Tag: wXw

wXw World Tag Team League night two results

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by Markus Gronemann for F4WOnline.com from Turbinenhalle 2 in Oberhausen, Germany in front of 660 fans

wXw Shotgun Champion Marius Al-Ani submitted Julian Pace in 12:20 with an ankle lock

This was a really fun, fast-paced match with Pace, who only has one year of in-ring experience under his belt and looking the best he has looked thus far. Al-Ani threw him out of the ring a few times early on, frustrating the newcomer. Pace had a few counters for the more experienced grappler and looked good for a while. Al-Ani went for his tope over the corner post, but Pace moved and two crew members ate the aerial effort. Pace then went for a dive over the top of his own, which connected. He tried to finish things with a moonsault back inside but Al-Ani grabbed his leg mid-air and tapped him out with the ankle lock.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: Okami (Hideyoshi Kamitani & Daichi Hashimoto) [3] defeated CCK (Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham) [3] at 13:50 after an implant DDT by Hashimoto on Brookes

Stiff match with Okami looking great. Gresham at one point gave Kamitani a snap German suplex off the ropes but ate a double clothesline for his troubles. Gresham and Kamitani had each member of the other team in a submission opposite of each other and started palm-striking each other. Hashimoto picked up the win with the DDT.

– They played a nice video package on Doug Williams, including quotes from Robbie Brookside when he was at the wXw Academy a few weeks ago and announced he’d be inducted into the wXw Hall of Fame at 18th Anniversary on 12/22.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Jay FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin) [3] defeated Team SPLX (Jeff Cobb & Angelico) [0] at 14:10 via pin after a mule kick followed by a roll-up from Skillet on Cobb

Super fun match. Jay FK played chicken shit heels for a bit and scattered, when Cobb tagged in. Cobb gave Skillet a free-hand F5 and then gave both members of Jay FK a People’s Moonsault. Angelico practically killed Kaspin but Skillet broke up the pin. Cobb went for a German suplex on Skillet, but Kaspin grabbed his hand and Skillet mule-kicked him low, rolled him up and Kaspin pressed down from the outside for leverage for the win.

– Dirty Dragan came out and said that the Dirty Dragan Trial Series will end tomorrow and he has to face someone who had been a thorne in his side for a long time. He said that if he lost, the office told him, he’s done in the promotion. He could not finish who his opponent would be and broke down in the ring. Emil Sitoci came out to comfort him. Then Jurn Simmons’ music played and he came out and Dragan said that this was the man he had to face. Emil was skeptical but eventually said he believes in him.

Dragan told him to leave as he had to do this on his own. Sitoci complied but threatened he’d be back if Simmons laid a finger on him. Dragan and Jurn got into a heated discussion, with Jurn claiming that Dragn had bullied him last night and was now challenging while he was at his lowest. Dragan shoved him but Alexander James made his surprise return and attacked Dragan with Simmon’s cane-sword. Sitoci came out for the save but they beat him down as well and held him against the ropes. Simmons took Dragan’s belt and shirt off and started to bet him hard on the back, leaving big welts. James proceeded to choke Dragan with his belt and they took turns beating up Sitoci. The faces were escorted out by medics. This was a really hot angle, with all the pent up emotion and the brutality of the beat-down and the surprise return.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: RINGKAMPF (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) [3] defeated Lucha Bros. (Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero Miedo) [3] in 15:50′ after a transition by Thatcher from a Fujiwara Armbar into a Crucifix Cover

If not for the main event, this would have been match of the night, as it was amazing on so many levels. A lot of chopping, getting chopped, no-selling chops and chopping hard in safe places going around, along with crazy high flying and grappling and regular and whacky submission attempts. WALTER and Penta especially had the crowd going wild and I think everyone is hoping for a singles match between those two one of those days. Even the finish was unique, as Thatcher had Penta in the Fujiware armbar and then rolled through to a pinning combination.

