BRM Reviews wXw Dead End XV

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Dead End XV (2/6/2016)- Hamburg, Germany


Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series! Last month we saw what was arguably the peak of The Rock’s rivalry with Mankind. This month we’re crossing the Atlantic Ocean and heading to Germany to see the early stages of another famous wrestling rivalry: David Starr vs. WALTER. That rivalry certainly won’t come to a dead end here at wXw Dead End XV.

We started off with clips of various people telling us what 16 Carat Gold means to them.

DAVID STARR vs. WALTER- 7.25/10
They kept the intensity up from last month. It’s very possible that I’m being influenced by hindsight here, but this feud feels like it is already blossoming into something special. WALTER, of course, won.

16 CARAT GOLD QUALIFYING MATCH: Marty Scurll vs. Da Mack- 6.5/10
Marty won a solid match by stoppage. He first tried to get Da Mack to hit him with the umbrella for the DQ but Mack refused.

ZACK SABRE JR. vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER- 7.5/10
Wonderful grappling and striking with a SICK finish.

wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Cerberus (Ilja Dragunov & Julian Nero)(c) (w/Adam Polak) vs. Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End & Michael Dante)- 6.75/10
This was great action, ending in a disappointing Eddie Guerrero finish to allow the heels to retain their titles. That being said, I did like seeing that Ilja was ready to just hit Tommy End with the title and Nero had to stop him and explain the finish to him. I like being able to see little things like that. It makes this Eddie Guerrero finish feel different from others.

DONOVAN DIJAK vs. “BAD BONES” JOHN KLINGER- 7.75/10
Dijak worked over Bad Bones’ injured ribs. Bones had tremendous babyface fire, and the crowd REALLY wanted to see him get his win back on Dijak. In this match he managed to get his hand on the ropes after the first Feast Your Eyes and countered the second into a crossface for the win, so now the weapon that got Dijak the win in the first match seems like it won’t be much of an option for him in inevitable rubber match… which, unfortunately, never happened. Dijak did serve a purpose as bookends of a short “getting knocked down so that I can get back up again” story for Klinger after his title loss, but us not getting a rubber match is a real disappointment, considering how the first two went. It feels like the sort of thing that really could have put an exclamation point on the story of Bad Bones’ climb back up.

DTU ALTO IMPACTO TITLE MATCH: The Rotation(c) vs. Kim Ray (w/Ivanov)- 5.75/10
Kim Ray wins the belt back cleanly with a SICK elevated DDT after getting his knees up to counter Victory Over Gravity.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
The Rotation offered Kim Ray a handshake but all he got for this show of respect was a sneak attack by Ivanov. Kim Ray posed of The Rotation’s fallen body.

16 CARAT GOLD QUALIFYING MATCH: Axel Dieter Jr. vs. Damian O’Connor- 6.75/10
Before this match we got a good video package outlining O’Connor’s path of destruction through the roster here in Hamburg. There have been other video packages, too, but I decided to mention this one because I thought it set things up very well… until I looked at his match history on cagematch.net to see just how expansive this streak was, and it turns out that he has a few wins outside of Hamburg, too, and, in fact, has only lost one match in wXw at all up to this point… to Axel Dieter Jr., by count-out, so this match is actually a lot bigger than just a streak of destruction. I’m sure it also wasn’t an accident that that match was in the semi-finals of a tournament, and here they are facing off in the qualifier for another tournament.
Dieter was a good underdog babyface. He won via count-out after hitting a tope. I suspect that this was a rushed finish, as he appeared to hit his head on the steps. A fan tripped over the fallen Damo. Calling an audible to a count-out does preserve the overall story they were trying to tell, but unfortunately this would be Damo’s final match in wXw, so they never got around to paying things off. I’m not really sure why, though, as he didn’t sign with WWE for another four months.

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Karsten Beck(c) vs. Absolute Andy- 8/10
This didn’t quite click for me the way they seemed to hope. It was a “slow build” twenty-six-minute match, and the slow part really didn’t work. I think the reason for that is that it kind of took an odd jump at one point from second gear to fourth gear. Karsten had an injured shoulder going in. Andy hesitated to work it over at first and instead concentrated on Karsten’s lower back to set up the Sharpshooter. Eventually he did go for the shoulder, and Karsten seemed to really be in trouble at that point. Jurn Simmons came out to ringside and pulled Karsten out of the ring to save him from an F-5 (right in front of the referee, unfortunately). He helped Karsten up the ramp, but Karsten shoved him and went back to fight. Andy got him up for the F-5 again, but the ref got bumped in the process. Andy hit the F-5, but then Jurn ran in and hit Andy with the big boot. Karsten, who didn’t see what Jurn had done, recovered, and was able to hit Andy with a Piledriver for the win. The match was awesome, but for a twenty-six-minute brawl between these two with multiple body parts being targeted, it is a little disappointing.


This was a good show from wXw. It was a little light on blow-away matches for a big show, but it was quite solid all up and down the card, and I’m willing to cut them some slack due to the finish of Dieter vs. Damo seeming rushed. Next month, we’ll be heading to the biggest wrestling weekend of the year. Which promotion? Which year? You’ll just have to wait and find out.