BRM Reviews wXw Shortcut to the Top 2021

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Shortcut to the Top 2021 (7/30/2021)- Oberhausen, Germany


OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- It was kind of weird that this only focused on Bobby Gunns and didn’t focus on any of the other twenty-nine competitors in the Shortcut to the Top match.

DAN INTERVIEWS TEAM wXw WRESTLING ACADEMY- fine babyface stuff Avalanche did pretty much all of the talking.

wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Team wXw Wrestling Academy(c) vs. Arrows of Hungary- 7.25/10
The arrows win clean in match that wish would have gone ten minutes longer than it did. It definitely came off as a big moment for the Arrows, but when you’re this close to having fans back, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t just delay this by one show and it in front of the fans. The Arrows cut a fine promo afterwards.

SHORTCUT TO THE TOP PROMOS- Bobby Gunns was great, Rott & Flott were good, Gulyas Junior was bad, Senza Volto was meh, Prince Ahura was great, Fast Time Moodo was meh, Peter Tihanyi was decent.

SUBMISSION MATCH FOR THE wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE IN WHICH EACH WRESTLER GETS ONLY THREE ROPE-BREAKS: Marius Al-Ani(c) vs. Tristan Archer- 7.25/10
Good work on the body pats and good use of the stipulations.

SHORTCUT TO THE TOP PROMOS- Everyone was passable for what they were trying to do. The real news here is that Hektor Invictus is supposedly returning. Dennis Dullnig seemed excited about this, so it’s either a ruse or I was wrong about Dennis having attacked Hektor.

2021 SHORTCUT TO THE TOP MATCH- 7.5/10
I don’t like someone who lost a match earlier on the night (and especially a title match) being the Royal Rumble, and that carries over here as well to Tristan Archer (who was, thankfully, selling his ankle quite heavily). It’s a little less annoying to me when it’s tag team guys, but I still would rather it not happen. That being said, given that we’re still living in COVID times, I’m willing to give wXw a pass.
Stuff happened until Heisenberg came in (at unlucky #13) and eliminated a bunch of people. The next man in was Feyyaz, who we were told just last week wasn’t ready to compete in wXw yet… and he even had his own entrance video and everything. Is the office trying to f*ck with Heisenberg or something?
Feyyaz goes after Heisenberg but Heisenberg doesn’t go down. Heisenberg then realized who had attacked him and got ready to slaughter Feyyaz but everyone else used the distraction to gang up on Heisenberg and eliminate him (with Feyyaz holding the top rope down). Heisenberg tried to get back into the ring to go after Feyyaz, but a referee stopped him.
15 was Nikita Charisma, who refused to get into the ring, even when referees tried to force him. He was waiting for his tag team partner, Michael Schenkenberg, who, fortunately, was the next entrant, so we didn’t have him sitting out there and skipping half of the match. Avalanche was in next. Unfortunately, Feyyaz was eliminated before Avalanche got in, so we couldn’t glean anything about how Feyyaz might have gotten booked into this match from their interactions.
JURN SIMMONS IS BACK!
The remains of Die Raucherpause worked together to eliminate both Arrows of Hungary. Ahura then turned on Norman and eliminated him, which angered Bobby Gunns, so he eliminated Ahura. Norman and Ahura started to slap and kick at each other on the outside, so Bobby tried to make peace. I was certain that this was going to lead to him being eliminated, too, but it didn’t.
The final four were probably the four biggest names in the match: Avalanche, Jurn, Senza Volto, and- still in after entering the match at #1- Bobby Gunns. Jurn did a standing moonsault, which I can’t remember ever seeing him do before. He outlasted Bobby to get the win.
This was a completely non-descript Royal Rumble. There was nothing offensive here, but nothing particularly interesting or clever, either, other than some of the stuff with Die Raucherpause. It was never boring, but rarely was it ever edge-of-your-seat exciting, either. It’s a match you’ll enjoy when you watch, but you’ll go back and watch it a second time.

Hektor didn't so up, I guess it was Dullnig now hacking his Twitter account? I don't know.


This was a decent… um… show, I guess? It’s hard for me to call a three-match show a “show” when it’s a marquee-name event. This felt like just another episode of We Love Wrestling that happened to have bigger matches on it. It was good for what it was, but this should be a COVID-era aberration and not something that continues on in futures Shortcut to the Top shows.