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wXw We Love Wrestling 34

As promised, I’m kicking things off with two belated recaps.

The 34th episode of wXw We Love Wrestling took place on June 12, 2022 at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany, hours after the previous episode occurred.

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Besides the aftermath of Broken Rules which took place on both episode of We Love Wrestling at the same venue, this episode also had Ahura returning to wXw after being suspended due to his actions at wXw Anniversary XXI. Plus, like CM Punk after getting suspended due to his “pipebomb” back in mid-2011, Ahura returned with one of wXw’s belts which was the wXw Shotgun Championship (that Maggot currently holds). Harras had a contract set up for Ahura, and Ahura looked at it before handing the microphone back to the Director of Sports.

Harras attempted to speak until the mic went out, and while he and ring announcer Thomas Giesen were attempting to fix it, Ahura—behind their backs—switched contracts before he and Harras signed it; Harras then looked at it and realized that he and Ahura signed a contract for a match with a shot at the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship on the line. I may not have gotten this far yet due to a break I took last month before coming back, but I’m curious to see how the match between Harras and Ahura went.

Seven matches took place on this episode of We Love Wrestling. To me, it was a lukewarm episode when it came to watching the matches, but my favorite match of the episode would have to go to the opener between Maggot and Sebastian Suave for the wXw Shotgun Championship. I was pretty sure that something would happen, regardless of whether or not Harras had something up his sleeve, in the opener but I was mistaken. It was a good way to kick off the episode, especially after seeing Maggot doing whatever it takes to retain the title and Suave—regardless of how the fans of Maggot got under his skin—showing what he had in store for the champion.

Here are the match results from Oberhausen…

Match #1: Maggot defeated Sebastian Suave to retain the wXw Shotgun Championship.

After Maggot hit Suave with the Crucifixion for two, he missed with the spear; Suave went for an emerald frosion until Maggot blocked it before Suave sat down on him for two. Then, Maggot came back with a spear for the win. My score: 3/5

Match #2: Michael Knight defeated Hektor Invictus with a Full Throttle into a GTS.

Both men shook hands afterwards, then Knight—who was interviewed by Andy Jackson—said that Bobby Gunns kept him focused and that they were still planning on winning the wXw Tag Team Championship. My score: 2/5

Match #3: Levaniel & Jurn Simmons defeated Michael Schenkenburg & Tristan Archer (w/ Nikita Charisma).

Before the match started, Levaniel praised Simmons for defeating Vincent Heisenberg at Broken Rules, and that things would go differently with him focused and motivated before introducing the fans to his tag team partner. Early in the match, Levaniel blind tagged in and got Simmons peeved. Near the end, Archer attempted to hit Simmons with the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship belt until Levaniel stopped him and almost hit Simmons with the belt. Simmons fought Archer out of the ring before Schenkenburg hit him with a Michinoku driver for two. Then, after Charisma pretended to be Triple H at ringside (water spit and all), Schenkenburg went for the Pedigree until Simmons him with a running knee and a piledriver for the win.

After the match, Simmons shooed Archer and Rott und Flott to the back, then—in an interview by Andy Jackson—called Archer a “jackass” before vowing to win back the championship, telling him “your ass is mine.” He then turned to Levaniel and said that if he interfered, “your ass is mine too.” My score: 1.5/5

Match #4: Baby Allison defeated Iva Kolasky to retain the wXw Women’s Championship.

Allison has a new theme song that sounds like a cross between Silverchair and Nine Inch Nails. During the match, Iva went for a leg drop, but missed and got in a leg split before tripping her opponent and having her in the same position; the two then threw strikes at each other while in leg splits afterwards. After Iva grabbed the bottom rope to get out of the cravat, Allison hit her with a spear before putting her back in the cravat and making her submit. My score: 2/5

Match #5: Psycho Mike defeated Jacob Crane in almost five minutes.

Crane refused to be bodyslammed in the beginning, darting to two corners before Mike got his hands on him. Then, Mike offered him a €5 bill, and Crane took it before countering a bodyslam with a rollup for two. Mike was then finally able to bodyslam Crane four times until Crane paid off the €5 after he attempted to bodyslam him some more. Mike slammed Crane four more times, then attempted to hit him with a fifth slam until Crane tapped out. Post-match, Mike hit him with another bodyslam behind the referee’s back, then hit him with one more slam and pinned him before being chased to the back. My score: 1.5/5

Match #6 (Peacock main event): Masha Slamovich defeated Orsi.

