The last weekend was a great wrestling weekend for wrestling fans. It had the best German fighters, top US Independent wrestler and some infamous happenings. So one or the other way, it’s a weekend you won’t forget. First of all, here are the results of CWN, wXw, GSW and the Westside Dojo.
CWN Norddeutschland Cup 2007
Friday, November 23th
Cityhall in Winsen, Germany
Pre Show:
Masterpiece Marcellus beat Dennis Zagermann
Dennis Broszinski beat Andreas Preuße
Main Show:
Michael Knight beat CJ Summers (Norddeutschland Cup – Semifinal Match)
Tommy End beat Gran Akuma (Norddeutschland Cup – Semifinal Match)
Adam Polak & Matthias Rüdiger Freiherr von Ilgen beat Paul Tracy & Pierre Le Prestee
3-Way Match: Ares beat Chris Hero & John Kay
Michael Knight beat Tommy End (Norddeutschland Cup – Final Match)
Deutsche Meisterschaft: Eric Schwarz (c) vs. Ulf Herman ended via No Contest
wXw 7th Anniversary Show
Saturday, November 24th
Saint in Oberhausen, Germany
Bad Bones beat Gran Akuma (Strong Style Tournament – 1st Round Match)
Lazio Feé beat Coone
Adam Polak beat Tommy End (Strong Style Tournament – 1st Round Match)
Drake Younger beat Marc Slater (Strong Style Tournament – 1st Round Match)
Big Van Walter beat Roderick Strong (Strong Style Tournament – 1st Round Match)
wXw Tag Team Titles: Chris Hero & Marc Roudin beat AbLas (Absolute Andy & Steve Douglas) (c) – New Champs
Emil Sitoci beat Joey Redman
wXw World Heavyweight Title: Alex Pain beat Ares (c) – New Champ
4-Way Elimination Match: Bad Bones beat Adam Polak, Drake Younger & Big Van Walter (Strong Style Tournament – Final Match)
GSW X-Limits 2
Saturday, November 24th
Schilda Halle in Oberhausen, Germany
GSW Tag Team Titles: Chris Colen & Big Van Walter (c) beat Ahmed Chaer & Crazy Sexy Mike (Elimination Tables Match)
X-Dream beat Gran Akuma
Michael Kovac beat Frankie Kazarian
GSW Breakthrough Title: Steve Douglas (c) beat Thumbtack Jack (c) (Boiler Room Brawl Ladder Match) – New Champ
4-Way Match: Murat Bosporus beat Ares beat Chris Hero beat Joe E. Legend
Bad Bones beat Roderick Strong
GSW World Heavyweight Title: Steve Corino beat Absolute Andy (c) (Street Fight) – new Champ
Westside Dojo Season Final
Sunday, November 25th
Westside Dojo in Krefeld, Germany
Bernd Föhr beat Coone
Andrew Patterson beat Dr. Gangreen
Big Van Walter beat Dennis Zagermann
Tommy End beat Gran Akuma
DOPO Trophy: Lazio Feé (c) beat Farmer Joe
FWF Tag Team Titles: Diego Latino & Baca Loco (c) beat Homeless Peter & Jack Demento
Anything Goes: Drake Younger beat Marc Slater
First of all, I’m sorry if my German Auto correction of Word changes some of the words. I’ll try to have a look and change it back, but sometimes I miss some of this, so be gracious with me ;)
So, enough with the run down of results. Let’s start with the really interesting part. My weekend started on Friday with the show of Catch Wrestling Norddeutschland, a young promotion in northern Germany. They crowned the first champion at their last show when Eric Schwarz beat in an 8-Man Tournament Matthias Rüdiger Freiherr von Ilgen, Absolute Andy and in the finals John Kay. CWN cooperates with the PWF (Pro Wrestling Fighters), a rookie federation, and so PWF presented two pre show matches. The matches weren’t good, so nothing to talk about. After a break the band Drat from Hamburg played the CWN theme and then the show starts with the wrestler parade (a presentation of all the wrestlers of the night, what goes back to the catch tradition in Germany). After that Kartsen Kretschmer, who was supposed to fight Chris Hero, stayed in the Ring and announced that he injured his knee the weekend before and wasn’t able to fight. So Hero came out and wanted another opponent. Ares, who was supposed to fight John Kay, came out and accepted the challenge, but John Kay also appeared and wanted his place in the match. So it was set, a 3-Way later that night.
