What a great wrestling show. GCW For The Culture 3 was a real wrestling show, no big angles, no hokey finishes, just great wrestling. The way it should be.
JGT Vs Rich Swann and 2 Cold Scorpio Vs Bryan Keith were canceled and replaced with a fatal 4-way.
IMPACT Knockout Championship Match | Tasha Steelz Vs Big Swole
A very nice opener, easing us into the show rather than kicking the doors open. Steelz rightly asked for the mic to give her own intro, bigged herself up, and managed it very well.
Early on there was a Swole flying knee and through the ropes cutter, she was trash-talking until the ring post hit her nose and mouth.
Steelz came back with a rather light-looking penalty kick, but her 2 amigos were anything but; after a sort of modified Swole side slam, things slowed up for a little while.
That was until Steelz caught Swole with a vicious-looking cutter as she came through the ropes.
Winner Via Cutter: Tasha Steelz
For The Culture Scramble
This was a GCW For The Culture glorious mess and please emphasize the glorious. Fast-paced, frenetic, high spots that meant something to the grapplers and to us, how could it disappoint with these moments:
A sweet Chris Andino Blue Thunder Bomb.
A Michael Oku Fosbury Flop without using the ropes to propel him.
A lovely Keita Murray Tiger Driver.
And an Oku single leg crab with which he laid back so far, he was almost on the mat.
This sounds like not a lot happened. No, no, loads happened, much of it really excellent. It’s just that these were the headlines – I could have been here all day.
Winner Via Single Leg Crab: Micheal Oku
Tag Team Match | HitMakerZ Vs Shane Taylor Promotions
This was my GCW For The Culture 3 match of the night. Why? Big men doing extraordinary things, that’s why.
Early on O’Shay Edwards for Shane Taylor Promotions was pounced and bounced by the biggest man in the ring AJ Francis, who then ran into the corner with a knee to the face, and dived over the top buckle, and landed on his feet; brilliance.
STP were not to be outdone and when Shane Taylor joined Edwards to help with a vertical suplex, they held Tehuti Miles up for so long, you could have eaten your dinner, cooked a pudding (a baked Alaska perhaps) and they would just be smashing him onto the mat when you returned.
As Francis began to get the better of both of STP, their mate, Rev Ron Hunt, got onto the apron, having the taste slapped out of his mouth by STP fan Briana Brandy in the process.
From this, STP took advantage and set up a superplex, only for Miles to slip in between them and, with his tag partner Francis’ help, push them off. Another great GCW For The Culture 3 moment.
As if this wasn’t good enough, Francis hit an amazing moonsault off the 2nd rope, and then, with Taylor on his shoulders and Edwards holding onto his chest, he dumped them all to the mat; it takes huge leg strength to do that.
The Hitmakerz were so impressive here, STP always are and they got the pin, but the match was tight.
And also brilliant. They stood together in their show of strength after the match and quite rightly so.
Winner Via Marcus Garvey Driver: Shane Taylor Promotions
Singles Match | MJ Jenkins Vs Trish Adora
This ran the last match close for GCW For The Culture 3 match of the night. It was for Adora’s Pan-Afrikan World Diaspora World Championship and it was a treat.
MJ Jenkins entered singing and her work did throughout the match. Adora is well known to be pristine in the ring, in fact, she looked very confident, synching in an armbar and doing press-ups, until Jenkins ended that with huge strikes.
So Adora tried a snapmare, Jenkins replied with a sidewinder slam, Adora hit a muscled up suplex with a sweet bridge, Jenkins avoided a clothesline by back bend then connected with a spinning kick for a long 2 count.
The end seemed odd but made perfect sense in a grappling match which such open move sets, a leg scissors, shoulders on the mat…
Unfussy, unflashy, unlikely to bore you. Excellent.
Winner Via Leg Scissor Pinfall: Trish Adora
Singles Match | AJ Gray Vs Darius Lockhart
Please don’t think this wasn’t good when I tell you that this was a catch your breath match to go into the last two GCW For The Culture 3 matches.
It wasn’t. This was a pretty pure but hard-fought match and the crowd, excitable throughout, were hot for it.
After a technical jockeying for position, the chop shop opened and Gray eventually felled Lockhart.
Lockhart needed a quick answer and a t-bone suplex, plus flight from the top provided that.
A spine buster brought a Gray 2 count and a lariat an even longer one, but Lockhart kept pace with a muscled-up Brainbuster.
The end was cheeky and just undercut the action; Lockhart went for a driver, Gray countered…
Winner Via Roll Up: AJ Gray
Bryan Keith v Mysterious Q v Zenshi v JTG
Another match of the night contender, another list of great moves:
JTG adds snaps to his bulldog.
A double suplex ended with a Zenshi powerbomb.
Zneshi ended up on the apron in a flag, one hand on the apron, one on the top rope, into a shooting star press off the apron and tornado DDT over the ropes.
A Q long aeroplane spin to Blue Thunder Bomb answered by a JTG spinning Black Hole Slam.
A Zenshi Coast To Coast only to attack JTG’ leg.
The ending? Oh my word. Zenshi was on Bryan Keith’s shoulders in the Electric Chair position, Q came over the top buckle and hit a cutter/bulldog. Amazing.
Winner Via Cutter/Bulldog: Mysterious Q
Death Match | Billy Dixon Vs Hoodfoot
A momentous moment for GCW For The Culture 3. The first black deathmatch. And it was great.
Why? Well, Dixon and Hoodfoot really bought it, but it was mainly because the accouterments were limited mainly to light tubes stuck around the ring and doors. So it stayed concentrated on the wrestlers and that was such a winning move.
Light tubes smashed early, over Dixon’s head. He soon nailed a flat metal piece to Hoodfoot’s head though, then stomped on it, just to be on the safe side. So Hoodfoot did something special with a barbed wire 2×4; he raked the back but twisted too, that was nasty.
It was even nastier when they both fell from the apron through a robust door, but that wasn’t the most brutal moment.
That came when Hoodfoot laid a cross of light tubes on Dixon’s throat and stamped on them. Anything could have happened. It was close to some serious arteries.
Luckily, Dixon was able to slam his opponent from the top through a door and an Unprettier on some tubes.
During this, a lovely low DDT, pop-up spinebuster and dragon suplex occurred, but when Dixon sat up from a pump handle slam through a door, it was the move of the match and the crowd popped like a champagne cork.
Even though Hoodfoot tried to put the re-energized Dixon down with 5 light tube blows to the head, a submission finished it.
Winner Via Clutch: Hoodfoot