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We are back at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in LA for Joey Janela’s Spring Break 7
Our commentary team is It’s Dave Prazek and Lenny Leonard
Grab The Brass Ring DLC Match:Gringo Loco vs Tony Deppen vs Cole Radrick vs Komander vs Billie Starkz vs Blake Christian vs Alec Price vs Jack Cartwheel vs Shane Mercer
Having covered a ton of shows so far, I have gotten to know most of the people in this match, and it looks like this show will be more violent than the ones I have seen so far. They have ladders around the ring. The ceiling is so high they won’t have a ring from the ceiling and instead will win via pinfall or submission.
It also looks like they will mostly stick to two or three people in the ring at a time. They start with a lot of lucha style with fast, high flying work. When Mercer gets in the ring he military presses Price and then throws him into everyone at the side of the ring.
Then it is time for chairs and ladders to be introduced. They also bring in doors, which must be cheaper than tables the way they go through them. Loco is the first man to set up a ladder for a high spot instead of just using it as a weapon. The first time Price tries to put Starkz through the door it doesn’t break, so he has to do it again.
Deppen is the first one up the ladder and Starkz sets a ladder from the ring post to the ladder. Loco, Deppen and Cartwheel are on the ladder and come crashing down. Mercer carries Cartwheel to the top of the ladder and moonsaults off holding Cartwheel. Loco sets up a door between two chairs. Mercer is set on the door which can’t carry his weight.
Doors from Balsa wood, I guess. They do it again with another door. Loco climbs to the top and Price climbs as well and Kommander is on the top turnbuckle. Price dives to the floor onto Starkz, Kommander walks the ropes and dives to someone on the floor and Loco leaps onto Mercer and through the door.
Starkz gets rid of the ladders and yells for someone to fight her and she beats down Radrick. As she has covered Radrick, Christian runs in and hits a curb stomp on her and covers for the pin and the win.
Winner: Blake Christian
Lots of plunder and crazy spots to start the show off.
A video package is shown for the next match as they clean up the ring and the area around it.
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) (GCW Tag Team Champions) vs The East West Express (Jordan Oliver & Nick Wayne)
The Machine Guns go right to work as the bell rings and they brawl outside the ring. East/West get stereo topes when they return to the ring and the brawl continues. Nick Wayne, who was busted open in an earlier match and he is busted open again. The match goes into the ring and East/West double team Shelley and then Sabin.
Sabin is able to work over East/West until Shelly gets back in the ring and they get to start double teaming. The Machine Guns are working heel here and the crowd is into it, jeering and swearing at them, which is rare for veterans who are near legends for shows like this. Even when they get an impressive move, the crowd will chant “You still suck.”
The Gunns work over East/West by stretching them, and Sabin goes after Wayne's injury. And after about ten minutes of everyone being in the ring we start to get tags. The Gunns work this style like experts, and everything they do looks smooth and well planned. We get the sequence where Sabin and Oliver throwing hands back and forth ending with a two count broken up by Wayne.
Shelley tries to get Shell Shocked twice before it works with Wayne blocking it. The Gunns put on double submissions. When Wayne turns it into a pin, Sabin releases and breaks up the pin. Oliver has to fight by himself and the Gunns turn it around on him with a flurry of offense at this point it is like everyone has forgotten about actual tagging, and instead it’s lots of tag team moves. East/West get a double team cloud cutter on Shelly for the pin and the win. And the crowd explodes.
Winners and New GCW Tag Team Champion: East/West Express
The match came off as a spotfest Gunns match that is what this crowd wants. No real story told here, just two teams working through their spots and building to the title change.
Yoshihiko comes to the ring, and if you don’t know Yoshihiko, it’s a doll.dummy who has the Iron Man Heavy Metalweight Title. It’s a one note joke where people “wrestle” the doll. Third show I have seen this at, and it was played out the first time. It’s an “interview”. Looks like Yoshihiko will be staying in GCW for a while.
Charles Mason and Parrow come to the ring. Mason attacks Yoshihiko and then says that Yoshihiko isn’t real.
Charles Mason is now my hero.
He pulls out a knife to cut open the doll. As he sets up for this, the “handler” who is a masked Jimmy Lloyd is slammed by Perrow and Mason says he’s gonna make Lloyd watch as Perrow destroys Yoshihiko, and Yoshihiko hits a German suplex on Perrow. Mason looks freaked out and they bail to the back.
Veda Scott joins commentary
Mike Bailey vs El Hijo del Vikingo.
They run the ropes and echo each other as they go for moves to get offense. As they go through the opening sequences, they both show respect to the other. Vikingo starts to show off his style as he hits a triple rope leap into Bailey and then a tope into Bailey on the floor. The two styles are Bailey’s kicks and strikes vs Vikingo’s high flying. Bailey works over Vikingo’s legs, and this cuts off Vikingo’s high flying and a good story for the match.
They trade chops, as is pretty much required on every match I have seen all weekend not a Joshi match. Bailey gives chops to Fikingo’s back, which ends the good will, but Bailey gives his back to Vikingo to try to show it’s still good sport. Vikingo offers his back and Bailey kicks him instead of chopping and then drops him for a two count.
