Game Changer Wrestling Thread

[cgstong]

I hear you guys. I'm not the biggest fan either but I dig their vibe in terms of what they provide for their fans.

[Montana]

Anyone catch blood on the hills?

Had Briscoes vs. PCO/Brody King

and the ROH championship Jonathan Gresham vs. AJ Gray under Pure Rules.


Also... just announced for Hammerstein is for the ROH Championship Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian.

[kovs27]

Just announced on twitter, Ian Riccaboni will call the ROH World title match at the Hammerstein Ballroom on January 23rd. Really cool to have Ian apart of the event. It makes the match feel more authentic.

[monster mafia]

briscoes vs pco and brody was fucking nuts.

need to watch gresham match too.

[Montana]

I'm fairly new to watching GCW; but so far i like how they market/promote the events. Seems like about 45 days out; they start announcing talent. One name per day give or take. Then announce a match on the other days... so it's a steady stream of news & announcements.

They are certainly getting some bigger names adding to the promotion. I'm not typically a hardcore fan; but going to GCW- Most Notorious on Jan 14th. Hoping to see some ROH talent.

That Hammerstein show is going to be pretty insane i assume. Chicago looks like it's getting a pretty stacked show too, based on who scheduled to attend. Really like they added Ian for the Hammerstein show and the ROH title match.


Maybe if ROH goes come back; we get ROH vs GCW.

[Montana]

So for Hammerstein show it looks like:

Official :

GCW Championship Moxley vs. Homicide

ROH Championship - Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian

Team Gringo (Gringo Loco, Flamita , Arez) vs. Team Bandido (Bandido, Laredo Kid, ASF)

Allie Katch vs. Ruby Soho

Matt Cardona vs. Joey Janela

Jeff Jarrett vs. Effy

GCW Tag Team Titles - Briscoes Open Challenge

Ladder Match - Grab the Brass ring (Winner picks match anytime/anywhere)

Rumored/Teased:

Eddie Kingston vs. AJ Gray



Road to Hammerstein Shows

Detroit (Most Notorious)

ALex Shelly vs Jimmy Jacobs
Rich Swann vs. Leon Ruff
ALex Colon vs. Hoodfoot
Rhino vs. Matt Cardona
Atticus Cogar vs. Matthew Justice
Bussy vs. Ricky Morton & 2 Cold Scorpio
Tony Deppen vs. Dark Sheik


Chicago (Say you Will)

ROH TItle - Bandido vs. Blake Christian
AJ Gray vs PCO
Briscoes vs. Rejects
ROH Title - Jonathan Gresham vs. 2 Cold Scorpio
Allie vs Kylie
Matt Cardona vs. Ricky Morton
Tony Deppen vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

Plus Jeff Jarrett

[Montana]

Last night was interesting to say the least at GCW – Most Notorious in Detroit. First time watching a full GCW show; first time attending live. They certainly have some “special sauce” that other companies aren’t capturing. Can’t quite put my finger it; but I assume it’s a mix of factors. (Music/Vibe, work ethic, hardcore, unique-ness)

The show was at Harpo’s a legendary Detroit rock concert venue; and probably one of my favorite venue’s for a wrestling show. The crowd was quite large. I was ringside; in the pit , so I couldn’t get a full gauge on how many people were there; but they were certainly packed in. I’ll guess 800, but it could have even been north of that. It was more than the Evolve shows; and more than the last ROH show in 2019. Also the chairs were literally about 1 foot from the ring. People were moving out of the way; the whole night; as it wasn’t uncommon for wrestlers to end up in the 3rd/4th row.

All in all; very fun show. The use of music is great. Serving alcohol is always a plus to get a rowdy crowd. Rich Swann didn’t appear; but we got Alex Zayne; so the card changed up a bit.

First match - Scramble match - Ninja Mack vs. Jimmy Lloyd vs. Dante Leon vs. Gringo Loco vs. Nate Webb vs. JJ Garrett vs. Alex Zayne . Seems like this is becoming a GCW staple; and great way to start a show. Wild spot fest. No psychology; not the most polished; just wild fun.

Leon Ruff vs. Jordan Oliver - Oliver was supposed to be Scramble; and Ruff was supposed to face Swann; but this was still a good match. Kind of surprised Ruff lost in Detroit; but maybe I shouldn’t be. I feel like Ruff was probably a little more over in Evolve; surprisingly but could just be one of those things.

