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SECOND GCW THE WRLD ON GCW PPV REPORT

By Ben LeDoux on 2022-01-24 21:59:00

The Wrld on GCW Road Report

It was hard to sleep knowing that I would get to be in the Hammerstein Ballroom! I have literally traveled around the world knocking buildings off my bucket list over the last 7 years. Tokyo Dome, Korakuen Hall, York Hall, Full Sail, Rosement Horizon, American Legion Hall, ECW Arena, all checked off the list. The last few venues on the list are a bit harder due to travel restrictions or just last of shows. But Game Changer Wrestling changed that when they announced the Hammerstein. The history in this building, Guilty as Charged 2001, the One Night Stands, Final Battles, all shaped my wrestling fandom in different ways and made the venue that much more special to a kid growing up in the Rocky Mountains.

Our day started a bit weird with the hotel completely losing power but we made it through a quick workout before getting the shuttle to the airport and then heading into New York on the train. Having just been in New York a few months ago for Survivor Series, there wasn’t much we had plans to see but Gino’s Pizza in Brooklyn is always a must so we stopped by for some Chicken Parm pizza and then walked to the Hammerstein.

Walking into the building gave me absolute goosebumps. We were some of the first people in and got to sit down at our seats and watch everyone else file in and see the venue fill up with people. The exposed brick backdrop on the stage combined with the big screen was simple but absolutely worked for the GCW atmosphere and also allowed them to fit in a lot more people. The way the building is set up is so unique, the bathrooms and merch booths were downstairs underneath the show and then there were different areas to get to the different levels which were still just regular chairs rather than stadium style seats. 

The ECW style shirts that GCW have been putting out combined with Stephen DeAngelis walking out and getting ready for the show instantly made me feel a tinge of nostalgia and the goosebumps immediately started again. The second he got on the mic to announce participants for the pre-show battle royal had me losing my mind!

Big Vin won the battle royal

They started off with a big battle royal to get everyone on the card. Psycho Clown was the first person out and tried to hype up the crowd but I am unsure if a lot of people knew who he was. They ran through a lot of people really quick and not a lot really happened in this. Some notable people who popped up in the match were a returning Brandon Kirk, Ruckus with Robbie Moreno, Thunder Rosa, LuFisto, and Nate Webb which allowed all of us to belt out Teenage Dirtbag. There were a lot of others but I apologize as I was enjoying hearing Emil and Stephen trade off announcing people and then also watching action in the HAMMERSTEIN FREAKING BALLROOM that my notes and memory were a bit fuzzzy. Lots of eliminations happened to get us down to Charles Mason and Big Vin. Big Vin nearly got eliminated before goozling Mason and picking him up for a chokeslam but then just dropping him over the ropes to the floor. 

Grim Reefer beat Alex Zayne, Dante Leon, Shane Mercer, Jack Cartwheel, and Ninja Mack

The first big nostalgiac pop of the night was for Grim Reefer. Everyone in the match was over coming out but everyone showed up to cheer Grim Reefer when he came out. Alex Zayne was last out and was sporting a new look, he was nearly unrecognizable walking out and the crowd reacted as such. There were so many high risk moves during this match and everyone reacted huge for them. Being in the front row I can confirm that Grim Reefer lights up a VERY potent blunt during his spots. And him lighting up and hitting a double jump somersault to the outside had everyone going crazy. Every person in this match put their all into it. Reefer’s DDT from the top rope onto Mercer was ridiculous and gets him the win. Match finished with Grim Reefer going over.

With about twenty minutes before show start, Brett Lauderdale and Chris Dickinson came out. Dickinson’s spot here feels very remiscent to RVD coming out on the first One Night Stand. You could tell how much this show meant to Dickinson and how much he wanted to be on it. Definitely a heartbreaker and you have to hope this show was successful enough that there will be a future one for him to get the big pop on. There was a loud “Dirty Daddy” chant during the battle royal with people hoping he would be a surprise entrant.

