4th Rope/GCW Heels Have Eyes: For the Culture 2025 (4.18.25) review 

A show that has two promotions and two titles. It has to be TWICE the show that a singular promotion can put on with only one show title. Right? Maybe four times the show!  

 

What does this title even mean? “The heels have eyes”, Of course they do. Is the implication that the babyface is blind because he doesn’t cheat? Or did someone just watched the Hills Have Eyes and think it sounded cool. Anyway, hosts for this affair are David Otunga, Kazeem Famuyide & Ernest “The Cat” Miller.  

 

I’m scrolling through the card and Matt Riddle vs Gabe Kidd? I know Kidd thinks he’s black but that doesn’t explain this. We join comms and Kazeem refers to his boys as “wrestling legends”. I can only assume he’s never watched David Otunga in the ring. Incidentally if you’ve never heard of 4th Rope it’s because they’ve only run a handful of shows. The gaffer around these parts is rapper Westside Gunn, who arrives with an entourage and there’s a lot of rapping. See, the UK isn’t the only place where a rapper can start a promotion!  

 

Mustafa Ali vs. Trevor Lee vs. Leon Slater 

Slater had just gone to TNA a year ago and he looks confident. TNA is a smart move at the moment as it feels like a feeder for WWE. If Slater wants that career, he’s on that path. He doesn’t look out of place in with two former WWE guys here. When people say they don’t care for triple threats because they’re just spots, that’s this match. The ‘scramble’ style of the Indies a few years ago meant you would see this literally everywhere. It does help that everyone in this match is good but there’s no escaping the dancey nature of everything. Ali takes a great bump where Lee pushes him into the buckles and that allows Leon to win with a victory roll. One great bump, from Ali, doesn’t make up for all the dancey-do around it. I didn’t hate it.  

 

The more I look at the card for tonight, the more I think GCW should have taken their name off this show. 

 

Moose vs. Oni King 

Oh, fuck off Moose. Just fuck off.  

 

This is my first look at Oni King, and I guarantee him, he’ll have better nights in wrestling than this. *60 seconds later*…maybe not. Oni King has not had many matches and that is abundantly clear. He has some decent ideas. The stomp, stomp, chop bit is nice. He makes more mistakes here than I’ve seen anyone else make all weekend so far. Moose finishes with the spear. For a sub-5-minute match, this was surprisingly bad. Easily the worst match I’ve seen this weekend, and I watched both nights of Wrestlemania. 

 

4th Rope Tag Team Championship 

Hardy Boys (c) vs. TNT (Terrell & Terrence Hughes) 

Matt Hardy is now 50 years old. If you told me, back in 1999, that Jeff would still be wrestling in 2025 I would have called bullshit. When D-Von turned up, I thought he was working. He wrestled last year. TNT are called “up and comers”. They’re in their 30s. When Matt Hardy was 30 years old, he’d been in WWE for a decade. Maybe it’s because WWE keep telling people that dudes in their late 30s are “up and comers”. It’s skewed perception.  

 

The Hardys do a lot of their spots in slow motion and the crowd pop for the nostalgia. Jeff tries HARD to make TNT look good, and he can’t do it. I suppose talent is in the genetics, which explains something here because D-Von sucked. This match REALLY drags. Jeff hits one of the Dudley’s boys in the balls with the Swanton, which pops me. Anyway, this was BAD. Let’s move on. 

 

Raj Dhesi vs. Mike Santana 

Jinder Mahal on the Indies just seems wrong, lads. I feel bad for Mike Santana. He’s the kind of guy who needs someone out there with him. By himself he’s short on ideas and charisma. I’ve met him and he’s a nice, softly spoken geezer. He needs a manager or a tag team partner or something.  

 

Any wrestler who has something hanging out of their back pocket on the gear…please google the handkerchief code before doing so. At least Santana’s is a flag. This match is borderline competent. They do some moderately difficult stuff too like Santana’s back roll into a cutter. Just as I’m starting to appreciate it, they work in a ref bump. Fuck me, lads. Just no. Don’t do it.  

 

The bump does serve as a chance for veteran culture respecter JBL to lariat the former Jinder Mahal. Nothing says “For the Culture” like a rich white man who moved from Texas to New York because he loved money so much. He did it “for the culture”. Anyway, Santana gets the pin, and we move on. Best match on the show so far but that was a low bar. 

