GCW Homecoming Night 1 Breakdown

 It's been almost a decade since I've even thought of this wee little blog and here I am, back again with some tomfoolery. A lot has happened; I am married now and live in a whole other state. I am old as fuck and have old as fuck issues but alas! 'Rasslin lives on people and someone's gotta rant and rave about it after all right? Then let us get to it.

GCW Homecoming Night 1

I have been lacking when it comes to covering the more outside promotions of the world, particularly Game Changer Wrestling. So I decided after seeing how dope the last two shows have been to go further back and watch what I consider as their biggest weekend of the year: Homecoming in Atlantic City.

Maki Itoh and Nick Gage vs Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander

This is some good old fashioned garbage blood wrestling at it’s best. Cardona has SO much fucking heat with this crowd and he’s smart about giving them exactly what they least expect from him. SDL and Cardona are bleeding buckets quickly along with the Blood Lord himself Gage. Itoh is along for the ride and her apprenticeship of Gage’s bloody ways is off to a great start. Double headbutts get the win for Itoh and Gage and it’s amazing how this crowd loses it for this stuff.

Alec Price vs Leon Slater

A battle of two young prospects in the indie game. Price has gotten some buzz mainly from Beyond and the other East Coast indies and Slater I just recently started to hear about. These two immediately prove they can really go in the ring. I was impressed with the level of selling from these guys, not just falling into that no sells/only spots kind of thinking too many have in today’s world. With that said, spots are here and they’re very well done. That leaping blockbuster that Price does is a thing of beauty. I get the hype on Price; he’s a good wrestler and can do spots but above all else he brings it with strikes and gives off a legit kind of feeling to what he does. Slater tries to get cute with the flippies and eats a boot for it until he tornado brainbusters Price from the top! FUCK. Slater shows insane amounts of heart in this taking some wild bumps for Price. This was good and yet the ref fucks up and you can clearly see Slater confused by winning on a weird Blue Thunder which is unfortunate. I definitely will be following these two going forward.

Crazy King and Los Macizos vs Thrussy(Effy, Allie Katch, and Dark Sheik)

This is just fucking bonkers in every sense of the word. For one, Macizos attempt to trade in King for Allie Katch which is…interesting. Then Sheik and King finally start the match with some gaga crowd work more than actual wrestling. Things end up going lucha naturally and Sheik is pretty good at the rolling pin kind of stuff. Then it becomes the indie multi person tag stuff with constant in and out spots with everyone in the match. This was definitely meant to be a crowd pleaser rather than a “great match” but the highlight easily is Crazy King losing his pants on a dive to the floor. He rolls with it though and thankfully had undertights. The crowd’s favorite moment might have been the Allie/Sheik accidental 69 spot though so there’s that. Correction, their favorite was probably the literal ass eating spot with Allie. Sheik does these weird dives that have no actual form at all which is both terrifying and different. Thrussy gets the big win off one of these whirling dervish jumps and I feel like I watched a glittery trainwreck.

Alex Zayne vs Tony Deppen

These are two of the indies’ best talents getting a big stage to work on. The crowd chants Welcome Back to Deppen and I realize he had been gone a bit. Deppen gets the mic and says the last three months have been horrible for him and he is so glad to be back and wrestling is all he’s known. He personally thanks the crowd for helping his family when he was out with donations and merch which is cool to hear. Deppen says he wouldn’t want to return against any other than Alex and shakes hands before saying sorry in advance if he is blown up or sucks. Pretty funny. Early on it’s strong mat work and these dudes don’t get enough love for how good they are at this. We get the indie back and forth into a double kip up spot but they do it well. It’s a strong showing and for Deppen being out for three months he looks pretty good here. 

Double Dog Collar Match

Parrow and Mason vs joey Janela and Sawyer Wreck

Parrow is slowly becoming a top big guy on the indies while Mason might be the most hated human in all of GCW. I feel like Sawyer could become the next breakout into the Big 2 promotions because of her size as well as her range going from deathmatch shit to actually working on her in-ring outside of that genre. This is some classic GCW with the action starting right at the bell with Mason and Sawyer chained up and Janela and Parrow together on the other side. Parrow beats Janela’s head wide open with chain shots on the floor and Mason tosses Sawyer around like shit. Sawyer is bleeding not too long after the Janela massacre and this is GREAT. Mason plays the violent pervert so well just choking Sawyer with the chain and making Janela watch. Janela does the always awesome bloody wall spot and now the venue looks like a crime scene. Sawyer gets the upper hand on Mason and starts hanging him with the chain and…he starts smiling as he goes out? Fuck this is a tumblr fan fic match now. Parrow is double team catapulted into a concrete beam and now is bleeding buckets himself. Another great plunder match and we all know I love plunder matches. Doors have to find their way into a GCW match and this one gives us that fix. Sawyer gets flipped into the door from Mason on the floor leaving Janela and Mason alone throwing hands. Mason does a terrifying chain wrapped piledriver with Parrow almost getting his neck snapped. Parrow drops Sawyer with a powerbomb and takes a chair to the back of the head by the fallen Janela. Janela then drops Parrow back and ribs first on on open chair because fuck it. Mason hits a fucking sickening DVD through a chair as Janela comes off the top and as it looks like it’s over, Sawyer rips Mason all the way over the top to the floor with the chain. FUCKING INSANITY. Somehow things go crazier with Sawyer powerbombing Parrow onto Mason through a door and hoisting themselves up on a scissor lift to choke out Mason and Parrow for the win. Good lord.

