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GCW: For The Culture 4
Commentary is by Darrien Bergstron and D-Lo Brown
We start with a scramble match: Ashton Starr vs Ju Dizz vs Keita Murray vs Darius Carter vs Terry Yaki vs Devon Monroe vs Faye Jackson
Darius starts the match by yelling at the other wrestlers, so he’s the one who gets beaten down and clotheslined out of the ring. Within two minutes it becomes two at a time for the most part. Each participant gets a spotlight to show the kind of work they do. The way the match is structured, one person comes in from the floor, gets a flurry of offense until the person they are fighting rolls out of the ring, and then the next person comes in and does the same. As such it's spot/spot/spot.
The match ends with Devon Monroe hitting a spinning leap off the top onto Ju Dizz, and Darius Carter, who had played the heel through the match, comes in and steals the pin and the win.
Winner: Darius Carter
For a starting match, it was a good introduction for the show, and gave a lot of fast action. The crowd was hot for the match even though the show started at Midnight.
Willie Mack vs Billy Dixon in an anything goes match
Billy grabs a chair right as the match starts, and then he gets doors and slides them into the ring, and the brawl starts on the floor. Willie plays to the crowd after every move, and the man has incredible charisma.
They return to the ring and throw hands. Billy takes control and he is the one to start with weapons, using a chair. It’s not long until he uses chairs to set up one of the doors. However, Willie is able to put him through the door after they brawl in the corner as Willie power bombs him and then he gets a quick frog splash. Willie sets up a door in the corner and Billy spears him through it.
The broken parts of the door are quickly pulled from the ring. After Willie gets a stunner on Billy, they go back to brawling on the outside, and chairs enter the picture again. Willie slams Billy into a chair on the floor and he then rolls Billy into the ring. When they get in the ring, Willie goes for a stunner, but Billy is able to get a backslide for the pin and the win.
Winner: Billy Dixon
For an Anything Goes match, they spent the match brawling, and the end was a shock to the crowd. Both men looked utterly gassed by the end.
Team The World: AC Mack, Jeffrey John, Joseline Navarro, Lucky Ali & Suge D vs Team West Coast: The Conglomerate (Alpha Zo & Midas Kreed), G. Sharpe, Kenny King & Mazzerati
It’s being fought under the Survival Series rules.
The story they set up is that Team West Coast is more cohesive while Team The World is more of a group of individuals. The match moves through sets of pairings where everyone has similar styles with the brawls fighting the brawlers, high-flier vs high-fliers.
Suge and Kenny, who are the team leaders, have a great segment where Suge keeps trying for shoulder tackles over and over while Kenny King doesn’t fall, so Suge keeps trying. It really sets a tone for the two teams where one is unmovable and the other won’t give up. Suge finally is able to knock Kenny down after a kick.
After that sequence the tag team siren goes off and everyone is brawling in the ring. It spills onto the floor where we get a series of big leaps into the brawl. After the third big leap it returns to one on one in the ring and we start getting eliminations. The way they set it up is that the two sides stay even with an elimination on each side leading to one on the other side.
When it becomes two on two, King and Alpha Zo quickly roll up Mack and Suge for the pin and the win.
Winners: Team West Coast: The Conglomerate (Alpha Zo & Midas Kreed), G. Sharpe, Kenny King & Mazzerati
They were able to work around my biggest problem with multi-man matches by having it be under Survivor Series rules, and I think that structure helped put the match together and clarify things as it went on. The downside was that once the eliminations started, it became a predictable match.
The action was great, and the different matchups, while short, were entertaining. Once the eliminations started, you knew whoever got a pin on someone, they would be the next eliminated. They also happened too fast for there to be any time when one team seemed to be in peril. I think coming out of it, I’d like to see a match between Kenny King and Suge G, as they told a nice story in their short time in the ring working with each other.
