The GCW Tag Team Championship changed hands in Atlanta Saturday night. Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) defeated Los Macizos in a blood-soaked hardcore brawl to capture the titles.
Si or No was incredibly entertaining show, packed with variety, at least for the first 2/3 of the night. To me, the use of chairs and doors and other hardcore elements got repetitive by the time the night was over., though the GCW fans seem to have insatiable appetite for that stuff.
Excess comes with the territory at a GCW show. There were 11 matches spanning almost three and half hours counting the mic work by Joey Janela and Nick Gage after the live stream ended.
There was craziness in abundance including one dangerously stupid stunt involving Jacob Fatu's attempt to press slam Brogan Finlay over the top rope into a fence. See link to video below.
Si or No drew the largest crowd of any of GCW's Atlanta shows -- about a 100 shy of sold out which would put the attendance at around 650.
The show streamed live on FITE TV with Dave Prazak and Mose on commentary.
(1) IWTV World Champion Alec Price defeated Mr. Danger and Brayden Toon and Hunter Drake and Rico Gonzalez and Man Like Dereiss in a six way scramble, pinning Danger at 7:13. They were going a 1000 miles an hour with bodies flying everywhere. Crowd was eating it up. Danger's gets great ups on his aerial moves. Toon hurt is ankle on a dive. Price pinned Danger.
(2) Charles Mason (with Parrow) defeated Mike Jackson via submission in 8:08. Mason is an asshole in a suit. He's nothing special as a wrestler but he was getting nuclear heat. Abusing a 73 year old wrestling treasure will do that. Parrow got on the apron. Mason capitalized on the distraction with a sleeper hold. After a valiant effort to hang in, Jackson finally tapped out.
Richard Holiday made the save for Jackson by beating the shit out of Mason with a curtain rod. Then Holiday tossed Mason off the entrance way onto Parrow. A long backstage brawl and pull apart ensued. GCW is cooking up something between Holiday and Parrow. The action was caught on FITE by a great tracking shot.
(3) Maki Death BUSSY (Maki Itoh & EFFY & Allie Katch defeated Young Dumb N Bros (JCW Champion Jordan Oliver & Augie Matthews & Davey Bang) in 11:30. The pop for Itoh's entrance was insane. This was an unseriously fun match. Oliver appeared to be enjoying himself immensely. YDNB foiled Itoh's Flying Big Head to piss off the crowd. That played into the finish -- a triple diving headbutt by Maki Death BUSSY to pin Matthews.
(4) Tony Deppen defeated Brogan Finlay in 5:55. Deppen put in the most crisp ringwork thus far on the show. He got the lion's share of the offense to the point it seemed the match was building to a Finlay win. Indeed, it looked like Finlay had the match won with top rope elbow drop but Deppen reversed into a crucifix pin.
Finlay got on the mic to announce that was his final match for GCW. Finlay was thanking the fans when he was attacked by Jacob Fatu. Fatu press slammed Finlay over the top rope and into the fence in front of the stage. But Finlay only grazed the fence and landed in a heap on the floor. In the best case scenario, Finlay would have hit the fence and dropped like a rock. What a stupidly dangerous bump to take for someone with a bright future ahead of him. Finlay was on the ground for a long time but did leave under his own power favoring his hip. It was a miracle he wasn't seriously injured.
Finlay Bump of a LifetimeSecurity played by Liam Gray and Bobby Flaco got in the ring for some strange reason because they sure as hell weren't going to control Fatu. He gave them a double Samoan drop.
(5) Jimmy Lloyd beat Steph De Lander in 9 minutes. SDL's foul-mouthed promo had the crowd bringing the hate. Said she should have been on Crown Jewel and called Lloyd a trash bag wrestler. They brawled into the crowd with the crowd chanting "let's go trash bag", then introduced the first of many chair spots to be seen during the remainder of the evening. Referee Scarlette Donovan got knocked down. Lloyd got a visual fall with a cutter. SDL kicked Lloyd in the nuts and gave him a choke slam onto a chair. Lloyd kicking out was a surprise. SDL did the deal where a chair rebounded off the ropes into her face and Lloyd scored the upset win with a leg lariat.
(6) War Dogs (Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd) defeated Second Gear Crew (Mance Warner & Manders) in 10:03. They went strong style and things got brutal. Coughlin's chest was beet red from the chops. Warner was busted open hardway on a headbutt. Warner made the save after Manders took a Doomsday Device from War Dogs. SGC was in control when they were attacked by Fatu with a Samoan spike for Manders and a moonsault for Mance. War Dogs finished Warner off with a piledriver/jackhammer combo. Effy came to the ring to check on SGC.
