GCW Effy’s Big Gay Brunch (4.18.26) review 

 

April 18, 2026 

 

We’re at the Horseshoe for the final freebie show as part of the Collective on Triller TV+. For the £6.50-ish I paid for one month, it’s been incredible value for money. Now watch me forget to cancel and end up paying for it for like four months like a jabronie. To my horror this show is pushing three hours. Fuck. That’s unfair. That’s uncalled for. This is the 11th Big Gay Brunch. It’s packed out too.  

 

Anton Voorhees, Brooke Havok, Gabby Forza, Hunter Gallagher & Monomoth vs. Billy Dixon, Devon Monroe, Jai Vidal, Jordan Blade & Keita Murray 

Gabby Forza has a lot of cone shaped hats for her homies. Keita has a shirt that reads “GOONER” on the front so I assume he supports Arsenal. They’re about to bottle yet another title (let’s see how that ages when I read this in a year’s time). This is lightweight fun and I’m glad Billy Dixon is hidden away in here and not in some god awful singles match. Jordan Blade is wearing a suit to wrestle in here and it’s rather fetching. More wrestling in suits, imo. Let’s make a fashion statement.  

You know how Samoans have the hard head gimmick? Well, Gabby has BUNS OF STEEL! Brooke Havok is good again here, and we get a good showing from Anton Voorhees too. Jordan Blade has to be the MVP of this though. Their spots are on point. Big heavy impacts, great bumps. They could coast by on gimmicks and silliness, but the spots in this are really, genuinely good. Some of the best spot work of the weekend. As I type that Anton attempts a spot where he dives off the top rope, carrying Keita, and springboards him off the apron into a German suplex to the floor. What the fuck mate? It doesn’t work, or even come close to working but the balls to even think of it, let alone attempt it. Dixon gets a pin out of nowhere on Voorhees. Oh shit, this was actually good. I had a great time. ***. It was going slightly higher if that Voorhees spot came off. It was never going to…but if it did.  

 

Brick Savage vs. Mad Dog Connelly 

Brick got a bit lost in the Clusterfuck and didn’t do great. This is my first Connelly match all weekend. I know he’s on the ACTION show.  

Old Dan Liplock starts out before Connelly continues. We hit the MEAT SLAPPING very quickly. Having been fairly dismissive of Brick Savage earlier, it takes him about 3 minutes to sell me on him. Just a big meaty boy smacking the shit out of people.  

They continue to smack each other around. Brick hits a big lariat and some slam variant thing. Anyway, it’s over. Great fucking wrestling here. Sub ten minutes. Beat each other senseless. Double bladejob. Brilliant. **** 

 

Vipress vs. Mercedes Martinez 

While El Desperado was nice to Vipress and protected her, Mercedes decides to work snugger. Mercedes gets clearly annoyed at Vipress not giving it back and screams at her to fire up. OH SHIT, VIPRESS TIES HER HAIR UP. Mercedes has to tell Vipress where to be repeatedly in this match. Constantly pointing to where she should be and what she’s supposed to be doing. Mercedes pops off the spider superplex and Vipress lands high on her neck in a sickening bump.  

 

She has not voluntarily taken a worldy of a bump there. Choice was not involved. A couple of piledrivers and Vipress picks up the pin. This was a weird match where Mercedes was dragging stuff out of Vipress, kicking and screaming. I don’t get the hype around Vipress. She’s decent but is being carried constantly. **½  

 

Post Match: Cheerleader Melissa is here! As is Taya Valkyrie. They both kiss Vipress because it’s the gay show.  

 

Allie Katch vs. Steph De Lander vs. Charli Evans vs. Kidd Bandit 

Wait, didn’t Allie lose a “loser leaves GCW forever” match fucking yesterday*? Or have I mixed up my timelines. The crowd start out by chanting “thank you, Bandit”, as they’ve announced this is their last Effy show. Veda alludes to retirement on comms.  

 

*Basically, they’re saying she can wrestle today as it was already booked in and then she’s done.  

Evans tries really hard to make sure this match doesn’t suck. Chevs and Allie in singles would probably have worked better, but the circumstances obviously don’t allow that. SDL has looked rusty all weekend, and these multi-person matches are the hardest to get your positioning right in. Speaking of which, Allie positions herself on a pin in such obvious fashion you can almost hear her being pulled out of the ring before she is. Allie puts Kidd Bandit away with a piledriver. *½ 

 

Post Match: Bandit leaves her kick pads in the ring.  

 

Parrow’s Twink Gauntlet 

“Unleash the twinks”. I thought this would be Parrow just wrestling a bunch of smaller guys one after another but instead it’s an assortment of small wrestlers wrestling each other. It starts as a tag team match and then it’s not? Some tall blonde kid nearly breaks the neck of one of the other guys. Logan Cavazos is the blonde kid. I looked him up to name and shame. He is dogshit awful and shouldn’t be in a match. He’s the worst wrestler I’ve seen this weekend by some distance. And I’ve seen some absolute shitters.  

Parrow is the best performance in this match as he gets increasingly flustered at the bigger, definitely not twink, competitors. While the quality of the work in this match has been diabolical, at least everyone is having a nice time. CPA pops me with his multiple layers of shirts, each with its own tie. He also makes fun of the 619. A man after my own heart.  

The whole match just stops so people can move furniture around. With only a few guys left (Anakin Murphy and CPA) Parrow himself enters proceedings. Anakin’s attempts to clean Parrow out with chair shots is kinda funny but Parrow KILLING HIM with a powerbomb over the ropes is just brutal. I can’t imagine that landing was nice to take. I can’t believe the Twink Gauntlet is the most dangerous match on Wrestlemania weekend. 

