon; all four men looked good
Alexander Wolfe demanded a match with Balor for tonight and got it approved by Johnny Saint; Jordan Devlin also was told he’s defend his cruiserweight title against Travis Banks in two weeks in the same segment
Dave Mastiff, Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster got set up for next week
Noam Dar beat Ligero
Travis Banks promised to become cruiserweight champion
Dani Luna vs. Amale went to a no contest when Kay Lee Ray attacked both women
Finn Balor pinned Alexander Wolfe after a 1916 and survived another attempted attack by Imperium mid-match
Full rundown:
Nigel McGuinness and newly appointed NXT UK play-by-play announcer Andy Shepherd welcomed us to the show. Shepherd is the former NXT UK ring announcer and previously called some early UK Tournament shows. They were interrupted by the lights going out and Finn Balor’s music playing.
Balor came out, said his name and that he wasn’t hear to pop ratings but to call out WALTER. The champion’s music played and he came out and stared Balor down from ringside. The rest of Imperium appeared and Alexander Wolfe welcomed Balor to NXT UK, said this was Imperium’s domain and vowed to give Balor a welcome. Balor quickly disposed of Aichner and Barthel, then escaped a German suplex attempt by Wolfe and gave him a sling blade before ducking a clothesline by WALTER and escaping to ringside.
Piper Niven was interviewed earlier in the week. She talked about her and Toni Storm being like sisters and she had to come out during the Storm/Kay Lee Ray I Quit Match to talk some sense into Toni before she’d get crippled.
She said she never could have interfered in the match, as Toni would never have talked to her. She said when she comforted a sobbing Toni, she looked up at KLR and saw that she was evil. She vowed to do something about her.
A highlight video on Tyler Bate aired.
Pretty Deadly (Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker) beat Dan Moloney & Dereiss Gordon
Pretty Deadly threw their shirts at their opponents and beat them down. Moloney made a brief comeback against Howley and tagged Gordon, who showed some good athleticism. Stoker tagged back in and together, Pretty Deadly attacked Gordon once more.
An assisted uppercut had Gordon down for a near-fall as Pretty Deadly tagged in and out in quick succession. Gordon finally got the hot tag and Moloney ran wild on both members of Pretty Deadly. Pretty Deadly came back with Deadly Pretty (an assisted Codebreaker) on Moloney for the win.
Alexander Wolfe walked up to Johnny Saint and Sid Scala all agitated and demanded a match against Finn Balor. Saint just looked at him and nonchalantly said “OK”. Jordan Devlin then walked up and declared he was back in the UK. Scala informed him that he would defend his NXT Cruiserweight title against Travis Banks in two weeks.
Dave Mastiff, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster were at the UK Performance Center when Gallus walked up to talk trash. They agreed to face off in a six-men match next week.
Noam Dar pinned Ligero
Ligero took over early after Dar tried evading him. Dar came back with a dropkick through the ropes onto Ligero on the apron, that sent Ligero to ringside. Dar worked over Ligero’s hand back in the ring, then applied a chinlock. and tugged away at Ligero’s mask.
Ligero threw Dar to ringside, then followed up with a plancha. After Ligero took over for a bit, he went for a handspring armdrag, but got caught in a Fujiwara armbar. Dar attacked Ligero’s legs, then hit the Nova Roller for the win.
Travis Banks was being interviewed about meeting Jordan Devlin for the Cruiserweight title. He promised to be the first ever Kiwi champion in NXT history.
Dani Luna and Amale went to a no contest
Luna threw Amale halfway across the ring, then took her down repeatedly. Amale came back with a hammerlock, but Luna lifted her up with one hand and hit a fall away slam. Just as Luna looked ready to deal out more punishment, Kay Lee Ray ran out and attacked both women for the no contest.
Kay Lee Ray said that now that she had successfully got rid of Toni Storm, she was here to let every girl in NXT UK know that this division belonged to her. Luna briefly attacked her but quickly got taken out with a Gory Bomb. KLR reiterated that the division belonged to her.
A video on Aoife Valkyrie aired, where she claimed every feather she wore stood for a battle she won to become who she was.
Finn Balor pinned Alexander Wolfe
Balor quickly took over with a hammerlock on the mat, then followed with a dropkick off a sunset flip roll-through. He followed up with a sitting cobra clutch but got backed into the corner. He kicked away at Wolfe and hit some chops. Wolfe came back with a backbreaker, then hit some punches.
