BRM Reviews wXw Shotgun 2020, Season 2, Episode 3

[Big Red Machine]

METEHAN DEMANDS THAT ABSOLUTE ANDY BOOK HIM AGAINST THE ROTATION- good
Metehan wants revenge for the things The Rotation said about his mother, and tells Andy that if he doesn’t book them in a match, he’ll find The Rotation backstage and break his legs. Andy books Metehan to defend his Shotgun Title against The Rotation, and Metehan is fine with this if it means getting his hands on The Rotation. Rotation really hasn’t done anything to earn a title shot. Giving him a title shot fits Andy’s haphazard style, but I still think that appointing someone who puts as little effort in as Andy to such an important position reflects badly on wXw.
Andy also tells Abdul and Aytac that they are suspended for two weeks after their recent backstage assaults on Alpha Kevin and Dirty Dragan. They start to argue, but Metehan tells them to accept it.

THE SMOKING BREAK WITH DIE RAUCHERPAUSE- good
Bobby Gunns and the Pretty Bastards make fun of Norman Harras for being forced to eat dog food after losing last week’s match to Avalanche. I laughed at Prince Ahura telling him he should start using the Pedigree as his finisher. Poor Norman started to stand up for himself and for a moment I thought he was actually going to hit Prince Ahura but he backed down because he knows allying himself with this group of champions is the best thing for his career. He eventually left, promising to do something about this. They still made fun of him after he left. I’m always amazed at how they manage to make Norman so sympathetic while still keeping him fully heel.

ABDUL & AYTAC JUMP MIKE SCHWARZ OUTSIDE OF THE ARENA- meh
This brawl didn’t look very good. EZEL need to work on their strikes. They smashed Schwarz’s arm with a muffler, putting his title shot tonight in jeopardy. I’d be more okay with the angle if we hadn’t had a backstage attack cause a title match to be cancelled last week, too. The fact that the attackers are the same people and that it illustrates the alliance between EZEL and Die Raucherpause which the office is already not happy with means that I will give them a little more leeway, but you really shouldn’t make a habit out of not delivering on advertised title matches.

AVALANCHE & VINCENT HEISENBERG BACKSTAGE- good
Avalanche gives Heisenberg some tips on weight training. Heisenberg then asks him for any tips for his match tonight against Ivan Kiev. Avalanche suggests keeping Ivan away from the ropes, keeping him grounded, and using his power, and don’t give Ivan any openings to take advantage of.

VINCENT HEISENBERG vs. IVAN KIEV- 4.25/10
Heisenberg was unable to follow Avalanche’s advice because Kiev was too good.

AVALANCHE & HEISENBERG BACKSTAGE AFTER THE MATCH- good
Avalanche tells him he did a good job even though he lost, and tells Heisenberg to keep working hard. Heisenberg was clearly very sad about his loss.

NORMAN HARRAS ATTACKS AVALANCHE FROM BEHIND WITH A CHAIN- good
After Heisenberg left, Harras attacked Avalanche from behind with a chain. He wrapped the chain around Avalanche’s neck and asked “WHO’S THE DOG NOW!” Then he threw what was apparently a dog collar at Avalanche, but it was so small I assumed it was a watch.

PRETTY BASTARDS LOUNGE AROUND BACKSTAGE- fine
They’re the tag champs and are happy that there are no #1 contenders. Now that Norman Harras isn’t around, they actually put him over for doing such a great job keeping contenders away from them.

GOLDENBOY SANTOS VIDEO PACKAGE- good

ANIL MARIK WANTS AVALANCHE TO GET HIS NECK LOOKED AT- good
Avalanche doesn’t want to, but Anil Marik reminds him of his ankle injury earlier in the year and how that caused problems for him, so Avalanche agrees to go to the hospital to have his injured neck looked at.

