GCG- Bringing back the Glory

[1PWfan]

Han had been somewhat predictably reluctant to bring Alicia on as a wrestler, citing the usual bullcr*p excuses about ‘alienating the fans’ (by which he means Rich Uncle Pennybags, of course). In the end we had to settle for giving her a touring contract (which was unlikely to turn into anything more at the moment: with Bulldozer and Cameron on PPA deals we didn’t have much space on the card for new young lions, or lionesses in this case), but I figured that was better than nothing. At least, it would have to be if I wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight. Of course, Alicia wasn’t the only touring talent we brought on board. [B]Antonio Maxi Marquez[/B] and [B]Hidekazu[/B] returned from the last tour, as both had been reasonably impressive (Hidekazu in particular was probably good for more than we’d used him for last time round). [B]Amane Shunsen[/B] was also signed on for the tour. He didn’t have much by way of flashy wrestling moves, but his fundamentals were good and he could serve to train up some of the younger guys above him on the card. [B]Dean Daniels[/B], on the other hand, showed a great deal more potential. He wasn’t particularly great, but was better than Shunsen, and might even see the occasional multi-man bout higher on the card. He had the skills for it, certainly, even if his overness wasn’t so great. [B]Hirokumi Saito[/B] was my last acquisition for the tour, and was another reasonably talented but far from spectacular undercarder who was largely there to make up the numbers (it’s virtually impossible to find decent available wrestlers for our tours). I’d had to re-schedule our shows after the last tour’s problem with clashes, so our new touring show (the GCG Phenomenon Tour) ran on Mondays, whilst our supercard ran on the last Friday of July. We were clashing with 5 Star, who could conceivably steal my girl Alicia when they lined up my next tour, but that was one girl, and this meant that we were avoiding most of the regular problems from the big dogs. For the first leg of the tour, I laid out the following card: Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. Jimmy Cox [I]GCG kicks off the Phenomenon tour with a bang as the reigning World Heavyweight Champ faces off against the Master of the Immortal Driver. Under Hiro’s dominance the GCG World Heavyweight title has become the most prestigious title in wrestling today, and Hiro has expressed his determination to retain his title. But will he able to defeat Cox again, or will Cox have his number after their previous encounters?[/I] Toshiharu Hyobanshi vs. Pistol Pete Hall vs. Yasuhide Tayama [I]The Wild Man of GCG faces off against Pistol Pete Hall and The Roaring Lion Yasuhide Tayama in this exhibition of brawling excellence. Which of these three deadly individuals will prove the strongest?[/I] Takayuki 2000 vs. Shingen Miyazaki [I]The GCG loyalist and Openweight Champion faces off against The Oriental Crippler in the battle of submission holds. The Persian Deathlock vs. The Ankle Breaker-which is stronger?[/I] Marlowe & Umaga and Alicia Strong vs. Coleman & Ferdinand and Bulldozer Brandon Smith [I]In this six man tag match GCG’s two top tag teams face off with additional help. In the corner of the champions is the fearsome Bulldozer Brandon Smith, whilst Marlowe & Umaga have recruited GCG’s first ever active female wrestler in the form of Second Generation Sensation Alicia Strong. Which team will prevail?[/I] In the dark I scheduled Antonio Maxi Marquez vs. Barry Griffin, as we’d not done this combo before.

[Regis]

For the first leg of the tour, I laid out the following card: [B]Hiroyasu Gakusha[/B] vs. Jimmy Cox [I]Hiro will lose the title eventually, but not on the first show of the tour.[/I] [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi[/B] vs. Pistol Pete Hall vs. Yasuhide Tayama [I]It's Tosh. Why? Because it's always Tosh, and he produces awesome results for you![/I] [B]Takayuki 2000[/B] vs. Shingen Miyazaki [I]The Persian Deathlock is specifically being built as strong and T2K is due a while longer with the belt yet. Without the belt, Miyazaki can compete up and down the card against whoever you like, and will pull out good results to fill gaps for you.[/I] [B]Marlowe & Umaga and Alicia Strong[/B] vs. Coleman & Ferdinand and Bulldozer Brandon Smith [I]So, booker's girlfriend, eh?[/I] In the dark I scheduled [B]Antonio Maxi Marquez[/B] vs. Barry Griffin, as we’d not done this combo before. [I]Marquez is Just Plain Better. He's the best all-rounder in wrestling today, simple as. He can do anything, and do it well. Barry, decent though he is, isn't that good.[/I]

