March 24, 2018 – The Dome, Tufnell Park, London, UK

For the third time in the German company’s history, the stars of wXw made the near 350 mile trip from Nordrhein-Westfalen to the heart of the capital by invitation of PROGRESS Wrestling. These shows have always been fun as you get to see people who rarely fight in the UK take on our home-grown stars in one of the finest venues in the city.

As is apparently becoming custom for wXw in London – there were two absences from the card meaning there would have to be a slight reshuffling to proceedings. First of all, Michael Dante was unable to wrestle Mark Davis due to being holed up in his hotel room with an unknown illness – though sceptics have wondered if he was just trying to avoid a high five from the big Australian. The other man pulled from the show was RISE’s only representative in London; Lucky Kid – whom had completed his UK visa application a day late, therefore had to instead wrestle at the wXw show in Kutenholz. To rub further salt in the wounds, Monster Consulting saw this as a great opportunity to get one over their rival by offering him a five-minute visa consultation backstage in Kutenholz.

Meanwhile in Kutenholz: https://t.co/u6BSUPcxba—
Avalanche (@AvalancheDRSKR) March 24, 2018

After all the crowds had piled in, it was now time for the show which some commentators have dubbed the “RAW after Carat” and our first match of the night.

PRE SHOW: A-Kid vs. Adam Chase

Our dark match for the evening pitted those ever present lads from Team White Wolf against each other in a quick paced match. Not that much can be said about the match itself as it went less than four minutes – with A-Kid catching Chase with a roll-up for the win. One would hope this was something of a tryout match for these two youngsters as I think a stay at the academy in Essen would do them a world of good and take them to the next level – especially if they could get a few matches in against the likes of Jay-FK, Young Lions and Pretty Bastards.

MATCH 1: wXw Shotgun Championship: Bobby Gunns © vs. TK Cooper

I was really worried in the lead up to this show that Gunns’ newfound popularity over the 16 Carat Gold weekend was going to be lost on a less exposed London crowd. Likewise, a source within wXw divulged that they had some reservations about this match and were unsure who would actually be the heel or face in this match. Thankfully, it only took a few bars of Daft Punk’s Robot Rock (and a bit of encouragement from the Gunns faithful) before the crowd was (almost) fully behind Bobby Gunns. TK and Gunns had been having a little bit of back and forth on twitter in the preceding weeks, with Gunns spitting more fire his way on the previous week’s Raucherpause. What followed was a really strong technical match which also felt like a real grudge match – proving the value of good social media work in the lead up to shows. As well as there being some great transitions in the match, there were some humorous moments as well:

Another one of the funny moments was early on where Gunns attempted to light his cigarette in the ring – which was thwarted by TK who batted away the bright green Bremen lighter. While TK began gesticulating to the crowd, Gunns would then take out a second lighter to a big cheer.

One of the main compliments I could give to this match is that there were several moments where it genuinely did look like TK could have won – not in the sense of near falls but just really good psychology on the part of both men. However, after all this – it would be Gunns who would take the bell – making TK tap to his armbar. All in all, I couldn’t have wished for a better match from these two.

MATCH 2: Millie McKenzie vs. Killer Kelly

Next up was the women’s match between two of Europe’s hottest talents in McKenzie and Kelly. Both of these girls have had similar years so far, with the pair bursting out into the upper echelons of the scene around the same time last summer as well as both having a fairly close ‘shoot style’ look and technique.

Following the Shotgun title match was going to be tough, but these two certainly delivered with a hard-hitting bout – with the pair trading stiff elbows, swift kicks and gut-wrenching suplexes for the whole match. The match will probably be best remembered for a moment where Kelly managed to knee herself in the eye after a German suplex – splitting her eyelid. Incredibly, this didn’t deter the Portuguese warrior and she came back into the match like a Terminator with blood pouring down her face. What an image. After Millie hit four Germans in a row, Kelly countered with a bridging suplex of her own for the win.

After the bell rung, the two fighters hugged and showed respect to each other after what was a short but hellacious match. Unfortunately, the real tragedy of this match is that Kelly was unable to take part in the PROGRESS show on Sunday which is a real missed opportunity for her – but thankfully she does appear to be making more appearances on this side of the channel in the future.

MATCH 3: Chris Brookes vs. Marius Al-Ani

Following on from the women’s match, our next bout saw Marius Al-Ani return to London for the third time to take on Chris Brookes – who managed to beat the German in the six-man tag match on the final night of 16 Carat. From the get-go, it was clear that this was the most divided match in terms of audience support all evening, with Al-Ani having earnt the respect of the British crowds despite his fairly sporadic appearances on the island.

