BRM Reviews wXw Shortcut to the Top 2016 (OUTSTANDING!)
Posted: Apr 18th, '18, 20:26
wXw Shortcut to the Top 2016 (6/4/2016)- Oberhausen, Germany
EMIL SITOCI & MARTY SCURLL vs. MARIUS AL-ANI & ABSOLUTE ANDY- 6.75/10
Andy’s originally-scheduled partner for tonight was injured so he brought in Marius Al-Ani as a replacement. The story of the match (other than your standard babyface in peril story) was that Marty was focused on winning and so had toned down his antics to only those that actually worked to give him an advantage in the match. The finish came when Sitoci grabbed Marty’s umbrella and wanted to hit Andy with it right in front of the referee but Marty stopped him, and their arguing led to Sitoci getting rolled up and pinned. They continued to argue after the match.
KAY LEE RAY vs. MELANIE GRAY (w/Marius van Beethoven)- 5.75/10
Melanie worked over Kay Lee Ray’s back, and between that and Marius’ interference, she got the win. The referee let Marius get away with WAY too much right in front of his face without calling for a DQ.
wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Da Mack(c) vs. Sasa Keel- 5.5/10
Sloppy and erratic.
SIX-MAN TAG MATCH FOR THE wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Legion(c) (Michael Dante, Mikey Whiplash, & Tommy End)(c) vs. Cerberus (Ilja Dragunov, Julian Nero, & Dirty Dragan) (w/Adam Polak)- 7.5/10
A wild and chaotic match that was really more of a Tornado Tag than anything else. Cerberus pick up the win and the belts. The reason for that title change is that…
TOMMY END ANNOUNCES HE IS LEAVING wXw- he doesn’t specifically name WWE, but everyone knew that was what he meant.
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL JAKOBI TALKS FOR TEN STRAIGHT MINUTES- It was all in German so I don’t know what he said, but the crowd seemed happy. They chanted for Tommy End, and he named-dropped Axel Tischer.
NO TIME LIMIT, NO COUNT-OUTS, NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE: Jurn Simmons(c) (w/Marius van Beethoven, Kevin Roadster, & Melanie Gray) vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger- 9/0
Melanie is immediately yelling at Kevin about something but the fans show their support by chanting for him. In other Kevin-related news, there was a spot where Jurn wanted Kevin to hit Bad Bones with the belt so Jurn held him up but Bones escaped and Kevin accidentally nailed Jurn, repeating an earlier spot in this feud.
The match itself was thirty minutes of weapons-based brutality, and was every bit the war it was advertised as. They had some nice call-backs to previous spots, and Klinger’s babyface fire was second to none. An epic and worthy blow-off to such a violent feud.
2016 SHORTCUT TO THE TOP MATCH- 9.5/10
This was basically a Royal Rumble, complete with what I’m certain were totally inconsistent times between entrances. Our first two entrants are Chris Hero and WALTER! They trade sick strikes for a while. Hero later organized a little posse to try to eliminate WALTER when he was down but WALTER still managed to avoid elimination. WALTER would later almost eliminate Hero but Hero was not eliminated because his feet were on the ramp (which is at the same level as the ring, like ECW had in their later years) rather than the floor, which is bullsh*t to the level that it makes some of Kofi’s stuff look completely reasonable.
WALTER was eliminated by Marius Al-Ani in a big surprise elimination. While announcer Rico Bushido made a huge deal out of this, Al-Ani was then immediately eliminated by Axel Dieter Jr., which, while it could easily play into some sort of RingKampf storyline (WALTER and Axel haven’t quite been getting along lately), it felt like they really didn’t give this major moment for Al-Ani the focus it deserved (and especially if their goal is to use this to try to elevate Al-Ani as a singles guy).
Marty & Sitoci worked together for a while until Marty turned on Sitoci by grabbing him from behind and eliminating him. Marty was eliminated immediately afterwards, and they had an argument at ringside that quickly turned into a brawl.
