BRM Reviews wXw Shotgun 2020, Season 2, Episode 2

[Big Red Machine]

NORMAN HARRAS GOES TO THE OTHER OFFICE TO PICK UP HIS FILE- decent
This started off with Avalanche and Anil Marik in the office, with Anil against apologizing for disrespecting his trainer and Avalanche accepting the apology and telling him that sometimes questioning things is part of the learning process.
Norman Harras comes in and holy sh*t there actually is a file and this wasn’t just Andy making sh*t up and Norman falling for it. Well… kind of. It turns out that when Andy said he had a “big opponent” for Norman, he meant big as in “large,” not as in a big star. He’ll be facing Vincent Heisenberg.
The real strength of this was the not-quite-friendly banter between Norman and his former trainer, Avalanche, creating some tension there. I love that these wXw segments feel like things real people would say in these sorts of situations. This doesn’t even feel like real people with the volume turned up to ten. It feels like they’re just real people who happen to be professional combat athletes.

ANDY JACKSON INTERVIEWS TRISTAN ARCHER- passable
Archer put over Bobby Gunns, who successfully defended the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title against him last month, saying that Gunns is the top guy in wXw right now. He then explained the veteran/younger wrestler dynamic between himself and his fellow countryman Senza Volto, who he will face tonight. He said Volto wouldn’t be able to stop him. The information was delivered in a passable manner for someone speaking what is clearly not his native language, but he really didn’t have much intensity or anything else ot make me interested in him. I know understand the dynamic between him and Volto, but he did nothing to compel me to pick a side to root for.

THE PRETTY BASTARDS BOTHER THE ALPHA LOVERS- dull
Some threats were exchanged. This went on for FAR too long. Its only purpose seems to be hyping up tonight’s Alpha Kevin vs. Bobby Gunns match, but it didn’t even do a very good job of that.

NORMAN HARRAS & EZEL BACKSTAGE- fine
This started with Abdul and Aytac sitting around being disappointed that they disappointed Metehan by losing to Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci, and promising to themselves that they will do better. Norman Harras came by and told them that their losses was not acceptable to Die Raucherpause, either. He asked them how they were going to make sure they don’t screw up again. They told him they had worked with Metehan to come up with a plan. Norman wanted to know what the plan was, but they wouldn’t tell him.
As strange as it is, my favorite thing about this whole storyline is how Norman Harras is always so diplomatic, instead of the being a stereotypical wrestling heel and blaming the other guys and insulting them.

GOLDENBOY SANTOS WANTS TO TEAM UP WITH… SOMEONE- meh
The young Goldenboy Santos is new to wXw and he asks this guy to team with him. The guy asks him questions like “how long have you been wrestling?” and “have you won any big matches?” Santos says that he has won the wXw Academy Cup. The guy (clearly the veteran) agrees to team with Santos, and tells him to go to Andy to see if they can get booked in matches as a team. I’m willing to cut a little bit of slack because both of these guys are talking in a language that is not their native tongue, but you do have to have SOME emotion. Sheesh.

ANDY JACKSON INTERVIEWS SENZA VOLTO- meh
He puts over Tristan Archer as the top wrestler in France and says that their match tonight will be great.

SENZA VOLTO vs. TRISTAN ARCHER- 6.75/10
This was very good, but if you’re going to tell me that these are the best two wrestlers in France, you really need to give them enough time to look like it, and ten minutes just isn’t enough unless you’re going for an extremely fast-paced spotfest, which this was not.

AVALANCHE’S DOG IS MISSING FROM THE wXw WRESTLING ACADEMY BECAUSE SOMEONE LEFT THE DOOR OPEN- Actually, based on where it was found (in a closed closet in the basement), it’s more likely that someone moved it there for what I’ll assume are nefarious reasons.

wXw TRAINEES BACKSTAGE- Santos is showing Anil Marik clips of a match he had against Heisenberg, which, from the context, I assume was the Academy Cup finals. Marik is impressed. Santos claimed one of his moves “would make Kobashi proud.” The Rotation told Santos not be a show-off. The Rotation came off like a total loser, trying to be the teacher. Marik said there is no reason Santos shouldn’t be proud of his accomplishment, and Santos himself pointed out that all of the champions in wXw are proud of their championships.
In doing so, he mentioned Shotgun Champion Metehan, so The Rotation took the subject in that direction, asking the others what they think of Ezel. The Rotation says that Metehan has completely changed from the Lucky Kid he used to know, and that his mother and family would never approve of the way he was acting now. The others agreed. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but because of the interaction between Metehan and The Rotation from last week (which we were given a refresher on right before this segment) combined with the way he as acting earlier in this segment, this came off more as loser The Rotation whining that he wasn’t given a title shot when he really hasn’t done anything to deserve one.

