Tag: wXw

A look back at last weekend’s wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 tourney

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

Last weekend’s wXw’s 16 Carat Gold 2020 was a very newsworthy edition with one former top talent (David Starr) reportedly having to leave the company at the urge of WWE while a WWE contracted performer (Alexander Wolfe) is on a temporary deal there through mid-April (or whenever wrestling picks back up again).

Those two stories somewhat overshadowed the actual tournament which had a lot of very good and one insanely great match. The winner was wXw newcomer and current PROGRESS world champion Cara Noir who impressed people with his performance as everything from his entrance to his facial expression and mannerisms up to certain spots in the match seem to be constructed with the high arts in mind.

He beat Mike Bailey in the main event in somewhat of a surprise match as many people had picked Dutch-born Jurn Simmons as one of the sure-fire finalists. The match of the weekend was had by Bailey and Bandido, who did some insane spots and had a match that will probably go down as one of the best, if not the best, in 16 Carat history.

The promotion was super lucky when it came to the COVID-19 virus as on Tuesday after the shows, the government of North Rhine-Westphalia (the state where 16 Carat took place) prohibited all events with more than 1000 people in attendance. Had they run this weekend, they would have had to cancel. COO Tassilo Jung said while they had some sort of backup plan, it would have been a gamble at best and could have meant a massive loss for the company.

The weekend followed the typical formula of establishing everyone on night one, having great and dramatic matches on night two and progressing storylines and saving raw emotion for night three

Here are the highlights of the weekend, followed by results to all the shows:

David Starr leaves wXw, indicates WWE is responsible

The 29-year-old came to wXw in early 2016 when he was a CZW regular through the relationship the two promotions had established that dates back to the early 2000s. He started in WXW (Afa’s promotion in Pennsylvania and no relation to wXw) and mostly wrestled for CZW, Beyond, and a couple of smaller indies in the Northeast. wXw took a chance at him and he quickly showed both his talent and promo skills, becoming a regular over the years as well as a major player in storylines.

He began a feud with WALTER which spanned multiple promotions and lasts to this day with the key being that he never beat WALTER (except for some tag matches where he still never was the one to beat him), held the wXw Shotgun title on three different occasions, and became part of the main event picture.

Being in wXw put him on the map to a number of other promotions in Europe, and he soon started wrestling for almost every major promotion in the UK, including PROGRESS, OTT, Revolution Pro, and Defiant back when there were fewer political issues on who you worked for. He also got noticed by PWG in the US, who started using him in January 2018.

Very outspoken and left-leaning on the political spectrum, Starr idolizes Bernie Sanders to the point he is being billed as “the Bernie Sanders of pro wrestling” among a ton of other nicknames. He moved to the UK in order to be eligible for public health care and is the founder of “We The Independent”, an organization striving to improve working conditions for wrestlers. He is a strong proponent of unionization and has been working with Equity in the UK, the trade union for those in the performing arts (similar to SAG in the US).

Starr is very outspoken about the way some major wrestling organizations conduct their business, publicly calling out both WWE and ROH owners Sinclair repeatedly and also got into a war of words with Gabe Sapolsky of EVOLVE about the payment of some of their talent. He last appeared for PROGRESS on December 30 of last year and hasn’t been mentioned there since which got some people talking.

At the end of January after the two clashed in an eight-man War Games-style single cage match, the match with wXw World Unified Wrestling champion Bobby Gunns was announced for night two of 16 Carat when it traditionally happens. Starr, seemingly out of nowhere, established a title vs. career stipulation. They did a good build up including some tremendous video packages and interviews by both guys and the match felt important, but the buzz seemed to be lower than for similar matches in the past.

The bout started slow but picked up pace and went 41:15 and saw both men give it their everything, kicking out of big moves. Starr messed up his back on a crazy dive where he virtually crashed into the first few rows of seats (hardback plastic chairs) at full speed, while Gunns also hurt his leg when Starr threw him off the entrance ramp as the two brawled around ringside, landing on a set of risers for standing room fans to get a better view of the action. After some fantastic back and forth action, Gunns retained the title with the “Ehrenmann Driver” (“man of honor driver”).

After his loss, Starr cut a very emotional promo and talked about how “freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of consequences” and that he and wXw mutually agreed to part ways. He thanked everyone in the office and said that wXw put him on the map on a major level and that he wouldn’t be where he was if not for them. He talked about CEO Felix Kohlenberg taking a chance at him when he was “just a stupid kid at CZW, begging them to book him and had no idea what he was doing.”

He talked about creative director Dennis Birkendahl taking him to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Starr is Jewish and about 70,000 Jews were killed there during WW II) which he said changed his life forever. He thanked Christian Jakobi, the former CEO who left due to occupational burnout, and said that he helped him out a ton but would hate certain spots in matches which is why they included one today just to piss him off if he watched it. He said he also meant to thank WALTER “But, f*ck WALTER. Who did he ever beat?” He said he felt a certain disconnect with the locker room over the past 2-3 years, but that before this match, people came up to him, saying they loved him. He also said this was goodbye for real, not some intricate storyline or angle.

He tweeted last Monday that “I won’t go into further details regarding wXw on this platform and idk when/if I will in any public setting. Like I said, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences and that this mutual decision was one that neither of us wanted to make. I love wXw & always will.” He was very emotional at the merch table as well, hugging fans and saying goodbye to everyone personally who took the time to walk up to him. Starr himself confirmed to me that this was very much a WWE call.

wXw also thanked him and that they would miss him while COO Tassilo Jung took to Twitter and wrote “It has been an unbelievable ride and I’m gutted it had to end.”

At a Sunday media panel, Jung said there would be some limit on how deep they would dive into the topic of Starr and any possible WWE involvement. He said they sat down with Starr beforehand and told him that after the match, the mic was his to say whatever he wanted to say, basically giving him the chance to keep things within the realms of storyline or let the person behind David Starr speak, and Starr chose the latter. He said they appreciated what he said, the kind words he said, and later posted on social media about wXw and that they would miss him a lot.

He said they would not comment on the decision itself but wanted to make sure that people knew how much they appreciated Starr as a person as well as a talent. He said they made the decision when they set up the match a few months ago. Jung praised Starr for his work ethic and that he always showed up, eager to give his best and help people, stating examples of the four way at their 19th Anniversary show, theior two January shows in France, the cage match in January at Back to the Roots, the Dragunov match in February at Dead End, and Saturday’s performance.

He said Starr went out as an absolute professional and that they hold him in the best regards. Jung said Starr said he’ll always be a wXw guy and they’ll always have his back.

The one thing to say for wXw is that they built this match up, gave Starr a storyline exit so fans would get closure and a reason of him not being there, and giving him a live mic after the show. In PROGRESS, it was seemingly the same deal. There, he simply lost a match to Jimmy Havoc on December 39th and hasn’t been heard from or seen since.

It will be interesting what the future has in store for Starr, who still holds the OTT world title in Ireland and also the SWE (Southside Wrestling Entertainment) title, which now is part of RevPro (who have a working relationship with New Japan) as well as the Liverpool-based TNT world title. OTT seemingly has a relationship with WWE, but it seems less intense than what WWE, PROGRESS, ICW or EVOLVE have.

If you want to take a deep dive into the whole topic, Will Cooling, who also was there this weekend has an excellent article on Starr and his political campaigning among others things over.

Cara Noir wins 16 Carat Gold, Mike Bailey and Bandido have the match of the weekend

Noir (real name Thomas Dawkins), the current PROGRESS champion, had his first matches in 2010 to mixed success under his given name and several other monikers. He almost quit the business in 2016, but after a conversation with longtime friend Chris Brookes, decided to develop the gimmick of Cara Noir, the black swan of wrestling, supposedly a former ballet dancer (and computer genius with an MMA background) that was kicked out of the academy for his anger management issues while being harassed there.

He wears swan-like face paint and enters the ring in darkness with just a spotlight on him to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake before a performance in the ring where he brings up his cape of peacock feathers. He is a very unique individual who views wrestling as the ultimate art form and expresses himself through facials, body language, mannerisms, and a unique move set. He does dozens of small things in each match which almost feel like a musical composition. After a few notes, you recognize the composer, but like music, each match is different with different overtures and themes reaching back to earlier spots in the match, and often enough there are unique things he does with certain opponents, exclusive to that match.

Noir beat “Speedball” Mike Bailey in the finals in a very good, dramatic match that went 28:27 and saw both guys put on a great performance. While it was face vs. face, Bailey showed some heel tendencies. Noir, at times, very much played the dying swan. At one point, he took three running kicks to the chest with Bailey becoming more and more reluctant to deliver the punishment and asking Noir to just quit. Noir looked pained by having to go yet another round, but asked Bailey to pull him back up and deliver another kick, the third after which he suddenly powered up. He also hugged Bailey and seemingly told him everything was going to be OK before delivering his own finishing sequence.

They also did some crazy spots like Bailey missing his moonsault knee drop both on the apron and on the steel ramp at one point. Noir kicked out of the Flamingo Driver which looks like a variation of the One Winged Angel. After Bailey missed the moonsault knees on the ramp, Noir hooked in the Blackout sleeper and then left Bailey laying in order to get the countout victory, but Bailey made it back at nine.

The finishing sequence was Bailey hitting a top rope moonsault fallaway slam which Noir narrowly kicked out of and came back with a Madame Guilltone and package piledriver for a kickout by Bailey. Noir finally hit a Blackout sleeper suplex, followed by a Blackout sleeper for the victory by referee stoppage. Noir pulled up Bailey, who still seemed out of it, for a long hug before posing with the trophy up the ramp and in the ring.

