Another year, another Royal Rumble... that I haven't watched yet. But I did see that big Game Changer Wrestling show from the Manhattan Center that took place the week prior and so I'm going to share some brief thoughts on that. This is my first GCW show and... well... how diplomatic do you want me to be?
AJ Gray defeated PCO, Alex Colon, G-Raver, Tony Deppen, Jimmy Lloyd, and Jordan Oliver in what was billed as a "Grab The Brass Ring" Ladder Match where whoever got the brass ring would get a free shot at any title they wanted. Somehow, I don't think it's as sweet of a deal as they make it out to be, whatever, let's go with it. Other than PCO, I am unfamiliar with any of these individuals, but I can tell you that they can do crazy stunts and take crazy bumps, which is cool, I guess. Unfortunately, I've seen enough people in wrestling who can not only do crazy stunts and take crazy bumps, but can also put on compelling wrestling matches as well. Not an auspicious start for my first ever GCW show... hopefully, this isn't an omen.
Gringo Loco, Demonic Flamita, and Arez defeated Bandido, ASF, and Laredo Kid in a fun little Lucha-style six-man tag match. Again, know nothing about the featured competitors, but they do good Lucha things here and there. Fun stuff, this match.
Blake Christian defeated Lio Rush in a thing that happened. Blake was supposed to challenge for the Ring Of Honor World title, but champion Jonathan Gresham was out due to medical reasons, so they brough in this Lio Rush fellow to replace him. It was a match, it was fine, not much else to say.
Matt Cardona defeated Joey Janela in a match with a billion run-ins and a bunch of shit being wrecked... that lasted TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES. Yeah, Zack Ryder coming out to "Enter Sandman" with a HHH water spit take and a Fuck Foley flannel vest is good heel heat for this GCW crowd and then the rest of the match was all those run-ins, a bunch of furniture wrecked, and no reason to care for anyone outside the GCW hardcores... and this lasted TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES.
Look, I don't want to shit on the guys because I want to believe that they tried their damndest and Cardona was something of a fixture in GCW angles in recent months... but who thought they needed TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES for a bunch of run-ins and doors getting smashed? I enjoy my occasional fun hardcore garbage wrestling matches from time to time, but I usually enjoy them with people that I can get into. Joey Janela is fine for being the hardcore foil against the more important player, but when that more important player is the former Woo-Woo Guy... I don't know. This never clicked, this went on forever, and if this is supposed to be the showcase for GCW to a potential new audience who has never seen a GCW show before - and I include myself in that category - this does absolutely FUCK ALL for me.
Ruby Soho defeated Allie Katch in a perfectly acceptable wrestling match and boy, did the crowd HATE that Ruby won... I'd imagine because they would've wanted to see Allie win. I didn't care either way, but it was a perfectly fine match that didn't overstay its welcome and... well, the bigger star won, so...
Jeff Jarrett killed some guy named Effy, who seems like a more extreme version of Sonny Kiss... whatever that entails. I like that Effy tried to bribe Jarrett with a twenty and Jarrett refused, but other than that... eh... eh... meh.
CGW World Champion Jon Moxley defeated Homicide to retain the title in a short match. Highlight was the crowd chanting "FUCK BULLY RAY" so that's going to spew a Twitter rant or bad take on some radio show podcast thing somewhere from ol' Bubba. This match was somewhat underwhelming due to it getting really good before it ended somewhat abruptly... I mean, you could've given these guys another five to ten minutes and really let them go at it. As it was, it was a fun little teaser to what could've been a real banger of a match, but just cuts short before the climax... all this while the Joey Janela/Zack Ryder run-in fest got TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES. Fuck off.
Matt someone (I forget the name, sorry) & Nick Gage defeated GCW Tag champs the Briscoes in a short match to win the titles. Much like the Mox vs. Homicide match, I felt like this could've gone longer, but they ran out of time for some reason. This was a Doors match in lieu of a deathmatch and I was like... meh. Then Nick Gage cut a promo and everyone came out to celebrate...
And then the show ends abruptly at the three-hour mark. I hear one of the wrestlers tweeting about time constraints, but I'd imagine the blame should fall on whoever formats this stuff in the first place so that everyone hits their marks. Honestly, when you're the first company to advertise a MOX match and it ends up being a quick affair because we needed a twenty minute match involving ZACK RYDER, then there's something seriously wrong here.
The Wrld On GCW didn't quite work for me. I don't want to dump on the promotion entirely because the deathmatch promotion is in an environment where they don't allow deathmatches, so they had to pull the reigns back a bit in order to put something out for the New York audience and athletic commissions. And there was some good stuff on there, but for the most part... eh, it was a chore to sit through. Not to mention; you know you're going to have a bunch of new eyes on your product who might want to give it a shot for the first time. It would've been nice to know who the fuck some of these folks are so that I can get into their matches and such, because when all you know are the big names who are probably not going to be there next time around and all you're stuck with are the usual suspects... that's just me, though.
That having been said, I wouldn't mind checking out another GCW show somewhere down the line. Maybe one where they're not handcuffed to abide by outside bodies and can showcase their style as it was intended. The Wrld On GCW is not a good showcase for GCW, but I wouldn't call it an outright bad show. Just an underwhelming one.
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