Tossing Salt Presents:
Game Changer Wrestling:
The WRLD on GCW PPV
Thoughts & Predictions
January 22, 2022
DougMaynard.com

Coming up on Sunday night, live on FITE.TV and on pay-per-view, it’s Game Changer Wrestling with The WRLD on GCW. It’s coming from the Hammerstein Ball Room in New York City and it’s a stacked card of the best of AEW, ROH, and the Indys. The show is sold out at the live venue and I expect it’ll do well on PPV and FITE as well. So, are you ready for a few predictions? Let’s do this.

GCW Champion Jon Moxley vs. Homicide.

In what will be his second match back since his return from rehab, it’s the GCW Champion and AEW star Jon Moxley taking on the challenge of long-time Northwest legend Homicide. This should make for a fun and interesting match. Moxley is wild, healthy, and in your face, but Homicide has been around for a long time and can not be underestimated. I’m not sure what the deal is with AEW and GCW and why Tony Khan would allow so many of his top stars to be on this show, but I can’t see Tony being happy if any of his people take a high profile loss. That’s what this would be so I expect that Mox will keep the title and go on to fight another day. Homicide will take him to the limit, but in the end, Moxley wins.

Winner and STILL GCW Champion: Jon Moxley

ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian.

ROH has already announced a unification match for April when the company starts back up after their reboot with Gresham taking on ROH Champion Bandido, who was forced to vacate the title at Final Battle after getting COVID. That being said, I don’t think a match with Bandido and Blake Christian sounds quite as exciting or fun. Thus no title switch here. They, Ring of Honor, have to protect their upcoming event. Gresham wins and retains.

Winner and STILL ROH World Champion: Jonathan Gresham

GCW Tag Team Champions The Briscoes have an open challenge.

The Briscoes have an open challenge and who will be the team to accept it and show up for a brawl? I would say FTR, given that half of the AEW roster is already on the card, but given all the back and forth and threats between the two teams, that sounds too obvious. So let’s do a swerve. I’ll say that the open challenge is accepted, not by FTR, but by current AEW stars Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, aka ReDragon, who are former 3-time ROH Tag Team Champions and have a history against the Briscoes. The Briscoes have a great match with ReDragon, but manage to get the win and retain their belts. Then, as the match ends, FTR crashes the party and leaves The Briscoes laid out and a bloody mess in the ring, thus elevating their rivalry and setting up for the Briscoes to show up on AEW seeking revenge. Sounds like a plan to me.

Winners and STILL GCW Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes

Ruby Soho vs. Allie Katch.

This one should be fun to watch as Ruby and Allie are both good performers. The winner is in no doubt though.

Winner: Ruby Soho

Jeff Jarrett vs. EFFY.

The Chosen One, Jeff Jarrett is making his GCW debut, two nights after popping up on and doing a cameo for WWE Smackdown. And he’s fighting EFFY? Who the fuck is EFFY? Well, in his own words, he’s the openly queer Steve Austin in that he wears fishnets and doesn’t give a fuck! I remember seeing something about him at an event a few months ago from what I saw, he plays up to the stereotypes and kicks ass while doing it. He’s more of a modern Adrian Street than Steve Austin, but he’s a force to be contended with. I think EFFY wins.

Winner: EFFY

Matt Cardona (with Chelsea Green) vs. Joey Janela.

These two men, one a star in AEW and the other, a star for Impact Wrestling and most recently the NWA, are both very talented in the ring. They have been building this feud and even using the old Ric Flair/Macho Man story of photoshopped pictures to make you wonder who Chelsea Green will side with. I wonder if we’ll see an appearance by Janela’s former AEW love interest, Penelope Ford? Then we could get an ECW style catfight as well as the brawl that Cardona & Janela is going to be. This is going to be the match of the night in my opinion. It’s going to be stiff, bloody, and have at least one big WTF moment. And I expect we’ll see Cardona win.

Winner: Matt Cardona w/ Chelsea Green

Team Bandido (ASF & Bandido & Laredo Kid) vs. Team Gringo (Arez & Demonic Flamita & Gringo Loco)

The Luchas always beat the Gringos, especially since the leader of the Bandido team has a ROH title match coming up in April. They have to stay looking strong.

Winners: Team Bandido

Grab the Brass Ring Ladder Match: Lio Rush vs. PCO vs. Tony Deppen vs. Alex Colon vs. Jimmy Lloyd vs. Jordan Oliver – Winner can name match of their choice at any time against anyone.

I’m only really familiar with two of the participants here, that being Lio Rush and PCO. The rest, I’ve seen the names, but don’t really know what they’re capable of. So since I think Rush is very talented, but a weasel in reality, I’ll go with PCO. I think he’s going over here.

Winner: PCO

Kickoff Show Scramble Match: Jack Cartwheel vs. Dante Leon vs. NYC native The Grim Reefer vs. Ninja Mack vs. Alex Zayne vs. Nick Wayne.

I know none of these talents so I’m picking at random. The Grim Reefer has a cool name, but he’ll be too high to win so he’s out. Jack Cartwheel? That’s a stupid name so he’s out. Dante was one of my favorite characters in the movie, Clerks, so I’ll go with him.

Winner: Dante Leon

Kickoff Show Battle Royal, streaming for free at 7 PM EST.
Announced as appearing are Nate Webb, Ruckus, Pollo del Mar, Hoodfoot, Cole Radrick, G-Raver, Juicy Finau, and more.

A big Battle Royal, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, one of the nastiest beers in existence, in my opinion, to start off the show and give any who is standing around backstage but also has a wrestling license a chance to get a participation trophy. Ruckus is one of the names listed as participants and since he’s also getting an induction into the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame this weekend, I think he’s a safe bet to win.

Winner: Ruckus

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions you may have are welcome and appreciated. I hope GCW does well with this show. It’s so great to see a new company rising up to take a place among the big boys and who knows? If this goes well, we may eventually have GCW with a TV deal and appear on our Thursday night programming at some point. We’ll see, but this may be only the beginning of an epic run. Until the next time, take care and be safe. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!