Bailey had another great outing the night before, facing Bandido in the match of the weekend. In a near eighteen minute match, they did some unreal spots and had the crowd in the palms of their hands, starting off with duel chants and songs and having people in an absolute frenzy as the match progressed. After a ton of spectacular near falls, the finish was a fisherman moonsault fallaway slam from the top rope by Bandido. Afterwards, the fans starting pelting the ring with money to the point there was fear somebody could get hurt by being hit with a coin. Ring announcer Thommy Giessen then made the call to ask people to throw notes instead of coins.

Both men hugged and even brought Bandido superfan Chris Lawson, who was at ringside, into the ring and put him on their shoulders. From the match itself to the post-match, this was one of those 16 Carat experiences on par with the surprise Ilja Dragunov return, the Alexander Wolfe surprise last year, and Jurn Simmons turning on Karsten Beck to win the world title, an angle no one will forget and will be talked about and featured in video highlights forever.

Bailey beat UK indy and NOAH prodigy Chris Ridgeway in the first round, Bandido in the second, and put away favorite Jurn Simmons in the semifinals. Noir beat al-Ani in round one, eliminated Jeff Cobb in round two and then Eddie Kingston in the semi before going on to win the tournament.

Two other standouts were wXw’s homegrown talents Julian Pace and The Rotation who hung in there move for move and spot for spot with Bandido and Puma King respectively in the first round. Pace, 24, who only has been wrestling professionally for less than four years, is one of the most exciting young workers in Europe today, has great speed and tremendous flying ability and never looked out of place, going toe-to-toe with one of the most amazing wrestlers out there in 2020. He is the first full-fledged graduate of the wXw Academy and was trained, among others, by WALTER and Timothy Thatcher.

Rotation is a similar high flyer and started in 2013 after training at the Westside Dojo, the predecessor of the wXw Academy, before it became a full-time school. After a few years in wXw in an enhancement role, he toured Mexico in the summer of 2015, mostly working for DTU, but also had two matches for AAA. He returned full time in wXw last fall and has been great ever since. He hung with Puma King in many typical lucha spots and did impressive stunts, such as standing on the top rope, jumping up to avoid a punch and landing on the rope again or cartwheeling along the top rope to avoid another attack. Puma King and Black Taurus also both looked good the whole weekend, and hopefully international fans will see more of them outside of AAA.

Simmons, who many saw as the favorite for the tournament, looked impressive, both with an improved physique and a new moveset which included power moves such as a gorilla press and athletic moves like a standing moonsault. Him being eliminated by Bailey was a surprise to many and a return to the main event picture seems imminent.

Alexander Wolfe makes a surprise appearance, wins wXw Shotgun title, gets attacked by Lucky Kid’s new heel group

On Sunday, a wXw Shotgun title match was scheduled between champion Avalanche and Ilja Dragunov, set up after the finish of Bobby Gunns vs. Avalanche at February’s Dead End in Hamburg when they did an angle where Dragunov attacked Avalanche and got beat up.

Most suspected this to be a bonus match of sorts, a hard-hitting battle between two former partners who have always delivered and as a way to get Dragunov on the show the day he was first available after two days of NXT UK tapings.

During ring introductions, ring announcer Thommy Giessen was handed another cue card and announced that the wXw championship board of directors had added a third man to the match at which point the Ringkampf/Imperium music played and Alexander Wolfe appeared to a big pop. Initially this was somewhat lackluster since it was a mix of Dragunov getting added to the world title match against Bad Bones two years ago and Wolfe appearing as a surprise with his old Sanity-gimmick last year.

They had a fun match with Dragunov initially suggesting Wolfe team with him, playing off their previous friendship and NXT UK contracts, but Wolfe refused.

The finish came when Dragunov hit Torpedo Moscow on Avalanche, who fell out of the ring. Wolfe then pinned Dragunov after a sitdown power bomb to win the title to a shocked reaction as nobody believed that to be a possibility.

Wolfe held the then-vacant title in 2014, ironically winning it after the then-champion Dragunov was out with a broken skull after suffering the injury at a WWE tryout in 2013. Wolfe cut a promo, saying that the title meant a lot: it meant that the champion had to be the best and defend it against all comers.

He then put the title down in the middle of the ring and said that he could not take it back with him to the U.S. After some boos, he reconsidered and said “F*ck it. I’ll stay in Germany and defend this title until somebody from the locker room takes it from me, but I’m not going to make it easy for them.”

At this point, the big eye, which had distracted Lucky Kid in matches over the past few weeks including his first round loss to Simmons in 16 Carat, flashed on the screen. As Wolfe looked at it, he was attacked by two burly guys in black shirts (Abdul Kenan and Aytac Bahar, who teamed as Grup Arnasi in the Berlin-based GWF and also were trained there). Lucky ran out and confronted them, signaling to Wolfe to stay back before attacking him and the three then beat him down.

Lucky then cut a fiery, bitter promo as it was important to him to explain what he was doing here. He had been a part of various groups over the past few years and slowly lost his honor and his identity in the process. In RISE, he was the crazy guy; with Schadenfreude, he was the stupid, childish kid; with The Purge (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer), he was their good friend Lucky. Now, he was the leader of his own group and would go by the name his mother had given him, Metehan (his actual real first name; he has Turkish roots but was born in Germany).

He said he would get everything back that was taken from him and that his new group would be called Ezel (which is Turkish for “Eternity” based on a show of the same name that seemingly aired in Turkey years ago). He slapped each of the Grup Anarsi members and then proceeded to beat down Wolfe some more.

Wolfe has since been confirmed for five upcoming shows (3/28 in Frankfurt, 3/29 in Erfurt, 4/17 in Limbach-Oberfrohna, 4/18 in his hometown of Dresden, and 4/19 in Leipzig). No matches have been confirmed, but matches against former champion Avalanche, Dragunov (maybe in Dresden as Dragunov was injured when they last wanted to do the match there in November), Metehan, and possibly a tag match against Grup Anarsi al seem like logical choices.

Shoot style reigns supreme with AMBITION 12 thanks to two young guns and a senior citizen BattlArts superfight

AMBITION, wXw’s take on the shoot style concept, keeps playing an important part at these big festival weekends. After almost abandoning the concept after four events (plus an almost forgotten AMBITION on the Road mini-tournament) back in 2013 due to low attendance, they brought it back as an experiment in October 2014 as part of the World Triangle League weekend with much better success as the hardcore fans in town from all over Europe ate the unique show up.

They moved it to March in 2016 and it has been a part of 16 Carat weekends ever since, expanding to a show in Toronto over SummerSlam weekend last year, as well as a “Wildcard Edition” this past October. Last year’s AMBITION 10 and AMBITION 11 in Toronto also featured Yuki Ishikawa, the legendary founder of BattlArts, who seemed to have the time of his life in his fights.

AMBITION also undoubtedly inspired concepts such as Bloodsport over WrestleMania weekend and Tetsujin: Hybrid Wrestling in the UK, which even added two more shows after its initial one shot event. It was at the final Tetsujin show in November, where Tassilo Jung, who is also wXw’s head referee, officiated some matches as Tetsujin and wXw had worked together from the start. It was there that he saw Ethan Allen and Luke Jacobs, the two members of the England-based Young Guns, have a match against each other and immediately offered to bring them in for AMBITION.

While both men are barely of drinking age (in the UK, at least), they trained at some of the premier schools of the country and put an intensity into their AMBITION match that would put more established grapplers to shame. Allen won their bout by submission, but both men won over the hearts of those in the Turbinenhalle that day. They also prevailed at the Jay-AA Tag Team Experts Wild Card Tournament later that night, a fun, parejas increibles style gauntlet, supposedly decided by an app that Absolute Andy programmed on the fly the night before (including creating all the graphics for it).

Then, there were Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda, longtime rivals and partners, who have been in the ring with each other on close to 100 occasions dating back to 1994 and at least 60 times in BattlArts. They gave people a first taste of what to expect when they teamed with each other against Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe at the Inner Circle show, a prelude to the 16 Carat string of events. This was a dream match, especially for Makabe who traded BattlArts tapes as young as 14 and idolized Ishikawa ever since. He told me a story of when he first met Ishikawa in Toronto last summer. He told him about it and Ishikawa was baffled that some kid in the U.S. actually got his tapes from Japan. It was then when he told him “Maybe, one day, you and me, we work together”.

In their AMBITION fight, the impression people got was that they legitimately tried to end each other then and there. Never before have I seen two men aged 52 and 53, respectively, hit each other so hard with punches, slaps, kicks and shoot headbutts and getting so much joy out of the process. The headbutts especially were something else with both men having huge bumps on their forehead, but who am I to tell those two men what to do or not do. This was a fight that people should go out of their way to see.

They faced each other one more time the next night as Ishikawa teamed with longtime protégé Timothy Thatcher who had his farewell match in wXw for the time being against Ikeda & WALTER. Those four, the answer to the trivia question of who you would want to back you up in a bar fight, had another hell of an outing as you would expect from them. This was another symphony of violence, especially when Ishikawa no sold WALTER’s chops. Thatcher submitted Ikeda in an armbar after which the four men paid each other their respects.

Thatcher then refused to address the crowd and indicated he would choke up and cry if he did. Then, when the whole roster came out on the stage to say goodbye, he could not handle it anymore and left the ring through an exit by the crowd. Thus ended the era of Timothy Thatcher in wXw, the last and only real man in the world, who is kind enough to let us lesser men live in it.

Alexander James is an abusive boyfriend, Killer Kelly is no longer with NXT UK

A story that progressed throughout the weekend (and on World Women’s Day, nonetheless) was the story of Alexander James being an abusive, toxic boyfriend to his girlfriend Killer Kelly.

