Taking a look at GCW vs. Suburban Fight 2 from March 3rd, 2019 in Los Angeles. Featuring Nick Gage, Cryme Tyme in a match featuring light tubes, an early SoCal MOTYC in Orange Cassidy vs. Rich Swann, and more.
(Note: Steve was in attendance for this show, but he wasn’t able to see most of the action. Plus he’s got a lot of stuff he needs to work on, so he’s bringing in SCU’s second-string reviewer to handle the duties for this show.)
Before the show began, we saw a shot of a girl smoking a bunch of joints or blunts at the same time. It was hard to tell from the angle what they were exactly, but that’s not relevant. Wrestling fans are the worst types of stoners next to scavenger smokers and people who don’t match properly. Ironically enough, there is a huge crossover between those types and wrestling fans. If you’re a marijuana consumer, don’t openly share your own stuff at wrestling shows unless you don’t mind being bombarded by dozens of sketchy people looking to get a hit and not match.
We start the show with pro wrestling’s most prolific waste of space, Kevin Gill, introducing ring announcer Denise Salcedo to start the show. CWFH made her seem like a generic backstage character with no authentic personality, but on this show, she was a great ring announcer. After watching this, I can honestly say Denise Salcedo is the 2nd best ring announcer in SoCal behind Joshua Shibata and ahead of the bald guy from SoCal Pro.
The vibe for this show was really cool too. It looked like an actual underground fight club was taking place, which is a theme many promotions try to pull off but can’t. The venue being an old warehouse in a bad part of Downtown LA also helped give it that aura. I totally dug it on video.
Royce Isaacs vs. KTB
I might be the only one who does this, but I have terrible a habit of thinking Royce Isaacs’ name is pronounced “Hoyce.” This was a really fun match to start things off. Both guys started off by using a referee’s back as a table for an arm wrestling match. Then they were about to toast some beers before Royce punched KTB as he was chugging. This match has been great so far. After some brawling to start, KTB brought out an old, rusted jet ski that would end up being used later in the match. Royce would also whip KTB into an old school big screen TV during this match as well. There was also a fair amount of pebble consumption going on here.
Royce Isaacs vs. KTB from GCW vs. Suburban Fight II on March 3rd, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA
The finishing stretch saw Royce suplex KTB into the jet ski for a near fall. Royce then grabbed a door and set it against the wall. The two guys teased going into the door for a bit before Royce hit KTB with a Death Valley Driver through the door for the win. Honestly? This match ruled. It had fun brawling and good comedy. The only negative was Kevin Gill’s commentary. Despite that, I really enjoyed watching this match. Both guys had good performances in this.
Rating: ***1/2
Jimmy Lloyd & Tony Deppen vs. Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard & JTG)
This was one of the most surreal pro wrestling matches I’ve ever seen in my life. Things started out with Jimmy Lloyd spraying a fire extinguisher into Cryme Tyme’s eyes. From what I was told, Steve was not a big fan of this spot as he was standing behind Cryme Tyme when it happened. In a way, Jimmy Lloyd technically assaulted Steve. After that, the match began and everyone started to brawl. Much like the first match, this was a really fun brawl. Part of me was expecting this to be a goofy match full of shenanigans, but it turned out to be a really good hardcore-style match.
Cryme Tyme vs. Jimmy Lloyd & Tony Deppen from GCW vs. Suburban Fight II on March 3rd, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA
Throughout the match, there were several wild and dangerous moments that made for cool visuals. My favorite part of the match was seeing Shad Gaspard tossing Tony Deppen into fans. I’m talking like legit throwing him into fans. Later on in the match, Jimmy Lloyd busted a light tube over JTG’s head. Yeah. That’s right. I said JTG took a light tube shot to the head. Moments later, Shad gave Deppen a powerbomb on top of the old big screen TV. Cryme Tyme got the win in this one. This might’ve been the best match of their careers. Bonus points to Jimmy Lloyd for assaulting Steve by setting off the fire extinguisher.
Rating: ***1/4
After the match, it was time for intermission.
Rich Swann vs. Orange Cassidy
While I’m not into most comedy wrestling because of how lame and unoriginal it is, Orange Cassidy is a comedy worker I think is genuinely funny. These days most comedy workers are unoriginal and are hacks. They’re usually over-the-top characters that are stupid. Orange Cassidy though is amazing because he is completely different from everyone else. He acts completely relaxed, cool, indifferent and stoic during matches.