Vikkingo starts his leaping attacks as they move to the floor. Vikingo stands with his back to the ring on the second rope and hits a phoenix splash on Bailey in the ring. Bailey then hits a moonsault from the top rope onto Vikingo as Vikingo has slid through his legs. The timing on that had to be perfect.
Back in the ring, Bailey goes back to kicks. Vikingo goes back to the big moves, all of which take nearly inhuman balance. After a fight on the apron, Vikingo hits a destroyer from the ring POST onto the apron. Vikingo rolls Bailey into the ring and goes to the top. Bailey gets a leaping moonsault holding onto Vikingo for a two. Each of these moves would be an insane finisher for any other match.
Vikingo wins with a leaping side slam front he top, followed by a 630 for the pin and the win.
Winner: El Hijo del Vikingo
They started off with good storytelling, but at about the 2/3rds point it became a spotfest, which is giving the crowd what they want. To me, it shows that both of these guys can work both styles, depending on the crowd and what is wanted by the people putting on the show.
Team Bussy (Allie Katch & Effy) vs Maki Death Kill (Maki Itoh & Nick Gage)
This will be pure violence as well as shenanigans. I like the Maki Itoh gimmick, but haven’t seen her in deathmatches, which she does with Gage. And Gage is a superhero to these fans.
Not as much in the way of gimmicky stuff from Bussy in this match and for the most part, the first half is a standard wrestling match with gage as the person in peril as Bussy plays the heels. When Gage does pull out the pizza cutter, he gets taken out and both members of Bussy use it on her. Gage is able to recover and they get revenge with both Itoh and Gage going after Bussy with pizza cutters, and Gage gives Itoh a cutter that matches her gear.
As the match goes on, it’s really clear that everyone but Itoh is playing to the crowd and Itoh is playing to the camera. Gage carries the majority of the match for his team.
They bring chairs into the match as Effy is bleeding the most out of everyone in the ring. Itoh hits a choke breaker on the chairs with Effy. Itoh covers and Katch breaks it up, which makes Itoh cry. Katch goes to comfort her and Itoh flips her the bird and then Katch cries, allowing Effy to get a quick rollup for two.
Gage returns to the ring and plants Katch as Itoh gets a DDT on Effy for the double pin and the win.
Winners: Maki Death Kill
Matt Cardona and Steph Delander run in with chairs and attack Itoh and Gage. He said they should have been booked on both Spring Break and Wrestlemania. Steph says GCW is embarrassing, the champion is embarrassing, and mocks Gage and Itoh. Masha Slamovich comes to the ring.
Gage and Cardona fight to the back and Steph and Slamovich go face to face and it’s gonna be a title match right here, right now.
Masha Slamovich (GCW Champion) vs Steph Delander
Steph takes control early and gets slams, suplexes and near falls. After about a three minute beat down, Masha starts to come to life. Masha pulls out a door from under the ring, so we’re gonna have plunder. Steph is able to grab chairs from under the ring. Masha is slammed into the chairs for two.
Masha is able to get an air raid crash through the door in the corner and Cardona attacks Masha. Gage and Itoh return to the ring to join in the fight. We’ve got brawling outside the ring and Masha laps onto Steph’s back with a sleeper hold and Steph passes out.
Winner and still GCW Champion: Masha Slamovich
Veda leaves commentary and Lenny rejoins.
Main Event: Kota Ibushi vs Joey Janela
They shake hands to start.
They start slow with headlock and then running the ropes. Janela wants the fight to move to the floor and Ibushi takes his time to join him there and then they return to the ring. When Janela starts with chops, Ibushi asks him to keep it coming and he dodges and nails Janella with a kick. Janela takes control from here and the pace of the match still remains slow.
After Ibushi gets a hurricanrana, he runs to the corner, leaps to the top and hits a springboard moonsault from the top to the floor. They return to the ring and Ibushi gets a suplex with a bridge for two. Janela gets a brain buster off the top but doesn’t follow up. This match has seemed oddly slow and disjointed.
They fight on the apron and Janela misses a charge and hits the ring post. He goes under the ring and come s out busted open. They return to the ring again and trade forearms. They go to the apron again and Janela spikes Ibushi with a DDT. Janela pulls out doors from under the ring. He sets them up on the floor with chairs. He takes FOREVER to set things up.
They finally start fighting on the floor and Ibushi is thrown into the ring post. Ibushi is placed on the doors and then Janela goes up, but Ibushi cuts him off. It looks like Ibushi stumbles when trying to pull Janela up and they crash with Janela hitting the doors and Ibushi hitting the floor. They go into the ring again. Ibushi covers for two.
Janela gets a death valley driver and then a second and Ibushi kicks out at one. They trade forearms until Ibushi stumbles backward. Janela gets a brain buster, and they hold onto each other and Ibushi gets a suplex on Janela. They trade suplexes and then take each other down with simultaneous clotheslines.
They then move to a slap fight and Ibushi hits a pair of kicks and then a standing moonsault but Janela gets the knees up. Janela gets a package piledriver for two. Janela takes three superkicks to knock Ibushi down, but he tries to get up and Ibushi is able to get the knee to the face for the pin and the win.
Winner: Kota Ibushi.
This match went too long and never seemed to really gel. They started slow, and sped up here and there, but it never felt like it was building to anything, so that when Ibushi won, it felt like a Grand Finally instead of a Grand Finale.
Ibushi asks the crowd to stand for Janela.
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