Brett cuts a heartfelt promo and talks about how when he started GCW he was working two delivery jobs while his daughter sat in the car. He talks about the infamous “I’ve seen a million GCWs’ come and go” before pointing out to the giant mass of fans filling every corner of the Hammerstein and says there is only one GCW. It definitely amps the crowd up and nothing he said was wrong, GCW is the top independent promotion in the United States right now and it will be interesting to see where they go from here. I’ve been hesitating on making this comparison for the last few shows but I keep comparing a lot of the promotions to ECW’s rise. This was very much GCW’s Barely Legal moment. Defied other peoples’ beliefs, rose from a small fanbase, and made it to a giant show with a great build and packed arena. As long as they can continue to grow, not lose their key talent (which doesn’t seem like a problem at this stage whereas you can say going into 97 for ECW, that decline had already started to happen), and make smart booking decisions, GCW is nowhere near what their potential ceiling is as a company and really has room to keep going. 

Brett shows a memorial video of the people who couldn’t be there showing Tracy Smothers, Justice Pain, Nate Hatred, Danny Havoc, and Markus Crane. Watching Brett’s emotion as each face comes up shows just how much this family means to him and what many of these guys who helped contribute to the rise of his career and this promotion mean to him. You can tell him trying to give back and have these guys remembered meant so much on such a big show.

They really did not seem to want a lull to finish off the pre-show before they went live as Brett was checking his phone for times. Although at one point there was a funny moment where he stopped mid-promo and may have been reading a text where some of us were joking asking if we were interrupting anything. The passion he and Dickinson gave during this time just built the crowd up even more with anticipation for the show starting and Dickinson proclaiming a return in Dallas at The Collective blew the roof off the place. 

As the show started, I had this feeling that I’ve only gotten a few times at a wrestling show. It was this weird feeling that I knew I was seeing something special. People watching on the television can say whatever they want about the card but being in a building and knowing that what your seeing has the potential to only happen once for you, for the talent, for the promotion is unreal. I have only had this feeling being a kid walking into a WWF house show in 92, live for my first WrestleMania in San Jose, Nakamura’s debut promo on the video screen while I was at Full Sail, walking into the Tokyo Dome the first time, and getting to my seats at All In. This moment as the Pay-Per-View intro started, my body had almost a numbing, tingling feeling that I am pretty sure was not a stroke. 

Brass Ring Ladder Match: AJ Gray beat Tony Deppen, PCO, Alex Colon, Jordan Oliver, G-Raver, and Jimmy Lloyd

All of the guys were introduced before the Pay-Per-View started and surrounded the outside of the ring aside from Gray. Once the show started and the match was about to start did Gray’s music hit to a big reaction from the crowd. These ladders were 100% not meant for this match and attempting to do double sided ladder spots made things hard as you could see the side not meant to be climbed bending under their feet. At one point you could see G-Raver super tentative about going up that wrong side. Gray took a nasty looking fall onto another ladder from the ladder he was trying to jump off of. Nevertheless, crazy moves all around which definitely started the show right. Jimmy Lloyd randomly ran to the back right after this which was kind of weird as he didn’t return with anything but managed to stop Colon from grabbing the brass ring as I assume Colon was stunned and wondering the same thing about Lloyd as all of us. Colon ended up getting stopped by Lloyd and put outside. Colon gets blindsided by John Wayne Murdoch to take him out of the match and inevitably continue their absolutely amazing feud and I guess makes you wonder if Lloyd was signaling Murdoch which is why he ran back (Or of course potentially Murdoch was late but lets not live in that world but if so, thanks Jimmy Lloyd). Gray had a few seconds of issues attempting to get the brass ring down (Don’t we all) before unlatching it and raising it high above for all to see.

Gringo Loco, Arez, and Demonic Flamita beat Bandido, Laredo Kid, and ASF

Poor Stephen DeAngelis. Someone gave him the names backwards causing him to make a small gaff and you could 100% tell he was upset about the mistake. As a person who watched 90s Lucha and Puro with nothing more than a match list and attempting to figure out who is who, I feel your pain and it happens. This match though. I think everyone coming into it knew that if the lucha match was going to be a show stealer as it always is when it comes to GCW (or hell, any promotion booking all of these guys at this point) but did this deliver in spades. Matches with this many fast-moving risk takers is like auditory overload. Bandido getting launched out of the ring via a springboard where ASF and Bandido tugged on the ropes to launch him up to ASF getting insane hangtime from Bandido and landing into a hurricanrana on the completely justified in his monikor Base God Laredo Kid to the Arez and Demonic Flamita stereo moonsault sequence, these are just a small portion of things they did in this match and if you asked every person in the building they would likely have a different spot in the match they would pick out as their favorite. At the end it looked like Gringo Loco was trying to reverse out of something from ASF on the top rope and it didn’t quite pan out, Loco smoothly transitioned from his attempt to recover and give ASF a piledriver to finish the match. I think the crowd was trying to process whatever happened at the end when the finish came so it fell a bit flat but not a single person in this match should be disappointed with the quality of that match as the old saying high-risk, high-reward always has that little talked about other side that is bound to happen. Easily the match of the night.

