BRM Reviews wXw Back to the Roots 2023

[Big Red Machine]

wXw Back to the Roots 2023 (1/28/2023)- Oberhausen, Germany


wXw SHOTGUN TITLE MATCH: Maggot(c) (w/Baby Allison) vs. Laurance Roman- 4/10
How is Roman getting a title shot when he has lost his last two singles matches cleanly. He won the title when Ahura came out and attacked Baby Allison, distracting Maggot and allowing Roman to hit his finisher for the win.

MARIE DE LA ROSE vs. AVA EVERETT- 4/10
We start off with goofy comedy revolving around Maria’s fan (the paper, handheld version, not an electric one. Or a person). Ava is wearing a very strange get-up of street clothes: white sneakers, black, white sweat pants, and on her top, she appears on only be wearing a pale pink version of KUSHIDA’s winter-jacket-material crop-top vest. We would learn at the finish that she had a white crop top on under that, but that didn’t make it that much less strange. Ava won (unfortunately) and signaled that she wants the title back.

DAN MALLMAN INTERVIEWS ALISS INK- fine for someone not speaking her first language
She says that tonight she will prove that she is the rightful champion and not Amele.

METEHAN & RAMBO vs. GREEDY SOULS (Brendan White & Danny Jones)- 6/10
Metehan and Rambo won. I’d have preferred for it to be a completely clean win.

DAN MALLMAN INTERVIEWS BOBBY GUNNS- good
Bobby is fed up with Director of Sport Norman’s crap and says Norman should quit and go back to being a wrestler. He says he is excited to face Yota Tsuji tonight.

BOBBY GUNNS vs. YOTA TSUJI- 8/10
This felt like these guys have read my New Japan reviews and decided to have a great puro-style match while specifically avoiding or working around all of my bugaboos. They got to the “take turns sitting there and letting the other guy kick you” spot logically, and it ended with Tsuji just taking the open shot at Gunns’ head. Tsuji let go of a sleeper hold, and the announcers criticized him for giving up on what could have been a winning hold. Gunns won cleanly.

wXw WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Aliss Ink(c) vs. Amale- 5.75/10
Amale cut a good heel promo before the match. Aliss won a decent brawl via Dragon’s Tail.

AXEL TISCHER PROMO/VIDEO PACKAGE- f*cking awesome build for the world title match!

wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH: Levaniel(c) vs. Axel Tischer- 8.5/10
Levaniel cut a great promo before the match. This is a rematch from this same event in this same city last year, but now the roles of champion and challenger are reversed. The story here was Tischer using all over the veteran tricks (and almost all of his finishers), but Levaniel survived them to get the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
After two excellent teases of turning on Levaniel, Tischer finally did so.

KAFIGSCHLACHT VIDEO PACKAGE- great

KAFIGSCHLACHT: Peter Tihanyi & the Frenchadors vs. Amboss (Robert Dreissker & the Arrows of Hungary)- 6.75/10
Laurance Roman and Elijah Blum came out to ringside with their respective factions, but Norman Harras sent them both to the back.
Icarus passed Dover skewers but Tihanyi got them away from him and pounded them into Dover’s head, causing him to bleed from the top of his bald head, which was quite the visual. Amboss, of course, had won the coin flip, so Dover was able to get reinforcements in the form of Robert Driessker, but about thirty seconds after entering, Dreissker took a crossbody from Tihanyi and started bleeding a lot, which had me terribly worried about an internal injury (the blood was not coming from his forehead). He tired to do some stuff, but didn’t seem able to stay on his feet for two long. When Aigle Blanc came in to even things up for the babyfaces, they did a spot where he took advantage of the unlocked cage door to knock Dreissker under the bottom rope and out of the ring, where he was then tended to by EMTs and taken to the back.
They evened things out by having Tihanyi dive onto Icarus as Icarus was trying to get into the cage, but then having Laurance Roman come out and attack him. Elijah Blum came out to take out Roman (Norman was there, too), but this wound up with Tihanyi out of the cage, making things two on two once Senza Volto came in. Tihanyi eventually came back in via big dive from the top of the cage. The Arrows tried to negate the babyfaces’ high-flying by undoing the top rope, but Tihanyi still managed to hit a 450 on Dover and then choke him out with a rear naked choke. That was a good moment for Tihanyi, but this match felt rushed, and it’s pretty clear that that was because they lost one third of the heel team (and the heel leader), and a match where the babyfaces have a numbers advantage rarely comes off well. I’m not holding it again the workers or the promotion, but the fact is that this match was disappointing. The fact that it was due to circumstances outside of everyone’s control doesn’t change that fact.




I’ll say this was a good show from wXw, but I’ll always wonder what more it could have been if Avalanche had not gotten hurt. Hopefully he’s okay. Yota Tsuji really stood out to me here, as did Levaniel. With the former, I expected it, as this is my first time seeing him not limited to the Young Lion move-set. With the latter, I continue to be impressed with his ability to come across like a main event star while retaining the endearing parts of the undercard goof that we all fell in love with. The Road to 16 Carat Gold continues next.