BRM Reviews wXw World Tag Team Festival 2022: Night 2 (very good)

NJPW, RevPro, CMLL, DDT, etc
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews wXw World Tag Team Festival 2022: Night 2 (very good)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 15th, '23, 13:12

wXw World Tag Team Festival 2022: Night 2 (10/2/2022)- Oberhausen, Germany

WORLD TAG TEAM FESTIVAL 2022 BLOCK B MATCH: Fuminori Abe & Shigehiro Irie(0) vs. Violence is Forever(3)- 7/10
A great action opener. Kevin Ku got busted open pretty badly. The Japanese contingent picked up the clean win.

WORLD TAG TEAM FESTIVAL 2022 BLOCK B MATCH: Amboss (Robert Dreissker & Icarus)(3)vs. Rott & Flott(0)- 5/10
A zip-tie is a foreign object, and tying someone’s wrists together with one should be a disqualification. After tying Charisma to the ringpost, Amboss went out into the crowd and destroyed Schenkenberg, but while doing this, they were counted out. I thought this made them look horribly stupid. Yes, they wanted to keep all of the teams even and they didn’t want to have the tag champs lose again and they also wanted to protect Amboss, but why not just have Rott & Flott cheat to beat Amboss? Rott & Flott are already the kind of guys Amboss can’t stand, so it’s not like you’d be ruining some sort of future alliance, and this finish doesn’t help Rott & Flott at all while whatever protection Amboss get from not being pinned is lessened by having them look so stupid.

WORLD TAG TEAM FESTIVAL 2022 BLOCK A HANDICAP MATCH: SAnitY (Eric Young & Axel Tischer)(0) vs. Maggot (representing Pretty Bastards)(3)- 5.75/10
Maggot is stuck wrestling on his own tonight because Prince Ahura has left him high and dry to go to his brother’s wedding (and didn’t tell anyone about this until last night). Tischer attacked Maggot from behind while he was posing as part of his entrance routine, which felt like an important moment of change for him. He’s a babyface who has been frustrated lately, and he has finally let that frustration out in an immoral way.
Maggot fought valiantly and they got a good false-finish for him, but SAnitY picked up the win. Tischer literally rubbed the win in Maggot’s face after the match.

DAN INTERVIEWS MAGGOT- good segment
Dan asked Maggot what it was like to be out there without Ahura. Maggot didn’t really want to say anything. He just asked for a cigarette. Dan pressed, but Maggot said nothing. Eventually Baby Allison came out to give her boyfriend a cigarette and shepherd him away from Dan. This is the first time these two have actually felt like babyfaces since they suddenly became positioned as such seven months ago.

WORLD TAG TEAM FESTIVAL 2022 BLOCK A MATCH: Frenchadors(0) vs. CDK(3)- 7.5/10
There was lots of good action here, but some of CDK’s stuff at the end went too far for me to understand how they could not be disqualified. Fortunately, the Frenchadors over came their cheating and pulled it out. I hated the Frenchadors offering CDK a handshake at the end. You don’t shake the hand of someone who illegally hit you in the nuts and used a weapon on you!

LEVANIEL MUST SUCCESSFULLY RUN THE GAUNTLET OF DANTE CABALLERO & JOE KEYS TO KEEP HIS TITLE SHOT- no rating, good segment
We all knew Levaniel wasn’t losing here, but they did just the right stuff to make you worry for a moment or two. What really made this good to me, though, was the little twist at the end. I expected Norman Harras to have some ace up his sleeve, and that was Heisenberg, who Norman announced as a secret final person in the gauntlet… but then Heisenberg didn’t come out, and we cut backstage to where we found him laid out by a Kendo stick-wielding Jurn Simmons. It’s nice to see Jurn still having Levaniel’s back.

wXw WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Baby Allison(c) vs. Aliss Ink- 2/10
Aliss Ink won the title in less than three minutes, so Norman has finally succeeded in working Allison to the point where the schedule finally took its toll on her and she lost her title.

EARLIER TODAY, SOMEONE INTERVIEWED METEHAN- good
Metehan tells us that he has returned to wXw to take care of his family and to “settle scores” (of which Axel Tischer was just the first). As Metehan walked off, he was approached by Bobby Gunns, who welcomed him back to wXw. Then Bobby, who seems to often be unable to help himself from being a dick, said (paraphrasing) “last time you were here, we were doing business, but then you disappeared.” Metehan explained his disappearance (to NXT UK) as taking care of his family (i.e. by making more money), and then warns Bobby that he is “back to settle the scores.” If I remember correctly, the last time these two saw each other, Bobby tried to screw Metehan out of their deal they would each stay away from the other’s singles title.
I thought this did a good job of framing Metehan as a babyface while allowing him to keep the feeling of menace and ruthlessness that the character has thrived on, and which is essential to prevent fans from reverting to seeing him as Lucky Kid now that he is a babyface again.

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Tristan Archer(c) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey- 8.5/10
Archer worked on Bailey’s ankle, following up on Bobby Gunns’ work on it from last night, and unlike last night, Speedball’s selling was nothing but great tonight. He also played an excellent smaller underdog, knowing that his opponent is also a great striker, and one with more raw power than him as well, so he would have to make the most out of all of his opportunities. This was one of those matches where everyone knew the belt wasn’t changing hands, but the wrestlers told their story well enough that that wasn’t an impediment to getting invested in the match.


This was another strong show from wXw, with both good action and good storyline developments. It was also good to see the tournament matches delivering more here in the eponymous tournament. Having all of the teams at 1-1 going into the final day might feel a little corny, but there are only so many options in a four-team round-robin, and so long as you don’t do it every year (and wXw doesn’t), it doesn’t bother me. We’ll see how things play out tomorrow night.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests