BRM Reviews the ENTIRE wXw Catch Grand Prix

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Catch Grand Prix

Only the competitors will be allowed at the venue. Anyone who breaks this rule will be subject to a fine, suspension, or even a ban.
Also, there are rounds and a card-system for fouls where essentially three minor fouls add up to one big one and thus a DQ.
Block A consists of:
wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Bobby Gunns
wXw Shogun Champion Metehan
wXw World Tag Team Champion Fast Time Moodo
16 Carat Gold winner Cara Noir
wXw Wrestling Academy head trainer “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker
Hektor Invictus
Anil Marik

Block B consists of:
Marius Al-Ani
Emil Sitoci
Norman Harras
Senza Volto
Prince Ahura
Tristan Archer
Vincent Heisenberg

We’re going to have one match a day, six days a week, for the next seven weeks
 
10/26: BLOCK A MATCH: Metehan vs. Cara Noir- 6.75/10
Before the match we got a good promo by Metehan and some comments form Bobby Gunns who was on a panel with some wXw office people that built up not just this match, btu the inevitable clashes in this block between Gunns and Metehan and between Gunns and Cara Noir (who is still owed a shot at Bobby Gunns’ wXw Unified World Wrestling Title from winning 16 Carat Gold early this year).
The story of the match was that Metehan was usually dominating by the end of a round and Cara Noir would get saved by the bell. At the beginning of the final round, Cara Noir did the Lucky Kid pose, which sent Metehan (FKA Lucky Kid) into a rage and he charged at Cara Noir and Cara Noir caught him in his rear naked choke for the win. In a vacuum, this was a fine story, but for me in this time and place, it created some anxiety. Firstly, the nature of the story required them to structure it so that things would be picking up and getting exciting just as the round ended, which was a worry of mine when I decided to watch this big tournament full of rounds matches. The second issue I had with it was that “Cara Noir gets the sh*t beaten out of him and then wins with his rear naked choke” was the story of every single match he has had in wXw so far… which is only about five at this point, but still, I’d like to see him do something at least a little different at some point.
After the match, we got an interview with Metehan where he vowed that he wouldn’t let himself get distracted and lose again because he really needs to win this tournament to afford medicine for his mother and nice clothes for his wife. I have a feeling that at least the former will turn out to have been a lie b the time this is over, based off of the way the announcers were talking about it probably not being a good idea to knowingly do things that will lead to fines if you are worried about being able to afford your mother’s medicine.

10/27: BLOCK A MATCH: Anil Marik vs. Hektor Invictus- 5.5/10
Our pre-match panel gave us even more pushing of the eventual Bobby Gunns vs. Metehan match, simply through Bobby constantly stonewalling any attempts to talk about the Raucherpause-EZEL partnership.
Both guys in this match cut fine pre-match promos. The story of the match was Marik trying to use his speed but being unable to overcome Hektor’s power. Both guys cut good post-match promos. Hektor showed confidence while Marik showed determination to improve, saying he would ask his trainer, Avalanche to look his match over and see if he can give him any pointers.

10/28: BLOCK A MATCH: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Fast Time Moodo- 6/10
The story here was Moodo trying to cut the big man down with his kicks while Avalanche worked over Moodo’s knee. Moodo hit his big kick, but went for a lazy cover and got pinned with a crucifix. Moodo vowed not to let that happen again in his post-match interview.

10/29: BLOCK B MATCH: Vincent Heisenberg vs. Tristan Archer- 4.25/10
The pre-match interviews set this up as another clash of the confident (in this case arrogant) veteran against the youngster. Archer dominated the match, but Heisenberg managed to snap off his finisher and pin him. Both guys cut good post-match promos.

10/30: BLOCK B MATCH: Norman Harras vs. Senza Volto- 5.75/10
During Senza’s pre-match interview, we were told by Andy Jackson that he was included in this tournament due to demand from the fans. He’s an eager babyface. Norman Harras was both eager and determined to move on from his recent humiliating losses (though, personally, I think he has nothing to be embarrassed about in the match at the wXw Wrestling Academy), and wants to win this tournament to erase those losses in people’s minds.
The match had some good wrestling, but the important part here was the character stuff for Harras. Specifically, he failed to control his temper and accumulated three yellow cards for minor fouls, each of which carries a fine, and a three together is a red card (major foul) and results in a DQ.