As Wolfe locked in a waist lock, the rest of Imperium slowly walked to ringside. Wolfe rammed his shoulders into Balor in the corner, then locked in a bear hug. Balor came back with a double chop to the chest, then hit a running basement dropkick on Wolfe.
Balor repeatedly stomped Wolfe while locking eyes with WALTER. He hit a sling blade and went to attack out of the corner, but Barthel came in and grabbed his leg while Aichner looked to attack. Balor fought him off as the referee then ejected Imperium from ringside.
Wolfe hit an enzuigiri and went for a sit-down power bomb, but Balor escaped and hit a double foot stomp on Wolfe, who came back with a bridging German suplex. Balor escaped a fireman’s carry into a slop drop, then hit a running drop kick and hit the coup de grâce, followed by the 1916 for the pinfall victory.
Next week:
Dave Mastiff, Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster will face Gallus in six-men action.
Alexander Wolfe was injured during tonight’s Worlds Collide main event.
The injury took place in the main event match between Imperium and the Undisputed Era. Wolfe was down on his knees as Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong were going for stereo knee strikes to the chest and back. It was here that Fish’s knee connected with Wolfe’s jaw.
Fish then went for the pin, but Wofle didn’t kick out. Referee Drake Wuertz stopped the match momentarily and threw up the “X” signal that someone was injured. Fish was taken to his corner as the announcers showed a replay.
Wolfe was then taken out of the match and escorted backstage. The match then continued as a 4 on 3 match. After a back and forth brawl, Imperium were eventually able to get the win after WALTER powerbombed Fish as everyone else was fighting on the outside.
“I’m fine,” he wrote on Twitter following the show. “I wish I could have finished the match but safety first. Thanks to @WWEDrakeWuertz & @wwe medical for taking care of me. You guys did an unbelievable great job today as always. Most importantly it was my own fault. #ChinUp”
Taped at Bonus Arena in Hull, England on November 15, 2019
Quick results —
Trent Seven pinned NXT regular Kona Reeves in a quick bout.
A-Kid submitted Jack Starz in a short, but very technical match.
The Grizzled Young Veterans pleaded with Johnny Saint to be given a Tag Team title shot at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II.
Ridge Holland looked impressive in his NXT UK debut, defeating Oliver Carter.
in the main event, Alexander Wolfe defeated Ilja Dragunov in a very good match after some distraction by Imperium. Gallus ran out to make the save for Dragunov after and the two factions will battle next week.
Full rundown —
Trent Seven pinned Kona Reeves after the Birminghammer (3:24)
This was Reeves’ second guest appearance on NXT UK, after doing battle with Dave Mastiff back over WrestleMania weekend. Reeves cut a promo on his way to the ring, berating the audience and calling himself a real star. He called Seven out of shape and told him he was not a real superstar.
Seven started out strong and beat on Reeves, but the Hawaiian turned the tables on him and pulled his face under the apron from the outside. Reeves then unloaded punches on the veteran of British Strong Style.
Seven came back with a snap dragon suplex for a near fall, then clotheslined Reeves to the outside and followed up with a dive. He missed a reverse somersault plancha from the top, but came back with the Seven Star Lariat for another two count.
Reeves came back with a headbutt and went for a forward rolling senton, but Seven escaped and hit the Birminghammer for the victory.
Seven went to slap hands with the fans after the match, when his hand was caught by a fan who turned out to be Eddie Dennis. Seven struggled to release his hand from Dennis’ grip, and Dennis just smiled at him as Seven looked confused.
– Radzi Chinyanganya interviewed Ilja Dragunov on his way into the building about his match with Alexander Wolfe later tonight. Dragunov acknowledged that Wolfe had been his trainer back in Dresden, Germany and had been a good and strict teacher.
Dragunov also claimed that Wolfe had always tried to make decisions for him and this would end tonight. Dragunov said he would finally step out of the shadow of Wolfe.
– A graphic plugged NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II from Blackpool, England on January 12 and also announced the show already had sold out in two hours.
A-Kid defeated Jack Starz by submission with a flying omoplata (4:07)
They locked up and A-Kid immediately transitioned into an armbar on the ground. Starz rolled out and they ended up on the mat again and traded holds. Both men showed some very good athleticism, trading submissions and counters in quick succession.
