GCW: The WRLD Is Theirs

If you ask me, the 90's was the golden age for many, many things. Music, television, music television, the overall quality of life, style...a whole lot of things. Professional wrestling was certainly hitting it's golden age in the mid-late 90's. It almost seems a lifetime ago of having the now infamous Monday Night Wars between Vince McMahon and Ted Turner. While those two got all the glory, many people would consider ECW as the scrappy underdog that may have been the most entertaining of the bunch. It had nowhere near the budget or television opportunities as the other two, but ECW had this deviously charming way about it that always made it stand out on its own. It was grainy, gritty, maybe more realistic. I'll put it this way, you'd be guaranteed some moments that would both make you cringe and say holy shit multiple times every show, where you couldn't always guarantee that with the other two. It was simpler times, and when ECW folded, it was a sad moment for the world of wrestling. The one with all the true hardcore passion had to be the first one to go. It ain't fair, but it was what it was.

Simpler times at Heatwave 98

Of course, as time moves on, things can get back into the groove. And here we are in 2022.

The last couple of years has been a boom for the wrestling biz. Between the arrival of AEW becoming a viable threat to WWE, shows like Dark Side of the Ring drawing in current and older fans, a bunch of big names leaving WWE to reinvent themselves with their own creativity (which went wasted in WWE), there is a whole lot of exciting content out there. If you remember back in the 90's, Vince McMahon promised that WWE (F back then) was the "cure for the common show". He didn't want to insult his audience with unbelievable characters and snooze-worthy storylines.  I look at WWE now and...what the shit happened? I'm not kidding you, Raw had an academic challenge last night, and they have already confirmed a Scooter Race (seriously) next week on Raw. 

As a member of the audience? I'm fucking insulted.

...die of boredom from Raw

Thank God for AEW. It was long overdue for Vinny Mac to get some competition, and he certainly has it now. As AEW continues to grow, GCW is also growing at a rapid rate, and most importantly, it's living up to the G part of it's name: gamechanger. 

this aged poorly

To me, GCW is like the off-broadway version of today's wrestling landscape, and I mean that as a huge compliment. It won't always be perfect and have the greatest showmanship and performances every single night, but you better believe that there is an incredible amount of talent and waaay more heart there which makes it stand out. I was young when ECW was in it's final days, but I still remember being blown away by it as a kid, and I still enjoy throwing on their old shows via in the interwebs. It had that punk, indie, low budget feel to it, but it was so damn authentic that it was hard not to watch it. 

I feel the same exact way about GCW.

sheesh.

I first took real notice of GCW with the whole Jon Moxley and Nick Gage faceoff at Spring Break of Wrestlemania Weekend. They really got Mox? They got the biggest star of AEW to show up to a basically a parking lot to face their new champ with a bunch of light tubes and shit? The intrigue was there immediately. I already knew some of the names in GCW, mostly Joey Janela, Nick Gage, Allie Katch and Effy, but suddenly I took way more notice of who was there and what they had going on over in GCW. Also, it was hard not to ignore the legend of Jimmy Lloyd, who had just recently (unofficially) joined WWE's Hurt Business that same weekend Mox showed up. 

For me, you can throw on any GCW or ECW show and not worry so much about storylines. You can tell immediately that whoever is out there is just there to kick ass, and quite frankly, it's refreshing as hell. You never know who is going to show up, and trying to guess outcomes is pointless. Just in the last couple of months, GCW has hosted Mick Foley, Kevin Nash and Sabu(!). They've worked with a bunch of big name AEW and Ring of Honor stars, numerous Japanese wrestlers (Minoru Suzuki was still wild to me personally), and countless other legends who can still hang today (2Cold Scorpio and Ricky Morton, I'm looking at you dudes). You don't know what you're gonna get at any GCW show, and that's what makes it so damn exciting. 

Fast forward a bit and I've bought my fair share of shows they've put on, and I haven't been disappointed yet. I love that you have such a mix of competition and styles. You obviously have the brutal deathmatch shit, but you also get incredibly skilled lucha matches and classic mat wrestling in the mix as well. The cast of characters is pretty wide ranging as well. If you were to tell me a year or so ago that I would willingly buy a show that had Zack Ryder in the main event, I would've thought you were crazy. If you had told me he would be fighting Nick fuckin' Gage in a deathmatch that would involved light tubes, tacks, staples doors, whatever the hell else they could use, and then a riot would breakout in the crowd, I really would've thought you were off your damn rocker. 

As annoying Ryder..no...Matt Cardona is (which I guess means he's doing a damn good job), I give him all the credit in the world for reinventing himself since his release. Love him or hate him, any wrestling fan knew he didn't get a fair shake with the idiots in Stamford. I'd give him more credit and praise but I'm still pissed off he beat Joey Janela so...I'll stop there. Besides him, there's so much talent there and up and coming guys that it's going to be a lot of fun to keep watching. Blake Christian is going to be a stud. Jordan Oliver and Nick Wayne has crazy bright futures. Then you even have guys like PCO still doing the damn thing. They have dudes like Alex Colon and Second Gear Crew who I hope I NEVER spill a drink of theirs at a bar. GCW is another destination for wrestlers to go and do their own thing, which is great for the business. McMahon had a stranglehold on this business for too long, but the tides are kinda starting to turn. 