The main show action started with the two semifinal matches in the Norddeutschland Cup 2007 (Cup of Northern Germany). Baron von Hagen won the 2006 edition (also in the tournament: Jay Phoenix, John Kay & Wesley Croton), but now he’s retired so there had to be a new winner. Michael Knight, the top rookie 2007 in Germany, beat CJ Summers (originally from the US, but wrestling most of his time for Irish Whip Wrestling in Ireland). The match was fast paced and both of the showed some spots, but nothing to remember. In the last two years I’ve seen many better matches of Michael and CJ Summers was there, not more. The second match Gran Akuma vs. Tommy End was the match I’ve most anticipated, but it turned to be just a plain match. Okay, this was Tommy’s first match after his injury and the match was better than the first one and Akuma showed some of his ability, but I missed the last step to a good match.
Okay, next one was a tag team match. Matthias Rüdiger Freiherr von Ilgen, a trainee of Karsten Kretschmer, replaced the injured Wesley Croton. This match was way tooooo long. Polak had a really bad day, Ilgen and Pierre are both young and haven’t much experience to wrestle a 20+ minute match. The only one who could have made this match better would have been Paul Tracey but most of the time it was Pierre in the ring and Paul on the apron. Ilgen and Pierre have both great gimmicks (rich aristocrat & a stereotype Frenchman) but both of them have a long way in front of them. It was time for intermission and Drat played some songs, but unfortunately so loud no one could talk to each other.
The first match after intermission was the main event. Sounds weird? It was. Ares, Hero and Kay (who is no other than Bad Bones, if you don’t know) had a great match and the crowed was really into it. The story of the match was that Hero und Kay worked together against their wXw enemy Ares. But Ares don’t want to wrestle both so he sat down front row and watched the other two wrestle each other. When Ares entered the match Hero and Kay wrestled a tag team match. When Hero was in the ring with Ares, John Kay take a breath outside and when Kay wrestled Ares, Hero did the same. They didn’t even care when the other one attempted a cover. But in the end it was Ares, who send one of them out of the ring (I think it was Bones, but I’m not sure) and pinned the other one. Now followed the final match of the Norddeutschland Cup 2007. What an thankless job to wrestle after the showstealer, but both men gave their best and so the outcome was a good match. Still not one of the best matches I’ve seen from these two guys, but a good one.
Now followed the absolute low light of the weekend, the infamous shoot of Ulf Herman. I’ve seen many Backyarders over the last years, but this asshole is the most unprofessional son of a bitch, I’ve ever seen in the squared circle. Before the match started, they played the German national anthem and what did this retarded idiot? He showed thrice the Hitler Salute. Fuck you! I thought about leaving, but stayed. I should have gone. No one needs this fucking idiots in the ring or elsewhere. What followed was another big letdown. They "wrestled" one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen. Eric Schwarz, the champion, was totally dominated by this assclown, who showed two wrestling moves in the match and fucked both up. The rest of the match saw some brawling, some hitting with objects. In the end the match was stopped, when the lockerroom came out to stop the two from going further. Well, big bullshit.
During the match the ring collapsed and the ropes looked like the ropes in the worst IWA Mid South days. This Hitler salute thing was one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen live in a wrestling ring and if any wrestler would do this on my shows (I’m part of DWA), I would break kayfabe immediately and kick him right out of the ring.
Overall it was an okay show with one great match, one match above average, two average matches, one way toooo long tag match and the infamous Ulf Herman Bullshit.
