Westside Xtreme Wrestling
Amerika ist Wunderbar
Thursday, April 4
4pm
La Boom, New York

Tickets
Individual Live Stream (Fite TV)
Live Stream available with WWN More Than Mania Package
Delayed VOD on wXw Now

Germany’s premier wrestling promotion is coming to New York for WrestleMania weekend as part of WWN’s stable of shows taking place at La Boom. From a perusal of the card, I’m confident in predicting that wXw’s inaugural offering to Mania weekend will end up being one of the better top to bottom shows on offer.

  • wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship – Bobby Gunns vs. Shigehiro Irie
  • wXw World Tag Team Championships – Aussie Open vs. Workhorsemen
  • wXw Shotgun Championship – Marius Al-Ani vs. Emil Sitoci
  • Lucky Kid vs. David Starr
  • Darby Allin vs. Avalanche
  • Yuu vs. LuFisto
  • Absolute Andy vs. Chris Brookes
  • LAX vs. The Crown

Since the card for Amerika ist Wunderbar was announced it has received a mixed reception, but one criticism that cannot be levied its way is that it is inauthentic to the wXw product; it is a card very much representative of the promotion. While the show boasts a very eclectic mix of international talent, with wrestlers representing eight countries and four continents, none of them feel out of place or have the feel that they’re booked just because they’re around. The vast majority of the line-up are at least semi-regulars for the German promotion, and the three that are not (the WorkHorsemen and Darby Allin) are the type of wrestlers wXw like to bring in anyway. People will be getting a wXw show, not an EVOLVE show with a German accent.

With that authenticity, wXw are also bringing across their trait of professionalism that they pride themselves on. It is very rare you will see a bad match on a wXw branded event these days, and this card promises to be no different; there’s a very high floor for all the matches on this event.

One criticism that can be levied though is that there aren’t any clear matches that you can fully bank upon being excellent; while the show may have a high floor perhaps the ceiling is a little low. A large contributor to that factor is that the show is missing their top two biggest homegrown stars in WALTER and Ilja Dragunov. Their absence is not only a hit to the star power of this show, it’s a big miss for the in-ring quality as at least one of aforementioned pairing have been a part of the vast majority of the internationally hyped wXw matches of the past few years.

However, there is a match on this card that could surprise a few people and end up on all the ‘best matches of WrestleMania weekend’ lists: Aussie Open defending the tag team championships against the WorkHorsemen. I’m a huge advocate for both teams, and they both work a similar hard-hitting all-action style which leads me to believe they’ll have great chemistry together. It’s one of the top sleeper matches for the week ahead.

Another match that could surprise a few people by how good it is pits recent 16 Carat Gold winner Lucky Kid against David Starr. I’m not entirely confident that these two will mesh well stylistically, but David Starr is on such a red hot roll at the moment that it would be stupid to bet against him in any capacity. Everything that he’s touching is turning to gold right now.

The likely main event for this show will pit the new wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Bobby Gunns against Shigehiro Irie. I’m far from the biggest Bobby Gunns fan; he’s a very average wrestler who has gained great popularity in Germany off of the back of a bandwagoned chant which almost certainly won’t translate across the Atlantic. However, if they were going to place him in a singles match with anybody then Shigehiro Irie would be towards the top of my list. Prior to Gunns capturing the title they had a series of matches (where Irie won two out of three, hence this title match) where they displayed good chemistry together and Gunns had better showings than I’d ever seen from him previously.

Avalanche Robert Dreissker taking on a debuting Darby Allin could be a very fun encounter. There’s a natural David versus Goliath story to tell, and both guys play the roles of monster and underdog very well. A match I’m less sure how will play out is LAX taking on the Crown. LAX are your typical all action indie tag team, whereas the Crown team of Alexander James and Jurn Simmons employ a more traditional and dramatic approach to tag team wrestling. I’m intrigued to seeing how the match works out as an end product.

Overall I fully expect Amerika ist Wunderbar to be a good showing for wXw. While it might not produce any matches that people will be held up as must-watch encounters that you need to go back and watch, for those in attendance or those streaming live I expect it to be a very consistent high-quality show.