2 Cold Scorpio vs Bryan Keith
I have seen 2 Cold on these Indy shows around Mania since I have been covering them, and it’s always amazing to me that he’s still in the ring when most of his peers have long since retired. The fact that he can still put on an athletic match at 57 is a testament to how well he’s taken care of himself.
And I have to admit, as a HUGE fan of the Man With No Name movies, I love Bryan Keith’s entrance gear, which is clearly inspired by it.
They start with mat wrestling, and it’s the first time we’ve seen that on this show. One of the things that I dislike about Indy shows is that they usually all have similar matches, and so far each match has felt different. It helps that Scorpio knows how to do the little things to give the match more realism. He makes sure he makes things look like they hurt as he systematically breaks down his opponent.
The pace of the match is also slow and deliberate, bringing the crowd into each specific sequence and making the submission hold mean more as the tension builds. When they do the trading kicks and slaps sequences, Scorpio wrings every last drop of drama out of each blow. Scorpio waits until the end of the match to break out the top rope stuff, and doesn’t do a lot of it. Bryan Keith grabs the win by countering a power bomb into a sunset flip for the pin and the win.
Winner: Bryan Keith
Scorpio extends the hand and instead, Keith bows to him.
If you can’t tell by my write-up, I really liked this match. The best way to use a legend to put over a young star as well as making a big moment by being different from the rest of the show.
Myron Reed (Black Wrestlers Matter Champion) vs Man Like DeReiss vs Kevin Knight
This match is an immediate contrast to the last match with high-flying moves and big spots. Lots of quick two counts as well. Knight shows off a lot of elevation for his leaps and kicks. The match does have a lot of the “one man is on the outside as the other two fight” that is a staple of three man matches.
When all three are in the ring it does feel more choreographed than it should, with waiting for the set up/move, set up/move. Toward the end of the match, DeReiss gets a power bomb and the ref counts three, but the match goes on and the commentary team says it was only two. DeReiss misses a 450, and then Knight leaps for a frog splash and Reed leaps from the opposite side of the ring, grabbing him for a cutter that is another three count, but the ref changes it to a two count. Reed gets an air raid crash on both men, covering for the pin and the win.
Winner and still Black Wrestlers Matter Champion: Myron Reed
A decent spot fest marred by a poor job by the ref on the last two near falls. Even D-Lo says the match needs to be reviewed to try to cover for the errors. Not much of a story, but Keith Knight’s moves are spectacular.
Main Event: Trish Adora (Pan-Afrikan World Diaspora Wrestling World Title Match) vs Calvin Tankman
It’s a mixed gender match and they let us know that Trish has held the title for over a thousand days since it was inaugurated.
They quickly move to brawling outside the ring. They return to the ring and the story of the match is that Calvin is much bigger than Trish, so she can’t use power moves with a lot of work. When she does get a suplex on Calvin, it was a Big Deal.
After that, Calvin starts hitting power moves and gloating after each one while she struggles to recover and fight back. Calvin’s covers are arrogant and Trish barely kicks out of each one as the match goes on. The way Trish fights back is by hitting a lot of strikes quickly and then keeping with attacks when Calvin is dazed.
Trish wins by hitting a power bomb off the top, a lariat, and then locking on cattle mutilation as Calvin taps out.
Winner and still champion: Trish Adora
Billy Dixon comes to the ring after the match and points at his watch, saying that it's his time.
Again, the end of the match was a bit of a botch as even the announcers were unsure of the submission since Trish was unable to fully lock the hold in.
All in all it was not what I expected, since most of the GCW stuff I’ve watched has leaned on Deathmatches. Every match was fairly traditional, and each one was different which gave a good mix of styles. The 2 Cold Scorpio match was the highlight for me, but every match was well worked. The endings of the last two matches brought the show down a notch, and the main event was underwhelming. I think if they had the three-way end the show, it would have worked better, since it was more of a build to an explosive finish.
If you are looking for a good Indy show to watch this weekend, this one delivered.
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