A-Kid transitioned from an armbar into a triangle, but Starz powerbombed his way out of it. A-Kid went for a backslide for a near fall, then transitioned into a flying omoplata for the win.
– Radzi interviewed Jinny and Jazzy Gabert backstage. Jinny called the state of the NXT UK’s women’s division cheap, like Radzi’s outfit. She said that the roster consisted of little girls and bashed both Rhea Ripley and Piper Niven.
Jinny called herself championship material and stated that Niven had never pinned her. Both statements drew barely noticeable annoyed looks from Gabert, so there may be some trouble with these two further down the line.
– Tom Philips and Nigel McGuinness were on camera and plugged the main event of Dragunov vs. Wolfe, when the Grizzled Young Veteran’s music played and they walked out in suits.
Grizzled Young Veterans in-ring segment
Gibson talked about how they still should be champions — if not for the three-way stipulation being added to their Tag Team title match at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff. They said they would bounce back and had Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster beaten a few weeks ago until Gallus and Imperium interfered.
Gibson complained that neither faction had been fined or reprimanded and called out Johnny Saint and Sid Scala on the issue. He said they were on their way to making the NXT UK Tag Team titles the most prestigious in WWE. He said just like Bill Shankly, all they wanted was to make the people happy. He called on Johnny Saint to make things right.
Gibson said Saint needed them at TakeOver: Blackpool so that the whole world would talk about the Tag Team title match.
– Jordan Devlin was backstage with a big television screen. He introduced an NXT UK highlight video that just consisted of him hitting various moves as he talked about the footage. He then made fun of A-Kid, saying the endorsement by Tyler Bate meant nothing. Devlin challenged A-Kid to a match next week.
Ridge Holland defeated Oliver Carter after hitting Northern Grit (4:05)
Holland (Luke Menzies) made his NXT UK debut here after having wrestled on NXT television a few times last year.
Menzies, 31, is a former professional rugby player who went into pro wrestling in early 2016 and was trained by Marty Jones. He wrestled for 3 Count Wrestling, Tidal Championship Wrestling, and others in the UK before attending a WWE tryout in late 2016 and being signed to a deal.
Holland made his television debut in May of 2018 against Keith Lee and was repackaged as Ridge Holland in June. He wrestled on NXT’s Florida house show circuit before finally coming back to his native country here.
Holland came to the ring carrying a wooden club. His trainer, Marty Jones, was shown cheering him on in the front row.
Holland threw Carter off his back, then no sold his offense and hit a high-angle judo-style hip toss. Carter came back with an enzuigiri to the back of the head, a kick, and a flying crossbody, but Holland caught him with an overhead suplex. He hit a number of uppercuts, blocked a backslide attempt, and hit another overhead suplex.
Holland applied a choke, but Carter eventually escaped and hit a backflip kick into the corner. Carter missed a quebrada, then was sent flying from a huge pounce. Holland then hit Northern Grit for the pinfall victory.
Ashton Smith came out to check on Carter, with Holland throwing him a nasty look.
– A recap of Joseph Conners attacking Travis Banks and Ligero was shown. Footage then aired of Banks and Ligero complaining about Conners. Conners was interviewed and just smiled and said he was happy to have been leaving a good impression on everyone.
– Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter were walking backstage when Noam Dar showed up and made fun of them. Smith challenged him for a match next week. Dar said he’d see him on his time.
– A graphic announced Piper Niven vs. Jinny for next week.
Alexander Wolfe pinned Ilja Dragunov after a sit-down powerbomb (16:45)
They locked up and immediately were all over each other for the first minute of the match. Wolfe finally shoved Dragunov away, with him motioning to Wolfe to bring some more. Dragunov hit a crossbody and they ended up at ringside, with Wolfe driving Dragunov’s back hard into the barricade.
Wolfe got a camera cable, but the referee watched him and he threw it down again. Dragunov went for the Six One Line, but Wolfe moved out of the way and Dragunov missed a double axe handle from the top to the outside.
Wolfe kicked the rope as Dragunov re-entered the ring, crotching him. Wolfe then hit a draping neckbreaker. He went for a sleeper, but Dragunov came back with a big chop.
Wolfe caught him with a kick to the face, then worked him over some more and hit a low dropkick to the back. Wolfe threw Dragunov to ringside, then grabbed a chair from the ring announcer, but threw it away and kicked Dragunov instead.