Masha won on wXw for the first time ever after hitting Orsi with a package piledriver. After the match, Masha told Andy Jackson that she demanded to be in wXw Femme Fatale. My score: 2.5/5

Main event: Amboss defeated Jonathan Gresham, Peter Tihanyi, the Rotation & Elijah Blum.

Tihanyi’s back was worked on during the match, ditto the Rotation’s left hand which was taped. (Tihanyi had a sore back after fighting Axel Tischer on the previous episode of We Love Wrestling.) After beating down Gresham, Tihanyi and the Rotation at ringside, Amboss had Blum’s back against the wall; Laurance Roman wore down Blum with a crossface, the Arrows of Hungary hit him with the Crossfire, and Robert Dreissker hit him with the Dreissker Bomb for the win. My score: 2.5/5

WrestleMania Launch Party

Yep, I also did a recap of this event mainly because it made it to Peacock days after it occurred.

The WrestleMania Launch Party took place on August 11, 2022 at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California in the United States; it is the same venue that will host WrestleMania on April 1-2, 2023. Days before making it to Peacock, the Launch Party was shown on WWE’s social media platforms including YouTube.

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Wrestlers—including those that completed as you’ll see shortly—and celebrities were in attendance for this event; among them were—in order of appearance—comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, James T. Butts Jr. (mayor of Los Angeles), Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, rap artist and actor Snoop Dogg, Santos Escobar, Valerie Loureda (who is currently a developmental wrestler for the company), Roxanne Perez, YouTube celebrity JoJo Siwa, Liv Morgan, Seth “Freakin’” Rollins, Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders, Medal of Honor recipients, members of the Woody Williams Foundation, the Usos, the Los Angeles Chargers drumline, Rampage the Ram (mascot for the L.A. Rams), and the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleaders.

I decided to check out this event mostly for the matches that took place; originally, I thought that the WrestleMania Launch Party was going to be a press conference hyping the premium live event before seeing that there were matches included. Aside from moments that occurred involving the celebrities and wrestlers, there were three matches that took place. My favorite of the three would have to go to the main event match between Los Lotharios and the Street Profits; those two teams showed what they’re capable of especially on the main roster, and it was a good back and forth bout between the two teams from start to finish.

Here are the match results from Los Angeles…

Match #1: Raquel Rodriguez defeated Nikki A.S.H.

Near the end, Raquel hit Nikki with a corkscrew Vader bomb and then went for the Texana Bomb (f.k.a. the Chingona Bomb) until Nikki countered with a hurricanrana before getting caught using the ropes for leverage while pinning her. Then, Nikki went for a snap swinging neckbreaker (which she used earlier to get the win), but Raquel countered with the Texana Bomb for the win. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Theory defeated Ricochet.

This match was made after Theory (nowadays going back to his full name Austin Theory) interrupted Seth “Freakin’” Rollins who was talking about WrestleMania. Ricochet came to the ring with the Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders. After Theory hit Ricochet with a torture rack bomb for two, he took a selfie until Ricochet rolled him up for two. Then, Ricochet hit Theory with a recoil and took a selfie while on the top rope before missing on a shooting star press attempt; this led to Theory using the ref as a shield before hitting his opponent with a throat thrust followed by the A-Town Down for the win. My score: 3/5

Main event: The Street Profits (w/ Rampage the Ram) defeated Los Lotharios.

Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins came to the ring drinking C4 Energy which sponsored the Launch Party. Also, Gabriel Iglesias joined Kayla Braxton and Corey Graves—who were also hosts of the event—on commentary. (Kayla also worked as the ring announcer for the event.) After taking down Angel at ringside, the Street Profits won after a sit out spinebuster by Dawkins followed by the From the Heavens by Ford to Humberto. Ford and Dawkins celebrated with Rampage, cheerleaders from the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Los Angeles drumline afterwards. My score: 3.5/5

ICW Fight Club

Now that getting belated recaps is out of the way, let’s head to the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland in the United Kingdom for an episode of ICW Fight Club.

