wXw 16 Carat Gold N3 (3.10.24)  

 

March 10, 2024 

 

We’re in Oberhausen for the last time in a while. This year’s 16 Carat Gold tournament hasn’t quite landed how I was hoping it would. The field looked stronger than the matches it has generated. Despite this, I’ve enjoyed dipping my toes back into the wXw waters and they remain the one promotion I would consider returning to for a weekender. Unlike BritWres, they seem to have standards about who they’re willing to work with. Tommy reads out the participants in the tournament and everyone bar Peter Tihanyi gets booed. That should tell you who the crowd wants to win.  

 

16 Carat Gold SF 

One Called Manders vs. Laurance Roman 

Manders picks this match to get playful, which makes no sense to me. Surely as the tournament progresses you want to get more serious? That said, he spends most of the match manhandling the smaller Roman. They do hit each other hard, and I love Manders’ shoulderblock that sends Roman to the floor. There are quite a few thigh slaps but nothing incredibly offensive. Manders ups his game with a moonsault but it misses. There’s a nice story there about having to go one step higher later in the tournament versus the risk of doing so. Manders, when he’s successful here, is when he sticks to hitting hard. Roman hits his secondary finisher thing to again advance. I don’t like that move, at all. The finish coming out of nowhere was typically Roman but that’s not a good thing. It didn’t make sense. Manders fought a way better match here. Way better. **¾ 

 

16 Carat Gold SF 

Aigle Blanc vs. Peter Tihanyi 

The booking here is very odd, creating a babyface semi final. However, it does make the outcome more unpredictable. The crowd gets a duelling chants going and it’s Rainer Ringer vs. Tihanyi. Aigle Blanc looks unimpressed. These guys are highly compatible. They’re both quick and capable of doing exciting parity stuff.  

They do a good job of flipping about but also laying in hard strikes in between. It’s a prime example of guys playing to their strengths. They have the odd miscommunication, but they stand out because everything else is so smooth and well executed. There is thigh slapping but its less prominent than in the worst examples this weekend.  

 

They go big towards the end and the DDT on the apron that Tihanyi takes is downright sick. Aigle Blanc smartly goes after the back, which Tihanyi has been nursing all tournament. Blanc misses the 450 though and Tihanyi hits his own 450 to go to the final. ***½. A nicely put together match, showcasing both men’s strengths. An ideal match for Tihanyi after his disappointments earlier in the tournament.  

 

KXS (Axel Tischer & Fast Time Moodo) vs. Oskar & Anita Vaughan  

KXS was formed in the gauntlet yesterday. Which makes sense, in hindsight, that they won. I didn’t like it though. This match kills the mood in the building. Tischer is significantly better than everyone else and it feels odd that he’s slumming it. Oskar continues to look like a great prospect. Not just because of his size. The match devolves into some 2 on 1 nonsense. Tags are not adhered to. For some reason, they think they can shoot for epic here. Big last gasp kickouts and such. KXS win. This was far too long and contrived. 

 

Video Control takes us backstage and we learn Maggot was jumped on his way to the hotel last night and has a shoulder injury. He blames Fohrwerk and says he’s started a war. This leads to… 

 

Promo Time: Robin Christopher Fohrwerk 

Fohrwerk’s guys have had a disastrous weekend. Basically, losing every single match. It makes him look like an idiot. He announces a new signing though and it’s Prince Ahura. He’s not been seen since losing to Maggot just after Carat last year. Ahura, as it turns out, doesn’t want to join Fohrwerk’s stable and calls him “Fohrskin” in a lovely bit of a wordplay. If Ahura & Maggot are going to returning to tag teaming, that would be a huge benefit for the tag division. Man, Fohrwerk has had an unbelievably bad weekend. It could only be worse if he shit his pants.  

 

Video Control takes us backstage again and Icarus runs down Nick Schreier and challenges him and a partner to face Amboss tonight.  

 

ECW Rules 

Masato Tanaka & Nick Schreier vs. Amboss (Robert Dreissker & Icarus) 

Yes, when I think “ECW” I too think of Nick Schreier.  

Dreissker being so dismissive of Schreier is funny. As is Icarus throwing a chair in Nick’s face. Nick could easily become a cult figure as a screaming underdog akin to Mikey Whipwreck. Dreissker, the big meanie, powerslams 52 year old Masato Tanaka through a table off the ropes. Schreier struggles again here, and Icarus has to stiff the fuck out of him and run around getting in position. Dreissker continues to be dismissive of Nick, which is great. The crossbody block is wonderful.  

 

Dreissker has to visibly stop in mid spot because Nick isn’t in position. Wrestling has a steep learning curve, and you have to get on it, or you look incompetent. Tanaka also feels the need to bark orders at Nick so he’s in place.  

Tanaka vs. Icarus is really good and they probably should have done that in the tournament. Sliding D finishes after Nick has splashed Dreissker on the table at ringside. ***. This was good in spite of the flaws. Lots of things went wrong but I like that the veterans held it together and we’re left with a fun 15 minute garbage match. It showed what Tanaka is still capable of and why I was somewhat miffed by his booking in the tournament.  

 

Lio Rush vs. Michael Oku 

Not often does Oku have a size advantage on an opponent. Rush is significantly quicker though and Oku struggles to keep up. From both a shoot and work perspective. Apart from one cool Rush bump through the ropes, the opening 10:00 is dull. Oku briefly hints at being a dick by mocking Rush’s height.  

