28th January, 2018 – KD Krakov, Prague, Czech Republic

The Czech Republic (or Czechia, whatever) probably isn’t the first place you’d think of in terms of European wrestling. There’s no real international stars to speak of and until very recently no promotions registering even a small amount on the radar of most hardcore fans. However in the last year or so – a company has begun running shows out of a cultural centre in the north side of Prague with the help of Dresden’s NextStep Wrestling. Art of Wrestling began running shows in early 2017 and are an incredibly ambitious company – with the majority of their roster coming from the big German promotions such as wXw, GWF and NextStep as well as Hungarian Championship Wrestling. Golden City Showdown is the most recent of their shows to have been uploaded to wXwNOW and thus was the most sensible place to start.

MATCH ONE: Dover vs. Markus Mytra

Our opener sees the bigger half of The Arrows of Hungary take on Slovakian powerhouse Markus Mytra. Mytra is a big tall lad with a good build who can almost stand eye to eye with Dover! Mytra is the face in this match and every single move he does gets a good reaction – regardless of how well it was performed. Dover is another level above Mytra and it’s clear why he’s become one of the more sought after workers on the European scene. Mytra hasn’t featured in any of the big European markets and mainly works in the Czech Republic and Hungary – which means he hasn’t worked with enough people of a higher standard in order to improve himself. Dover batters Mytra for the majority of this match but he takes the fall when Mytra hits him with a spear out of nothing. A popular winner, if anything.

After the match, Robert Kaiser – whom was meant to be in the main event against Da Mack – emerges for a promo. Da Mack had picked up an injury at the wXw live event in Uelzen the night before and as such was missing from the show. Kaiser – who I’ve recently discovered works with a far-right Pegida-inspired gimmick – cuts a promo on Prague saying that it is a part of Germany and says something about his grandfather’s legacy. He’s then interrupted by SKULL EVIL who tells him to “shut up, bitch!”. Immediately after that he himself is interrupted by Ozzy Spencer who comes out and professes to be “The Main Event” before awkwardly waiting for Icarus to emerge. Icarus comes out and says that he respects Da Mack but he feels that he deserves to be in the main event. Kaiser protests but Icarus tells him to shut the fuck up. They then all go one by one asking the crowd who they want in the main event and Icarus gets the loudest reaction. A very poor segment in general.

MATCH TWO: Catch Connection (Alexander Reich & Ronny Kessler) & Christopher Anthony vs. Der Schwinger Club (Brent Rogers, Garrett Noah & Rick Baxxter)

Next up is an all-NextStep affair with the shoot wrestlers of Catch Connection taking on The Kings Of Porn Style. The crowd doesn’t care for this match at all and the silence is incredibly awkward in places – even a series of dives to the outside barely manages to get the crowd going. Der Schwinger Club are a funny act in small doses but I feel seeing them once is usually enough. Garrett Noah gets the pinfall on Kessler following a (admittedly quite pretty) moonsault.

MATCH THREE: Ron Corvus vs. SKULL EVIL

Following his somewhat abrupt interjection into the last promo, SKULL EVIL is back to take on Ron Corvus but Robert Kaiser is back out to spout more rubbish. Corvus is ever present in his native Hungary but also works in France, Poland, Russia and Malta on a regular basis. Anyway, Kaiser jumps SKULL EVIL at the beginning of the match which makes it a nice easy win for Corvus in less than two minutes. Corvus and Kaiser beat down on SKULL EVIL for a bit before Dover runs out for the save. Moving on.

MATCH FOUR: Boldo Brown vs. Justin Wylde vs. Lior Ben-David

After that rather pointless match, we see a three way dance! Boldo Brown and Justin Wylde are both active members of HCW Hungary’s roster whereas Lior Ben-David is an Israeli who has most notably worked for CZW in the United States. Lior begins the match by berating the audience at ringside which causes a “Lior Sucks!” chant to run through most of the match. Boldo has some decent offence and hits hard in the back and forth but his ring gear doesn’t look like it fits him at all.

Lior gets sent to the outside regularly in this match – but not on nearly enough occasions as his selling is atrocious. Boldo and Wylde actually look like they have half a pinch of chemistry together but Lior ruins everything. Wylde manages to hit a double foot stomp from the top on Boldo before Lior sends Wylde to the outside – giving Lior enough time to hit some cringeworthy dancing rock bottom elbow drop thing for the 1-2-3. From what I understand this match was filmed for a documentary on Israeli TV so this may be the reason for the crap result.

MATCH FIVE: Killer Kelly vs. Audrey Bride

Now we’re talking. Kelly and Bride take on each other in what would have been a preview for their battle at wXw’s True Colors later that year. This is a good, hard hitting bout with Kelly taking a rough bump onto the apron early on. Kelly does well to hide Bride’s limitations throughout and I’d say this one was much better than their match in wXw despite its short length. Bride gets a good submission win via Flatliner into a Koji Clutch.

MATCH SIX: Blake Steamer vs. Ozzy Spencer

We’re back with an all-HCW clash. Ozzy Spencer is a big lad with his belly out but he’s ridiculously over in this match as is Steamer. Steamer has a sailor gimmick (?) and leads the audience in a “AHOY!” chant – it’s all gone a bit Alan Partridge. Steamer seems like he’s pretty decent but he can’t really show it because 90% of this match is spent doing ‘chopping down the big redwood’ spots. For all of Spencer’s limitations, he has the crowd more fired up than it has been all evening – who seem to love all of his call backs to Samoan big men. Steamer wins with a codebreaker followed by a schoolboy on the stunned Spencer. In all honesty this wasn’t too bad and didn’t outstay its welcome.

MATCH SEVEN: Projekt Gold (Robert Kaiser & Ron Corvus) vs. ATOM

Our co-main event features the only Czech wrestler on the card in the form of ATOM. ATOM has barely featured outside of the Czech Republic and as far as I know his most notable appearance is a tag team victory over Karsten Beck and Jurn Simmons alongside WALTER on wXw’s trip to Prague in 2015. He’s an imposing presence in the ring but the Projekt Gold men jump him from the beginning. It becomes evident that this match is a no-disqualification match once Kaiser and Corvus pile on ATOM with whatever they can get their hands on. Kaiser hitting ATOM with a woman’s handbag is a particularly fun image. Anyway, the brawling is on the outside for nearly ten minutes and then Projekt Gold tie ATOM to the ropes with a belt and start wailing on the hometown hero. This is eventually broken up by SKULL EVIL who frees ATOM  – who immediately plants Kaiser with a chokeslam for the 1-2-3.

 

MATCH EIGHT:

NextStep National Title: Laurance Roman (c) vs. Franz Engel vs. Icarus

Our main event sees Die Waschbär Laurance Roman in action. Roman begins this match like a house on fire – flinging kicks in all directions. His recently announced retirement is going to be a real shame as I feel he could have been a great star on the European level. Engel works heel in this match and does well to manage the audience who are fairly split between Icarus and Roman.

This match seems to do the basic triple threat stuff well – especially with the three way striking spot leading to a triple knockout midway through. Roman and Icarus’s strike exchanges are great in this and they have a great back and forth. Engel thinks he has the match tied up with a Spanish Fly on Icarus but he’s immediately hit with a frog splash from Roman – giving the raccoon man the victory.

All in all, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this show to watch unless you’ve completely exhausted the wXwNOW library – but it’s not to say it is poor quality. The strength comes from the strong characters courtesy of the Next Step talent and also from the interesting workers from Hungary. If a more recent event appeared on a VOD service I’d be willing to check it out.

This show is available on wXwNOW.

✏️ @MikeKilby