BRM Reviews wXw Shortcut to the Top 2022 (great!)

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Shortcut to the Top 2022 (8/6/2022)- Oberhausen, Germany


A BUNCH OF PEOPLE CUT LITTLE PROMOS CLAIMING THAT THEY WILL WIN SHORTCUT TO THE TOP- fine

DAN MALLMANN INTERVIEWS AMBOSS- good
Dan is back from his suspension for doing something that upset Norman Harras. Drat.
He asks Robert Dreissker about trying to Pillmanizer Elijah Blum. Dreissker points out that his guys were outnumbered and that it was Blum who brought the chair to the ring.

AMBOSS vs. LSG, PETER TIHANYI, AIGLE BLANC, & SENZA VOLTO- 6.75/10
This was a good action opener. The heels won cleanly when Dreissker pinned Tihanyi.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
The heels went to break Tihanyi’s arm with a chair but Elijah Blum came out to make the save. The babyfaces managed to Isolate Dover and were going to break his arm, but Tihanyi couldn’t bring himself to injure his one of his mentors like this… so Senza Volto snatched the chair away from him and the deed himself. I like that the babyfaces have responded in kind to what the heels attempted to do. This feud feels like it could spiral out of control at a moment’s notice.

NORMAN HARRAS HAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE- fine
Norman says that he was about to announce the team of Aigle Blanc & Senza Volto for World Tag Team Festival, but after what we just saw, he’ll have to give it some more though.
Rott & Flot came up to Norman to both petition that they should be announced for World Tag Team Festival, and to ask that Norman pull strings to get them spots at the end of Shortcut to the Top. Norman says that he can’t pull strings because that wouldn’t be fair… but he invites them to come to his office and look at the order and see if their “expert eyes” have any recommendations that he might consider.

wXw WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Baby Allison(c) vs. Calypso- 4/10
Before this match, we were shown footage of Calypso beating Baby Allison at the joint wXw/APC show last month. It’s nice to know that this title finally has a challenger who has actually earned a title shot.
The match was not good. The finish saw Calypso win by count-out, so at least we will get something that feels like a real program for this title, which I don’t think we’ve had in about three years. Baby Allison celebrating with her title after retaining it via count-out loss came off as incredibly heelish to me.

DAN INTERVIEWS ONLY FRIENDS- good
Dan, being a tactless dick, asked these two- who got screwed out of not just the tag titles but also a spot in World Tag Team Festival- what they thought of the big announcement that SAniTy of Eric Young and Axel Tischer had been announced for World Tag Team Festival. Bobby Gunns was as diplomatic about it as he could be, but you knew it was bothering him.
Bobby said that they both had great careers as singles wrestlers before forming their team, and so he suggested that they take an “every man for himself” approach to tonight’s Shortcut to the Top match. Michael Knight accepted this offer, but you could tell that he was a little hurt, as it seemed like Bobby was telling him he wanted to stop teaming with him without outright saying that.

AXEL TISCHER vs. BOBBY GUNNS- 8/10
This was a match-up of two guys who were trying to get their singles careers back on track, and they just went out there and did sixteen minutes of action-packed, intense wrestling. Gunns got the win, which will certainly make Bobby feel justified in his decision to tell Michael Knight he wanted to put their tag team on hiatus and focus on his singles career.

KILLER KELLY PROMO- fine
She announces that she is coming back “home” to wXw, starting at Femme Fatales 2022. That’s good news, as the division sorely needs her, but I was so distracted by her now very red hair that I couldn’t focus on the potential ramifications. She looks a lot less like a Killer Kelly and more like a Model Kelly right now.

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Tristan Archer(c) vs. Prince Ahura- 7.75/10
Before the match, Director of Sport Norman Harras issued a 100 Euro fine to Ahura for his “behavior during his entrance,” even though Ahura did nothing out of the ordinary. These two had great intensity, and it was nice to see Archer win clean. Ahura still comes off like a heel to me, so I wasn’t into this match as much as I might have been if it was a babyface taking Archer on. Ahura did remind me that he can go in the ring, which is important if they’re going to keep pushing him. He also managed to the impressive feat of doing a variation of the Overdrive/Play of the Day/O-Zone/whatever you want to call it (an inverted one) that didn’t stupid.