 

Right on 10:00, Rush cranks it up with a CRAZY OUTTA CONTROL TOPE. I fucking love it. The opening 10:00 did do one thing; establish a Rush back injury, which allows Oku to go after it. The switch in gears feels like two guys having done the bare minimum of character work and then started to get their shit in. The bonus is that Lio has some cool shit.  

 

They do some smarter work with the frogsplashes. Both missing due to each other’s speed. Oku does a lot of thigh slapping but some of it is nicely concealed. The crowd pop them all, which is frustrating. They’ll never stop if you keep encouraging them! Oku’s work on Rush’s back eventually plays off as he finishes with a frogsplash to the spine. There was some intelligent psychology going on here, but the match did feel a bit disjointed. ***¼  

 

Lucha Rules 

Mike D. Vecchio, Shigehiro Irie, Hektor Invictus & Dennis Dullnig vs. YOICHI, El Hijo del Dr Wagner Jr, Galeno del Mal & Gringo Loco 

The traditional flippy bois tag has been modified this year! It’s now a Big Meaty Lads tag. One of my takeaways from this weekend is what a great character worker Dullnig is. His comedy asides and underdog mentality has been excellently executed. I never knew I wanted to see someone do Bushwackers spots with Irie but here we are. The Wagner brothers throwing Dullnig right into a mid-air powerbomb from Gringo Loco is an awesome spot. Kudos to all involved. 

 

It goes crazy enough that Mike D accidentally superkicks Irie, forgetting who was on his team. I like that. He got lost in the chaos. You cannot contain Mike D. Mike tries to do something evil to Gringo Loco but gets countered into a superbomb and that finishes. Lots of spots going on here. A fun match. ***¾.  

 

16 Carat Gold 2024 Final 

Laurance Roman vs. Peter Tihanyi  

While I’ve been critical of Roman’s run to the final, he should be a good contrast to Tihanyi’s higher risk offence. Tihanyi’s improved fluidity in the ring continues to showcase what a solid wrestler he’s become. The story of Tihanyi’s tournament has been a back injury but it’s not hampered his performance in previous matches*. In this one, they lean heavily into it. Which eliminates a lot of Tihanyi’s moveset. I generally don’t like ‘body part’ matches because the body part work feels like a section of a match, and it rarely plays into the stretch.  

 

*Especially vs. Aigle Blanc, in a match designed around parity high spots, and almost completely ignored the ‘back injury’ aspect.  

 

Tihanyi shows good fire in his comebacks and the striking replaces the flips and whatnot. Tihanyi is good enough to switch gears and show a different strength. A secondary story is Roman’s backup; Amboss. When they show up Roman tells them to fuck off. This would be ideal way to have Roman lose. He gets distracted by his own guys, blames them for the loss and we get an easy feud.  

 

Instead, they trade strikes and Roman finishes with that shitty finisher of his. It’s the least impactful finisher in wrestling, please stop doing it. This was good in places but the whole focus being the back and Roman wins by planting Tihanyi gently on his front is just bizarre. *** 

 

Roman’s win feels like a failure on so many levels. The booking was just off on it. The chances they had to correct course during the tournament were thrown away too.  

 

The 411: 

I didn’t like the tournament at all. Mistakes were made at almost every step. Roman winning feels like an upset akin to Absolute Andy’s back in 2018 and yet Andy upped his game in winning. Busting out his old finisher to take care of business. Roman just plodded through this doing the same old shit. While the tournament didn’t do a lot for me, this show was the overall best of the weekend. Tihanyi-Blanc, the ECW tag, Oku-Rush and the meaty lads tag all worked. The main event was good but not as the closing act of the biggest weekend of the year.  

 

Overall, I thought this weekender fell a bit flat. The company booked some excellent talents and didn’t fully utilise their abilities. Masato Tanaka only came into his own on N3. Galeno del Mal was underused. Mike D is clearly a star and needs to be pushed to the moon, ASAP. Michael Oku was used in the exact same manner three nights in a row. The only guy whose booking landed perfectly, for me anyway, was Peter Tihanyi. He had a theme throughout the weekend, levelled up, made the final and still lost. It gives him a reason to come back next year. He’s not the finished product and him losing the final gives him that extra added push to try and win it in 12 months. Improve in some way.  

 

European wrestling has struggled since WWE came wading in and fucked it all up just before COVID. The pandemic didn’t help, and the talent pool just isn’t as deep as it was in 2017 anymore. It’s especially telling that the women were incorporated into Carat instead of being left alone. The Eurograps women’s division is paper thin now. It’s very telling wXw binned their women’s title last year. One that should have gone as soon as Toni Storm and Killer Kelly weren’t available. Aside from Amale Winchester, it’s been slim pickings.  

 

The good news is that wXw remains its own entity, driving their own storylines and it feels different to other promotions. Even when they draft in champions from other promotions, they fit into the wXw universe in their own unique way. As a promotion it should be a lesson to any indie promotion on how to market uniqueness and build professionalism throughout. The wXw crew that worked on this weekend should be proud of what they’ve accomplished over the years. The production remains elite for the Indies, and I’ll always keep coming back because I enjoy watching the product.