(7) Santana Jackson defeated Mike Bailey in 11:51. A super entertaining match. Santana amazed with ability to incorporate his Michael Jackson impersonation dance moves into his wrestling and Bailey was down for all of it. Crowd loved Bailey at the get go but he turned them against him by breaking up Jackson's dance number with his female dancers and got massive negativity for stopping Jackson from doing his Thriller werewolf transformation. Bailey threatened to throw the werewolf mask into the crowd. Referee Jesse Fields grabbed the mask and tossed it to Jackson. They female dancers hit the ring. They paid off the dance number and the women continued to dance as they went to the finish -- Jackson got his knees up on Bailey's Ultima Weapon and pinned him with a DDT.
(8) Blake Christian defeated Tank (with The Reverend) to retain the GCW World Championship in 11:32. In my biased opinion the Rev's introduction of Tank was one of the highlights of the night. Rev asked ATL to scream for him and did it ever. He referenced a satanic panic and called Tank "the grandfather of gore".
Good match too. Christian showed fear early as the crowd chanted "Fuck 'em up Tank, fuck 'em up". Tank caught Christian's tope and drove him into the fence. Tank took a knee after absorbing Christian's diving springboard punch from the rail. Time for the doors. Christian used Tank's momentum to send him through door number one. Christian jumped on Tank's back with a sleeper. Tank drove Christian through door number two to break the hold. Christian gave Tank two 619s, a diving headbutt and a springboard 450. Tank kicked out for a great false finish that had the crowd chanting his name. Christian went for the belt but Rev cut him off. Referee Adam Gault got bumped. Tank used a belt shot while the ref was down and covered but Christian kicked out. As Tank tried for a choke slam, Christian kicked him in the groin and curbstomped him for the win.
After the match, the crowd chanted for Tank and he took a bow.
(9) Masha Slamovich defeated Gringo Loco in 13:23. They leaned into the split crowd and dueling chants, the men more for Gringo and the women favoring Masha. The crowd got more fully behind Masha when Gringo went the rough stuff and she became the babyface fighting up from the bottom. Masha took a big bump after losing a battle on the ropes but still kicked out of Gringo's double jump moonsault. Slamovich tossed chairs into the ring. Crowd seemed evenly split again. Slamovich gave Gringo a wicked air raid crash onto a chair. Gringo slung Slamovich into a wedged chair but his double springboard moonsault came up empty. A spinning heel kick and a piledriver put Gringo down for the three count. Slamovich has the skills and is tough as they come but Gringo is a beefy guy. The size differential was too much. I much preferred Masha's match with AC Mack at ACTION.
(10) Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) defeated Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) to win the GCW Tag Team Championship in 12:37. A glorious, garbage, gutter spectacle of a match. It felt like they were executing a collection of planned spots as opposed to having any semblance of a contest and the crowd loved it. VIF was bleeding HEAVILY in no time at all. Garrini must have hit a gusher because he had the crimson mask going. VIF put Ciclope through a door with a Violator 420. Four way chaos led to a round of unprotected chair shots and a 'Macizos" chant. Exremo gave his partner a gordbuster off the apron to put Garrini through a bridged door on the floor. Ku got dropped right on his head then took a Doomsday Device from Mazicos but Garrini broke up the pin. For the finish, Ku wrapped a chain around his boot and VIF hit their finisher on Ciclope putting him through a pane of glass bridged across two chairs.
(11) Joey Janela defeated Joseph Fatu in 22:35. I more or less hated this match. Fatu is a freak of nature, an indestructible beast and an athletic wonder. He's also half out of his mind like Janela. Fatu went for a double springboard split leg moonsault and Janela got his knees up Janela gave Fatu a code red off the top rope through two chairs. Fatu kicked out of course. They were bound and determined to do a something suicidal in one of the entrance ways. It took forever to set the get the spot set up. Janela dove off the top of the entrance way and landed on Fatu who was laid out on a bridged door in the entrance way. The door didn't break. Back inside the ring, Fatu hit a spanish fly through a bridged door followed by a Snuka splash and Janela kicked out.
Sawyer Wreck attacked Fatu. He put her down with a pair of superkicks. Warner hit the ring to do battle with Fatu. Wreck and Warner beat Fatu down with chairs. Janela ended the carnage with a double stomp onto two chairs.
After the live stream ended, Nick Gage came to the ring and did his"MDK/"I love you fucking people" speech before turning the mic over to Janela.
Janela cut an outrageous stream of consciousness promo. Janela gave props to Atlanta for the great food, great hip hop, great drugs...and GCW wasn't going to get kicked off the air like the NWA.. and the best prostitutes in the fuckin' world. Fatu now had to acknowledge him....Gage, Wreck, Warner and Effy were the Bloodline of GCW....and a shout out to Cody Rhodes, noting that he somehow lasted longer in AEW than Cody.
NOTES: AC Mack and former GWH podcaster Jonathan Williams were among those in the house....Saraya Saber was part of the camera crew...Emil Jay was the ring announcer as per usual.
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