wXw Fans Appreciation Night 2021: Night 2
DAN INTERVIEWS DENNIS â€"CASH†DULLNIG - Good. His imitation of the missing Hektor Invictus and saying that he has â€"a bit of Hektor†with him in the form of Hektor’s jacket continues… and he attributes his recent winning ways to this.
Dullnig wins a solid opener clean with the â€"Hektor Knee†and something I can best describe as looking like a sit-out Ganso Bomb. They Tihanyi is a very good underdog. I wish they’d give him more time in his matches so that we can really get invested in seeing him fight back and try to get that win. There is a big difference between seeing someone refuse to stay down for four minutes (which is pretty standard in wrestling) and seeing someone refuse to stay down for twelve minutes (which is much less common). Give the guy fifteen minutes, not this seven-and-a-half-minute â€"enough to not feel short but not enough to really get good) crap we’ve been getting.
DAN INTERVIEWS DENNIS â€"CASH†DULLNIG - Good. Dennis talked about how he had â€"made Hektor proud†sent a message to Hektor that it would be really great if hector would come back and that Hektor should call him or text him or something… and he said this all in just a smug enough way to reinforce my belief that he is the one behind Hektor’s disappearance.
ARROWS OF HUNGARY INTERVIEW - Good. This keeps things going how they were, with us still 95% sure they’re going to turn heel, but giving us enough room to at least pay lip service to the slight chance that they won’t.
DAN INTERVIEWS ROTT & FLOTT - Great! These guys are doing an amazing job of keeping themselves feeling like the heels even though they are the aggrieved party.
They had a good little tag match for a while until the big moment where Charisma slid one of the Arrows’ fancy entrance masks into the ring and Schenkenberg tried to goad Dover into hitting him with it but Dover refused. And when he put the mask down, Schenkenberg rolled him up. He kicked out, but it was still a great way to set up Dover refusing to use the mask, because this way 1) he doesn’t have to show an initial intention to cheat by getting it himself, and 2) it shows that Rott & Flott had a back-up plan.
After that, we got a quick flurry of big moves, ending in the Arrows hitting the Crossfire for the clean win, so they remain babyfaces for the moment. In their post-match interview, they say they’ve got that â€"killer instinct†back that Avalanche said they were missing.
NICKY FOXLEY INTERVIEW - Decent. She talks about what it was like to win her first match in wXw and builds up her match tonight against the also-undefeated Iva Kolasky.
DAN INTERVIEWS IVA KOLASKY - Meh. She didn’t sound very confident. I’m sure part of that was not speaking in her native language, but that wasn’t all of it.
Kolaksy won in under seven minutes to remain undefeated, getting the win with the moonsault. Dan put the moonsault over for her in her post-match interview.
LEON VAN GASTEREN & TIM STUBING INTERVIEW - Meh. They laid out why they thought they would fare better this time than the last time they faced the champs, but they across as lacking any sort of intensity.
DAN INTERVIEWS TEAM wXw WRESTLING ACADEMY - Very good. They both build up the tag title match fine, but the really interesting part came when Avalanche was asked about his student, Feyyaz, interfering in last night’s no DQs hair vs. masks match. Avalanche said that he totally understood where Feyyaz was coming from behind the heels (in this case, Maggot, Baby Allsion, and Heisenberg) had abused him and they got what they deserved… but at the same time, interfering in matches is not something that should be happening, so he will have a talk with Feyyaz later.
On the negative side, Dan is quickly getting annoying in a similar way to how Quinn McKay has become annoying in ROH, although with Quinn it’s because she’s saying something in an attempt to get herself over, with Dan it’s because he seems to slip into the role of hype-man to a level that feels inappropriate for an interviewer in very â€"real-sports†setting like wXw (and the incongruity of her comments with the atmosphere is also part of the problem with Quinn in ROH).
wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
Lon was unhappy that Avalanche came in illegally to break up a pin, which might sound small, but they’ve done such a great job with Avalanche being the â€"rules†guy and he and Leon as the two big babyface mentor characters on the show that this actually felt like something you can see Leon being a little surprised about, and you can certainly understand Leon being a little upset with Avalanche responding to Leon trying to get in his face about this by shoving him backwards… and right into a school boy by Anil for a nearfall.
A bit later in the match, Avalanche got angry when Stubing ran over and took him off the apron with a dropkick, so he actually got into the ring and attacked Stubing, causing Leon to come in and go after Avalanche. Avalanche (legally tagged in this time) got the pin on Stubing relatively soon after. This was a good storyline moment in that it should make Avalanche’s next interactions with Leon, Feyyaz, and the Arrows of Hungary all more interesting, but once again (and I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point) I find myself wishing that they’d give the matches more time. There is no reason that going longer should prevent you from still hitting the same key storyline notes in a situation like this, and doing so will help guys like Anil be embraced by the fanbase by showing us that they actually can go at the level they are being pushed at.
MARIUS AL-ANI INTERVIEW FROM EARLIER TODAY - Good.
DAN INTERVIEWS TRISTAN ARCHER - Bad. Archer is just sooooo BORING, both in terms of his delivery and his content.
wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH:
Archer’s ankle got worked over and he tapped in sixteen minutes. They did their best to make him look like he had (and still might have in the future) a real chance of beating Marius with the spot where Marius was saved by the ropes, but I just never bought that there was any chance that the title could change hands in this match.
Final Thoughts
This was a decent show in terms of developing storylines, but once again a disappointment in the ring. If not for the fact that there were two title matches, it would have been indistinguishable from a regular episode of We Love Wrestling. I’m just praying that things will get better whenever fans come back.
