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LOW KI VS. LIO RUSH, RICH SWANN & MORE: 4/9 VIOLENCE X SUFFERING 'LUCID DREAMS' REPORT FROM TAMPA, FL

CORY STRODE REPORTING:

GCW Presents Violence x Suffering Lucid Dreams 

We are less than 2 minutes into the show and we've had 5 f bombs dropped, so...not for kids.  It;'s a show starting at midnight, and the ring is bathed in blue light as the announcer hypes the crowd up.  

Our announcers are J-Train and Scott Sweeney.  

Rich Swann vs KTB

Swann dances on his way to the ring with the song “All Night Long”.  He grabs the mic and calls out a fan for calling him Fake Kofi. He says Tony Deppen is injured, so instead he issues an open challenge. KTB answers the challenge.

Announcers were on the side of Swann, and the story of the match was smaller, quicker guy vs the bigger power house.  Swann worked from underneath most of the match, and KTB just could not get the three count. The problem with this was that the ref didn't even TRY for a third count on many of the early pins. The match worked well as an opener, and Swann looked great trying to figure out how to gain an advantage as KTB showed exasperation with being unable to put Swann away.  Swann is able to get the win with a pin after a spin kick followed by a Phoenix splash. 

Winner- Rick Swann

An after-match handshake and KTB raising Swann's hand in victory. As Swann leaves we see most of the chairs are full for a show starting this late. 

The ring announcer hypes the crowd again, trying to get more noise and energy from them. 

Sam Laterna joins the commentary and they point out that Masha Slamovich is at ringside. 

Pure Rules Match: Daniel Garcia vs AJ Gray with Nikoli White

The announcing changes up, not as much hype and chatter and instead analysis and calling holds.  Personally, I liked this much more than the style of the first match.

The first section of the match was mat wrestling between the two, and after Garcia's first rope break, it became more of a striking contest with slams and strikes.  After Gray uses a rope break, they move back to the mat work to slow down the pace.  The story seems to be that Garcia is a mat worker and Gray is more of a striker with big moves.  Garcia's second rope break leads to him having control of the match, trying to put Gray into submission holds. 

After a long back and forth,Gray has to reach for his second rope break, and that fires Garcia up, but Gray stops him with a clothesline and a pin that Garcia's man on the outside grabs him hand and puts it on the ropes for his third rope break. As it goes, the announcers put over that the two men are not being good sportsmen as the match goes on. and they are out of rope breaks. The victory comes to Garcia as he locks in a STF and Gray has to tap out.

Your winner: Daniel Garcia

Garcia takes a while to let go of the hold.  Nikolai White gets in Garcia's face and gets a spike pile driver from Garcia for doing so. He then puts White in a sharpshooter until his second tells him to break the hold. Garcia then gives a pile driver to his second and put him in the sharpshooter. Masha then enters the ring to tell Garcia to break the hold. Her and Garcia argue when Garcia goes to attack, she is able to drive him out of the ring, attempting to pile drive Garcia.

They announce that Masha has signed with VXS, and they will be signing more women to the promotion.

A solid pure rules match with a clash of styles that worked to make it interesting. Both men came out of it looking good.

5-on-5 Elimination Match: Gabriel Skye, TJ Crawford, Ken Broadway, Myron Reed and Dante Leon (Team Violence and Suffering) vs KC Navarro, MV Young, Marcus Mathers, Ninja Mack and Andy Brown (Team Blessed)

The structure of the match early on was that everyone was fighting, and while most people fought outside the ring, in the ring we'd have two people trading high spots. It then becomes different pairs brawling through the crowd away from the ring, and into the darkness.  

After a leap off the wall around the parking lot, the match moves back toward the ring with a couple of men putting on a more traditional match with brawling outside the ring. Andy Young is the first eliminated, followed by Gabriel Sky, making it 4 on 4. Dante Leon is pinned and he's out. They seem to just have one on one in the ring at any time and we don't see any brawling outside the ring. Andy Brown is pinned next, Followed by Ken Broadway. 

KC Navarro is out next. TJ Crawford gets double teamed for the next sequence. Ninja Mack gets pinned by TJ and we're back to one on one. Crawford is eliminated and we are now down to the last two men.

Marcus Mather vs Myron Reed for the last two standing, and then spend their time trading big moves and Myron Reed gets the win for his team with a Death Valley Driver followed by a pin.

Your winners: Violence and Suffering

The first half of the match where people were brawling all around was better for the crowd than the TV audience, but once it went to the ring, it was a well done series of pins. No one stood out, but everyone got to be showcased. The announcing team from the first match was back, but they paid more attention to the action in the ring rather than wandering off onto side discussions.  

Brian Cage vs Chris Dickinson 

Sounds like they are changing up the announce team for each match. They let us know that Dickinson has had multiple matches tonight and is coming into this one beat up.

