Femmes Fatales 2017 Review - Toni Storm vs. Viper [Live]

On 7th October 2017, wXw held Femme Fatales 2017 at the Turbinhalle in Oberhausen, North-Rhine Westphalia. The show took the form of a seven-woman knockout tournament, featuring Wesna, Toni Storm, Melanie Gray, Viper, Jinny, Laura di Matteo and Killer Kelly with Wesna receiving a bye to the Semi-Final stage, as well as a non-tournament match between Jaxon Stone and Dirty Dragan. But was it any good live? Lets take a look! 

Femmes Fatales 2017 Round One Match: Toni Storm def. Jinny (7:05)

A decent opener, between two familiar opponents, in what turned out to be the strongest bout of the first round. Having faced off previously in WWE, PROGRESS, RevPro and Lucha Forever, it was evident that the pair were more than comfortable in the ring, stringing together a number of neat sequences, aided by clear character definition and the pairs ability to hold a crowd with their personas on both sides of the coin. The action was solid all the way through, with a couple of nice little touches, like Jinny selling the knee after connecting with a knee strike, that elevated the clash, even if there wasn't a particular standout series. The only slice of action that didn't come off quite as well as it could was Jinny's Face Lift (Middle Rope Facebuster), which ended up looking awkward from Storm to take, which in turn meant that the subsequent near fall lost a bit of the power that it might have had the move been performed perfectly. A German suplex and Strong Zero Piledriver put Storm through to a Semi-Final clash with Wesna. 

Femmes Fatales 2017 Round One Match: Viper def. Melanie Gray (4:55) 

An awful lot of sentons and not much else in all honesty, this bout was too brief to produce anything to get your teeth into. It did however look Viper look like a force to be reckoned with in the tournament, as she withstood a spear through the ropes to take a victory following a powerbomb and Michonoku Driver II.

Femmes Fatales 2017 Round One Match: Laura Di Matteo def. Killer Kelly (5:08)

This match was short and pretty uneventful, despite a cool intensity about both performers. I think, the bouts main problem was that neither performer felt differentiated enough from the other, at least from this reviewers vantage points. They both did a lot of MMA style strikes and general jostling, but not a whole lot anything else, with Kelly hitting a German suplex and a missile dropkick from Laura Di Matteo being the only things that I actually noted about the fight. The bouts pacing made it feel like it was going a lot longer than the previous two matches, as the first five minutes was a mash slow strikes, only for the final few seconds to head into a submission victory for LDM, that I actually think I ended up missing, because I was expecting at least another five minutes based on how the ladies had paced the earlier five. 

Femmes Fatales 2017 Semi-Final Match: Viper def. Laura Di Matteo (5:15) 

The best match on the show not involving Toni Storm, thanks to a simple story being well-performed. It was hardly a creative classic, but Viper vs. Laura Di Matteo took the Mae Young Classic formula and stuck to it as the power vs. speed narrative came to the forefront once again. Viper dominated LDM throughout, with the smaller competitor unable to knock down the Scot for a good portion. The best work of the bout was based around LDM going for a tornado DDT, with Viper initially able to counter the move into a Northern lights suplex, but moments later after Viper missed a diving senton, a missile dropkick gave the PROGRESS grappler the opportunity to nail the move for a good near fall. This only ended up making Viper like even more of a favourite to walk the tournament as she earned the victory with another Michonoku Driver II to book her place in the final.

Femmes Fatales 2017 Semi-Final Match: Toni Storm def. Wesna (8:10)

A wild brawl, that grabbed the audience from the get go and came out as the match of the show on the otherside. Big chops and a Toni Storm suicide dive began things as the pair meant to go on, as the 2 time GSW Ladies Champion combined with the current World of Stardom Champion. The melee on the outside was completely different to anything else of the show, with a visceral edge that was hard to look away from as the two went at it on the rows of chairs, ending with a painful looking suplex from Storm onto the hard plastic and metal. The action in the ring was just as good, if not better, with a ferocity behind every move, as Storm attempted multiple times to the Strong Zero piledriver that had seen her advance from Round One. Both got a couple of neat near falls in, with the best coming with Wesna catching Storm on the top rope and nailing a death valley driver, before a well-worked finishing sequence had Wesna initially escape a Strong Zero and get a two count off a sunset flip, only for a Storm headbutt and a snap Strong Zero to see the Aussie through to the final. 