10/31: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Emil Sitoci- 5.5/10
Emil Sitoci is determined to improve on his usually poor showing in wXw tournaments. Marius Al-Ani is on a hot streak (9-0, to be exact), and hopes to continue that. Good pre-match promos by both men.
Marius threw a punch well after the second round ended, resulting in a yellow card. Despite this, Sitoci managed to make a big comeback during the next round… and then got caught with a powerbomb press and kicked out a split second too late. During the post-match interview, you could tell that despite the outward appearance he was trying to give off, Sitoci was not taking this well at all.

11/2: BLOCK A MATCH: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Hektor Invictus- 5.75/10
During the panel discussion we got some build for Marius Al-Ani vs. Cara Noir, as well as Marius predicting that his former student Hektor would be his recent rival (and current wXw Wrestling Academy head trainer) Avalanche. In our pre-match interviews, Hektor is confident that his strength will be sufficient to negate Avalanche’s size, while Avalanche says he has found a weakness in Hektor’s game that he will try to exploit. Neither man’s plans worked, as they wound up going to a time-limit draw.

11/3: BLOCK A MATCH: Anil Marik vs. Bobby Gunns- 4/10
This was short. Marik is a fine underdog babyface, but the world champ is the world champ and he dominated this poor kid.

11/4: BLOCK A MATCH: Metehan vs. Fast Time Moodo- 5/10
Metehan got very angry with Andy Jackson when Andy brought up his loss last week, and even put his hands on him. If we’re fining people for eye-rakes, this should be a fine, too.
Seeing that it had worked last week for Cara Noir, Moodo tried to get in Metehan’s head with taunts but it didn’t work as well, so good for Metehan for correcting a flaw in his game. By the end of the second round, Metehan was dominating to the point where he almost had Moodo tapping multiple times in the last thirty seconds. Moodo made a short comeback in the third round, but Metehan cut him off again and won with his cool new finisher.
In his post-match interview, Metehan pushed back against Andy Jackson asking about his relationship with Bobby Gunns and their match in the final week. Moodo vowed to learn from today’s loss.

11/5 BLOCK B MATCH: Emil Sitoci vs. Senza Volto- 7/10
In his pre-match interview, Sitoci once again came across as someone who isn’t as confident as he is projecting.
Sitoci worked over Volto’s midsection and displayed little signs of heelishness, like not breaking in the ropes right away. They had a good callback to his previous match where he kicked out a split second after three by having him kick out a split second before it here, which got the viewer primed to think that Sitoci was going to win this one… and then his finisher got reversed once again, and he lost by roll-up soon after. This has been the best match we’ve seen so far.
Volto stopping to pose before giving Sitoci his post-match fist-bump was pretty douchy. It’s possible that the confidence fans have liked about him is slowly turning into arrogance. This didn’t quite come across in his post-match interview, but you could see how it could easily be seen as such in hindsight if things turn out that way. Sitoci was particularly great in his post-match interview. He’s getting more and more frustrated, and will use that to motivate him and take it out on whoever his next opponent is.

11/6 BLOCK B MATCH: Norman Harras vs. Tristan Archer- 5.75/10
Our pre-match interviews gave us some good build for future matches between Marius Al-Ani and Tristan Archer, Marias Al-Ani and Vincent Heisenberg, and Norman Harras and Vincent Heisenberg. Harras also blamed his DQ loss last week on getting used to the Catch Grand Prix rules (specifically the card system for fouls).
They had a short but solid match. Despite talking a big game, Norman lost clean. He tried to put a positive spin on his loss, but by the end of his interview, it was clear how much his 0-2 record so far was bothering him.

11/7 BLOCK B MATCH: Prince Ahura vs. Vincent Heisenberg- 5/10
Ahura lures poor naïve Heisenberg in with a handshake and wrestles completely cleanly… until the key moment where he cheated and got the dirty win.

11/9: BLOCK A MATCH: Hektor Invictus vs. Bobby Gunns- 6.25/10
Metehan has the off-week this week for Block A, so he’s our panel guest. He is asked about his relationship with Bobby Gunns and Die Raucherpause and says he never wants to hear this question again.
Both guys cut fine pre-match promos. They kept fighting at the end of a round and both got yellow cards. Bobby won by armbar, jumping him to the top of the division.