Toni Storm pinned Wesna in 9:42 after Strong Zero

This was a rematch from last year’s Femmes Fatales, even though it was a tad below last year’s outing. Still  a very good, they went out into the crowd again and threw each other into the chairs. Wesna kicked out of a Strong Zero, hit a lariat but the second Strong Zero did her in.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) [6] defeated wXw Tag Champions Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) [3] in 12:12 after a Sydney Spinner on Nero

Match started out strong with a five count of punches by Nero in one corner and shoulderblocks by Avalanche in the other one. Aussie Open dove on the champs on the outside. Back in the ring, Fletcher tried a crossbody on Avalanche but bounced right off. Avalanche and Davis had a suplex battle which Avalanche won. The Aussie’s hit Monster Consulting’s own double team Go To Sleep, before Avlanche hits a double Samoan Drop on them. Aussies hiptoss Avalanche into Nero and ick up the win with a double powerbomb, foiling the champs’ plans to win every match. Depending on how the matches go tonight, we will see if Monster Consulting can defend their titles as the first team ever.

Interim wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Ilja Dragunov pinned Bobby Gunns in 22:30 after a Torpedo Moskau

Wow, just wow. Beside the amazing crowd and constant chanting, these two had one hell of a great match, filled with intensity, hard strikes, submissions and counters and just the will to win. Ilja went for a Senton but was caught in a cross armbreaker. They spill outside and brawled through the arena. Gunns tries for a few more arm submissions but none lead to victory just yet. Gunns twice tried to silence the crowd for the Marty-Scurll-style finger snap but the crowd won’t have any of that. Ilja with a back suplex and clothesline and a Chernobyl Bomb for a near fall. After 14 minutes, the crowd shortly calms down for a superplex spot which Gunn manages to hit.

Strike and chop exchanges as the crowd changes chants. Gunns hits some Saito suplexes and a discus lariat. The crowd gets loud again. They exchange chops on the apron and Gunns slams him and the dueling chants explode again. Gunns finally manages to shush the crowd for a finger snap but after he’s done, Ilja defiantly flips him off with both hands, so Gunns goes and snaps some more fingers to a huge pop. Instead of selling, Ilja hit a desperation Torpedo Moskau out of nowhere for the pin and the title win and the place explodes even more. Just unreal, a great match, which I would also rate at five stars, what with the uniqueness of the crowd and that incredible heat the match had, plus it was perfectly wrestled. Just unreal.

wXw World Tag Team League night one results, updates on WWE relationship

Posted on by F4W Staff

By Markus Gronemann for F4WOnline.com

Night 1 of the wXw World Tag Team League is in the books and they started off strong with a show filled with great matches, amazing wrestling and craziness in the main event. Top to bottom, it was one of the finest shows I ever attended live with some great and otherwise very good matches.

There were roughly 500 people in attendance at Turbinenhalle 2.

Dark Match: RISE (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer) defeated Coast 2 Coast (Leon St. Giovanni & Shaheem Ali) by pin (6:23) after Bouncer hit Self Justice on St. Giovanni

This was a fun opener with two good teams with a quick pace and a few good highspots to get the crowd going. Coast 2 Coast came over on Thursday and will stay through the end of November. Alexander James, who had extended stays here and is a part-time trainer at their school, recommended wXw to them. 

Toni Storm pinned Meiko Satomura (7:40) after hitting Strong Zero

This was one hell of an opening match with two of the best female wrestlers in the world. Satomura is very smooth and they worked really well together. Storm won after a second Strong Zero.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) [2] defeated Okami (Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani) [0] at 7:08

This was insane and had the crowd going crazy with the contingent of British and Irish fans making noise. It featured lots of high flying, crazy double team moves and stiff shots by the two Japanese wrestlers.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) [2] defeated Jay FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) [0] at 10:10

Monster Consulting were over like nobody’s business, especially with the British crowd, who adored them. The overseas fans, headed by Sarah & Sarah of the podcast of the same name also organized a bowling tournament, the “Oberhausen Open”, which took place after the show and involved 22 teams consisting of wrestlers and fans to which Monster Consulting sponsored a trophy. Jay FK are such smarmy heels that people love to hate, including doing an interview in full character for a media panel earlier. Avalanche played the monster who, at times, no-sold everything including a cross body where Kaspin just bounced off his chest. He did play babyface in peril a bit and made the hot tag to Nero. Avalanche pinned Kaspin after hitting a Boulder Dash.

