Jordan Devlin defeated Dan Moloney in a fun opener. Kassius Ohno talked about why he attacked Amir Jordan after their match last week, then ran down Travis Banks.
Rhea Ripley defeated Xia Brookside in a hard-fought match in which Brookside showed a lot of heart. As Ripley proclaimed to be the dominant woman in NXT UK, Piper Niven made her first appearance on NXT UK television to dispute that claim.
Mark Andrews and Noam Dar fought to a no contest, when an inverted rana by Andrews went awry, rendering both men unable to continue.
In the main event segment, Pete Dunne and WALTER signed the contract for their WWE United Kingdom Championship match at NXT TakeOver: New York.
Full rundown —
The show opened with a graphic announcing that Pete Dunne and WALTER would be signing the contract tonight for their upcoming WWE UK Championship match at NXT TakeOver: New York.
Jordan Devlin pinned Dan Moloney in 4:28 after a backdrop driver
Devlin took over right away and toyed with Moloney for a bit. Moloney came back by throwing Devlin into the corner and hitting a few chops and punches, but Devlin quickly turned things back around with his uranage/standing moonsault combination for a two count.
Moloney staged another comeback as he hit a high back body drop and threw Devlin to ringside, but the Irishman snapped Moloney’s neck on the rope and hit a springboard cutter for another two count. Devlin then stopped Moloney with a headbutt and hit his pull-up backdrop driver for the win.
Kassius Ohno addressed his actions from last week
Kassius Ohno came out with a mic and said that NXT UK management told him to come out and explain his actions from last week. He said he wanted to make sure he didn’t come off phony and staged, so he read a totally phony apology off his smartphone.
Ohno said he shouldn’t have revived Amir Jordan just to knock him out again, but it just felt so good to do so. He said he could have gone anywhere, but chose to come to NXT UK. He said “some kid” came out after his match last week, a guy from New Zealand “mimicking a wrestler,” Travis Banks. Ohno has his eyes set on the prize — and if the Kiwi Buzzsaw ever found himself opposite Ohno in a ring, he would be a broken little buzzsaw.
– A video of Dave Mastiff in the gym aired. He talked about growing up and said he had to prove himself and never show weakness. Mastiff said that’s what he still does to this day.
– A graphic announced Toni Storm would defend her NXT UK Women’s Championship against Jinny in two weeks.
– A video of Jinny from the WWE tryouts in India aired. She said WWE chose her and not Storm to attend the tryouts, because Jinny was a better wrestler and the people needed a hero, which was her, not Storm.
Rhea Ripley pinned Xia Brookside in 7:21 after Riptide
Ripley laughed at Brookside, while Brookside looked a bit concerned. Ripley threw her around in the beginning, but Brookside briefly came back with a standing headlock. She got overwhelmed quickly, as Ripley slammed her and kept working her over.
Ripley hit a prolonged vertical suplex for a near fall. As she tried another suplex shortly afterwards, Brookside turned the attempt into a small package for a two count, then followed up with a number of dropkicks. Ripley eventually plucked her out of mid-air and tried her inverted cloverleaf, but Brookside made the ropes before she could apply the hold. Brookside then followed up with a twirling headscissors and double knees to the back of the head, sending Ripley head-first into the turnbuckles.
Brookside went to the top, but Ripley attacked her and went for a superplex. Brookside escaped from that attempt, put Ripley in the Tree of Woe, and hit a basement dropkick, then sent her to ringside and followed up with a high crossbody off the top to the outside.
Back in the ring, Brookside hit a top rope codebreaker for a near fall, and Ripley looked to be in trouble. Brookside went for a crucifix into a sunset flip, but Ripley wouldn’t budge and picked her up from the mat, then hit Riptide for the victory.
After the match, Ripley cut a promo, asking Brookside if she was serious. Ripley said she showed Brookside what her nightmare really was. Ripley said she was the dominant woman in NXT UK. At that point, the music of Piper Niven, the woman formerly known as Viper, hit and she came out as Ripley looked on in disbelief.
Ripley quickly left the ring as Niven entered. She looked at Ripley and said “The most dominant woman in NXT UK? Not anymore!”
– Radzi Chinyanganya found Isla Dawn backstage and asked her about what she makes of Niven. Dawn was quickly interrupted by Kay Lee Ray, who told her that them all being from Scotland doesn’t mean they’re all friends. Kay Lee Ray told Dawn that she might be next.
– A special look on WALTER aired, using footage from matches in PROGRESS, wXw, and NXT UK. A number of people — such as Aleister Black, Dave Mastiff, Drake Wuertz, and Robbie Brookside — commented on WALTER’s style and progress as a wrestler over the past few years.
– Radzi interviewed Trent Seven, asking him about the recent comments by Joe Coffey where Coffey referred to him as “dead weight.” Seven said that the Seven Nation Army was behind him and he was looking forward to shutting Coffey up.
– Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner were shown backstage, looking at a smartphone and being livid. They talked to each other in German and said “look at those to idiots.” Barthel prompted Aichner to turn the phone around, displaying the video of Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan in the gym from last week’s episode.
Barthel and Aichner said that there was nothing funny about the wrestling business and that it meant a lot more to them than to any of the fans. They proclaimed they would go through Jordan and Williams if that’s what it takes to get ahead. Barthel and Aichner said that to them, the mat is sacred.
Mark Andrews and Noam Dar went to a no contest in 12:35
Dar worked over Andrews’ arm and backed him into a corner. They tried to one-up each other, with each wrestler avoiding the others’ moves. After some back and forth, Dar crotched Andrews on the top rope and went for a quick cover. After some offense by Dar, Andrews came back with a sunset flip, a striking combination, and an enzuigiri.
Andrews followed with a running flip cover and Stomp 182, then hit a dive on Dar, who had fled to ringside. A corkscrew moonsault by Andrews hit its mark for a near fall, but he then missed a corner charge and quickly found himself in an ankle lock by Dar.
Andrews managed to escape and throw Dar to the outside once more, then hit a moonsault off the apron. He snapped Dar’s neck on the top rope, but got kicked mid-move as he attempted to springboard back into the ring.
Dar hit a running snapmare that sent Andrews into the steel steps at ringside. Both men took some time to recover and Dar locked in another ankle lock back in the ring. Andrews eventually made the ropes, but he sold his knee from the move. He hit an enzuigiri off a dragon screw attempt and hit a moonsault on Dar, but landed on his knees in the process. They traded punches and Andrews got a backslide for another near fall.
Andrews hit Stundog Millionaire off a counter for another two count, then hit an inverted rana but slipped off and crashed into Dar’s knee, prompting both men to writhe on the mat in pain. Referee Drake Wuertz threw up the X sign and had the doctor check out Dar. He ruled the match a no contest, as neither wrestler could continue.
Dar and Andrews were both stretchered off by the medical crew as they threw their thumbs up for the crowd.
– A video for the upcoming NXT UK tapings in April, July, and at Download Festival in June aired, followed by a recap of the previous match.
– A graphic announced Isla Dawn vs. Kay Lee Ray and Trent Seven vs. Joe Coffey for next week.
Pete Dunne vs. WALTER contract signing
Johnny Saint and Sid Scala came to the ring among “Johnny Saint” chants. Scala quickly introduced the challenger, WALTER, who came out wearing a black coat, shirt, and dress pants. He shook Saint’s hand but otherwise looked all business.
Dunne came out looking similarly serious and the two opponents faced off over the table. Scala repeatedly had to ask them to take their seats, which they eventually did without taking their eyes off each other. Scala called it the biggest match in NXT UK history and one which the European wrestling scene had demanded. It would now take place over the biggest weekend in wrestling.
Scala asked WALTER if he wanted to say anything, but WALTER pushed the microphone on the table in front of him away, signed the contract, and pushed it over to Dunne.
Dunne decided that he was not going to stay as silent as the Ring General and said “You don’t have to say anything. It’s not just the WWE Universe that wants this match. I want this match. And at TakeOver: New York, you’re going to know what everyone else here has known for the past 647 days. I am the Bruiserweight and NXT UK belongs to me. And the WWE UK championship is and always will be mine.”
As Dunne turned to leave, WALTER decided to reply (initially in German): “Peter. Deine Zeit ist abgelaufen. (Peter. Your time is up). Don’t look at me like that, you know exactly I could just reach over and put you through that table. Like I just said, your time is up. And in New York City, the reign of the Bruiserweight will end. Because this title is mine.”
Dunne and WALTER then faced off one final time as the show went off the air.
Next week —
Kay Lee Ray faces Isla Dawn and Trent Seven takes on Joe Coffey.
Johnny Saint and Sid Scala announced that Pete Dunne would defend his WWE United Kingdom title at TakeOver: New York, prompting Dunne to come out and demand the match be against WALTER.
After a few weeks of building up the match, Eddie Dennis beat Ligero. The Wild Boar & Primate appeared as a new team called The Hunt and quickly destroyed Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker. Kassius Ohno, technically in his NXT UK debut (at least in the actual UK — he was on the show against WALTER in a match taped at Royal Rumble Axxess a few weeks ago), beat Ashton Smith and attacked him post-match, prompting Travis Banks to come out.
In an excellent main event, Tyler Bate defeated James Drake, cementing British Strong Styles’ claim to an NXT UK Tag Team title rematch.
Full rundown —
– The show was opened by NXT UK general manager Johnny Saint and his assistant Sid Scala with an important announcement. They announced that Pete Dunne would be defending his WWE UK title at NXT TakeOver: New York over WrestleMania weekend.
Scala said the question is now who Dunne will defend the title against. But before he could come to that, Dunne came to the ring, grabbed the mic, and just said: “Give me WALTER!” before leaving again.
– Toni Storm was being interviewed backstage about what Jinny had said about her last week. Storm laughed and said that while they were very different, they both really love gold. Storm said she has the NXT UK Women’s Championship — while Jinny only has the kind of gold you can buy in a store.
Storm said that when Jinny is in the ring with her, Jinny actually has to work hard. As Storm went down the stairs, she passed Rhea Ripley and they gave each other the stink-eye. Ripley said she heard what Xia Brookside said about her last week and called her out.
Eddie Dennis pinned Ligero in 9:10 after hitting the Severn Bridge and the Next Stop Driver
They started off strong with Ligero showing some speed on offense, but he got caught when launching himself over the top onto Dennis on the outside. Dennis unceremoniously slammed him on the apron.
From that point, Dennis took over and just beat up Ligero mercilessly, almost knocking him out with a stiff forearm. Ligero managed to get back on his feet and hold onto the ropes, hitting an innovative facebuster onto his thigh from a lucha style counter. This time around, Ligero hit his mark on launching himself over the top rope and hit a nice hurricanrana on Dennis on the outside in the process.
Ligero hit a splash from climbing up onto the ropes in the middle of the ring for a near fall, but he missed a somersault plancha off the top, prompting Dennis to strike him down again. Ligero countered the Next Stop Driver and hit an enzuigiri. Ligero got caught off his springboard DDT off the ropes, but he managed to turn it into a Code Red for another near fall.
Dennis stopped another aerial attack attempt short and hit an impressive deadlift vertical superplex off the middle rope. He followed up with the Severn Bridge and finally hit the Next Stop Driver for the victory.
– Amir Jordan talked to Kenny Williams backstage and they argued about whether they deserved a shot at the Tag Team titles and who would talk to Saint about it. Williams instead prompted him to put in the work in the gym to do a sort of pull-up/push-up on a rack. It ended with Jordan wanting Williams to dance with him, prompting Williams to walk off. So, no idea if they’ll get their title shot or not.
