GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break X (4.17.26) 

 

April 17, 2026 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #15  

 

We’re at the Horseshoe for one of the longest shows of Mania weekend. The show ran so long I saw the end of it when I woke up to watch JCW the other day. The tape is 4h48m. Holy shit. Luckily the first 30:00 is the show being late starting. Which is very on brand.  

 

Grab the Brass Ring Ladder Match 

So, I’ve been watching shows from this venue and I’m not sure how they’re going to attach something to the ceiling. It turns out…they didn’t. There are a bunch of people in this including Masato Tanaka, Shotzi Blackheart, Manders and Man Like Dereiss. The latter is doing his rap when Charles Mason blindsides him. What an asshole.  

 

There are way too many people in this. The Clusterfuck is tomorrow. We don’t need two of them. I also hate ladder matches but here the ladders just exist to do spotz off as there’s nothing hung over the ring and instead we get pinfalls. Then Vengador breaks the top rope clean off. Oops. Masato Tanaka, who deserves better, decides to do a rana off the second. He sees it as a challenge. Fair play.  

One of the best parts of this match is him and Bear Bronson having a good old fight. Dereiss embraces the high spots element by taking a suplex off a ladder and hitting a 450 Splash off the middle rope. Some of the other workers struggle with the lack of top rope. I’m not naming names, but you know who you are.  

 

This whole thing is so fucking long. It’s just not fun to sit through. They do some really silly spots and people just kick out of them. There’s fucking 11 guys out here. Just have someone break it up. Manders lariats Vengador to win and thank god this is over. *½. Slight bonus for people who were able to adapt but an awful idea executed partially well is still an awful idea.  

 

Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz & Myron Reed vs. Jordan Oliver, Alec Price & Marcus Mathers 

This is the kind of match you see dozens of at Wrestlemania weekend, and you won’t remember it five seconds after it finishes. The Rascals had a match against a much better team on the HOG (or was it MLP, I can’t remember – case in point) show, and it was just a bunch of spots. In an attempt to make this one memorable, they drag it out as long as humanly possible. Mainly through a very, very long heat segment on Xavier. Followed by one on Mathers the other way. It’s actually boring. Only with thigh slaps. 

 

This match is great for one reason though. If someone asks me what I don’t like about modern wrestling, I can tell them to watch this steaming pile of shit, and it should become apparent. Everyone in this match wants to be Will Ospreay so bad, but they can’t do it. At least some of the scrambles this weekend have had the decency to keep it short. This is so fucking long. The Rascals all hit rope finishers to win, and Mathers helpfully shuffles across the ring between the second and third spot to be in position. How nice of him. DUD 

 

GCW Championship 

Atticus Cogar (c) vs. Hayabusa 

This feels a little clunky, which is to be expected as they’ve probably had about 30 minutes to get this together. The spots, like Hayabusa’s moonsault to the floor, feel disconnected. Atticus slowing it down with a chinlock and then bailing for plunder while Hayabusa just sits there doing nothing. It genuinely feels like they’ve skipped ahead from minute one to minute fifteen.  

 

Cogar and Hayabusa have such a startling lack of chemistry that Hayabusa just lets Cogar lead and do whatever he likes. Cogar is so slow at setting spots up that Hayabusa spends a good chunk of the match just lying around waiting for him.  

I had time to take a screenshot, save it and go back to the match and type this sentence and Hayabusa is still fucking waiting for him. And I took the screenshot to emphasise how long shit was taking to set up. That’s all the match is. Lying around, waiting. HIGH SPOT. Lying around, waiting. Waiting some more. Even comms sound tired. After they’ve stopped pissing around setting stuff up, they actually start having a decent match. Hayabusa misses off the top and the Brain Hemorrhage finishes. The last couple of minutes of this were sweet. Everything before it was a chore to sit through. ** 

 

KJ Orso & Sam Stackhouse vs. Jack Perry & Marko Stunt 

It’s a shame these four wrestlers are in this angle because the actual angle is fantastic. Stunt was retiring and the heels kicked his ass for it. He was then saved by Jack Perry. I got chills and I’m not invested in these guys at all. Sometimes, storyline just lands right.  