Julian Pace defeated Emil Sitoci and Fred Yehi and Lucky Kid in a wXw Shotgun Title #1 Contendership four way in 7:02

This was another fun match. Shotgun champ Marius Al-Ani came out before the match when everyone was in the ring, did some flipups, and told the wrestlers that nobody wanted to see them as they were not stars on TV and he was. This drew a big pop as Sitoci has been on numerous big reality shows in the Netherlands and now actually works as a television producer for Endemol, coming up with concepts for new shows.

He also said that nobody ever hit the gym like he does and has the body that he does, which again, was funny as Sitoci is pretty ripped with great abs. The match itself consisted of lots of quick spots and working together. Pace picked up the win afer hitting a Code Red on Lucky Kid to a good reaction. There’s also a neat little story here as he made his main roster debut exactly one year ago during Tag League 2017 and now earned his first ever title match.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block A Match: Calamari Catch Kings (Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham) [2] defeated Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) [0] at 14:37

This was a tremendous match. Gresham and WALTER started to a big pop as Gresham wouldn’t back down. WALTER just picked him up, carried him to the corner with outstretched arms, put him on the turnbuckle, and patted his head. Gresham then did a flying body press on him but WALTER caught him and wanted to slam him, but Gresham held on, caught WALTER’s leg, held it up so WALTER couldn’t get at him, then tripped the other leg and patted WALTER on the head. They had an otherwise brilliant hard-hitting match, based on chops, strikes, and submissions. Ringkampf had CCK in a double sleeper, only for them to reverse out into a double octopus hold. WALTER accidentally clotheslined Thatcher at one point which lead into the finishing sequence of Gresham tapping him out with the Calimari Clutch.

World Tag Team League 2018 Block B Match: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) [2] defeated Team SPLX (Angelico & Jeff Cobb) [0] at 16:35

This was another very good match as all four men are great. Angelico did some great flying and Cobb is just a beast. At one point, he had Fletcher up in a gutwrench and spun him from side to side about four or five times before slamming him. There was lots of stiff action, including some sick flying knees by Angelico. Angelico was pinned after the Sydney Spinner.

David Starr defeats Jurn Simmons in a hair vs. hair hardcore match

This was probably the greatest hardcore match I ever saw live. The feud between those two has been going on for a year now as they teamed during tag League last year, lost in the finals, developed some tensions, broke up, had a match, made up afterwards, and then Jurn turned on Starr and destroyed him with a cane. They were then supposed to meet in a last man standing match during 16 Carat this year but Simmons broke his ankle a few days earlier and was out until August. He returned at Shortcut to the Top, got into it with Starr, and they had a last man standing match where they dismantled the ring, went to a double down and ended up here with a series of great promos and segments.

During the pre-show when he was supposed to be interviewed, Simmons came out, attacked announcer Sebastian Hollmichl, and buzzed off some of his hair.

Simmons came out first with a black-painted Singapore cane and Starr, who usually has an elaborate entrance with all his nicknames being read, decided to forego that procedure and attacked Simmons right away. They brawled on the ramp. Simmons brought a wax patch, put it on Starr’s hairy chest and ripped it off, leading to a bloody patch on Starr’s chest. They brawled up the stairs to the balcony and fought up there, amidst the VIP section and the section where the crew, the journalists, and the announcers were. Simmons again attacked Hollmichl (the announcer) and tried to throw him off the balcony, until Starr hit him with a barstool. They brawled down the other side of the stairs when Starr got up on top of the first landing and jumped on Simmons and a few young boys from about 10-15 feet up (right in front of where I was standing which looked crazy).

