WXW World Tag Team Festival – Turbinenhalle – Oberhausen, Germany

Every six months, a converted factory on the outskirts of Oberhausen, Germany becomes the epicentre of British and European pro-wrestling, as Westside Xtreme Wrestling presents one of its acclaimed weekenders that bring together some of the best pro-wrestlers from all over the world, and fans from across Europe who want to watch them.

For British and Irish pro-wrestling fans it has become a unique opportunity to spend a prolonged time together, freed from the everyday need to rush back home after shows.

Unfortunately this year’s World Tag Team Festival will go down in history as one of the most cursed set of shows in history. With fifteen performers having had to pull out for one reason or another, the line-up has been an ever-moving target, which only got finalised hours before the first match began.

Such is the extent of the curse that it has even effected non-performers, with a member of the accredited press, Birmingham’s Arnold Furious, falling ill at the media lunch. While he was back on top form in time for the opening match, our fellow West Midlanders did not fare so well in the ring.

The redesigned format saw twelve teams enter a single-elimination tournament, that over the weekend would lead to a new WXW Tag Team Champions crowned in a special three-team elimination match.

Tension

That there was no defending champion in the tournament was due to Wolverhampton’s Mark Davis injuring his knee while wrestling in America. Instead his tag team partner and fellow Wolverhampton resident Kyle Fletcher would try to regain the tag team titles for Schadenfreude with Lucky Kid, someone who in England and Germany the two Aussies have a complicated relationship with.

After months of tension over whether Lucky Kid would side with Schadenfreude or the RISE faction that he had long been a member of in WXW, Ivan Kiev and Pete Bouncer took the decision out of his hands, turning on their former leader. The newly christened Purge Club would defeat Fletcher and Lucky, pinning the former with the aid of a truncheon. It was a far cry from last year where Fletcher and Davis managed to make it to the tournament final.

It is, however, worth noting how popular the Schadenfreude team was, with the crowds not only regularly chanting the faction’s name, but also including Fletcher in their standard chants for Lucky Kid. Fletcher and Lucky would also frequently pay tribute to the faction’s leader, Tipton’s Chris Brookes, utilising many of the tag team specialist’s signature double team moves.

The other team that featured local representation also went out in the first round, with Birmingham’s Damian Dunne and his tag team partner Santos finding no fun in Oberhausen. Up against the Americans J.D Drake and Anthony Henry, they put in a good effort but ultimately succumbed to two men who back in April came very close to defeating Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher for a the WXW Tag Team Titles.

At both this and the special preview show on Thursday at WXW’s training school in Essen, where they lost to Schadenfreude, the Anti-Fun Police have not not seem themselves, lacking the sense of supressed joy that has made them such a highlight of pro-wrestling across the West Midlands and beyond. Hopefully they will get a chance to showcase what they can do when the pressure is off in exhibition matches throughout the weekend.

After all, while both West Midlands teams have been eliminated, the action at WXW’s Tag Team Festival continues for the rest of the weekend with Schadenfreude and the Anti-Fun Police booked for the Saturday and Sunday shows. Given how the day after Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis were both eliminated from the 16 Carat singles tournament in March, they won the WXW Tag Team Titles, it would be reckless to assume that any of them have a quiet weekend ahead of them.

WXW Tag Team Festival continues this weekend in Oberhausen, Germany. All shows are available to watch on Video on Demand within 72 hours, complete with English-language commentary, on WXW NOW. For more information go to wxwnow.com/en

Will Cooling is a combat sports journalist with more than ten years’ experience. He currently covers British combat sports for Pro-Wrestling Torch. To subscribe go to pwtorch.com/amember/signup