Before the final, Jaxon Stone was out and cut an Anti-Women's wrestling promo, before being interrupted by Dirty Dragan, who wanted to fight Stone for the honour of Women's wrestling...it was better than it sounds.

Dirty Dragan def. Jaxon Stone (7:37) 

I can see some people really, really not liking this match, partly for being a male match on a female show, partly for being a comedy match and partly because those people are a little bit dull. However, I got a kick out of this as Dirty Dragan and Jaxon Stone wrestled a stereotypical piss-break women's match that wouldn't have been out of place on any WWE PPV in the naughties. Spanking, tripping, ass, more ass, the handstand rana thing in the corner, rolling with the ref, bronco busters and pillows all ended up happening in what was a pretty fun, heavily stylised piece of meta-theatre. The finish featured perhaps the best piece of no-selling in wrestling history with Dragan popping straight back up from a DDT onto a pillow. My main criticism would be that it slightly outstayed its welcome, being the second longest bout on the show to that point (with the previous segment the two probably got more time than anything else on the card).  

Femmes Fatales 2017 Final Match: Toni Storm def. Viper (7:46) 

A paint-by-numbers final, that used what had gone before well to create drama, but could have done with another five minutes to tell the story effectively and arguably even longer to have felt like an important tournament final. The match moved logically from one sequence to the next, with the pair working very well together in a crisp and impactful encounter, that bordered on the clinical at times. It was clear that the two were familiar from their clashes in WWE, Stardom, PCW, HOPE and Lucha Forever, with a real syncopated feel, not quite going through the motions, that would be unfair to say, but there was certainly sense that the two had done this match or a variation of it before. Both would get nearfalls of the moves that had won two matches previously, with Viper kicking out of Strong Zero and Storm surviving a Michonoku Driver II, playing well of the tournament setting and the work that had gone in on the rest of the show. Storm's victory came after a flurry of offence out of a fiery back and forth exchange, as ripcord spin kick and diving headbutt were enough to lead to a repeat result of the Mae Young Classic Quarter Final. This was a better match than I've conveyed in the preceding paragraph, I simply wanted more from it.

Toni Storm winning this tournament was a fitting result as she was the real standout of the tournament, opening it with energy against Jinny, having the match of the show against Wesna and closing with another chapter of her rivalry with Viper in the final. The 21 year old Aussie is on fire right now, not just in her technical ring work, but also growing in ability to control a crowd with her persona. Not many could come out three times on the same show and own the space as much as Storm did here. The tournament as whole wasn't a must-watch show, the majority of the wrestling was decent, with a few examples on either side of that. I would be interested to see how the women involved in this tournament, especially the likes of Storm, Viper, Wesna and Jinny would have performed had they been given just a little more time to tell their stories and to weave deeper narratives into their bouts and the tournament as a whole. In-Ring the show went less than an hour, which is not enough time for a six match tournament and a non-tournament bout to fully develop, in my opinion.

Review by James Marston

World Tag Team League 2017 Night One Review - Ringkampf vs. The Briscoe Brothers [Live]

On 6th October 2017, wXw kicked off the three night World Tag Team League tournament at the Turbinhalle in Oberhausen, North-Rhine Westphalia. The tournament took the form of two four team round robin groups, with the winners of each group qualifying for the final. The first round of group match included Ringkampf (WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) taking on The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) in Group B and A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani) battling Massive Product (Jurn Simmons & David Starr) in Group A, as well as matches featuring the likes of The Rottweilers (Homicide & Low Ki), The Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey), Da Mack, Tag Team Champions The Young Lions (Lucky Kid & Tarkan Aslan) and Shotgun Champion Ivan Kiev. But was it any good live? Let's take a look! 

All pictures are courtesy of wXw. 

Warm Up 

No idea what was going here, as it was presented all in German and I don't speak German, but what do you expect when you're in Germany. It looked like it was basically a WWE Kick Off show type deal, but also with this weird thing where fans got in the ring for a duel of who could touch a turnbuckle first. There was also a match. 