After some time, they got up and brawled some more with Simmons putting a piece of barricade over two wall segments, eventually suplexing Starr through it. They used some more chairs and the cane and ended up back in the ring. After some more wild brawling, including a stapler, Starr introduced thumbtacks into the mix. He ended up getting slammed and powerbombed into it and had tacks oll over his back and was also bleeding from the stapler wounds. Simmons also put some tacks in his mouth and kicked him in the face. Simmons then hit the referee with the cane so he couldn’t count any pinfalls. Starr hit Simmons again for the pin but there was no ref, and when Tassilo Jung ran out, Simmons kicked out at 2.9. Simmons set up two chairs in the corner and put thumbtacks on top of the seating cushions. He went to the top rope with Starr and went for a piledriver, but Starr managed to escape. He then managed to do a piledriver from the second rope with Jurn on the top ripe through the chairs and tacks for the pin to an amazing pop at 24:34.

Simmons then wanted to escape the shaving, but Emil Sitoci and Dirty Dragan, two of his former friends who he also turned on came out to keep him in the ring. While he was distracted, Starr cut off some of his hair from behind. Sitoci superkicked him over the top rope and they put him in a chair. Starr allowed Dragan to cut of the first batch of hair. Then, Sitoci cut some off and eventually Starr brought a buzzer and buzzed off most of Simmons hair, only leaving some on the sides and a small lock at the front, which of course, looked even more ridiculous. This was a totally wild, crazy match which nontheless was very good for what it was.

wXw just announced that world champion Absolute Andy has a shoulder injury and is out of tonight’s three way main event against Bobby Gunns and ilja Dragunov. They’ll have a match for the interim world title and the winner will face Andy at a later date.

The promotion announced that world champion Absolute Andy has a shoulder injury and is out of Saturday’s three way main event against Bobby Gunns and ilja Dragunov. They’ll have a match for the interim world title and the winner will face Andy at a later date.

**********

Jim Smallman Standup comedy show

At midnight, there was a 90-minute Jim Smallman (one of the PROGRESS owners) stand-up show which was hilarious. He went through the history of wrestling from the days of Farmer Burns and Hackenschmidt all the way to Thesz, Rogers, Sammartino, Graham, Flair, Hogan, Warrior, Undertaker, Austin, the nWo, the Kliq, Sid Vicious, Scott Steiner, John Cena, and Daniel Bryan. He told some great stories from various PROGRESS shows and meeting some wrestlers such as New Jack and X-Pac. He explained that after the angle he did with Jimmy Havoc, his then 10-year-old daughter saw it on YouTube and was scared of Havoc until when she was over for Christmas and Havoc also was there. They sat her down and explained how it wasn’t real. Havoc spent the night and the daughter again and again asked if they would fight. They would say no and his daughter eventually came into his room in the middle of the night, told him Havoc was asleep in the guest room, gave him a plastic folding chair and told him “he’s asleep, go finish the job”. This was super entertaining and I’d recommend everyone to go see him if you get the chance.

He also answered a few questions and said that PROGRESS would not run WrestleMania weekend this year as the staying costs at the hotel would be too expensive and it didn’t make sense for them to go. But, they probably would do another U.S. tour down the line. He also said that the idea of a PROGRESS/wXw/EVOLVE triangle was thrown around a while back, but it never got out of the talking stages, but that he would love something like that.

**********

Before the show, some members of the European wrestling media had the chance to talk to Tassilo Jung, wXw’s head of talent relations and media for some insights on the current developments in wXw:

On the wXw/WWE relationship:

Tas said that he could only talk about things that only happened such as the Robbie Brookside training session at the wXw Academy. From what Avalanche (Robert Dreissker) stated, it was about three hours of drills and basics and he said that it was probably one of the most exhausting things he had done in quite some time. Jung indicated that there were ongoing talks, but that he would like not to comment on them right now. He said that they were in contact to get permission to air the Pete Dunne/WALTER match a few months ago and that he expects to be able to use other WWE UK performers in the future if they asked for that, stating that they regularly have Killer Kelly on their shows, who is a contracted WWE UK talent. What he did state though is that as of right now, there is no deal in place like WWE has with PROGRESS or ICW.

