Wrestling Review: GCW Effy’s Big Gay Brunch (2020)

[Please note: I’ve done my best to get the correct pronouns for all the competitors, but I may have made a mistake. I apologise if that’s the case.]

Originally scheduled to take over Florida in March as part of Wrestlemania Weekend, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) will instead host The Collective, a series of massive events featuring competitors from across All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Ring of Honor (ROH), Impact Wrestling, Black Label Pro, and many other independent promotions.

After For the Culture celebrated and hyped the future of black men and women in pro wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) looks to do the same for the LGBTQ+ community at Effy’s Big Gay Brunch, hosted by the one and only Effy. The main event will feature All Elite Wrestling’s (AEW) Sonny Kiss taking on Cassandro el Exotico, while the host of the festivities, Effy, who was originally scheduled to do battle with Priscilla Kelly, will instead face another challenge: the ultimate twink. A huge eight-man tag will also be on the card, as the Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders, Mance Warner and Matthew Justice) will team with the Amish monster Levi Everett to face the unconventional foursome of Joshua Wavra, Billy Dixon, MV Young and one of my new favourites in O’Shay Edwards. All of these matches and much more, including the Twink Gauntlet at Effy’s Big Gay Brunch.

+ Cassandro El Exotico vs Sonny Kiss: this match was a lot of fun, especially after the few stinkers before it. Cassandro can still go at his age, and Sony Kiss is a standout up-and-comer in AEW, and overall their styles were similar enough to gel. Sonny Kiss’ athleticism (and, let’s be honest here, significant youth advantage) meant his offence was the standout of the match. Nonetheless, this was a good match to top off a card all about celebrating diversity
+ Jamie Senegal (w/ Saint Synclair) vs Allie Kat: Senegal’s name and look was familiar to me, but I wasn’t able to place her. I was familiar with Allie Kat, of course, and that gave me someone to cheer for – thankfully, that was the plan, as Senegal played such a horrendous bitch it was easy to hate her. I liked this by the end, but I can admit it wasn’t the cleanest, most technical match you’ll see
+ The Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders, Mance Warner & Matthew Justice) & Levi Everett vs Billy Dixon, Joshua Wavra, MV Young & O’Shay Edwards: O’Shay Edwards really impressed me on the For the Culture show, so I was most disappointed with his involvement here. The entire SGC/Everett team were great, and by the end this was probably the best match of the show
+ AC Mack & Ashton Starr vs Team Sea Stars (Ashley Vox & Delmi Exo): Vox was really impressive, and Starr/Mack had some good chemistry despite not having teamed up much (according to commentary) but overall this was about average. I am listing it as a positive because I still had fun watching it, but the music between the notes was not very good

– Effy in action: as much as I was looking forward to Effy vs Priscilla Kelly, Kelly’s replacement can only be seen a great swap. The match itself however was short and full of bad comedy, that I personally would be offended to see if I was part of the community the show was hoping to celebrate
– Twink Gauntlet Match: Mike Parrow played a big part in this match (if you recognise the name from All Japan Pro Wrestling, then you’ll know he is certainly not a twink) and I like Parrow, but frankly this wasn’t what I wanted to see from the competitors involved. Truthfully I didn’t see many twinks, and the match itself was nothing particularly good
– Dark Sheik vs Still Life With Apricots And Pears: holy smokes, this was not a good wrestling match. This was the worst thing on the show, and it was also the longest. Dark Sheik was trying her best to be the bad guy, but it was awkward and clumsy, and Still Life was playing the underdog throughout but never had the ‘fire’ that underdogs need. Avoid this one

Should you watch this event: As far as a representation of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ll leave that to you to decide. But as far as being a wrestling event, there was only two or three really good matches and the rest was ‘acceptable’ to ‘bad. For the Culture did a much better job of advocating and entertaining in terms of wrestling.