11/10: BLOCK A MATCH: Fast Time Moodo vs. Anil Marik- no rating, good segment
This is a match-up of the two remaining winless wrestlers in this block. Marik said that he thought he had been too passive in his previous matches, so this time he is going to come out guns blazing right from the bell. He did so… and ran into a book to the face, then a big knockout kick for the finish.

11/11: BLOCK A MATCH: Cara Noir vs. “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker- 7/10
This was one of the better matches in the tournament so far. We broke from the usual Cara Noir pattern of him getting his ass kief for most of the match and then catching the opponent in his rear naked choke and getting the win by both not having him get is ask kicked the whole match and also not having him get the win. Avalanche won with the Dreissker Bomb, handing Cara Noir his first loss in wXw.

METEHAN INTERRUPTS NORMAN HARRAS’ PRE-MATCH INTERVIEW AND DEMANDS THAT THE CAMERAMAN SHUT OFF THE CAMERA- big news!
Fortunately, the cameraman managed to surreptitiously turn the camera back on at some point, so we learned that Metehan is annoyed that Die Raucherpause seem to be doing all of the taking and none of the giving in this partnership, so he wants a favor. He also says that Die Raucherpause can have either the title (presumably Bobby Gunns’ wXw Unified World Wrestling Title) or the prize money for the tournament, but not both. Norman, for his part, was playing the good guy, saying he agrees with Metehan but needs to “convey,” which I assume is a translation issue, as that work doesn’t really make sense here on its own in English. My guess is that he means that he can’t make the call but rather than he has to convey this info to the rest of the group.

11/12: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs Norman Harras- no rating, good segment
Norman was sooooo cocky at the end of the first round, but was bloodied up and tapping out before the end of the segment. His ego is taking quite the shot this tournament. In his post-match interview, he blamed the rules of the tournament.

11/13: BLOCK B MATCH: Senza Volto vs. Vincent Heisenberg- 6.75/10
I really liked this. The larger Heisenberg both worked the arm and also kept doing things to try to lure Senza into a playing a power game, but the veteran managed to pull out the win with reversals at key moments.

11/14: BLOCK B MATCH: Tristan Archer vs. Prince Ahura- 7/10
Another long, solid match, with good babyface vs. heel dynamics. Prince Ahura gave a tremendous heel interview after the match, saying that he tried to beat Archer the same way Heisenberg did two weeks ago but he couldn’t do it… and the fact that he couldn’t repeat Heisenberg’s feat makes Heisenberg’s win a fluke. That is some outstanding heel logic right there. Also, he says he lost because he is really more focused on getting the tag titles back.

11/16: BLOCK A MATCH: Fast Time Moodo vs. Bobby Gunns- 6/10
Moodo was determined to make Bobby Gunns eat his words from last week about “Karate kids.” He put up a much better fight than Anil Marik did, but he still lost. Bibby Gunns was very good on his post-match interview, trying to downplay the partnership between Die Raucherpause and Ezel, but doing so in a way where you know Metehan might well be legitimately offended by it… and Bobby probably really doesn’t care, which is why he’s saying the things he’s saying.

ANIL MARIK PRE-MATCH INTERVIEW- good
His trainer Avalanche, who beat Cara Noir last week, has given him some pointers on how to beat Cara Noir.

METEHAN AND NORMAN HARRAS HAVE A MEETING BACKSTAGE- Metehan reassures Norman that Bobby Gunns’ fears that Metehan will come after Bobby’s wXw Unified World Wrestling Title if he wins the tournament are unfounded.

11/17: BLOCK A MATCH: Cara Noir vs. Anik Marik- 5/10
Cara Noir wins clean, but shows Marik respect after the match. In his post-match interview, Marik says that now that he is mathematically eliminated, his new goal in his matches is making sure he always gives his best.

11/18: BLOCK A MATCH: “The Avalanche “Robert Dreissker vs. Metehan- 6.75/10
Metehan is 2-0 against Avalanche this year. He won yet again after a good, intense match and a great heel finish that really makes me want to see these two face off again in a grudge match without rounds. Avalanche did a tremendous job of selling his frustration in his post-match interview.