The next day I traveled to Oberhausen (five hours with train) to see the double header of wXw and GSW. Actually I didn’t want to see the GSW show (it’s a more Sports Entertainment kind of style), but then they announced Frankie Kazarian and so no way to miss this show. But first it was time for wXw’s 7th anniversary show. It was the first time wXw run the Saint and I have to say it’s a damn cool location. The show started with the four first round matches in the strong style tournament and Lazio Feé vs. Coone, who supped for the injured Wesley Croton. Lazio destroyed Coone. Back to the tournament. The first round matches had everything you could wish for in this kind of tournament. Bad Bones vs. Gran Akuma was a hard hitting festival but with a opponent of this size Gran Akuma wasn’t able to show his best moves. In the end Bad Bones hit Gran Akuma with a nasty clothesline right to the eyebrow, which resulted in a deep cut. Next one was Adam Polak vs. Tommy End in a Street Fight. Well, most of the match I missed because these two wrestled on the other side of the ring. This one was followed by the breakout match of the top Westside Dojo student Marc Slater. Slater showed the passion and the ability to hit it big time in the future. Stiff headbutts, stiff chops, great variations of the suplex and more great stuff. Definitely the best match of Marc Slater I’ve seen. The last first round match was Big Van Walter vs. Roderick Strong. The first time I’ve seen Strong live (the last three times he no showed) and he disappointed me. It looks like he has no passion to wrestle and so I was happy to see Big Van Walter advance to the finals. Now followed one of wXw’s great comedy segments. Ares came out to find out who his mystery opponent would be. There he was: Santa Claus! In a hilarious promo good old Santa played with Ares and in the end Ares still didn’t know who his opponent would be.
Till this point it was a really good show and after the intermission AbLas started with another godlike promo. Last month a fan won in the Fan Appreciation Night lottery a song from Absolute Andy and so he got what he had won. AbLas totally ridicule this guy and we had our fun. Andy presented his version of Smokie’s Who the fuck is Alice? "Who the fuck is Christian?". After that Hero and Roudin came out. Hero destroyed an AbLas shirt of an fan and gave him one of his own shirts as a replacement. Hilarious stuff! The following match turned out to be a bit too long and had its downs, but overall it was a real fun match. You may argue this title change make no sense, but we’ll see how it will evolve in the next months. Following was the match Emil Sitoci vs. Joey Redman. There it was and that’s it.
Now it was time for Ares’ mystery opponent and the crowed exploded when "Hier kommt Alex" by the Toten Hosen sounded through the Saint, because this theme belongs to one man from wXw’s past: Alex Pain. He hit the ring and a good match started. Alex even kicked out of the Toblerone Driver and the Piledriver and in the end the he won the title with an Avalanche Style Endeffekt. The crowed was stunned. Nobody could believe what they just witnessed. The 2 ½ year long reign of Ares (with the two week break, when Quack won the title) ended with an upset victory by Alex Pain. Many fans were frustrated and chanted bullshit. But just like in the tag tiles case let’s see how it will evolve in the future. I would think it will be a short reign.
After the smoke cleared it was time for the final match in the Strong Style Tournament. The first one eliminated was Big Van Walter, who I think is overrated, and so it was okay. Next one out was Adam Polak. Until this point the match was good, but after this point it became really good. Bad Bones and Drake Younger hit the shit out of each other and in the end we saw Bad Bones win the first ever Strong Style tournament in Germany.
Overall this show was a good one. Lot of controversy surrounding the title changes and many fans are still upset how they happened. On the other hand we had some great hard hitting matches. Definitely not one of wXw’s best shows, but like every show since February 2007 worth buying it.
No it was time to make the way from the Saint to the Schilda Halle. As for many other wXw fans this was my first time GSW and a lot of prejudices against the GSW product were around. A lot of Sports Entertainment bullshit, a lot of illogical booking, etc. and what do I have to say about it? Yeah, that are no prejudices, that are facts! During the show there were so many Backstage skits shown on the screen and so many bullshit skits in the ring. Okay, let’s concentrate on the matches.
