Midlands wrestlers impress at WXW in Germany - review

After night one, it seemed certain that our Black Country representatives in Westside Extreme Weekend’s weekend of shows in Oberhausen, Germany would be afterthoughts as the 16 Carat Gold Tournament continued into its latter stages.

However, Tipton’s Chris Brookes and West Midlands’ residents Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis would rebound in astonishing fashion, to end the weekend as three of the most talked-about pro-wrestlers in WXW.

The turnaround would begin when Fletcher and Davis, better known as Aussie Open, would receive a chance to avenge their controversial lose to WXW Tag Team Champions Jay Skillet and Francis Kaspin in last October’s World Tag Team League.

This was a three-way match also involving Ivan Kiev and Pete Bouncer, and it was a fine contest with some good action, as all three teams worked hard. However it would be the end that would make it one of the memorable matches of the weekend.

Skillet sought to once again cheat Aussie Open out of the title by hitting Fletcher with the championship belt, only for Brookes to pull his friend from the ring. This would give Aussie Open the space to regroup, and pin Skillet to win the WXW World Tag Team Titles.

As the fans cheered, Brookes embraced both men in the ring, before unfurling the flag of the Schadenfreude faction that all three men belong to in Wolverhampton’s Fight Club: PRO, as their distinctive theme music was played to over 1500 fans in The Turbinenhalle. Remarkably, many people were chanting for the group before the pro-wrestlers revealed the branding, which demonstrates the global reach of the pro-wrestlers recent work in Fight Club: PRO.

Schadenfreude would have the chance to properly introduce themselves to the German fans, as they took on a Mexican pro-wrestling dream team of Pentagon Jr, Rey Fenix and Rey Horus in a six-man tag team match.

This was the co-main event of Night Three of the tournament, and was widely considered one of the best matches of the entire weekend. It was the perfect marriage of styles. Fenix, Horus and Fletcher are three of the best high-flying pro-wrestlers in the world, with all three men producing some breathtaking dives from the top-rope or to the outside.

Meanwhile Pentagon Jr and Mark Davis manage to combine power and strength with tremendous agility, laying in thunderous chops and power moves to each other, and anybody else who got in their way. And at the heart of the action, was Tipton’s Chris Brookes, who is one of the best in the world at putting together all-action tag team matches. He would ultimately get the victory, as Schadenfreude ended a wild match with each member hitting their signature move on Rey Horus, before Brookes pinned him.

Afterwards all six men would embrace in the ring to rapturous, and well-deserved, applause from the crowd. And that was not the last we saw of them on Sunday.

The one note of discord the previous night, was that Lucky Kid, somebody who joined Schadenfreude in December, was aligned in WXW with Ivan Kiev and Pete Bouncer as the group, RISE. When it seemed that Kiev and Bouncer would get into an altercation with Schadenfreude, Kid defused the situation whilst seemingly making it clear he would stay with RISE in WXW.

Lucky Kid would ultimately win the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, and afterwards as he celebrated with his RISE teammates in the ring, Schadenfreude would come onto to the stage to applaud their colleague’s victory.

With Schadenfreude having made such a strong first impression in WXW, and being heavily featured at the close of the tournament, it certainly seems like that all three men can look forward to more big matches in Germany in the months to come.

WXW 16 Carat Gold will shortly be available to watch on Video on Demand, complete with English-language commentary, on WXW NOW. For more information go to https://www.wxwnow.com/en

By Will Cooling