Yes, it is confirmed that ICW Whit’s Occurrin’ WILL be shown next week on Peacock (or WWE Network for those of you that live outside the United States). As noted in the last issue, it took place on the same night as Clash At the Castle in the same city—Cardiff, Wales—where the WWE premium live event occurred.

Besides Kez Evans defending the ICW World Heavyweight Championship against Grado and the Kings of the North defending the ICW Tag Team Championship against Lou King Sharp & Krieger in a street fight, but we will also see Moxie Malone fight Molly Spartan for the ICW Women’s Championship.

Putting next week aside, we learned on this week’s episode of ICW Fight Club that Charles Vyce and Ian Skinner parted ways with Thatcher Wright, and are no longer part of Thatcher’s Cabinet. We then saw Wright in Glasgow asking people to join him, but he ended up getting berated by those that he asked; this included those that aren’t fans of Margaret Thatcher whom Wright praises as we’ve seen ever since his character was born last year in ICW. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I can picture Wright bringing in Progress wrestler Spike Trivet since the “sovereign lord” also gets the “[f-bomb] the Tories” chant from the fans just like Wright and his then-members—Vyce and Skinner—of the Cabinet.

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Four matches took place this week on Fight Club, and my favorite out of the four would have to go to the main event between Craig Anthony and Leyton Buzzard. In this match, not only did we see Buzzard proving himself ever since winning the Square Go! briefcase just like he did in other matches such as the Super Smokin’ Thunderdome at Barred II and fighting BT Gunn in a King of Insanity match recently at Shug’s Hoose Party 7, but also Anthony—despite being out of action for over a year—showing no signs of the metaphoric ring rust. It was a great back and forth bout even with an ending that somehow surprised Buzzard more than it surprised his opponent (even though Anthony was recovering per se). Other than that, it was still a great match from start to finish.

Here are the match results from Glasgow…

Match #1: Moxie Malone defeated Angel Hayze.

Moxie attacked Angel at ringside before the match started until the two fought into the ring. After Moxie rolled to the ropes quickly while Angel had her in a guillotine, Angel took a page out of Chris Ridgeway’s playbook by hitting her with a running punt for two until Moxie hit her with a snap swinging neckbreaker for two; Moxie then got frustrated, grabbed a steel chair from under the ring, and hit Angel in the ribs with it until Angel fought back and took the chair. Suddenly, a distorted video appeared on the screen, and it appeared to have ADM sending a message; Angel saw the video until Moxie made her submit to a sleeper/bodyscissors combo. Post-match, Moxie—in a backstage interview by Cal Wolfe (hopefully I spelled her name right; if not, then I apologize) who debuted on Fight Club last week—announced that she was going after Molly Spartan for the ICW Women’s Championship at Whit’s Occurrin’. My score: 3.75/5

Match #2: Mikey Divine vs. Rabu Romero ended in a no contest in two and a half minutes.

This match was made by “Jackie Polo” and Denise with the winner becoming the “Polo Promotions” graduate. (There have been “Polo Promotions” segments for a few weeks on ICW Fight Club, and started off with four people that not only included Divine and Romero—who both compete as Casino Brutale by the way—but also a male wrestler named Jamie and a woman whose name I forgot unfortunately. Jamie was the first to be eliminated despite acing a written test, and the female participant was the next to be eliminated.) K.O.E. ran in and attacked both Divine and Romero, and the referee threw the match out (instead of calling a double disqualification for some reason). Post-match, Adam and Marcus King demanded a spot in “Polo Promotions”, and “Polo” told them “Show me more!”; K.O.E. did so by beating down Casino Brutale some more, and Denise welcomed them to “Polo Promotions.” No score.

Match #3: Sheikh El Sham defeated Theo Doros.

Before the match started, Doros threw a fit after Simon Cassidy announced that he was the “self-proclaimed ICW Zero G championship contender”; then, as soon as the bell rang, Doros threw a fit after the fans poked fun of his mother as if Saqib Ali and Chris Toal were in the audience. Near the end, Doros went for the Fall From Olympus elbow drop until El Sham hit him with a Frankensteiner for two; Doros exposed a middle turnbuckle, and then sent him into the steel and then DDT’d him for two until El Sham won with a spear. After the match, El Sham looked confused after seeing fans cheering for him, but then—probably turning babyface—decided to celebrate with them before leaving. My score: 3.75/5

Main event: Craig Anthony defeated Leyton Buzzard.