Wolfe applied a chinlock back in the ring, but Dragunov came back and eventually hit a jumping kick and a back suplex. They traded hard shots and elbows, with Dragunov coming out on top with some quick Kobashi strikes.
Dragunov hit an enzuigiri, a knee strike in the corner, and a lariat. He it another one in the corner and went for a top rope senton, but Wolfe hit an uppercut. Dragunov finally struck him down and hit a bombs away knee drop, then a Gotch-style powerbomb for a two count.
Dragunov then hit an impressive Gotch-style bridging deadlift German suplex for another two count. He went up top again, but Wolfe rolled into the opposite corner. Dragunov adapted and hit a coast-to-coast dropkick for a close near fall. He finally hit the top rope senton, but Wolfe got his knees up.
Wolfe went for a German suplex of his own, but his legs gave out. He followed up with a big boot and eventually a bridging German suplex for a two count. They battled on the top rope and Wolfe hit a superplex for another near fall. They traded hard slaps until Dragunov hit a back-fist that knocked Wolfe down.
Dragunov went for Torpedo Moscow, but Wolfe stopped it. Dragunov hit the Six One Line and set up for Torpedo Moscow again, but this time Imperium looked to interfere. Dragunov knocked down Barthel and Aichner. He went for the finish once more, but Wolfe caught him with a DDT in mid-air for a near fall. Wolfe then hit the sit-down powerbomb for the pin.
Imperium swarmed Dragunov after the match and stomped him, but Gallus quickly ran out for the save. WALTER briefly was alone with all three Gallus members, but Imperium pulled him out of the ring.
WALTER went to grab his championship belt, but Joe Coffey also grabbed it and they had a brief tug-of-war, with WALTER screaming at him to let go. WALTER finally yanked the belt free and Imperium retreated as Gallus posed in the ring and the show went off the air.
In a post-match WWE.com exclusive video, Imperium were backstage talking among themselves when Gallus and Dragunov barged down the hallway and they almost came to blows. Sid Scala and Johnny Saint separated them. The GM team then declared that Imperium will face Gallus & Dragunov in an eight-man tag team match next week.
Next week —
Jordan Devlin challenged A-Kid for next week and Ashton Smith challenged Noam Dar. Neither match was confirmed, but both seem likely. Jinny will battle Piper Niven. In the main event, Imperium will face off with Gallus & Ilja Dragunov
Alexander Wolfe has left the WWE main roster but is still a part of the company, making his debut for their UK brand this afternoon.
He appeared during this afternoon’s NXT UK television tapings in Glasgow, Scotland. He aligned himself with UK champion WALTER, Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner. Together, the four seem to be going by the name of Imperium.
Wolfe was part of the stable SAnitY, both in NXT and on the main roster as part of the SmackDown brand. When Eric Young was moved to Raw as a result of the Superstar Shake-Up this past Monday, it seemingly meant the end of the group. The next day, Wolfe posted a tweet thanking the other members of SAnitY, saying goodbye to the WWE and noting that it was time to “leave this behind and walk a different path”.
As of this writing, it appears that Killian Dain will remain on SmackDown. Nikki Cross, who was aligned with the group at one point, was not drafted to either brand following the Shake-Up.
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.
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
The Big News: Thanks almost entirely to Killian Dain, SAnitY defeated The Undisputed Era in a tornado tag team main event.
The Medium News: Johnny Gargano offered to put his NXT career on the line to once again challenge Andrade “Cien” Almas for the NXT Championship.
The Little Beaver-sized News: Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss may be breaking up. If you look up “little news” in the dictionary, this would be listed.
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Nigel McGuinness was back from his flu. Just want to point out that Percy Watson announced a five-star match and McGuinness has not.
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The Undisputed Era came out for the opener, in which they would defend the NXT Tag Team Championship. However, as all three members were preening to the camera, SAnitY (their opponents) assaulted them from behind. Security ran out to break everything up as Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly snuck away as Killian Dain laid out multiple security guards.
Mr. William Regal came out next and announced that all six men would take part in a tornado tag match in the main event. So for the second time in a month, SAnitY will not be getting their title match.
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Heavy Machinery defeated Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss
SAnitY and Undisputed Era went to the back, so instead we got the next chapter in the ongoing rivalry between Heavy Machinery and Sabbatelli & Moss.