Aside from the stuff I mentioned above, the first thirty-five minutes of this was basically filler, but fun filler. Then the awesomeness started.
It began with Kevin Roadster getting a surprise elimination on Chris Hero, which left Kevin all alone in the ring. Then Kevin’s boss Jurn Simmons entered the match. Yes, the very same Jurn Simmons who is the current wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion. I guess he was trying to make sure he wouldn’t have to defend his belt against anyone by winning this match, or maybe trying to secure himself a second rematch in case he lost the title (or maybe first; I don’t know if wXw traditionally gives out a champion’s rematch).
Jurn wanted Kevin to eliminate himself but Kevin refused and turned babyface. The crowd went nuts for this. Jurn beat Kevin up but then Tommy End came out. This led to Kevin popping up and almost eliminating Jurn when Jurn was focused on Tommy but Jurn wound up eliminating Kevin.
Then Karsten Beck returned to wXw for the first time since Jurn Simmons betrayed him and screwed him out of the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title at 16 Carat Gold this year. When Karsten showed up, fans were hugging each other in joy. That being said, this completely pales in comparison to Ilja Dragunov’s return at the 2018 16 Carat Gold, but it shows that wXw can pull off basically the same angle twice in less than two years and manage to get a bigger reaction the second time. That’s quite impressive, especially in this day and age.
Karsten eliminated Jurn, then started to have his big face-off with Tommy End… but it turns out that Axel Dieter Jr. was never eliminated and was doing the old “just hide out the outside” trick, so he shocked everyone by coming in and eliminating Tommy end from behind. Beck and Axel then had an excellent final two segment, with Axel spending too much time jawing with the crowd before following up and thus perhaps costing himself a chance at victory. Beck eventually won and the people again went nuts.
Yes, parts of this match were a sloppy, but that was mostly just punch-kick stuff anyway. The match went over fifty-two minutes and not a moment of it was dull, had some fun and interesting stories early on, and finished in a wonderful cacophony of advancements in multiple storylines, with the crowd eating every single bit of it up.
A completely awesome show from wXw, combining a solid undercard with outstanding in-ring action and important storyline moments. A strong contender for Show of the Year.
EMIL SITOCI & MARTY SCURLL vs. MARIUS AL-ANI & ABSOLUTE ANDY- 6.75/10
Andy’s originally-scheduled partner for tonight was injured so he brought in Marius Al-Ani as a replacement. The story of the match (other than your standard babyface in peril story) was that Marty was focused on winning and so had toned down his antics to only those that actually worked to give him an advantage in the match. The finish came when Sitoci grabbed Marty’s umbrella and wanted to hit Andy with it right in front of the referee but Marty stopped him, and their arguing led to Sitoci getting rolled up and pinned. They continued to argue after the match.
KAY LEE RAY vs. MELANIE GRAY (w/Marius van Beethoven)- 5.75/10
Melanie worked over Kay Lee Ray’s back, and between that and Marius’ interference, she got the win. The referee let Marius get away with WAY too much right in front of his face without calling for a DQ.
wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Da Mack(c) vs. Sasa Keel- 5.5/10
Sloppy and erratic.
SIX-MAN TAG MATCH FOR THE wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Legion(c) (Michael Dante, Mikey Whiplash, & Tommy End)(c) vs. Cerberus (Ilja Dragunov, Julian Nero, & Dirty Dragan) (w/Adam Polak)- 7.5/10
A wild and chaotic match that was really more of a Tornado Tag than anything else. Cerberus pick up the win and the belts. The reason for that title change is that…
TOMMY END ANNOUNCES HE IS LEAVING wXw- he doesn’t specifically name WWE, but everyone knew that was what he meant.
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL JAKOBI TALKS FOR TEN STRAIGHT MINUTES- It was all in German so I don’t know what he said, but the crowd seemed happy. They chanted for Tommy End, and he named-dropped Axel Tischer.