The Hunt (Primate Jay Melrose & Wild Boar Mike Hitchman) defeated Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker in 2:37 after a pounce/backdrop driver combination
Howley and Stoker came out wearing dress shirts, while The Hunt came out wearing boar and gorilla masks respectively and looked like a real killer team right from the get go.
Primate started out with Stoker and hit an overhead suplex before tagging out. Boar threw him around a bit before tagging back out as The Hunt hit a double slam and Primate threw Boar onto Stoker.
Primate had his way with Stoker and the Hunt tagged in and out in quick succession, hitting one innovative move after the other on their opponents. It ended with Boar hitting a pounce on Howley, then throwing him into Primate — who transitioned the momentum into a high-angle back drop driver for the win.
Kassius Ohno pinned Amir Jordan in 4:16 after a ripcord elbow to the back of the head
They bumped fists to start out before Ohno quickly started working the arm and applying wristlocks and hammerlocks on the ground in order to demonstrate his knowledge of the European style.
Jordan tried to slam Ohno but couldn’t get him up. He managed to throw Ohno out of the ring, but got caught with a thigh to the head on a dive attempt. Ohno suplexed him for a near fall, then locked in a submission. Jordan escaped but once more failed on an attempt of a Samoan drop.
Jordan came back with some offense and finally hit the move, but only got a two count off it. Ohno hit a boot to the face and a back senton, then hit the ripcord elbow to the back of the head for the win.
After the match, Ohno talked to Jordan and helped him to his feet. He did Jordan’s raised arm pose and offered his fist for another fist bump, but then quickly hit another spinning elbow, knocking Jordan out again.
Travis Banks came out and briefly had words with Ohno before looking out for Jordan. Ohno tried entering the ring again but got scared off by Banks and finally left.
– Gallus were shown in a pub. Joe Coffey said they need to re-establish dominance again in order to stay on top.
Tyler Bate pinned James Drake in 10:58 after the Spiral Tap
They started out quick — but neither one could get an advantage. Drake worked over the arm, but Bate escaped and hit a standing dropkick. Bate got Drake up for the airplane spin, but Drake escaped after a few rounds and sent Bate to the outside. Drake rammed Bate into the barriers and took over once they were back inside.
Bate eventually came back with a flurry of punches, a standing hurricanrana, and a high-angle back body drop. He hit a knee lift off a reversal, then followed with a flying European uppercut and an exploder suplex. Drake moved out of the way of a standing Shooting Star, but Bate landed on his feet and just hit another one that connected like it was nothing.
Drake managed to pull Bate out of the ring, but he got sent into the dasher boards on a reversal. Drake then hit a front face slam from a tombstone position for a near fall to even the odds again.
They traded roll-up attempts and jackknife covers until Bate connected with his springboard lariat off the ropes. Drake countered out of the Tyler Driver ’97 and hit a running dropkick into the corner for another near fall.
Drake missed a 450 off the top but landed on his feet, only to eat an exploder into the corner. Bate then hit the Spiral Tap off the top for the victory.
– As Bate was celebrating, the cameras went backstage and Scala and Saint confirmed that WALTER would indeed challenge Dunne for the WWE UK title at NXT TakeOver: New York.
Wolfgang pinned Flash Morgan Webster, while Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams were successful against Saxon Huxley & Tyson T-Bone.
Kay Lee Ray made her NXT UK debut and quickly beat Candy Floss. Noam Dar also made his presence on the brand known and got on Mark Andrews’ bad side.
In the main event, WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne & WALTER beat the Coffey Brothers in a very good match that led to a dramatic scene between Dunne and WALTER as the show went off the air.
Full rundown —
– Sid Scala and Johnny Saint entered the arena and were stopped by a reporter asking them what to expect. They said Kay Lee Ray would make her debut and WALTER would team with Pete Dunne to take on the Coffey Brothers. After the opening, a graphic of that match was shown.
Wolfgang pinned Flash Morgan Webster in 5:25 after the Caber Toss
Webster started off strong with quick offense but was stopped once Wolfgang threw him into the turnbuckles and took over. After some minutes of being pummeled, Webster came back with consecutive dives on Wolfgang, including a somersault plancha.
Back in the ring, Webster hit a somersault senton on a crouching Wolfgang. The big Scot tried some sort of aerial attack as well, but an enzuigiri from Webster sent him toppling to ringside.
Webster tried swinging around the post with a kick, but he got caught and slammed to the mats at ringside and powerbombed into the post. After that, Wolfgang hit the Caber Toss for the victory.
That was not enough for Wolfgang, as he shoved the referee aside and attacked Webster some more until he was finally sent out of the ring. He jaw-jacked with a fan before going to the back.
– A graphic announced that we’d hear from Kassius Ohno next.
– A short highlight clip on the Coffey Brothers aired.
– Ohno said that it was mind-blowing that the guy to bring an authentic European style to NXT UK was an American. He said he had rounds matches in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK and stood toe to toe with the likes of William Regal and Robbie Brookside.
Ohno said the current guys grew up on Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and not Marty Jones. He said they’d experience British wrestling at his hands.
Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams defeated Saxon Huxley & Tyson T-Bone in 5:57 after Jordan hit the Swanton Bomb-ay on Huxley
Williams and Huxley started out, and as the bigger man pummeled Williams, he quickly found himself on the lower end of a lucha-style roll-up. The faces briefly dominated both their opponents — until Jordan found himself in the bad guys’ corner and was hit by a hard clothesline by T-Bone on a distraction.
T-Bone worked Jordan over for a few minutes, but Jordan was able to hit an enzuigiri and made the hot tag.
Williams ran wild on both heels, including hitting a bulldog on Huxley into the turnbuckle. Williams and Jordan then hit stereo dives on both men on opposite sides of the ring. Williams took Huxley down and Jordan hit the Swanton Bomb-ay for the win.
– A video on future NXT UK tapings in April, July, and at Download Festival aired.
– Jinny was being interviewed. She said she was sick and tired of hearing Toni Storm’s name. She doesn’t care about Storm — she only cares about the NXT UK Women’s title. She ended the interview and walked off in disgust.
– Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness discussed Jinny’s statement, then transitioned into a video on Eddie Dennis.
– Dennis said he’d face Ligero next week — a man who he respects, but who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’ll be the victim of the “Malevolent Welshman” Eddie Dennis.
Noam Dar promo
Dar walked to the ring for a promo. He said he was back in NXT UK and was here to stay. Dar said he kept an eye on the brand. It has been doing pretty well and it will do better when they take the show to the “most beautiful place in the UK” — Glasgow, Scotland.
Dar mocked the crowd as they started booing. He said the roster had been doing an okay job, but the brand needed him. He said the contract was signed and he was here to stay, unlike other UK wrestlers who went to 205 Live and were sent packing.
Mark Andrews, who was one of the names Dar mentioned as failing on 205 Live, came out and was upset. As Dar was looking to cheap shot him, Andrews attacked him and sent him packing.
– A promo taped at the NXT UK Performance Center with Xia Brookside aired. She said her name had at times made it difficult for her. She said she hated bullies and the biggest bully was Rhea Ripley and she’d not be bullied around anymore.
– A graphic announced Kay Lee Ray’s debut was next.
– A video package on The Wild Boar and Primate aired and promised the hunt would begin next week.
– A short highlight video on Pete Dunne and WALTER aired.
Kay Lee Ray defeated Candy Floss in 2:18 after a Widow’s Peak Slam
Kay Lee Ray started out with arm twists and ringers, then applied a keylock and rammed Candy Floss into the corner. She kept working the arm and had Candy in pain. Candy rolled her up, but she quickly got overwhelmed again.
Kay Lee Ray hit a chop, a crescent kick, and then a Widow’s Peak into a face slam for the quick win.
– Moustache Mountain talked about their progress in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. They called out the Grizzled Young Veterans for their rematch.
– A graphic plugged the main event.
– Sid Scala announced Tyler Bate vs. James Drake as next week’s main event.
WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne & WALTER beat The Coffey Brothers in 16:20 after WALTER powerbombed Mark Coffey for the pin
The Coffeys came out with Wolfgang, while WALTER and Dunne entered separately. Dunne and Mark Coffey started out — and Dunne quickly started working over Mark’s wrist and arm.
Mark tried the same, but Dunne escaped and punished Mark. WALTER asked for a tag and got it, then demonstrated how to properly separate a man from his arm. He brushed off a chop by Mark, who tagged out to his brother.
WALTER escaped from a side headlock, then egged Joe on to try and shoulder block him down. On the third attempt, WALTER swung into the ropes, then quickly applied a Gojira clutch before easily tackling Joe to the mat.
Dunne came in, but WALTER quickly wanted back in and had his way. As the future opponents took turns chopping Joe, they faced off but quickly got attacked again. They hit stereo slams on both Coffeys onto the apron before facing off in the ring again.
WALTER took over on Joe before Dunne came back in again and swiftly hit a dropkick to Joe’s knee. Dunne went for a surfboard, but he settled on driving Joe’s knees down into the mat. A blind tag by Mark led to him hitting a German suplex on a surprised Dunne. Joe rammed WALTER into the barricades on the outside.
The heels took turns working Dunne over in the ring as WALTER slowly got back up on the apron. After a backbreaker by Joe, Mark stomped a fallen Dunne. Dunne briefly recovered to hit a snap German on Mark. Dunne could not make the tag, but he managed to do so seconds later.
WALTER ran wild on both Coffeys, breaking a double clothesline to hit a lariat and a leaping Gojira clutch, a running big boot, a German, and a sit-down splash all in short succession. Joe hit a German on WALTER, but he quickly was slammed to the mat with a huge uranage overhead slam.
Dunne was back in and Joe tried for a step-up back body press, but he got punched out of mid-air by Dunne. Mark hit a Polish Hammer on Dunne, but WALTER blind tagged in and hit a shotgun dropkick, a butterfly suplex, and finally locked in a Boston crab while Dunne hit a plancha on Joe at ringside.
Joe tried chopping WALTER, who didn’t flinch but released the hold and chopped a hole in Joe’s chest. The Coffeys managed to hit a kind of Doomsday Device, prompting Dunne to make the save.
As WALTER had Mark in a Gojira clutch, Joe tried to pull him to safety — but the power of WALTER led to Joe actually getting pulled over the rope into the ring and ending up in a waist lock by his brother. Dunne snapped Joe’s fingers on the top rope and WALTER hit a huge double German suplex on both Coffeys.
As chaos broke out, Joe grabbed the UK title and went to hit Dunne with it but got thwarted. Mark picked up the title and went to hit Dunne with it. Dunne moved as WALTER went for a big boot that hit Mark, who was swiftly powerbombed for the victory.
The announcers speculated on whether WALTER was aiming the boot at Dunne or was actually trying to save him from the attack.
WALTER and Dunne faced off with the UK title on the mat between them. As Dunne went to slowly pick it up, WALTER stepped on it, then picked it up, looked at it for a long time, and finally handed it to Dunne before walking off.
Next week —
Tyler Bate faces James Drake, Eddie Dennis takes on Ligero, and Kassius Ohno aims to teach the NXT UK roster about the proper British style of wrestling.
Day one of the 2019 16 Carat Gold tournament is in the books — and it was a very strong show with very good to great matches.
Fenix vs. Rey Horus, Timothy Thatcher vs. Lucky Kid, Ilja Dragunov vs. Daisuke Sekimoto, and WALTER vs. David Starr all were tremendous in their own ways, while the rest of the matches were not too far behind. The show was a really strong opener on what promises to be a great tournament and a fun weekend of wrestling.
wXw had about 1,300 fans in the main arena of the Turbinenhalle complex, featuring a number of freshly opened balcony areas. For Saturday, there are 1,500 tickets sold and Sunday should have another 1,300+.