Kevin Nash appearance- I didn’t think much about this before the show; but it was pretty cool to see Nash and come out to the wolfpac theme.

Alex Shelly vs. Jimmy Jacobs - The fans were a little thrown at first on who to cheer for as both are from Detroit; but soon enough, Jacobs did the heel thing. Another fun/good match; with two Detroit Legends.

Matt Cardona vs. Rhino - Brawling through the crowd; which was hard to see. Ryder had NUCLEAR heat. I gotta think WWE/AEW are calling up Cardona pretty regularly to come in. Rhino gored Chelsea Green to a big Pop, but Cardona got the W.

Intermission

Tony Deppen vs. Dark Shiek - First time seeing Dark Shiek - they had another good match. Probably the best “wrestling” match on the card; but close with Shelly/Jacobs.

Sabu Appearance – Cougar verbally ripped Sabu, in return Sabu throw a chair at his face.

Atticus Cougar vs. Matthew Justice - This was an extremely good hardcore match. Almost too good; as the wrestlers (Justice) put his health on the line. Multiple stage dives; getting thrown off a balcony onto chairs; and some of the most brutal chair shots; ive ever seen live. Both these guys can talk and work. Really impressed here. Match of the Night.

Ricky Morton and 2 Cold Scorpio (Which I refer to as Rock N’ Soul Connection) vs. Bussy (effy & Allie Katch) - Hard to follow the match before; and was fine/good; but a bit of a let down from the earlier matches. Again; cool to see the legends; and they worked hard; and kept up for sure.

Last but not least – Alex Colon vs. Hoodfoot - Death Match; for the GCW Ultra Violent title - This felt like your standard GCW deathmatch. This kind of stuff, just isn’t for me. I don’t get it; and it’s just not necessary in my opinion. But hey; here we are. They busted a few dozen light tubes; and went through a few glass tables. No shortage of blood. Hoodfoot took a beating. It seems like at some point; a fan could get hurt from one of their shows; with light tube shards going into the crowd. Makes a cool popping noise; but the risk/reward doesn’t seem worth it. Thought the Hardcore match; was much better; but this was entertaining; just a different way.

All in all, very fun show. Pretty good mix of wrestling; and the hardcore/brawling matches were good. Seeing multiple legends was also different from most other indies shows I’ve been to. The only negative for me; was the death match at the end; but everything else was good. Seems like they have their formula; with scramble/spotfest; some good standard wrestling, some brawls/hardcore matches, and a deathmatch. Was a little bummed a lot of the ROH wrestlers that are in Chicago tonight, weren’t added to Detroit, BUT while watching I was totally entertained the whole time; and really didn’t even think about it while watching. They are coming back in April; and I’ll be there.

(You can see some clips/GIF’s below)

https://411mania.com/wrestling/gcw-most ... nash-sabu/

[Montana]

Some Quick thoughts on GCW – Say you will – Chicago

6 Way Scramble - Dante Leon vs Dark Sheik vs Ninja Mack vs Nick Wayne vs Gringo Loco - 3.5 Another Fun Scramble match. Sloppy but fun.

Tony Deppen vs Mike Bailey 4.00 – 4.25 - GCW doesn’t wait to bring the heat. Great match here. Love to see more of these two.

Bandido vs Blake Christian - 4.25 - Bandido did not have the ROH title here; but great match.

ROH Championship Jonathan Gresham(c) vs 2 Cold Scorpio – 3.25 – Solid stuff

GCW Extreme Title PCO(c) vs AJ Gray 4.00 -4.25 - This may have been better than any PCO ROH match.

Matt Cardona vs Ricky Morton 2.00 - What you’d expect.

Allie Katch vs Kylie Rae 3.75 - Good stuff here.

GCW Tag Title Championship - The Rejects (John Wayne Murdoch & Reed Bentley) vs The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (c) 3.75 – 4.00 - Both teams brought it.

Markus Crane Tribute – Jimmy Lloyd vs. Alex Colon vs. Nate Webb 3.25 – Death Match; but more on the light side I think for GCW. It’s on Youtube. Nate Webb got a little roughed up; but sounds like he’s fine.