Blake Christian beat Lio Rush

Conspicuous by his absence from the match he was originally scheduled in, Lio Rush stepped in at the last second to replace a missing-in-action Jonathan Gresham. I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely gutted to not see the original Ring of Honor championship worn down the ramp at the Hammerstein and see a traditional Ring of Honor-style technical title match but this match delivered in a different way. Instead of being trading submissions or a game of human chess in the traditional sense of targeting limbs and locking on holds, this match ended up being based around how well these two men know each other with the beginning starting off with Blake Christian mapping the exact steps he knew Lio would take to throw Lio off his game and make him switch it up a bit which created a very unique match. One line someone behind me said which I have to bring up because it stuck out was when Lio went outside the ring, someone said “Don’t let him be out there too long, he might retire!” A low blow to Lio in that sense but I have to admit that the stuttering of his career makes it hard to get invested in him anywhere. He seems to be a nice guy from what I can tell and is wonderful in the ring but the inconsistency really hurts in some cases. He has his views and opinions though and I have to respect him standing up for his beliefs. Action stayed fast-paced and made for some incredible moments that wowed the crowd. Finish came with an incredible 450 foot stomp to give Christian the win and keep his momentum going.

Matt Cardona beat Joey Janela

Cardona was absolutely hated by the crowd. It likely didn’t help that his entrance started off with the Sandman theme but changed to a remixed version as Matt and Chelsea entered. He and Chelsea got the most abuse from anyone in the night. Joey came out to a heroes welcome from the crowd and ate up his reaction to the hilt. The match wasn’t so much about moves or anything fancy but about both men playing off of the reactions and just fighting each other. Chelsea gave Matt a low blow to the shock the crowd and then went to the ring apron as if to show Joey she was on his side but hit him with a low blow as Matt revealed that he had a cup on. Joey later on went to hit Matt with the Internet Championship only for Smart Mark Sterling to appear and tell Joey the fine print of the contract said that he would be disqualified if he hit Matt with the title. This didn’t stop Matt from using the belt to his advantage though which angered the crowd. Mark then decided he was going to bring out Vince and which point “No Chance In Hell” came out and and a man in a Vinnie Mac mask came out seeming confused. The confusion made sense when the mask came off and Vince ended up being Vincent as in Virgil. As the match went on it was clear that the group who put this match together watched Hardcore Heaven 97 with Dreamer versus Lawler as the surprises kept on coming with Swoggle grabbing Joey’s leg from underneath the ring and getting pulled out to be revealed. He ends up in the ring with the giant Sam Stackhouse and is just like “welp, I’m screwed” as he gets laid out by Stackhouse and set up for something in the corner. Nobody gives Swoggle enough credit for just how great his one-liners are during matches so here is his credit, Swoggle is verbally entertaining in the ring. But my personal favorite moment of the match (and likely this persons too) was the Rick Rude reveal of the mysterious figure in the motorcycle helmet popping up and laying out Joey to be revealed as Brian Myers. Myers was happier than a pig in sh** in this moment as he did his Tommy Dreamer arm pose (Had to be Dreamer because he had some emotion in it) and for the people who don’t keep up with Myers, this was absolutely a bucket list item for him to as he is a die-hard ECW fan who always dreamed of doing something in this building and I was so happy for him. This finishes off Joey and makes the guys with the “If Cardona Wins We Riot” sheet in the balcony put up or shut up. If anyone is curious, they immediately rolled up the sheet after the finish and allowed everyone to throw their drinks instead. As for the drink throwing, visually appealing but as someone in the first row, I think I received more random liquids on me than Cardona. The schmoz at the end was great as at some point Marko Stunt appeared and fought with Swoggle and X-Pac evened up the odds from Joey getting double teamed by Cardona and Myers.