Bad Bones update

He went a bit more into detail with the Bad Bones John Klinger situation as they surprisingly suspended him in April while he was tag team champion and part of one of their main storylines. He said that Klinger and he remain friends, he talks to him regularly and that they would go hiking together in Switzerland (where Jung lives) next week. He said that Bones “made a grave mistake” and that’s why they decided to suspend him, but that the door to working together in the future is not closed forever and that, whatever happened, could be remedied at some point.

DDT, wXw coming to the US for WrestleMania weekend

Posted on by Bryan Rose

wXw and DDT will both be coming to the US during WrestleMania weekend.

They will be a part of the WWNLive Experience, a group of collective shows that will take place at the La Boom nightclub in Queens, New York during WrestleMania weekend. Other promotions under the WWN banner will also run shows, including EVOLVE, SHIMMER, Kaiju Big Battel and their annual Supershow: Mercury Rising event. This is the first time DDT will run a show in the United States, while wXw previously ran shows in Philadelphia and New Jersey in 2010 and 2011.

Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) is considered one of the bigger independent promotions in Japan, offering a more comedy-focused approach to professional wrestling. Their current champion is Danshoku Dino, who defeated Meiko Satomura for the KO-D Openweight championship in a triple threat match that also included Shigehiro Irie this past weekend.

Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) is known to be one of the top wrestling promotions in Germany since their formation in 2000. Their champion is Absolute Andy, who defeated Ilja Dragunov last month in Oberhausen.

Scheduling and ticket information for the WWNLive events during WrestleMania weekend has yet to be announced. 

Toni Storm off weekend shows due to injury

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Editor’s note: This article references results from WWE’s Mae Young Classic and NXT UK TV tapings which have yet to air.

Toni Storm has been pulled from the wXw and PROGRESS shows this weekend following an injury suffered last weekend.

Both PROGRESS and wXw announced today that Storm, who is the wXw Women’s Champion, would have to pull out of her appearances for their shows in Germany. In wXw’s announcement, it was noted that she is awaiting further examination to determine the extent of the injury. The announcement also noted that since the women’s title hasn’t been defended in four months, wXw has officially vacated the title.

This past weekend, Storm was a part of the NXT UK tapings in Birmingham. She competed in a two night tournament for the NXT UK Women’s title, and made it to the finals against Rhea Ripley. According to reports, the X sign was held by the referee after the match, which Ripley won. No further details are known regarding what kind of injury Storm suffered during the match, but she was able to walk to the back unassisted following the bout.

Storm is set to face Io Shirai in the finals of the Mae Young Classic tournament that will take place at WWE Evolution on October 28.

wXw 16 Carat Gold night three results: Ilja Dragunov vs. Matt Riddle

Posted on by F4W Staff

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

16 Carat weekend concluded with another very strong show as Absolute Andy beat David Starr in the finals, earning a shot at the wXw World Unified Wrestling Championship and furthering his “veteran vs. rookies” storyline (where pretty much everyone besides himself is a rookie).

– wXw 16 Carat Gold 2018 semifinals: David Starr pinned Keith Lee

Match went 13:19 and ended after Starr hit the JML Driver 104. This was a very good match with a David (no pun intended) vs. Goliath story. Lee beat the ever-living crap out of Starr who kept coming back and eventually scored the win.

– wXw 16 Carat Gold 2018 semifinals: Absolute Andy submitted Timothy Thatcher

Match went 13:02 and Andy won via sleeper hold cutback cradle. Andy pulled the ref in the way a few times and eventually hit a mule kick into the nether regions behind the ref’s back and then applied the sleeper for the win. Thatcher was heartbroken and WALTER came out to check on him. Post match, Ivan Kiev came out and demanded that the tag title match, which RISE (Kiev & Da Mack) had become no. 1 contenders for the previous night, also take place on this card. WALTER & Thatcher agreed.

– Emil Sitoci defeated Lucky Kid, Mark Haskins & Alexander James in a four way

Match went 7:25 and Sitoci won after hitting a Spinning Tombstone on Haskins. Lots of flying and quick spots.