This started off with Rich Swann challenging Orange Cassidy to a dance-off. Swann went first, then Cassidy followed. Orange Cassidy did his entire routine with his hands in his pockets. After the dance-off, both guys proceeded to do some more comedy. Swann kept trying his best to get the better of Orange Cassidy, but Orange Cassidy was able to counter with his indifference. As the match went on, they began to tease Swann getting chokeslammed into the old, rusted jet ski.
Orange Cassidy gives Rich Swann a chokeslam onto a jet ski at GCW vs. Suburban Fight II in Los Angeles on March 3rd, 2019.
The action in the match began to pick up really well as it went on. One of the cooler spots of the match was when Rich Swann did a variation of the Showtime Kick off a wall. Moments later, the two brawled around the venue some more before Orange Cassidy gave Swann a chokeslam on the jet ski. Orange Cassidy would then enlist some fans to help him ram Swann with the jet ski. Yeah. This was as awesome as it sounds.
Rich Swann comes crashing down on Orange Cassidy at GCW vs. Suburban Fight II in Los Angeles, CA on March 3rd, 2019.
The highlight of the match came when the two went outside the venue and brawled. They made their way to a bench where Swann kicked Orange Cassidy off it and onto gravel. Swann then went for what looked like a 450 attempt but ended up landing front flip senton instead for the win. Whether or not it was a botched spot, it still looked really cool and was a good way to end the match. I thought this was the best match of the entire show. We need more Orange Cassidy in SoCal.
Rating: ****
Andy Williams vs. Nick Gage
This was mostly a standard brawl. The show had seen tons of crazy moments up to this point. There wasn’t really much these guys could do to top what had happened on the card. Despite that, you have to give Nick Gage a lot of credit. The guy had a deathmatch earlier in the night, and shortly after he did a No Ring match.
Like I said, this was mostly a standard brawl. Both guys went around the building exchanging strikes and threw each other into walls. The biggest spot of the match came when Andy Williams gave Nick Gage a suplex onto a door with chairs on it. Keep in mind, this was done on concrete. Not inside of a ring. Gage mounted a comeback and then hip-tossed Andy Williams onto the plunder he was thrown in earlier. The finish saw Andy Williams go through a door, followed by Gage hitting a Chokebreaker for the win. While it wasn’t the best match on the show, it was a good brawl.
Rating: **1/2
Final Thoughts
I thought this was a really fun show to watch. Royce Isaacs vs. KTB on paper seemed like an odd pairing, but they put on a really fun match. The Cryme Tyme match was surprisingly crazy and loads of fun. I wasn’t expecting things to end up the way they did. Thinking about JTG taking that light tube shot to the head is still pretty surreal. Gage/Williams wasn’t as good as the other matches on the show, but it was still entertaining.
The best match on the show was Swann/Cassidy. It had a great mix of spots and comedy schtick throughout. It was also a very creative and entertaining match. The comedy spots in the match were genuinely funny, and the action itself was fun. If you’re into comedy wrestling, I highly recommend checking this out. And if you haven’t seen it before, check out the GRAMMYs Street Fight: Orange Cassidy vs. Stokely Hathaway for the Independent Wrestling Title. It’s my current frontrunner for MOTY.
The only gripe I had with this show was Kevin Gill’s commentary. He’s not very good at anything and brings nothing to the table. I seriously don’t understand why promotions use this guy. There were a lot of times where he was really insufferable. Either he was trying too hard to sound smart and profound, or he was too busy trying to talk about how people were smoking weed like an excited high school freshman at his first kickback. I’m a marijuana user, but I thought it came off as lame and distracting.
Besides Kevin Gill’s awful commentary, I really liked this show. The first GCW vs. Suburban Fight event in November I went to was pretty fun, but I liked this a lot more. Part of it had to do with watching it on video and being able to see everything instead of seeing part of the action. That is also one of the reasons why I’m doing this review and not Steve. He told me he was only able to catch 20% of what went on, which is one of the many perils of being at a standing room only show. Despite that, being at one of these shows in person is fun just for the atmosphere. You can’t go wrong watching it on video or in person.
Overall, if you need to kill an hour I highly recommend checking out this show. Especially Swann/Cassidy.
