Three ECW legends are teaming up for Game Changer Wrestling’s Hammerstein Ballroom event.
GCW has announced that Super Crazy, Tajiri & Little Guido (Nunzio) vs. Arez, Gringo Loco & Jack Cartwheel will take place at the Sunday, January 19 show. It’s streaming live on TrillerTV+ and marks the second time GCW has ever held an event at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
The storied venue’s wrestling history includes playing host to ECW cards in the past. It was also the site of WWE’s ECW One Night Stand shows in both 2005 and 2006. Super Crazy defeated Tajiri and Little Guido in a three-way dance the first year. The second year then saw Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke defeat Super Crazy & Tajiri.
GCW first ran the Hammerstein Ballroom in January 2022. After that show received mixed-to-negative reviews, the theme this time is that GCW has a chance at redemption.
The People vs. GCW is the name of this event. Here’s everything that has been announced so far:
GCW World Champion Mance Warner defends against Effy or Allie Katch
Effy vs. Allie Katch (winner challenges Mance Warner later in the night)
GCW Tag Team Champions Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku defend against Cole Radrick & Alec Price
Doors, Ladders & Chairs match for the vacant GCW Ultraviolent Championship: Matt Tremont vs. Brandon Kirk vs. Drew Parker vs. John Wayne Murdoch vs. Matthew Justice vs. TBA
Super Crazy, Tajiri & Little Guido vs. Arez, Gringo Loco & Jack Cartwheel
El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Sidney Akeem
Bloodsport match: Josh Barnett vs. TBA
Masato Tanaka, Maki Itoh, Homicide, Amazing Red, Ricky Morton, and more set to compete
Four ECW legends have been booked for Game Changer Wrestling’s return to the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Masato Tanaka, Tajiri, Super Crazy, and Little Guido (Nunzio) are all set to compete at The People vs. GCW, though their matches have not been announced yet. The show is taking place from New York City and will air live on TrillerTV+.
Returning to the Hammerstein Ballroom — where ECW once staged events — holds special meaning for Tanaka. His last-ever match against the late Mike Awesome took place at ECW One Night Stand 2005 at the Hammerstein. In a tweet this morning, Tanaka reflected on the moment and said he never thought it would be the last match of their legendary rivalry.
I'm going to the venue where Mike and I last matched.。 I never thought that would be the last time
One Night Stand 2005 also featured a three-way dance with familiar opponents Super Crazy, Tajiri, and Little Guido. Super Crazy got the win that night.
This is GCW’s second time ever running the Hammerstein Ballroom. The theme of the show is that — after their first event at the venue in January 2022 received mixed-to-negative reviews — GCW gets a chance at redemption this time.
Here’s what has been announced for the card so far:
El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Sidney Akeem
GCW Tag Team Champions Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku defend against Cole Radrick & Alec Price
Doors, Ladders & Chairs match for the vacant GCW Ultraviolent Championship: Matt Tremont vs. Brandon Kirk vs. Drew Parker vs. John Wayne Murdoch vs. TBA vs. TBA
Masato Tanaka, Tajiri, Super Crazy, Little Guido, Josh Barnett, and more set to compete
Taiyo Kea pulled an upset out the bag by defeating Sabu
La Parka defeated Shocker
Super Crazy defeated Fuego Guerrero (aka Amazing Red)
Show Recap:
Raven opened up this week’s episode of Underground with the same promo that closed last week’s show. He is still waiting on Vampiro to contact him and said if he continues down this road, he will end up in his Clockwork Orange House of Fun. “Quote the Raven Nevermore.”
Joey Styles welcomed us to the Manhattan Center and ran down the schedule for the night: catching up with Global Tag Team title tourney finalists CW Anderson and Simon Diamond and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams and PJ Friedman. We learned the show would feature Super Crazy vs. Fuego Guerrero, La Parka vs. Shocker, and Taiyo Kea vs. Sabu in the main event.
Super Crazy defeated Fuego Guerrero (5:43)
This was a great short Lucha showcase and has aged just fine in the 17 years since it originally aired. Guerrero had all the attributes, size, and agility of a young Rey Mysterio Jr.
Guerrero hit Crazy with a twice around the world headscissors that brought the fans to their feet. Unfortunately, we did not hear the full extent of the crowd pop as the audio issues that the show has dealt with in recent weeks were in play here too. After an ad break, Crazy was in control but Guerrero reversed a powerbomb into a tornado DDT. Crazy regained control moments later and nearly had the match won with a brainbuster.