Luchasaurus drives Perry to the building in the Jurassic Express. I love it. Wrestlemania is all about entrances. Normally, I don’t care for Jack Perry but putting him in this environment, where he’s the best worker, I’m happy to see him. Which is why more people should quit WWE and make their name on the Indies. You can stand out here, brothers and sisters.  

 

Stunt has always been good for drawing sympathy but with a career threatening back/neck problem, even more so. Perry looks like he’s having a nice time. There’s still a lot of thigh slapping but they build properly. There’s only one real problem; the match is too long. Well, the show is too long. If this match went 15:00 and nothing else did, it would be fine. They do a spot where Stackhouse hits a Cannonball while Orso is going coast and coast and I thought they’d botched it, but I think it’s intentional that KJ lands late and hits Sam. Marko definitely fucks up his plancha though. 

 

They do have some issues with being unable to maintain tag team rules. However, they also have a story where they cannot beat Stackhouse because he’s so big. I’ve never seen Stackhouse utilised so effectively. In what is surely a DQ, Emil Jay hits a tornado DDT on KJ and Jurassic Express picks Orso off for the pin. Crowd was way into this, and the storyline stuff worked really well. I did not expect to enjoy this but fuck it, I did. *** 

 

Post Match: Marko Stunt announces he’s “fucking back”. This was top tier feel good stuff. I enjoyed it.  

 

The Sandman vs. The Invisible Man 

This is a stark reminder that wrestling is whatever you make of it. This is how Sandman has chosen to retire, essentially wrestling himself.  

I’m glad Hak sorted his shit out because there was a time when he was a total waste of air and to see him getting embraced by everyone here and going out on his own terms is truly lovely. There’s always a way back, brothers and sisters. Incidentally, my complaints about the length of this don’t extend to Sandman’s entrance. GO FUCKING NUTS MY GUY. Walk around the building to Metallica for two hours. I don’t care. Go for it.  

Fonzie is out here to manage the Invisible Man. Sandman, like many others before him, has a great time wrestling the Invisible Man. Unlike other opponents of the Invisible Man, he dishes out a lot of offence! The run in’s begin with zombies, followed by the Juggalos. I won’t detail them, but I’m sat watching this with a huge grin on my face. Kendra Lust, Sandman’s valet for the evening, turns on him so in comes Missy Hyatt! 

 

We get about 20 referee bumps. As in 20 different refs. I’ve never seen so many zebras. Sandman gets a DDT, and they all revive at the same time.  

MRS FOLEY’S BABY BOY IS HERE! If you ever wanted to see Mick Foley give the Invisible Man a mandible claw, well here you go. Invisible Man rolls Sandman up to retire him but not before this…incredible…visual. 

It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. Ten stars.  

 

“I may not like you, but I love you and it’s an honour to be here for your final match” – Foley.  

 

Loser Leaves GCW  

Effy vs. Allie Katch 

Effy’s character is supposed to be spiralling out of control, but he’s not been like that all weekend. At least commit to the bit. The good news for GCW is that whoever wins this, it will improve the promotion. They can’t lose. Remember the awful Adam Cole vs. MJF match that headlined Wembley where they were all “oooh, I can’t hurt my friend, I don’t want to hurt my friend”. That’s this match. And with all due respect, these two are not as good at wrestling as MJF and Adam Cole, and I don’t like MJF or Adam Cole. 

Effy seems less concerned about Allie’s wellbeing than she does about him. They both blade as Effy runs through his shtick but as a heel. We get to see his entire ass. They shoot for epic. The crowd are…not that invested. Various people come out and are like “no, Effy, this is too much”.  