The backstory was that Kelly came out during a James vs. Jurn Simmons Singapore cane match back in December in order to stop James from putting a beating on Simmons, at which point, AJ shoved her down.

Kelly, who wrestled and beat newcomer Stephanie Maze (an Alex Wright trainee with a kickboxing background) at Inner Circle, then came out during James’ tournament match against Jeff Cobb on Friday to cheer him on. James didn’t take kindly to it, screamed at her, and ordered her to the back before eventually losing to Cobb.

On Saturday, James came out and demanded the best challenger available, at which point Alpha Kevin came out who James quickly beat with a cobra clutch. Kevin had his girlfriend, Melanie Gray, with him who was on crutches due to a knee injury. James kept attacking Kevin and also shoved down Gray, who entered the ring despite her injury to help out her boyfriend. Kelly came out to confront James, but in a backstage promo later, was defending him to Kevin and Melanie, claiming that he had a hard time and needed support. Melanie then told Kelly that she would show her what real support looked like and offered Kelly her title shot against Amale the next day.

Then, at Sunday’s Feature event, which was taped in the afternoon, Kelly and Stephanie Maze beat Valkyrie and Baby Allison with Maze getting the deciding pinfall. A furious James came out again and berated Kelly, telling her he lacked the killer instinct she once had and asked why she let a rookie get the deciding win. He also threatened to punch Maze at that point and sent Kelly to the back to watch what a real killer looked like after which he faced and beat CZW champion Joe Gacy.

On Sunday, Kelly (who refused the shot) had another backstage promo with James where he again told her she was wasting chances and how she got opportunities he never got and never used them to her advantage. Kelly and Gray then presented Maze as the new surprise challenger for Amale, who eventually beat her. James then came out once more and again berated Kelly, beat down Kevin and Levaniel, and threatened to beat up Melanie, telling Kelly to decide between the love of the fans or the love of him. Kelly, seemingly choosing James, sulked to the back while James beat up Kevin some more.

The promos here were really good and I am intrigued to see where the story goes as it gives both James and Kelly something to do, and also can involve Melanie while she recuperates her injury, plus Kevin, Levaniel, and possibly Amale and Karsten Beck when he returns.

Kelly also confirmed that she is no longer with NXT UK, which was obvious since she appeared for RevPro at their March 1st show, attacking Giselle Shaw and also wrestlling for EVE twice in non-dark matches after last being at NXT UK in October. Kelly also is the first female Ringkampf brand athlete.

Maze has a good look and good movement, but still is very rough around the edges and needs to improve her ring speed and precision. Then again, she started just over two years ago and had only around 60 matches, so changes should be noticeable soon especially if she spends more time at the wXw Academy.

As far as Beck (who is an on-screen GM as the “Director of Sports”), Jung said at the media panel that he had some issues (possibly medically related as he had surgery for a brain tumor twice before) but they would not comment on it and said they’d let him talk about what they were on his own time, and when those things were sorted out, he would probably be back.

wXwNOW Showcase a success, CZW returns to Germany

wXw’s streaming service wXwNOW features a plethora of different promotions from all around the world. Seven of them joined forces to present the wXwNOW Showcase with each of them presenting once match. The Showcase followed the somewhat ill-received #WrestlingDeutschland shows of the past two years which had a similar concept for smaller promotions in Germany. While the first show was fun, the second was mostly abysmal with many bad matches and talent clearly not ready for a bigger stage.

The Showcase was generally considered a success with every promoter very happy about it and most matches being good and well received by the crowd, especially the ones put on by CZW (wXw’s longtime U.S. partner promotion), SMASH (Canada), Rising Sun (Italy) and White Wolf Wrestling (Spain). DJ Hyde, the owner of CZW, came out after the Joe Gacy vs. Anthony Greene match and announced that CZW would return to Germany on November 14 in Frankfurt and would also “bring the ultra violence”. The date will be a doubleheader with CZW promoting an afternoon show and wXw promoting in the same venue in the evening.

Odds and ends from various panels and informal talks

Tassilo Jung said that they were monitoring the WWE Network situation closely and could not say what it meant for them or if anything would be changing regarding a multi tier system and their content eventually being on the Network. He said they didn’t have that level of access to WWE management and basically followed the situation of Michelle Wilson and George Barrios being gone from the company just like everybody else.

They also said that they did not see WWE pulling talent or having NXT UK tapings head to head as a major problem as they saw during the Tag Festival with all the late cancellations and that they could work around it. He said Lio Rush very much had been the top draw as most tickets moved after he was announced. He said WWE offered them a replacement but would not comment who it was. At that point, they had already gotten Jeff Cobb, who was available that weekend.

It looks like Veit Müller has burned his bridges with wXw for the time being as he told them just four days in advance that he would not be there. He pulled out of most of the Tag Festival in October due to complications his wife had with his pregnancy which was totally understandable. Jung said the minimum they expect from their talent is to show up to work and how they would not work with Müller for the time being. Müller later posted a tweet with his child, saying “some things are more important than wrestling,”

Francis Kaspin is out with a herniated/bulging disc. He tried various methods of therapy, none of which have really worked. They brought him in after his injury, but he eventually said he’d prefer not to come as each long car drive back and forth really hampered his progress in recovery. They will see when he feels better to incorporate him back into storylines.

They haven’t talked to Jazzy Gabert since she quit NXT UK, but no door ever is closed in wrestling and they’d be open to work with her again if the right opportunity arises.

They also were very understanding of the whole Alex Shelley situation and hope they will be able to bring him in one day. Felix Kohlenberg was been waiting for more than a decade to book him.

Killer Kelly seemingly quit NXT UK, but did not want to further elaborate on it. She appeared for RevPro and EVE in the UK after she last was at NXT UK tapings in early October. She also now is the first female Ringkampf athlete for their sports apparel/merchandise brand.

DJ Hyde talked extensively about the various deal they had for streaming their content, including wXwNOW, their own CZW Studios (on Pivotshare), IWTV, and FITE TV as well as Stone Cutter Media where they put old content on PPV around the world through Steve Karel, who also was instrumental in the old ECW television deals. He said while he didn’t have all the data yet, the FITE TV numbers looked really good. He said it was a challenge to upgrade old tapes to be HD ready and how each iPPV they did was a struggle as the money will not come in for months. He said they would be simulcasting their first show on IWTV and FITE TV and also would get on PPV soon.

Methehan (the former Lucky Kid) reiterated to me that his new group, Ezel, was not to be understood as any kind of Turkish nationalist group and that he very much considers himself German as he was born and raised in the country.

The full 39-minute media panel with the wXw office can also be viewed here.

Results:

wXw Inner Cirlce 9 (March 5, 2020 – attendance: 170/sold out, wXw Academy, Essen/Germany)

  • Julian Pace pinned Rust Taylor after the Best Moonsault Ever (9:22)
  • Avalanche pinned “Goldenboy” Santos after a DRSKR Bomb (6:44)
  • Four Way: Marius Al-Ani beat The Rotation, Hektor and Vertigo after pinning Vertigo with a Diamond Driver (4:24)
  • Jay Skillet pinned Absolute Levandy (Levaniel) after an FtY (9:57): Pure comedy gold, with Levaniel doing a spot-on Absolute Andy impersonation
  • Killer Kelly pinned Stephanie Maze after the Carnation Revolution (9:17)
  • Shigehiro Irie pinned Scotty Davis after a Beast Bomber (8:30)
  • Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa beat Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe when Ikeda pinned Ridgeway after a high kick (17:44): Super fun shoot-style match with everybody being great at the style

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 – Night 1 (March 6, 2020 – attendance: 1,250, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • Alternate Four Way Dance: Rust Taylor defeated Levaniel, Hektor & Scotty Davis when he tapped out Levaniel with the Rings of Saturn (6:30)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: “Speedball” Mike Bailey pinned Chris Ridgeway after a Flamingo Driver (12:55)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Jurn Simmons pinned Lucky Kid after a piledrive (4:32): The eye appeared again at the beginning of the match, prompting Lucky to almost get pinned right away
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: The Rotation pinned Puma King after Victory over Gravity (8:57)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Eddie Kingston pinned Daniel Makabe after the Backfist to the Future (9:33)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Bandido pinned Julian Pace after a Top Rope Fallaway Moonsault (9:39)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Shigehiro Irie pinned Black Taurus iafter a Beast Bomber (10:30)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Jeff Cobb pinned Alexander James after Tour of the Island (12:44)
  • 16 Carat Gold first round: Cara Noir beat Marius Al-Ani via ref stoppage after Al-Ani passed out in the Blackout Sleeper (11:32)
  • wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jay AA (Jay Skillet & Absolute Andy) beat Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) (c) after a belt shot and the JAA-Klasse (15:47): This was a fun, very good match. Bobby Gunns and Norman Harras came out at one point, handed the belts to the bastards who clocked Jay-AA with them but didn’t get the pin; referee Tassilo Jung then caught Gunns and Harras in the ring with the belts a second time and threw them out, allowing Jay-AA to use the belts and then hit JAA-Klasse for the win and title change.