SHORTCUT TO THE TOP MATCH- 8.5/10
The first two in were Peter Tihanyi and Fast Time Moodo. Third was Nikita Charisma, who was quite annoyed, as apparently his attempt to influence Norman Harras’ decision on the placements of the wrestlers didn’t quite go the way he wanted. Shouldn’t this all be randomized? Charisma refused to get into the ring, and had to be ordered to do so by a referee. When climbed up onto the apron, he “slipped” and claimed he had injured his ankle. The fourth man in was his tag team partner, Mikael Schenkenberg. They did ask for consecutive entrance numbers, yes, but I’m going to guess that they’re probably still pretty peeved with Norman right about now.
The fifth man in was Dover, who came from behind, and also with a Kendo stick. His arm is all taped up from the getting Pillmanizered earlier tonight, and basically hanging there, useless. The man he snuck up on was Peter Tihanyi, even though Tihanyi had refused to Pillmanizer his arm when given the chance (Senza Volto eventually did the deed). This, time, though, Tihanyi did not hesitate to use the weapon when he got it away from Dover, using it to lock in a submission on the injured arm that had Dover screaming in pain. Tihanyi relented, and Dover rolled out of the ring, and the referees declared him unable to continue, eliminating him even though he never went over the top rope. I’m sure Amboss will complain about this later.
The ring began to fill up with more people. When Jurn Simmons came out, we were told that the title shot for winning this match would override the stipulation of his match against Tristan Archer at the previous show where if he lost, he wouldn’t get another title shot for as long as Archer was champion.
Heisenberg was in next, and the ring then began to clear out as Jurn and Heisenberg started dumping people left and right in between bouts of brawling with each other. They even managed to clear it down to just the two of them in the ring… and then Jurn clotheslined Heisenberg over the top rope so hard that Jurn tumbled down to the floor with him. The two of them brawled away as Bobby Gunns made his way down to an empty ring. With nothing to watch in the ring, we got to watch their brawl a bit. It ended when Heisenberg Snake-Eyesed Jurn into a steel beam, and they once again used the lack of action in the ring as an excuse to show us the referees being concerned about the clearly-concussed Jurn.
Gunns quickly disposed of Jacob Crane, giving him more time to strut around the ring and smirk, as he is want to do. Crane claimed he “wasn’t ready,” so Gunns grabbed him, sent him back into the ring, and gave him another chance (with the announcer ensuring we knew this was unofficial), which resulted I Crane getting beaten up again.
Next in was Alpha Kevin, who has gained a MASSIVE amount of weigh since we have last seen him. He did some Kartsten Beck tribute spots, then was eliminated via lariat of the top rope. Gunns then ran through Danny Fray on his own before finally running into trouble in the form of Laurance Roman. So much trouble, in fact, that he would have been eliminated if not for the timely entrance of Michael Knight.
The ring gradually began to fill up again, with Knight and Gunns working together. The next big moment was the return of Teoman (though now using that name instead of Metehan, or the Lucky Kid name he had used before that). He ran wild for a bit, then wound up having a stare-down with Bobby Gunns, while the announcer reminded us of their “unfinished business” (if I recall correctly, Norman Harras had the initiative to broker a deal between Teoman’s Ezel stable and Bobby Gunns’ Die Raucherpause- of which Norman was a member- where neither would go after championships held by the other, but despite Norman’s best of intentions, Bobby Gunns revealed that he had no intention to abide by the deal, and when Norman tried to smooth things over by forging an email from Director of Sport Absolute Andy to get himself a title shot where he would then lie down for Teoman, Andy sprung his trap and used the threat of a major fine to force the two to actually wrestle each other in earnest, and Norman wound up winning Teoman’s wXw Shotgun Title). Before anything could happen, though, Rambo grabbed Bobby from behind, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer for a payoff on that.