11/19: BLOCK B MATCH: Prince Ahura vs. Senza Volto- 8/10
This was easily the best match in this tournament so far. The story here was that Senza Volto was undefeated and Ahura needed to beat him to be able to catch him, and he tried every single trick in this book to do so.

11/20: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Vincent Heisenberg- 4.5/10
Marius wins by submission, remaining undefeated and now on a 12-0 streak overall. He cut a great promo after the match as well.

11/21: BLOCK B MATCH: Emil Sitoci vs. Norman Harras- 5/10
In our pre-match interviews we learned that Norman has a plan while Sitoci is just angry. This played itself out during the match, with Sitoci being angry and aggressive, and Norman winning with dirty tactics to pick up his first win. Sitoci was understandably unhappy about this.

11/23: BLOCK A MATCH: Metehan vs. Anil Marik- 4/10
Metehan was cocky due to already beating Anil’ trainer, Avalanche. He dominated this match, justifying that cockiness. Metehan got himself a second yellow card (and the accompanying fine) for attacking Anil after the match. They’re definitely building towards Metehan vs. Avalanche for the Shotgun Title, which should be very good.

11/24: BLOCK A MATCH: Fast Time Moodo vs. Hektor Invictus- 4.5/10
Moodo managed to pull off the upset, taking Hektor’s chances of winning the tournament down to almost zero. In the post-match interview, he told us he hasn’t given up hope.

11/25: BLOCK A MATCH: Bobby Gunns vs. Cara Noir- 7.75/10
Bobby works the arm while Cara Noir looks for the Rear Naked Choke. Bobby clearly wasn’t going to win this, but I could make good booking arguments for a draw, Cara Noir winning by pinfall/submission, or Bobby getting DQed, so there was suspense throughout. These two brought the intensity here, and have me quite excited for their eventual title match.

11/26: BLOCK B MATCH: Emil Sitoci vs. Vincent Heisenberg- 5/10
Heisenberg, in the most polite manner possible, said he was excited to have the chance to make his name by beating a big name like Emil Sitoci. Sitoci did not take this well, while also seeking to downplay the tournament as a whole and focus on his prior accomplishments and his legacy in wXw. Sitoci was really great here.
The match itself… was weird. They started telling the perfect story, which was that after telling this young punk that he had poked the bear and now he was going to get it, every single thing Sitoci tried didn’t work… and then, in the third round, Sitoci put a string of moves together and beat Heisenberg clean. It was like they chickened out of the story at the last minute.

11/27: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Prince Ahura- 6.5/10
Ahura claims that he’s losing because he isn’t putting much effort in because he doesn’t care about singles wrestling; only tag matches. A good heel excuse. Marius Al-Ani was already looking past Ahura to hit opponent next week, Senza Volto, who, like him, is also undefeated in Block B. Marius overcame Ahura’s dirty tricks and won cleanly.

11/28: BLOCK B MATCH: Senza Volto vs. Tristan Archer- 6.5/10
In his pre-match interview, Archer claimed that the only reason he lost to Volto the last time they faced was because he was taking him lightly because he had never lost to Volto before. This time, though, he won’t take Volto lightly because he needs to win to stay alive.
The match had good action while it lasted. I was SHOCKED that Archer won here, but I guess it does leave you with one more man alive in this block and also sets up for a rubber match.

11/30: BLOCK A MATCH: Cara Noir vs. Fast Time Moodo- 3.5/10
This was meh until the finish, where it got worse. Said finish saw Cara Noir hit a Package Piledriver where he landed while kicking his legs up so high that it was clear that Moodo’s head ever even came close the mat.

12/1: BLOCK A MATCH: Hektor Invictus vs. Metehan- 4.5/10
The match was fine for the time it got. Metehan’s finisher always looks great. In his post-match interview, Hektor was frustrated with his inability to win big matches and vowed to not let anyone stand in his way anymore.