WrestlingKULT #15: Früh Choppen 2020 (March 7, 2020/morning, sold out, Kulttempel, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • Christianium Le Surrealiste beat Mot van Kunder
  • Kasey Owens beat Molly Spartan
  • Three Way Match: Mexxberg beat Mike D and Tristan Archer
  • Carnage beat Rico Bushido
  • WrestlingKULT No Limits Title Four Way Match (vacant): Goldenboy Santos beats Durancon and Julian Pace and Norman Harras to win the title
  • WrestlingKULT Title Match: Tom LaRuffa beat Absolute Andy to win the title
  • WrestlingKULT Title Match: Tom LaRuffa beat Tristan Archer (0:03)

AMBITION 12 (March 7, 2020/noon – attendance: 488, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • First Round Match: Daniel Makabe submitted Kevin Lloyd with an STF
  • First Round Match: Chris Ridgeway beat Vincent Heisenberg via TKO after a head kick: Heisenberg replaced Veit Müller here and is actually the son of Baron von Hagen, the first ever 16 Carat Gold winner back in 2006
  • First Round Match: Rust Taylor submitted Tyson Dux with a modified double arm bar
  • First Round Match: Scotty Davis submitted “Speedball” Mike Bailey with an arm bar/hammerfists combo
  • Next Generation AMBITION Fight: Ethan Allen submitted Luke Jacobs with a double arm stretch and kicks to the back: Really impressive performance by those two, they should be back in wXw soon and will also debut for PROGRESS at the end of the month
  • Semifinal: Daniel Makabe submitted Scotty Davis with an upside down armbar headscissors combo
  • Semifinal: Chris Ridgeway beat Rust Taylor by TKO after a head kick
  • AMBITION Superfight: Daisuke Ikeda knocked out Yuki Ishikawa with a punt kick: This was unreal violence between two senior citizens who looked to kill each other with death
  • Finals: Daniel Makabe submitted Chris Ridgeway with an Indian-style Cattle Mutilation

wXwNOW Showcase (March 7, 2020/afternoon – attendance: 436, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • Wrestling Kult (Germany) presents: Carnage pinned Mexxberg with a crucifix hold
  • White Wolf Wrestling (Spain) presents: Rizo pinned Kaiden after a diving knee
  • British Empire Wrestling (UK) presents: BEW Shooting Star title: Lexa Valo (c) submitted Kat von Kaige with a Dragon sleeper
  • CZW (U.S.) presents: CZW World title: Joe Gacy (c) pinned Anthony Greene after a discus lariat
  • Bodyslam Wrestling (Denmark) presents: Three-Way-Dance: Peter Olisander beat Michael Fynne & Emeritus after pinning Fynne with a roll-up
  • Rising Sun Wrestling (Italy) presents: Rising Sun title: Nicolo Inverardi (c) pinned Luca de Pazzi after a Code Red
  • SMASH Wrestling: Four-Way-Dance: Tarik beat Sebastian Suave, Tyson Dux & Brent Banks after pinning Suave with a Flying Curb Stomp

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 – Night 2 (March 7, 2020 – attendance: 1,600/sold out, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • 16 Carat Gold quarter final: Cara Noir submitted Jeff Cobb with the Blackout Sleeper (11:40)
  • 16 Carat Gold quarter final: Eddie Kingston pinned The Rotation after a Backfist to the Future (9:26)
  • Marius Al-Ani pinned Daniel Makabe after a Diamond Driver (9:44): This was preceded by a backstage segment, where Al-Ani challenged Makabe after his AMBITION 12 tournament win earlier in the day
  • The Young Guns won the Jay AA Tag Team Experts Wildcard Gauntlet (24:09): The build-up to this was hilarious, after Andy cracked up the crowd with his dad humor, then claimed he had designed a graphic for the match with the “paid version of Microsoft Paint” and studied color theory for it, plus he had developed an app which would randomly choose partners for the gauntlet.
  • Puma King & Julian Pace beat Leon van Gasteren & Lucky Kid when Puma pinned Lucky after a sitdown powerbomb (5:42): This had Pace and van Gasteren, actual tag partners against each other, which Pace was upset about
  • Black Taurus & Avalanche beat Puma King & Julian Pace when Taurus pinned Puma King (4:22)
  • Black Taurus & Avalanche beat Tarik & Norman Harras when Taurus pinned Tarik after a Spinning Fishermans Buster (3:42): Harras and Tarik didn’t get along, leading to a challenge and an eight men tag at the wXw Feature Event taped on Sunday afternoon, where harras, The Pretty bastards and Oliver Carter faced The Four Pillars of SMASH
  • Black Taurus & Avalanche beat DJ Hyde & Levaniel when Avalanche pinned Hyde after a DRSKR Bomb (0:46): This was amazing. Hyde was upset that Levaniel, who does a sleazy “Prince of the Stars” gimmick, where he claims that he has a castle in the sky, sees the most shooting stars in the sky and wants to spread “the love” was his partner. While Hyde was getting beat up in the ring, Levaniel, totally oblivious of what was going on, cut this amazing promo about how his father was a death match wrestler, who made him sleep in broken glass and would set his blanket on fire before putting him to bed. Hyde then chased him away.
  • Scotty Davis & Chris Ridgeway beat Black Taurus & Avalanche when Davis submitted Taurus in the Rolling Prawn Hold (2:01)
  • The Young Guns (Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs) beat Scotty Davis & Chris Ridgeway after a Gotch-style Piledriver/PK combo on Davis (7:36) to earn a shot at the wXw tag team championship
  • Alexander James submitted Alpha Kevin in 2:02 with a cobra clutch: James kept attacking Kevin, then shoved down an injured Malenie gray who came to make the save; Killer Kelly then came out to confront him
  • 16 Carat Gold quarter final: Mike Bailey pinned Bandido with a Meteora Dream (17:36): Unreal good, match of the weekend. The fans showered both men with money afterwards and it was one of the all time great 16 Carat matches
  • 16 Carat Gold quarterfinal: Jurn Simmons pinned Shigehiro Irie after a piledriver (9:01)
  • wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship – Title vs. Career: Bobby Gunns (c) pinned David Starr after an Ehrenmann Driver (41:15)

wXw We Love Wrestling Feature Event (March 8, 2020/afternoon – attendance: 450, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

This takes place chronologically between Night 2 and Night 3 as far as storyline progression goes

  • Four-Way-Dance: Scotty Davis beat Daniel Makabe, Rust Taylor & Anthony Greene after pinning Greene with a Spinning Fishermans Buster (7:59)
  • Eight-Man-Tag-Team Match: Pretty Bastards, Oliver Carter & Norman Harras beat The Four Pillars of SMASH (Tarik, Sebastian Suave, Tyson Dux & Brent Banks) when Carter pinned Suave after a Redlight Driver/springboard moonsault combo (16:43)
  • Marius Al-Ani pinned Chris Ridgeway after a Diamond Driver (6:35)
  • Stephanie Maze & Killer Kelly beat Baby Allison & Valkyrie when Maze pinned Allison after the Black Mass (7:24)
  • Alexander James submitted Joe Gacy with a corba clutch (7:04)
  • wXw World Tag Team Championship: Jay AA (Jay Skillet & Absolute Andy) (c) beat The Young Guns (Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs) after the JAA-Klasse on Jacobs (14:42). Bobby Gunns, Norman Harras, Oliver Carter and The Pretty Bastards attacked Jay-AA after the match, until Julian Pace and Scotty Davis made the save
  • WALTER pinned Shigehiro Irie after a big splash of the top rope (12:51)

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 – Night 3 (March 8, 2020 – attendance: 1,291, Turbinenhalle 1, Oberhausen/Germany)

  • 16 Carat Gold semi-final: “Speedball” Mike Bailey pinned Jurn Simmons after a Flamingo Driver (10:40)
  • 16 Carat Gold semi-final: Cara Noir submitted Eddie Kingston with the Blackout Sleeper (8:15)
  • wXw Women:s Championship: Amale pinned Stephanie Maze after the Champions Maker (9:06) Maze replaced the injured Melanie Gray here, after Killer Kelly refused the shot since she believed she hadn’t earned it; after the match, there war another scene with Alexander James and Kelly
  • Special Attraction Tag Team Match: Timothy Thatcher & Yuki Ishikawa beat WALTER & Daisuke Ikeda when Thatcher submitted Ikeda with an arm bar (16:42)
  • wXw Shotgun Championship: Alexander Wolfe beat Avalanche (c) & Ilja Dragunov after pinning Dragunov with a sit-down power bomb (12:44)
  • Bandido, Julian Pace & Jeff Cobb beat Puma King, Black Taurus & Hektor when Bandido pinned Hektor with the 21 Plex (12:28)
  • 16 Carat Gold finals: Cara Noir beat Speedball Mike Bailey via ref stoppage in the Blackout Sleeper (28:27)

wXw’s WrestleMania week 16 Carat Gold Revenge show canceled

Posted on by Joseph Currier

wXw’s WrestleMania week event in Tampa, Florida will no longer be taking place.

The promotion, which is based in Germany, announced today that their 16 Carat Gold Revenge show has been canceled due to the United States’ coronavirus-related travel restrictions. The show was scheduled to be held at the Bryan Glazer Family JCC in Tampa on Saturday, April 4 and was going to be part of WWN’s WRESTLExpo events.

#wXw16CaratRevenge cancelled,” wXw wrote. “Due to the US government issuing a 30 day ban for Schengen residents us and our wrestlers will be unable to enter the USA. The event scheduled for April 4th in Tampa is cancelled. Please contact eTix for a full refund.”

WWN’s Gabe Sapolsky wrote that they’ll have more information on the cancellation of 16 Carat Gold Revenge in an upcoming press release.

Regarding WrestleCon’s events in Tampa, WrestleCon tweeted a message today asking fans to please give them time to determine what’s going to happen: “Going to pin this to the top. Please give us some time to figure out if we are having the event, cancelling, or postponing. Your individual needs will be met, but not today. We are not Ticketmaster, we arent going to keep your money.”

The Bullet Club Beach Party is scheduled to take place at Whiskey Joe’s in Tampa on April 4. They tweeted today: “We know you have questions about the event and its status due to this situation. We are working on providing answers to you. We promise we will provide you with a statement as soon as we’re prepared and can provide you with full information.”

