#WrestleManiaWeek Preview – wXw: Amerika Ist Wunderbar (4/4/19)

Germany’s premier promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) is running their first ever show on WrestleMania weekend.  Though they have been hurt by the loss of Ilja Dragunov from this show, they are presenting one of the better looking show’s from this weekend as they have some of their own talent mixing it up with names US fans will know.

Yuu vs. LuFisto 

wXw has a cracker of a match on their hands here as Yuu takes on the trailblazing LuFisto.  Both of these women wrestle a similar enough style as they rely on strength and toughness to break down their opponents.  Yuu uses her background in Judo to compliment her strength making her a formidable opponent.  When she was in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW) she was the monster on the roster but has had to adjust to being a powerhouse during her time in Europe.  Ever since coming to Europe Yuu has been tested in some of the scene’s best companies like Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling, Fight Club: PRO and RevPro among others.  Her opponent today is someone that literally bleeds tough, Lufisto was a trailblazer for women’s wrestling on the independent scene and was never afraid to fight any man to prove how tough she was.  She has been a part of some crazy deathmatches during her career and was a regular in Combat Zone Wrestling for years.  A deathmatch survivor facing one of Japan’s toughest exports in this one.

Absolute Andy vs. Chris Brookes

Absolute Andy was hoping to come in to this show as wXw Unified World Champion but he lost the title to Bobby Gunns at 16 Carat Gold weekend and instead will come in with a chip on his shoulder.  The 15 year veteran finally reached the top of German wrestling when he captured the title last year, to get to the title he had to lose his tag team A4 with Marius Al-Ani and he eventually resorted to some extremely underhanded tactics to hold on to the title.  His 217 day run as wXw champion was undoubtedly the peak of his career but Andy has won many titles in Europe for various promotions such as German Wrestling Promotion, German Hurrican Wrestling, German Stampede Wrestling, and Ultimate Kombat Wrestling Alliance.  Andy’s opponent is Chris Brookes, Brookes is the biggest unsigned star in European Wrestling right now.  Brookes has managed to become a big name by heading two popular factions in CCK and Schadenfreude.  As a member of both, he’s had runs on top of FCP, ATTACK! Pro Wrestling and PROGRESS Wrestling and has become a bit of a tag team specialist as he’s held tag team championships 12 times in his career.

wXw Tag Team Championship: Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) (c) vs. The Work Horsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry)

Aussie Open are the wXw tag team champions coming into this match as one of the UK scene’s best tag teams takes on one of the best tag teams in the US scene.  Aussie Open came to the UK in 2016 and were a featured act in Lucha Forever where they got to showcase their talents against some of the UK’s best tag teams like CCK, Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate), The 198 (Wild Boar & Flash Morgan Webster) and FSU (Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis).  Their impressive displays with LF saw them make their way to PROGRESS, RevPro, OTT and the rest of the UK’s elite promotions.  It wasn’t until mid-2018 that everything clicked for Aussie Open though, a new attitude and joining Schadenfreude saw them become featured acts in companies like FCP and OTT and soon enough they were PROGRESS and RevPro tag team champions.  Coming into 2019 Aussie Open were the top unsigned team in the UK and after a 2 years of hard work reached the top of the UK scene. They face one of the top indie tag teams in the US circuit in The Work Horsemen of WWN Champion JD Drake and Full Impact Pro World Champion Anthony Henry. Outside their singles success, as a duo they’re former EVOLVE Tag Team Champions and reigning Freelance Wrestling and Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment (AEW) Tag Team Champions. This should be an excellent matchup of UK and US tag team wrestling.

