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.
Who would have thought we’d be here, four years later, as Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) once again allows Joey Janela to present Joey Janela’s Spring Break 4: Spring Break Forever. In the main event, Matt Tremot continues his retirement tour, as he faces off with Alex Colon in a deatch match, while the host of the show, Joey Janela, battles the legendary Ricky Morton. The fourth annual Clusterfuck Battle Royal will also take place, as an unknown number of competitors do battle in a match where entrants are eliminated via pinfall, submission, being thrown over the top rope, leaving the building… or death. Also on the show, Lio Rush will face ACH, the latter of who is fresh of a phenomenal match with AJ Gray at Glory Pro Are Ya Wrestling, Son?, while two of the best technical wrestlers in the world today will look to stretch the other until they break, as Jonathan Gresham faces Lee Moriarty. All of this and more at GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break 4: Spring Break Forever.
+ ACH vs Lio Rush: this was really good. It almost goes without saying that both of these guys have had a tough run in the biggest wrestling company, so it was great to see two incredible athletes being able to just go out and do what they do best. Lio Rush is so damn quick, and ACH can do some amazing things, so this was another good wrestling match. This show basically proved that when good wrestlers are given a shot to do what they do best, good things happen
+ Alex Shelley vs Tony Deppen: I remember Deppen being one of the most mega-bad guys in independent wrestling until not too long ago, so it’s sort of funny to hear the crowd with so much respect for the guy. Alex Shelley is a veteran amongst veterans, and that experience really helped this match become something surprisingly good. It’s not a match I ever thought I’d see, but I’m certainly not complaining now
+ Jonathan Gresham vs Lee Moriarty: oh shit yeah. You all know I love big bois skapping meat, but I also love slippery bois grabbing each other. Gresham is one of my current favourites, and I truly believe he could be a big star (anywhere other than the WWE, as his size might hold him back). Moriarty, meanwhile, has a a standout on every Collective show he’s appeared, and he’s starting to give me real Ospreay vibes. This was great
+ The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) vs Ironbeast (KTB & Shane Mercer): we all know The Rascalz from Impact wrestling, but truthfully I’m surprised both of Ironbeast – both separately and as a team – are widely unknown and underappreciated. This was a relatively standard big team versus little team match, but all four guys were really good and I liked this a lot
+ Rickey Shane Page makes an open challenge: flanked by Atticus Cogar, Eddy Only, Eric Ryan and Gregory Iron, RSP was one of the absolute top assholes on the show, and that made the segment and match play out really well. I liked this, but I admit it may have gone on a bit too long
– Alex Colon (w/ Markus Crane) vs Matt Tremont (Death Match): in Matt Tremont’s final match in GCW, this was as standard a bloodbath, weapon-filled death match as you could imagine. Both guys hit each other with stuff that exploded, fell through stuff and bled a lot. I dunno, who even really cares? I know of Tremont and he has had a good career, but I couldn’t bring myself to care
– Clusterfuck Battle Royal: what this was is literally in the name. This was a bit of a mess, with limited use of the rules. After dominating the Twink Gauntlet at Effy’s Big Gay Brunch, big Mike Parrow was a personal highlight once again, and those dastardly 33OH boys were the main target of the fan’s hatred. Men, women, exoticos, handicapped heroes and literal clowns had some fun, and while there were certainly a few enjoyable moments, overall this was a mess (in a bad way)
– Ricky Morton vs Joey Janela: this did not do it for me at all. Ricky Morton has been on something of a career resurgence over the last few years, but this was basically an ultra choreographed, ‘best of’ match. Janela is what Janela is, and he played to his own stereotype. I didn’t care for this match
– Team Pazuzu (Chris Dickinson, Ortiz & Santana) vs Next Gen (Alex Zayne, Blake Christian & Jordan Oliver): I really wanted to like this match, but for some reason it just never clicked for me. I like Dickinson, and look forward to his Bloodsport match against Moxley, and I’ve sung the praises of Christian in particular over the past few shows, and Santana/Ortiz are great, of course. The match itself, though, just felt really slow and unimportant. and I felt myself zoning out at several points
Should you watch this event: After the first event, this was a cannot-miss annual event that really lost its way last year. This show was basically a 1:1 ratio of good to bad, but it’s just that the final three matches were not good. If you stop watching after the Lio Rush/ACH match, it might be a pretty good show.
MoshFish Reviews 