The easy thing to do is just compare it to ECW back in the day. I hope that doesn't offend them in any way with that comp, it's just...kinda true. Back in the 90's and early 00's you had WWF/E having their dick measuring contest with a floundering WCW, and you had ECW right there in the wings doing their own crazy shit with a rabid cult following. I don't think it's unfair to say right now that we have a new peak in wrestling, just some of the cards have been shuffled. Now, WWE is the new floundering WCW (seriously, a scooter race next Monday), AEW is the WWF/E and GCW is the new ECW. (On a quick side note, it really is amazing how WWE has dropped the ball with NXT2.0. They had a good thing going and they crashed and burned like Antonio Brown on the Buccaneers. Sad!). To me, GCW is their own brand of wrestling and it's just as enjoyable as AEW. 

Just rearranging the living room a bit...

This past Sunday night GCW sold out the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City  and put on a hell of a show. It had the grit and crazy spots that it should have. Not everything was perfect, which was perfectly fine at the same time. I almost had to watch that opening brass ring ladder match through my fingers due to some of those crazy ass spots. The Joey Janela/Cardona match was a clusterfuck in the best way possible. I loved the crazy twists and turns, the return of X-Pac, the nod to Edge with Brian Myers coming out in the motorcycle helmet, it was so chaotic and fun and had the crowd truly amped up. You felt the disappointment when Allie Katch lost to Ruby Soho, but hey, that just means she's over as hell to the GCW faithful, and that's something to be proud of, isn't it? Team Gringo vs. Team Bandido was a banger that had some moves that I had never seen before, which is something that seems to happen more often than now in GCW. The entire show, really, was something else. Hell, you even got Jeff Jarrett to have a relevant match in 2022 thanks to Effy! 

Poor Effy, I like that Effy!

Although the match itself was brief, the main event was memorable just for the return of the King himself, Nick F'n Gage as a surprise opponent. I love the shot of some of the fans on the stage when Dewey Donovan made his zombie-like way to the crowd. Their faces were just in disbelief that in any second that bell was going to go dong and they weren't gonna go crazy for the Undertaker. No, that bell tolling was Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" which can only mean one thing: Nick Fucking Gage. MDK all day, and at the end of the day it was the perfect way to go out. Nick Gage getting the crowd into an absolute frenzy. 

The Ensuing Chaos, sponsored by PBR

I absolutely mean it when I saw bravo to Brett Lauderdale and the GCW crew. The haters are gonna hate, but no matter what, you guys sold out the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom, and you have more eyeballs on your company than ever. This was your show to prove everyone wrong, and you did. People may look back years from now and view The WRLD on GCW as one of those game-changing (pun absolutely intended) nights for the company. Long live GCW.

Is This Thing On?

 Dilly Dilly!!

Just kidding. I wanted to see if anyone would get faked out by that opening line and check to make sure this wasn't a post from 2017. I've decided that now that I have a much more relaxing living situation in an apartment that *sparks joy*, it's about time I channeled this inner good vibes and creative juices and start writing again. Not really for anyone in particular, just myself to shake the cobwebs off. Also, it really helps that it is 9 degrees (Fahrenheit) out so it's not like I was going to go on a run or anything pointless like that. No, no. Why not get back into the swing of things with nonsense.

In these pandemic times, like literally everyone, I've been watching my fair share of content. Now I could do a rundown of what I liked best and what was the worst yadda yadda, but I'd like to pinpoint one documentary I watched recently that was truly batshit crazy. That would have to be the Curse of Von Dutch. Oh yeah. The douchey trucker hat company that you absolutely associate with Ashton Kutcher during his Punk'd days. Now I must admit when I heard they made a documentary about Von Dutch I kind of wrote it off as just a time capsule for that kind of amazing(ly brutal) fashion, but it was SO much more than that. Somehow I went my entire life not knowing squat about it (aka I was in middle/high school when it was big and had bigger fish to fry like chicks and street hockey). 

RIP! And RIP Anna Nicole Smith too.

I'm not joking your ass, there is murder, cartels, a big question of who actually owned the damn brand, studded belts, a crazy coked-up Frenchman and a Dutch Olympic Taekwondo medalist who tried to become Hollywood's next action hero. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I hadn't been so fascinated by a douche filled shitshow since that season of the Bachelor starring Juan Pablo. Between the Ed Hardy shirts, old footage of Paris Hilton and the incredible transformation from Von Dutch to Von Douche, it is a wild ride on the Hulu machine and I'd recommend to anyone. I hope to God they make one on the rise of 4Loko as well. That one I know I lived through. Barely.

Betty White passed away the other day at 99 which wasn't a great end to 2021. If I can learn one thing from her amazing life, it's that if People magazine comes to me offering a special edition about me turning 100, I'm turning that shit down. I know suspect People magazine has some evil voodoo surrounding it and I will continue my streak of looking at the cover when I'm waiting in line at the grocery store and not turning a single page. It's the safe thing to do.

