WHITE WOLF WRESTLING
RE-OPEN
FEBRUARY 9, 2019
TABACALERA, MADRID, SPAIN

Watch: Triple W On Demand

The first couple of months of 2019 have been rough for Triple W. They ended 2018 with their first paid show, which was a complete business success, and a smaller event after Christmas which turned stratospheric when the long-hyped surprise was revealed: British Strong Style in their final indie booking as a team. That match ruled, and acted as the perfect send-off for a dreamlike year. However, the promotion couldn’t carry that momentum so successfully at the start of the new year, with a couple of shows canceled in January and lackluster handling of their VOD service, which didn’t upload any new Triple W content until the beginning of March. Hopefully, all those early-year problems seem to be solved, and the company is building to a much-hyped Will Ospreay vs A-Kid match that takes place on their second paid show ever on March 30th, Total Rumble 9. Let’s see how well they do in the couple of show they have taped before that fateful day, and we’ll start with this Re-Open show, their first of 2019.

REDENCIÓN (VIRAL & ALEX SOUL) DEF. RIZO & OCHOA

At La Hora de la Verdad, Viral won the obligatory big show battle royal, so he can fight for any title of his choosing. However, he seems to be focused on the tag team championship, even though they teased a potential turn on Soul. That’s not the case, and they seem to be building to a tag team ladder match, since they came out with a huge wooden ladder to the ring. Their opponents were a couple of preliminary wrestlers that make their season debut, and were there to be feed to the number one contenders. It was indeed a strong victory for Redención, they look good killing the other team, especially Viral. After the match, Soul claimed that they are at the top of the tag team division while standing at the top of the previously mentioned ladder. Subtlety is not Triple W’s strongest suit.**

TRIPLE W EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP
YUNKE DEF. DORIAN

Dorian asked for an Extreme Championship match after defeating Mike Murdock of Street Guerrilla at Cuenta Atrás, and now he gets his chance. I don’t feel that he earned that opportunity, but also, his gimmick is that he’s an aristocrat, and historically, rich people always get whatever they want, so it makes sense. The match was fine, with Dorian trying to get the upper hand by taking advantage of the no rules scenario and weakening Yunke so he could hit him with his big moves. At one point, Dorian connected a pretty good TKO through a table, but that wasn’t enough. Yunke broke what seemed like a not difficult to break block of concrete into Dorian’s back, and stopped the interference by his manager, Barón Aguilar, and put him away with his modified facebuster on top of Dorian. Yunke did a very emphatic victory scream while he put his feet on top of his prey as the referee counted to three, which was a nice touch.**½

MEMPHIS MAFIA (ELVIS & IVÁN) DEF. SUPERGRUPO (ELÍAS & GRAVITY ZERO)

Before the match, Memphis Mafia run an angle where they kicked off one of the members from the stable and did the obligatory beatdown. Afterwards, they issued an open challenge and Supergrupo answered. The match itself was nothing to rave home about. If this were high school, this would be the badass bully bikers beating the nerds who watch too much anime and think that their spirit makes up for their lack of physique. Supergrupo are a fun babyface team and they are over with the crowd, but they are Cheeseburger level small, and they play their role in a semi-ironic way, so I don’t see them as a push commodity, this needs to be their spot, to put over other teams.**

JASON JÚPITER DEF. NOAH STRIKER

Júpiter and Striker are some of the best in-ring talent that Triple W can offer, so it was not a surprise that they had a very good match. Striker just gets it, he knows how to play to his character and pays attention to small details. Speaking about small details, Júpiter has a beard now, and just that makes him more charismatic. Without the beard, he looks like a bland babyface, but now he has much more presence. Small details matter in wrestling, and this is just two examples. The finish was fire, with Júpiter connecting a Super Spanish Fly and Striker getting up. Not sure if it was supposed to be because of the rebound effect or just fighting spirit, but it looked great anyway, like the Bicycle Kick that Júpiter connected to put him away.***½

After the match, Júpiter called out Jordan Devlin, who beat him at La Hora de la Verdad. Júpiter calls for a rematch down the line, claiming this time the result will be different. More Devlin is always better, so hopefully we’ll have this match soon.