They fist bump before the match. Cage works on the lkeg of Dickinson as the announcers remind us that he's had that worked over in previous matches this weekend.  Dickinson gets busted open on the forehead as they go from brawling outside the ring to back working in the ring. Dickinson is working like a big man, but he is smaller than Cage.  Dickinson is in charge of the match as they go back outside and Dickinson stomps on a plank on to Cage's arm which looks like it hurts, but Cage shrugs it off.  They return the ring and Cage goes back to working the legs.  The rest of the match is them trading back and forth.  Cage is able to lock in the figure four and Dickinson has to tap out.

Your winner: Brian Cage

A solid Big Man match where Cage kept going back to the lef of Dickinson seeing that he was limping on the way to the ring.  Cage helps Dickinson up and they show respect.  Announcing was great for this match, selling the moves, telling the story, and givign background on both guys.

Eli Everfly vs Too Cold Scorpio Lucha Roles

Too Cold dances to Jungle Boogie through the crowd shaking hands and fist bumping and looking as if he's having the time of his life. 

Too Cold is a head taller than Eli. Scorpio doesn't take Eli seriously due to the size difference in the early part of the match. When Eli starts getting in his offense, Scorpio does what he can to make it look like Eli is able to take him down. Quickly, Scorpio takes control of the match as the announcers try to put over the Scorpio isn't taking Eli seriously. Scorpio is able to score the pin after a somersault leg drop front the second rope.

Your winner: Too Cold Scorpio

This match just didn't work in my opinion.  Eli was too small to realistically pull off the moves, Scorpio seemed a step off through most of the match and they worked too slow for it to be called Lucha Style.

Jimmy Lloyd vs Jordan Oliver 

Announcers put over that they trained together and they start by simply throwing hands. They quickly go outside and we have a chair and blood. And yes, they have chairshots to the head.

PLEASE QUIT DOING CHAIRSHOTS TO THE HEAD.

They brawl through the match. No finesse or holds.  The announcers spend more time chatting and talking about themselves than talking about the match. I know some people like this, but the match just didn't work for me as I had no idea why these guys would want to do such violence to each other, and the announcers didn't bring me into why they would go after each other with chear to the point where they both busted each other open.

Lloyd gets the pin after a blatant low blow.

Your winner: Jimmy Lloyd

Lloyd is heading to the back, and Oliver attacks him and they brawl to the back.

No Disqualification Match: JTG vs Dr. Cube

So this is a no DQ match, what was the last one?  That last match just threw me out of the card, which is a shame, since I was liking it until the Too Cold Scorpio match.  Hopefully, this will bring me back.

The match starts with JTG leaps over the top rope on Cube's people outside the ring. The story of the match was JTG being able to just beat the crap out of Cube, but Cube's people interfered to keep JTG from winning. 

The announcers are upset with the ref for allowing interference when it's a No DQ match. 

When then have Cube's people bring in boards, light tubes and the rest for the match. After being hit with light bulbs.   JTG is bleeding from the back and he powers up.  Cube's people beat him down again and as Cube has his people holding JTG, Big Cass comes from the back to clean house.  Cass goes to the back and we're left with Cube and JTG fighting in the ring one on one.  

Cube pours out a bag of thumbtacks, but JTG is able to intercept him and slam Cube onto the repeatedly and then covers Cxube for the three count.

Your winner: JTG

The announcing for this match was terrible in my opinion, with just a series of catch phrases shouted over the match.  

Main Event: Low Ki vs Lio Rush 

They start by giving each other a fist bump in the ring. The story of the match is that Lio was fighting with speed and Low Ki was fighting with power.  Their gear was interesting with Lio dressed as a superhero and Low Ki dressed as a hit man.  

These guys worked a solid, even match. Low Ki wins with a double stomp and a cover for a three count.

Your winner: Low Ki

Joey Janela was one of the announcers, so he told Low Ki stories and worked in a lot of jokes in his commentary. The match itself was OK. Both guys worked hard, and since it was after 3:30 am, they didn't go long.  Nothing special to it, and I would call it a strong house card type match. 

My impression of the show:

The video work was excellent for this show, really making you feel close to the action all night. The crowd was into it as well.  The problem was that the matches just fell apart for the second half after a strong first half. The announcers switching out didn't help either, since some good announcing and some truly terrible calls where announcers were shouting, swearing and repeating the same phrases over and over that had nothing to do with the match.  

In the announce booth, Sam Laterna came off the best by far. She kept her partner on task, sold the story and the moves and did the best job of bringing the viewer into the show.

The show was building until the Two Cold Scorpio match and then just fell apart.  The hardcore match lost me due to the chair shots, unnecessary blood and awful commentary, and it never seemed to get back on track for me.  

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