GSCW Review - February 1st, 2003
By Justin Crast

Arrived at the venue at around 7:40, but I needed to piss and was hungry, so we went to a Carls Jr around the corner and eventually got our tickets and went inside right at 8:00. Packed house of very loud fans, especially the APW contingent.

Lucky and Supa Badd traded verbal jabs before the show to warm up the crowd. Supa's gone from being a lanky boring guy from when I first saw him, to a lanky fun guy now. Way to go!

: Infernal, Zokre, & Chippy over Phoenix Star, Scorpio Sky, & Silver Tyger [11'57]

I was expecting wild spotfest and was sort of let down. They tried a lot of flashy stuff in the ring but it was mostly the arm drags and similar rolling stuff. Zokre and Phoenix Star also were sloppy with some stuff, which was weird considering how smooth they were at the December RevPro show. Infernal got lots of "Super Clone" chants due to his very Super Dragon-like mask. Chippy never did anything of note. I'd say Tyger and Scorpio were the most impressive. Both worked fluidly and hit all their spots well. Scorpio has improved a ton in only six months. The finish had some nice dives, including a crazy looking corkscrew plancha from Zokre where he almost speared himself into some sort of stuff hanging from the ceiling. A little too long and some sloppy spots, but also entertaining at points. Shawn Riddick beat down everyone after the match but was eventually one upped by Scorpio. *1/2

: Bo Cooper over Joey Ryan by DQ [6'13]

This was a fine match. Match had a basic, but effective storyline of Cooper overpowering Ryan throughout the match with Ryan getting in limited offense by out quickening Bo. In the end, Ryan got frustrated and did one of the more hilarious things: he threw two chairs into the ring, but one fell back out on the other side. Bo went to look at that one, and then got nailed in the back with the other chair. Joey's smart! Seems that Ryan is continuing his EPIC "cheater" gimmick into GSCW. Still have yet to see a long singles match from Cooper. **

: Frankie Kazarian over Mr. Excitement [9'48]

This match never really took off. Both guys, IMO, seemed less than thrilled in the match. I dunno if they didn't like working with each other or were having bad days or whatever, but the work was uninspired. It seems to me that Excitement works best with guys that really take it to him. He has looked awesome against Super Dragon and the Havana Pitbulls, guys that are known to work stiff with their opponents. Maybe getting smacked in the face or stretched fires Excitement up, I dunno. Kazarian may have been sore from the day before against John Black and I wouldn't blame him, that was a punishing looking match. Everything was solid but it never took off, something that seems to be trademark of both guys' matches for me. **

: Al Katrazz and Steve Rizzano go to no contest [6'04]

Not a good match. I used to hear about how technically sound Rizzano was and how he could wrestle old school, but he's always horrible whenever I see him. This time it looked like he knew how to wrestle and wanted to wrestle well, but his body just wouldn't let him. He was slow and awkward. The best part of the match was when he did some dancing elbow drop thing that was the lamest spot of the night. The SoCal fans on my side started an "APW!" chant to that, ragging on the NorCal's many "APW" chants earlier. I'd like to see Katrazz versus a top flight heavyweight like Pearce or Samoa Joe. 3/4*

: Nikki & Melissa over Disco Machine & Looney Lane [11'53]

This match had a lot of crowd heat due to the fact that a man was beating on women and there was a pretty good angle earlier in the show with Nikki and Melissa refusing to wrestle each other in front of SoCal fans. I was kinda confused about DIsco being a "surprise" partner since he was advertised to wrestle the chicks all along but anyway. Disco's slap on Nikki popped the crowd. I was impressed with the APW women's wrestling ability. Lane has improved a lot as well but definitely isn't in her Northern peers' class. Finish was funny cause Disco chased Kryptonite outside the building and while they were out there, Lane got double teamed and pinned. When Disco came back in, he was all covered in dirt and looked beat up, so I guess Kryptonite is some tough dude. Despite the heat, the match was actually kinda meandering. Not a lot of focus and Lane wasn't at the same quality as the rest of the people in the match. *1/2

: Scott Lost over Lil' Cholo by countout. Lil' Cholo retains the GSCW Lightweight title. [10'05]

