Euro Fury: wXw World Tag League 2016 Night One

wXw World Tag Team League 2016 Night One

 

September 30 2016

 

Waren auf Oberhausen (this is probably wrong, my German is rusty as fuck). This is available on wxwnow.de, which is their new streaming service. It’s a good streaming service using Vimeo’s player, which is reliable. Before we get underway all the competing teams are introduced. The tournament is taking place over three nights under Block rules. Three points for a win, one each for a draw. The same scoring system as football (or soccer to North American readers). Each Block has four teams and the two Block winners will face off in the final.

 

Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) vs. Ringkampf (Big Daddy Walter & Timothy Thatcher)

The moustached gentlemen are from the Midlands and possibly my favourite tag team in the world at the moment. It’s only possibly because Trent is in another tag team with Pete Dunne, which is also wonderful. The crowd respond well to them and Ringkampf are happy to play the role of evil doers. Tyler does fine work in popping the German crowd with his British move set although the heels generally dominate with their sheer size. Nineteen year old Tyler (you read this correctly) makes a spirited comeback. What scares me is I just turned forty and when I’m fifty Tyler Bate won’t even be at his peak yet. And he’s already fucking great. Walter chokes Trent out while he’s stroking his moustache, which must be some sort of foul. Solid opener but perhaps an over reliance on heat from the bad boys.

Final Rating: ***

 

A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani) vs. The LDRS of the New School (Zack Sabre Jr. & Marty Scurll)

The LDRS recently started teaming again in Rev Pro and it’s a most welcome development. They’re still the premier tag team in Europe. Scurll plays a heel role while Sabre is slightly forgiving of his bullshit because they’re mates. Al-Ani is less forgiving of the bullshit after he gets eye-raked in the opening exchange. Zack continues his gimmick of being slightly disproving but not actually stopping Marty from being a dick. They spend a good-sized chunk of the match fucking around and not taking the two German wrestlers at all seriously but they should because they’re both very solid. Andy throws a great punch and Al-Ani is technically gifted. It’s a good combination of guys because Andy has the power and Marius brings high flying and mat style. The LDRS have some strong control sequences but the match gets really fun when it breaks down. It’s a frantic conclusion and Scurll gets in his finger-breaking spot before putting Al-Ani out of his misery with the Chickenwing. My biggest take away from this is that Marius Al-Ani is getting really good at the wrestling and this was proof.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

Leah Vaughan vs. Alexis Rose

Alexis Rose only debuted a year ago and is a product of the new push of women’s wrestling. Leah is far more experienced and did a job for Ember Moon on NXT last month. Leah used to wrestle as Leah Von Dutch and used that name in her last appearance in wXw two years ago. The match is a wee bit sloppy and you can sense Rose’s inexperience. Leah isn’t a seasoned veteran or anything so she can’t take charge of the match. When promoters are complaining of a lack of top tier women’s talent and WWE hoovering up all the top prospects, this is the kind of thing they mean. Alexis’ inexperience shows up in all the strangest places like clotheslines while she seems fine with handsprings and moonsaults. Leah wins with a spear and we won’t talk about this again.

Final Rating: ½*

 

wXw Shotgun Championship

Da Mack (c) vs. Pete Dunne

Da Mack has been Shotgun Champion since April. He’s currently enjoying the second longest run with the belt, ever. This is Pete’s first wXw match in over two years and I’d wager he’s a much better wrestler now than he was then. Da Mack may have featured in WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic but Dunne looked more impressive in losing a qualifying match for said tournament. Da Mack has a lot of fun spots, like walking on his hands out of a headlock, but Dunne is the better rounded performer. He has snap on his moves, which only comes with experience and wrestling without fear. Mack feels like a lesser Ospreay, who’s into Michael Jackson instead of Uptown Funk. Pete does decent work in getting into position to make Mack look as strong as possible. When it comes to the stretch Dunne is the one that stands out though, hitting his shit far more smoothly than Da Mack and looking like a powerhouse in the process. Dunne slips out of Da Mack’s “This Is It” and hits the Drop Dead to win the Shotgun title. Pete is the first ever British Shotgun champ and chomps away on the strap to celebrate. Like Mark Haskins, Dunne is currently collecting belts for his own amusement. Love the Midlands lads in the graps right now.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Cerberus (Ilya Dragunov & Julian Nero) vs. Death By Elbow (Chris Hero & JT Dunn)