Allie is a bloody mess but still cannot smash Effy in his big stupid face with a wrench. Look, Allie, if you’re that stupid, you deserve to have your career finished. Effy hits her with a piledriver and that’s it. This was TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES. I hate it when WWE or AEW do this kind of thing so I have to stay consistent. I will say that Allie Katch did a great job with her part of the match. Unfortunately, Effy just sucks and ruined it. DUD 

 

Mance Warner & Steph De Lander vs. Megan Bayne & X 

X is NICK FUCKIN’ GAGE. His return to Game Changer (in ring), where he’s not wrestled since August 2024. Emil doing Gage’s whole entrance spiel while Nick beats Mancer up is pretty funny. Ideally this shouldn’t adhere to normal tag team rules, but it does so Megan plays Megasus in peril. Damn, she’s really good at it. She sells like a champ. Maybe she should work underneath more often. Hogan did it all all the time, brother.  

 

I always enjoy seeing Gage sync up spots with people you don’t expect him to. Like Maki Itoh or Swoggle. Gage and Bayne make for a fun team. The main issues here stem from a lack of chemistry between Gage and the heels. Bayne is fine. Gage can’t seem to get on the same page, especially with Ol’ Mancer. Which is really odd. Bayne is the star here. She’s helping Gage set a spot up and he goes early, so she just throws the chair at Mancer. She’s great working underneath, she’s great hitting spots. Just a great little performance from her. 

 

Brett Lauderdale is all “two minutes remain in the time limit” to tell them to GO HOME because the show is massively overunning. I’m chuckling at that. The faces beat up Mance and that’s it. **½. This was pretty good. As I’ve said before Bayne was outstanding here.  

 

Joey Janela vs. Brodie Lee Jr 

Janela has spent his whole Spring Break run wrestling people he really likes and has always wanted to work. It’s nice to see him giving back here. If you want to feel old, Brodie Lee Jr was born in 2012. He’s only four years older than Spring Break as a concept. I actually saw some of this live because the show overran so much.  

 

Brodie gets bullied as Janela, obviously, leads the match. Young Brodie runs the ropes really well and has solid basics. Considering he’s a literal child, he’s doing great. It’s hard to tell how much Janela is covering for flubs, but the match is decent. Brodie’s selling isn’t great, but he’s probably not been hurt that much so far. It’s hard to mimic pain when you’ve not had any.  

The thing is…and I’m not having a pop here…but this match is so long that Triple H would think it was excessive. It’s so fucking long. It doesn’t make any sense. You only need it to be 10:00 max. When I talk about Janela getting self-indulgent and going long for the sake of it….yeah. And I like Joey. I like his love of the business and his committment to the indies. But sometimes man, you have to dial it back. Less is more. 

 

We eventually catch up to what I saw live. Damn, this match is long. Janela works the leg and Brodie refuses to tap out. Structurally, this isn’t what I would have done. The kid shouldn’t have to endure pain, merely find counters to stuff and surprise Joey. That’s all you need. Brodie’s spot work was really clean throughout this. I was especially happy with stuff like the jumping kick and various lucha bits. It’s true Joey protected him and made sure everything worked.  

 

Wrestling should ultimately be believeable, regardless of what it is, and while there is a size difference here, my biggest compliment would be to say that it didn’t feel ridiculous they were fighting. Brodie, as a child, will need a lot of work before he’s a worker but as far as debuts go…it was pretty good. **¾  

 

The 411: 

My overall enjoyment of the show is reflected by the number I’ve given it down below. Most of my issues with the show were due to length. Everything was too long. Everything. An Indie show shouldn’t ever run four hours. This ran over four hours. Several of the matches were ridiculously overlong. Effy-Allie should have been 10-15:00 tops. Main event should have been 10-12:00 tops. Everything else should have been capped at 10:00. The one exception is Sandman. When you retire, you can do what you want imo. The only match, other than that one, I really liked was the Perry & Stunt tag, which I was shocked at. I kinda loved it and I don’t like anyone in that match. So, fair play all concerned. The running time though; when your promoter has to do a run in to make up a time limit then you know you’ve fucked up.  

 

 

Show Ranking:   

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  

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   

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   

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) *** 

 

Sandman vs. Invisible Man (Spring Break) 

  

Matches watched: 125 

Number of coffees drunk; 9 

Number of Geoguessr seeds played as a welcoming distraction: 9 

Number of motivational/tactical Irn Bru’s drunk: 5