 

Haley J & Vix Crow vs. Masha Slamovich & Alexis Littlefoot 

Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox on the same card? IN THIS ECONOMY? Masha has to do a lot of heavy lifting here. The trouble with Foxy, is she was always a personality. A meme wrestler. Haley goes around shaking her ass during the match and taking tips. Women’s wrestlers get paid in tips in the USA. Otherwise, it’s below minimum wage. Littlefoot wins with a roll up. If there’s ever a match to showcase how little some promoters care about women in wrestling, let alone women’s wrestling, this is it.  

 

I’ve watched a lot of WEW (Women’s Extreme/Erotic Wrestling) because it’s literally the worst promotion of all time and this felt like a WEW match. Just missing a run-in from the Pussy World Order. 

 

Street Fight 

Culture Inc vs. The Infantry 

You probably know the Infantry from AEW. This starts scrappy around ringside, but they start working in more elaborate spots. They aren’t good spots but they’re certainly elaborate. The ‘holding a chair while your partner slams the guy on the chair’ is particularly dumb. There is a crazy dive, and the cameraman doesn’t see it. I think someone did a moonsault out of the crowd. Infantry win with a double stomp onto a chair. I think this was good, but production missed all the cool stuff I’ll skip on the rating. What I could see in the ring was **¼ territory but the big spotz probably knocks it up higher. If you saw this in the building, you might have it on your shortlist for best of the weekend.  

 

Tiara James vs. Maya World 

Tiara is a confident young woman. I saw both these women on For the Culture last year and they were lost in a scramble. It’s nice to see them in singles. Until Maya gets planted with the Lungblower and the ref has to count three as Maya doesn’t kick out. Less than two minutes. I do think Tiara James is a hot prospect but, again, I’ve not seen enough of her. 

 

Justin Roberts brings out Joe Hendry by claiming if you say his name he appears. Which is why I will never say his name again, just in case. Great to see the downtrodden minority of white people getting so much representation tonight. The Godfather is next out to bring the Hoe Train to Las Vegas. He lives here, doesn’t he? This segment screams Sportz Entertainment. Which is appropriate because it features two guys who couldn’t get over by wrestling.  

 

Flyweight Championship 

Battle Royal 

This is Royal Rumble style. The opening guy is Enzo Amore. If you’re booking Enzo in 2025, you’re not right in the head. The argument that he’s great on the microphone is shattered here as he just says the same things, over and over again. Singalong bullshit. Given the standard on this show though, he’s actually on a higher level than most of the talent. Anyway, there’s a bunch of guys in this and it is hard to care about it. As each entry merely prolongs the show into the wee hours.  

 

Mance Warner’s arrival does switch the gears a little but the in-ring does not improve. Just when some interesting people do turn up like Rich Swann and Bryan Keith, the ring starts to fill up and nobody can do anything. Tommy Dreamer is in this. Erm…the weight class on this is FLYWEIGHT gentlemen. I can suspend my disbelief on a few guys but AJ Francis and Tommy fuckin’ Dreamer are double that weight limit. 

 

Former WWE guy Odyssey Jones enters and as he stumbles over the ropes you can see why they cut him loose. He gets thrown straight out. Haha. Some people just don’t have it. Another former WWE guy gets the big entrance with the former Elias, Elijah, waffling people with his guitar. At least he clears some of the crap out. His top rope walk thing is bafflingly stupid. It looks ugly as sin too. There are still too many guys out here. 

 

Nic Nemeth, another whiter than white wrestler, gets a big reaction too. It’s almost like all the fans just watch WWE. Nemeth looks head and shoulders above everyone, bar Kevin Knight. It makes me wish he left WWE 10 years ago and did stuff on the Indies. It would have been fun. EJ Nduka has some major star power to him and it’s not a shock that he’s under contract already (AEW). He bizarrely eliminates himself crossbodying two other guys out.  