The crowd, a mix of German casual and hardcore fans and a rowdy contingent of hardcore fans from the United Kingdom and Ireland, were lively and loud all night and will probably continue to be for the days to come.
Alternate four-way match: Veit Müller defeated Julian Pace, Kyle Fletcher, and Leon van Gasteren after hitting Pace with a DDT
Fun opener with three young and one experienced (van Gasteren) wrestlers. Pace at first overwhelmed everyone with his speed, but he was then quickly ganged up on.
Müller, who is aligned with RINGKAMPF, was the most over guy and was cheered wildly. They did a tower of doom spot and Müller at one point took a Flair bump but got dropkicked to the floor. Pace hit a Code Red on Fletcher for a near fall, then tried to follow up with a BME-style moonsault but got thwarted.
Müller eventually hit the DDT on Pace for the win.
Karsten Beck was brought out as the director of sports with the 16 Carat trophy and everyone paraded into the ring for a picture.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Axel Dieter Jr. defeated Marius al-Ani with a release Landungsbrücken suplex
It was surprising to see Axel Dieter Jr. (Marcel Barthel in NXT/NXT UK) so early in the card. The crowd was into him a lot, but he didn’t get quite the hero’s welcome he got back in December and the pops were still a bit low in the beginning.
They worked a very good match with Dieter hitting a lot of his spots, like a number of variations on a European uppercut, the Landungsbrücken suplex, and the headstand to escape from a headlock.
They did a sick-looking spot where Dieter dove through the ropes into the ring from the apron with a spear, while al-Ani did a scissors kick right into his neck with Dieter taking a brutal-looking bump on his head. Dieter went for the Axel Dieter (senior) special submission. al-Ani rolled out of it, only to be caught in the move right again.
al-Ani tried for a frog splash, but Dieter got his knees up. They traded yay/boo punches and Dieter finally hit a release Landungsbrücken suplex to pick up the victory.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Rey Fenix pinned Rey Horus after a sit-out Muscle Buster
This was a crazy lucha match with lots of insane flips, counters, and flying action. Fenix got to show off his incredible sense of balance pretty much right away, as he jumped from the middle to the top rope and back with ridiculous ease to avoid and counter arm drags.
Horus, not to be outdone, then hit a tornillo arm drag. Seconds later, Horus did a tope con giro over the turnbuckle to the outside. This had the crowd going crazy just minutes into the match.
As Horus missed a move and was sitting on the middle of the rope, Fenix jumped on the top turnbuckle and virtually ran along the top rope with a soccer kick to Horus’ head. Wow. Fenix ate a DDT and a Spanish Fly for a near fall.
Fenix cleared the ropes 619-style on a whip-in and grazed a fan’s head in the process. The fan thankfully took it in stride. Fenix then got the win with a sit-out Muscle Buster.
Amazing match, with some money being thrown into the ring after. BattlArts founder Yuki Ishikawa sat with us in the press section and seemed to have the time of his life watching this.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Shigehiro Irie pinned Chris Brookes after a Beast Bomber
They one-upped one another with playfully adjusting each other’s knee pads early on. Brookes offered a handshake, which Irie accepted, then bowed, which Irie also mirrored, only to be slapped into the back of the head. Irie answered by pouncing Brookes halfway across the ring. Brookes avoided a sit-down splash and came back with a senton on a doubled-over Irie.
Irie escaped a brainbuster attempt, felled the bigger man with a headbutt, and hit the sit-down splash for a near fall. Irie removed his elbow pads and went for a Beast Bomber but got rolled up.
Brookes followed with a slingshot cutter and Praying Mantis Bomb for a near fall, then locked in an Octopus hold, countered into a Death Valley Driver, and followed with a cannonball senton into the corner. Irie then hit a Beast Bomber and picked up the win.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Lucky Kid pinned Timothy Thatcher with a roll-up
An excellent video package on Thatcher aired before the match, where he talked about his upcoming AMBITION match against his mentor (Yuki Ishikawa) and also how much wXw and RINGKAMPF had meant to him over the past few years.
Thatcher said that RINGKAMPF being his family wasn’t just something he said but something he 100 percent meant. Thatcher said he made two very close friends in WALTER and Axel Dieter Jr., something he usually doesn’t do in the wrestling business.
Thatcher said that they made decisions for themselves, as screenshots from Twitter of WALTER joining NXT UK were shown, while he had made decisions for RINGKAMPF. He said that if he met either of his two former RINGKAMPF brethren in the tournament, he wouldn’t hold back.
To accentuate Thatcher’s emancipation from RINGKAMPF, he also no longer came out to Antonín Dvorák’s New World Symphony but rather Lonesome Boatsman by the Dropkick Murphys.
This was a rematch from last year’s tournament — and Thatcher right away showed he was serious about winning as he started to beat the ever-living hell out of Lucky, seemingly also wanting to declare independence from Fight Club: Pro’s Schadenfreude stable in addition to RINGKAMPF.
The crowd adored Thatcher, and while they loved themselves some Lucky, they were firmly behind Thatcher on this one. Lucky early on did his leg-hugging spot, but he got slapped and gut-wrenched halfway across the ring for his trouble. Thatcher manhandled Lucky Kid with a chicken wing, butterfly suplex, and cross armbreaker.
Lucky briefly managed to get some offense in, but missed on a missile dropkick and Thatcher locked in a single-leg Boston crab. Lucky made it out and connected on a second missile dropkick, but he got caught in a Fujiwara armbar. Lucky managed a roll-up out of that position but quickly got beaten down again. Thatcher hit a top rope belly-to-belly and got a cross armbreaker — but Lucky made the ropes.
They traded palm strikes and Lucky managed a small package off a German suplex attempt, then followed up with a roll-up for the upset win.
The crowd briefly was shocked, as was Thatcher, who looked pissed and upset and quickly left the ring, just as Lucky looked shocked at his own victory in the ring. Interesting result, with Thatcher being pushed with that tremendous video package and being considered one of the favorites to win the tournament this year.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round falls count anywhere match: Avalanche defeated Jurn Simmons after a Dreissker Bomb off a balcony barrier onto the ramp
A crazy, brutal brawl that also seemingly served as the blow-off to their feud.
These two had problems starting as far back as last October after Avalanche’s partner Julian Nero got hurt and Simmons and partner in crime, Alexander James, mocked Avalanche. They traded wins in tag matches, as Avalanche tried out a number of partners, then segued into singles matches that left no clear winner, once going to a double countout, then a no contest as Simmons sped away in a car in their latest no countout match.
Simmons hit his massive Boot right out of the bat, but Avalanche no sold it and went for a Boulder Dash for a near fall, all in the opening minute. They brawled right to ringside and Avalanche got suplexed into a row of chairs.
They kept brawling and Simmons suplexed Avalanche into a raised metal stand, which left an Avalanche-sized dent in the metal. They brawled towards the stage and then out of the arena, as footage of the continuing brawl in the bowels of the Turbinenhalle aired on the big screen.
They brawled around a storage area, hitting each other with everything under the sun and trading a number of pinfall attempts on various stacks of stuff. Simmons hit Avalanche with a sheet of metal, then went to choke him out, but Avalanche wouldn’t quit.
Avalanche found some metal steps backstage and leapt off them, but Simmons moved and he crashed into a pile of stuff. Simmons found a kendo stick, as those just lie around backstage at arenas everywhere. They brawled back into the beginning, with Simmons beating down Avalanche with his stick and even snapping it off Avalanche’s back.
They ended up back in the ring, where Simmons had Avalanche down and actually cut a promo on him, telling him he was superior in every way. Simmons said he was about to slay the Monster of a Man, then went for the decapitation-style hit on the back of the neck with the kendo stick, just to have Avalanche come back and wrestle the kendo stick out of Simmons’ hands
They brawled back into the crowd and up the stairs, where Simmons tried to climb over the barrier of a flight of stairs, around ten feet off the ground and the metal ramp they brawled on earlier. Avalanche knocked him off, then climbed the barrier himself and hit a Dreissker Bomb off the barrier onto Simmons on the steel ramp for the pin and the victory.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Pentagon Jr. defeated Mark Davis after a leaping Destroyer
Penta offered a hand shake, but just put the Cero Miedo hand gesture in Davis’ face. On the second attempt, Davis slapped Pentagon’s hand so hard his glove flew off.
A number of punches and leg kicks were ended as Davis hit a sit-down splash on Penta. Davis tried for a superplex but got thrown off and hit with a double foot stomp. Penta went for a piledriver, but it got countered into a Gold Coast Waterslide for a near fall.
Penta hit a springboard backcracker, but the leaping Destroyer got blocked. Davis hit a sliding punch, but Penta then rolled out of a pull-up piledriver and caught Davis’ arm. Penta snapped it, then hit the leaping Destroyer for the win.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: Ilja Dragunov pinned Daisuke Sekimoto after Torpedo Moscow
Holy crap. This was an all-out, hard-hitting war between these two, as was to be expected and they did not disappoint for even a second. Dragunov, at one point, probably tried to set the record for most strikes thrown in a wXw match, as he just blasted Sekimoto with slaps and palm strikes for probably at least 30 seconds straight.
They locked up and Sekimoto went for a cross armbreaker, but it was countered as they fought on the mat. Sekimoto hit the first chop of the match. Dragunov retaliated with a lariat that missed, then ate a uranage backbreaker as he bounced off the ropes and into the ring.
Another chop dropped the mad Russian, followed by a vertical suplex and a Boston crab, which he eventually escaped. They traded brutal chops and forearms, which Dragunov seemed to revel in, asking for more.
Dragunov hit some clotheslines and lariats that sounded as brutal as they looked. He hit a Saito suplex and went for a back senton off the middle of the ropes but missed. Sekimoto then hit a gutwrench and locked in the Sharpshooter, but Dragunov made the ropes.
Sekimoto hit a big splash for another near fall. Dragunov came back with a swiveling lariat, but Sekimoto avoided it and hit a German suplex and a lariat of his own. Sekimoto followed with an enzuigiri that had Dragunov on his knees, but Dragunov got back up and hit a Death Valley Driver into the corner, followed by another back senton for a two count.
Dragunov then finally hit Torpedo Moscow for the win to advance into the next round.
16 Carat Gold tournament first round match: WALTER beat David Starr by referee stoppage with Gojira clutch
This match was preceded by another great video package, chronicling the history of WALTER and Starr and focusing on Starr never being able to beat WALTER before, no matter where in the world they wrestled.
Starr talked about all the things he had accomplished before — but the one thing he failed at every time was beating WALTER. He said he was obsessed with beating him, while clips of WALTER aired where he said Starr was an egomaniac who only thought about himself. Starr picked WALTER to be his first round opponent. Words can hardly do this justice, just watch it yourself if you have around four minutes to spare. Starr was a tremendous promo with great emotional range here.
Starr went to attack WALTER right away before any introductions, but the big Austrian clobbered him with a forearm across the face. Starr was not impressed and kept attacking.
They ended up at ringside and Starr drove WALTER into the post. He then badly crashed and burned on a tope as WALTER sidestepped and Starr flew full speed into the first few rows of chairs in a crash that looked horrifying.
Starr was okay to continue and quickly found himself locked in a Boston crab back in the ring. As Starr escaped that, he was hit with a uranage slam for a near fall. WALTER went to the top, but Starr was right there with him and hit a belly-to-belly off the top.
They traded more strikes, then Starr leapt on WALTER’s back and tried to apply the big man’s own sleeper hold. As WALTER went to reach for the ropes, Starr slapped his hands away and hit a German suplex, which is a sequence WALTER usually does in many of his matches.
