The following are some news and notes from night 1 of the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament in Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen/Germany submitted by reader Markus Gronemann.
– Bobby Guns won an alternate spot in a four-way over Absolute Andy, Michael Dante and Francis Kaspin
First Round Results:
– Cody Rhodes d. Da Mack
The match went 10:48, and Rhodes won after hitting Cross Rhodes in what was a hot opener. Cody was really popular and kissed the mat before and after the match.
– Marius Al-Ani d. JT Dunn
Al-Ani got the pin at the 7:16 mark. after a frog splash. This was a hard-hitting match and both were bleeding from the mouth.
– Timothy Thatcher d. Koji Kanemoto
Thatcher won via cradle in 8:11. Kanemoto kicked the hell out of Thatcher in what was essentially a mean guys match. Post match, Bobby Gunns came out to confront Kanemoto.
– Ilja Dragunov d. The Avalanche (Robert Dreissker)
Dragunov won with the Torpedo Moskau in 8:08. These two former partners had a war and beat the living hell out of each other. After basically killing each other, Ilja took the win with his flying headbutt. Dreissker had Adam Polak (their old tag team manager) with him, but eventually destroyed him after the match.
– Matt Riddle d. Donovan Dijak
Good back and forth match with Riddle doing some impressive spots. He submitted Dijak with the Bromission at the 8:50 mark.
– Bad Bones John Klinger d. Paul London
Klinger was all over the smaller London, who got the upper hand eventually. Bones just destroyed him at the end. London was over big with the crowd, but lost to the Wrecking Bal Knees at 7:39.
– Speedball Mike Bailey d. ACH
These two had a great, fun, face/face match with lots of shenanigans and some comedy, combined with hard hits, kicks and other stiff things you don’t wanna take. They had a dance-off early. Things got harder and harder until they got into it really hard. Bailey won after hitting the shooting star double knees at the 14:25 mark.
– WALTER d. David Starr via TKO
This was a tremendous main event and a strong style match. Starr is over big here and the and people were trying to will him to win. WALTER did mostly power moves, But Starr held his own, including almost finishing WALTER with a Canadian Destroyer. WALTER won when Starr passed out in the rear naked choke at the 16:24 mark.
– Post-match, they set up a wXw title match between champion Axel Dieter Jr. and Jurn Simmons for Saturday.