What Culture headed over to Germany for a joint show with GWF as a part of their Pro Wrestling World Cup. Two men from Cash Money Erkan, Rambo Braun, Bad Bones, Pascal Spalter, Da Mack, Cem Kaplan, Lucky Kid and Juvenile-X would move on from this to the last 16 stage in August.

What Culture Pro Wrestling
Pro Wrestling World Cup
July 2, 2017
Huxleys Neue Welt
Berlin, Germany

Watch: YouTube

Two of WCPW’s regular commentators Dave Bradshaw and (urgh) Alex Shane take on commentary duties for the night.

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round
Cash Money Erkan def. Rambo Braun

My knowledge of German wrestling outside of wXw is shallow at best, so I confess this is my first time seeing either of these two. The show is being hosted by the German Wrestling Federation, so a lot of their guys made their way into the tournament. Overall I ended up impressed. Erkan is a huge man, billed as six foot seven, but is really athletic and throws himself into every move he does. Rambo looked solid too, providing a really good foil to showcase CME. Erkan advanced after catch Rambo in mid air with a superkick. ***1/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round
Bad Bones def. Pascal Spalter

Spalter is another big guy I’ve never seen wrestle before, but with him going up against the ever-reliable Bad Bones, I’ll be able to get a good judge of his level. He ended up being pretty decent, a bit  hammy perhaps with a lot of his crowd interactions feeling cartoony, but for the most part he was a good big lad who knew how to utilize his mass. The finish ended up being pretty anti-climactic unfortunately though, as Bones won with a rollup while Spalter was jaw jacking with the fans. ***

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round
Da Mack def. Cem Kaplan

Kaplan is another GWF guy who I’m coming in with a clean set of eyes to. I didn’t get to see much of him though, as this was really brief. What little there was of this match didn’t impress though; I’ve never been a Mack guy and this did nothing to change that. Mack advanced with a forward roll cutter. *3/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round
Lucky Kid def. Juvenile-X

If you follow wXw then you will know Lucky Kid as one half of the tag champions as part of the faction RISE. He has yet to wow me in that role, and he didn’t really grab my attention here either. To be fair on him though, he didn’t seem to be working with much. Juvenile-X’s was really sluggish moving around the ring, and overall just put on a really boring heat segment that took up the bulk of the match. Then Kid won, somewhat out of nowhere, with a bridging dragon suplex. Not particularly good stuff. **1/4

Hunter Brothers def. Toni Harting & Ronaldo Shaqiri

Toni Harting and Ronaldo Shaqiri are two relatively inexperienced wrestlers with great looks, and if this match was anything to go by great potential too! This was a short midcard tag sprint executed to near perfection. All the offense flowed brilliantly, there were no down periods, exciting combinations, all four men got a chance to shine and it peaked well for the finish. This was just a super fun seven or so minutes. The Hunters are always great at making their opponents look like world beaters, but if this match was anything to go by Harting and Shaqiri might be two guys to keep your eyes upon. The Hunters picked up the win after a flurry of moves finishing in a top rope splash. ***1/2

WCPW Internet Championship
Gabriel Kidd def. Joe Coffey

Coffey is a good wrestler by almost all accounts, but I usually find his finishing stretches to be very underwhelming, and this was no different. It’s like after putting the work into the bulk of the match he just doesn’t know how to shift up a gear for the final few minutes that would lead to a great climax. Instead his matches tend to just end, and that’s what happened here when Kidd retained with a running boot as Coffey was going for his Black Coffey discus lariat. ***1/4

WCPW Championship
Primate def. Joe Hendry

Champion versus champion here, which is a bit baffling since Primate only just won the hardcore belt and now they’re either handing him an immediate loss or having their champion drop a fall. Neither seem particularly appealing. In the end we actually got neither, just a lazy dusty finish. After a match that was predominantly walk and brawl, Hendry pulled the ref in front of a Primate spear.  Primate then went on to get a submission victory, with Hendry tapping out just as the ref was coming to. Then as Primate celebrated with the title, the ref took the belt away from him and announced that Primate had won by DQ, as Hendry was getting disqualified (I guess for pulling him in the way of the spear). Hendry’s terrible title run rolls on. **1/4

Alex Gracie def. Kenny Williams

This was newly minted heel Alex Gracie’s first match since Prospect’s breakup. This match was built around Williams outspeeding Gracie and Gracie not being able to gain a foothold in the match. The tides turned though after Williams went shoulder first into the ringpost after Gracie kicked out of an O’Connor roll, then followed up with the Fall from Gracie (an Unprettier) for the victory. The finish was very abrupt, and disappointing because the match had been good and was telling a nice coherent story only for it to end out of nowhere. ***

Pro Wrestling World Cup Second Round
Lucky Kid def. Da Mack

These two both had disappointing first round matches, so I was hoping for more from both of them here. I didn’t really get it. There was energy put into this match, but at no point was I engaged or made to care. I don’t think you need some big elLucky Kid advanced via dragon suplex in very abrupt fashion, somewhat of a theme of the night. Very few of these matches have had a build to the finish, it has repeatedly been the victor having their finish be the entirety of their comeback. **3/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup Second Round
Bad Bones def. Cash Money Erkan

They started this one out quick with Erkan jumping Bones before the bell, and they kept up the high pace throughout. This was comfortably the most satisfying of the tournament matches. Both guys worked really hard, and while Erkan is clearly still pretty raw there’s something there with him, and Bones always delivers. This wasn’t a must see match or anything, but it was enjoyably structured and had a lot of good back and forth hard hitting action. Bad Bones advanced by catching Erkan with a diving lungblower. ***1/2

Final Thoughts:

There was some good stuff on this World Cup show, and I came away pleasantly suprised by how good a handful of the GWF guys were (namely Braun, Erkan, Harting and Shaqiri), but as an overall package it wasn’t a particularly good show. The bad commentary from Alex Shane certainly didn’t help matters.