I don’t really follow GCW but I’ve seen this rivalry develop from a distance. GCW filters into my timeline a lot so the major plot points of this match have been accessible to me without me ever having to actually watch a GCW show. In 2019, Rickey Shane Page stole Gage’s GCW World Title belt. Later that year, after Gage lost the title to AJ Gray, RSP cashed in his title shot to beat Gray for the title. After Gage’s real life brother Justice Pain passed away, Gage dedicated a main event match to him at the end of a GCW show in January. During this tribute, RSP jumped Gage, gaining massive heat in the progress.
All that leads to this, their main event rematch for the GCW World Championship. It is, of course, under death match rules with the whole set up of glass slates, light tubes, all that good stuff. The appeal of this match is also very clear–we come to watch RSP get murdered by Nick Gage, punished for his transgressions.
The personal nature of that face-heel dynamic might by the most compelling aspect of this match. The fans have bought into this story a hundred percent. Gage, as he always has been in GCW, gets greeted like a god but the fanfare for him is even more heightened in this match as he’s the conquering hero to take on a dirty scumbag. RSP, on his end, gets greeted with unending heel heat. There are no begrudging cheers, no pops in awe for any of his big spots. Just straight, pure hatred. Good stuff there.
RSP’s demeanor is truly detestable. His trademark sneer and the smug way he moves around the ring with his greasy hair. You really can’t help but want to see this guy absolutely get his ass kicked.
And for the most part, this match delivers on that. RSP tries to stall and even uses some headlock rest spots but when Gage gets his hands on him, it’s great. The story also grants Gage a lot of sympathy when RSP takes control. At one point late in the match, RSP pulls down all the remaining light tubes in the ring and smashes them on Gage one at a time. It was one of the most compelling control segments I’ve actually seen in a death match and actually made sympathy come through instead of just the natural recoil at the physical damage.
All that is great but also, there is so much about this match. It’s filled to the teeth with interferences, double crosses, big returns, referee bumps, referee bias, referee attacks. It’s a real exercise in maximalism in wrestling but it does so with less elegance than Janela & Starr achieved last year.
There’s a lot of questionable choices in the structuring here. For example, RSP’s ringside goons get ejected from the match early in the match. They come back twice–the first time, being successfully chased off by the GCW locker room; the second time, getting aid from an Eric Ryan heel turn to help put away Gage. One could argue this follows the rule of threes–ejected, fought off, then success. That’s fair enough. But then there’s the question of G-Raver. He comes out to make a save halfway through the match, breaking up RSP’s rear naked choke. He gets battered by RSP for his troubles. In the finishing stretch, G-Raver again comes back and gets battered again? Thanks for nothing there, I guess, Raver.
But really, this match is meant to be a big dumb spectacle. It’s the death match equivalent to a WWE-stack-the-odds match except with the heel coming out victorious. They threw everything into this match and though it didn’t always make sense to me, the crowd definitely ate it up. That finishing stretch really worked for me too with both Gage and RSP beating down referees, a returning referee refusing to count RSP’s victory, and RSP stealing Gage’s finisher before finally finishing it up with the falling Powerbomb off the top through the glass.
This match is a lot. Most of it is pretty fun too. And hell, the booking is incredibly effective given the clips you might have scene of the near riotous atmosphere in the crowd after RSP’s victory. Consider it more of a 30 minute heat angle to make Rickey Shane Page the most hated man in independent wrestling. On that front, extremely successful.
