BRM Reviews wXw Inner Circle IV

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Inner Circle IV (10/5/2017)- Essen, Germany


ALEXANDER JAMES vs. JULIAN PACE- 6.75/10
These guys had a great little opener, showing off their athleticism, striking ability, mat wrestling, and babyface/heel psychology. A great way to start off this show, and a great introduction to both of these men for anyone who hasn’t seen them before (like me, for example).

KIM RAY vs. RAFA- 4.75/10
Another short but fun, athletic, and fast-paced match. Very good for the time it got.

AMBITION RULES MATCH: Timothy Thatcher vs. WALTER- 6.5/10
The announcers spent the first four minutes or so waxing on about how much they loved the “Ambition Style” but never once explained the rules. The ring announcer made a big deal of doing so, which would have made this excusable except that he did so in German and this is the English commentary, so I’m willing to wager that most of the people listening to it don’t speak German well enough to understand the ring announcer (especially with how fast he was talking). The only tidbit we got was that in order to prevent yourself from being counted down for a technical knockout, you need to be on both feet, which is really a pretty minuscule change from the normal rules of pro wrestling.
This was a fun technical wrestling contest that ended all too soon. WALTER seemed to be dominating most of the match but Thatcher managed to reverse one of his strike attempts into a Fujiwara armbar and WALTER tapped right away. It would have been nice for the announcers to at least say something like “they’re about to compete as a team in the World Tag League starting tomorrow and thus there was no point in risking doing damage by struggling while in such a dangerous submission hold if you knew the other guy probably had you beat.” They stood together as a team after the match, and also... took turns spraying each other with something (particularly on the bodyparts each guy had worked on). It was very strange.

EYFBO vs. JAY FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin)- 7.25/10
Great tag team action, with EYFBO in particular looking impressive.

JAXON STONE vs. JURN SIMMONS- 5/10
Stone is yet another guy doing the BJ Whitmer/Zack Gibson gimmick where he tries to cut a promo but the fans relentlessly boo him to stop him from talking. The match had too much comedy for my tastes, and none of the comedy was particularly funny, either.

DAVID STARR vs. HOMICIDE- 6.75/10
They started off with some mat wrestling, but it turned into more of a brawl when they spilled out to the floor. Once they got back in the ring it was more of a wrestling match again, but in more of your normal WWE style rather than the mat wrestling they had been doing earlier. Starr got the big win over an indy legend, which was good for him, but I was a little bit disappointed with the match.

This was a solid enough outing from wXw for a show that didn’t even go ninety minutes, with a bunch of short fun, athletic matches, but the fact that the two matches that drew me to this show- Starr vs. Homicide and WALTER vs. Thatcher- were both disappointing definitely dampens it a bit for me.

[cero2k]

EYFBO vs. JAY FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin)- 7.25/10
Great tag team action, with EYFBO in particular looking impressive.

Draztik AKA Santana has been getting more and more character on Impact. I'm really getting high on them

[Big Red Machine]

EYFBO vs. JAY FK (Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin)- 7.25/10
Great tag team action, with EYFBO in particular looking impressive.

Draztik AKA Santana has been getting more and more character on Impact. I'm really getting high on them

They're spot guys, but they're spot guys with intensity and charisma and they know how to build the action up rather than a 2000-2004 indy/X-Division multi-man.

[cero2k]

Draztik AKA Santana has been getting more and more character on Impact. I'm really getting high on them

They're spot guys, but they're spot guys with intensity and charisma and they know how to build the action up rather than a 2000-2004 indy/X-Division multi-man.

yeah, pretty much, and when Konnan is your mouthpiece, that is not a bad place to be, they're still young i think. They do remind me of young Briscoes a lot