 

FINAL FOUR: Nic Nemeth, Cha Cha Charlie, Elijah and Enzo Amore. Three former WWE guys. Pretty sad. Two of them tumble out leaving Charlie with Enzo. The latter trying like crazy to do Shawn Michaels 1995 Rumble (I bet Nic Nemeth is seething). His skinning of the cat isn’t quite on that level. Also, this is half the length of match. Enzo wins and he wins it For the Culture. The New Jersey Culture. 

“He pulled a Shawn Michaels”. HAHAHAHA. Madusa comes out to award him with the belt. Enzo then dedicates the match to Bray Wyatt and Brodie Lee. There are levels of delusion in this business. That’s all I’m saying. Enzo is not a fundamentally likeable person, let alone a worker.  

 

Chris Bey is brought out next for a promo. He’s out injured, and he calls everyone crazy because it’s 3am. This show finished at 4am? Fuck that. There’s zero chance I would have watched this live. Predictably the crowd are not hot for a promo at 3am.  

 

Gabe Kidd vs. Matt Riddle 

“For the Culture”. Riddle looks ok here but clearly isn’t the worker he was a few years ago. I can only assume he has stopped caring. He still has snug strikes and the technique is there. There’s still a worker in there somewhere but not at 3am in Las Vegas. Riddle runs through all his spots here, including attempting an RKO (he has no shame) and Kidd rolls through the Bro Derek for the pin. **¼. RIddle drops Kidd with the RKO afterwards.  

 

The gaffer comes out here and asks “who wants to hear some hip hop” as they need to set up the cage for the main event. At 3:30am? Fuuuuck. I would 100% of gone here. I don’t need to watch a 4am cage match. Not even if it had good people in it. I certainly would be physically unable to sit through 30 minutes of hip hop to get there.  

 

Cage Match 

4th Rope Championship 

Zilla Fatu (c) vs. Josh Bishop 

Zilla has barely been in the business for a year and is already getting a decent reputation for in-ring. Obviously, he’s part of the A’noai family tree. His dad was Umaga. Bishop gets busted open as we clearly believe that cage match = bloodshed around these parts. I respect it.  

 

Shout out to comms tonight. They’ve had a great time laughing and joking amongst themselves. Ernest Miller especially. The match drags and nobody sounds into it. This is the trouble with trying to put on a serious wrestling match at 4am. When you go that late, end with comedy or dancing or something. Staying awake is a struggle otherwise.  

 

Both guys end up bleeding and Zilla hits the Samoan drop off the ropes, which should really finish. Instead, he finishes with the Superman Spike. A move that’s slightly better than the Superman Punch, the worst move of all time. The match was fine, but nobody cared. **½  

 

Post Match: a bunch of jamokes come out and attack both guys. Again, nobody gives a shit about this. We get a pre-recorded message from Booker T telling us his promotion is going to beat up this promotion. Or something. If Booker himself was here that might have a little sauce to it but it’s a stupid angle. The promotion has only existed for five minutes and has no identity but you’re already going into an inter-promotional angle with another promotion? Baby steps, guys.  

 

The 411: 

This was the kind of show I would expect a WWE watching money mark to put together. I’m aware the promoter has been seen at an array of wrestling shows but there’s no hiding it when you bring in the Hardyz, Jinder Mahal, Alicia Fox, Enzo Amore, Elias, Nic Nemeth, JBL, the Godfather and Matt Riddle. You’re not beating those allegations. Also, this is the least ‘for the culture’ For the Culture show in the show’s existence. A concept designed to showcase African American performers who weren’t catching spots at Mania weekend normally and you’ve got a bunch of white guys on the show, an all-white semi-main and a white guy in the main. I can’t help but think the concept has lost its way to promote 4th Rope. I can only assume 4th Rope threw a bunch of money at GCW to get this to happen. The result is not good. A lot happened on the show. I’ll give them that much.  

 

If I’m being positive; the presentation of this was really good. They had good commentary, which is rare in 2025. I loved the big dice up on the stage and the ramp and layout of everything looked good. I do mainly look at what happens in the ring though and what happened in the ring wasn’t great. There was no ‘this match is for the workrate freaks’ match. Everything felt rushed and short and yet the show was really long with too many musical breaks. I had the benefit of fast-forwarding them. Spending at least 30 minutes setting up a cage in 3:30am is unforgivable. If you pull that shit in Mexico you’d get a riot.