[1PWfan]

[FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="6"]GCG Phenomenon Tour[/SIZE][/FONT] Coming to you from the Doshisha Athletic Centre in Kinki, to a crowd of 636 people. We still aren’t selling places out, but I wasn’t expecting to. And guess what? Turns out that in my haste to ensure that the tour doesn’t clash with anyone in Japan I’ve put our show on the same night as NOTBPW’s TV show, and we don’t have Cliff until the supercard. Dammit to all hell. [B][U]Pre-Show[/U][/B] [B]Antonio Maxi Marquez vs. Barry Griffin [/B] This match was meant to be AMM schooling Barry, but Barry once again stuck firmly to his mat wrestling. Not that there’s anything wrong with that per se, and this was certainly a good dark match, but I was hoping that Barry would sharpen up his skills a bit. He got the win here, as he’s not one of the guys I really want to piss off that much [B]Winner:[/B] Barry Griffin [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]C+[/I] [B][U]The Show[/U][/B] [B]Coleman & Ferdinand and Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Marlowe & Umaga and Alicia Strong[/B] I’d expected something good here, and whilst it didn’t deliver on the level that a straight tag match would have done, this was still a goods match. Bulldozer has evidently joined the ranks of the GCG loyalists if the huge tiger tattooed on his back is anything to go by, whilst Alicia was…well, she’s my girlfriend, I can’t even begin to pretend to be objective about her performance here. Stu was starting to tire as we went into the final strait of this match (I’d extended it to about 17 minutes to fill time), but with Dozerino and Nathan to pick up the slack it didn’t detract too much from the chaos in the ring. Marlowe, Umaga and Alicia got the win here, as I’m building Marlowe & Umaga to take the titles. [B]Winner:[/B] Marlowe, Umaga and Strong [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]B-[/I] [B]Shingen Miyazaki vs. Takayuki 2000[/B] I knew these two could deliver, and sure enough they did, with a good encounter playing up the ‘battle of the submission holds’ story we put across in the advertising. I’d told Yoshi to make sure that both these guys looked dangerous, and it really paid off: I will admit to feeling slightly worried when Shingen finally slapped on The Ankle Breaker that we’d be losing our Openweight champion to injury. Shingen took the win here: I’m up for a title switch, and then a rematch at School of Tradition (the end-of-tour supercard), so I set it up here. [B]Winner:[/B] Shingen Miyazaki [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]B-[/I] [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi vs. Pistol Pete Hall vs. Yasuhide Tayama[/B] Well, damn. I’d expected a decent brawl, with Yasu dragging this down a little due to a subdued crowd reaction. What I didn’t expect was for Yasu to keep up with both guys, dragging out another classic match (not on the level of Hiro-Jimmy from March, but hey, what could be?). Tosh was the star here, unsurprisingly: the consensus backstage is that he’s our next big star, and whilst I’m not convinced that he’s better than Hiro, he’ll probably be champ before the year’s out. He took the win here, for precisely that reason. [B]Winner:[/B] Toshiharu Hyobanshi [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]A[/I] [B]Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. Jimmy Cox[/B] Man, does Kaz suck: I put him on colour to replace Dick, and he dragged this right down. These guys were on form as usual today, and their good chemistry boosted things up a notch, but Kaz was the audio equivalent to a slow hard kick to the groin: he was painful as hell and just wouldn’t stop. Han and me covered as best we could (and it wasn’t that bad, Han’s definitely improved some of late, even if I still wish Duane Fry would work the Land of the Rising Sun), but there’s only so much you can do. Hiro got the win here: whilst Jimmy’s wide array of good chemistry would probably make him an effective champion, Hiro’s a better all-round wrestler. [B]Winner:[/B] Hiroyasu Gakusha [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]A[/I] [B]Overall Rating:[/B] [I]A[/I], just about the perfect way to start off the tour.

