GCW For the Culture (4.5.24) review 

 

April 5, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #22 

 

Source: Triller TV+ (£7.99 per month) 

 

We’re in Philly at Penns Landing Caterers. Yet another Collective show. Hosts are Big Swole and AC Mack. This show wasn’t great last year, and it was largely because Billy Dixon was on it. Well, this year Billy Dixon is in the main event. That’s far from ideal. It has a bad cagematch rating but we’re doing it anyway. I’m trying to, at least, finish the Collective.  

 

Team Dolla (AJ Francis, Isaiah Broner, Keita, Mr. Danger & Terry Yaki) vs. Team Hot Fire (Calvin Tankman, Darian Bengston, Devon Monroe, Myron Reed & Ruckus) 

Mr Danger was on Spring Break earlier; he does incredible flips. Top Dolla sucks though. Ruckus still going in 2024 is crazy. There’s a lot of spot work here and it’s probably closer to lucha than anything else. Lots of guys piling in and out of the ring and flips and stuff. Mr Danger does one that’s super sick. A big old springboard flippydo. The referee fucks up the finish. The dude is down, and the ref doesn’t count it. They end the match anyway. Garbage.  

 

Mane Event (Duke Davis & Ganon Jones Jr.) vs. Kings of the District (Eel O’Neal & Jordan Blade) vs. Thick ‘N’ Juicy (Brooke Valentine & Faye Jackson) vs. Killionaires Club (J Boujii & PB Smooth) 

What the fuck is this? They’ve booked two clusterfucks back-to-back to start the show? Get the fuck out of here. There are significant size differences in this thing. PB Smooth is 6’9”, Faye is 5’4”. This is more of a match than the previous one. They get all the talent over and have them do stuff that’s not just wall-to-wall spots. However, the execution of most of it is far worse than the opener. Far worse.  

 

If we’re looking for positives; Jordan Blade was quite good. However, almost everything I hate about wrestling was all over this match. Thigh slaps EVERYWHERE. Big messy multiple person spots. Faye Jackson trying, and repeatedly failing, to mount the turnbuckles. People cheer when she hits the dive because it took her like four minutes to get up there. Everyone awkwardly brawling underneath her, wondering if she’ll ever make it. Faye finishes with the Bonsai Drop and this was one of the worst matches of the weekend. Awful wrestling. 

 

Man like Dereiss vs. Sonny Kiss 

A SINGLES MATCH! Thank you, wrestling gods. Two people I like in it too. An absolute win. Sonny brings some rump shaking action and Dereiss bumps out of the ring. Hahaha. Sonny has this incredible style, which really defies pigeonholing. While it has elements of flamboyant ‘gay’ gimmicks wrestling has had in the past, it doesn’t go that far and combines that flamboyance with skill, gymnastics and athleticism. There’s a lot of bridging and use of the ropes. It’s incredibly innovative. I’ve not seen Sonny since last year’s Mania weekend, and they’ve clearly improved. She does miss the big flippy kick to set up the finish, but the split-legged Stunner is cool as fuck. Best match on this show by a country mile. *** 

 

Ladie’s Night Scramble Match 

Joseline Navarro vs. Mazzerati vs. Janai Kai vs. Jada Stone vs. Tiara James vs. Maya World 

Another fucking scramble. Jesus. The good news with this one is its elimination rules. Big Swole mistakes Tiara James for Maya World. “Not all black people look alike”. We’re told this is now “sudden death” thus ruining the only interesting thing about the match. Why would announce something interesting and then take it away?  

 

They do the dives and Jada pulls out a Sky Twister. Whoa, hello! Despite the fiery start, the match just stops being good almost immediately. It is sensationally dangerous though. Every competitor seems determined to land on their head or land on someone else’s head. Mazzerati takes some sickening bumps. Navarro pins Mazz with a crossbody block into the corner. This was pretty good but would have been better if it hadn’t followed two scramble style matches earlier. **½  

 

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Jah-C 

Is “Jungle Boogie” the greatest entrance music of all time? Scorpio is 58 years old. He debuted in 1991. He was in WCW back in 1992. He was Flash Funk during the Attiude Era in WWE. He started winding down in 2007 when he finished with NOAH. He’s still going.  

Sure, this is slow. Especially compared to other matches on this show. However, this 58-year-old dude is out here doing double springboard moonsaults, motherfucker. Jah-C tries to do his own one and he fucks it up. Jah-C does ok apart from that. He’s an annoying heel and he slides under the ropes and through them like a slithery snakey thing. Jah hits a superkick and Scorpio kicks out, but the ref fucks up and counts him down anyway. It’s not the same referee that fucked up the first match.  

 

Pan Afrikan World Disapora Championship 

Suge D (c) vs. Alex Kane 

This crowd is done. I’m pretty sure this started at midnight and if we were being sensible, we should be finished by 2am. Of course, American promoters are incapable of booking a sub 2-hour show. The story of the match is Suge can’t overpower Kane and can’t bring the fight to him. He’s getting his ass kicked but Kane is barely doing anything. Suge just can’t move him.  

 

Kane almost wrestles on instinct. He looks like he’s not planned anything. All power. Suplexes and spears. Suge eventually figures him out though and drops him on his head with a piledriver to retain. This didn’t quite work. Suge spent the whole match trying to figure out how to beat Kane while Kane popped off effortless power moves. The finish was out of nowhere. **¾  

 

Billy Dixon vs. Darius Carter 

Billy Dixon sucks. He’s a dreadful pro-wrestler. Apparently, he books these shows? Which would be the only reason he’s on top.  

Referee is Darius Lockheart, who I once shared a table with after Rev Pro live at the Cockpit #35. In all honesty, I don’t remember the match he was in. WALTER, Tim Thatcher, Aussie Open, Axiom and Jamie Hayter were on the card. Looking back on that period of BritWres, literally every card had great wrestlers on. It’s not that way anymore. 

 

Anyway, the match sees Carter dominate. Mainly by taking Dixon’s legs. Dixon just lets him. He just gets his ass kicked all match. Which is for the best because whenever he tries to do anything it sucks. He reminds me a little of Dusty Rhodes but without Dusty’s knowledge of his own limitations.  

 

You can see seats emptying out as people have left to go to bed. Your show is too long! Dixon beaches himself in a Figure Four and just lies there. He’s too lazy to kick out even. Lockheart just counts him down and the crowd are all “is that it?” Billy Dixon, in a clash five years in the making, loses because he’s too lazy to move. What a fucking embarrassment. Anyway, this was just Darius Carter wrestling himself and while he’s a decent worker, he can’t do that for 20 minutes. Absolute shit. 

 

The 411: 

The women’s scramble, Kiss-DeReiss and Suge D-Kane were all decent. Everything else sucked. The four-way tag match might be the worst thing on Wrestlemania weekend and Carter-Dixon was awful. A hard pass and one of the worst shows of the weekend.