Jaxon Stone def. Jay Skillett (5:18)

A fun dark match, that gave Jaxon Stone his first singles victory in wXw. It was fairly simple stuff, with a clear heel and babyface dynamic and straightforward storytelling like Stone escaping a DDT, only for Skillet to nail the move a few moments later. Highlights included a tasty looking Michinoku driver from the Jay-FK member and a slick finishing sequence with that saw Skillet escape a Stones Clash (I want to describe the move as a package Styles Clash, because I'm not competent enough to describe it any other way) into a jacknife cover, with Stone escaping at two, straight into a backslide and then nailing the Stones Clash for the win. As would become the theme for the weekend, in it's spot on the live show, it was exactly what it needed to be.

WTTL Group B: EYFBO (Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik) def. The Rottweilers (Homocide & Low Ki) (11:21) 

A good opener, that whilst not always being as crisp as it could have been, was full of ideas and energy. Some of the sloppiness seemed to come from a general unfamiliarity in the first two on two bout between the two sides, as well the fact that Ki and Homicide have only tagged up four times in the last two years, whilst EYFBO also seemed to be a step or so ahead of their more tenured opponents. The crowd were hot for Low Ki with this playing well into a hot tag sequence, after EYFBO controlled Homicide for a short sequence, whilst Ki also had arguably the slickest stretch of the bout in an opening exchange with Angel Ortiz. The bout kept a strong pace in it's final exchanges, with a breakdown sequence seeing Homicide nail an Ace Crusher on Ortiz and Ki hitting the Tidal Wave (springboard roundhouse), but the closing exchange ended up coming off as a bit scrappy as it seemed to take a little too long to get from an attempted 5150 (Electric Chair and cutter combo) from the Rottweilers to the match-winning Street Sweeper (Powerbomb and diving somersault neckbreaker combination) from Ortiz and Draztik. Overall, thi

WTTL Group A: World Tag Team Champions The Young Lions (Lucky Kid & Tarkan Aslan) def. The Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey) (11:09)

Umm...yeah... The Spirit Squad. Kenny [Kenny Dykstra] and Mikey [Mike Mondo]'s first appearance in wXw was not a good match and would probably be the worst match in the whole tournament, for a number of reasons. To be fair, there were points in the match where the Spirit Squad did manage to at least galvanise a small amount of fan support from the Turbinhalle, their schtick, like Mikey doing the YMCA, was often cringe worthy and their rudimentary offence made it hard to get behind them as a babyface team, especially when the team began the match by arguing with a small group of fans chanting "Who are you?". Mikey's hot tag was probably the best action of the match, but it didn't last long with the Young Lions able to block double mounted punches, sending Kenny to the outside and picking up the victory with a double stomp and backbreaker combination. 

Julian Nero def. Da Mack (5:07)

This ended up being a real nothing match for me, cutting short before it ever got out of second gear. I wasn't familiar with the feud between the pair heading in, but the pre-match video, as well as how the two fought made it clear that there was a personal issue between the pair. This gave the contest some real energy in the opening exchanges with Da Mack hitting a big jumping knee strike that drove the early part of the contest forward. From about three minutes in though, with Julian Nero in control, I felt like it lost a little bit of that intensity that had initially grabbed me and I found myself drifting away from the action in the ring. Perhaps, this was down to my lack of investment in the story, but there just seemed to be something missing, which wasn't helped by the finish seemingly coming out of nowhere. Mack missed a somersault senton, Nero hit a forward fireman's carry slam, before a mid-rope knee drop resulted in the three count. It appeared like Mack had kicked out way before three, but the result stood leaving a very flat ending that seemed to confuse most fans and left me wondering what the hell had gone on. 

I don't know if it's a thing but A4 did a video dressed as Batman and Robin, which was glorious, but also confusing, but also magnificent. It was a lot of things, ok? 

WTTL Group A: Massive Product (Jurn Simmons & David Starr) def. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani) (19:29)

This belting tag match pretty much saved the first half, as A4 and Massive Product put on a real show, packed with all the good stuff that makes me a fan of professional wrestling. Two babyface teams can sometimes end up falling flat with an audience unable to decide who to get behind, but Oberhausen had no such problem here with both teams getting strong reactions throughout, producing the best atmosphere of the night so far. The earlier part of the contest saw number of good exchanges as the two teams settled the crowd in and built for the rest of the bout. The similar dynamics of the teams presented a good variety of in-ring options with the explosive power of Jurn Simmons and Absolute Andy's opening shoulder block exchange, contrasting with the super smooth exchange that followed between David Starr and Marius Al-Ani. The contest had substance and impact all the way through, flowing well from one section to the next with the foursome rarely missing a beat in what acted as a great introduction to both sides.