Parrow’s facial reactions during this are unreal. He’s off the charts good at the “this fucking guy” reaction shot. Plus, whatever we have above here. CPA whips off his THIRD shirt and tie combo though, to AN ENORMOUS POP and CPA gets the pin. Holy shit! The pop here. The match was mostly terrible until Parrow himself got involved, and matters picked up a bit at the finish. * 

 

I will say it’s refreshing to have a show where the crowd are biting on literally EVERYTHING though. Best crowd of the weekend, honestly.  

 

Effy vs. Zack Sabre Jr 

Comms keep saying Effy has changed and everything…and he’s wrestling exactly the same as he was before. Zack seems to be having a fun time here. Again, having a responsive crowd brings the best out in workers. Apart from Effy, of course. I don’t think he has a ‘best’. Comms ask if Zack being here means he’s gay. GAY FOR PAY, BABY!  

Zack seems to enjoy having his nipples toyed with. Kinky bastard, I knew it. They do some good work in this match. Not just around Zack dominating on the mat but also in the striking, where its closer. Sabre is underrated at striking with his lifters, kicks and forearms and it’s the slaps that rule here.  

 

One small problem; this goes 20:00. Which is just too long to credibly have them fight given Sabre’s vast technical advantage. Sometimes he does play with his food a bit, but this feels like an extended squash with banter included. Zack takes it by creating a new submission hold. A headscissors where he leans back to hook the leg, thus applying more pressure to his shin bone across the throat. Sensational. Zack pulled off a great match here. Incorporating the fun style of the show as a whole but also bringing his A game on the mat and at stand up. He’s a great wrestler and he showed it here. ***¼  

 

Nyla Rose vs. Dark Sheik  

This is clunky as they introduce plunder elements, and the crowd isn’t into it. They’ve been hot for everything. Read the room.  

Nyla realises this and sits ringside with a Sheik sign screaming shrill mocking support for her fallen opponent. There ya go. Sheik also raises her game by breaking out the Van Terminator. With the trash can. Chokeslam from Nyla on said trash can is also a cool spot. Sheik breaks out the Arabian facebuster, without pointing to the sky. It can be done guys. Nyla no sells Sheik’s finish, the Sliced Bread #2, but gets immediately caught in an inside cradle for the L. This started off poorly but holy shit, it landed by the time we were done. *** 

 

The 411: 

The vibrant crowd certainly helped here, but this was the show with the most ***+ matches I saw all week (to this point). Everything landed. Some of it landed really hard. Connelly-Savage was legitimately one of the weekend’s best bouts. The only bad match was the Parrow gauntlet and even that got good towards the end. Effy’s show has always had a good crowd, but this year they had consistently solid in-ring to go with it. Arguably the best show of the weekend.  

 

I AM AS SHOCKED AS YOU, READER. I AM AS SHOCKED AS YOU.  

 

Show Ranking:   

Effy’s Big Gay Brunch 8.0  

WWE Wrestlemania N2 7.8  

NJPW Death Vegas 7.5  

Wrestlecon Supershow 6.3   

HOG Culture Clash 6.1 

MLP Multiverse 5.9  

Dragon Gate USA: Gate of Sin City 5.8   

Progress 5.6   

Bloodsport 5.5  

Spring Break 5.2  

Gringo Loco’s WRLD on Lucha 5.0  

Clusterfuck 4.6  

Ladies Night Out 16 4.5   

Hybrid x PWU Midnight Xpress 4.1   

MDK Fight Club 4.0   

Wrestlemania N1 3.8  

CCW High Rollers 3.4   

Podermania~! 3.1  

Juggalos 2.2   

  

Best Matches:   

Tremont & Gage vs. Takeda & Yamashita vs. Desperado & Kasai (NJPW Death Vegas) ****¼   

Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk (Wrestlemania N2) ****¼  

Brick Savage vs. Mad Dog Connelly (Effys Big Gay Brunch) **** 

Bandido vs. Amazing Red (HOG Culture Clash) **** 

Zack Sabre Jr vs. Fuminori Abe (NJPW Death Vegas) ***¾   

Mark Davis vs. Masato Tanaka (Wrestlecon Supershow) ***¾   

Man Like Dereiss vs. Michael Oku (Progress) ***½   

Tim Thatcher vs. Charlie Dempsey (Bloodsport) ***½  

Gisele Shaw vs. Persephone vs. Killer Kelly vs. Shotzi Blackheart (MLP) ***¼  

Gunther vs. Seth Rollins (Wrestlemania N1) ***¼  

Manders vs. Thomas Shire (Hybrid/PWU) ***¼   

Zack Sabre Jr vs. Effy (Effys Big Gay Brunch) ***¼  

IC ladder match (Wrestlemania N2) ***¼  

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre (Wrestlemania N1) *** 

Bandido vs. Galeno del Mal (Wrestlecon Supershow) ***  

Hechicero vs. Jonathan Gresham (MLP) *** 

Perry & Stunt vs. Stackhouse & Orso (Spring Break) *** 

Charles Mason vs. Michael Oku (HOG Culture Clash) *** 

Ben K & Hyo vs. Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr vs. Jordan Oliver & Alec Price (DGUSA) ***  

Fuminori Abe vs. Erick Stevens (Bloodsport) *** 

Thunder Rosa vs. Julissa Mexa (WRLD on Lucha) *** 

Dark Sheik vs. Nyla Rose (Effys Big Gay Brunch) *** 

10 person tag (Effys Big Gay Brunch) *** 

 

Sandman vs. Invisible Man (Spring Break) 

  

Matches watched: 146 

Number of coffees drunk; 12 

Number of Geoguessr seeds played as a welcoming distraction: 9 

Number of motivational/tactical Irn Bru’s drunk: 8