Buzzard worked on Anthony’s left arm and then, after Anthony missed a moonsault and hit the guardrail earlier, his lower back. Anthony attempted to send a message to Kez Evans by hitting Buzzard with the Kez Dispenser until Buzzard countered with a sharpshooter before “The Natural” punched out of it. Then, towards the end, Buzzard hit Anthony with a Death Valley driver for two, and then went for the Buzzkiller until the two exchanged rollups. Anthony then hit Buzzard with a gourdbuster-like Pedigree for two, and then took off his arm pad and went for a discus forearm until Buzzard hit him with a super kick. Suddenly, Evans came into the ring and waited for Anthony to get up while equipped with brass knuckles until Buzzard stopped him and hit the champion with the Buzzkiller; this led to Anthony recovering and defeating his distracted opponent with the discus forearm. My score: 4.25/5

NXT

Now, we head to Orlando, Florida in the United States for an episode of NXT.

This episode marked the one-year anniversary of NXT’s “2.0” era (or “multicolored” era as I often call it). Not only did we get to see highlights from last year to last week’s episode, but also what all “2.0” competitors (including those that have very little to no “black and gold” in their veins) in store that night.

When I first saw NXT’s “2.0” era begin last year, I thought it was a breath of fresh air; it was as if, regardless of what was different about it besides the logo and arena changes, I traveled back to 2012 when NXT turned from a competition show to a brand. It was indeed nice to be introduced to many then-new names not just on NXT, but also on 205 Live and—nowadays—NXT: LVL UP; it was also good to see them clash with the “black and gold” originals prior to either heading to the main roster or another company such as AEW and Impact.

In the last issue, I said that I voted for a steel cage match (that kicked off this week’s episode), Wes Lee to fight for the NXT North American Championship, and Bron Breakker as the best superstar of the “2.0” era. Believe it or not, all three of my predictions came true that night, even though Lee was unable to compete as you’ll see in the results shortly (and was replaced by someone whom I thought was going to stay on SmackDown after seeing him at Clash At the Castle).

Interestingly, as the show came to a close, there was a video package narrated by Shawn Michaels who thanked us for watching NXT including their “2.0” era and then said the well-known catchphrase—especially for this brand—“We Are NXT.” The NXT 2.0 logo was then shown…before “2.0” faded away as the logo changed from multicolored to black and gold! Does this mean a possible change, as well as revival, for that brand? Am I wrapping up my time as calling NXT the “multicolored” brand?

Okay, now that I’m done asking multiple questions as if Ask.com went back to being “Ask Jeeves”, let’s take a look at the matches that took place. Before I get to that, I thought that Sol Ruca was debuting on NXT this week, but it turns out that she’s coming to NXT at a later date; my apologies for the mistake I made.

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Seven matches took place, and four of them were—like most matches throughout the multicolored era—short lived. Three matches were longer as well as enjoyable in my opinion. Out of the three matches that I enjoyed, my favorite would have to go to the opening match that took place inside a steel cage…and no, it has nothing to do with me voting for it. Me being self-centered aside, the steel cage opener was Pretty Deadly defending the NXT Tag Team Championship against the Creed Brothers. It was a great hard-hitting battle, showcasing what both teams had in store as well as how they were able to metaphorically cut the ring in half, “divide and conquer” tactics (including using the mesh as a weapon) and all. Plus, I kind of figured that what happened at Worlds Collide would come into play near the end, but other than that, it was still a great way to kick off this week’s episode.

Here are the NXT results from Orlando…

Match #1: Pretty Deadly defeated the Creed Brothers in a steel cage match to retain the NXT Tag Team Championship.

After Elton Prince and Kit Wilson hit Julius with a superplex from the top of the cage, they attempted to hit Brutus with the same maneuver on the top rope until the Creed Brothers turned it into a Doomsday Device with the Brutus Ball (diving cannonball) on the way down. Suddenly, Damon Kemp climbed up the cage and Julius fought him off before it was revealed that he was handcuffed to the top of the cage. While Julius struggled to free himself, Pretty Deadly hit Brutus with Spilled Milk for a near fall, until the handcuffed Julius held onto Wilson while Brutus had Prince in an ankle lock before Wilson freed himself and broke the hold. Then, Pretty Deadly hit Brutus with the second Spilled Milk for the win. My score: 4/5

Match #2: Fallon Henley (w/ Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen & Mason “The Night Howler” Ramirez) defeated Lash Legend in two minutes.