The turning point of the bout saw Starr take an Fireman's carry facebuster on the outside from Andy, resulting in The Product's knee smashing off the ring post. Starr sold the injury for all it was worth, basically fighting on one leg for the rest of the match and making sure that the injury was never far from the audience's mind. I am essentially in love with David Starr at this point. The injury played nicely into a wonderfully tense submission sequence that saw Starr end up trapped in an Andy sharpshooter after a lovely piece of action lead into a fiery hot tag. The closing moments seemed to leave the knee injury thread hanging a little as the pace quickened and all four men got involved in a thrilling final five minutes, with big moves coming thick and fast. The momentum swung back and forth with A4 hitting an aided leapfrog body guillotine on Simmons, before Al-Ani hit a massive dive over the ringpost, but it was a slick and impactful sequence that saw Massive Product take the three points, with Andy taking a DDT onto the apron from Starr, before Al-Ani succumbed to a spike piledriver, with Starr making doubly sure of the victory with a suicide dive to keep Andy from breaking up the fall. I would've liked to have seen Starr's leg injury play a little more involvement in the final stretch, but the King of Taunts post-match selling was sublime and pretty much made up for that.

Shotgun Championship: Avalanche [Robert Dreissker] def. Ivan Kiev (C) via Disqualification (9:21) 

A pretty typical heavyweight vs. junior type contest, that featured some nice action, without capturing the imagination. With Avalanche having not quite turned babyface and it being the first match back from the interval, the bout seemed to have trouble grabbing the audience, especially early on. The middle portion ended up coming across as a little sloppy with an awful looking hurricanrana from Kiev, where he seemed to completely miss the move only for Avalanche to sell it anyway standing out in particular. The dynamic perhaps didn't produce the best display of either talent, but there was still some good wrestling here, particularly towards the end of the bout. Once Kiev's fellow RISE member Pete Bouncer arrived at ringside, the shift in the matches composition created a number of stellar near falls for both men, including a cute roll-up from Kiev after Bouncer saved him from a cannonball and Avalanche coming close after a frenetic section that saw him fight off both men and nail a double cannonball. Avalanche would win via DQ shortly after, when Bouncer broke up a pinfall from a blue thunder bomb. 

Whilst the match didn't exactly set the world alight, the post-match segment was absolute fire, after Avalanche had managed hold his own against Kiev, Bouncer and the Young Lions, Unified World Wrestling Champion John Klinger [Bad Bones] joined the rest of RISE in beating down the former World Tag Team Champion. After Julian Nero had failed to help his former Cerberus stablemate, Ilja Dragunov ran in to a massive reaction, eventually cleaning house after a great sequence of action with Klinger, setting the stage for the Unified World Wrestling Championship match the following night, with further seeds planted for a Cerberus reunion. 

WTTL Group B: Ringkampf (WALTER [Big Van Walter] & Timothy Thatcher) def. The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (20:27)

What a main event. Two of the best tag teams in the world right now going back and forth like mad, throwing the kitchen sink at each other and just generally being a bit bloody brilliant at what they do for over twenty minutes, what's not to like? One of the things that stood was that the Briscoes signature offence was mostly kept to a minimum, especially in the early goings with a general feeling that the contest would be going long and that the brother weren't comfortable in resting on a recognisable move-set or in using spots that have become cliche for the team. In fact, the match was low in highspots in general, but made the most of them when they came along, using stellar tag team psychology, pacing and a palpable intensity to hold the crowd with the four seemingly knowing exactly the right points to hold back and when to turn up the fire. Don't worry though, the bout still had plenty of "moments" like Jay's mental suicide dive, followed up by a Asai moonsault from Mark, so if that's more your bag this bout is still worth checking out.

The takeaway from the match for me was the epic strike battles involving all four men, but particularly between Mark Briscoe and WALTER. Their intense chop battle in the second third of the fight, built well to a massive slap from Mark that got a big reaction before a double spinning back elbow cut off any potential return from WALTER. The interplay between all four was slick as slick can be, moving from hot tag sequences to a nice nearfall off Redneck Boogie (Crucifix Powerbomb/Neckbreaker combination) and then the final stages of the bout with Mark saving Jay from a Thatcher armbar with a Froggbow, only for Ringkampf to lock in a pair of rear naked chokes and see the match out. This bout was maybe a notch or two above the Massive Product vs. A4 for match, this was the match of the night and there is a real argument to be made that is one of the best two v two efforts from The Briscoe Brothers in the last five years.
 