DIRTY DRAGAN & EMIL SITOCI INTERVIEW- good
These guys have a nice little “likable friends who you want to see succeed together” thing going for them. I wouldn’t have had them be quite so self-deprecating in building up their tag title match, but I can’t argue that what the babyface charisma they showed here didn’t make me want to see them win more.
Everyone left, and Dirty Dragan was jumped by Ezel backstage. Once again, I have to complement wXw on making their backstage attacks so believable. They are quick and effective, to the point where you can believe that victim is in pain, but not to the point where them competing in a match later feels superhuman.

BOBBY GUNNS vs. ALPHA KEVIN (w/Melanie Gray)- 0.5/10
Gunns won an extremely short match, making Kevin tap to the Swish Armbar. On the one hand, they’ve made Kevin such a clown that he really should be going very long with the world champion, but on the other hand, Kevin does have talent, and I’d like to see longer matches on this show now that it’s two hours, so I was disappointed at how short this was.

GOLDENBOY SANTOS & HIS VETERAN PARTNER IN THE LOCKER ROOM- LOVED IT!
Santos reports that Absolute Andy has approved their request to be a team and has booked them against Stephanie Maze & Fast Time Moodo later tonight. The veteran says he’ll think up some strategies for them. Santos asked if the veteran knows Portuguese, and it turns out he does, so Santos suggests that they talk strategy in Portuguese so no one else in the men’s locker room will be able to understand them. I LOVE IT! Not only are they switching into a language which both of them can speak much more naturally, but they came up with a kayfabe reason for them to switch from English!
Then santos started looking around suspiciously and making sure no one else was around before asking “did you hear what The Rotation said about Metehan’s mother?” and proceeded to say that Metehan’s mother has “dishonored” him due to the way Metehan has been acting. I think there was a translation error here, but either way the idea comes across perfectly, which is that Santos is a sneaky little political weasel.

DAS HIMMELSCHLOSS WITH SPECIAL GUEST NORMAN HARRAS-
Levaniel has insisted that the fans not be allowed in the arena for Das Himmelschloss after his negative interacting with a fan during the show a few days ago at We Love Wrestling- Open-Air Live in Kutenholtz. Levaniel is in hilarious denial that Amale hung up on him and doesn’t want to talk to him.
Norman Harras comes out and complains that Absolute Andy isn’t treating him like the up-and-coming star he is. Levaniel tries to tell him that he has to treat Andy like woman he is trying to woo, and play a little hard to get but also be available to listen to her, and then, once he’s gotten her guard down, that’s when you “go in a strike. BANG!” Norman gets annoyed but pretends to be playing into the metaphor in a way that everyone but Levaniel can see is going to end in Levaniel getting his ass kicked. When Harras finally starts to strike and grabs Levaniel by the collar, Absolute Andy comes out to tell him off.
They hash things out, with Harras demanding “money matches” and Andy telling him he doesn’t deserve them. At this point Avalanche came out, and Harras started smirking because knows his plan has worked. As Avalanche reveals, he knows it was Harras who hid his dog in a closet because Harras left an autographed picture on Avalanche’s locker, and also a can of dog food. He demands a match with Harras tonight but Andy tells him there is no time left in the show to add a match. Avalanche insists that he can beat Harras’ in five minutes. He also plays to Andy’s mindset by proposing a stipulation where if Harras loses in five minutes he must eat the can of dog food. Thankfully, Andy made sure it was “the loser” who would have to eat the dog food rather than the stip only applying to Harras, and he booked the match for later tonight.

EMIL SITOCI UPDATES ANDY ON DIRTY DRAGAN’S CONDITION- meh
Um… maybe take back what I said before, as Dirty Dragan had to be taken to the hospital after the earlier attack. It’s not implausible, but it wasn’t move than a few shots from behind and a double-whip into a wall.
Anyway, Sitoci wants to make sure Ezel will be made to pay for this, and Andy assures him that they will. Andy does insist that the tag title match has to happen tonight because it was advertised, so he tells Sitoci to pick a replacement partner. Sitoci refuses to do so, saying “it wouldn’t be right.” He says he “might have done so in the past,” but not anymore. We ended with a cliffhanger about the status of the match.

KILLER KELLY VIDEO PACKAGE- great!
This started off with a life story before transitioning to putting over the idea of intergender wrestling now coming to wXw because the wXw Women’s Champion (Amale) is unavailable and thus the women don’t have a title of their own to go after, and Kelly’s conversation with Absolute Andy being the impetus for this. The theme running throughout all of this was the idea of choice, and specifically Kelly choosing to do things her own way. And although it was never mentioned once, this plays perfectly into the argument Kelly had been having with her boyfriend Alexander James, who has been encouraging her to cheat to win matches but Kelly wanting to do things her way. I can’t imagine that this is a coincidence.