They went back and forth for a few minutes and WALTER had Starr down on is knees in the corner, when Starr, whose mouth was bloodied up by that point, defiantly spat a gob of blood on WALTER’s chest in a great and disturbing visual. WALTER rubbed the blood off, then proceeded to slap Starr and lock in a sleeper of his own.
Starr got out but was immediately hit with a shotgun dropkick. Starr used a rana to get out of a powerbomb attempt and followed with Han Stansen for near fall. Starr tried lariat after lariat but got chopped down with hard blows to the chest. He managed to hit a Blackheart Buster for a near fall.
Starr hit a superkick, then hit the Product Placement for another close near fall that had the fans at the edges of their seats. Starr hit a number of forearms and WALTER actually begged off, but it was a con as he quickly hit a quick powerbomb and got the Gojira clutch as the crowd started booing.
Starr escaped and tried his own sleeper, but WALTER scaled the turnbuckles and fell back, breaking the hold. Starr, like a terrier, quickly locked in his own Gojira clutch again, then as WALTER escaped, hit a lariat to the back of the head, a German suplex, and another sleeper.
WALTER was down and the hold was locked in tight as the crowd roared for him to tap and Starr to finally beat him. WALTER eventually tapped, getting Starr to release the hold, but before that he had smartly positioned his foot under the rope — which he quickly pointed out to the referee, so the match continued.
As Starr argued with the referee, WALTER snuck in and locked in another tight Gojira clutch, trapped Starr’s arm, sank in the hooks with a bodyscissor, and finally sent Starr to sleep as the referee checked his arm and Starr could not keep it up.
The crowd booed as WALTER celebrated, even snatching a RINGKAMPF scarf from a fan, posing with it on the ramp, then throwing it back into the crowd. Starr looked devastated as he slowly slunk down the ramp and to the back.
Interesting booking here, with both Thatcher and Starr not being able to fulfill their quests or even make it out of round one. As wXw usually are very good at telling stories, it will be intriguing to see where things go from here for those two for the rest of the weekend and the upcoming weeks and months.
Other events —
wXw Inner Circle 8 at the wXw Academy (March 7, 2019) — Attendance: 170 (sold out)
– David Starr defeated Jay Skillet in 7:27 after a powerbreaker
– Chris Brookes defeated Francis Kaspin, Julian Pace, and Avalanche in 5:45 after an underhook piledriver on Kaspin
Avalanche wore a plain black singlet as a tribute to King Kong Bundy here.
– Jurn Simmons defeated Kyle Fletcher in 9:05 after a low blow and a piledriver
– Ilja Dragunov defeated Mark Davis in 12:06 after Torpedo Moscow
Super hard-hitting match.
– Killer Kelly defeated Yuu in 7:55 after Carnation Revolution
– RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) defeated Yuki Ishikawa & Shigehiro Irie in 24:43 when Thatcher submitted Irie in a Fujiwara armbar
This was an amazing match, especially if you enjoy submission-based strong-style matches. Thatcher and Ishikawa meet again on Saturday in the AMBITION super fight, in a UWF-style match.
16 Carat Bowled — Oberhausen Open II (March 8, 2019)
This was a fun bowling tournament taking place after the action of day one, featuring fans and a big number of current and former wrestlers and wXw officials, officially endorsed by wXw and organized by the two Sarahs of the similarly named podcast.
PROGRESS Wrestling is unifying their men’s division singles titles.
It was announced today that PROGRESS World Champion WALTER will face Atlas Division Champion Trent Seven in a unification match at Alexandra Palace in London, England on Sunday, May 5. That’s the second day of PROGRESS’ Super Strong Style 16 tournament.
WALTER has been World Champion since winning the title from Travis Banks in July 2018, while Seven has held the Atlas title since defeating Doug Williams in September. The Atlas Championship was introduced in 2016 as a title for wrestlers over 205 pounds.
This year’s Super Strong Style 16 is taking place at Alexandra Palace from May 4-6. Travis Banks, Ilja Dragunov, and Trevor Lee have already been confirmed for the tournament, with the winner receiving a future title shot.
WALTER, Seven, Banks, and Dragunov are part of the NXT UK roster, while Lee reported to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida earlier this month.
Taped January 25-27 at Royal Rumble Axxess at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona
Quick rundown —
Jack Gallagher beat Tyler Bate, Grizzled Young Veterans defended their NXT UK tag team titles, beating Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch and WALTER beat Kassius Ohno.
Full results —
The show opened right with out first match, Tyler Bate vs. Jack Gallagher, making his NXT UK debut.
Tyler Bate pinned “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher in 9:46 after a roll-up
They had a great scientific babyface match with lots submissions and mat wrestling.
Bate applied a wrist lock right away but Gallagher managed to escape and took Bate down for a one-count. They went into mat-wrestling with submissions and counters withing the first minute and Gallagher gave Bate some trouble with a leg vice which Bate eventually escaped from. Gallagher showed his submission prowess and training under Billy Robinson with some unique submission attempts that had Bate cringing on the mat.
Gallagher kept working on Bate’s knees and ankles and Bate didn’t really have an answer to being tied into a pretzel at will at that point and even was slightly limping after continued submissions. Bate eventually came back with an arm lever extension and went for an airplane spin, but Gallagher quickly escaped and locked in another submission until Bate managed to reach the ropes. They ended up in round-and-round roll-ups that had both men and the referee dizzy until Bate finally managed to pick up the win with a surprise roll-up.
We saw a training session at the NXT UK Performance Center where Robbie Brookside ran some drills involving a few wrestlers, including Travis Banks. Jordan Devlin suddenly appeared, pulling Banks off the apron and attacked him on the outside until Brookside and the other wrestlers broke it up.
We took a short look at WALTER’s dominance in NXT UK.
A video hyping the “Nina Samuels” show aired.
Eddie Dennis cut a promo at the NXT UK Performance Center and said that people wondered what happened to him after losing to Dave Mastiff at TakeOver. He said when he retuirns, he would take down the roster one by one.
WALTER pinned Kassius Ohno in 8:37 after a power bomb
These two faced off in wXw (at a 16 Carat Gold tournament final no less), PROGRESS and even WWE at WrestleMania weekend last year.
They went for a test of strenght right away and WALTER showed his dominance early. Ohno took a swing but looked concerned right away, He applied a head lock but WALTER easily escaped and started working over Ohno’s arm.Ohno foolishly chopped WALTER who just looked at him, then smashed his big frame into the American, sending him crashing to the mat. He hit a big boot, sending Ohno to ringside. They traded forearms on the outside until WALTER picked him up and smashed him onto the apron.
Ohno went back in the ring and as WALTER tried to pull him back outside, he stomped on the Austrian’s head and hit a senton on his arm. Ohno applied a cravat and forced the big man to his knees, but WALTER eventually body slammed his way out of the hold. They traded forearms, chops and slaps. Ohno managed to weigh WALTER down on a German suplex attempt but caught a chop to the back for his troubles and then got German suplexed like he deserved to be.
Ohno managed to roll through on a sleeper hold for a two-count. Ohno went up for a moonsault but WALTER rolled out of the way. WALTER then hit a Shotgun dropkick and the power bomb for the victory.
Ligero was shown at the NXT UK Performance Center and replied to Joseph Conners comments from last week. A match between the two was announced for next week.
After their brawl that was shown earlier, a Falls Count Anywhere match between Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks also was announced for next week.
Grizzled Young Veterans beat Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in 13:09 when Dann Burch was pinned after Ticket to Mayhem
Lorcan and Drake started out and Drake worked Lorcan’s arm right away. Oney escaped and made the tag, with Burch taking over until Gibson blind-tagged in and the champs took over, with Gibson first slamming Burch and then slamming his own partner on top of him. Lorcan came back in on a hot tag and ran wild for a bit, until Drake put a thumb into his eye and the heels proceeded to beat Lorcan down on the outside.
Back inside, Gibson applied his kneeling cobra clutch and tagged Drake, who knocked Oney down with a stiff forearm, then applied a nerve hold. The champs quickly tagged in and out and isolated Lorcan for a few minutes, until Oney finally manged to thwart his opponents and make the hot tag to Danny Burch. He ran wild, then hit consecutive German suplexes on both Grizzled Young Veterans, followed by a flying dropkick on Gibson and a power bomb on Drake for a near fall.
Drake managed to escape a cutter attempt off the ropes, allowing the champs to take over. Gibson hit Ticket to Ride on Burch, but the British veteran managed to kick out. Gibson had Burch on his shoulders but he escaped, hit head butts on both opponents and tagged Lorcan. The faces hit a Doomsday Device for another near fall that was broken up, when Gibson back body dropped Lorcan onto Burch. Lorcan and Gibson faced off, with each having an opponent in a submission and started trading strikes. Lorcan ran wild, hitting a crazy somersault plancha on both opponents. Lorcan and Burch hit a double high angle DDT on Drake for a very close near fall.
Drake rolled up Burch with his feet on the ropes and Gibson holding him down from the outside but Burch still managaged to kick out. The Grizzled Young Veterans then finally hit Ticket to Mayhem on Burch for the win and a successful title defense.
Next week:
Jordan Devlin meets Travis Banks in a falls count anywhere match and Ligero faces Joseph Conners in a rematch from a few weeks ago.
– The excellent Crooked Gentlemen hype video for Jordan Devlin vs. David Starr played on the big screen before the show. Most fans thought that was just OTT playing it to get ready for the show — but in a big surprise, it was the opener.
– Jordan Devlin defeated David Starr
Incredible match and atmosphere. Starr entered to “We Belong” by Pat Benatar, which was the song he and Devlin came out to as a tag team when they first faced WALTER in OTT.
They brawled all over the building before moving on to a great physical contest with believable levels of hatred. They did each other’s moves and had very close near falls before Devlin won with two big package piledrivers, booking his spot in the main event of ScrapperMania V on March 16 against WALTER for the OTT World Championship.
– Ilja Dragunov defeated Shigehiro Irie
Great bruising contest with both men landing heavy blows. The fans were largely behind Dragunov, but there was some support for Irie as well. Dragunov ducked Irie’s Beast Bomber and landed Torpedo Moscow for the win.
– PAC defeated OTT World Champion WALTER by DQ in a non-title match
PAC played babyface here as WALTER came out disrespecting the OTT World title belt, throwing it around and stepping on it. At one point, PAC landed badly on a dive and dislocated a finger, but he snapped it back into place and carried on.
WALTER went to use the belt, the referee caught him, and PAC low blowed WALTER. PAC went for the Black Arrow, but WALTER rolled out of the ring, then shoved the referee to get disqualified.
Devlin stopped WALTER from leaving, hitting him with a slingshot cutter and allowing PAC to hit the Black Arrow. Devlin then stood over WALTER raising the title to set up the ScrapperMania V main event.
– Charlie Sterling & The Anti-Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr.) defeated More Than Hype (Darren Kearney, LJ Cleary & Nathan Martin)
Fun cool-down match with a good level of comedy and decent action. Sterling stole the win with a jackknife pin on Kearney with his feet on the ropes.
– OTT Gender Neutral Champion Mark Haskins defeated Andrew Everett and Terry Thatcher to retain his title
Good three-way match, with the fans solidly behind the local star Thatcher. Everett is now doing a gimmick where he believes he’s a giant. Thatcher hit his finisher on Everett, but Haskins threw him off and stole the pin to retain the title.
– Scotty Davis & Will Ospreay defeated The Besties In The World (Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett)
A showcase for Davis, who is a protege of Ospreay, though all four men delivered here. Vega suffered a knock mid match, but he carried on.
