wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament Night Three Results
Date: March 11th, 2018
Venue: Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen
Attendance: 1000+sellout
By: Benno
British Wrestling Experience
We’re back in the Turbinenhalle for the third and final night of the wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament, with another sold-out crowd, making this the biggest weekend attendance in wXw history. Before the show, at the wXw Press Centre, promoter Christian Michael Jakobi announced that next year’s tournament would be moving to a larger room within the same complex, with an expected 1500 capacity to cope for the increasing demand for tickets.
We began things here at Night Three hot with the first of two wXw 16 Carat Semi-Finals, as David Starr defeated Keith Lee to continue his quest towards 16 Carat victory. This was a superb big man, little man match with Starr playing the underdog and narrowly surviving the high impact offence of Lee, with one particularly close near fall of a huge Keith Lee Spirit Bomb producing one of the louder reactions of the night as the Turbinenhalle crowd rallied behind favourite Starr. Starr would struggle out of a Ground Zero attempt from Lee and rebound with a Canadian Destroyer that looked incredible on a man of Lee’s size, for the pinfall victory. After the match, the German crowd serenaded Keith Lee with loud “Bask In His Glory” chants as Lee bowed to the fans and kissed the mat.
Next, in the second 16 Carat Semi-Final, Absolute Andy defeated Timothy Thatcher in another very strong match, the story of which being Thatcher attempting to win the match clean stretching Andy with all manner of submissions, as the hated Andy attempted to cheat his way to victory, using the bell hammer as a weapon and later trying to introduce a large wrench, only for Thatcher to wrestle them off him and throw them away. Andy would hit a low blow as Thatcher attempted to apply a Choke, only for Thatcher to grab another Choke but in turn get rolled up Andy for a three count, sending the wXw veteran through to the final in a surprising result.
We then had two four-way matches, with the first being made up of men eliminated from 16 Carat as Emil Sitoci defeated Lucky Kid, Alexander James and Mark Haskins via Spinning Tombstone on Haskins. This was a fun match where the charismatic Lucky Kid was once again the star. Kid got huge babyface responses from the crowd throughout the weekend, despite being a member of the top heel RISE faction and is one to watch, with his odd charisma and unique ring style that plays into his bizarre character.
The second four-way match was for the wXw Women’s title as Toni Storm retained against Killer Kelly, Wesna and Martina. The match itself was fine, however, suffered for its placement coming after a similar match. Storm would pin Martina with the Strong Zero Piledriver.
Up next, in a surprise addition to the card that would not have been predicted just 24 hours previous, wXw World Champion Ilja Dragunov defeated Matt Riddle, answering Riddle’s open challenge. This was a hard striking match between two men whose styles compliment each other perfectly, with Dragunov getting the victory after countering Riddle’s Running Knee with a perfectly timed Torpedo Moscow, starting his wXw World Title run on a strong note, with a very good match against a credible challenger.
We then had a six-man tag, with more men eliminated from the 16 Carat tournament as Travis Banks, Chris Brookes and Jonah Rock defeated Marius Al-Ani, Matt Sydal and Mike Bailey. This was a fun trios match to begin the second half, with Banks pinning Matt Sydal with the Kiwi Crusher and seeds planted of a potential future Rock/Al-Ani match as they clashed multiple times throughout the match and went nose to nose in the post-match before being separated.
In the Semi-Main Event, the internal tension of RISE came to a head as faction leader John Klinger and Da Mack defeated WALTER and Timothy Thatcher to win the wXw Tag Team Titles, when Klinger inserted himself into the title match, in place of Ivan Kiev who had won the shot with Da Mack the night previous. The match was strong but suffered from a miscommunication between the referee and the timekeeper, as the bell rang early during a pin attempt by Da Mack where Tim Thatcher kicked out before three. The match continued and Thatcher was pinned seconds later for the actual finish of the match, after an Unprettier by Da Mack.
Post-match Pete Bouncer, after months of teasing, turned on RISE faction leader John Klinger, pulling the tag title belt from him and laying him out to an enormous reaction. Ivan Kiev teased also turning and leaving with Bouncer but stayed with the faction. After RISE had left, WALTER took the microphone and thanked Tim Thatcher for his work in wXw with Ringkampf, with Thatcher then stating “Auf Wiedersehen” before leaving, indicating that he would be taking some time away from the company.
Finally, in the Main Event, Absolute Andy defeated David Starr to win the ninth wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament, in a fantastic, dramatic match, where the story of Starr being the near man of wXw continued. Starr fought from underneath, with Andy again introducing weapons and repeatedly attempting to cheat to continue the story of him being the veteran doing anything to hold onto his place, culminating in him again attempting to use a wrench as a weapon, with former partner Marius Al-Ani making the save and pulling the weapon out of his hands, evening the odds and allowing Starr to hit a chair shot for a near fall. The atmosphere here was electric, as a minority of fans cheering for Andy were drowned out by boos and chants for Starr, who got more near falls with his Han Stansen Lariat and Product Placement finisher.
The closing stretch of the match had incredible drama, as Andy hit two F5’s to Starr, then picking him up off the ground and hitting an F5 from the second rope only for Starr to kick out, in a moment that would only work in a match like this, where the stakes were so high, with a character like Starr who was desperate to get his big win as the crowd willed him on. With such a big kick out, the stage looked set for a miraculous Starr comeback, but that was not the story being told, as Andy would hit his A-Classe sit-out Dominator for a straight pinfall win, as Starr, with a last-gasp reached out for a bottom rope that was an inch too far away – his story, which has become a tragedy, continuing.
This was an excellent match to end an incredible tournament and an incredible three days of wrestling, filled with intricate storytelling that returning fans are rewarded for paying attention to but equally filled with fantastic wrestling matches that any fan can parachute into and enjoy. I’d highly recommend any fan makes the trip to Oberhausen next year, and would recommend checking out all three days shows as they land this week on wXw’s streaming service.