During the wXw World Tag League they stopped off to do a first ever all-women’s show, the Femmes Fatales tournament, on the afternoon of day two. Normally I’m really hyped up for women’s wrestling but there was a match on night one of the tournament to shill this show and it wasn’t very good. In fact it was pretty rough and now we have an entire show of women and there’s a nagging doubt in my mind about the potential quality. There are noticeably fewer people in attendance for this one, compared to night one of the tournament. This show itself is a tournament with four qualifiers leading to a four-way elimination final. There’s also a non-tournament match slipped in between to break up the action but it’s an all female show.

Incidentally it’s really weird hearing Germans chant “Jinny, you’re a cunt”. It’s what they chant in the UK too because Jinny earned that with sensational heel work but hearing it with the German accent is very strange. Dahlia is working babyface here, which is a first for me. Unfortunately she blows her entrance to the ring on the big introductions spot.

Westside Xtreme Wrestling
Femmes Fatales
October 1, 2016
Turbinhalle
Oberhausen, Germany

Watch: wXw Now

The tournament’s format involves four singles matches with the winners moving onto a four way final taking place later in the show.

Femmes Fatales Qualifier
Melanie Gray def. Leah Vaughan

Leah was one-half of the bad match on night one of the tag league. Melanie will not stand for any of that shit and chops the hell out of Leah. This isn’t particularly good either but Melanie lands a lot of beefy shots to compensate. Leah looks a lot better against Melanie than against Alexis yesterday due to Gray being more experienced. Melanie comes in with a bad arm and it gives Leah some much needed focus. Plus she works hard heel and that’s another layer of focus. Melanie ends up crushing Leah with a senton for the victory because the main storyline of this show is Mel vs. Alpha Female so they need to clash later.** 

Femmes Fatales Qualifier
Jinny def. Dahlia Black

Both these girls work regularly in the UK for Progress but Dahlia is normally heel and she’s working face here. Jinny brings molten heat wherever she goes and it’s no exception here. She calls the Germans “scum” and herself the “face of every company I work for”. She further tells an Attitude Era fan to “go back to 1999, twat”. Jinny is an absolute heat machine. Dahlia struggles with a few of her early spots, perhaps not used to being a plucky babyface. Jinny has improved a lot over the last year and that’s in evidence when she manages to stall for time when Dahlia has wardrobe issues. Dahlia generally looks slow and out of sorts. It’s nowhere near her best work. The match ends up being The Jinny Show and I get particularly annoyed by Dahlia re-tying her hair while going up for a moonsault. Jinny beats her with a Style Clash moments later. I usually like Dahlia as a worker so this was an upsetting showing from her. She didn’t look comfortable at all tonight, from the moment she tripped coming into the ring at the top of the show. *3/4

Femmes Fatales Qualifier
Alpha Female def. Alexis Rose

Alpha Female is a big, strong six footer who dominates this match. She’s cornered by Marius Van Beethoven as part of the ongoing storyline with Mel Gray. Alexis is a total rookie so she just gets destroyed. The Dominator finishes after a few minutes. This was a total squash. Given Rose’s performance yesterday I can’t say I blame wXw for booking it that way plus it gives a strong dynamic to the final with Alpha Female going in a heavy favourite.

Femmes Fatales Qualifier
Shanna def. Pollyanna

This is the final qualifying match for the tournament. Shanna is into her thirties but has just starting getting some genuine attention. Pollyanna wrestles ever so slightly heel but in reality she just wants to be taken seriously and Shanna is more interested teasing the crowd, sexually. This results in some questionable sequences but Polly holds it together. Polly has a size advantage and they use that to get Shanna a little more sympathy. The pacing is good and it’s easily the best match on the undercard. Polly is better in stand up but it’s credit to both girls that they run a strike duel and it’s not bad. Polly does fantastic work of taking apart Shanna’s midsection, with stomps and knees. Shanna looks genuinely hurt so either she is or she’s selling like a champ. Shanna connects with a series of rolling Dragon Suplexes to make the final. (Bit of a rough roll between the first and second but who’s counting?) Pollyanna is the better wrestler of the two but they structured a good match here. ***

Laura Di Matteo def. Queen Maya

This is a non-tournament match to give Shanna a breather before the finals. Maya is 6’1” and towers over poor little Laura. Maya bosses the contest, much like Alpha Female did earlier with Alexis. Maya works for Stardom so you know she’s capable but she’s a bit sluggish. Laura has only been working for a year so it’s tough to say how good she’s going to be but she’s certainly plucky and can take bumps like a champ. Laura manages to pull out a counter to roll up Maya and score the upset win. I’m surprised she won the match without hitting a tope. That’s her signature move! *3/4

Femmes Fatales Final
Alpha Female def. Melanie Gray, Jinny & Shanna

Alpha Female is the biggest threat so everyone goes after her and Shanna looks really awkward trying to hit a dive. When you’ve started that run up, just fucking go for it. People will move! Mel and Jinny work effectively together and Jinny dumps Mel out when Marius Van Beethoven grabs her foot on the ropes. The major issue for the survivors is having to face off with Alpha Female who destroys both of her opponents. The big double clothesline is amazing. Both Shanna and Jinny get to impress taking bumps off Alpha Female. Jinny is far too vicious for her own good and just has to go after Shanna for stealing her spotlight instead of teaming up to deal with the bigger threat. Shanna puts Jinny out with a huge Tiger Driver ’91 and Jinny takes an incredible bump on that. She’s certainly impressed tonight, although I understand the need for Shanna to make it to the finish because she’s the sole surviving babyface. Her underdog pluck suits the situation, even though Alpha Female is much bigger and stronger. Despite this Marius has to interfere to help her, which is a slightly questionable way to book your monster heel, and the Dominator puts Shanna away. Everyone knew their role here and played it to perfection. The work was pretty solid throughout and it helped to get over everyone that made the final, bar Mel who was already over. ***1/4 

Final Thoughts:

It’s not easy to run an all-women’s show in 2016, even with the improvement in talent that’s available. There simply isn’t the strength in depth. That said this was a solid showing for a few of these women; Alpha Female, Shanna, Pollyanna and Jinny. Dahlia Black is the one who had the worst showing, as she’s normally reliable but a few of the undercard matches were hard to sit through and hers was the worst. Increasingly demand is there for women’s wrestling so it’s definitely something that promotions will have to look toward featuring but WWE have signed so many top Indie women, as NXT is almost evenly split between men and women and they have two women’s divisions on TV, that it’s hard to run an Indie show with all women’s talent. Perhaps in a year when some of the talent that’s out there have had the chance to mature we might see an improvement. I’d like to think Dahlia Black and Laura Di Matteo will be really good in twelve months. Plus there are women coming through the UK scene that have genuine ability. Especially in the Scottish Indies. Time will tell but this wasn’t the best of shows. Kudos to wXw for trying though.