All in all ; 8.5 /10 . I enjoy they can have a match like Ricky Morton vs. Matt Cardona; and it’s just as fun as any other match and the crowd doesn’t shit on it. I didn’t like the venue; but a minor complaint. The Detroit show look/feel was much better. Bailey/Deppen and Christian/Bandido were the highlights in my opinion.

I’d probably go 8/10 on the Detroit show. These are tough matches/shows to grade. I think if you like more hardcore/deathmatches the Detroit show was better. If you like more traditional wrestling the Chicago show was better. Both had a fair mix of both.

[Montana]

Biggest show in GCW History, when they debut at Hammerstein Ballroom. Quite a packed card.


Official :

GCW Championship Moxley vs. Homicide

ROH Championship - Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian

Team Gringo (Gringo Loco, Flamita , Arez) vs. Team Bandido (Bandido, Laredo Kid, ASF)

Allie Katch vs. Ruby Soho

Matt Cardona vs. Joey Janela

Jeff Jarrett vs. Effy

GCW Tag Team Titles - Briscoes Open Challenge ??

Ladder Match - Grab the Brass ring (Winner picks match anytime/anywhere)
Lio Rush vs. Jordan Oliver vs. ALex Colon vs. Jimmy Lloyd vs. PCO vs. Tony Deppen

PBR PRE-Show Battle Royal

Pre-Show Scramble : Ninja Mack vs. Reefer vs. Dante Leon vs. Jack Cartwheel vs. Alex Zayne vs. Nick Wayne

Signed to appear (Battle Royal?):
HoodFoot
Pollo Del Mar
Cole Raddrick
G-Raver
Nate Webb
Juicy Finau
Shane Mercer
Pyscho Clown
B-Boy
Dustin Thomas
Ruckus




Rumored/Teased:

Eddie Kingston vs. AJ Gray (Eddie Kingston injuried/out)
Atticus Cougar / Matthew Justice (No match scheduled)
Matt Tremont??

[Montana]

Well; in one of GCW’s biggest shows in history they may have alienated a portion of both it’s new and old fans. I’ll start by saying this was a fun , chaotic, roller coaster of a show; kind of like a train wreck; but one that keeps you watching.


Kick Off Show

The battle royal was like half battle royal and half royal rumble. Wasn’t a fan, just felt more like a cluster; with bad camera cuts. May have been better live. Hard to follow on PPV. 2.0

6 Man Scramble – Ninja Mack vs. Shane Mercer vs. Grim Reefer vs. Dante Leon vs. Alex Zayne vs. Jack Cartwheel - Scrambles as always enjoyable for me. I think with all the other stuff going on with the PPV, this was quite a forgettable match. BUT was actually pretty good. Also, I have idea how a major promotion hasn’t picked up Shane Mercer by now. Boggles my mind. I was recommending him to ROH for years. 3.00.

Bret and Chris Dickinson cut a nice promo on how he built GCW from nothing. Then like 10-15 minutes before the PPV starts…. Then the 6 men enter the ring and wait for the PPV to start. (The start of the odd pacing)

Main Show

6 Way Ladder Match - Alex Colon vs. PCO. Vs. Tony Deppen vs. Jordan Oliver vs. jimmy Lloyd, vs. AJ Gray vs. Grim Reefer - Pretty sloppy at points; but very wild. Jordan Oliver looks like a future star, although again, that’s been said for a few years. Tony Deppen looked real good. Horrible looking spot/botch at the end with AJ Gray ; kinda jumping off a huge ladder but not getting any distance and splattering on the top turnbuckle. Guess PCO had a big spot that got cut. Glad no one was seriously hurt. 3.25

Lucha 6 man - Easily match of the night. Must watch, and probably of the year, to date. 4.25


Black Christian vs. Lio Rush - No ROH title match : / , but think Lio Rush was actually probably a better match/fit opponent wise. Second best match of the night. 3.75

(Mostly downhill from here, imo)

Matt Cardona vs. Joey Janela - This was semi-comically overbooked on purpose. Glad Cardona won; but this was something else. 2.0

Mance Warner Return / 44OH segment – Kind of more of what we’ve seen on the last couple with these teams still feuding.