Al-Ani spent much of the early stages of the match attempting submission moves on Brookes, growing increasingly frustrated that the Brit was able to break the holds so easily due to his height. The stalemate leads to a show of mutual appreciation before the match really gets going.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t really get into this match on the second viewing on demand – I had an absolute blast watching it live with the duelling chants but as a result of this I wasn’t really watching the action in the ring. The match definitely benefited from a hot crowd but at the same time Al-Ani’s charisma is severely lacking in comparison to his excellent ring work. The ending of the match saw Al-Ani fight out of a Praying Mantis Bomb attempt by Brookes, which was countered into a roundhouse kick, followed by a Death Valley Driver leading into a Frog Splash which was enough for the win.

MATCH 4: wXw World Tag Team League 2018 qualifier: Aussie Open vs. The Hunter Brothers

The first of the two matches affected by absentees – instead being in a big hoss battle with Michael Dante, Mark Davis found himself alongside his Aussie Open teammate in a surprise wXw World Tag Team League qualifier against The Hunter Brothers. Much like Al-Ani/Brookes before, this was another split crowd – although slightly more in the Australian team’s favour.

As you’d expect, this was a masterclass in tag team wrestling – with the Hunter Brothers piling on Fletcher for much of the early parts of the match before Davis picked up the pace and started pummeling everyone in sight. There was one part of the match that was particularly excellent, where the Hunters had Fletcher up in a doomsday device which was quickly countered into a roll up by the Aussie Arrow for a near-fall. Davis then ran into the ring and hit the opponent with some form of inverted spinning slam for another two count – then subsequently making a quick tag back to Fletcher for a double team move which still couldn’t put the Tipton men away. The Australians continued their quick tags for the rest of the match and once they cleared Jim from the ring, Davis hit the Close Your Eyes followed by the double team Fidget Spinner on Lee for the win.

With the victory, Aussie Open become the first team to qualify for wXw’s second marquee weekender and have a great opportunity to face some of Germany and the world’s finest teams – in particular I really hope these two get the chance to face Monster Consulting or Jay-FK in the coming months for some really intriguing battles.

MATCH 5: Alexander James vs. Jack Sexsmith

Lucky Kid’s absence gave us another interpromotional match between wXw and PROGRESS, with the other half of Sexy Starr in Jack Sexsmith taking on Alexander James in a rare UK appearance. This marks Sexsmith’s first appearance in wXw since last year’s Shortcut to the Top match, where he was unceremoniously dumped from the ring after being shot in the face by a confetti cannon.

Although initially a Sexsmith comedy spotfest, the Londoner was more than a match to the heir-apparent to the Thatcher throne in terms of technical wrestling. However, the main story of the match seemed to be that James had everything that Sexsmith threw at him  (including the Sliced Bread and LGB-DT) scouted beforehand therefore neutralising his offence whilst focusing on the right shoulder of Sexsmith.   After struggling out of James’ Coat of Arms submission, Sexsmith had a small comeback where he was able to hit – amongst others – the LGB-DT for a close pinfall. Despite this brief comeback, the ending of the match saw Sexsmith beaten after a missed aerial move was met with a strong elbow and a brutal brainbuster for the pinfall.

MATCH 6: wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Travis Banks vs. David Starr vs. WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov ©

After all that, it was now finally time for the long awaited main event of the evening. Originally this match was going to be Travis Banks taking on WALTER in singles competition – but after a bit of Twitter campaigning from David Starr (he’s apparently really good at that) this match was subsequently turned into a three way. Ever the fighting champion – Ilja Dragunov then jumped in and said that he’d be putting himself and the title in this match, making this a gargantuan four-way dance for the Grand Prix of professional wrestling.   After Starr’s usual nickname schtick, he proceeded to square up to WALTER who in turn pushed him away – with Tassilo Jung having to step between the two men. It was clear that the battle between these two was going to be a focal point in this bout, with the rivalry showing no sign of cooling down.

I’m not going to go too in depth for this match in terms of a blow-for-blow account – but the pacing of this match seemed like the bout was going 100 mph from the opening bell – with stiff chops and kicks being followed by numerous dives to the outside. It was almost a greatest hits of wXw, with a hark back to the 2017 16 Carat Gold final where Dragunov and WALTER went on their chopping spree against each other’s chest.

📸 – @shaunathegrinch

David Starr look like he had one hand on the title when he cleared the ring of all but Dragunov – hitting the Russian with one more of those devastating lariats. However, Dragunov immediately stood up from this and turned Starr upside down with a spinning clothesline before bringing up his UN-BE-SIEG-BAR powers and clattering him with the Torpedo Moskau for the win and his first major defence of the Unified title.

All things considered, I think this match stands up very strongly against the three way of Carat night two. Although not quite as emotional as the grand Ilja return, the combination of a very hot crowd, intimate venue and scintillating storytelling make this match (and show) a must watch.

✏️ – @MikeKilby

You can watch wXw: We Love Wrestling Tour 2018: London on the wXwNOW On Demand service with both German and English commentary.

🇩🇪 http://www.wxwnow.de/video/781
🇬🇧 http://www.wxwnow.de/video/780