BRM Reviews wXw 16 Carat Gold 2022: Night 1 (awesome!)

[Big Red Machine]

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2022: Night 1 (3/4/2022)- Oberhausen, Germany


16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Fuminori Abe- 7/10
Avalanche won a solid match cleanly. Abe is definitely someone I’ll have to seek out more stuff from. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

DAN INTERVIEWS VINCENT HEISENBERG, BABY ALLISON, & MAGGOT- The “near-live” edit I am watching has English commentary but no subtitles. Hopefully I don’t miss anything significant, and if I do, hopefully the announcers will fill me in. I’m pretty sure Baby Allison said something about wanting the wXw Women’s Title, though.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Vincent Heisenberg vs. Cara Noir- 6/10
Heisenberg attacked Cara Noir during his long, elaborate entrance. I’ve been waiting for someone to do that. And if you’ve ever wondered how you can get the cool, collected Cara Noir pissed off, apparently the answer to that is to attack him during his entrance, because he charged at Heisenberg and just went nuts with forearms. He dominated Heisenberg for a bit until Heisenberg was able to block an attempt at the Blackout Sleeper and hit his powerslam finisher… and they actually had me believing that Heisenberg was going to eliminate the defending 16 Carat Gold winning in mere minutes in the opening round.
Heisenberg went for a second powerslam but Cara Noir escaped and began trying to chop down the giant at the knees. The match was short but very fun. It was like the pure distilled essence of both guys facing off. If you haven’t seen either of these guys before, this short match will give you a good sense of what both are about in the ring.

DAN’S INTERVIEW WITH DENNIS “CASH” DULLNIG IS INTERRUPTED BY HEKTOR INVICTUS- Yeah… not having the subtitles is going to be trouble. Hektor seemed displayed by Dennis, but I don’t understand how that isn’t everyone’s default state.
Andy Jackson on the English commentary feed clarified what happened: Hektor, who won the alternatives match on the pre-show, said that he hopes that Dennis wins but gets injured in the process so that Hektor can take his spot.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Aigle Blanc vs. Peter Tihanyi- 8.5/10
This was a tremendous athletic and hard-hitting babyface vs. babyface match that was the breakout in-ring performance that both men (and specifically Tihanyi) needed.

DAN INTERVIEWS PETER TIHANYI- passable

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Dennis “Cash” Dullnig vs. LuFisto- 6.5/10
LuFisto won what was mostly a striking battle, mixed in with a bit of Dennis being a heel.

DAN INTERVIEWS LUFISTO- fine
She’s happy to be back in Germany. Dan notes that she is the first woman in 16 Carat Gold. She points out that she was the first woman to compete in Cage of Death and the first woman to win King of the Deathmatch, so she wants to add 16 Carat Gold to that list as well.

DAN INTERVIEWS BOBBY GUNNS- GREAT!
Even with the language barrier, I could tell this was great.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Marius Al-Ani vs. Michael Knight- 6.75/10
Very good stuff. Marius wins clean.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Ace Romero vs. Maggot (w/Baby Allison)- 2/10
We got A LOT of gaga early on with Maggot running away from his much larger opponent. When Romero finally got his hands on Maggot, he pretty much dominated him except when he allowed Baby Allison to distract him. Eventually one of those distractions allowed Maggot to hit a cutter, which Romero kicked out of at 3.1. If Romero isn’t sticking around for a while (which I doubt he is because he’s based in the US), this was completely counterproductive, pretty much burying one of your core talents to put over a outsider who is going to fly back home at the end of the weekend.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Shigehiro Irie vs. Senza Volto- 6.5/10
I assume most people liked this more than I did. It was one of those matches that seems to start with an antagonism between two guys who have no issue with each other, so it just feels forced. And, of course, we get the mutual respect after the match, making the unearned antagonism feel even more like a put-on in hindsight.

DAN INTERVIEWS JONATHAN GRESHAM- great stuff
He’s here to prove that he’s the best pure wrestler in the entire world.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jonathan Gresham vs. Bobby Gunns- 8.5/10
Technical wrestling heaven! Gresham won clean, and Gunns showed him respect after the match.


This was an awesome show from wXw! Europe’s biggest pro wrestling weekend is off to a great start!

[cero2k]

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2022: Night 1 (3/4/2022)- Oberhausen, Germany


16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker vs. Fuminori Abe- 7/10
Avalanche won a solid match cleanly. Abe is definitely someone I’ll have to seek out more stuff from. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Anything from Astronauts in BJW is worth watching, him and Nomura are a top tier tag in Japan. Of the top of my head versus Stronghearts, versus Sekimoto/Sato, and versus Sekimoto/Okabayashi. can't give you dates tho, don't remember, but they're 2020-ish.