Ruby Soho vs. Allie Katch. I think TK played his card to have Ruby win. Which is part of the problem with booking AEW talent. Wrong person won here. 3.00

Jeff Jarrett vs. Effy - Jarrett looked good here, and seemed like Effy had to win here; if Allie lost, right? Nope. Jeff Jarrett picked up the W; leaving the fans scratching their head; with the assumption that more is coming with JJ and GCW. 3.0

Mox vs. Homicide - Wasn;t a whole lot here. Mostly some stiff shots; and a couple Suplex’s. I was glad this didn’t main event; as it left some intrigue for the Briscoes open challenge. Overall let down for your world title match. 2.75

Briscoes open challenge - The PPV timer strikes again. Probably one of the most disappointing Briscoes matches I’ve ever seen. Cool for OG GCW fans, with Nick Gage returning and a fun entrance…. But felt like Gage was more concern was soaking it in; rather than delivering a good main event. 1.5

Overall 6/10 - Despite a bit sloppy at points, I really enjoyed the first 3 matches. (This is a similar trend to GCW shows I’ve seen) The rest was kinda there. Part celebration of GCW; while some of the newer outside talent went over. In some ways; I think you could compare this to ROH’s G1 Supercard of Honor at MSG. (Which I thought was infinitely better wrestling wise) … although it seems like at least GCW got Nick Gage back for a big return at the end. I assume that left their core fans on a happy note. (ROH had other issues)
While I think this show had a lot of new eyes on the product; I didn’t see many folks happy with their purchase. From what I could tell; the show was worth checking out; but not something they’d want to see again. I think this show would be best live. Which is too bad; because I feel like the company has captured a unique spirit in wrestling that hasn’t been seen/felt for a while. Was hoping for a home run for GCW; and this felt like your home team coming up short in the big game.


The Good
Crowd was Hot all night
The Lucha 6 man was fantastic
Blake Christian vs. Lio Rush was really Good
Scrambles were chaotic mess/fun
Some fun surprises (Thunder Rosa, X-Pac, Sabu)
The Bad
Lack of Gresham / ROH title match (To be fair, they had a solid backup plan)
Extreme over booking in Cardona vs. Janela
Second Half of the show / General timing & pacing.
The Ugly
The main event (Brisoes losing in like 6 minutes)
Home Grown GCW stars losing to outside talent (Allie Katch & Effy)
The Scramble Battle Royal

[Montana]

Was at GCW "The Old Me" over the weekend in Detroit. Very wild/unique show. Loaded with talent; and really a memorable show. Hot crowd, and great venue for wrestling. Hard to gauge the crowd size; but i'd say around 800...which is maybe slightly less than their last show.



Scramble Match: Tony Deppen vs. Jordan Oliver, Billie Starkz, “2 Hot” Steve Scott, & Yoya - 3.75 - I don't watch all of GCW shows, but i thought this was one of the more polished, scramble matches. Had the same intense spamming of big moves; but moves were hit smoothly, and less wild. Yoya jumping off the stage speaker about 20-25 feet to the floor was pretty nuts live.

Alex Shelley vs. Nick Wayne 3.5 - Good back and forth wrestling match.

Chris Dickinson vs. ACH 3.25 -3.5 - Crowd was hot for both guys. Pretty much what you'd expect with these two.

GCW World Tag Team Championships Match: Bussy (Allie Katch & Effy) (c) vs. Gringo Loco & ASF 3.75 - Fun match, good action.

Joey Janela vs. Bandido 4.25 - Probably the best match of the night. At least best "wrestling" match. Janela, who has a foot injury... went hard in this match. Bandido was on point; and Janela kept up. Big spot from the stage to the apron that was quite cool.

Minoru Suzuki vs. 2 Cold Scorpio 3.25 - Very cool to see Suzuki live; and a pretty solid match against 2 Cold Scorpio. In their prime i'd imagine this is 1000X better, but they brought the fight all things considered.

GCW Ultraviolent Championship Match: John Wayne Murdoch (c) vs. ‘Hoodfoot’ Mo Atlas - 2.5 - I'll start with i'm not a deathmatch guy, but even still, this wasn't anywhere close to Hoodfoot vs Colon at the last Detroit show.


TNT Extreme Championship Match: Alex Colon (c) vs. Jimmy Lloyd 3.0 - Again, not for me; but they did a bit more than Murdoch and Hoodfoot. They basically used these matches to set up the rematch with Colon/Murdoch, which is fine.