Guerrero busted out a corkscrew senton from the top rope to the floor that would have benefited from better crowd audio to match the standing ovation from the New York crowd. Inside the ring, Guerrero rolled through another senton but got caught mid-air and planted with a sit-out powerbomb that gave Crazy the win.
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– The cameras caught up with Steve Corino as he drove around some nice big beautiful houses in his own neighborhood. He badmouthed Terry Funk about living on a farm.
– We then saw footage from earlier in the week of Williams and Friedman training in the ring. Williams said he and Friedman will be the next tag team champions before he hit the backdrop driver on Friedman and told us all that he has the most powerful moves in all of wrestling.
– Styles ran down the main suspects of who attacked Los Maximos last week: Samoan Island Tribe, Extreme Horsemen, Masada & NOSAWA, and Williams and Friedman.
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La Parka defeated Shocker (9:23)
Parka suckered Shocker in for a slap to the face before they exchanged a lightning quick Lucha style back-and-forth pinfall reversal sequence before nipping up to their feet simultaneously. Shocker kicked Parka out of the ring and feigned a dive to the floor by landing a handspring off the ropes and posing in the middle of the ring.
Parka baited Shocker out of the ring and caught him with a boot coming in. He then ran Shocker over with a hard shoulderblock, leading to his famous strut across the ring. Parka was then dumped on the back of his head twice before being slingshotted out of the ring where he ate a springboard splash on the floor.
A few moments and a swing in momentum later saw Parka knock Shocker to the outside with a spinning heel kick and a big corkscrew suicide dive. Inside the ring, he hit a big somersault senton bomb but only got a two count. He then brought a chair into the ring but ended up getting it dropkicked into his own face before being dumped on the outside. Shocker then went for a suicide dive through the ropes but Parka finally got him with the chair, a perfectly timed mid-air shot right between the eyes, something you wouldn’t see today but was common nearly two decades ago.
Shocker got his feet up when Parka came off the top rope to give himself a bit of leeway, but was hit with a dropkick when Shocker tried to come off the top. Parka hit a missile dropkick but was crotched on the top rope moments later. Shocker then hit him with a big superplex from the top rope, a magistral cradle, a spear in the corner, and a bronco buster but still couldn’t put him away.
Parka crotched him with his boot on a second bronco buster attempt before heading to the top rope once again, winning the match after hitting his signature springboard corkscrew body block.
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– Anderson and Diamond let us know Friedman’s lack of experience will be his team’s downfall. Anderson talked about being trained by Arn and Ole compared to Friedman’s training. They called Friedman a blue chipper, but that Diamond was the original blue chipper.
– We heard from Funk in response to Corino earlier. He said he was going to give Corino a lesson in the ring and had no intention of going to the extreme, but if Corino does “because you are an Extreme Horsemen, then yee-hah, cowboy.”
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Taiyo Kea defeated Sabu (w/Bill Alfonso) (11:12)
A main event featuring the classic Sabu style closed out this week’s episode of Underground. It was filled with the usual dives and stunts that we see frequently now, but still look as good and dangerous today as they did then.
The end result was a bit of a shock but made sense given that Kea has been involved in title shots against MLW Champion Kojima in the 2002-03 timeline of the first few Undergrounds. Before the match, Styles let us know that the uncles of both competitors used to be fierce rivals: the original Sheik and King Curtis Iaukea, and here, the families’ rivalry will continue.
After an early commercial break, Sabu hit his Air Sabu chair-assisted jump from the top rope into the crowd onto Kea before dropping him with a draping DDT when back inside. Another chair-assisted aerial assault followed as he hit a leg lariat but Kea then superkicked the same chair back into Sabu’s face.
Sabu hit back with a top rope springboard hurricanrana, a top rope leg drop through a table at ringside, and a triple jump moonsault but he couldn’t put Kea away. Even after an Alfonso distraction and two chair shots to the head, he still couldn’t put Kea away.
Kea put up a good fight and rallied towards the end of the match. He hit a snap hurricanrana out of nowhere before hitting a series of kicks that knocked Sabu to the mat. He closed the show with a death valley driver into a neckbreaker before putting Sabu away with the H50: a torture rack into a neckbreaker.
Next week:
MLW Champion Satoshi Kojima vs Vampiro
No. 1 contender’s match: Jerry Lynn vs. Mike Awesome
Fuego Guerrero vs. Super Crazy vs. a mystery opponent in a triple threat match