Ramirez is a patient supported by Connor’s Cure. Fallon won after hitting Lash with a springboard bulldog (ala Trish Stratus) followed by a shining wizard. My score: 1/5

Match #3: “The Super Diva” Quincy Elliott defeated Sean Gallagher in a minute and a half.

Elliott’s entrance saw him sitting on a slowly rotating director’s chair before heading to the ring; he also wore gear that paid homage to King Mabel. Elliott won after hitting Gallagher with a Banzai drop (ala Rikishi). No score.

Match #4: Cameron Grimes & Joe Gacy (w/ the Dyad) defeated Stacks & Tony D’Angelo.

This match was originally Grimes taking on Stacks and D’Angelo by himself; it was made because Grimes refused to get help from the Schism and the D’Angelo Family, and that he decided not to have a tag team partner for this bout. The Schism came to the ring with Gacy becoming his tag team partner during the match; Grimes refused to tag him in until Gacy did so later on. After Grimes and Gacy argued towards the end, D’Angelo and Stacks went after the two until they fought back; it ended with Gacy hitting Stacks with a handspring clothesline. After the match, Grimes read Gacy the riot act until the Dyad beat him down before Gacy hit him with the handspring clothesline. My score: 0.5/5

Match #5: Nikkita Lyons & Zoey Stark defeated Arianna Grace & Kiana James.

After Zoey hit Arianna with her flipping GTS (now known as the Z360), Nikkita hit her with a jumping heel kick followed by a leg split leg drop for the win. My score: 3.5/5

Match #6: Hank Walker defeated Javier Bernal in three minutes.

This match was made after Bernal poked fun of Walker for being a security guard. Walker came into the ring without a theme song, and looked as if he had butterflies in his stomach. He won after splashing Bernal in a corner followed by a running crossbody. The current NXT theme song (“Down South” by Wale featuring Yella Beezy and Maxo Kream) played after Walker won. My score: 1.5/5

Main event: Solo Sikoa defeated Carmelo Hayes (w/ Trick Williams) to become the new NXT North American Champion.

Hayes and Williams attacked their elected opponent Wes Lee backstage, and then said that Lee wouldn’t make it to the ring because he “can’t handle being the A-champion”. Then, Sikoa came into the ring and reminded Hayes “I got next.” Sikoa’s left knee was worked on, after Williams slammed it on the apron, during the match. Near the end, Sikoa knocked Williams off the apron and then countered Hayes’ springboard maneuver with a spinning uranage before winning with a top rope splash. My score: 3/5

NXT: LVL UP

Staying in Orlando, we wrap things up with NXT: LVL UP.

This episode wasn’t really one of my favorites, mainly because I wanted to see more from all of the wrestlers that were in action this week regardless of how long or short their matches usually are on NXT: LVL UP. I did however pick “the best of the worst” which were the opener and closer, both involving the current and future members of NXT’s women’s roster; the opener was between Tatum Paxley & Ivy Nile and Sloane Jacobs & Erica Yan, and the closer was between Amari Miller and Indi Hartwell.

Here are the NXT: LVL UP results from Orlando…

Match #1: Tatum Paxley & Ivy Nile defeated Sloane Jacobs & Erica Yan.

Tatum wore a face protector because of an injury she sustained at an NXT house show (and not due to a training injury like Nigel McGuinness said on commentary); her face was still worked on however. The team of Tatum and Ivy won after an assisted top rope cross-armed splash onto Sloane. My score: 1.5/5

Match #2: Duke Hudson defeated Bronco Nima (w/ Lucien Price) with a running boot.

My score: 0.5/5

Main event: Indi Hartwell defeated Amari Miller.

Amari went for a roundhouse kick, but Indi caught her and hit her with a spinebuster for the win. My score: 1.5/5

Next time…

Along with two shows that have “NXT” in their names, I’m looking back at ICW Whit’s Occurrin’. Will there be a belated recap or two as well? Probably.

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Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment! I’ll see you next time!

(Photos shown in the newsletter are from WWE, ICW and wXw.)