Moss got the heat on Tucker Knight by grabbing his tights from behind and using a lariat to the back of the head. Sabbatelli was greeted with “Tino sucks” chants, which surprised pretty much everyone since the heel duo is used to no reaction.
For some reason, Sabbatelli and Moss tagged each other exceptionally hard. Sabbatelli tried to use a roll-up with his feet on the ropes (which won them their last match), but the referee caught it and he got pinned by Knight after The Compactor.
After the match, Moss walked out on Sabbatelli. Someone should show these guys video tapes of Blake & Murphy and track what happened to that team in the ensuing two years after their break up. Meanwhile, their manager at the time, Alexa Bliss, has won four Women’s Championships on the main roster.
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Out came Johnny Gargano for the first time since his bout at TakeOver: Philadelphia where he came up short in his quest to conquer Andrade “Cien” Almas for the NXT Championship.
Gargano said he went into Philly more confident than ever. He saw himself winning and coming back here as champion. Unfortunately it didn’t happen, which sucks, but getting this overwhelming positive reaction from the fans and the respect it shows means more. It gave him the inspiration to pick himself back up and continue being Johnny Gargano.
He’ll never forget TakeOver, but will also never forget Tommaso Ciampa hitting him in the back with a crutch. He is coming for Ciampa and was in the middle of challenging him to come out when we were joined by Almas.
Zelina Vega asked him who cares if Gargano won everyone’s respect. There should be a parade with confetti for the champion. Gargano proved nothing — except that he is a loser. Almas has beaten him again and again and again. He is not Johnny Gargano, he is Johnny Loser. The fans began chanting for Candice LeRae, so Gargano mentioned his second favorite part of TakeOver was his wife beating the hell out of her.
Vega got up in Gargano’s face, so LeRae ran out and shoved her down. Almas bailed and the husband-wife duo was left standing tall.
Vega got on the stage and said they’ve beaten him three times. Gargano wants another title shot, and Vega said that if Gargano loses he must leave NXT. Gargano agreed to the challenge.
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Shayna Baszler said she is the most feared woman in NXT. There will not be a rematch with Ember Moon because Moon is scared. Baszler dared the press to go tell Moon she said that.
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Tyler Bate wasn’t happy that he didn’t beat Roderick Strong last week, but he said he’ll be watching when Strong challenges Pete Dunne next Wednesday. He also said he was happy to win Match of the Year last year and can’t wait to have more Match of the Years with everyone in NXT.
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Bianca Belair defeated Jessica Hill
Hill was trained by Dory Funk Jr and went one-on-one with The EST of NXT this week. Belair hit a Burning Hammer and a fallaway powerbomb, called the Alley-Oop, for the win in 30 seconds.
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A video package for Kairi Sane aired. She’s back to being the Pirate Princess, so I guess her enthusiasm for yachts has lessened in the last two weeks.
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Next week:
Aleister Black in action
Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship
Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong for the WWE United Kingdom Championship
Mauro Ranallo encouraged us to set our DVR for the UK title match. I’m not sure if he understands that the WWE Network isn’t on normal television.
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SAnitY (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain) defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) in a tornado tag team match
I’m not sure the order any of this was taped, but the fans were a lot more enthusiastic for these six guys at the start of the show than they were early on in this match. The match began with a wild six-way brawl, and the fans finally woke up five minutes in when Young pulled out the plunder.
As Dain mopped up the ringside area with Fish, Cole and O’Reilly separated Young and Wolfe from the pack and fought them through the backstage area. Fish did hit a beautiful moonsault to Dain. Unfortunately for Fish, his advantage didn’t last long and he began running away to get away from Dain. At this point, the other four returned from the backstage area, so Dain heaved Fish off the stage and onto everyone else.
As the match continued, Undisputed Era had no problem throwing around Wolfe and Young, but spent more time than not in flight when Dain got his hands on them. Cole discovered the best offense against Dain was to move out of the way, which was proven right when Dain went crashing through a table that Cole, seconds earlier, was propped against.
Back in the ring, Wolfe held his own for a second, but got superkicked and laid out with Total Elimination. Young was in with his kendo stick, but he got superkicked and laid out with a brainbuster on Cole’s knee. Dain got back in the ring and single-handedly destroyed all of Undisputed Era, pinning Fish with the Ulster Plantation.
So, that does it for this week. Will SAnitY ever get their title match? Until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