Death By Elbow are representing the American Indies, where they’ve had some success. Cerberus are the wXw tag champs but those belts are essentially vacant as the winners of the tag league get the straps. If Cerberus win the tag league they get to keep them! Cerberus can’t really compete with Chris Hero, especially scrawny Julian Nero. It looks ridiculous when they try. At least JT Dunn is of comparable size and can effectively trade with the bad guys. JT Dunn is a terrific professional wrestler by the way. He’s been flying under my radar because he works for places like Beyond and CZW that I don’t have time for. Based on this showing he’ll be getting booked in more important spots sooner rather than later. When Hero tags in Cerberus try for a two on one and both get mashed. The only way Hero can look in trouble is at such a hefty disadvantage and he still bosses it. It doesn’t seem fair. There should be a Hero Division and Cerberus wouldn’t be in it. Poor Dragunov takes a rolling elbow to the back of the head during the stretch that I fear is all for him in this tournament. Nero finds himself isolated because of this and is killed with elbows. Death By Elbow gets the win, appropriately with elbows and death.

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

Bad Bones vs. Mike Bailey

Bailey is exiled from working in the USA so the Canadian is getting booked around the world instead. Hence this match, which is a #1 contender’s bout for Jurn Simmons’ wXw title. Having nowhere Stateside to ply his trade has driven Bailey into a place where he’s forced to have his best matches in Europe and Japan. For the European fans this is really quite fantastic. For Bailey it’s not bad either because he wrestles for DDT, who are fun, and the European scene is fucking great. It’s proof positive you can be a top wrestler without even setting foot in the USA nowadays. Bad Bones has a decent showing, keeping pace with Mike even if his spots are incredibly basic by comparison. Bailey turns the match into a showcase for his move set, which Bad Bones is capable of taking. Where the match really picks up is when Bad Bones starts powering through Bailey and firing up. Then it’s not a showcase but a legitimate contest and Bailey comes back even harder with his kicks and knees. It becomes a genuinely good contest with both guys looking to offload the bigger shots and get the title match. Bailey ends up being the man with more stuff in his locker and he gets the win and the title shot. Bailey looked terrific, as always, and Klinger was excellent here.

Final Rating: ****

 

Post Match: Bailey promises to give Bones a title shot when he beats Simmons, anywhere in the world…”apart from the USA”. That’s good for chuckles. This brings out champion Massive Jurn Simmons to call Bailey “another vanilla midget”. Simmons idolises Kevin Nash’s backstage attitude. He promises to squash Bailey in their title match.

 

Los Gueros del Cielo (Angelico & Jack Evans) vs. JML (Shane Strickland & David Starr)

I predict wacky hijinks and general craziness here. You put Jack Evans in the main event and you are asking him to go completely insane with the spots. The match is sub-ten minutes but it is balls-to-the-wall spots. There are dives galore and flips aplenty. Flipz Aplenty would be a decent name for a luchadore, by the way. These four guys have a larf trying to out-do each other and Evans pretty much wins this by hitting a moonsault off Angelico holding Starr for a DVD in the ring to the floor. Jack hits a wacky multiple rotation senton to get the pin. This rarely resembled a match and was a co-ordinated eight minutes of wacky shit. It was a great deal of fun to watch though.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

 

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

A solid opening night to the three night series. This served as an introduction to all the participants and lots of fun was had by everyone. The only match that didn’t belong on here was the women’s match, which was sloppy and under-delivered. The company put on an all-women’s show on the afternoon of day two that I’ll so be checking out but after seeing this I’m a little wary of the quality. Thumbs up for this show though, especially Bailey-Bones and the LDRS tag.