I wasn't too impressed. Both guys get a lot of praise and this match was supposedly heavily hyped by GSCW, but the match did not seem special. It was continuous action throughout but neither guy ever established control for a long time. Without any sustained heat segments, there weren't any emotional come backs for Cholo. The finish also was the classic indy style "your finish, my finish" routine that can be predicted spot for spot. Despite the criticism, they did work hard and Lost lost a contact lense early on that had to fuck up his focus for the rest of the match. The ladder spot that lead to the count out win was kinda unbelievable since it didn't seem like one ladder shot should put Cholo out for a ten count, but it did lead to Lost's ladder match challenge for next show. I dunno why Lost was made out to be an idiot and think the title could change on a count out though. Nonsensical! *3/4

: Bobby Quance over Excalibur [11'50]

The match was well thought out and built well but the execution was way off. Excalibur definitely showed ring rust and despite Quance's highly acclaimed matches with Super Dragon, he isn't good enough to carry a rusty Excalibur to a good match. The beginning mat work was aimless but cool enough looking and well executed. They attempted to work in a strong body limb storyline with Quance working over Excalibur's knee (since he uses lots of knee attacks!) and Excalibur sold it very well throughout the match. It didn't factor into the finish much although he sold it the entire time. They also managed to not fall into the aforementioned predictable indy "your finish-my finish" pattern at the end of the match, with both guys reeling off a series of moves for near falls, with each one getting more dramatic. Quance's final series of moves was the best, with him getting some very strong near falls before finishing it up with the SSP to a huge pop. The blown spots and loose execution took it down, but I admire the thought put into the match. Quance is an early candidate for SoCal WOTY... **1/4

: B-Boy over Jardi Frantz [12'16]

The match of the night. It wasn't as well thought out as the prior match but the execution was perfect. B-Boy worked as a face while Frantz did a subtle heel routine. His smugness would have worked even better if he could differentiate that emotion from "indifference" which can take the crowd out of moments that should be more emotional. Like the prior match, they built some strong momentum going into the finish and both guys got in a series of moves for near falls rather than spotty indy style. B-Boy is real good at that. There was a fantastic near fall off B-Boy's Cross Special, which I've only seen kicked out of in SoCal by Super Dragon. Speaking of Dragon, B-Boy did the Dragon powerbomb in the corner, although to be fair, I suppose credit for that move goes back to Kobashi over five years ago, maybe even before to some Joshi wrestler (since Japanese women invariably invent every move ever). He won with a great looking Shining Wizard, which he also won with at WCWA. Good match, perfect length, and an early MOTYC. ***1/4

: Hardkore Kidd over Dynamite D [5'36]

Average match. The angle leading up to it made no sense at all though. Kidd was forced into defending against a "cruiserweight" and "undeserving" opponent in D. Then when D said he was retired and would not wrestle, Kidd refused this and made him wrestle. Then D convinced him they didn't need to wrestle and they decided to respect each other, but D then turned on him and the match started. Bizarre. Shouldn't the heel turn on the face? Who knows. Match was mostly Kidd dominating and eventually he won. Bland. *1/2

: Sabu over Messiah [8'29]

After a string of decent matches in EPIC, Sabu turned in a pretty shoddy performance here. Perhaps his mind was on his recently deceased uncle. Messiah seemed fired up but Sabu wasn't really there. They blew a table spot when Sabu flung Messiah into a table, when it wasn't supposed to break yet but did anyway. He also blew a top rope rana where he missed Messiah's head and ended up taking a sick fall on his head and neck on the ground. There was basic "lead up to table spot" psyche but not much else. I think they'd have a better match at a later date. I always seem to miss the awesome Messiah matches. *1/2

Overall a good show. A lot of passable matches with one very good one. There was good angle development and the crowd was very hot throughout. That lead to a good atmosphere, more enjoyable.

The fed has some attractive matches on the horizon. Battle of the ROTYs, Shawn Riddick and Scorpio Sky. B-Boy vs Bobby Quance seems set up based on their victories at the show. Lost vs Cholo ladder match has been built up very well and should be good. Throw in Super Dragon somewhere. They are building Bo Cooper up well also and could probably build a Hardkore Kidd vs Cooper program easily enough.

GSCW is a real good fed but its too far away from me. It really takes a stacked card for me to drive over two hours. We'll see if they can do it.

Justin
IM - neojmc