Westside Xtreme Wrestling
Turbinenhalle (Oberhausen, Germany)
wXW Heavyweight Championship
I watched this match twice because I really did not know what to think of it the first time.
First time through, I really dug the opening 5 minutes of mat work and got all giddy hoping the match would build off of the early groundwork and turn into something great. The transition from holds to the true body of the match was accomplished via what I thought (and still think) was sort of a neat, if not perfectly-executed sequence. End and Sabre Jr. traded forearms and kicks at ringside before the ref told them to get in the ring. They moved to the apron, where they again traded strikes. The ref again admonished them, so they got in the ring where they continued going at it. It was played for half-comedy and half ramping up the action from holds into something more heated.
From that point on – as the match moved into near falls – it was not as good as the first few minutes, but at just about 10 minutes total match time, it never really felt apart either. I watched it again later hoping I would enjoy it more the second time, but got less out of it the second go-around. Sabre Jr.’s weak strikes (forearms and uppercuts) stuck out to me more, especially in relation to how stiff he worked in the opener. The opening mat work did less for me the second time around as well, perhaps because this time I could no longer hang my hope on the match blossoming into something even better in the second half.
These two had a fine match in the finals of the 2013 16 Carrot Gold Tournament last March would I would seek out well before this one where something – like most of the matches from this card – was just a tad off.
Nondescript Singles | Skippable | Title Match