DENNIS â€"CASH†DULLNIG vs. PETER TIHANYI - 5.75/10
Dullnig wins a solid opener clean with the â€"Hektor Knee†and something I can best describe as looking like a sit-out Ganso Bomb. They Tihanyi is a very good underdog. I wish they’d give him more time in his matches so that we can really get invested in seeing him fight back and try to get that win. There is a big difference between seeing someone refuse to stay down for four minutes (which is pretty standard in wrestling) and seeing someone refuse to stay down for twelve minutes (which is much less common). Give the guy fifteen minutes, not this seven-and-a-half-minute â€"enough to not feel short but not enough to really get good) crap we’ve been getting.
DAN INTERVIEWS DENNIS â€"CASH†DULLNIG - Good. Dennis talked about how he had â€"made Hektor proud†sent a message to Hektor that it would be really great if hector would come back and that Hektor should call him or text him or something… and he said this all in just a smug enough way to reinforce my belief that he is the one behind Hektor’s disappearance.
ARROWS OF HUNGARY INTERVIEW - Good. This keeps things going how they were, with us still 95% sure they’re going to turn heel, but giving us enough room to at least pay lip service to the slight chance that they won’t.
DAN INTERVIEWS ROTT & FLOTT - Great! These guys are doing an amazing job of keeping themselves feeling like the heels even though they are the aggrieved party.
ROTT & FLOTT vs. ARROWS OF HUNGARY - 6/10
They had a good little tag match for a while until the big moment where Charisma slid one of the Arrows’ fancy entrance masks into the ring and Schenkenberg tried to goad Dover into hitting him with it but Dover refused. And when he put the mask down, Schenkenberg rolled him up. He kicked out, but it was still a great way to set up Dover refusing to use the mask, because this way 1) he doesn’t have to show an initial intention to cheat by getting it himself, and 2) it shows that Rott & Flott had a back-up plan.
After that, we got a quick flurry of big moves, ending in the Arrows hitting the Crossfire for the clean win, so they remain babyfaces for the moment. In their post-match interview, they say they’ve got that â€"killer instinct†back that Avalanche said they were missing.
NICKY FOXLEY INTERVIEW - Decent. She talks about what it was like to win her first match in wXw and builds up her match tonight against the also-undefeated Iva Kolasky.
DAN INTERVIEWS IVA KOLASKY - Meh. She didn’t sound very confident. I’m sure part of that was not speaking in her native language, but that wasn’t all of it.
NICKY FOXLEY vs. IVA KOLAKSY - 4.75/10
Kolaksy won in under seven minutes to remain undefeated, getting the win with the moonsault. Dan put the moonsault over for her in her post-match interview.
LEON VAN GASTEREN & TIM STUBING INTERVIEW - Meh. They laid out why they thought they would fare better this time than the last time they faced the champs, but they across as lacking any sort of intensity.
DAN INTERVIEWS TEAM wXw WRESTLING ACADEMY - Very good. They both build up the tag title match fine, but the really interesting part came when Avalanche was asked about his student, Feyyaz, interfering in last night’s no DQs hair vs. masks match. Avalanche said that he totally understood where Feyyaz was coming from behind the heels (in this case, Maggot, Baby Allsion, and Heisenberg) had abused him and they got what they deserved… but at the same time, interfering in matches is not something that should be happening, so he will have a talk with Feyyaz later.
On the negative side, Dan is quickly getting annoying in a similar way to how Quinn McKay has become annoying in ROH, although with Quinn it’s because she’s saying something in an attempt to get herself over, with Dan it’s because he seems to slip into the role of hype-man to a level that feels inappropriate for an interviewer in very â€"real-sports†setting like wXw (and the incongruity of her comments with the atmosphere is also part of the problem with Quinn in ROH).
wXw WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
Team wXw Wrestling Academy (â€"The Avalanche†Robert Dreissker & Anil Marik)(c) vs. Leon van Gasteren & Tim Stubing - 6.5/10
Lon was unhappy that Avalanche came in illegally to break up a pin, which might sound small, but they’ve done such a great job with Avalanche being the â€"rules†guy and he and Leon as the two big babyface mentor characters on the show that this actually felt like something you can see Leon being a little surprised about, and you can certainly understand Leon being a little upset with Avalanche responding to Leon trying to get in his face about this by shoving him backwards… and right into a school boy by Anil for a nearfall.
A bit later in the match, Avalanche got angry when Stubing ran over and took him off the apron with a dropkick, so he actually got into the ring and attacked Stubing, causing Leon to come in and go after Avalanche. Avalanche (legally tagged in this time) got the pin on Stubing relatively soon after. This was a good storyline moment in that it should make Avalanche’s next interactions with Leon, Feyyaz, and the Arrows of Hungary all more interesting, but once again (and I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point) I find myself wishing that they’d give the matches more time. There is no reason that going longer should prevent you from still hitting the same key storyline notes in a situation like this, and doing so will help guys like Anil be embraced by the fanbase by showing us that they actually can go at the level they are being pushed at.
MARIUS AL-ANI INTERVIEW FROM EARLIER TODAY - Good.
DAN INTERVIEWS TRISTAN ARCHER - Bad. Archer is just sooooo BORING, both in terms of his delivery and his content.
wXw UNIFIED WORLD WRESTLING TITLE MATCH:
Marius Al-Ani(c) vs. Tristan Archer - 7.5/10
Archer’s ankle got worked over and he tapped in sixteen minutes. They did their best to make him look like he had (and still might have in the future) a real chance of beating Marius with the spot where Marius was saved by the ropes, but I just never bought that there was any chance that the title could change hands in this match.
Final Thoughts
This was a decent show in terms of developing storylines, but once again a disappointment in the ring. If not for the fact that there were two title matches, it would have been indistinguishable from a regular episode of We Love Wrestling. I’m just praying that things will get better whenever fans come back.