BRM Reviews the wXw 16th Anniversary show (A4 vs. RINGKAMPF!)

[Big Red Machine]

wXw 16th Anniversary Show (12/10/2016)- Oberhausen, Germany

MARIUS VAN BEETHOVEN vs. ALPHA KEVIN- 4.25/10
Marius cut a promo on the outside where he tried to run away. He was on the outside forever and wasn’t counted out. He tried to run away so Kevin ran to get him and they ran backstage… but no camera followed them so we just sat there and waited for them to come back. It wasn’t that long, but it was certainly long enough that they should have been counted out.
The match itself was mostly just Kevin beating Marius up, which, while entertaining and well-deserved, did get old after a while. I just wish they had done more with Marius taking out Kevin’s knee in this match, as that has been such a big part of this feud. I think the reason this match was so one-sided was because they were trying to make you think that this was the blow-off in order to make sure people didn’t expect the…

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Marius assaults Kevin with a chair, including a big shot right to the head. He then set up to Pillmanizer Kevin’s knee, but Melanie Gray ran down to the ring and protected Kevin’s leg with her body so Marius got down off of the turnbuckle. Marius circled around to Kevin’s other side so Melanie got up and once again positioned herself between Marius and her hubby… and Marius punched her right in the face, then went and Pillmanzired Kevin anyway... and then put him in a kneebar for good measure.
This got some great heat, but I thought Marius just punching Melanie in the face made her look bad. I also didn’t like it artistically because that was the big head angle they did at the last show. I thought it would have been better to just have Marius come off the top with the big stomp anyway and essentially Pillmanize Kevin’s knee “through” Melanie and then did the kneebar.

EMIL SITOCI vs. CHRIS COLEN- 4.75/10
Fine for the time it got.

STREET FIGHT: Ilja Dragunov vs. “Bad Bones” John Klinger- 8.75/10
We’re off and brawling the moment Klinger steps through the ropes. They proceeded to have one hell of a BRUTAL street fight. No one from Cerberus interfered, meaning that Ilja finally did as Klinger had been urging him to and stood on his own, and despite losing this match, Ilja did win Klinger’s respect. This would all turn out to be a poetic precursor to next year’s anniversary show main event, where they would again meet in a no DQs match, but this time with the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title on the line, the babyface/heel roles reversed, and it would be Klinger who was being forced to stand on his own after relying on outside interference for so long.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
As mentioned before, Klinger showed Ilja respect after the match, and Ilja reciprocated. Klinger then left, and Ilja’s comrades from Cerberus came out. First it was just Adam Polak and Dirty Dragan. Polak berated Ilja so Ilja yelled back. Dirty Dragan tried to get involved but Ilja floored him with a punch. Then Julian Nero came out and Polak got between him and Ilja to make sure they didn’t come to blows. Then Avalanche came out and just started punching Ilja. Ilja fought back but eventually succumbed to the numbers game.

wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Chris Brookes(c) vs. Da Mack vs. David Starr vs. Pete Dunne- 6.5/10

DAVID STARR PROMO- great babyface promo!
He says he’s going to win 16 Carat Gold next year.

2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: RingKampf (Axel Dieter Jr. & WALTER)(c) vs. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani)- 9.25/10
If you were just going to do a double-KO for the first two falls simultaneously then why even do a 2 out of 3 falls stip? Other than that, this was an epic half hour of struggle between two teams of warriors, both of whom REALLY wanted to come away with the wXw World Tag Team Titles. Even Karsten Beck and CMJ got a spot in to further their feud.

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Jurn Simmons(c) vs. Marty Scurll vs. Adam Cole- 7.5/10
A great world title match with a fun story about all three guys trying out cheat each other and the referee doing his best to prevent it. They also had a little story about Cole and Scurll working together against the larger (“massive,” some might even say) Jurn Simmons, and how that inevitably broke down. The crowd went nuts for Marty making Cole tap.
Then wXw Managing Director Christian Michael Jakobi came out onto the stage and Marty that champions “defend that belt.” And then Marty was attacked from behind by his old nemesis Axel Dieter Jr., and Jakobi ordered the referee to return to the ring for a newly-added…

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Marty Scurll(c) vs. Axel Dieter Jr. (w/Christian Michael Jakobi)- no rating, excellent segment
They had a short little match that was all big stuff before Axel made Marty tap out. Earlier this year Marty kept harassing the babyface Axel Dieter Jr. just because he wanted to pull the dark side out of Axel. And that’s what he got here: an Axel Dieter Jr. aligned with the immoral Christian Michael Jaokbi who is willing to take a shortcut to win a title. Be careful what you wish for.


A great show from wXw, loaded with major storyline moments and some excellent wrestling matches. The show was easy to sit through, everything got an appropriate amount of time, and the crowd was extremely hot for everything. This is exactly what you want from one of your biggest shows of the year.