12/2 BLOCK A MATCH: “The Avalanche “Robert Dreissker vs. Bobby Gunns- 7/10
Not only is there the usual tension here between a top babyface and the heel world champion, but Avalanche has been having issues with other members of Die Raucherpause lately, and Avalanche needs a win here to stay alive in the tournament, while if Bobby Gunns wins, he will control his own fate in the tournament, and only a loss next week to Metehan will be able to prevent him from winning the block.
Bobby Gunns was confident in his pre-match interview. Andy Jackson found a round-about way of trying to get him to talk about his deal with Metehan, but Bobby wasn’t having it. Andy’s round-about way of asking it (he asked if Bobby would be happy with himself and Metehan having the same number of points atop the block going into their match) made a little more sense later when the announcers explained to us that if two people tie at the top of the block, both go the finals (where they could conceivably conspire against the winner of the other block to eliminate him first, thus ensuring that one of them would win), and thus the rationale for Bobby looking for a draw here rather than a win to ensure he controls his own destiny in the block would be that he and Metehan could agree to a draw beforehand and wind up tied (the risk would be that if Cara Noir won his match, he would be tied at nine with them, and thus there would be a fourth person in the finals, who could respond to their alliance by allying with the winner of the other block).
In his interview, Avalanche was clearly still unhappy about being cheated out of last week’s match with Metehan, but said he wouldn’t let that get into his head tonight.
As the finish (a nice, clean win for Avalanche) made clear, this was a match where they were holding back for the higher-stakes return match, but they still did a good job with their story (Gunns working the arm while Avalanche worked the midsection) and letting their differing personalities and moral philosophies shine through. Avalanche winning here not only keeps him alive going into the final set of matches, but also makes it so Gunns now needs to win his match with Metehan next week in order to have any chance at winning the block. Sh*t is definitely going to go down in that match.

12/3: BLOCK B MATCH: Norman Harras vs. Prince Ahura- no rating, mostly a good segment
The pre-match interviews did a great job of getting across the two stablemates’ different attitudes towards this match and their relationship. They also played that up well during the match, with Ahura just being a total dick to his stablemate and Harras firing back in his own ways, but wanting to also prove himself and win the match. I thought the whole comedy bit with the eye poke and the referee eventually forgetting that he was about to DQ Ahura because he got dizzy when the blinded Harras picked him up and gave him an airplane spine was a mistake, as it took the tone of the match in the wrong direction before they went into the nearfalls. Ahura cheating to beat Harras definitely seems like the right finish here, as Harras probably wants to explode at Ahura, but also knows that if they start a real feud, the rest of the stable will side with Ahura, so he’ll have to keep his anger bottled up. But one day, he will explode, and I can’t wait to see it.
Ahura was a dick in his post-match interview, and continued to be one afterwards by interrupting Norman’s interview. Norman actually grabbed him and started to choke him, but backed off. That turn is coming, and it is going to be so glorious when it does.

12/4: BLOCK B MATCH: Tristan Archer vs. Emil Sitoci- 6/10
Archer needs a win to stay alive in the tournament. He kicked out of all of Sitoci’s big moves and got that win. They had some trouble pulling off the finish the way they wanted to, unfortunately. The Snapmare Driver didn’t look good, either, but 1) it rarely looks good, and 2) that might have been a work, as Sitoci cut a post-match interview claiming that he blew his knee out during the match and thus “might” be out of the tournament, in a way that came across completely like he just wants an excuse to not have to wrestle next week because he’s so upset with his poor performance in this tournament.

12/5: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Senza Volto- 4/10
Senza needs to win to stay alive. He is confident that he can break Marius’ streak and win. Then the match happened and he was proven very, very wrong. Volto came in fast with his offense, but Marius went after his knee, and after slamming Volto’s knee into the ringpost, Marius dominated the rest of the match. This was short, but really great for the time it got. Senza was limping in his post-match interview, but vowed to return, stronger and faster than ever.

12/7: BLOCK A MATCH: Cara Noir vs. Hektor Invictus- 4/10
Cara Noir needs to win to stay alive in the tournament. Hektor worked over the arm, but Cara Noir won with a roll-up.