David Starr bids farewell to wXw

Posted on by F4W Staff

Coming out of his title vs. wXw career match during 16 Carat Gold weekend, David Starr has bid farewell to wXw.

Starr tweeted Monday that “I won’t go into further details regarding wXw on this platform and idk when/if I will in any public setting. Like I said, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences and that this mutual decision was one that neither of us wanted to make. I love wXw & always will.”

wXw Unified Wrestling Champion Bobby Gunns retained against Starr in their title vs. wXw career match at 16 Carat Gold night two on Saturday. Starr then gave an emotional farewell speech to close the show.

wXw tweeted after the match “Thank you for everything, @TheProductDS – we will miss you. #wXw16Carat”

Dave Meltzer discussed the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio overnight, saying that details are still forthcoming, but “essentially WWE made it such that [wXw and Starr] could not work together anymore.” Meltzer also noted that Starr hasn’t wrestled for PROGRESS Wrestling — which also has a relationship with WWE — in recent months.

During a match with WALTER for OTT Wrestling last June, there was a spot where Starr stomped on WALTER’s NXT United Kingdom title belt. Meltzer wrote at the time: “WWE didn’t approve the David Starr stomping on Walter’s NXT U.K. title belt. Nobody knew ahead of time. Walter and Starr made the call to shock people live knowing it would get over huge. As you can imagine, the reaction from WWE was not positive. Many wrestlers thought it was disrespectful and the higher-ups weren’t happy either.”

Starr has also been a vocal supporter for unionization in professional wrestling.

Starr is OTT’s World Champion and is set to face Jon Moxley at ScrapperMania 6 in Dublin, Ireland this Saturday.

wXw 16 Carat Gold night 1 results: Favorites and underdogs advance

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

wXw 16 Carat Night 1 is in the books: a fun show with some very good matches that saw some favorites and surprises advance to the next round.

1160 fans packed into the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany, set up once more to look amazing by creative director Dennis Birkendahl, live event production company BE-247, and their team. Featuring a huge entrance area of video walls, plus an entrance way covered in red carpet, the view was amazing. wXw recently also got new video equipment, including cameras with wireless capacities, so they also had a screen up which showed the action and is was live edited by wXw’s head of live media, Katja Pilz.

For those of you looking to read up on all the matches and participants, check out my preview article from yesterday.

The show kicked off with the alternate four way dance, the winner of which will be the standby participant in the tournament should somebody get injured.

Rust Taylor beat Hektor, Levaniel, and Scotty Davis in an alternate four way dance (6:30)

This was a fun, all-action match with lots of flying and fast-paced transitions. Levaniel (the “Prince of the Stars”) and Davis (the 19-year old suplex machine who some compare to an early Tyler Bate) were the stars of the match. At one point, Davis and Taylor had their opponents locked in armbars facing each other and traded slaps in a unique spot. Taylor made Levaniel tap to the Rings of Saturn to win.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Mike Bailey pinned Chris Ridgeway (12:55)

This was a stiff, shoot style match with both participants trading kicks and blows, some of which looked and sounded super stiff. Bailey did his 450 knee drop, but got caught in an armbar on impact in a cool spot. He later landed a second 450 knee drop which hit the mark. Bailey hit a Golden Triangle moonsault to the outside. In the end, Ridgeway went for a choke, but Bailey escaped and hit the Ultimate Weapon and Flamingo Driver for the pinfall victory. This wasn’t really an upset, but some people saw Ridgeway advancing here as a new face in the company.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Jurn Simmons pinned Lucky Kid (4:32)

Simmons physically looks like a million bucks right now. and got a cool video before his entrance, which detailed his entire wXw career. Lucky, last year’s winner, again got distracted by the big comic eye on the screen, which first appeared at Dead End in Hamburg. Simmons almost got the victory right away, hitting the Massive Boot and piledriver for a close near fall. Lucky came back with the Lucky Lock, but Simmons escaped. Lucky hit some elbows that drew some boos from the crowd, which up to that point had been about 50/50.

Lucky went for his handspring elbow, but Simmons hit another Massive Boot into Lucky just as he was upside down and about to bounce back in a great visual. Simmons then hit the piledriver to eliminate last year’s winner from the tournament. This was an impressive performance by Simmons, who looked like one of the clear tournament favorites. It will be interesting how things will progress for Lucky who sulked away like a beaten dog after the loss.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: The Rotation pinned Puma King (8:57)

Before the match, a video from backstage with Rust Taylor and Rotation aired. Taylor wished him luck and told him to go win, but that he would be waiting for him in case anyone got injured.

This was an all out lucha battle with Rotation not looking one bit out of place, going spot for spot with Puma King, a member of one of Mexico’s most prominent wrestling families. At one point, Puma hit a long, delayed vertical suplex, one of the rare power moves in the match, followed by a Codebreaker. Rotation, at one point, was on the top rope and evaded an attack by cartwheeling along the top rope. Puma King applied a submission, but Rotation made the ropes. Rotation then hit a Victory over Gravity 450 splash from the top rope for a near fall and hit another one for a slight upset victory.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Eddie Kingston beat Daniel Makabe (9:33)

This was possibly the weakest match of the show. It wasn’t really the fault of either guy but more of a styles clash with Kingston being more of a sloppy brawler and Makabe a submission specialist. The crowd was into Kingston, but didn’t care so much about the match itself. Makabe wore a Chelsea football jersey and got booed by the UK fans for it. Kingston escaped an STF and then hit an STO and overhead suplex. Makabe came back with a German suplex and the Makabe lock, which Kingston also escaped.

Kingston ate two Big Unit punches which he recovered from and then hit the Backfist to the Future for the win. He cut a promo afterward vowing to win and that he was done making stars.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Bandido pinned Julian Pace (9:39)

Bandido was over like crazy and the crowd also was into Pace. This was one heck of a match with Pace never looking out of place, hanging with Bandido both as far as moves and speed goes. They traded moves early and both kipped up at the same time at the end of the sequence. Bandido took over with a superkick and shooting star press for a two count. Bandido hit an impressive one-hand gorilla press, showing off his power. Pace did his fast pace rope running spots where he criss-crosses the ring and evades his opponent every time while the crowd goes “vrrroooom” like an engine gearing up.

Pace hit a standing Spanish Fly for a near fall, but then got caught by a running knee after that. Bandido hit a somewhat torture rack GTS for another close call. Pace hit the Final Lap off the top rope for a near fall and then went for the Best Moonsault Ever but landed on Bandido’s feet. Bandido then hit a backflip fallaway slam from the top to gain the pinfall victory.

This wasn’t an upset, but some people had seen Pace go as far as the finals so those dreams were crushed for now.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Shigehiro Irie pinned Black Taurus (10:30)

This was a hoss fight with two burly guys going at it. They went for shoulder tackles early and Taurus actually got Irie off his feet. Taurus took over with a Samoan Drop while the crowd chanted, “if you love beef, clap your hands.” Irie came back with a huge black hole slam for another near fall after which Taurus hit a Whisper in the WInd followed by a spear for a near fall. Irie came back with a cannonball into the corner and the Beast Bomber for the win. 

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Jeff Cobb beat Alexander James (12:44)

Cobb was very over as he came in as a late replacement for WWE’s Lio Rush. AJ was mostly met with boos or indifference. Cobb took over early with an overhead belly-to-belly and gutwrench suplex before James hit a Tower of London off the apron to the floor. He took over for a while until Cobb came back, prompting Killer Kelly, AJ’s girlfriend, to come out and cheer him on. She also had come out during a James/Jurn Simmons singapore caning match late last year where AJ took a swing at her. AJ was livid and sent her to the back, allowing Cobb to hit a German suplex and some forearms, a Samoan Drop, and standing moonsault. James briefly came back with some more offense, but Cobb eventually put him away with Tour of the Islands.

16 Carat Gold Tournament 2020 first round match: Cara Noir beat Marius Al-Ani by ref stoppage (11:32)

Noir’s entrance is unique as he enters to his music into total darkness and just a spotlight. This was Al-Ani’s fourth Carat as he was in every year since 2017 but never made it past the second round. Noir kissed Al-Ani’s fist, drawing the ire of Marius who threw Noir out in trying to get the countout victory. Noir came back with a dropkick, but got whipped into the corner and took the best chest first corner bump I have seen since the glory days of Bret Hart.

After an ankle lock by Al-Ani, they ended up outside once more when Noir then licked Al-Ani’s hand. Noir repeatedly escaped ankle lock attempts which led to an Al-Ani power bomb and superman punch. Noir finally got the win from behind, applying the Blackout sleeper for the win.

Jay-AA (Absolute Andy & Jay Skillet) beat The Pretty Bastards (Maggot & Prince Ahura) to win the wXw Tag Team Titles (15:47)

Jay-AA cut a backstage promo before the match, riling up the crowd. Andy is probably the best German promo and one of the best in Europe at this point with his dry humor and dad jokes.

This started out with some comedy as Andy and Skillet couldn’t agree on who should start, so Andy picked up Skillet for the F-5 and lifted him over the ropes to the apron. Andy ran wild for a bit until he got cut off. They did a thing about Ahura’s tights (which he removes mid-match) and Andy eventually pulled them down and even locked in a sharpshooter with the half-down pants.

Skillet was the face in peril for a while until Andy finally came back in to run roughshod on both Bastards. At one point, wXw Champion Bobby Gunns came walking down the entrance and distracted referee Tassilo Jung, prompting fellow stablemate Norman Harras to come from the crowd and hand the Bastards the tag titles. The champs hit both Jay-AA members with the belts, but it wasn’t enough to put them away.

