Matches from wXw 16 Carat Gold:
Night One 03/06
1.Bailey vs Ridgeway ****
2.Irie vs Taurus ***3/4
Night Two 03/07
3.Bailey vs Bandido ****1/2
4.wXw Unified World Title vs Career: Gunns(c) vs Starr ****1/4
Night Three 03/08
5.Thatcher, Ishikawa vs WALTER, Ikeda ***1/2
6.Bandido, Cobb, Pace vs Taurus, Puma, Hektor ***3/4
7.16 Carat Gold Finals: Cara Noir vs Bailey ****
Thoughts:
It's time for this year's 16 Carat Gold tournament and I'm pretty stoked.
The first pull saw Mike "I am too awesome yet still have trouble catching a break" Bailey and Chris "kick your fucking head in" Ridgeway working together in a battle full of echoing strikes with a touch of technicality and high speed action mixed in for good measure. A lot of opening round tournament matches have a phoned-in tendency but these two went all in. Fantastic stuff here, people!
Up next, we get one of those awesome displays of agile hoss-ness that I absolutely love to see. I, of course, had an idea of what to expect walking in, but I know my expectations tend to be too high some times. Not here, as this was a great outing and a nice display from both. I'd love a rematch soon.
Over on night two, we start with Bandido versus Bailey in tournament action. The atmosphere on these shows is amazing by the way. Cannot be understated. This was a true spectacle, full of beautiful, back and forth action, excellent nearfalls, and a nice pace throughout. Truly, a MOTYC and one hell of a showing from both men that cannot be missed!
The title vs career clash was excellent in terms of storytelling. Gunns came off as a royal dick and a true spoiler. It simply felt epic in nature with well placed spots and solid limb work sprinkled here and there to occasionally elevate things and add to the drama. You wanted to believe in Starr here, that he'd overcome the odds and comeback to take the championship. The crowd did, too. Alas, it was not meant to be. Luckily, even though Starr pissed off wXw's overlords, he at least got to go out on a high note.
Time for night three.
WALTER and Thatcher on opposite sides here, but they weren't alone. This was about respect, with the WWE lads sharing evenly with the dads. It was a sight to see and a very good tag battle with a picturesque finish.
Next, the get-the-guys-in-one-last-time match and damn it was a great spotfest. Fun shit for sure and worth seeing if you are into that sort of thing.
Closing this year's tournament coverage, we get the finals which saw Speedball and the charasmatic swan that is Cara Noir. Bailey worked this from up ahead, getting in strikes and blows and coming off cocky nicely throughout. I swear, by the way, that Speedball seems to be peaking right now. I am very eager to see what's next for him once some normalcy returns, especially if it's going to be involving DDT. Regardless, this was a fantastic finals contest that deserves some attention. I can see it being fairly polarizing like the title vs career match, but both felt cinematic in nature and worked for what they were.
I still need to go watch BOLA if I get a chance, but I still haven't finished the last season of Lucha Underground either...I'll do it eventually. For now, make sure to catch all of these and thank me (and wXw) later!
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