The opener saw a match for the GSW Tag Team Titles, Tables Elimination Style. Big Van Walter replaced the injured Robert Ray in this match and was more over with the crowd than the other three guys. Okay, the most pops he got from the section of the wXw fans, but the rest of the crowd was dead most of the time, when no guest star was in the ring. Okay, this match happened and Michael Kovac nearly killed Wesna (both were interfering in this one), when he hit her through a table and she landed disastrous on her neck. Next one was X-Dream vs. Gran Akuma. Both man are great wrestlers, but this match turned out to be below average. Not the best day for both of them. The same for Michael Kovac, who wrestlet Frankie Kazarian. I don’t know, there was something that stopped this match from being good, but Kazarian is still one of the best out there. The last match before the intermission was the Boiler Room Brawl Ladder Match between the co-holders of the Breakthrough Title. The first part of the match was shown on the screen. When Douglas and TJ came to the ring TJ was bleeding and the real match could start. GSW sucks big time, but with the 3-Way from CWN this was the match of the weekend. Countless sick spots in this one and unfortunately TJ injured himself, so he had to wrestle the match with much pain.
After the intermission followed the match all of us wXw fans hated because of two men: Murat Bosporus and his valet Eko Fresh (one of the untalented Rappers in Germany). I don’t know if you know the story about Murat, so here’s a wrap up: On the Cyboard there is a User "ben" who always posted pro Murat and pro Jazzy-Bi. A few fans came up with the idea that this could be Murat and chanted at the last wXw show "Let’s go ben" and wXw officials became aware of it. So they contacted the administration of the Cyboard to check if there is a hint for Murat being ben. Well, they checked the IPs and certified the suspicion. So wXw contacted Murat and he told them that the user ben wrote from his home but wasn’t him (he brought up his brother), but wXw don’t believe him. wXw officials and four long time wXw wrestler then talked to each other about the situation and decided to suspend Murat for at least six months because of the negative statements made by ben about Ares, Sitoci, Bad Bones and wXw. Murats point is that he can’t control, and don’t want to, what anybody else does on his PC. From this point the wXw fans absolutely turned against the once beloved Murat Bosporus. And what happened at the GSW show wasn’t Heel Heat it was pure hate! wXw is like family and Murat betrayed all of us and so no one really wants to see him. But GSW officials put him in a match with wXw’s most popular wrestlers: Chris Hero and Ares! From GSW’s standpoint it was an ingenious decision, because the hate for Murat ended in the most heated up atmosphere ever. But on the other hand this was an offense against every wXw fan and like me there are other fans who decided never visit another GSW show, especially after Murat pinning wXw’s own Ares!!!
How unreal this was, became obvious when the wXw section was completely quiet during the following Bad Bones match. Normally Bad Bones got the loudest reactions from wXw fans but this time, nothing! In the main event there was also a title change with Steve Corino pinning Absolute Andy.
Overall I didn’t like the show. It had a great match and many average matches, but this Murat Bullshit really brought everybody down and so it does with the rating for this show. GSW = some good action, but tooooo much Sports Entertainment Bullshit!
So, on Sunday there was the Westside Dojo (wXw’s Dojo) show, but my money ran out and so I wasn’t able to make it. Announced was a No Ropes Barbed Wire Match between Thumbtack Jack and Drake Younger, but unfortunately TJ injured himself at GSW’s show and so the match was changed into an anything goes match with Marc Slater. Should be great.
That’s it for this weekend! Ups and downs about the same number, so it was an average weekend. Next wXw show on December 15h will see Mike Quackenbush vs. Doug Williams and a 4-Way #1-Contender Match with Ares, Bad Bones, Steve Douglas and Adam Polak. Unfortunately I won’t be there because I will be doing ringside photography for another promotion in northern Germany.
And a tip for everybody who want to see some WWE Legends and some of the best Indy talent Europe and the world has to offer: February 2nd 2008 the DWA will present the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Night in Uelzen (Germany near Hamburg & Bremen) and already announced are DWA’s Wold Heavyweight Champion "The Native American" Tatanka, The Honky Tonk Man, DWA’s European Champion from Ireland Joey Cabray and the Independent Wrestling Chimaera from Southern California, where he’s trained by Phoenix Star & Zokre.
Daniel Prophet (http://www.myspace.com/gbproph)
[Modificato da WrestlEurope 15/02/2008 23:19]