REVIEW: Game Changer Wrestling - Gringo Loco's The WRLD on LUCHA (2022)

REVIEW: Game Changer Wrestling – Gringo Loco’s The WRLD on LUCHA (2022)

A Pay-Per-View by GCW

It’s time for WrestleMania weekend, a time when just about every wrestling company puts on a show making it heaven for most wrestling fans, and an utter nightmare for completionists! I have no desire to watch every one of those shows this weekend as there is literally no way to consume everything without going crazy. Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) did an especially crazy feat by running TWELVE separate Pay-Per-Views over the span of three days. I will slowly try to review some of these, and if I do get to all of them, it will not be any time soon. I have a feeling you all will be seeing reviews for stuff from this weekend for months!

I especially wanted to see this particular show not only because I am a fan of AAA Lucha Libre (where most of the guys are from), but I’m a big fan of the Psycho Clown/Doctor Wagner Jr. Feud. I have literally no desire to watch WrestleMania for the most part, but the smaller shows like this are making a relatively bad week I’m having at least a bit better.

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

Johnny Caballero defeated Jack Cartwheel
Tony Deppen defeated Psicosis
Shane Mercer defeated Drago Kid vs. Chris Carter vs. Octagon Jr vs. Aeroboy vs. Golden Dragon in a scramble match
Pagano defeated Sadika
Team Gringo(Gringo Loco, Demonic Flamita & Abismo Negro Jr.) defeated Team Laredo (Laredo Kid, Rey Horus & ASF) in a six-man tag team match
AR Fox defeated Ninja Mack
Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Psycho Clown

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Add Another Name to the List:

I always crack up at John Hennigan’s (best known as John Morrison) new gimmick where his last name changes depending on the venue and promotion he’s in. With classics such as Johnny Nitro, Johnny Impact, and even Johnny Drip Drip under his belt, this weekend gave his Wikipedia editor some work because he went by Johnny Bloodsport at one show and now Johnny Caballero here. This match with Jack Cartwheel was pretty fun, with Johnny trying to usurp him in his patented maneuver, possibly vying for a name change to Johnny Cartwheel.

Old Favorites:

Maaaan I always loved me some luchadores fighting on WCW Monday Nitro and Psicosis was always one of my faves. Donning his mask yet again, and back to his classic thunder, Psicosis hasn’t missed much of a step despite his age. This was a solid match, albeit quite short.

Sadika is as Tough as Nails:

I’ve only seen Sadika one other time on another GCW show, and she is always in these brutal deathmatches which is pretty crazy. Here she wrestled Pagano and they put each other through the ringer. Some highlights included numerous light tube spots, falls through wooden doors, a piledriver through a chair, and a pretty impressing corkscrew elbow drop of some sort from Sadika. As somebody that isn’t too into these sorts of matches, this was more like an old-school ECW hardcore match, and as such I actually liked it more than GCW’s light tube only matches that fans seems to love.

Gringo Loco:

Hat’s off to this man for stepping and putting on such a good show. Gringo Loco was always somewhat lost in the shuffle on MLW (IMHO) and has really grown to do some awesome stuff in GCW as his home base. I have no idea what his pull is, but it seems like his role in GCW is as an ambassador for Lucha Libre, and I absolutely love that. Solid tag match as well!

AR Fox:

One of the best matches in the entirety of Lucha Underground was a brutal match between AR Fox and Killshot, better known now as Sw3rve Strickland. Seeing him here was awesome, and I definitely want to see him more. Hell, I’d LOVE to see a rematch of that feud! He wrestled Ninja Mack (not Kamikaze anymore?) to an impressive finish.

Best Picture I Could Get of Ninja Mack Being Crazy:

Speaking of Ninja Mack, what a solid weekend he has had! Although losing in both matches I’ve seen so far, the man is easily a human highlight real and does crazy stuff like the above at every turn. Once he settles on what name to keep, the man’s going to be a BIG star!

Bad Medicine:

This highly anticipated rematch of 2017’s Triplemania 25 main event is something I’ve been looking forward to ever since they both showed up at a previous Texas GCW show. That was the very show where Psycho Clown took the mask from Doctor Wagner Jr. Wagner is a highly respected and loved luchador, but once he committed the mortal sin of attempting to remove Psycho Clown’s mask yet again, it was crazy to hear the reception he got from the Texas fans. His shenanigans led to a cheap win, redeeming himself somewhat on paper (a win is a win), but it goes to show that Clown’s star is only rising whilst Wagner is clinging to “his spot” by any means necessary. If this leads to an inevitable Mask vs Hair Luchas de Apuestas match between the two, continuing this awesome feud, I’m all for it because it will likely cement both men as legends in the sport.

Conclusion:

While this was one of the “smaller feel” GCW shows, as I assume all of these will be, this show felt very good and important as a showcase of how Lucha Libre fits into GCW. People always thought at WCW and ECW were wild for having luchadores in the mix, and the latter having hardcore matches, but GCW basically does EVERY SINGLE type of wrestling so that it caters to just about every fan. as you will see, this weekend was big for GCW showing they can run a show for any crowd they want and make it a special affair. Match of the night was easily the main event, and I can’t wait to see the wager match happen – hopefully in GCW (although we’d know the ending of that happened lol) I hope this partnership with AAA continues and fans get treated to all sorts of cool stuff in the future!