Davis got the pin, then Ospreay revealed that he was supposed to wrestle Davis at ScrapperMania V, but he was required by New Japan for the date — so Davis will now wrestle Jushin Thunder Liger. That’s a huge deal as Davis is only 18 years old and is talented well beyond his age.
– Justy & MJF defeated The Angel Cruzers (Angel Cruz & B. Cool)
MJF made a reference to the Irish Potato Famine during his entrance, which drew tremendous heat. The Angel Cruzers had the match won when their young boys Team PRICK (Peter and Rick) turned against them and joined forces with Justy, leading to him and MJF winning.
– OTT Women’s Champion Raven Creed defeated Yuu to retain her title
This was sadly the low point of the card, as they didn’t really click with each other. Yuu showed some good judo skills, but Creed won in just a few minutes to retain the title.
– Intermission was taken here to set up the steel cage, which only took a few minutes. They held a raffle to benefit the recovery of former Women’s Champion Katey Harvey, who broke both her elbows last month.
– OTT Tag Team Champions The Kings of the North (Bonesaw & Damien Corvin) defeated The Lads From the Flats (Paddy M & Workie) & Session Moth Martina in a steel cage match to retain their titles
This was War Games-style entry, but Dragon Gate-style elimination — as all members had to escape the cage to win the match. Paddy M was great flying all over the cage.
It came down to Corvin and Martina remaining in the cage. Lots of weapons were used, and both of them ended up in thumbtacks, with Martina putting in a great performance to show that she’s more than just a comedy wrestler.
They attempted to leave the cage at the same time, but Paddy M and Bonesaw were brawling outside and knocked the referee into the door, slamming it in Martina’s head. That allowed Corvin to climb to the outside to retain the titles for the Kings.
Taped January 13, 2018 at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England
Quick results —
Ligero defeated Mark Andrews in a very good, fast-paced match with lots of cool spots. Xia Brookside managed to overcome Candy Floss, but both were attacked by a frustrated Rhea Ripley after the match. Toni Storm tried to make the save, but eventually succumbed to Riptide, just weeks before her scheduled title match against Ripley.
Joseph Conners defeated “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman, while Joe Coffey managed to beat Ashton Smith. In the main event, WALTER beat Mark Coffey, further establishing his iron grip on NXT UK.
Full rundown —
– A graphic announced our main event of WALTER vs. Mark Coffey.
Ligero pinned Mark Andrews in 9:04 after C4L
They shook hands to hit things off and immediately battled for position. Both managed to evade each other for a series of moves, then had a roll-up battle but ended up fist-bumping.
Andrews hit a hurricanrana from the turnbuckle for a two count. In a cool spot, Ligero did a headstand on the apron, then hit a headscissors on Andrews, but he cartwheeled out. Ligero finally hit a somersault plancha from the barricade on the outside.
After some more back and forth, Andrews hit Stomp 182 and a standing corkscrew moonsault for another near fall. Ligero came back with a number of kicks, but Andrews turned a brainbuster attempt into the Stundog Millionaire.
After another dive by Andrews, Ligero came back with a pumphandle stomach buster for another close near fall. Andrews managed to roll through on a top rope hurricanrana attempt, then hit a reverse rana but jumped right into Ligero’s knees on a Shooting Star. Ligero hit C4L for the victory. They shook hands once more after the match.
– A recap from last week’s announcement aired, where Sid Scala announced the Grizzled Young Vets defending their UK Tag Team titles against Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. We went across the big pond to get the reactions of Lorcan & Burch, who vowed to make the Vets’ title defense their last.
– A graphic said Xia Brookside would be in action next.
– Radzi Chinyanganya interviewed Pete Dunne as he entered the arena. Dunne said he was impressed by WALTER and would eventually meet him in the ring. He said that he did not fear WALTER and WALTER would find out why Dunne has been WWE United Kingdom Champion for more than 600 days.
Xia Brookside pinned Candy Floss in 4:31 after hitting the Brooksie Bomb
A battle of the youngest members of the NXT UK women’s roster also was one of pink vs. blue hair. Both wrestlers shook hands early on and smiled before Brookside took over right away with a headlock, but Candy Floss locked in a headscissors. Brookside managed to escape from it via headstand — before Candy Floss got another roll-up attempt.
Candy Floss eventually locked in a full nelson that gave Brookside some trouble before she escaped. Brookside eventually got on a wristlock that Candy Floss took some time to shake off. Candy Floss worked over Brookside’s arm, but Brookside came back with a bulldog, a headscissors takedown, and knees to the back of the head.
Brookside then hit the Brooksie Bomb, her version of her father’s Iconoclasm, for the win.
As Brookside went to help Candy Floss back to her feet, Rhea Ripley ran in and attacked both women, then locked Brookside in her reverse cloverleaf and started spinning her around until Toni Storm ran in for the save.
Just as Storm was gaining the upper hand, Ripley hit a headbutt. Ripley slammed Brookside head-first into Storm and hit Riptide on Storm, gaining some important psychological advantage for their upcoming title match.
– A video for the NXT UK tapings on February 22 and 23 aired.
– We saw a selfie video by Jordan Devlin. He vowed to defeat Noam Dar in Phoenix.
Joseph Conners pinned “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman in 5:28 after hitting Don’t Look Down
Conners immediately beat down the Wild Boar with stomps and kicks, but Hitchman came back with punches of his own before throwing Conners around the ring and hitting a senton as he was getting up on all four.
Hitchman went to the top, but Conners grabbed his arm and hit a sort of rope-assisted codebreaker on it. He beat on the Boar at ringside. Boar caught Conners leg off a kick, managed to drape him on the ropes, and hit a senton.
Hitchman threw Conners to ringside, then followed up with a splash off the apron. He missed a spear to the corner, prompting Conners to launch himself over the top rope with a DDT for a near fall. Conners hit a sunset bomb off the top rope, then another one into the corner, and hit Don’t Look Down for the win.
– Gallus were shown sparring backstage. Joe Coffey said he’d dispose of Ashton Smith and Mark Coffey would beat WALTER. We’ll see about that.
– A highlight video of Jinny aired. Radzi interviewed her backstage — but she first reprimanded him about his face and told him to get better wardrobe to distract from it. She congratulated Toni Storm but said Storm was the one person to always get in her way and stop her from getting to the top.
Jinny said the real queen of NXT UK would be crowned soon. A match of Jinny meeting Mia Yim in Phoenix was announced.
Joe Coffey pinned Ashton Smith in 6:17 after hitting a discus lariat
Coffey immediately tried hitting a flurry, but Smith danced away and got a headlock on. Coffey threw him off and pounced him halfway across the ring to the outside. He then charged into Smith on the outside, sending him into the barricade.
Coffey locked in a hold that he eventually transitioned into a Cobra Clutch. Coffey worked over Smith’s lower back and kept screaming “still mine” throughout the match, referring to “the Kingdom of NXT UK”. He hit a number of uppercuts, followed by a pop-up uppercut that put Smith down.
Smith briefly came back with shots and targeted Coffey’s injured eye, but Coffey hit his discus lariat for the win.
– Wolfgang and Mark Coffey came back out to celebrate with Joe on the ramp, which immediately led to Mark walking to the ring for his match
WALTER pinned Mark Coffey in 6:31 after hitting a powerbomb
WALTER stared at Coffey, who could not help but look worried at what the big men was going to do to him. He got a few shots in, then WALTER took the first step in making his chest bleed with a hard chop. He bent Coffey backwards over the top and pounded on his chest.
Coffey briefly beat on WALTER outside and hit a few more strikes before finally bending WALTER’s arms back for a submission. Coffey kicked him in the back before planting a knee in his spine. WALTER used his dominant strength to turn the move around, prompting Coffey to cowardly flee into the ropes.
Coffey tried to whip WALTER out of the corner, but WALTER denied that foolishness. Coffey then tried a few lariats, but WALTER just shook them off. WALTER canceled Coffey’s final shot, hit a standing release German suplex, and took the Scot’s head off with a running boot into the corner.
WALTER bent Coffey backwards over the top rope as he chopped Coffey and nonchalantly stood on his face on the top. As Coffey tumbled outside, WALTER followed and slammed him into the apron.
Coffey briefly came back with a few lariats and an enzuigiri and even managed to cover WALTER for a pinning attempt. The Austrian then came back with a shotgun dropkick, followed by a big powerbomb for the inevitable victory.
Next week —
A number of matches taped during Royal Rumble Axxess in Phoenix will air.
Taped January 13, 2018 at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England
Quick results —
In the main event, Moustache Mountain took their first step back at redemption after their TakeOver loss to the Grizzled Young Veterans, beating Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel in a great match.
WALTER also made his debut, impressively squashing Jack Starz. In other matches, Dave Mastiff beat Jay Melrose and Jinny defeated Kasey Owens.
Zack Gibson and James Drake cut a promo on their Tag Team title victory and were told by Sid Scala that they would face Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch soon. WWE also built up the NXT UK talent at Royal Rumble Axxess, with Rhea Ripley getting a rematch against NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm in Phoenix.
Full rundown —
The show opened with a video hyping the debut of WALTER, showing clips of him coming out at the end of NXT UK TakeOver along with a number of tweets from people being excited about it.
“Bomber” Dave Mastiff pinned “Primate” Jay Melrose in 5:00 after hitting his running cannonball senton into the corner
They locked up a number of times with neither man getting the upper hand. Melrose tried shoulder blocking Mastiff, but the Bomber didn’t budge and went on to wipe Primate out with a running crossbody.
Melrose came back with kicks, strikes, and headbutts that put the big man down. He worked for a double wristlock, but Mastiff mostly managed to block it. Mastiff eventually hit two big sentons on him, then hit a deadlift German suplex and the running cannonball senton into the corner for the win.
– Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness talked about the NXT UK Tag Team titles and we saw clips from Zack Gibson & James Drake winning the titles at TakeOver. A graphic announced the team would celebrate their victory next.
– A highlight video on Xia Brookside aired. She returns to action next week
– James Drake and Zack Gibson came out for their championship celebration. Gibson said that while every other team was brainstorming for a nickname, they were focused. As Moustache Mountain got shiny new pants, they were focused on their goal — and that’s why they are the NXT UK Tag Team Champions.
For the first time, Gibson referred to their team as the Grizzled Young Veterans and said soon the titles would be considered the most important ones in WWE. Sid Scala came out and mentioned that NXT UK would travel to Phoenix and announced that Gibson & Drake would defend their titles against Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch “soon.”
– A graphic announced that the debut of WALTER, who McGuinness called the “Austrian Anomaly,” would air next. I will of course continue to properly and respectfully address my fellow countryman as the “Ring General.” Sure, he may hail from Simmering, but that is no reason to call him an anomaly.
– Ligero vs. Mark Andrews was announced for next week.
WALTER pinned Jack Starz in 2:35 after a powerbomb
WALTER, 31, was born in Vienna, Austria, and after spending a few years playing soccer, he started training in 2005 under Michael Kovac.
After having his first few matches with Austria’s Rings of Europe, he made his wXw debut in 2007 and also embarked on a tour/dojo training stay with Japan’s ZERO1, training under Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Tomohiro Ishii and wrestling as the masked mascot Gha-cha-ping.
WALTER quickly became a regular and household name in wXw under the name of Big van Walter, winning the 2010 16 Carat Gold tournament and going on to become a three-time wXw World Unified Wrestling Champion and three-time wXw Tag Team Champion. He also became the head trainer at the wXw Wrestling Academy when they opened their doors in 2015 and became the only full-time employed wrestler for a promotion in Europe at the time.
He wrestled mostly in Germany until 2016, when he first started going to the United Kingdom and working for promotions such as PROGRESS and RevPro. In 2017, he started appearing in the United States for promotions such as PWG and EVOLVE, eventually winning the PWG, PROGRESS, and OTT World titles, as well as the PROGRESS Atlas title twice.