STREET GUERRILLA VS UTOPÍA & A-KID

Triple W is creating a trios championship, so this match is kind of the semifinal to an unannounced tournament. Before it started, it was made into a tornado match, but the match didn’t feel like a tornado tag team. Utopía and A-Kid worked as heels, and they had control periods where Street Guerrilla wouldn’t intervene to save one of their members, which would be completely legal in a tornado tag. Instead, this had the structure of a traditional trios match. Maybe they wanted to protect the fact that everyone was in the ring on the final stretch, but we’re so used to seeing that in wrestling that you don’t need to cover for it. All that aside, this was a fun match, and the dynamic between A-Kid and Sarah Leonhart was intense, their interactions were the highlight. Leonhart actually tapped out the anonymous kid, although double superkicks from her partners were also a contributing factor.***

RUKY DEF. GORTRAK

Ruky announced that he was retiring and that he had been sober for a month to a chorus of boos. Zayas, one of the founders of Triple W, stopped him on his tracks and forced him to compete, even if Ruky didn’t have his wrestling gear on. The opponent was Gortrak, a classic act of Triple W that hasn’t compete in a couple of years. He’s basically a goofy viking version of Jim Duggan, and he likes to eat fuet. This was a comedy-heavy match, and the story was that Ruky couldn’t defeat Gortrak until he drank beer again. So he opens a can and had his Popeye moment to put Gortrak away. After the match, Ruky says that he will wrestle at least one more time.*3/4

Before the main event, the champion Pol Badia had a few requests for the authority figure of Triple W, Coajim Echevarría. First off, he demanded that Romo had a penalty for losing to him today since if he were to lose, he would lose the belt, but if Romo loses, he doesn’t lose anything. This is sound heel logic, and makes Badia look like the materialist asshole that he is. Coajim agreed, and stipulated that if Romo were to lose, he would be number one in the upcoming Total Rumble, which is Triple W’s version of, you guessed it, Royal Rumble. Second of all, he called for a raise because he’s the champion and, among other things, has 180K followers on Instagram. Echevarría replied that he needs to win that raise in the ring, not on social media, to a tremendous pop. And finally, he solicited a belt redesign, because the current one makes him look like crap at discos and parties. Coajim agreed, not because of that, but because the fans deserve the best, so we’ll get a new belt shortly. Tremendous segment showing why Badia is one of the best characters in the company.

TRIPLE W ABSOLUTE CHAMPIONSHIP
POL BADIA (c) DEF. CARLOS ROMO

Romo lost the belt to Badia a few months back, when Badia cashed in his Money in the Bank-like championship opportunity by surprise. The match was worked well, it had a lot of action and followed the structure of late title defenses. Badia cheated whenever he could to take the advantage, and Romo had his hope spots well placed. At one point, Badia started screaming to Romo that he will always be A-Kid’s shadow, which fired him up. Romo and A-Kid’s rivalry/friendship is one of the constants of Triple W, and this could be a foreshadowing of a future Romo heel run. The end of the match was very similar to the Badia vs Angélico match at La Hora de la Verdad, with the ref bump and the inclusion of foreign objects that led Badia to victory once more. The fact that he used the title to hit Romo after what he said in the pre-match promo is a nice touch, very similar to what Naito does with the IC title. Not a very memorable match, but a fun main event nonetheless.***¼

FINAL THOUGHTS

Re-Open was a decent start to the year, but not the ideal start after a hot 2018. A few squashes to put over some talent, three good little matches, with Striker vs Júpiter being the highlight, and some great character work in pre-match promos. Hopefully, they can reach the heights of the previous year, and it seems that could be the case since they have an Ospreay vs A-Kid match lined up for the same event that brought us Zack Sabre Jr. vs A-Kid.