High Incident scaffold Match: The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) vs. Second Gear Crew (Mance Warner & Matthew Justice) 4.25-4.5 - I never ever thought i'd see a live Scaffold match. Let alone; like front row; 5-10 feet from the action. I haven't seen all the scaffold matches, but i'm going to go out on a limb and say this was the best match/brawl of a scaffold match, prior to the finale/climax. They did some nasty chair shots; and broke a handful of table. They also broke so many tables there wasn't multiple tables to break the fall. It was one table in the ring with a guy laying on it. I also feel lke the climax is everything in this match. I didn't love the result of the match, but the ending was pretty awesome. Where do they go from here?? I don't know.... but an awesome finish to a great show.


Hard to rate this show, but i'll give it a solid 8/10 for me. It's certainly going to be a show i'll never forget. Probably a top 5 show i've attended, in terms of memorable stuff. Can certainly do without the death matches; but everything else was really good. Highly recommend checking out some twitter gifs of some of the big spots on this show.

[kovs27]

Briscoes are off the GCW shows for this weekend due to a family emergency.

[Montana]

Went to GCW's D.O.A. on Thursday... I came in with low expectations, as the card wasn't really built for me. I thought we could see 2--5 death matches, and we got 4 death matches (sort of) This show switched from Harpo's (Larger concert venue) back to the knights of columbus (small hall) It was also booked kinda last minute. Tickets went on sale about 3-4 weeks ahead of time. Unfortunately attendance was way down from about 800 to 200. Different venue, plus the last show had Suzuki, Brisoces, Janela, Bandido, ACH, Dickinson, etc.

This was more of a "B" show; but i'd say in some ways it exceeded expectations by a lot. I thought the first half was great. I love the non-death match GCW. The first scramble match, was quite sloppy for the first minute or so; BUT they recovered and it was quite fun.

Christian Blake vs. Uncle Chase Bennett was a lot of fun. Blake didn't get half the crowd response, as i thought, but he did come out in a black mask.

Ninja Mack and Calvin Tankman was solid. Alex Shelly vs. Nick Wayne vs. Jordan Oliver was very good. Announced a rematch next time in Detroit of MCMG vs. Oliver/Wayne. Crowd was hyped. Was kinda hoping Sabin would just walk out, but saving that for another show i guess.

The surprising match of the night, was SGC vs. Horror Slam. This was a wild hardcore match, all over the small venue. Felt like this match had everything. The Horrorslam guys were pretty impressive. (Them and Chase Bennett were the most surprising / best part of the show) Ironically Matthew Justice has been in like 3 of the favorite matches in the 3 GCW shows i've attended. I will say he puts his body on the line. Dude takes and gives some hard shots.

Then intermission and the rest of the show was deathmatches. I thought about leaving, but wanted to see Cole Raddick, and Shane Mercer. Was kinda hoping they weren't death matches. The other thing about death matches i don't like, is they basically just spam light tube shots for 10 minutes. Where's the build up; and drama, when you know there's 20 or more tubes in the ring and they are breaking all of them. Plus just the creativity lacks. (Unlike the SGC/Horrorslam hardcore match)

The show started back with Hoodfoot and Slade. About a minute or less into the match; Both took a broken light tube and were stabbing each other. Surprise, surprise, Hoodfoot got a awful cut, and thank god they stopped the match right away; and got him medical attention. said it took 40 internal and external staples to close him up. I thought there was a chance he could die, that's how bad it was. Pretty scary stuff. Which is why i don't like death matches.... but glad Bret (owner) jumped in; and handled things best they could.

Another intermission (GCW did not scale back upon returning)

Started back with Mercer vs. Akira. First time seeing Akira. Thought both were pretty impressive. neither seem like they "need" the death match gimmick. Awesome finish the match. Moonsault slam through a slam of barb wire.

ALex colon vs. Dale Patricks - Patricks return to GCW, i do believe. Kinda what you'd expect for a Colon death match. Patricks looked pretty good for being away a bit.

Last but not least Cole Raddick vs. Ciclope vs. Miedo Extremo ... wanted to see these guys and this was probably the best death match of the night. I liked they put some wrestling , technique into the match, and some bigger spots.

All 3 death matches were pretty similar but different enough to have it not be exactly the same. Probably the least best of the 3 GCW live shows i've been to; but think this exceeded expectations based on the card.

Hard to rate, but i'd probably go 7/10. If you like death matches, it would probably be even higher, if you don't, it would probably be lower.