WALTER is considered one of the best big-man and overall indie workers of the past few years and eventually signed with WWE, on the stipulation that he would not have to move to the U.S. permanently.
WALTER majestically strode to the ring and gracefully hit his Ring General pose amid “WALTER’s gonna kill you” chants. Starz tried attacking WALTER, who merely brushed off the smaller man’s laughable offense, then proceeded to carve his chest in with a mighty chop. WALTER pursued his victim to ringside, picked him up for a back suplex, and smashed him onto the apron.
Being a fair and graceful beast, WALTER signaled to Starz that he may now stand back up and properly face the behemoth. As Starz failed to comply, WALTER started kicking at him for encouragement.
WALTER hit a knee, and as Starz cowardly tried to flee beneath the Ring General’s legs, the big man, quick and graceful as a cat, caught his prey, drove him hard into the corner, numbed him with a big Shotgun dropkick, and mercifully ended the affair by hitting a picture-perfect powerbomb for the victory.
After witnessing the mayhem in the ring, McGuinness then smartly proclaimed that he never wished to wrestle again, correctly assuming that the greatness that is WALTER would pound him into submission. I already feel a great deal of compassion for anyone foolish enough to cross the Ring General’s path.
– A video of Jinny beating Isla Dawn two weeks ago aired.
– A video taped during the break showed WALTER going backstage and Mark Coffey foolishly trying to confront him. Just as WALTER looked to consider the proper way to separate the Scot’s head from his shoulders, Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner walked up.
Barthel, in German, said that “it took a long time.” He continued in English that if WALTER was ever looking for friends on the brand, they would be here. WALTER just stared at his RINGKAMPF brother and walked away, probably deeming it unfair to form the most powerful faction in NXT UK just yet.
Jinny pinned Kasey Owens in 5:09 after hitting the Makeover
Owens, who is from Ireland, made her debut in 2010 after training under Bonesaw McGraw. She started out in her native Ireland and wrestled for promotions such as Pro Wrestling: EVE, ICW, and Southside Wrestling Entertainment. She also embarked on tours of Japan, working for Ice Ribbon in 2013 and for Stardom in 2016.
Jinny applied an armbar and drove her nails into the skin on Owens’ arm. Jinny kept the pressure on with a headlock and a running shoulder block. Jinny turned a bodyscissors by Owens into a heel lock, but Owens made the ropes.
Jinny hit a flying headscissors, then rammed Owens into the barricade on the outside. Owens came back and applied an armbar over the ropes, holding on until the count of four. Jinny then quickly came back with the Makeover for the pin.
– Rhea Ripley stormed into Johnny Saint’s office and demanded a match in Phoenix, proclaiming herself the best of both brands and demanding a rematch with Toni Storm. Saint asked her for a moment.
Shortly after, the match was announced to take place in three weeks, when matches from Phoenix will start airing on NXT UK.
– In a tweet by Saint, next week’s main event was announced as WALTER taking on Mark Coffey. I already pity the fool.
Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) defeated Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel in 13:08 when Seven pinned Barthel after a snap dragon suplex/springboard lariat combo
Bate and Barthel started out with mat-based grappling, with Bate eventually walking out of a headlock backwards on his hands. Bate continued to use creative escapes on a spinning toe hold as Aichner shouted advice from his corner in German. Aichner and Seven both tagged in.
Aichner used his power to gain some momentum — but it did not last long, as Bate tagged back in and hit his assisted somersault senton. Barthel was back in with Bate, but Aichner quickly blind tagged himself back in, launched Bate high into the air, caught him again, and sent him crashing to the mat with a twisting slam. The heels worked Bate over, with Barthel hitting a running European uppercut and then isolating Bate in the corner.
Bate finally managed to impressively power out of a bodyscissors, picking Aichner up in the process and slamming him to the mat. He finally managed to make a hot tag to Seven who ran wild with a DDT, snap dragon suplex, and Falcon Arrow for a near fall on Barthel.
Aichner was back in but was quickly overwhelmed. As Moustache Mountain tried for their snap dragon/lariat combo, Barthel kicked Bate in the head as he went for his springboard lariat. In the melee that followed, Bate hit a big dive on Barthel onto the outside while Seven hit the Seven Star Lariat on Aichner for a near fall.
The heels came back with a spinebuster by Aichner on Seven, followed by a running kick by Barthel for another near fall.
Barthel managed to grind Bate’s offense to a halt, throwing him off the ropes right into a brainbuster by Aichner, but Seven narrowly managed to make the save. After thwarting an attack from Aichner and Barthel, Bate hit a double rolling kick against both. Seven and Bate then managed to hit their snap dragon/springboard lariat combo on Barthel for the win.
Next week —
WALTER battles Mark Coffey in the main event, while Ligero faces Mark Andrews and Xia Brookside will be in action.
NXT UK followed up on TakeOver with a set of television tapings at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England on Sunday.
– There wasn’t much storyline development on the tapings and no backstage vignettes or promos were shown. There were some very good matches, and WALTER was over huge as one of the biggest babyfaces on the roster. He is being positioned as a babyface even though he’s stoic and no sells tons.
– Dark match: Luke Menzies defeated Flash Morgan Webster
Menzies was a heel, billed from Yorkshire, wore a flat cap, and brandished a wooden baton. He was super green and won with a powerslam.
First episode —
– WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne started the tapings with an in-ring promo. Gallus came out to confront him, with Joe Coffey claiming Dunne’s win at TakeOver was a fluke. WALTER came out to a huge reaction and all the fans sang his theme music. After a brief scuffle, WALTER cleared the ring of Mark Coffey while Dunne disposed of Wolfgang.
– Nina Samuels defeated Lana Austin
Samuels won with an Attitude Adjustment. They had a decent match. Austin got a big pop, as she’s a long-time wrestler based in the northwest and most in attendance knew of her.
– Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan defeated Tyson T-Bone & Saxon Huxley
Jordan hit a Swanton Bomb on Huxley for the win.
– Eddie Dennis defeated Jamie Ahmed
– Travis Banks vs. Jordan Devlin ended in a double countout
This was a great match until the finish. Devlin hit a Spanish fly on Banks off the apron to the floor, and again in the ring, which Banks kicked out of. After both tumbled to the outside, they were counted out. They then began brawling into the crowd before officials split them up.
Second episode —
– Dave Mastiff defeated Primate Jay Melrose
Mastiff won it with a cannonball in the corner.
– NXT UK Tag Team Champions Zack Gibson & James Drake came out for an in-ring promo. Gibson called their team the “Grizzled Young Veterans” on NXT UK TV for the first time.
Sid Scala came out and said he was searching the world for the best tag team competition for them. Scala mentioned that NXT UK would soon be taping TV in Phoenix, Arizona (at Royal Rumble Axxess in two weeks time) and that Gibson & Drake would soon face Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in a match billed as “NXT vs. NXT UK.”
– WALTER defeated Jack Starz
WALTER destroyed Starz in a perfect squash match. He gave Starz a slam on the apron, tons of chops, and used a powerbomb finisher. There were huge fan reactions to his squash debut win.
– Jinny defeated Kasey Owens
– Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) defeated The European Union (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel)
Very good match between two great tag teams. It went about 12 minutes. Aichner & Barthel are fantastic as a pairing and worked so well together on various double-team moves.
Third episode —
– Ligero defeated Mark Andrews
Ligero scored the win with a jumping DDT off the second rope. That came after Andrews had used a top rope Shooting Star Press, only to land on Ligero’s raised knees. A very good babyface vs. babyface, athletic high spots match. They shook hands afterwards.
– Xia Brookside defeated Candy Floss
This was a battle of two 19-year-old babyfaces. Both are really talented and have big futures, especially Brookside.
After the match, Rhea Ripley ran in and destroyed both, including putting Brookside in a swinging Indian Deathlock. NXT Women’s Champion Toni Storm ran in for the save, but she accidentally headbutted Brookside after Ripley threw Brookside into her path. Ripley then gave Storm a pumphandle slam and left her laying.
– Joseph Conners defeated Wild Boar Mike HItchman
– Joe Coffey defeated Ashton Smith
Coffey won with a suplex. Decent match.
– WALTER defeated Mark Coffey
Super stiff match. They exchanged stiff as hell punches and chops, but WALTER largely no sold everything. WALTER won with a powerbomb.
The crowd was very lively and reacted well throughout the tapings, although they were noticeably tired for the final hour after two straight days at the Empress Ballroom.
WALTER made his WWE debut and confronted Pete Dunne to close NXT UK’s first TakeOver special.
After defeating Joe Coffey to retain the WWE United Kingdom Championship in the main event of NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool, Dunne was in the ring celebrating as the show appeared to be going off the air. But WALTER appeared in an angle at the end of the show, coming out to his regular theme music (Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9). On commentary, Nigel McGuinness hyped that WALTER was here.
WALTER entered the ring to have a staredown with Dunne. Coffey got up from selling on the floor, tried to come into the ring, and WALTER booted him back down. WALTER and Dunne both posed at each other, with them going face-to-face and WALTER saying something to Dunne before leaving the ring.
It was confirmed this past November that WALTER had signed with WWE and would be coming to NXT UK. The 31-year-old Austrian is a star for wXw in Germany and is the current World Champion in PROGRESS Wrestling and OTT. He also held the PWG World title before dropping it in October.
A few words on wXw’s history and current situation with WWE —
On December 24, 2000, wXw Extreme Wrestling Party, a minor independent wrestling show took place at the Roxy in Essen, Germany, a dingy club in the middle of nowhere in the industrial Ruhr area.
While most of the participants on that show have long since drifted into obscurity, two names still stand out today: a young Swiss wrestler — calling himself “Double C” — made his pro wrestling debut in that show’s opening match just three days shy of his 20th birthday and would go on to become known as Cesaro in WWE.
The referee that night, Tassilo Jung, would — along with a few other people — go on to buy the promotion from its founder, HATE (Peter Wichers), become its acting managing director, and help transform it from an ECW ripoff featuring a number of backyard wrestlers into the leading independent promotion in mainland Europe.
As the promotion celebrates its coming of age 18 years later, it is at a crossroads: it is home to WALTER (Walter Hahn), arguably the best wrestler to come out of mainland Europe in the past 30+ years, if not ever, and the only wrestler currently a full-time employee for a promotion in Germany. Walter is the head trainer at their own wXw Academy and an international darling of the independent wrestling scene.
wXw employs a small number of people who give it their all on a regular basis to run a full-time touring promotion, a streaming service, a wrestling school, and a full merchandising department, along with doing press work, sending out tickets, and editing a number of live events and other shows for said network. It promotes some of the best shows in mainland Europe and runs 16 Carat Gold, one of the top tournaments with some of the best talent in the world.
And, a few months ago, wXw started a partnership with WWE. As WWE goes on to focus more on Europe, starting with the UK where they have similar deals with PROGRESS and ICW, their embrace might well turn into a stranglehold.
WALTER has since signed a deal with WWE, albeit only for their NXT UK (and probably NXT Europe, if it ever comes to that) brand, following in the footsteps of fellow wXw alumni Axel Tischer (Alexander Wolfe), Tommy End (Aleister Black), and Axel Dieter Jr. (Marcel Barthel). As WWE recently ran a multi-day tryout camp in Cologne, Germany, a number of others, such as hard-hitting Ilja Dragunov or big-man Jurn Simmons may follow.
wXw also toned down some of their other engagements, such as direct ticket sales and running a merchandising department and online shop, relying more on outside partners for such tasks and stating a medical burnout of managing director Christian Jakobi as the main reason for these steps, as manpower gets stretched even thinner with the boss out of commission for the time being.
wXw has also spun out their video library into another company, giving longtime supporters and employees the chance to buy into this new company. While this was mostly explained as a strategic business decision, it also means that there might be a nice cash-out opportunity for those proprietors if the library ever got sold (presumably to WWE).