– wXw Women’s Champion Toni Storm defeated Killer Kelly, Session Moth Martina & Wesna in a four-way

The match went 7:05 and ended after Storm hit the Strong Zero on Martina. Wesna was a surprise as she only does limited dates these days. Martina ran away from big, scary Wesna, but she eventually caught her and lay a beating on her. Lots of brawling and dives to the outside in a really good match. Toni hit her piledriver on Martina for the win.

– wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Ilja Dragunov pinned Matt Riddle

Match went 12:36 and ended after the champion hit the Torpedo Moskau. Riddle came out and issued an open challenge to anybody in the back. Ilja came out to another gigantic reaction and told Riddle he’s accepting and putting his title on the line as well. They beat each other up with punches, kicks, chops and suplexes. This was one of the top matches of the weekend.

– CCK (Travis Banks & Chris Brookes) & Jonah Rock defeated Marius Al-Ani , “Speedball” Mike Bailey & Matt Sydal

Match went 14:25 and ended when Banks pinned Sydall with the Kiwi Crusher. This was the crazy spot fest match on the card and they hit everything under the sun with lots of dives, flips, somersaults, moonsaults. and shooting stars. It was really fast paced and entertaining.

– RISE (John ‘Bad Bones’ Klinger & Da Mack) defeated RINGKAMPF Tag Champions (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) to win the titles

The match went 11:07 and ended when Mack hit the Killswitch on Thatcher for the win and the title change. This was also a setup/backdrop for a major angle with RISE, Bad Bones’ heel group, which also includes Da Mack, Tarkan Aslan & Lucky Kid (The Young Lions), Ivan Kiev and Pete Bouncer. Bouncer and Bones have had problems for months, with Bones questioning Bouncer’s abilities and criticizing him as being injury prone (Bouncer legit injured his shoulder a while back). Bouncer in turn criticized Bones as leader of the group, claiming that Bones mostly acted selfishly and needed the group to protect his title, but didn’t really care about their successes and careers.

So RISE came out to the entrance as a group, as they always do. Kiev then took the mic and said that Bones always wanted everyone in the group to have their own project, and this was his project, but he was not having the match with Mack as his partner, but with Pete Bouncer (who took his track jacket off and was ripped). The crowd went crazy, as they had been waiting for Bouncer to return/turn for ages. Bones then said this was not happening as the office had been told it was Da Mack and himself competing. Bouncer was seething and Kiev also was upset, but they eventually left.

RISE eventually won after a hard fought match. During the post-match celebration when the other members had Bones on their shoulders to celebrate, Bouncer yanked Bones down and gave him a DDT to a huge pop. As he got to ringside, Kiev was unsure about what to do, but the other members convinced him to leave Bouncer alone and so he reluctanty did the RISE signal (raised forefinger) and went to the back with him, leaving Bouncer on his own.

WALTER also consoled Thatcher, apologized for losing the titles and thanked him for his efforts with RINGKAMPF. Thatcher was despondent, was left in the ring for a bit, and eventually just said “Auf Wiedersehen” (Goodbye in German) into the mic and left.

– wXw 16 Carat Gold 2018 Finals: Absolute Andy pinned ‘The Product’ David Starr

The finals went 22:00 and ended after Andy hit three F5s, a top-rope F5, and the A-Klasse

This was a great match and a worthy main event. Crowd was solidly behind Starr and chanted, sang and cheered for him throughout the match. There were a ton of near falls for both men and the crowd was into every last one of them. At one point, Andy took out his pipe wrench but the referee took it away, prompting Andy to get a chair instead, but David thwarted the attack.

After a ref bump, Andy got the pipe wrench again, but Marius Al-Ani came out and took it away and Starr used the chair on Andy for another near fall. Thy traded finishers but neither could keep the other down for the count. Andy hit three F5s, but wouldn’t pin Starr, despite the ref telling him that Starr was out. He gave him another F5 off the top, of which Starr kicked out of to a massive pop. Starr got on his knees and gave Andy the double middle finger, but Andy hit him and hit the A-Klasse (sort of a splash mountain/Razor’s Edge setup into a face first slam) for the win.

Andy post-match said that he was the best, the only veteran, everybody else was rookies, and the fans sucked.

