BRM Reviews wXw 16 Carat Gold 2022: Night 2 (disappointing)

[Big Red Machine]

wXw 16 Carat Gold 2022: Night 2 (3/5/2022)- Oberhausen, Germany

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Shigehiro Irie vs. Hektor Invictus-6.5/10
Invictus won last night’s alternates match, and so he is now in the tournament, replacing Marius Al-Ani, who was apparently injured last night. Irie won a good, solid power-match cleanly, with Dennis Dullnig thankfully nowhere in sight.

DENNIS DULLNIG BOTHERS DAN AND FORCES HIS WAY INTO AN INTERVIEW-
Once again, I am watching the “near-live” edit so there are no subtitles, but Rott & Flott seem to have gotten some sort of “tag team invitational tournament” booked, and Dennis has signed himself and Hektor up, because he can’t take a f*cking hint, even when that hint is less of a hint and more of a direct and clear statement made right to his face.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Jonathan Gresham vs. Peter Tihanyi- 6.75/10
Gresham won via roll-up. The fans got very behind Tihanyi.

JONATHAN GRESHAM PROMO- good babyface stuff

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Maggot vs. LuFisto- 6.5/10
More solid wrestling. I’m not sure where Baby Allison was. If the announcers explained it, I missed it. LuFisto won clean.

16 CARAT GOLD TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Cara Noir vs. “The Avalanche” Robert Dreissker (w/Anil Marik)- 6.75/10
Anil’s arm is in a sling. Picking up on Vincent Heisenberg’s strategy from last time- although not doing it in a heelish way like Heisenberg did- Avalanche tries to throw Cara Noir off his game before the bell by blocking his way into the ring so he can’t do his intricate entrance. Cara Noir eventually said “f*ck it” and just did his pose on the outside. When Avalanche still kept blocking his way into the ring, he waited until Avalanche was distracted, then grabbed his leg and pulled him out, then just started forearming him.
They went back and forth for a bit before Cara Noir hit Madame Guillotine, but Avalanche kicked out. He then rolled to the outside and ordered Anil to the back. The announcers speculated that Avalanche was taking his frustration out on young Anil. Anil didn’t want to go, so Avalanche backed him up the ramp, but had to run back to the ring to avoid getting counted out, and Anil stayed on the ramp to watch the match instead of going to the back.
After managing to get Avalanche up for a powerbomb (and Avalanche kicked out of a pin), Cara Noir ran up the ramp and grabbed Anil by his good arm and pulled him back to ringside and ordered him to stay. I assumed that this would lead to Cara Noir setting up for the Blackout Sleeper and Avalanche would get distracted by seeing Anil at ringside, giving Cara Noir the chance to lock his finisher in, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Avalanche blocked several attempts at the Blackout Sleeper, then hit the Dreissker Bomb for the win.

DAN INTERVIEWS AVALANCHE- I’m really regretting not having those subtitles right now. He said a lot of stuff. The crowd booed some of it. Anil was not happy.

TAG TEAM #1 CONTENDERSHIP GAUNTLET MATCH: Rott & Flott vs. Norman Harras & Sebastian Suave vs. Dennis “Cash” Dullnig & Hektor Invictus vs. Vincent Heisenberg & Baby Allison vs. Aigle Blanc & Senza Volto vs. Michael Knight & Bobby Gunns- 4/10
Rott & Flott had the idea for this, so it was officially the “Rott & Flott Invitational #1 Contendership Tag Team Gauntlet.” They came out before the match dressed as town criers and acted like goofs. Sauve is also a goof, and not a regular, but despite this, it was Norman who got pinned. WHY?!
Next in were Dennis and Hektor. Dennis, of course, didn’t tell Hektor that he had entered them into this match, so Hektor didn’t come out. Dennis had to do to the back to get him, which he apparently did by stealing his flag and one of his boots, and having Hektor chase him to the ring with one boot on. Rott & Flott jumped them, so Hektor had to wrestle with just one boot on, and the heels took advantage of that lack of protection to work over his ankle. Stuff like that is so clever that it frustrates me that people clever enough to come up with it are wasting their time on this idiotic storyline. It’s such a waste.
Hektor and Dennis argued a lot, but wound up winning with a small package. Next in were Vincent Heisenberg and Baby Allison. Heisenberg got Dennis up for a move and spun him around, but doing so accidentally hit Baby Allison, who was apparently knocked out despite the pathetically weak blow. Heisenberg went nuts and choked Dennis until he got disqualified.
Team France was in next, and we got some wrestling that was actually good for a few minutes, but then Rott & Flott came back out and attacked Aigle Blanc and Senza Volto in order to get Dennis and Hektor disqualified. They brawled away, and out came the final team. It was a surprise pairing of Michael Knight and Bobby Gunns, who have just recently eared each other’s respect after a series of great matches.
These two teams had a great little mini-match that took this from a DUD up to the final rating. I’d love to see them have a full-length match at some point… but when they do, hopefully they won’t repeat the spot where Michael Knight took a Best Meltzer Driver Ever onto the floor and then was able to get back up and do things. That should be a death move.
On the whole, this was a mess, with far too many goofs in it, and far too many bad stories filling it up. Not a particularly pleasant way to spend almost twenty-four minutes.

SINGLES MATCH FOR THE VACANT wXw SHOTGUN TITLE: Ace Romero vs. Ninja Mack- 4/10
Absolutely Andy is sick and can’t defend the title, so it’s vacant. Again. This stupid “lottery” system has resulted in two completely undeserving people getting to compete for a title. Can we please get rid of this crap?
Romero is very large and Mack is very small. They told a story using this. They were on the outside FOREVER without getting counted out. Romero crushed Mack with a running senton on the floor. That should be a death move with a size difference this big. The little guy won.

wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Arrows of Hungary(c) vs. Stephanie Maze & Fast Time Moodo- 7.75/10
There were some great nearfalls in here, and these two teams have excellent chemistry. Maze’s knee got worked over but this time it didn’t give out and Maze & Moodo won the belts back! They were soooooo happy afterwards, and that happiness was infectious! Dan the interviewer gave each of them a big hug before interviewing them.

wXw WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Iva Kolasky(c) vs. Ava Everett- 5.75/10
Well, sh*t. I didn’t see that coming. They must have a lot of confidence in Everett to put the belt on her. She threw the belt down… but then picked it up again and posed with it.

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Axel Tischer(c) vs. Levaniel vs. Jurn Simmons vs. Tristan Archer- 7.75/10
This was your usual four-way of guys breaking up pins on big moves, but it built well and made great use of the personal dynamics established going into the match (particularly Jurn/Levaniel, Archer/Levaniel, and, to a lesser extent, Jurn/Tischer). I was surprised to se Archer pick up the win here, and even more surprised that I found myself nodding along and saying “yeah, that might be the best move.” It lets Jurn get angry at Levaniel for costing him the match, lets Tischer get angry at management for losing his title in a four-way where he didn’t have to get pinned, and sets up for a big grudge title match between Archer and Levaniel after Levaniel is rebuilt (presumably with Archer taking verbal shots at him the whole time).



This was a disappointing show from wXw. The tournament matches just plain didn’t deliver, and the main event was relatively weak for what is seen as one of the biggest matches of the year on wXw’s calendar. Hopefully they right the ship tomorrow night for the end of the tournament.

[cero2k]

missed the Noir match rating

[Big Red Machine]

missed the Noir match rating

Thanks. Will go back and rewatch

[Big Red Machine]

missed the Noir match rating

Added

[cero2k]

missed the Noir match rating

Added

thanks, updated on the main site