And people are starting to ask how big events such as 16 Carat Gold or the annual World Tag Team League may transform in 2019 and beyond, as WWE starts implementing policies such as wrestlers under contract to NXT UK no longer being allowed to be shown on streaming or DVD releases and also not being permitted to wrestle people under contract with other promotions, such as Ring of Honor, Impact, or New Japan.
This might mean that while wXw could book some of the big NXT UK names, they might not be able to properly use them in tournaments to partially draw off the fact that it can produce unique matches not to be seen anywhere else in the world, much as is the charm of promotions such as PWG.
For the time being though, things still look rosy for fans of the promotion, as WWE lent Germany’s own Marcel Barthel back to wXw so he could reunite with his Ringkampf brethren, WALTER and Timothy Thatcher, to face British Strong Style at yesterday’s 18th Anniversary show (Barthel also was at last year’s Anniversary event, together with fellow Ringkampf member Axel Tischer/Alexander Wolfe for a brief run-in, but that segment only was visible for the live audience).
That match, with five of the six participants under WWE deals, will be shown on wXw’s streaming service, along with matches involving other WWE-contracted wrestlers such as Toni Storm and Killer Kelly. The intrigue of the six-man match, along with an overall strong card, proved to be a big draw, as wXw sold 1,100 tickets to the show at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany. They initially were sold out with a capacity for 900, but managed to squeeze in 200 additional fans after some changes with the production setup and moving the merchandise area to another part of the building.
In fact, things look so rosy that Axel Dieter Jr., as he was announced instead of his (real) WWE name of Marcel Barthel, went on to confirm himself for next year’s 16 Carat Gold Tournament, stating that this was the only major accomplishment he ever failed to achieve during his run with wXw over the years.
Live report —
The show unfortunately was plagued by similar injuries to two key participants in title matches, with both David Starr and wXw Shotgun Champion Marius Al-Ani suffering shoulder injuries wrestling for other promotions shortly before the event.
Absolute Andy was scheduled to defend against Starr, then it was announced he would be wrestling a mystery opponent. When Al-Ani’s injury was announced, the match was changed to Andy defending against Al-Ani’s original Shotgun title challenger, Lucky Kid.
That match also featured an in-ring appearance by German UFC fighter Nick Hein (14-4, 1 NC) who is somewhat of a controversial figure and was basically booed out of the building whenever he said or did anything, and Absolute Andy, the company’s biggest heel was frenetically cheered when the angle got physical. This was a strange — and many thought unnecessary — twist to an otherwise very good match.
Pre-show match: Julian Pace defeated Timo Theiss after a Code Red
Fun match with a good dynamic. Pace was accompanied by Norman Harras, a fellow wXw Academy student. Theiss and Harras had teamed up a few weeks back, but Theiss attacked Harras after the match. The story was Pace using his speed and quickness against the larger opponent. Pace won with his Code Red finisher.
Theiss shook his hand afterwards, but then wanted to attack Pace from behind and Harras sent him packing.
– They did an angle where a big present was sent out, courtesy of the wXw office. Pre-show hosts Sebastian Hollmichel and Daniel Mallmann were in the ring to open it up when The Crown (Jurn Simmons and Alexander James) came out to berate them, resulting in Mallmann getting slammed into the package.
Avalanche and Emil Sitoci came out to make the save and threw the shirts from the present into the crowd.
Gauntlet match: RISE (Tarkan Aslan & Da Mack) won the wXw Tag Team titles by last eliminating the former champions Jay FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin) when Aslan hit Skillet with a chain
The Crown (Simmons & James) started with Avalanche & Sitoci. The faces ran wild early, but were eventually cut off and pinned after an assisted curb stomp, which is The Crown’s finish.
Next out were the babyface portion of RISE (Pete Bouncer & Ivan Kiev), who managed to beat The Crown.
The actual champs, Jay FK, were out next. Shotgun Champion and member of the heel RISE faction, Marius Al-Ani, interfered and tried to attack RISE with brass knuckles. But when he got caught, he knocked out Jay Skillet instead, so RISE got disqualified.
Finally, the heel RISE faction, Da Mack & Tarkan Aslan, were out. The crowd was mostly behind Jay FK in that heel vs. heel match. Eventually, Aslan hit Skillet once more with brass knuckles for the victory.
Post-match, the face faction of RISE came back out, attacked the heels, and challenged them to a “Käfigschlacht” (one-ring War Games style cage match with an open roof) for Back to the Roots XIX in January. The match — Pete Bouncer, Ivan Kiev & Lucky Kid vs. Da Mack, Tarkan Aslan & Marius Al-Ani — was later confirmed.
Three-way dance: Yuu defeated Killer Kelly and Alpha Female (Jazzy Gabert) when she submitted Alpha Female
Both faces went after Alpha Female right away but were fought off. Alpha Female gave both opponents consecutive choke bombs for near falls. Yuu then went toe-to-toe with both other wrestlers. At one point, Alpha Female picked up Kelly from a bridge after she German suplexed Yuu and hit a move, which was a cool spot.
Yuu threw Kelly from the ring and locked in a kata hajime on Alpha Female for the submission win. Looks like she is being groomed for a Women’s title match.
Doug Williams’ Hall of Fame induction
Karsten Beck (who is a former World Champion but retired due to a brain tumor and now heads the ring crew) and Felix Kohlenberg (co-owner of wXw) inducted Williams. They told some nice stories, including Beck saying he always picked up Williams from the airport, except the last time Williams was over, which he immediately pointed out to him. He said the early generation of wXw wrestlers learned a lot from Williams and he was a big influence early on.
Kohlenberg said that without Williams, there would be no 16 Carat, as he was one of the foundations they built the early tournaments around. He said Williams always liked them and was seeing their spirit and wanted to help, so he portrayed wXw better than they had any right to at the time and brought over a bunch of UK wrestlers, such as Martin Stone (Danny Burch in NXT) or Sha Samuels. He also made it possible to book Misawa and Kobashi back in 2005.
Kohlenberg said Williams was one of the best in the world, which was what they claimed about the early tournaments, but whenever Williams was in, it was true.
Williams came out and hugged both men. He said that he recognized the promotion’s spirit early and loved the fans and loved coming back and seeing the promotion grow. He gave a rather brief speech, but what he said sounded genuine and from the heart.
wXw World Unified Wrestling Champion Absolute Andy defeated Lucky Kid to retain his title after hitting A-Klasse (a dominator)
This was the match where Nick Hein got involved. It was great as a match — but weird as an angle in many peoples’ opinion.
Hein, a former police officer in Germany for 11 years, quit the job in 2014 to focus on MMA. Since then, he has been very vocal and critical about the way the police are being trained and prepared for the job in Germany, which he views as being inefficient and inadequate (he states that many criminals now train in martial arts and pose a physical challenge to police officers).
I’m pretty sure Hein is not a xenophobe (he actually is married to a Japanese woman who he has a child with), but he certainly comes across as partially racist and fairly right-wing on social media, where he is very active and vocal about crimes committed by refugees and especially bashes politicians on the left of the spectrum.
The way he portrays himself and the language and arguments he uses certainly rubs a lot of people the wrong way. There was controversy about the whole thing on social media ever since he was announced by wXw, and people went as far as to try and stage a walkout when he would come out.
wXw has in the past always been a very open and welcoming company, always stating there is no place for racism, sexism, homophobia, and other prejudicial behavior in wrestling and especially their promotion. In fact, one of the slogans they use on merchandise is “Love Wrestling — Hate Racism.”
Hein was announced before the match and came out, even wearing one of the shirts mentioned above. He was booed the most loudly of anyone on the card from the moment he came out and when he started speaking. He didn’t say much, except he liked wrestling, strangely enough citing Lex Luger and Yokozuna as his favorites. He also had his own cameraman with him and then stayed ringside and watched the match. He looked impressed at times and also had a few staredowns with Andy.
The match itself was very good, as Andy is a true European wrestling veteran and great in big match situations as the powerfully built but agile enough heel. Kid is probably one of the best workers in wXw right now and is very athletic and smooth, plus has great charisma.
The match was built around Kid’s fire and drive to win and Andy hitting big moves trying to stop him. At one point, Andy plucked him from the air and locked in a Sharpshooter, but Kid always would come back for more. He also hit a number of F-5s, including one from the second turnbuckle.
Eventually, Al-Ani, who is feuding with Kid, came back in and tried to hit him with the Shotgun belt. The World title belt also ended up in the ring — and Kid actually used it to hit Andy. After some more action, Kid pinned Andy and was announced as the new champion and the place exploded.
Hein came into the ring and handed the belt to Kid (to more boos) — but then on leaving the ring, whispered something into referee Tassilo Jung’s ear. Jung looked puzzled and talked some more with Hein and the ring announcer. They announced that Hein had told Jung that Andy’s foot had been under the ropes during the pin.
They restarted the match and Andy immediately hit the A-Klasse for the win. If I watch this in a vacuum without the angle that followed, I thought this was a ****1/4 match.
Hein then got back into the ring to hand the belt to Andy, but held onto it and wouldn’t give it up. Andy and Hein had words, and there were big “Andy, Andy” chants (after Andy had been hated just seconds before).
Andy then grabbed one of the ringside crew for an F-5, who Hein pulled down and gave Andy a double leg/spinebuster type of slam and Andy begged off (this was booed loudly), at which point Ilja Dragunov appeared on the screen and challenged Andy to a cage match for January.
Andy then got back up, kicked Hein low, and gave him an F-5 to a major pop.
To me, this was just weird. Due to the crowd reaction, whatever they thought they wanted to do didn’t work. And whatever happened, Hein was booed and whoever opposed him was cheered. Why he first helped Andy retain, then got into it with him and then was made to look like the loser seconds after scaring off the World Champion all didn’t really make any logical sense.
I don’t know yet who proposed working together, but I asked Jung, the acting managing director of wXw for a statement on using Hein after the match and also got the opinions of Andy, Lucky Kid, and David Starr (who originally was supposed to face Andy and probably would have been part of the angle had he been in the match and is generally known as a very liberal guy with sympathies for leftist ideas).
Jung sent me this as a personal message on Twitter when I asked him for a statement and said that I found it problematic to have Hein appear in that T-shirt especially (statement translated from German by me):
“We are booking Nick Hein not as a participant in a political talk show but as a performer. Therefore, we looked into his political messages and checked if they were compatible with our understanding of democracy. Personally I think, being able to accept differing opinions that do not match one’s personal beliefs is a part of a democracy. If we had found social media posts that included denying the holocaust, calling for the murder of people, signing off using ‘Heil Hitler’, etc. then certainly boundaries would have been overstepped, there would be no discussion in that. But if somebody ‘just’ echos thought material of the popular right and uses emotionality and visualizes his thoughts in a way unfortunately all too-common in today’s political debates, then this is nonetheless not enough to discredit someone on a professional level, nevertheless my own differing political opinion.”
Lucky Kid, when I asked him personally during intermission, said that for him (his family background is Turkish and I believe he still has a Turkish passport, even though I believe he was born in Germany), it is difficult and he had mixed feelings about it, but at the end of the day he is a performer and will do what the company asks him to in the ring.
Andy said that he doesn’t know a whole lot about what Hein posted, he just met him backstage for the first time that day and he seemed like a nice guy.
