Hot on the heels of two Spring Breaks, Game Changer Wrestling went to the Big Apple as Joey Janela was Lost in New York… but found himself for a cracker of a show!
We’re watching this on-delay via Fite.tv, but there’s now other means of getting this show on-demand on a per-show basis. With Danny Havoc and a rotating series of guests on commentary, the show’s coming to us from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, and once we start with what I presume is 2006 Maxwell Jacob Friedman crying as he listens to Wheatus, we jump to the present day with shots of MJF in NYC, eating ice cream while waiting for his Uber. Of course, he gets triggered a lot by Teenage Dirtbag, which leads to… Wheatus playing live for Nate Webb’s entrance. Because wrestling in 2018!
Nate Webb vs. Maxwell Jacob FriedmanAfter a MJF promo, branding Wheatus as a one-hit wonder… and Friedman calls himself the CZW World champion. I’m surprised he’s doing this after the supposed “pick a side” deal earlier in the year.
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Webb starts by punching out Friedman, then catching him out the outside with a tope con giro, before MJF uses Wheatus’ Brendan B. Brown as a human shield on the stage. It doesn’t work, as Brown’s attacked as the match heads back to the ring, where Friedman stayed on top of Webb, taking him up top for a superplex… but Webb escaped and mounted a comeback. A spinning TKO from Webb leaves MJF in the ropes, before he followed up with a headscissors/Destroyer combo for a near-fall. MJF comes back with a Fujiwara armbar, before he shoves Webb into the referee… allowing MJF to grab a chair from under the ring. Webb points at him, which just stops Friedman in his tracks, as he instead pulls an Eddie Guerrero… except the referee’s still down.
So Webb does the same thing, right as the ref gets back up, which led to some comedy as they argued behind the ref’s back while playing dead. MJF tried to use the chair, and again bumps the ref into the corner as MJF takes advantage this time, kicking Webb low before Wheatus made the save! Yes… you read that right, Wheatus make the save, with Brendan Brown DDTing MJF onto a chair… but since Brown’s not a wrestler, the DDT wasn’t quite as effective as MJF kicks out. Webb looks to finish off MJF himself with a chair-moonsault… but MJF gets his feet up to block it, and that’s enough for the pin. Hey, that’s a cool finish; guy tries for a chair-assisted move off the top, gets the chair kicked into him, and it’s too much too soon. Not much to write home about, but a solid opener. ***
It’s a good job that “Lost In New York” is really in New York, because save for Wheatus, there’s not really been the same kind of wackiness that we saw for the Spring Breaks. Okay, now we get some more opening credits after the Wheatus/MJF skit, featuring Spiderman, the Muppets, and clips from just about every movie that’s ever been set in NYC.
We then open with an open challenge from KTB – remember him? Last time we saw him he was flirting on the undercards of EVOLVE shows before disappearing. He’s gotten rid of the Renegade-like facepaint, which is an improvement. The open challenge is taken by, shall we say, a small fan, who wears a t-shirt saying “I support midget violence.” He introduces himself as Marco – and my God, there’s a size difference.
KTB vs. Marco StuntSo after trying to verbally fight back against the bully, Marco backflips away from KTB before hitting a rewind ‘rana off the top rope!
There’s a tiltawhirl into a lungblower as Marco grabbed everyone’s attention, and sent KTB outside for a freaking Dragonrana off the apron, then a tope con giro into the back of KTB, who quickly responds with a death valley driver on the floor. Back in the ring, KTB reverts to type, hurling Marco across the ring, but Stunt manages to avoid a squash before he goes all Marius al-Ani on us with a sunset flip and a kip-up… before he’s squashed with a huge German suplex.
There’s a MASSIVE back body drop to Marco, who came down with snow on him after being sent so high, and he’s taken to the sky again as KTB threatens an avalanche Falcon arrow… only for Stunt to turn it into a ‘rana, before he slipped on a springboard, crashing into KTB on the way down. Marco does manage a standing moonsault, but he’s caught and tossed away, before catching a high-angle lungblower after standing on KTB’s shoulders. He goes airborne again with a cannonball to the outside, before another flying ‘rana’s caught and turned into powerbombs, with a Ligerbomb somehow only getting a near-fall.
Another comeback from Marco sees him spike KTB with a short ‘rana, before a 450 splash almost puts Kyle away. The escapologist Stunt tried to powerbomb KTB out of the corner, but he’s pulled back up and into a freaking moonsault fallaway slam off the middle rope… and that’s the win for KTB. Well then! I was not expecting them to find such a gem here… but while KTB was overshadowed by Marco here, you can’t help but get the feeling that Marco’ll only be “flavour of the month.” Enjoy this while it lasts, because you can only get the shock factor for so long! ****
Next up is Stokely Hathaway and Wheeler YUTA for the hell of it. Stoke runs his mouth, introducing YUTA as his bodyguard. Hopefully he’s more effective than Dominic Garrini was in EVOLVE. We’ve got EVOLVE-levels of reverb here as Stokely fires Larry Legend as ring announcer… which prompts the playing of some Metallica. Enter Sandman. I think you can guess what happened next… especially since Stokely and YUTA just stayed in the ring like dummies.