A quick aside in discussing this match with others including Mean Mark is the disconnect between viewing patterns. My (and others I talked about it with) immediate thought when Myers came out in the motorcycle helmet was Rick Rude spot but others, including Mean Mark, called it the Edge spot from One Night Stand. Both were obviously right but it just shows that simple spots repeated can harken back to memories of different times for everyone. Nevertheless, some people potentially saw this as the wrong finish but I don’t think it was. Definitely not the most shocking finish of the night in retrospect. I expect we see Janela/X-Pac/Stunt Vs. Myers/Cardona/Swoggle soon, potentially at Spring Break in Dallas.

Sabu, Mance Warner, and Matthew Justice beat Atticus Cogar, Kit Osbourne and Gregory Iron

Mance came out to a monsterous ovation. Old school guy who loved that 90s era getting his reaction at the Hammerstein again just warms the heart. He similarly to Dickinson began to talk about how much the show meant to him but was quickly cut off by Atticus Cogar who received his normal level of supporters but also a lot of hate. I’ll be interested on watching this back as some of those camera techniques that ECW innovated for their shows would look great here with entrances. Cogar craps on the moment for ole’ Mancer and gets in the ring but Mancer said while he wasn’t cleared he wanted a fight and went right after Cogar to the crowd’s enjoyment. That enjoyment quickly died as Osbourne and Iron hit the ring and beat down Mance until “Walk” by Pantera hit along with the whistles and Matthew Justice hit the ring to even up the odds. The lights went out and from the side popped in a mysterious figure before the lights came back on and Sabu was pointing to the sky in joggers, his headdress, and a mask to protect him from the unclean masses. This somehow turns into a VERY short match with Mance, Sabu, and Justice pinning Cogar and then posing inside the ring while Fonzie blew his whistle on the ropes. 

I know people are probably getting sick of my ECW comparisons for this show but again, the unscheduled match, the lights going out and Sabu appearing, Fonzie’s whistle, and “Walk” by Pantera playing, they had me thinking how great it would have been to be at an ECW show and just making me happy that this type of nostalgia is still popping up. Personal opinion though, I would have preferred an extended Sandman entrance to a Sabu surprise (Although the main event wouldn’t have been) but I take what I can get. 

Ruby Soho beat Allie Katch

I can’t tell if this match is where people started to realize they might be running short on time and they worked to try to shorten everything up but starting with this match things just got weird. This match was good and Ruby and Allie had some great exchanges. Nobody saw the Ruby win coming and definitely didn’t expect the finish to happen when it did. Match felt short and like it never truly got going. Crowd chanted bullsh** at the finish because so many people were expecting Allie to win. 

Jeff Jarrett beat Effy

See above. Jarrett got some unbelievable hate from the crowd and being an old Memphis boy ate it up and knew exactly what to do. Effy got a tremedous ovation from the crowd and similarly ate up his entrance. Match started off quick and absolutely violent. The big thing about this match was Jarrett using the belt and beating the ever-loving tar out of Effy with it. At one point a referee appeared through the stage and took a ridiculously hard hit from Jarrett that had me wincing from the other side of the ring. I don’t think there was any question that Jarrett was not going to put on a highly technical match but coming from a territory like Memphis, he used every psychological trick in the book to put be the meanest guy in the building and have the fans begging for Effy to get back in the fight, which he did and they loved. Effy got hold of the belt and delivered lashings right back to Jarrett, even appearing to catch in the face one time. Jarrett wasn’t cutting any time and was getting his stuff in but another surprising finish, Jarrett caught Effy with the guitar and hit the Stroke to finish him off. Crowd again shocked at another of their favorites losing and deflated them a bit. Rather than the crowd giving Jarrett hate, it felt like many of them just felt defeated.

GCW Championship Match: Jon Moxley beat Homicide

The beginning of Homicide’s music is still one of my favorite things in wrestling. Homicide gets a great ovation coming out to the ring and even seems to take a minute to stare out at the Hammerstein crowd. Moxley out next and bee lines to the ring. Introductions happen and this match, I don’t know, it just felt like they tried to fit an epic match into a very condensed time frame. It just didn’t feel like either guy was here and reminded me of that Mox/Lesnar match from Mania from a few years ago where it felt just phoned in. This is definitely not what you would be expecting for a match that so many people were looking forward to like Mox and Homicide. Felt like Mox hit three Paradigm Shifts in a few minutes with Homicide kicking out of two but not on the third. This is definitely the risk of traditional Pay-Per-View as similar to what happened with All In years ago, it threw the show off. 