Starr also said that he hasn’t read anything from Hein on social media so he really has no opinion on him either way, but he of course noticed how the fans reacted and if Hein was a conservative, Starr is pretty sure his opinion would differ from his own in a big way.
On an unrelated note, Starr injured his right shoulder taking an F-5 badly a few days ago, but is positive he will be back in the ring in January.
Shigehiro Irie defeated Bobby Gunns after hitting a lariat
This was a great, stiff, strong style match and the fans ate it up. It could have gone another 5-7 minutes in my opinion, but being where it was on the card, it was good as it was.
Gunns, who does a smoking gimmick, now comes out with a “Marlboro” ring jacket. He is a big fan of the catch era of the 1960s and 1970s, and I have to ask him if this is related to the singlet Otto Wanz used to wear well into the 90s, where he was sponsored by “Milde Sorte,” an Austrian cigarette brand.
Irie is a regular with DDT, a powerfully built, stocky guy. Gunns used submissions and ground work and Irie hit some suplexes. At one point, they traded Saito suplexes. Irie hit two running cannonballs into the corner, including a flying one while Gunns still was upright. There was a also a lot of stiff striking going on.
The finish was Irie basically taking Gunn’s head off with a lariat that Gunns took screaming.
wXw Women’s Champion Toni Storm defeated Kellyanne to retain her title after hitting Strong Zero
These two have known each other for years and wrestled a few times in Australia. Kellyanne rolled her up at the start and Storm tried for the Strong Zero piledriver right away. They traded strikes and kicks and laid into each other hard.
Kellyanne’s manager was sent to the back when he tried to interfere. Kellyanne actually kicked out of one Strong Zero, but fell victim to the second. A really good match, probably **** and the third or fourth best on the show.
This was a gem of a match that had everything you could ask for, from strong style and stiff hits to great mat work to high flying to comedy and great charisma in the ring at all times. I don’t know which six people could put on a better match in Europe right now.
British Strong Style were the clear heels here, and Axel Dieter Jr. (using that name) received a hero’s welcome on his homecoming. He had visible goosebumps and looked very emotional at times. WALTER did the old Axel Dieter Sr. “There are three categories of wrestlers” speech and also promised “absolute toughness and the best sportive performance of the night” like he used to do when he and Dieter teamed as heels.
Thatcher started out with Bate and they worked towards the first tag to Dieter. Thatcher was the face in peril for quite some time and once again was portrayed as the guy who could take unthinkable punishment, as he took all of British Strong Styles finishers and still kicked out a the last moment.
WALTER killed Seven with chops, and Dunne at one point did the finger breaking spot with him. WALTER had Seven in a rear naked choke and Dieter had Bate in the Axel Dieter Special, but Bate rolled through, deadlifted Dieter, and German suplexed him onto WALTER in one of numerous amazing spots.
At another point, all of Ringkampf had all of British Strong Style in different submissions. Dieter’s “Nein” was very over here, and he used it once with great timing during a flying European uppercut. Bate did the airplane spin with WALTER for a long time. Seven hit a plancha on everyone, followed by a moonsault to the outside by Dunne and by a spinning senton by Bate on everyone.
There was too much good stuff to all remember it here, but it was one of the best matches I saw live all year. I had it at five stars and it was very close to the WALTER/Dragunov/Bad Bones match at 16 Carat this year. Thatcher eventually got the win for his team in around 30 minutes
After some bantering and mistrust following the match, they all shook hands and Seven wanted to swap his British Strong Style towel with Thatcher’s Ringkampf scarf, in the way football clubs swap jerseys.
They also did a fun spot that showcased the greatness of Bate. Dunne mockingly did the Ringkampf pose and WALTER jokingly grabbed him by the hair, removed his mouthpiece, and kicked it across the ring. Bate nonchalantly caught it mid-flight and then put it back in Dunne’s mouth.
Afterwards, Dieter did a very emotional speech, thanking everyone for coming to see him and hoping they all had as many good memories about him as he had with them. He briefly mentioned teaming with Da Mack and had the fans sing their old theme.
Dieter said he had accomplished everything he ever wanted to in wXw, winning the Tag Team and World titles, which started a “16 Carat” chant. He hung his head thoughtfully, as he twice made the finals and lost (once against Tommy End/Aleister Black, where he got the spot of Ricochet who was snowed in and couldn’t make his flight and where the company put big trust in him being able to pull it off, and once against Zack Sabre Jr.).
Dieter then asked if the fans wanted him to be in next year’s 16 Carat and try and win the one thing that eluded him. This got a major pop.
It will be interesting how they handle this, as there are guys like Pentagon in. It looks like no Impact or ROH guys though, so they’d have to stack their international roster with guys from Big Japan, DDT, Dragon Gate or NOAH and the U.S. indie guys from EVOLVE or people not signed with anyone.
WALTER and PAC are set to face one another in February.
Over the Top Wrestling announced today that the two will square off at their Homecoming II event, which will take place on February 17 at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin, Ireland. Floor seats have already been sold out.
It is an interesting match as the two are heading in different directions. WALTER has already signed a deal with WWE, and is expected to be a part of the NXT UK roster going forward.
Meanwhile, PAC, who was known in WWE as Neville, left the promotion in August after spending most of 2018 at home due to contractual issues. Since leaving WWE, he has mainly worked for Dragon Gate but is taking independent dates in the UK.
Another high profile match featuring PAC will see him square off against Will Ospreay, as the two are scheduled to meet on February 15 for Rev Pro’s High Stakes event.
PWInsider first reported the news today, which has been confirmed by our Dave Meltzer. It was expected that WALTER would sign an NXT United Kingdom deal, and PWInsider wrote that he’ll “be part of WWE’s European expansion plans, including the NXT UK brand.”
Meltzer reported in March that WWE was interested in signing WALTER and wrote in September that the situation was “back alive” and talks had gotten serious between the sides.
WALTER, who is from Austria, is a star for wXw and is the current World Champion in PROGRESS Wrestling and OTT Wrestling. He dropped the PWG World title to Jeff Cobb last month.
During an interview with The Mirror in September, WALTER addressed reports of WWE being interested in signing him: “I don’t know if I mentioned this but being a part of the Raw or SmackDown roster is nothing I am interested in. I don’t want to live in the US. I really like NXT though, I think it’s a great product, filled with the best talent in the world and is focused on competition in the ring, which is something I enjoy. I don’t want to say it will never happen because in wrestling things change so quick.”
OTT Wrestling’s Fourth Anniversary Show took place at National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday.
– OTT Gender Neutral Champion LJ Cleary defeated Paddy M, Rocky Romero, Raven Creed, and Gino Gambino to retain his title
– OTT Tag Team Champions Kings of the North defeated More Than Hype to retain their titles
There was lots of local support for More Than Hype. The match started fast with a surprise set of dropkicks from More Than Hype, then moved to a brawl to the outside and then back in the ring. Kings of the North then took over until Nathan Martin went psycho for a comeback.
Darren Kearney locked in a half crab submission, but there was a referee distraction and Kearney was hit with a belt shot. The Kings retained with a roll-up. Good match.
– Hirooki Goto & Sean Guinness defeated Satoshi Kojima & Michael May
Lots of bread-related chants and some bread tossed into the ring due to Kojima being the leader of Bread Club. Goto and Kojima started with a nice technical exchange. May and Guinness then tagged in and did a series of acrobatic pinning attempts before Guinness appealed for silence and began a stinging exchange of slaps.
Goto noted this and tagged in, delivering his own version to a loud reaction. Kojima, not to be left out, tagged in and delivered about a dozen rapid fire comedy chops to Goto in the corner to a loud reaction. Kojima played very well to the crowd throughout, but Goto pinned May with a reverse GTR into a GTR.
There was a big reaction for Kojima at the end. There was bread tossed in the ring, May presented a slice to Kojima, and Kojima ate it in the ring to a huge pop.
– Scotty Davis defeated Mark Davis
There were “let’s go Davis/Davis sucks” chants to start. Mark played the big bruising heel — and Scotty was the nimble technician. That included Mark holding the much smaller Scotty in a very long vertical suplex. They had a good, solid match. There was again some stinging chops from Mark, but Scotty won via submission.
Mark attacked Scotty after the match.
– The Gymnasties defeated Angel Cruzers & Jimmy Havoc
A funny Angel Cruzers video segment aired at the start. They entered, then Havoc’s video hit and the crowd went nuts. The match started with plenty of plunder being employed outside the ring and then inside. The match hit a lull until Havoc brought out the thumbtacks, sprinkling them on the center of the ring. They did reversals of moves to avoid being slammed on the thumbtacks until one of the Gymnasties landed on them.
They brawled to the outside and onto the entrance stage. Angel Cruz headed backstage and returned with two light tubes, but he missed his strike and accidentally hit Havoc. The action returned to the ring, where Angel Cruz gave the Shield powerbomb to the Gymnasties with the aid of valets.
A bleeding Jimmy Havoc arrived, blasted Cruz with the light tube, and the Gymnasties got the win. Havoc then beat up Cruz in the aftermath.
– Tomohiro Ishii defeated KUSHIDA
Ishii is just great. Both guys got a huge reaction, and they had a very good match. A few slight botches turned into the story of the match with KUSHIDA targeting Ishii’s arm, so Ishii struggled to perform certain moves. There was amazing subtle selling by Ishii throughout.
Strickland, Bandido, and Flamita got a big reaction, but it felt like the roof almost blew off when LIJ made their entrance. Naito messed with the referee a bit to start, having him hold the ropes for him and then rolling in instead and slowly disrobing and squaring off to the ref before the opening bell.
The crowd reacted massively throughout. It started with an incredibly fast pace, with them doing lots of very nimble exchanges. SANADA tied up Flamita with a Paradise Lock into a dropkick. There was a “one more time” chant from the crowd — and SANADA obliged. There was a second “one more time” chant — and SANADA apologized and tagged in Naito.
They brawled through the aisle in three different directions at one point and Naito briefly opened an umbrella. Naito hit the Destino on Flamita and handed him over to SANADA, who locked in the Skull End for the win.
Naito grabbed Flamita’s mask and wore it as a hat in triumph. Strickland appealed for its return, but Naito refused and they limped to the back while LIJ basked in the cheers.
– Minoru Suzuki defeated Timothy Thatcher
Suzuki entered to a huge reaction and a thunderous Kaze Ni Nare. The crowd was 100 percent behind Suzuki, who played the wily veteran to Thatcher’s bigger grappler. They did several long exchanges of holds with Suzuki’s experience coming out on top. They also did blistering exchanges of blows where it ended up with Suzuki leveling the larger Thatcher to a big reaction.
The finish was Suzuki hitting the Gotch piledriver. He left to cheers and another Kaze Ni Nare.
– OTT Champion WALTER defeated Will Ospreay to retain his title
A vignette played to start with Ospreay selling the match hard. Ospreay came out to a big reaction, and the crowd was very hot at this point. Ospreay attempted to avoid being controlled by WALTER. He kept the match at a rapid pace and avoided WALTER’s chops until WALTER hit a mid-air one.
The match had consistent strong crowd reaction throughout. They did a huge number of standout spots, Ospreay went for a Rainmaker and WALTER no sold it, knocked Ospreay down, and did the Rainmaker pose to boos. WALTER went for a ripcord chop later, which Ospreay reversed into a Rainmaker, maintained wrist control, and went for another.
There was a false finish where it looked like WALTER pinned Ospreay, but Ospreay got his foot on the ropes and the ref restarted the match. Ospreay got two incredible near falls off an OsCutter and top rope powerbomb that had everyone on their feet counting. WALTER locked in a sleeper to Ospreay and they did the hand drop spot that Ospreay hulked up out of. WALTER ended up retaining to a chorus of boos.