Sandman. Beer. Canes. Much pain for Stokely, before Wheeler mugged Stokely’s wallet and gave some to the Sandman. Thanks for coming. Never change, Sandman.
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More video now, of a graffiti artist stocking up on spray paint before getting to work on doing the show logo.
Teddy Hart vs. Chris DickinsonIt feels weird to say that Teddy’s having a “renaissance” but he’s found himself thrust back into the spotlight lately for MLW, and against Chris Dickinson you’ve got quite a recipe here. For what, I’m not so sure…
Teddy dedicated the match to Jim Neidhart, saying he didn’t go to the funeral so he could be here, instantly babyfacing himself. Chris Dickinson one-ups it by asking Teddy to do a “tribute moonsault” for Owen Hart, which of course Teddy does… only to land into an enziguiri as Dickinson played Teddy at his own game. They head outside as Dickinson went to his brawling game, before he piledrove Teddy onto the ring apron for the first move of the match. Sold beautifully by Teddy, whose eyes rolled back into his head, which meant he probably didn’t see a suplex on the floor coming. A stalling suplex is escaped by Hart, who posts Dickinson, hits a suplex of his own, only for the Dirty Daddy to come right back with a superkick as they both bounced back quickly.
Back in the ring, Dickinson gets a two-count… so they go back outside as Teddy gets choked and battered around ringside again, as the match became more of a strike battle than anything else. There’s a brutal clothesline from Dickinson that sent Teddy flipping off the apron… into some mats that commentary tried to tell us didn’t exist. It’s an illusion! Dickinson looks to follow up with a suplex on the apron, but he loses his footing as Hart’s dumped onto the edge of the ring ribs-first, before repeating it again, this time while standing on the floor. Teddy must hate his ribs, especially as Dickinson teases the Bad Bones suplex from the apron to the floor, only for Teddy to counter into a Stundog Millionaire, then into a Bliss Buster as he used the ropes for momentum.
A flying DDT keeps Dickinson down, before a springboard moonsault drew a near-fall, as he then slows things down with a bear hug. Dickinson tries to escape, so Teddy counters into a hammerlock DDT for another two-count, before an Arabian moonsault saw Hart land in Dickinson’s knees… and the comeback’s on by way of more strikes. A superkick to the gut has Hart reeling, as did a gutbuster onto the turnbuckles.
Teddy thought he’d hit back with a top rope ‘rana, but Dickinson rolls through and puts on a Sharpshooter to troll us all, only for Teddy to make it to the ropes. Hart’s powerbomb only gets a near-fall as he lands it right by the ropes, and we’re still throwing the big guns as Dickinson’s avalanche German suplex looked to put Teddy away… but instead Teddy fluffs a leap over in the corner and eventually wangles his way into a Code Red for a near-fall. A Destroyers next, and that’s all! Well, this was classic Teddy Hart – spectacular, but with the hit-rate you’d expect when you’re swinging for the fences. Some stuff landed, others didn’t, but it was a fun watch. **¾
So, Nick Gage was meant to wrestle Meng/Haku on this show… but with Haku attending Jim Neidhart’s funeral, we needed a replacement. Gage comes out for his match, andhis presentation in GCW seems to be that he’s got a mad scientist-like cheerleader. I thought PCO has that sewn up?
Still, the aura of Nick Gage is undeniable, especially when he’s in his element, tearing off a CZW shirt he’d worn to the ring, before the lights went out. ECW fans will know where this is going… particularly since only the house lights were out, and not the bar lights, which meant we could see shadows moving.
GCW Heavyweight Championship: Sabu vs. Nick Gage (c)Well, first the Sandman, now Sabu. Nice surprises are nice.
The crowd were hot for this one, and we start with the pair slugging it out, which led to Sabu scoring a surprise rebound clothesline as he took the champion off his feet. Gage is right back with a Flatliner and some headbutts, before we spill outside as Sabu goes hunting for hardware. Chairs get thrown into Gage, who responds by whipping Sabu into the guard rails… but we’re quickly back in the ring as Sabu rolled back the years, landing a step-up clothesline off a chair into Gage in the corner. A second one misses as Gage smashes into him with elbows and boots, before an attempt to leap onto Sabu just ended with a chair being thrown onto him. We’ve more chair-based offence out of Sabu, who then heads out for a door to turn into a makeshift table, which he puts Gage through with a top rope legdrop. Just like the old days, except with doors, not tables…
Sabu’s back out for another door, but he ends up slipping in the ropes as he looked for another legdrop, allowing Gage to catch him with a piledriver off the middle ropes, putting Sabu through the door for the win. Given his age and injuries, Sabu was shockingly good here, but this will certainly be a “your mileage will vary” match. If you liked ECW Sabu, you’d love this. **¾
During interval we see footage from Joey Janela’s last Spring Break, including him piledriving a fan in Bourbon Street… oh, and a bunch of adverts from the 80s. It was certainly different, but a lot better than WWN’s incessant plugs during their intermission.
Grab The Brass Ring Ladder Match: Jimmy Lloyd vs. Eli Everfly vs. Gringo Loco vs. Tony Deppen vs. G-Raver vs. Orange CassidyLook, this one went almost half an hour, so I’m going to try and hand-wave this and recap this as best I can without explaining every single bump.