Gunns was saved from Rambo by Knight, and then the two of them worked together to eliminate Rambo. Mike Schwarz came in next and ran wild until Gunns and Knight worked together to cut him off. Knight went to eliminate Elijah Blum, but Gunns came up behind him and tried to eliminate him and Blum together. Knight escaped it and tried to do the same to Gunns, only for Teoman to swoop in and eliminate them both together.
The former Only Friends argued at ringside as Axel Tischer charged down the ring and ran wild. He eliminated Elijah Blum and then had a stare-down with Teoman. The announcer mentioned unfinished business between the two of them, but I have no idea what that’s about. They started trading punches until Icarus came out as the next entrant. He and his Amboss stablemate Laurance Roman began working together and started to take over. A few entrants later, Icarus was eliminated by Orsi, which was a big moment for her, getting her first bit of revenge on a member of Amboss (and one of her trainers, who abandoned her to form the group).
Maggot eliminated Teoman and Levaniel eliminated Tischer, leaving us those two, Roman, and Orsi in the ring, with just a few entrants left, making this match feel wide open. Norman Harras was next at #27. I guess the idea is that he thought giving himself #30 was a little too suspicious, so he gave himself twenty-seven instead, figuring it wasn’t too suspicious and hoping that its famous luck in the Royal Rumble would carry over the to wXw’s version. It didn’t, as he was eliminated by Orsi right before the next entrant came out.
Said entrant was Hektor Invictus. He was followed by LSG, and finally Robert Dreissker. Dreissker eliminated LSG, Hektor, and Maggot, leaving us with him, Orsi, Levaniel, and Laurance Roman as our final four. Orsi got some offense in on Dreissker, but her knee trying to pick him up and got crushed underneath him, then eliminated. This left Levaniel alone against the two members of Amboss, but he fought back and eliminated Roman… and then they ruined it all by doing an idiotic WWE spot where he gets eliminated… except he just happened to land on Orsi’s back, so he wasn’t really eliminated due to an idiotic technicality, and he got back into the ring and grabbed the already-celebrating Avalanche and eliminated him.
Up until that moment, I was LOVING this match. When Michael Knight came out and saved Bobby Gunns from being eliminated after Gunns had run through several people in what were essentially singles matches, I was going gaga over the creativity involved in setting that spot up. I was going nuts when Teoman came back and got super-excited when he and Bobby had their face-off. I loved Orsi getting some revenge on Icarus and Tihanyi finally realizing that his trainer no longer cared about him and thus didn’t deserve his deference or his mercy. I liked Norman screwing Charisma and Schenkenberg because he knew giving them what they wanted would only get in his way, and I adored the fact that they had the ring totally cleared to start Heisenberg and Jurn’s brawl through the crowd in order to give us a reason why the camera would focus on that instead of the action in the ring.
And then they ruined it all with one stupid spot. In most promotions, I would call it a pointless spot. In wXw I at least have a little faith the Dreissker will complain about the ridiculousness of the technicality… but the problem is that he’s completely correct, and the promotion will look by not correcting it for next year (hell, they look bad by not having eliminated already just due to all of the silliness we’ve seen in WWE over the years). But pointless or not, it was still stupid. There are plenty of other ways to do something that would get Avalanche angry at management because he feels screwed. You don’t need to do one that undermines a popular babyface.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
The fans were all very happy for Levaniel. They found one woman who was moved almost to the point of tears. Levaniel cut a Levaniel promo, vowing to take the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship from Tristan Archer… and, of course, when Levaniel turned his back to the stage to pose for the camera, Archer ran out and assaulted him.



This was a pretty great show from wXw, although the finish to the main event really did nearly kill it for me. Teoman’s return is quite exciting, as will be whatever happens next for Michael Knight and Bobby Gunns. Levaniel will almost certainly lose his title shot, but the crowd will undoubtedly be hot for him, and this little program will give them time to build up Archer’s next challenger.