GCW Tag Team Championship Match: Nick Gage and Matt Tremont beat The Briscoes

The Briscoes came out and with them placed in the main event spot, people knew that whoever their opponents were would be big. Many fans who were looking at a larger “who in the wrestling world would face the Briscoes” put out known teams like FTR, Rock N’ Roll Express, House of Black, while the die-hard GCW fans were confident this would somehow have Nick Gage in it. When Tremont’s music hit first, everybody knew exactly what was going to happen next. MONSTEROUS MDK chants erupted from the crowd and a few seconds later Dewey Donovan appeard on the ramp surrounded by the masses waiting for Gage. “For Whom The Bell Tolls” hit and Gage was on the ramp and fighting his way through the mass of humanity to get to the ring. Typically (and I imagine this was how it was originally planned) Gage would have had that Sandman entrance that went through his entire song and hyped up/got hyped up by the fans before getting into the ring with an electric crowd chanting “MDK” and also got his Emil Jay intro but none of that here. Every guy in the ring seemed pissed and even the finish felt confusing. I don’t want to say this was disappointing but I think for everyone involved (fans, the wrestlers, the promotion), the match was disappointing because of the limitations running on Pay-Per-View creates. 

Gage cut a promo in the ring as the show was going off the air and everyone came into the ring for the PBR beer bash. The end became a celebration of all of the hard work everyone put into the promotion and this show and the guys celebrated in style. I waded in the opposite direction of all of the fans attempting to leave in order to try and get a few pictures with certain people and managed to get one with Dewey Donovan who I remember first seeing as the abusive manager of the Briscoes in CZW in 2001 and Nate Webb who I still think of every time I hear Wheatus thinking back to the first Ted Petty Invitationals’ I got from Smart Mark Video.

This show really got hurt by the the time limitation as an extra hour would have probably made this one of those shows you’re forever talking about with the big moments that could have happened like a giant Nick Gage entrance or an amazing GCW Title match. Unfortunately it seemed like we received a rushed second half of the card where the big matches (outside of Janela/Cardona) felt stunted. It will be interesting to see what the PPV buyrate is to see if it was even worth it to do that as I imagine a Fite TV would have had no issues with an overrun of an hour if needed (I assume but don’t know). In the grand scheme of things though, I don’t think this call kills any momentum as it likely just allows GCW to not make the Pay-Per-View decision again and ramp up the cards for The Collective in Texas (along with their other shows they’ll be running over the next two months). 

Leaving the show was really simple and we were with an Uber within about ten minutes over to The Kingsland for New Fear City’s no-ring deathmatch show. I wish I could say more about this but it definitely felt oversold and they were holding off until they got every person they could into the tiny bar. They started out with go-go dancers at 12:30 AM (Doors opened at 11 PM and show was supposed to start at 12 AM so we had been there about 90 minutes before anything happened) and then the matches started at 1 AM. There was a small stage so the first match (Hoodfoot versus Bryan Keith) brawled through the giant crowd creating pockets for them to fight in but made it so the majority of people had no idea what was going on. I ended up with a good view because I’m small and find ways to end up in front of the action but Mean Mark didn’t have the same luck. Both Hoodfoot and Bryan Keith are great performers and this match was fun. Unfortunately after this match they decided to pause the show for a reset and a promise to bring the go-go dancers back out “in a bit” but Mark had seen enough and was ready to go which I went ahead with. 

There are ways to run no ring deathmatches to make it fun and entertaining but unfortunately (for fans but fortunate for the promoter) seemed to have too much interest and if you were there to see the wrestling and not to party or drink, it made it harder to enjoy. Not anything against the promoter, definitely understand wanting a good crowd and to make some money but the late night and visibility issues didn’t appeal after the long wait.

And with that, the first leg of the trip is over. Solid weekend of wrestling, great stories to be told, and I even somehow managed to get the Good Brother airplane taxi to my gate in Newark from the TSA Pre-check line(Don’t ask me, still have no idea why the insisted we get on it. Part of me thought I was going to get frisked in a back room). A quick show in Denver Tuesday night and then I will follow up from St. Louis at the Royal Rumble with the potential of getting into a Jeff Jarrett/Eric Bischoff live show and meet and greet beforehand. Maybe I can ask Jarrett his thoughts on GCW and if anything was said about time going into his match. Thanks for reading and I look forward to following up on the next leg! 

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