KILLER KELLY INTERVIEW- fine
She is asked about facing her fellow countryman, Goldenboy Santos tonight. It’s the first time two Portuguese wrestlers have ever faced each other in Germany. Santos stops by to say that he is thankful for the support Kelly has given him over the years, but won’t hesitate to rip her head off if he gets the chance. Kelly says she wouldn’t expect anything less. I like that they had Santos being a little arrogant here, and it went over Kelly’s head because she’s just looking at everyone as a competitor. In a way it makes her naïve, but it also reinforces that she is principled, and really does mean all of the things she says to the camera in her promos.

KILLER KELLY vs. GOLDENBOY SANTOS- 6/10
This was very good for the time it got. Santos used his power and controlled most of the match. Kelly spent most of her time on offense trying to choke him out, and managed to do so after he let his guard down to catch his breath after she kicked out of a big move. Santos was extremely upset at himself for losing.

ABSOLUTE ANDY CALLS NORMAN HARRAS TO DEMAND THAT NORMAN COME TO HIS OFFICE AT ONCE- Andy was very entertaining here.

MIKE SCHWARZ ARRIVES AT THE ARENA WITH HIS WRIST ALL TAPED UP, AND IS CONFRONTED BY BOBBY GUNNS- good
Bobby Gunns is a jerk to Schwarz. Schwarz insists he’ll still be able to wrestle tonight, and that Bobby will have a big problem on his hands.

NORMAN HARRAS IN ABSOLUTE ANDY’S OFFICE- good
Andy yells at Harras for attacking Avalanche and tells him he’ll eventually have to face Avalanche in a dog collar match.

MIKE SCHWARZ IN ABSOLUTE ANDY’S OFFICE- meh
Andy tells Schwarz he’s not allowed to be here because he’s not cleared. Schwarz insists that a courier is on his/her way to tell Andy that he’s cleared so Andy should make the match, but Andy refuses to do so until he sees evidence that Schwarz has been cleared. We’re not getting our title match tonight, are we?

HEKTOR INVICTUS INTERVIEW- very good
He did a great job of making sure that we knew that even though he’s pals with Marius Al-Ani, he is an honorable fighter, unlike Marius. None of this was said out loud, of course, but he came across like a compete and total babyface with babyface motivations, and just wants to capitalize on this opportunity that his heelish long-time friend set up for him.

HEKTOR INVICTUS vs. JURN SIMMONS- 5.5/10
Marius Al-Ani came out to ringside. Jurn, the babyface, was the one acting like the heel and mocking Marius. He went to apply Marius’ ankle lock to Hektor but got rolled up and looked like an idiot. Jurn was rightfully very upset with himself after this loss.

THE ROTATION INTERVIEW- good
The interviewer asks The Rotation why he insulted Metehan’s mother. The Rotation denies this, but the interviewer tells him that the locker room scuttlebutt is that he did. The Rotation clarifies his comments.
The announcer asks him if he is worried that EZEL might attack him. He admits that he’s worried about it, but it’s worth the chance to become the wXw Shotgun Champion.

wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Metehan(c) vs. The Rotation- 6/10
Metehan is trying to get at The Rotation even before the bell rings. This was a REALLY great sprint that was excellent for the time it got. Metehan was vicious the whole way through, and won by referee’s stoppage after some vicious elbows to an already-beaten Rotation.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Metehan kept kicking at The Rotation after the match, so Killer Kelly, Stephanie Maze, and Fast Time Moodo came out to protect him. Andy comes out and orders everyone to calm down so there won’t be a three on one fight. He keeps telling Kelly in particular to calm down, but she eventually snatches the microphone away from Metehan and challenges him to defend his title against her. Metehan insists that respects women and therefore he won’t fight one. Kelly tells him that fighting her like an equal is part of respecting her. Andy thinks Metehan is using this for cover because he just doesn’t want to defend his title, so he makes a compromise. Kelly will have to earn her title shot, and the way she can do that is if her team- herself, Stephanie Maze, & Fast Time Moodo- can defeat Metehan and the Pretty Bastards in a six-person tag next week. Also, if Kelly’s team wins, Maze & Moodo will get a shot at the Pretty Bastard’s wXw World Tag Team Titles. Metehan is still unhappy because he’ll have to fight Kelly and Stephanie, but Andy tells him too bad.
Norman Harras has been the go-between in the Raucherpause-EZEL alliance and was the one who both had the idea and took the initiative to set it up, so I’m very curious to see our first interaction between EZEL and Die Raucherpause that doesn’t involve Harras. As for the potential title matches, while I don’t this is an idea way to do things, I do like that Andy wanting to f*ck with the heels because they have annoyed and been antagonistic towards him at least creates a kayfabe reason for what is essentially rushing to title matches before too much has been done to earn them.