Lucky Kid vs. David Starr

wXw’s newest star and 16-carat winner Lucky Kid takes on The Product David Starr.  This match could be an actual show stealer as both men are very talented in the ring.  Kid comes into this with huge momentum after becoming a made man in wXw when he won 16 Carat.  The fans have long been wanting Lucky Kid to reach the top of wXw as his character work had made him a fan favorite after years of being a tag team wrestler as a member of Young Lions.  Kid’s character is hard to describe but he’s a bit of an odd guy that plays mind games on his opponent with his weirdness.  Kid’s opponent is someone that has become a name on everyone’s lips, David Starr has been making his claim to be the best unsigned wrestler in the world recently.  Starr’s highly controversial promo ahead of his ROH title match has gotten the wrestling world’s attention but wXw fans have seen that side of Starr before.  Starr has history in wXw as he is a former 3-time Shotgun Champion and with his recent move to Europe has been showcasing his talents in Europe in places like PROGRESS, OTT, International Pro Wrestling: UK and wXw.

LAX (Santana & Ortiz) vs. The Crown (Jurn Simmons & James Alexander)

LAX took over in 2018 as they became the longest reigning Impact Tag Team Champions of all time and had big feuds in impact against the likes of the Lucha Brothers (Pentagon & Fenix) the OG LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) and Ohio Versus Everything (Jake & Dave Crist).  They also made their way to Europe for a brief tour where they had an instant classic with CCK.  LAX are a well-oiled machine and one of the best tag teams in the world, this leaves their opponents with a big mountain to climb.  The Crown will be happy to rise to the challenge as both Simmons and Alexander are experienced wrestlers and have spent the last few months teaming together.  When not in wXw James is mostly seen in CZW or NOVA Pro but has had the most success of his career in Germany.  Simmons is one of the names syonoymous with xWx, his former gimmick of having a very long entrance filled with air guitar helped him catch international eyes but he has abandoned that side of himself ever since his feud with David Starr that cost him his hair.  A former 2-time wXw Unified World Champion and an imposing big man Jurn Simmons is not a man that you want to underestimate.

Darby Allin vs Avalanche

Tag team specialist Avalanche gets a chance to prove how good he is when he faces one of the US indie scenes best talents in Darby Allin.  Avalanche is a former 3-time tag team champion in wXw and has mostly wrestled for wXw for his entire career.  Avalanche is one of the more underrated guys in European Wrestling as he is a wrestler in a similar vein to the likes of Dave Mastiff and Shigehiro Irie as he is both powerful and agile.  He will be able to put this power to use as he faces a much smaller Allin.  Allin is a daredevil through and through who takes more punishment than any human should.  He has often faced stronger guys like Avalanche and knows when to pick his spots to pull out the win.

Shotgun Championship: Marius Al-Ani (c) vs Emil Sitoci

Emil Sitoci is just 33 years old but is a 17 year veteran! the Dutch native has been wrestling all over Europe for his entire career but has always called wXw home.  He’s fighting for a title he previously held back in 2017 but has won titles all around Europe in promotions like Dragonhearts, Pro Wrestling Holland, German Stampede Wrestling and Freestyle Championship Wrestling.  Sitoci faces a man who is only now getting the recognition he deserves as Al-Ani has become a featured performer in wXw.  Al-Ani is getting the first big singles run of his career as he is in the midst of a 233 day run as Shotgun champion.  In his reign, he has beaten the likes of Jurn Simmons, Alexander Wolfe, Lucky Kid, and Bobby Gunns as he has proved his potential to be one of the top stars of German Wrestling.

wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship: Bobby Gunns (c) vs Shigehiro Irie

Irie is a DDT Pro and Big Japan Wrestling veteran and a former 3-time DDT KO-D Openweight Champion who has been on a bit of a European excursion the past few months.  Irie is called the Japanese Beast for good reason as his lariats cant take the head off of any opponent that’s on the receiving end.  He can also move with unbelievable speed as his cannonball comes flying at you from almost out of nowhere.  Irie presents a big challenge to the new champion Bobby Gunns who has finally reached the top of wXw after making people pay attention in 2018.  The King Of Smoke Style is a very charismatic performer who had a 224 day run as Shotgun champion in 2018 which saw fans start to pay attention to him.  He’s finally coming into his own 6 years into his career as it feels like he’s ready to become a superstar of European wrestling.

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