As the Bastards distracted the referee, Gunns and Harras entered with the belts once more, but Tassilo Jung caught them and ejected them. As he guided them down the aisle, Jay-AA got a hold of the belts and hit the Bastards with them, following up with the JAA-Klasse for the victory and title change.

**********

Inner Circle results (Thursday, March 5, wXw Academy, Essen/Germany in front of a sellout 170)

  1. Julian Pace pinned Rust Taylor (9:22) after a Best Moonsault Ever
  2. Avalanche pinned ‘Goldenboy’ Santos (6:44) after a DRSKR Bom. Santos, the current Academy Cup holder, came out and claimed no one could beat him. Avalanche, the new Academy head trainer, then came out and did just that.
  3. Marius Al-Ani beat Rotation, Hektor and Vertigo in a four-way (4:24), pinning Vertigo after a Diamond Driver
  4. Jay Skillet pinned Absolute Levandi (9:57) after FtY. Levandi was actually Levaniel, who came out as Absolute Andy and had his body language, facials, and way of talking down pat. He did a promo before the match that sent the crowd into a frenzy and was hilarious. He also copied a lot of Nady’s moves, but Skillet finalĺy put him away.
  5. Killer Kelly pinned Stephanie Maze (9:17) after a Carnation Revolution. Maze trained with Alex Wright and has a martial arts background. She has a good look and good charisma and could be something. They did a shoot-style match that was fine, albeit a bit sloppy at times.
  6. Shigehiro Irie defeated Scotty Davis (8:30) after hitting the Beast Bomber.
  7. Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa beat Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe (17:44) when Ikeda pinned Ridgeway after a high kick. This was an amazing shoot-style match with four guys totally into this style. Ikeda and Ishikawa have a long history, both as partners and opponents and will meet at AMBITION 12 in a superfight. This was a very good match, super stiff and featuring crisp submissions and transitions. This was a dream come true for Makabe, who started tape trading BattleArts tapes at age 14 and idolized Ishikawa ever since.

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

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

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

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

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

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

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

Past Participants: A Who’s Who of Indie Stars

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

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

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

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

The 2020 lineup

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

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

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

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

Marus Al-Ani vs. Cara Noir

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

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

Jeff Cobb vs. Alexander James

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

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

Bandido vs. Julian Pace

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

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

Daniel Makabe vs. Eddie Kingston

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

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

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

Chris Ridgeway vs. Mike Bailey

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

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

The Rotation vs. Puma King

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

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

Shigehiro Irie vs. Black Taurus

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

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

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

Lucky Kid vs. Jurn Simmons

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other highlights:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AMBITION 12 (Saturday at noon)

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

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

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

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

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

wXwNOW Showcase (Saturday afternoon)

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

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

wXw Shotgun Champion Avalanche vs. Ilja Dragunov (Sunday)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even more wrestling

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

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

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

Posted on by Joseph Currier

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kassius Ohno set for PROGRESS, wXw shows in December

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE’s Kassius Ohno is heading to PROGRESS Wrestling and wXw for shows this December.

PROGRESS announced today that Ohno will face Timothy Thatcher at their Chapter 99 event on Sunday, December 15. It’s taking place at the O2 Academy in Sheffield, England.

The day before that, Ohno will be in action at wXw’s 19th anniversary show at Turbinenhalle 2 in Oberhausen, Germany.

Ohno last wrestled for PROGRESS during their Super Strong Style 16 tournament in 2018, making it to the finals before losing to Zack Sabre Jr. Ohno last appeared for wXw in 2016, which was before he re-signed with WWE.

On night two of wXw’s World Tag Team Festival yesterday, Thatcher became the wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion by defeating Bobby Gunns.

Ohno is part of the NXT UK roster on WWE television. He recently feuded with Sid Scala, defeating Scala in a singles match and a British Rounds match. Scala is an on-screen authority figure as general manager Johnny Saint’s assistant.

wXw Amerika ist Wunderbar live results: David Starr vs. Lucky Kid

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

For the first time in their history, Germany’s wXw was part of WrestleMania week.

The show “Amerika ist Wunderbar” (“America is wonderful”, also is a line in the Rammstein song “Amerika”) was a good presentation of what the company and its current crop of key talent is all about even though stars like WALTER, Ilja Dragunov, Killer Kelly and women’s champion/semi-regular Toni Storm were missing from the show as they are under WWE deals.

Before the the show, a backstage segment taped back in Germany aired where David Starr (who never was able to beat WALTER and again failed to do so during wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament earlier this March) confronted Lucky Kid (who won the tournament, beating WALTER in the finals).

The show itself opened with a well-produced video, running down the main matches of the show.

LAX (Ortiz & Santana) beat The Crown (Jurn Simmons & Alexander James)

Ortiz and James started and “The Prince of Pro” quickly took him down, but Ortiz came back with a suplex. He tagged out and LAX worked AJ over for a bit. The heels then used some shady tactics to take over and Simmons and Santana ended up in the ring together. Later on, Jurn showed his raw power and threw Ortiz around like he weighed nothing. The Crown worked together well, isolating Ortiz and hitting a double vertical suplex before Jurn choked him as James distracted referee Tassilo Jung. Ortiz eventually staged his own comeback and tagged out to Santana.

Santana hit a Death Valley face buster on James but then missed a double foot stomp and was sent to ringside. LAX came back and took out James with Santana hitting a frog splash for a close near fall but Simmons made the save at the very last second. He hit the massive boot on Ortiz before the Crown plucked Santana from mid-air and hit a double chokeslam on him for another close fall.

The Crown ripped Santana’s headband off and went for Simmon’s decapitation spot, but Ortiz stopped him and LAX hit a stereo slam on James for the victory.

Avalanche pinned Darby Allin

Avalanche was very popular and got chants as soon as he entered the ring. He immediately threw Allin down, who fled to ringside and started playing mind games. He evaded some of Avalanche’s offense, but quickly got caught and thrown across the ring for his trouble. The crowd started chanting “Auf die Fresse!” (basically smash him in the mouth), and Avalanche happily complied. He hit a body slam and a big splash for a near fall, but Allin still had some gas left in the tank.

Allin actually managed to hit a Code Red on Avalanche, but quickly ran into a massive Samoan Drop for another close fall. Allin evaded a corner charge and went for a Fujiwara armbar, but Avalanche easily made the ropes. Avalanche hit a Liger Driver and shortly thereafter followed up with the DRSKR Bomb for the victory.

Jordynne Grace pinned Yuu

This was supposed to have been Yuu vs. LuFisto, but LuFisto had to go back to Canada due to a family emergency. They jockeyed for position early on, but neither woman could get a real advantage. Grace showed her athleticism with a nip-up and handspring. After some more offense by Yuu, Grace came back with double knees to the back of Yuu’s head, a hip attack, and a Vader Bomb for a near fall. Yuu deadlifted Grace into tombstone position and hit a front slam for another two count.

Yuu came back with a judo throw and went for a piledriver, but Grace evaded the move with a back body drop. Grace went for an airplane spin and slammed her hard for another near fall. Yuu tried to go for a German suplex, but Grace blocked the move and hit a pump handle driver for the win.

– A video of Emil Sitoci winning the wXw Shotgun title in a three way over then-champion Marius Al Ani and Julian Pace in March at 16 Carat Gold 2019: Frankfurt.

wXw Shotgun Champion Emil Sitoci beat Marius Al Ani to retain

Both men started out strong with a fast pace with Sitoci pounding on Al Ani in the corner while Al Ani came back with a dropkick. They traded lucha arm drags and Sitoci hit a nice Frankensteiner for a near fall. Al Ani came back with a nip-up into an enzuigiri and went for a quick cover. Al Ani posed for the crowd, but quickly was caught with a backslide.

Al Ani hit a scissors kick onto Sitoci as he was entering the ring. Sitoci pulled him out of the ring and slammed him into the barriers. Back inside, both men traded offense with Al ANi going for the ankle lock, but Sitoci escaped and hit a gut buster and flying elbow off the top for two. Sitoci went for the Snapmare Driver, but Al Ani threw him off and went for the ankle lock, but didn’t get quite get it. Sitoci came back with a cutter style suplex.

They traded offense until Al Ani hit a sunset flip, nip up, and exploder suplex for another close call. Al Ani went for the frog splash but posed too long and ate a super kick by Sitoci. Sitoci then hit a Spanish Fly off the top for his first successful title defense.

Lucky Kid submitted David Starr

They locked up and wrestled around on the mat with neither man letting go. Starr went to ringside and Lucky teased a dive, but then did his sit down spot where he mocks his opponent. He then followed up with a dive over the top, but Starr caught him on a second attempt and slammed him onto the apron. Back in the ring, Starr started slapping and chopping Lucky in the corner.

As Starr once more told the crowd that he made WALTER tap out, Lucky rolled him up for a two. Starr followed up with his Han Stansen lariat, then worked over Lucky’s arm, then hit a wheel kick, and almost got the victory. Lucky came back with some quick offense that included flipping over on a German suplex attempt and hitting his handspring back elbow off the ropes. Lucky tried to go for the tilt-a-whirl cross face but Starr escaped and hit another lariat.

Lucky took over with a flurry of strikes, but was hit with a flurry of Starr’s offense and a quick superkick. He came back with another handspring elbow but Starr caught him mid-air and turned the momentum into a stiff German suplex. Both men turned things up with hard headbutts and more until Lucky caught Starr in a flash cradle for a two count and Starr hit a brutal powerbomb on his own knee and seemed to momentarily have lost it. Starr again screamed about how he made WALTER tap and Lucky, who was down and almost out, gave him the finger.