12/8: BLOCK A MATCH: Anil Marik vs. “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker- 6.5/10
Avalanche needs to win to have a shot at advancing to the finals. Instead, his you student was able to hold him to a draw, kicking out of everything and just plain never giving up. This was a great way to give Anil something to elevate him at the end of a tournament where he didn’t win a single match. My booking mind also couldn’t help but note that these two have now had two matches, with Avalanche winning the first, and the now more-experienced Anil being able to keep him to a draw in this second one, setting up the idea of him winning in a third match down the road. Also worth noting is that their first match happened after Anil disrespected his trainer by questioning his heart after Avalanche tapped out to Marius Al-Ani, with Avalanche responding that he knew his ankle was injured and it wasn’t worth risking permanent damage by holding on in a match with very little on the line. The finish here saw Anil caught in a submission, but he still held on to run the clock out. Hmm…
Avalanche shook Anil’s hand afterwards and gave him a big hug. In his post-match interview he noted that he was unhappy that he wasn’t able to win, but he couldn’t be mad at Anil for doing his best.

12/9: BLOCK A MATCH: Metehan vs. Bobby Gunns- no rating, interesting segment
If Metehan wins, he advances to the finals. If Bobby Gunns wins, he and Cara Noir both advance to the finals, as they would be tied at nine points and went to a draw in their match against each other. If they go to a draw, Cara Noir advances to the finals due to having the tiebreaker against Metehan.
In his pre-match interview, Metehan complained that he always gives and Bobby Gunns always takes. As the match started, both were yelling at the other to lie down. Eventually, Gunns pulled the referee to the corner and Prince Ahura slid into the ring to try to attack Metehan but Norman Harras was right behind him and tripped him up. Lots of yelling and arguing happened with all four guys. Ahura eventually kicked the referee in the head. Other referees and security (and also Anil Marik) ran into the ring, and one of the other referees declared the match to be a double DQ. Gunns slipped away and yelled at Andy Jackson to go away when Andy tried to interview him. Andy then tried to interview Metehan, who yelled at him and punched him.
This… is the sort of thing I don’t think a promotion would have dared to do without the pandemic, as it does in some ways feels like we are being screwed out of a big match. That being said, it is huge moment in this story along multiple axes. Obviously, it’s the first big breakdown of the Ezel-Raucherpause alliance. It’s also a big moment for Norman Harras, as preventing Ahura from attacking Metehan is him doing something directly contrary to the desires of the other members of Die Raucherpause. I’m sure he believes he is acting in the group’s best interest because he thinks it’s the best play in the long term to preserve this alliance (which he himself negotiated), but I still haven’t totally given up my theory that he might have his own secret deal with Ezel.

12/10: BLOCK B MATCH: Prince Ahura vs. Ender Kara- 3.75/10
In the pre-match interview, I was shocked that Andy Jackson didn’t ask Prince Ahura about Norman Harras’ actions yesterday. Sitoci said he was advised not to wrestle this match due to injury, but he found himself a replacement: Ender Kara, the Turkish Assassin. I’m fine with this match happening, but this really shouldn’t count for the tournament and Ahura should be awarded a win via forfeit.
Ahura did not take Ender Kara seriously, and wound up losing via roll-up. Ender Kara cut a promo saying that his win proves that he belongs win wXw. I’m not so sure I agree with him. He deserves a shot, sure, but he did get his butt kicked when Ahura started to take him seriously. Ahura ranted about how wXw management is trying to humiliate him.

12/11: BLOCK B MATCH: Norman Harras vs. Vincent Heisenberg- 4.5/10
Very good pre-match promos by both guys. Norman is clearly unhappy about Ahura cheating to beat him, but he’s hiding it pretty well. I really thought Andy should have asked him about the whole Bobby Gunns/Metehan debacle, but didn’t.
Norman won a short match by getting Heisenberg angry enough to make a mistake. Heisenberg was furious in his post-match interview, but Anil Marik and Avalanche showed up to calm him down and Avalanche told Heisenberg that he was proud of his performance in this tournament.

12/12: BLOCK B MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Tristan Archer- 6.5/10
Both guys did a great job of getting their desperation across. Marius won, as we all knew he would, sending him to the finals against Cara Noir, the last man to beat him before his big winning streak started.

12/13: TOURNAMENT FINALS: Marius Al-Ani vs. Cara Noir- 8.25/10
A beautifully-paced match that made great use of the finishes they had built up all throughout the tournament. The last few minutes were absolutely tremendous.


