BRM Reviews wXw 16 Carat Gold 2019: Night 3

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews wXw 16 Carat Gold 2019: Night 3

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 18th, '19, 15:48

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2019: Night 3 (3/10/2019)- Oberhausen, Germany


16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Lucky Kid vs. Ilja Dragunov- 7.5/10
A GREAT semifinal that played off of the finishes of their previous matches for some effective false finishes before establishing a new finisher for Lucky as he heads into the finals so he doesn’t feel like a guy solely relying on roll-ups (especially because we got that spot here where Ilja basically said “no, you get up. I’m not coming over to pick you up because I know you’re playing possum). An excellent way to open the show.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. WALTER- 6.5/10
And we immediately start off with Avalanche being an idiot and taking his attention off of WALTER during a stare-down to look at the 16 Carat Gold logo on the big screen… so WALTER just booted him in the head. Idiot.
WALTER won the match shockingly cleanly, considering his other wins so far in this tournament. There was a lot of hard-hitting and some good work on the shoulder by WALTER, but Avalanche never quite felt like he had a real chance.

TIMOTHY THATCHER, VEIT MULLER, & AXEL TISCHER VS. DAISUKE SEKIMOTO, SHIGEHRI IRIE, & YUJI ISHIKAWA- 6.75/10
A solid six-man tag. The Japanese contingent won, but I was much more interested in seeing what would happen with this kinda-sorta RingKampf trio on the other side. Speaking of which, we then got a…

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
After the Japanese contingent left, Axel Dieter Jr. and WALTER came out to the ring. The four veterans wound up each backing up to a corner, leaving Veit alone in the middle and very confused. Eventually, WALTER ran at him from behind and locked in a sleeper hold. As Veit struggled to escape it, Axel Dieter Jr. ran in… and held a RingKampf shirt right up in Muller’s face. WALTER let the hold go and everyone had a good laugh at Muller’s expense, then he was officially welcomed into RingKampf as the fans chanted “YOU DESERVE IT!”
Tischer said some friendly goodbyes to everyone and left. Then the remaining four went to do the RingKampf pose together, but Thatcher didn’t join in. He congratulated Muller one more time, then gave both WALTER and Axel a pointed look before walking off. I would really love to know Thatcher’s- and, to a lesser extent, Axel’s- thoughts on WALTER’s recent actions, but these guys are not guys known for airing dirty laundry in public or for talking too much in general. My guess is that Thatcher is not willing to give WALTER the benefit of the doubt and thinks he’s purposely cheating, while Axel is willing to give his good buddy the benefit of the doubt. After Thatcher left (going through the crowd) Axel and WALTER headed up the ramp and to the back, leaving Muller to soak up the cheers from the crowd.

wXw WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Toni Storm(c) vs. Killer Kelly- 6/10
They showed a FANTASTIC video package before this match to build it up, but the match itself just didn’t deliver. We started off with some really good stuff in the ring, but then they derailed by fighting forever on the outside just so Toni could give Kelly a Piledriver on the stage to set up the Count-Out Tease That No One Ever Buys™. It got a bit better once they got back into the ring with Toni mocking some of Kelly’s moves and then Kelly getting some revenge for that, but the finish- Kelly’s finisher got kicked out of and she got rolled up shortly thereafter- seemed to fly in the face of everything that has happened so far in this feud. One this is for certain though: Between this result and January’s, I’m not going to doubt Toni Storm in wXw ever again. She’s gone from seeming like she is on her way out the door to be NXT/NXT UK-exclusive to looking like she’s now just at the beginning of a long heel title reign.

JAY FK PROMO- They said heel stuff and eventually got interrupted by Karsten Beck, who booked…

JAY FK vs. HOT & SPICY (Axel Dieter Jr. & Da Mack)- 5.75/10
The fans went nuts for the Hot & Spicy reunion. Jay FK, on the other hand, were not happy about it at all, and jumped the bell on Hot & Spicy to gain an unfair advantage. Hot & Spicy overcame that and got the win, with Axel even getting the pin. He’s been booked oddly strongly this weekend. If this is a sign that WWE is going to let him come in on a more standard “NXT UK contract” (I believe he signed before those were a thing) then I’m for it, but otherwise, him beating the Shotgun Champion and then getting this pin here when anyone else getting the pin would have been more beneficial is a little worrisome.

REY HORUS & THE LUCHA BROS. vs. SHCADENFREUDE (Aussie Open & Chris Brookes)- 7/10
Spotty, but it managed to stay entertaining.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FINALS: Lucky Kid vs. WALTER- 8.5/10
This was an awesome big mean guy vs. undersized underdog match. That was their story and they stuck with it throughout. The crowd was REALLY behind Lucky, and as odd as the idea of him winning this tournament even a few months ago sounded, it felt like it made perfect sense going into this match. It was also nice to be getting some big babyface finishes to close the shows out this weekend after what has felt like months of mostly dirty heel wins.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
RISE came out to celebrate with Lucky… and Schadenfreude came out and onto the ramp and clapped for him as well.

This was a very good show from wXw, although I will admit that it fell below my expectations. The main event was certainly good enough for what it needed to be, but the Women’s Title match and some of the other stuff on the undercard all didn’t really live up to my expectations. There were some important storyline moments coming out of this show, but (aside from the main event finish, of course) they all feel much more little detail things when compared to last night’s slew of big moments. Still, this was definitely a successful weekend for wXw, and their storylines feel very refreshed heading into the spring.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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