NORMAN HARRAS BREAKS THE NEWS TO THE PRETTY BASTARDS THAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO FACE EMIL SITOCI & DIRTY DRAGAN ANYMORE- fine
They are happy with him and tell him they’re proud of him for taking care of things. Pretty Bastards decide that if they don’t have to defend their titles tonight, they might as well just go home.

MARIUS AL-ANI AND JURN SIMMONS ARGUE BACKSTAGE- fine
The important parts were that Al-Ani said that Jurn would never be able to put together a six-match winning stream like Marius had, and when Marius pointed out that Jurn’s impressive sub-one-minute victory recently was against a rookie, Jurn suggested that Marius pick his next opponent. Marius said he had someone in mind, then left.

FAST TIME MOODO & STEPHANIE MAZE vs. GOLDENBOY SANTOS & RAMBO- 6/10
This was a good ten-minute match. They did some good stuff with Maze as the babyface in peril and Santos not taking her seriously. Moodo pinned Rambo to win the match for his team.

ANDY JACKSON INTERVIEWS SENZA VOLTO- fine
Volto beat the man he had previously referred to as “the best wrestler in France,” so now Volto claims that title. He says he doesn’t currently have any future bookings with wXw, so if the fans want to see him again, they should let the wXw office know via social media.

MARIUS AL-ANI TRIES TO RECRUIT HEKTOR INVICTUS TO WRESTLE JURN SIMMONS- good
His pitch is that beating a former champion like Jurn will be a big step up for Hektor. Hektor is on board with the idea, and tells Marius he owes him for setting this up for him.

ANDY JACKSON INTERVIEWS TRISTAN ARCHER- fine
Andy asks Archer if he treats his family the way he treated his supposed “little brother” Senza Volto in their match earlier. I have no idea what Andy is referring to here. Archer says that when your younger brother gets out of line, you have to teach him a lesson. Andy asks him about his future plans, and Archer replies that he will do whatever it takes to win.

LEVANIEL BOTHERS KILLER KELLY WITH HIS PROBLEMS- fine
She’s sitting at a desk in the arena. Levaniel was hilarious, insisting that they were friends. Kelly indicated that she had no desire to listen to him, but of course he pulled up a chair, sat down next to her, and started rambling on. We went to a commercial and when we came back, he was still rambling (although the commercial was only about thirty seconds, so it’s not that ridiculous). He finally gets down to it and asks Kelly if he said something wrong to Amele. We pan over to Kelly, and she’s writing in a notebook with her earbuds in. She pulls the earbuds out, turns to Levaniel and asks “what are you still doing here? I stopped listening a while ago.”
Levaniel begs for her help, and she lists all of the reasons why there is no way in hell she would help him and his relationship with Amale. She then declares that she isn’t going to focus on anyone else’s drama anymore, and just focus on herself. Levaniel gets upset and declares their friendship to be over, and stormed out. Kelly had a wonderfully “what is he even talking about?” look on her face.

MIKE SCHWARZ VIDEO PACKAGE- great
They got the PR guy from his local pro soccer team to put him over and cut a promo. It made him look like a big deal. He gets his title shot at Bobby Gunns next week.

SINGLES MATCH WITH A FIVE-MINUTE TIME LIMIT WHERE THE LOSER MUST EAT A CAN OF DOG FOOD: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Norman Harras- no rating. Probably a bad segment, but we’ll see where it goes.
Things didn’t go well for Harras so he started to stall out the clock. That’s why he’s better than Jay White or Cody: When he stalls, there is a f*cking reason for it other than stalling because it gets heat from the crowd. He finally got back in the ring and went at Avalanche again… and basically got dominated and beaten cleanly with thirty seconds left. He tried to bail so he wouldn’t have to eat the dog food by Avalanche caught him and shoved his face in it. This seems like a terrible idea to me. Yes, I can see a scenario where this leads to Harras snapping and becoming more dangerous or something like that, but Harras really comes across like a top young prospect who you’re already trying to elevate, so having him get squashed by a #2 babyface feels like it will do him a lot more harm than anything you’d get out of it. Save the “forced to eat dog food so he snapped” as a way to elevate a heel who is already lower down on the card.

RAMBO TELLS METEHAN ABOUT THE THINGS GOLDENBOY SANTOS TOLD HIM THAT THE ROTATION SAID ABOUT HIS MOTHER- Well… that took a turn I wasn’t expecting.
Metehan asked Rambo if Rambo was 100% sure that The Rotation said this, and Rambo said yes. Then he told Metehan “I hope you do the right thing.” Rambo is acting like a heel, now, too.


Yeah… at this point I’m not really sure where wXw is going with most things. Everything makes sense, but things are taking such odd turns that I can’t figure out what most of the big directions feel like they’re supposed to be or what the timetables are. That’s not a complaint, as I’m happy to be kept guessing so long as things make sense, but things do seem a little haphazard and underwhelming at the moment.