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

Posted on by F4W Staff

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

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

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

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: Keith Lee defeated Chris Brookes

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

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

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

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: David Starr defeated Travis Banks

Another good outing for both guys.

– 16 Carat Gold Quarterfinals: Absolute Andy defeated Matt Riddle

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

– Alexander James defeated Jonah Rock

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

– wXw Shotgun Champion Bobby Gunns defeated Mike Bailey

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

– wXw Women’s Champion Toni Storm defeated Melanie Gray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

**********

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

WrestlingKULT: Kult goes Carat

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

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

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

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

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

– Tristan Archer defeated Dominik Brackner to win the WrestlingKULT champion

AMBITION 9 (shoot style promotion)

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

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

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

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

– AMBITION Superfight: Matt Riddle defeated WALTER by ref stoppage

– AMBITION 9 semifinals: Timothy Thatcher defeated Bobby Gunns

– AMBITION 9 semifinals: Mike Bailey defeated David Starr

– AMBITION 9 finals: Timothy Thatcher defeated Mike Bailey

#WrestlingDeutschland (showcase for smaller promotions and schools)

– Icarus defeated Tristan Archer (GWP)

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

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

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

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

– Maximum Wrestling European Cruiserweight Champion Michael Knight defeated Ivan Kiev

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

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by reader Markus Gronemann from Oberhausen, Germany

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

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

Sitoci earned Jurn Simmons’ spot in the tournament.

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Mike Bailey & WALTER defeat Bobby Gunns & John Klinger

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

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

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

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

Very good, but crowd wasn’t into it.

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

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

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

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

Night two of the tournament happens on Saturday.

wXw 16 Carat Gold Tourney night 1 results: Matt Riddle, Cody Rhodes, Timothy Thatcher

Posted on by F4W Staff

The following are some news and notes from night 1 of the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament in Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen/Germany submitted by reader Markus Gronemann.

– Bobby Guns won an alternate spot in a four-way over Absolute Andy, Michael Dante and Francis Kaspin

First Round Results:

– Cody Rhodes d. Da Mack 

The match went 10:48, and Rhodes won after hitting Cross Rhodes in what was a hot opener. Cody was really popular and kissed the mat before and after the match. 

– Marius Al-Ani d. JT Dunn

Al-Ani got the pin at the 7:16 mark. after a frog splash. This was a hard-hitting match and both were bleeding from the mouth.

– Timothy Thatcher d. Koji Kanemoto 

Thatcher won via cradle in 8:11. Kanemoto kicked the hell out of Thatcher in what was essentially a mean guys match. Post match, Bobby Gunns came out to confront Kanemoto.

– Ilja Dragunov d. The Avalanche (Robert Dreissker)

Dragunov won with the Torpedo Moskau in 8:08. These two former partners had a war and beat the living hell out of each other. After basically killing each other, Ilja took the win with his flying headbutt. Dreissker had Adam Polak (their old tag team manager) with him, but eventually destroyed him after the match.

– Matt Riddle d. Donovan Dijak 

Good back and forth match with Riddle doing some impressive spots. He submitted Dijak with the Bromission at the 8:50 mark.

– Bad Bones John Klinger d. Paul London 

Klinger was all over the smaller London, who got the upper hand eventually. Bones just destroyed him at the end. London was over big with the crowd, but lost to the Wrecking Bal Knees at 7:39.

– Speedball Mike Bailey d. ACH

These two had a great, fun, face/face match with lots of shenanigans and some comedy, combined with hard hits, kicks and other stiff things you don’t wanna take. They had a dance-off early. Things got harder and harder until they got into it really hard. Bailey won after hitting the shooting star double knees at the 14:25 mark.

– WALTER d. David Starr via TKO

This was a tremendous main event and a strong style match. Starr is over big here and the and people were trying to will him to win. WALTER did mostly power moves, But Starr held his own, including almost finishing WALTER with a Canadian Destroyer. WALTER won when Starr passed out in the rear naked choke at the 16:24 mark.

– Post-match, they set up a wXw title match between champion Axel Dieter Jr. and Jurn Simmons for Saturday.