This was a pretty good tournament. I will admit that I was relatively disappointed by the actual wrestling and- unlike NXT UK’s Heritage Cup, about which I had similar concerns- I did think that the rounds system got in the way a bit here. The Heritage Cup both having an extra three-minute round and using 2 out of 3 falls (or whoever is ahead at the end) or one knockout definitely gave that tournament an advantage in terms of the ringwork, but I think that for what wXw was trying to do here, going the 2 out of 3 falls route really wasn’t feasible.
What wXw was trying to do here- and why I liked this tournament and thought it was successful- was create a tournament to advance certain storylines and to get over a whole bunch of less-established characters. For the bigger names it was bigger stories. The Ezel/Die Raucherpause alliance had its first major flashpoint, and we got some smaller internal ones for Die Raucherpause as well, between both Norman Harras and Prince Ahura and also Norman and Bobby Gunns. Emil Sitoci’s continuing poor performance in tournaments is pushing him down a bad path. Avalanche has been established as worthy challenger to Bobby Gunns’ wXw Unified World Wrestling Title by beating not just the champ himself but also 16 Carat Gold winner Cara Noir, while Marius Al-Ani’s major winning streak continued, as he won every single one of his matches, and even overcame the last man to beat him, Cara Noir, to win the tournament, so he’s certainly in line for a title shot as well.
And while all of this was happening, the newer faces were all given something that they could take out of this tournament to make them feel bigger than they did coming in. Tristan Archer and Senza Volto both had great showings in Block B, and Volto really established himself as a babyface in my eyes (and Volto in particular was very impressive in the ring). Vincent Heisenberg was given a signature win to hang his hat on by upsetting the veteran Emil Sitoci (strategically placed early on in the tournament to make him feel like a threat to win any match he was in), and Anil Marik, despite not winning a single match, got over as a determined babyface you could root for, and was given the accomplishment of holding his trainer, Avalanche, to a draw in the final week, and both Marik and Heisenberg were publicly praised by Avalanche afterwards.
The only new faces who didn’t really get anything were Hektor Invictus and Fast Time Moodo, but even they felt like they made progress. Moodo got to beat Avalanche, which, when combined with being one half of the tag champs, made him feel like a real part of the roster despite being so new (as compared to Marik and Heisenberg, who still feel like students). Hektor, admittedly, did not have a great showing in the standings, but he was given enough in each of his matches and enough material on the mic that he felt like a legitimate threat to play spoiler to any of the big names he faced.
And then, of course, there were all of the little seeds they planted. Rubber matches were set up between both Cara Noir and Marius and Archer and Volto. Anil Marik lost in his first match against Avalanche earlier this year, but now he was able to hold him to a draw, setting up a third match there. Metehan cheated to beat Avalanche, marking the third time he has beaten Avalanche this year (twice dirty, once clean), a fact which I can’t imagine would have been brought up if it wasn’t going to be relevant. And they did an absolutely beautiful job of murkying things up in the singles title pictures with an interlocking system of wins, losses, draws, and personal flareups between Bobby Gunns, Metehan, Avalanche, and Cara Noir combining with Cara Noir’s pre-existing title shot and various wrestlers pre-existing issues with Marius Al-Ani to create a scenario where wXw now has a series of title shots for two different titles that they could put on in pretty much any order they want and still have a coherent story where you can make an argument for either guy winning or losing and there being a story already in place for the next challenger.
And if they had gone the 2 out of 3 falls route, almost none of this would have worked. Heisenberg can’t get an out of nowhere pin on Sitoci twice and have future opponrnts want to dismiss it as a fluke. Guys like Anil and Heisenberg getting praise from Avalanche at the end would feel exceedingly hollow if they had been pinned ten times instead of five, and the few losses the champions took would have hurt their belts to have them be pinned twice in the same match. Maybe it would have made the matches a little better to go for three five-minute rounds instead of five three-minute rounds, but at the very least, the way they did this tournament shows that wXw has their heads on straight when it comes to making sure they are telling their stories in the most effective way, even if that means sacrificing some in-ring action. Because that’s what pro wrestling is about: Stories. This is going to be extremely time-consuming to try to catch up on (especially with all of the other wrestling in the world), but if you’re willing to put the time in, it was a very rewarding journey.