With Betty gone, there is one question: who is the most beloved person in the nation now? As fucked up as the world is these days, Betty White was basically the one thing we could all gather round and agree that she was a hell of a gal. Luckily for all of you, I am writing this blog and like to make lists, so here are my three (no order) best options to become the next sacred celebrity for America.

1.Keanu Reeves- He's basically there already. Plus he is much hunkier than Betty White (that's not shade, it's just the truth. He can even make riding a Vespa look manly). The man revitalized his career unlike anyone I can think of. Ol John Wick gave us a true renaissance for Keanu, and by all accounts he seems to be one of the nicest dudes ever. He even dates women his own age! How rare is that for celebs in this day and age? Near unheard of. 

I Know!

2. Cher- I mean, how can you not love Cher? Iconic singer. Iconic in Moonstruck. Aged gracefully. She is a straight shooter who tells it like it is. Men should listen to her more and they will realize that her word should be gospel! If I Could Turn Back Time (see what I did there) I wish we could've gotten her into politics a long time ago. The country would be in much better hands. 

3. Guy Fieri- Why the hell not. The mayor of Flavortown is someone we can all get behind. Yes he is basically a walking caricature with his dad jokes, frosted tips and white sunglasses resting gingerly on the back of his head, but he stays true to himself. Isn't that what we all need in this day and age? No one can stay mad at Guy. You may want to hate him at first for...well, everything about his look and demeanor really, but you have to admit that he's a charming bastard. The guy just wants to cook a lot of greasy food, add some kickass sauce to everything, and cruise up and down this country. It's hard not to respect it. Winner winner, chicken dinner, you corny son of a bitch. Never change!

Fear.

The other day we got a gift from the internet Gods when we saw Elmo (of Sesame Street, not the fire) lose his mind on some rock and whoever the hell Zoey is. Zoey wasn't there in the early 90's right? If so I did a great job of blocking her out I guess. Nonetheless, Elmo lost his shit when Zoey's pet rock named Rocco was going to eat an oatmeal raisin cookie and it was just absolutely glorious. Elmo, as always, made a lot of valid points that Rocco doesn't have a mouth and can't enjoy a cookie and this whole thing is stupid and then he basically walked off set and demanded a raise.

You can see the calm drain from him.

Seeing Elmo lose his mind like that was truly inspiring. He had no time for these games of a stupid pet rock and the nonsense that came along with it. Personally, I find it a great lesson for kids that sometimes it is perfectly fine to snap on stupid people. In the real world, you deal with morons like this Zoey puppet. You can only take so much, but at the end of the day we are all human and we can only take so much. Stupid people need to learn when they are being stupid, and Elmo is not going to sell out and pretend everything is hunky dory. Children should not tolerate stupidity!

I have nothing but respect for Elmo and the service he is performing for the future of the world. See, this is why Elmo got the tickle me toy back in the day and Oscar the Grouch is still stuck in a damn trash can. God Bless you Elmo. Don't you let stupidity bring you down. This country has gotten stupid enough the past 5 years or so.

Hey so there's a new Apple Watch commercial which is kinda messed up. It's all 911 calls from people on a farm and parasailing (loser) who overdid it and needed help. I don't like this whole fearmongering approach from apple. You shouldn't be feeling scared of possible emergencies in order to buy apple products. You should be feeling scared about getting made fun of when your texts pop up in green when you text literally everyone else in the world who has an iphone. Isn't that green text humiliation enough as it is? Apple needs to chill out. Most people get it already. 

One thing I hate is the damn targeted ads you get just because you looked up something ONE time or accidentally liked an instagram pic of a boat or something. It really grinds my gears. For instance, I feel really weird that I get a bunch of ads for children's books just because I bought one ONE copy of Where the Wild Things Are for my best friend's daughter. While this mostly is a pain, I did get a laugh recently at one targeted ad. For Christmas my girlfriend bought me this very nice anchor shaped tie clip from Brooks Brothers. Swanky, I know. What is even more swanky is the item that popped up on my instagram feed the other day from the brothers Brooks:

Well would you look at this dapper dandy! Is this the Ebeneezer Scrooge special? I feel like wearing this to bed would get you 3 different visits from ghosts all asking what the fuck are you wearing? Has Brooks Brothers gone so far over the edge that they are trying to bring back nightgowns? My grandpa was born in 1921 and he would even call those things outdated. What does this guy here change into when he wakes up in his sleeping chambers? Some knickerbockers and a blouse? Are his wooden teeth and powdered wig waiting for him on his nightstand? Does he sit on his Chesterfield and read the morning paper with a monocle? I actually laughed out loud when this ad popped up. I'm almost impressed that I was targeted to purchase one of these bad boys. You know, maybe if Von Dutch comes back into style, I'll start rocking one of these to bed each night.

Well, that was fun. Let's hope I keep this ball rolling. I can feel the rust being shaken off already.