Jimmy Lloyd vs Shane Mercer vs Ninja Mack vs Cole Radrick vs Arez vs Dante Leon vs Komander vs Gringo Loco in a tremendous Clusterfuck Scramble of sorts

I think GCW’s signature outside of the obvious deathmatches is their scrambles. It’s just really fun sometimes to have 6-8 people in a ring doing stupid spots because it reminds you of a video game. Such a great winner on every GCW show a scramble is on and they’ve got the usual greats in this one. If you’re into the more spot kind of wrestling this is your thing with Dante Leon, Ninja, and Gringo really standing out with the wild fucking dives here. Gringo even missteps on an asai and still lands on his feet. Jimmy gets another big win out of nowhere with a dope piledriver. 

GCW Ultraviolent Championship

Rina Yamashita(c) vs Takashi Sasaki

The greatest thing about GCW is their usage of Japanese connections and in particular the deathmatch talents. Rina felt like she came out of nowhere a few years ago when she came to GCW and took over the scene rather impressively and kind of opened the door all the way for the other Japanese deathmatch stars to come over too. Sasaki is the founder of the FREEDOMS promotion and a staple of the Japanese deathmatch world thanks to his work in DDT and Big Japan prior to creating perhaps the largest company for deathmatches in Japan so to say this is a huge match for Rina is an understatement. A samurai light tube? Why the fuck not? Sasaki breaks it on Rina’s skull but goes back first into a barbed wire board. The viciousness has begun. Rina takes brutalization and just hulks up like all this shit wouldn’t make me cry for months because I’m a wimp. She gets the massive win and Rina can't be denied these days.

King of FREEDOM World Championship

John Wayne Murdoch vs Toru Sugiura(c)

Panes of glass are moved into each corner and I got a bad feeling about this like Taking Back Sunday. Toru starts us off hot with a lighttube beating on Murdoch’s head and blood is instantaneous. Toru gets insta-karma taking a back bump through a pane of glass and this is fucked. Forehead carving by Murdoch and it’s a proper blood letting. At some point, Toru gets cut on the forehead and literally flows like a fountain but of course this won’t get him down. He’s happy getting carved like a turkey and Murdoch has no issue getting bloody while causing damage of his own. A pane is bridged between two chairs for a very wonky destroyer from the top by Murdoch for a near fall that leads into a vicious knee into yet another pane. Toru gives no fucks and eats yet another pane and still won’t stay down. Dude’s not human. Michinoku Driver onto the broken glass gives Toru the win and somehow it’s all over. Wild to say the least.

Nate Webb vs Masha Slamovich

Masha is one of the hottest talents on the entire indies, a bad bitch, and now a former GCW World Champion. The fans love her and for good reason, she kills. Nate is a staple of the more “garbage” indie shit from back in the early 2000’s mainly IWA Mid South. Much like Masha though, everyone loves him for being the fucking best human being as well as tough as nails. Nate doesn’t take it easy on Masha at all and throws some hard forearms to the face right off the bat. Masha says dope, here’s a corkscrew suicida for you then and now I’ll beat you to death. Nate takes a fans’ white claw, lets them open and drink some before taking a swig himself and pours it on Masha. See? Great dude. Masha’s spine going into the iron post says nay though. Masha takes a throw into a row of chairs and that’s always something I love in wrestling for some reason. It always looks so cool. Nate surprised me with his ability even being older these days and having taken some punishment in his day. Masha drills Nate with a nasty heel kick to the face and it gets real. Nate goes for the big moonsault and hits empty with Masha fighting back to her feet. Forearm city is visited before Masha high kicks the fuck out of Nate and adds to the damage with a low kick to him on his knees but he survives and goes for broke before taking further kicks before eating the mat with a nasty curb stomp that leads Nate into the dream world thanks to a Masha rear naked choke. A super fun match and Masha is fucking dope. Masha grabs a mic and says hello to Blake Christian who stole her World title and she puts it over that tomorrow night she will get it back. I’m intrigued for this next night now. 

Violento Jack vs Matt Tremont

I won’t lie I’ve never understood the love for Tremont in the deathmatch world. I didn’t really think much of him going into this and I’ve not really seen much of Jack either. More panes of glass come out along with tons of light tubes. We know when a bloodletting comes around when we see it. Jack is mostly booed right away which is interesting to me. Immediate Bulldozer chants and Journey has the people screaming the lyrics of Separate Ways and I suddenly get Tremont. He's every man and always has been. He isn’t jacked, although I will admit it looks as though he’s lost some weight since I last saw him and more than anything he’s fucking OVER in GCW. I get why they threw Gage and Tremont together as a team for that Hammerstein show. In all honesty this is more of what the previous deathmatches gave us but you can’t deny the overness of Tremont which I can see warrants this main event status. Lots of corny fork shit going on here and this feels like the good old days in 2003 IWAMS. Then I conjure even more nostalgia with the barrage of lighttube spots leaving the ring littered. Wild senton through the ropes to the floor by Jack and this dude is getting a fan out of me. Tremont’s forehead is GROSS with all that scar tissue and he just bleeds so badly from it. Fucking wicked looking guy. Russian leg sweep from the apron through a wild assortment of barbed wire, light tubes, a table and chairs. Jack is caught in the wire and Tremont is up like a total psycho. This somehow becomes the double down spot? They are mid right going back and forth now complete with headscissor takeovers and everything. Tremont takes a goofy facebump from the ropes into a pane of glass and shakes like he got electrocuted. This is so fucking great. A splash by Jack shirtless with some light tubes is just plain nuts and somehow not the finish. It’s a lighttube christmas scene on the mat of the ring now but no one will stay down. Jack wraps up Tremont with a wild octopus stretch on the mat for the submission win! 

Post match, Sasaki and Toru from the FREEDOMS group come out and fuck with the fans, seeking the support of Jack and Tremont. Tremont looks as if he’s down but ti’s all a lie with Sasaki and Toru attacking both men and parading around like assholes until Rina shows up to run them off!