Lucky got back up and staggered around punch drunk, eating lariat after lariat. Starr wound up for another lariat but Lucky caught him in the RISE Lock. Starr powered out but Lucky immediately hit another RISE Lock. Lucky no sold a suplex by Starr, then hit 450 double knees off the top, followed by another RISE Lock. Starr went to escape but Lucky rolled through and finally made Starr tap.

After the match, Starr cut another angry promo, this time targeted at WWE. He said that he was disgusted with the fans as they allowed the evil corporate giant to invade independent wrestling. He said he was an independent wrestler and that certain wrestlers couldn’t show up at these shows as he was working for a corporation that didn’t provide healthcare to their wrestlers. He said that next time he would wrestle WALTER, he would beat him. Then, he quit wXw.

– A pre-taped segment with Schadenfreude (Chris Brookes and Aussie Open) aired which was interrupted by Absolute Andy. He told them to have respect and not to touch him as his sunglasses cost 400 Euros, more than the three of them make in a month. Schadenfreude kept disrespecting him and he told Brookes he’s beat him.

Chris Brookes pinned Absolute Andy

Before the match started, Andy pulled Brookes out of the ring and they brawled around ringside with Brookes taking over. Andy stayed outside and ate a dive by Brookes for his troubles. Brookes then got up on the railing and hit a double foot stomp onto Andy on the floor. Andy tried to powerbomb Brookes on the apron, but Brookes managed to land on the apron with his feet and hit another foot stomp onto Andy’s face.

At that point, the match got officially started. Andy went for a big backbreaker early on, but ate a number of chops in return. He evaded Andy in the corner and hit a senton onto Andy’s back from the middle rope, followed by a suplex. Andy came back with a Double A spinebuster and a suplex of his own. Andy then went for a top rope moonsault, but missed his target. Brookes locked in an Octopus hold, but Andy made the ropes and then quickly followed up with a top rope overhead belly-to-belly.

Brookes hit a chop and went for a springboard move but got superkicked out of mid air. Andy went for an F-5, but Brookes escaped and turned the move into a flash rollup for the pin.

wXw World Tag Team Champions Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davies) def. The Workhorsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry) to retain

Aussie Open didn’t have the tag team titles with them for some reason. The crowd was split 50/50 with chants early on. Henry and Fletcher started out and each man broke clean in the corner, rolling back and teasing their opponent. Henry took over with some quick offense and worked over Fletcher’s arm before tagging in Drake. The big man took over with a hard chop and pounded on the “Aussie Arrow”.

Fletcher eventually managed to tag out and “Dunkzilla” came in and no sold some chop attempts by Henry. The Workhorsemen hit a slingshot-neckbreaker-codebreaker combo on Fletcher and kept working the young Australian over. The Workhorsemen kept smartly tagging and isolated Fletcher from his partner until Fletcher finally managed to roll through the ring and hot tag Davies. Drake and Davies finally met for the first time in the match and traded hard chops. Drake then worked over both men including getting Fletcher to DDT his own partner on a neckbreaker spot. Fletcher held his own and Aussie Open took out Henry on the outside before focusing on Drake back in the ring.

All four men traded big moves in the ring, culminating with Drake and Davies facing off again. Drake hit a big moonsault and the Workhorsemen almost had the tag titles in their grasp. In the end, Davies hit his pull-up piledriver on Henry before they finished him off with a double slam for the victory.

wXw World Unified Wrestling Champion Bobby Gunns defeated Shigehiro Irie to retain

Gunns came out with some pyro but an unlit cigarette as arenas in the U.S. take smoking prohibitions more serious than those in Germany.

Irie took over early and beat Gunns down and then hit his pivoting splash off the ropes for a two count. Gunns tried the SWIFT armbar but Irie countered out of the move. Gunns took over and worked on Irie’s arm, including hitting an armbar over the ropes. Gunns kept working over the arm until he was caught in a surprise Black Hole Slam.

Irie went to the top and hit a massive big splash and then even flipped himself over on impact, but only managed to get a two count. A brief comeback by Gunns was met with a stiff lariat, but he popped right back up. The two then traded a number of brutal German suplexes until Irie crashed into the champ with a big pounce. They ended up on the apron and Gunns proceeded to snap Irie’s fingers. As Gunns went for an attack running across the apron, Irie caught him and hit a piledriver on the apron which sent both men to the outside.

Irie hot a top rope elbow onto Gunns just as he entered through the ropes, following it up with a vicious cannonball into the corner. He then hit another stiff lariat, but it seemed like he injured his own arm in the process, which Bobby had weakened before. After a suplex off the top, Gunns tried to deadlift Irie for a German but the big man escaped. Gunns went for a hammerlock and had Irie on the edge of submission, but Irie actually bit the rope to break the hold. 

Irie hit a brutal piledriver and looked to have things won, but Bobby made it back to his feet, hit a half-and-half suplex and finally managed to lock in an armbar, forcing Irie to tap out.

As Bobby was about to celebrate, Joey Janela’s music hit and the man himself came out to “Bad Boy” chants. Gunns lit a cigarette and Janela did the same, stealing Gunns’ lighter in the process. He looked at Gunns and shouted that “he was coming to Germany to take that f*cking belt”.

**********

Since live production was handled by the WWNLive crew, it unfortunately was not up to the high production standard that wXw fans have gotten used to which is among the pinnacle of indie wrestling. For some reason, they filmed the video wall instead of sending the feed directly to the stream and also didn’t feed the audio from the PA into the stream audio, making for some distorted audio. Also, the WWN video quality itself wasn’t up to par, which also was an issue during the EVOLVE show that took place earlier in the day.

What’s next for wXw talent?

This was not the only show that wXw core talent appears on over WrestleMania weekend. Lucky Kid, Bobby Gunns, and Marius Al Ani will team in the semi-main event of Friday’s WWN Supershow against Eddie Kingston, Joe Gacy & Shane Strickland. On the same show, Absolute Andy challenges Anthony Henry for the FIP title.

Emil Sitoci will face Brian Pillman Jr. Friday at WrestleCon’s U.S. vs. The World tomorrow while Avalanche will appear in MLW’s Battle Riot II later that day. Aussie Open and Chris Brookes also will be in action on numerous shows over the weekend.

Of course, WALTER, who still is a key member of wXw, will challenge Pete Dunne for the WWE UK Championship on TakeOver: New York Friday evening while former wXw regular Marcel Barthel will be in action at the NXT tapings before that show. A number of former and current wXw talent also may appear at the NXT UK tapings on Saturday.

wXw 16 Carat Gold night three results: Tournament winner crowned

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other events —

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

– Absolute Andy pinned Vinnie Vortex after an F-5

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

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

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

– Wesna pinned Yuu

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

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

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

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

Fun comedy match with some sexual stereotypes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Starr promo

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

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

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

Starr left, as devastated as he had entered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other events —

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

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

Quarterfinals: Rico Bushido defeated Veit Müller via TKO

Quarterfinals: Punch Drunk Istria defeated Danny Jones via submission

Quarterfinals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Laurance Roman via submission

Quarterfinals: Chris Ridgeway defeated A-Kid via submission

Semifinals: Rico Bushido defeated Punch Drunk Istria via TKO

Semifinals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Chris Ridgeway via TKO

BattlArts Superfight: Yuki Ishikawa defeated Timothy Thatcher via submission

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

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

Finals: Shigehiro Irie defeated Rico Bushido via submission

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

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Müller eventually hit the DDT on Pace for the win.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other events — 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Super hard-hitting match.

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

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

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

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

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

wXw 18th Anniversary results: Ringkampf vs. British Strong Style

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

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.

Ringkampf (WALTER, Timothy Thatcher & Marcel Barthel/Axel Dieter Jr.) defeated British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) when Thatcher submitted Seven

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.

Restrictions reportedly increased in new NXT UK contracts

Posted on by Bryan Rose

A new report indicates that WWE is looking to substantially restrict the number of promotions that their United Kingdom talent will be allowed to wrestle in.

A WrestleTalk report out today said that following this weekend’s tapings in Liverpool, a number of talent were given new contracts. These new contracts come with a pay raise, but also with new caveats: for one, they can only wrestle under WWE and WWE’s partner groups, which include PROGRESS, ICW, Fight Club Pro, Attack! Pro Wrestling, Futureshock, Over the Top Wrestling and wXw. They will be allowed to take the rest of their advertised booking through the end of the year.

Additionally, PWInsider reported that these promotions won’t be able to film WWE contracted talent, leaving them in dark matches.

NXT UK talent under these new deals reportedly won’t be able to wrestle against talent contracted to promotions such as Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, World of Sport or any other promotion that WWE considers major. They also won’t be able to perform for a promotion if there isn’t a paramedic there.

More local, lesser known promotions in the UK will likely be hit hardest. Pro Wrestling Chaos announced this morning that Flash Morgan Webster, El Ligero and James Drake, all under WWE contract, would no longer be able to perform at their events. Tidal Wrestling also announced that El Ligero would no longer appear after their final show of 2018.

Before the new contracts, UK talent were only banned from promotions that had a significant streaming or television presence, like RevPro or Defiant. The report stresses that these new restrictions don’t apply to everyone on the UK roster, but does apply to the majority.

This news comes as WWE is looking to ramp up their presence in the UK. With the establishment of the NXT UK brand, they look to regularly tape television there going forward. NXT UK will hold their first TakeOver event in Blackpool on January 12.

NXT’s Marcel Barthel set for wXw 18th Anniversary

Posted on by Joseph Currier

An NXT wrestler is set for wXw’s 18th Anniversary show.

wXw announced today that Marcel Barthel (announced as Axel Dieter Jr., which was his in-ring name before signing with WWE) will be returning for their anniversary event in Oberhausen, Germany on December 22.