DAS HIMMELSCHLOSS WITH SPECIAL GUEST MARIUS AL-ANI- decent
The fans are once again ordered to leave so as not to pollute the Himmelschloss with their impure souls, and they oblige. Levaniel begs Amale to call or text him. Tremendous.
He brings out Marius, and asks him for advice re Amale not responding to his calls or texts. Marius is not pleased with this, as he was under the impression that they would be talking about him. Levaniel tries to spin it the way Marius wants while still actually asking about his own problems (“let’s say you ask a gym about a sponsorship and you don’t hear back from them. How long would you wait for a reply? Or should I just call her again?”). Marius isn’t having it, and eventually Levaniel starts asking about Marius’ 6-0 streak… except he starts asking questions like “you didn’t win Shortcut to the Top, so shouldn’t it be 6-1?” Marius insisted that only singles matches count.
Marius then tries to turn the topic of conversation to Jurn Simmons, to which Levaniel replies “Oh yeah, Jurn Simmons! He’s the one who eliminated you” from Shortcut to the Top. Tremendous. Marius makes fun of Jurn for losing to Hektor and says that therefore Jurn isn’t a star, but then Levaniel points out that Jurn beat Marius, getting Marius even more annoyed. Marius tells Levaniel to only talk about his wins.
Jurn Simmons came out and they traded some barbs. Marius got annoyed at Levaniel for bragging to Jurn about his workout. What started it was actually Jurn’s final barb, which was that Jurn is a former world champion while Marius is not, and Levaniel wondered if this was because Marius wasn’t working out very much when Jurn was champion. I absolutely adore Levaniel’s ability to be so self-absorbed that he doesn’t realize he’s annoying the other heels.
They pretty much ignored Marius for a while until he snatched the mic away from Levaniel and called him “the worst interviewer ever.” They went back to trading barbs, with Jurn repeating the point that he is a former world champion while Marius has never been one. Jurn told Marius that he would never be a world champion, while Marius told Jurn that he should just retire. Jurn told Marius that Marius doesn’t know what he is capable of, and walked off. This was pretty entertaining, but the end felt a little weak.

ALPHA KEVIN BRINGS MIKE SCHWARZ HIS MEDICAL CLEARANCE… BUT WE’RE OUT OF TIME- If you were just going to do the match next week anyway, why not have the injury be serious enough that it needs a week to heal before Schwarz can be cleared?

MIKE SCHWARZ IN ABSOLUTE ANDY’S OFFICE- weird
Andy is telling Schwarz we have to leave now. Schwarz says it’s okay because he knows the owner of the venue. He says that owner would be okay with him having a “Disco Brawl” if he wanted. Andy gives in and tells him to go find a referee, and I thought this meant we were going to get the title match now, but apparently it’s for next week. I don’t know if there was a translation error or something, but that sort of confusion shouldn’t happen. Also, I hate the stupid gimmick name for what I assume is just a street fight.

This was a fine episode of Shotgun. Once again, I’d like to see longer matches. I think they would make the show flow a lot better, as it is sometimes hard to sit through a constant stream of segments and recaps. Next week’s show feels like it will be a very big one, so I’m looking forward to it.