An interesting opening night for the World Tag League, being far from a home run, but setting the stage for the next two nights fairly well. The finest action could be seen within the tournament itself with Ringkampf vs. The Briscoe Brothers and A4 vs. Massive Product both providing great quality action which are worth sourcing on wXwNow on their own, whilst only the Spirit Squad vs. The Young Lions match came out below par. Outside of the tournament, the action wasn't as strong, with both matches being used to further other storylines. I think the thing I took away most from the show was how well the card was laid out and whilst every bout didn't perhaps perform as well as it could, it was clear to see why the bout was chosen to go on at a given point, with a stellar structure and feeling of organisition throughout the whole show.

Review by James Marston

Inner Circle 4 Review - David Starr vs. Homicide [Live]

On 5th October 2017, Westside Xtreme Wrestling held Inner Circle 4 at the wXw Wrestling Academy in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The show featured Homicide taking on David Starr as well as Timothy Thatcher, WALTER, Kim Ray, Jurn Simmons and JAY-FK in action. But was my first wXw show any good? Let's take a look!

Alexander James def. Julian Pace (9:05)

A strong opener here, with both men impressing as I caught their work for the first time. The bout was well paced, using it's time well with the roles being strongly defined, helped a long by a crowd that was eager to start it's graps weekender. After some hard chops, the bout quickly moved towards it's main narrative thread with James hitting an arm wringer across the top rope and beginning to work the arm viciously, managing to get a decent amount of heat in the intimate Academy venue. The arm attacks were varied and kept the match interesting when the paced dipped, whilst an early attempt for a grounded top wrist lock (think Zack Gibson's Shankly Gates) introduced the move that would eventually gain the victory for James. Pace is someone who would seem to have an extremely bright future based on this outing, with his selling being particularly impressive, alongside the speed and smoothness of his comeback, as he swung in and out of the ring before hitting a sweet jumping neckbreaker. There was perhaps more work that could have been done on the arm to lift the bout further, with their being potential to work it into near falls and add a little bit more drama, but within the context of an opening match it was pretty much spot on content and time wise. 

Kim Ray def. Rafa (5:20) 

A decent bout that once again was between two wrestlers that I was unfamiliar with. This was probably the weakest match of the show, but that says more about how strong the show was than the quality of the match. Whilst it was brief and featured mostly low-key action, everything was done crisply and never wandered into sloppy territory. The strongest section of the contest for me was a sequence that saw Rafa initially escape a suplex attempt, before eventually nailing a double stomp following a double leg takedown after some high tempo back and forth. Overall, the match was fine, but within the context of the show it struggled to stand out or produce anything particularly memorable. 

Timothy Thatcher def. WALTER in an Ambition Rules Match (9:15) 

What an absolute treat of a match as the Ringkampf boys went one on one in a hard-hitting, grapple fest under Ambition rules. If you're unfamiliar with Ambition Rules, it's essentially shoot style, with immediate ropebreaks and victory only decided by submission, KO or TKO. This produces a very different style of professional wrestling match, that perhaps is perfectly suited for a smaller venue like the Academy with the fans close to the ring. The match was all big powerful strikes, technical hold exchanges and crisp, substantial power moves. The power moves were in some ways enhanced by the rules, contrasting with the technicality and submission holds, with a great fast-paced sequence that concluded with a immense powerbomb from WALTER being the standout moment of the bout. The conclusion felt very much of this style with WALTER laying in some thunderous and quick slaps, only for Thatcher to catch one and swiftly transition into a Fujiwara armbar, locking the move in and getting the submission victory almost straight away. I would've liked to have seen this go a little bit longer as I was really getting into he style of the bout, but with the two having the World Tag Team League shows coming up it made perfect sense to keep thing relatively short and the immediate tap out adds to that idea within kayfabe as well. 