Tassilo Jung, wXw’s head of communications and talent relations, tweeted: “Last year at 17th Anni @TheWWEWolfe & @Marcel_B_WWE made a surprise appearance. At #wXw18thAnni Axel Dieter Jr returns home to wrestle. We appreciate our friends at @WWE allowing a current @WWENXT contracted talent to wrestle on a @wXwGermany event for the first time ever.”

Barthel was a star for wXw prior to signing with WWE in 2017. He’s wrestled at NXT house shows since joining WWE and made his NXT television debut on an episode that aired this August, losing to Keith Lee in Lee’s debut.

Earlier this month, Dave Meltzer reported on an idea WWE has for Germany and their relationship with wXw: “Everything reported on in recent weeks regarding the German tryout and such is related to the idea of a launch of an NXT Germany brand that would be related in some form with wXw, similar to the Progress relationship with WWE U.K.”

wXw World Tag Team League night three results

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by Markus Gronemann for F4WOnline.com from Turbinenhalle 2 in Oberhausen, Germany

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) [6] defeated Okami (Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani) [3] at 10:32

This was a stiff, strong style battle, as it should have been with these four. Thatcher and Hashimoto started before tagging in the big guys, who went at it and WALTER got the better of it with a kick to the head. Kamitami failed to slam WALTER who fell on him for a pin, before he eventually managed on the second try to a big pop. WALTER hit a Shotgun dropkick and powerbomb on Kamitani, followed by another powerbomb into a Thatcher European uppercut for a near fall which Hashimoto saved. Eventually, WALTER hit a lariat on Hashimoto for the pin. Ringkampf now had to hope for the Lucha Bros. to beat CCK so they’d go to the finals. Otherwise, they would be out.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: Calamari Catch Kings (Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham) [6] defeated The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) [3] at 9:05

Gresham came out strong with a cheap shot on Penta and head scissors on Fenix. Lucha Bros took over and Brookes is in for the save but gets put in a tree of woe and the Lucha Bros. invent a whacky move that basically turns Fenix into a projectile to be shot into the corner at Brookes. After a comeback, Brookes hit a combined missile dropkick/senton on both Mexicans from the top. A reverse rana on Penta followed by a shooting star press by Gresham almost wins it, but Fenix makes the save.  Penta is down for another shooting star and as all four men enter the fray, Penta scores a near fall on Gresham as Fenix hits an amazing tornillo to Brookes on the outside, but it’s still not enough. Eventually, CCK hits a slingshot cutter and Gresham hits another Shooting Star Press for the win. Really great match.

Wesna defeats LuFisto at 7:56

These two faced each other about 10 years back in SHIMMER and also for DWA in Germany. They still are as tough and hard-hitting as they were back in the day. Wesna booted LuFisto out of the ring, but she came back and they both ended up outside. They brawled around ringside and into the seating area, sending the crowd scattering. LuFisto ended up putting Wesna in a chair on the outside and hit a nice running dropkick on her but crashed on the concrete floor herself. Back in the ring, Wesna takes over with an STO, then they trade suplexes. LuFisto with a hip attack and cannonball into the corner but Wesna came back with a death valley bomb for the win in a solid, fun match.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) [6] defeated Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) [6] at 7:51

Jay FK flee as Aussie Open enters and stall for a bit. Jay FK on the offense, but the Australians turns things around and hit an assisted cutter on Skillet and had the three count, but Kaspin pulled the ref to the outside to prevent that. Tope on Jay FK and they escape a sit-out powerbomb and get on offense, with Kyle Fletcher, the smaller team member being face in peril for a bit. Davis finally got the hot tag and ran wild on both Jay FK members and even hits a double slam on both. Kaspin manages to escape the next sequence though and Jay FK mirror last night’s finish, as there was another mule kick behind the ref’s back, followed by an assisted roll-up for the win.

If SPLX beats Monster Consulting, Jay FK are in the finals. If not, then Aussie Open, Monster Consulting and Jay FK each have 6 points in a stalemate and there would be a draw of luck to determine the winner of the B Block.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Angelico & Jeff Cobb [6] defeated Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) [3] at 14:07

Avalanche and Cobb in with a shoulder tackle to a massive reaction, but Nero and Angelico quickly tag in. After a series of quick tags, Monster Consulting work over Cobb in the corner. He finally gets the hot tag and Angelico uses Nero as a take-off point to hit a vicious flying knee into the corner on Avalanche. Nero and Angelico trade until Angelico hits another knee and a kick for a near fall. Cobb is back in and they hit a combined suplex/crossbody. Avalanche with a splash into the corner onto both SPLX members.

Angelico hits a rana on Nero as Avalanche goes for a huge body press on Cobb from the middle rope, only to be caught in mid-air and hammered to the mat with an Oklahoma Stampede to a huge pop. They followed it up with a Doomsday Device knee by Angelico on Nero and Cobb hits Tour of the Islands, but Avalanche breaks up the pin. Avalanche with a huge clothesline on Cobb, but Angelico avoids the Final Consultation by Nero, who takes out his partner and Angelico hits a Lucha-style rollup for the victory. Monster Consulting are devastated and grab the tag team titles, but reluctantly hand them over to referee Tassilo Jung.

Dirty Dragan Trial Series Tag Team Match: Alexander James & Jurn Simmons defeated Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci

This match stemmed from the angle the night before. The heels came out first and Sitoci came out alone, to allow Dragan to sneak up through the crowd with a belt in his hands and pay back Simmons and James for the belt whipping the previous night. He whacks away at them, while Sitoci runs down the ramp and hits a beautiful double clothesline over the top rope into the ring. He hits the Snapmare Driver on James, but Simmons hits him with the Massive Boot and a piledriver to take him out for a bit, as the bell finally rang to start the match. Dragan uses this opportunity to hit a dropkick and goes for some ground and pound. Big clothesline by Jurn, but Dragan comes back with a piledriver of his own.

Dragan goes up top, but James recovered enough to shove him off the top. Sitoci also recovered and went for a cross body on both heels, followed by a gut buster and a big Macho Man style elbow on Jurn. Finally Sitoci hits a spinning tombstone and drags Jurn to the corner so Dragan can hit a frog splash for the pin and the win… or is it, as James pulled Jurn’s foot on the bottom rope at the last second and pointed that out to the ref after he had counted the pin. The match is restarted and Jurn immediately hits a Massive Boot on Dragan for the win. As per the Trial Match stipulation, Dragan is now gone from wXw. The crowd was solidly behind Dragan, chanting for him (and booing a few idiots who sang the “na na na na, hey hey, goodbye” song. Dragan left, devastated.

Lucky Kid defeated Tarkan Aslan at 7:48

This match was built up basically since January, when Kid accidentally hit Tarkan during the big cage match at Back to the Roots. Tarkan claimed he was injured and had to retire, only to eventually show it was all just a ruse to get back at Lucky, who was sick with grief the whole time, blaming his brother’s career ending injury on his own mistake. Kid was in Tarkan’s face right away and they traded spots, but as they know each other so well, they had counters and escapes for everything.

Aslan escaped to ringside after a few dropkicks and Kid teased a dive, but instead did his “BLAH!” sit down spot in the rind and flipped his brother off. Tarkan pulled Kid to ringside and beat him up then tried to pin him in the ring to no avail. Marius Al-Ani came out with the Shotgun title and hit Lucky in the back with it when he went for a handspring back elbow and bounced off the ropes, upside down, for leverage. As Lucky elsse, Al-Ani slides the belt into the ring, but Pete Bouncer and Ivan Kiev of RISE and Lucky’s buddies come out to prevent any additional shenanigans. Lucky used Tarkan’s distraction for a dragon suplex and STF for the clean submission.

wXw World Tag Team Title World Tag Team League 2018 Finals: Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) defeated Calamari Catch Kings (Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham) at 13:10,

Jay FK came out in new, white gear they hadn’t worn all weekend and also had sprayed their hair white. The teams paired off in twos and brawled around ringside, before the bell even rang. Skillet and Gresham, who held the tag titles together as RockSkillet in 2012-2013 had a shouting and shoving match. Kaspin shoved Brookes into the ring post, and Skillet pulled Gresham right into a chair shot by Kaspin. Brookes then took Kaspin over to the stage setup and shoved him into a metal wave-breaker area. Skillet saves Kaspin from a Praying Mantis Bomb on the ramp, after which Kaspin hits a swinging neck breaker on the stage.

Jay FK get down into the crowd again, but Gresham recovers enough to hit a moonsault off the stage to the floor onto Jay FK. The belt finally rang to start the match. CCK with the upper hand back in the ring, and Gresham does an Octopus Hold on Kaspin whole Brookes does the same to Skillet in the ropes. Kaspin reaches the ropes and Skillet hits a combined neckbreaker/splash combo on Brookes for a near-fall. After a few more spots, Brookes hits hi missile dropkick/back senton combo on both Jay FK members.

Gresham with a stunner and back elbow and Jay FK try the mule kick/roll up combo again, but it this time gets thwarted by Brookes, who scouted them well. Brookes and Kaspin were outside and Gresham hit a tope con giro on Kaspin. We had a ref bump, but Jay FK couldn’t capitalize right away, leading into a series of small packages and reversals out from a suplex by Gresham and Skillet. Kaspin threw Brookes out of the ring and kept him there while Skillet hit a superkick on Gresham and they did a uranages/backbreaker combo onto him for the pin and the tournament and tag title win.

Post-match, Jay FK kicked CCK out of the ring and posed with the belts to bring the show to a close.