WXW weekly news report
By Markus Gronemann
Shotgun revamped: YouTube show now 45 minutes, available in German, English and Czech
Starting with episode 219 (8/5), wXw revamped Shotgun, their weekly YouTube show. From now on, episodes will now be about 45 minutes long and will be available in German, English and Czech. The German version is currently being moderated by Verena Fischer (Big Daddy Walter’s real-life girlfriend) and I guess Christian Michael Jakobi, once he returns from holiday. The English version is being moderated by Dutch wrestler Rico Bushido, while the Czech version is being moderated and translated by Michal Petrgal, who does commentary for the Czech version of WWE shows on Eurosport and is the local promoter for the company’s shows in the Czech Republic.
The shows now feature more matches, there are summaries of some of the main storylines, including clips leading up to backstage segments and there will be subtitles for the international versions. Alan Counihan provides commentary for the matches in the English version, while Michal Petrgal does commentary for the Czech version. They also announce new matches and upcoming tour dates and feature a social corner, where fans can contribute to the show via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). They developed the concept with input from Vince Russo and the first episode was pretty good and had a good mix of matches, promos, news and commercials for their upcoming events and merchandise.
The shows in German and English are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/wXwGER, the Czech version can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/prowrestlingczech
During the summer break, Shotgun also had some great free matches from the past, all featuring wrestlers who are now in WWE: Chris Hero vs. KENTA (Hideo Itami), Axel Tischer (Alexander Wolfe) vs. Eddie Edwards, PAC (Neville) vs. BxB Hulk and Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. All of those are well worth checking out!
The wXw Wrestling Academy opens as a full-time wrestling school
wXw recently announced that they will open a full-time wrestling school in Germany this fall, called the wXw Wrestling Academy. Walter Hahn (Big Daddy Walter) will be the head coach, while Kim Stübner (Kim Ray) and Tobias Schumacher (Toby Blunt) will be assistant trainers; both had also been trainers at the Westside Dojo. Another trainer is Severin Fernandez, who is a BJJ blue-belt under Milton Ferreira (Gracie Barra).
They will have their own building in Essen, Germany that will also include their offices. The major difference to their Westside Dojo training facility will be that the school will operate full-time, while the Dojo only offered training on weekends (so wrestlers had to choose whether they wanted to attend the show at the weekends or attend training). Also, the school will be open for everybody, while the Dojo featured a try-out process and only accepted those who successfully completed a try-out.
They ran a fund-raiser for the Academy on 8/8 where the wrestlers worked for free and fans could also donate money for the new operation. Long-time sponsor Moonsault.de also made a donation. The show featured all current wXw champions, Karsten Beck, Kim Ray and PROST (Mike Schwarz & Toby Blunt), all of whom are graduates of the Westside Dojo, the first time this is the case in wXw’s history. The event is already available for purchase at wXw’s VOD service on Vimeo.
wXw ceases sale of DVDs, focuses on VOD via Vimeo
In Germany, every DVD has to be rated; since wXw sold a lot of DVDs by international partners (ROH, PWG, CZW, etc.) none of them were rated in Germany, neither were wXw’s own DVDs; having them rated costs in the four-digit range for each disc, so is not feasible. They would have had to implement an 18+ section in their shop and users would have to prove their age via a method only available in post offices (called PostIdent). Also, shipping would only have been possible if they made sure only the person ordering got to accept the package. So they stopped selling DVDs in their online shop and will now focus on their VOD offerings on Vimeo and plan to launch their version of a “wXw Network” as soon as possible as Vimeo supports it or go with another partner. Their DVDs are still available internationally from Smart Mark Videos, but I don’t think they will release any DVDs from their events in the future.
The More Than Wrestling Tour (January to June, 25 shows) and the upcoming 15th Anniversary Tour (30+ events, August through December) are available for just 99 euros on VOD as well. Older tours are as cheap as 80 euros for the whole package.
wXw World Tag Team Tournament Lineup complete
The World Tag Team Tournament from 10/2 to 10/4 will feature these teams:
A Block (Friday):
Bullet Club (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) from NJPW/ROH
Young Lions (Lucky Kid & Tarkan Aslan), from GWF Berlin/Germany
Hot & Spicy (Axel Dieter Jr. & Da Mack) from wXw
Karsten Beck & Tyler Bate from wXw
Reich & Schön (Kevin Roadster & Marius van Beethoven) from wXw
Champions of Champions (Bad Bones John Klinger & Absolute Andy) from wXw
Big Daddy Walter & Zack Sabre Jr. from wXw/NOAH
French Flavour (Peter Fischer & Lucas di Leo) from wXw
B Block (Saturday):
Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End & Michael Dante) from wXw
Calamari Catch Kings (Jonathan Gresham & Chris Brookes) from CZW/UK Indies
Cerberus (Robert Dreissker & Julian Nero) from wXw
PROST (Mike Schwarz & Toby Blunt) from wXw, current tag team champs
The Schild Brothers (Bobby Gunns & Vinny the Beast) from wXw
ACH & Tommaso Ciampa from ROH
reDragon (Kyle O ‘Reilly & Bobby Fish) from ROH/NJPW
Event Notes and Matches
8/28: 15th Anniversary Tour Opening/Fan Appreciation Night Hamburg
World Title: Karsten Beck (c) vs. Bad Bones John Klinger
Tag Titles: PROST vs. Schild Brothers
Shotgun Title: Kim Ray vs. Michael Schenkenberg
Damian O’Connor vs. Ivan Kiev
Too Cool (Grandmaster Sexay & Scotty Too Hotty) vs. Reich & Schön
8/29: 15th Anniversary Tour Opening/Fan Appreciation Night Oberhausen
World Title: Karsten Beck (c) vs. AJ Styles
Damian O’Connor vs. Marius Al-Ani
On 9/4 they run at the Spirit Festival music festival for a 90 minute show
On 9/5: they run two shows in Berlin with an additional afternoon show, since the evening show already sold out
15th Anniversary Tour Hamburg, Afternoon:
Hot & Spicy vs. Young Lions
Four Way: Chris Colen vs. Pascal Spalter vs. Big Daddy Walter vs. Cash Money Erkan
15th Anniversary Tour, Evening:
No Rules: Cash Money Erkan vs. Mike Schwarz
Rambo vs. Absolute Andy
9/6: 15th Anniversary Tour Erfurt