NO TIME LIMIT, NO COUNT-OUTS, NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE: Jurn Simmons(c) (w/Marius van Beethoven, Kevin Roadster, & Melanie Gray) vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger- 9/0
Melanie is immediately yelling at Kevin about something but the fans show their support by chanting for him. In other Kevin-related news, there was a spot where Jurn wanted Kevin to hit Bad Bones with the belt so Jurn held him up but Bones escaped and Kevin accidentally nailed Jurn, repeating an earlier spot in this feud.
The match itself was thirty minutes of weapons-based brutality, and was every bit the war it was advertised as. They had some nice call-backs to previous spots, and Klinger’s babyface fire was second to none. An epic and worthy blow-off to such a violent feud.
2016 SHORTCUT TO THE TOP MATCH- 9.5/10
This was basically a Royal Rumble, complete with what I’m certain were totally inconsistent times between entrances. Our first two entrants are Chris Hero and WALTER! They trade sick strikes for a while. Hero later organized a little posse to try to eliminate WALTER when he was down but WALTER still managed to avoid elimination. WALTER would later almost eliminate Hero but Hero was not eliminated because his feet were on the ramp (which is at the same level as the ring, like ECW had in their later years) rather than the floor, which is bullsh*t to the level that it makes some of Kofi’s stuff look completely reasonable.
WALTER was eliminated by Marius Al-Ani in a big surprise elimination. While announcer Rico Bushido made a huge deal out of this, Al-Ani was then immediately eliminated by Axel Dieter Jr., which, while it could easily play into some sort of RingKampf storyline (WALTER and Axel haven’t quite been getting along lately), it felt like they really didn’t give this major moment for Al-Ani the focus it deserved (and especially if their goal is to use this to try to elevate Al-Ani as a singles guy).
Marty & Sitoci worked together for a while until Marty turned on Sitoci by grabbing him from behind and eliminating him. Marty was eliminated immediately afterwards, and they had an argument at ringside that quickly turned into a brawl.
Aside from the stuff I mentioned above, the first thirty-five minutes of this was basically filler, but fun filler. Then the awesomeness started.
It began with Kevin Roadster getting a surprise elimination on Chris Hero, which left Kevin all alone in the ring. Then Kevin’s boss Jurn Simmons entered the match. Yes, the very same Jurn Simmons who is the current wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion. I guess he was trying to make sure he wouldn’t have to defend his belt against anyone by winning this match, or maybe trying to secure himself a second rematch in case he lost the title (or maybe first; I don’t know if wXw traditionally gives out a champion’s rematch).
Jurn wanted Kevin to eliminate himself but Kevin refused and turned babyface. The crowd went nuts for this. Jurn beat Kevin up but then Tommy End came out. This led to Kevin popping up and almost eliminating Jurn when Jurn was focused on Tommy but Jurn wound up eliminating Kevin.
Then Karsten Beck returned to wXw for the first time since Jurn Simmons betrayed him and screwed him out of the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title at 16 Carat Gold this year. When Karsten showed up, fans were hugging each other in joy. That being said, this completely pales in comparison to Ilja Dragunov’s return at the 2018 16 Carat Gold, but it shows that wXw can pull off basically the same angle twice in less than two years and manage to get a bigger reaction the second time. That’s quite impressive, especially in this day and age.
Karsten eliminated Jurn, then started to have his big face-off with Tommy End… but it turns out that Axel Dieter Jr. was never eliminated and was doing the old “just hide out the outside” trick, so he shocked everyone by coming in and eliminating Tommy end from behind. Beck and Axel then had an excellent final two segment, with Axel spending too much time jawing with the crowd before following up and thus perhaps costing himself a chance at victory. Beck eventually won and the people again went nuts.
Yes, parts of this match were a sloppy, but that was mostly just punch-kick stuff anyway. The match went over fifty-two minutes and not a moment of it was dull, had some fun and interesting stories early on, and finished in a wonderful cacophony of advancements in multiple storylines, with the crowd eating every single bit of it up.
A completely awesome show from wXw, combining a solid undercard with outstanding in-ring action and important storyline moments. A strong contender for Show of the Year.