EYFBO (Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik) def. JAY-FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) (12:11) 

The first half main event gave us a look at one of the entrants in WTTL, EYFBO's Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik (who you may know for being Ortiz & Santana in LAX on Impact Wrestling) in their first European match with the two proving instant hits with the Academy. Whilst the plentiful EYFBO chants created a buoyant atmosphere, it was the wrestling that satisfied the most as Ortiz & Draztik looked like a polished unit, with a variety of exciting double team moves and just generally looked like a team that had been tagging since 2012. The bout flowed well with both of Jay-FK working short periods as the face in peril, with elements of rookie vs. veteran narrative as the inexperienced team of Francis Kaspin and Jay Skillett looked to match the tag team savvy of the former Impact Tag Team Champions. The contest built well to it's finishing stretch with a slew of double team offence following a Skillet hot tag with a neckbreaker double stomp and springboard spike piledriver getting near falls, before a ridiculous sequence involving a mad rope hung cutter situation from EYFBO that I couldn't do justice to if I tried to explain it here. EYFBO would then pick up the victory with their Street Sweeper finish (Powerbomb and Diving somersault neckbreaker) to conclude the first half with a very good tag team contest.

Jaxon Stone went to cut a promo before the next bout, but no one was ready for this and each word of his speech was cut off by loud boos. I have no idea what he said, but it was glorious.

Jurn Simmons def. Jaxon Stone (10:24) 

Jurn Simmons is over as fuck, pals and rightly so as he showcased his palpable charisma and in-ring prowess in this fun second half opener. The match verged into comedy territory at points, bringing a nice little bit of variety to the show and producing a few chuckles as the two kicked things off with arm wrestling contest and also pulled out a cheeky bit of comedy selling. The two went mostly back and forth throughout the contest, trading big moves and near falls as the audience sang loudly for Simmons and hurled boos at Stone who lapped up the reaction. Whilst there was nothing that was overly noteworthy about the action, it was once again all performed skillfully with the nearfalls being done particularly well as Stone came close with a Death Valley Driver and a lifting DDT. Simmons picked up the win with a Massive Piledriver, building some momentum heading into World Tag Team League, where he'll tag with David Starr as Massive Product.

David Starr def. Homicide (14:06)

A stellar main event, as Homicide returned to wXw thirteen years after his only other appearance. The two began with one of the longest collar and elbow tie-ups I've ever seen, which could have been a little dull, but both bought a lovely intensity that kept it interesting with the compact venue complimenting this type of grappling. After some wild brawling on the outside and tasty suicide senton from Homicide, the contest settled into a nice rhythm with Homocide acting as the aggressor using dirty tactics, whilst the crowd got behind Starr, creating a brilliant atmosphere inside the Academy. The contest featured a number of big spots like Starr hitting a DDT onto the apron, as well a verticle suplex neckbreaker (Adam Cole's Last Shot) from Homicide, but the story of the bout came in the moves that didn't get hit. Starr repeatedly went for Product Placement (Bridging Package German Suplex) with Homicide able to escape, whilst Homicide looked for his legendary Gringo Killer (Vertebreaker) manoeuvre, creating a feeling that whoever hit their move first would take the victory. The finishing stretch saw Homocide seemingly building momentum, getting two really strong near falls, firstly with roll-up out of a physical strikes sequence before a brilliant back and forth stretch resulted an Ace Crusher getting a long two count for the Notorious 187. It was clear that only a Gringo Killer would give Homicide the victory, but his second attempt at the move was escaped by Starr, leaving the Jewish Cannon in the perfect position to hit Product Placement at the third time of asking and pick up the win in a satisfying finish that wrapped the match up in a lovely stand-alone package. 

David Starr would bring the show to a close with a lovely promo, putting over Homicide as a performer and person, mentioning he'd wanted to wrestle him for a very long time. 

For a first wXw show this was a great taster for what the promotion is all about and a good introduction a number of different talents. The Ambition rules match, EYFBO v Jay-FK and the main event battle it out for my match of the night, where I'd probably go for the tag bout if pushed. I was also impressed with Julian Pace in the opening bout, with the current wXw Academy Trophy Champion looking like he's got much more experience than he actually has and generally being a superb advert for the wXw Academy. The loud crowd and packed venue gave the show a really nice atmosphere, reminiscent of Fight Club: PRO's time at Fixxion Warehouse. This show worked as a wonderful start to the World Tag Team League weekend, that has whetted my appetite for the graps fest that is to come over the next three days.

Review by James Marston