[NoNeck]

Just getting caught up and really liking it. And personally, I think Cox's chemistry does make him more attractive as a titleholder than Hiro, but I understand the alternative thinking as well. Keep up the good work. :)

[1PWfan]

Thanks NoNeck, it's great to hear that kinda praise from a guy who's done wonders with the SWF. And I can confirm that this dynasty will be continuing after the release of TEW2k8. For one thing, I've got a lot of posts already written, and for another I won't be able to get TEW on my usual computer until September. Plus, I'm really enjoying this at the moment, so there's a good chance it'll carry on anyway and I won't bother getting 2k8. *** Morale was high following the first show: sure, we were still haemorrhaging money, but only me and Han actually knew that (Han may be the world’s worst businessman, but he’s up there in the top 10 all-time great liars). There was a good feeling surrounding this tour, and a lot of the touring guys kept talking about getting full-time jobs here. That wasn’t gonna happen, as they pretty much sucked, but hey, it’s a good sign if they think it’s worth sticking around. I put in a couple of offers to beef up our roster even more, as I’d missed some surprisingly good workers, and changed my mind about Merle: sure, he’d probably never get over the way I wanted him to, but a guy that talented pretty much justifies himself out of the gate. Unfortunately, INSPIRE beat me to it (they signed Adam Matravers as well: evidently Kikkawa and I share views on the quality of English wrestling and its role in the evolution of Puro). The other big piece of news was that the TV networks were scheduling for new shows, giving us a chance to get Stars of the Golden Canvas back on the air. I spammed all the channels in Japan, but only JSV3 were interested, and they put us on at 11 at night. Still, the return of the TV show would be another way to boost morale backstage, at least in the board-room. For the next leg of the tour, I decided to head for new ground, as there were still areas we hadn’t run. The card I put together went something like this: Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. Takayuki 2000 [I]It’s Champion vs. Champion as the World Heavyweight Champion faces off against the Openweight Champion. Takayuki’s dreaded Persian Deathlock has never yet lost him a match, but Hiro Gakusha has yet to be defeated. Which champion will prevail?[/I] Yasuhide Tayama vs. Toshiharu Hyobanshi [I]The Roaring Lion faces off against the Wild Man of GCG as Yasuhide Tayama faces off against Toshiharu Hyobanshi. In a match that promises to be an all-out war, which warrior will prevail?[/I] Shingen Miyazaki vs. Jimmy Cox [I]The Oriental Crippler faces off against The Master of the Immortal Driver in one-on-one competition. Both of these wrestlers are on the verge of glory in their respective divisions, but which will get the win here?[/I] Coleman & Ferdinand vs. Marlowe & Umaga [I]It’s a battle for the tag team gold as GCG’s premier tag teams face off against each other. Coleman & Ferdinand have been consistently overwhelmed by their extremely physical opponents, but their veteran wiles have seen them retain the title against the odds. Will they once again beat the odds to retain the title, or will Marlowe & Umaga claim the gold?[/I] For the dark I scheduled Cameron Vessey vs. Dean Daniels, because I could.

[hrdcoresidebrns]

Yasuhide Tayama vs. [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi[/B] [I]Hyobanshi is clearly more valuable at this point in time, and is clearly the number one contender for the Heavyweight title, so a loss here would be crazy. Still, it is very good to see Tayama getting some singles experience against the upper ranks of the card, which should cause some improvement.[/I] [B] Shingen Miyazaki [/B]vs. Jimmy Cox [I]Miyazaki is being groomed for the main event run, so he takes the win here.[/I] Coleman & Ferdinand vs. [B]Marlowe & Umaga[/B] [I]Marlowe and Umaga are a great team, far more talented than Coleman and Ferdidnand, and therefore make better champions. Plain and simple.[/I] Dark Match: Cameron Vessey vs. [B]Dean Daniels[/B] [I]Vessey is still in the young lion phase, and so the established Daniels takes the win.[/I]

[Regis]

Holy Crap! [B]GAIJIN SMASH![/B] Seriously, lot of foreigners on this one... [B]Hiroyasu Gakusha[/b] vs. Takayuki 2000 [I]I want to say a draw, but I don't think so. On the one hand, to hand your mid-card champion a loss just rubs it in that he's not playing with the big boys and isn't going to any time soon, but your Main Champ needs protecting. If he can't beat a mid-card guy, what's to become of him?[/I] Yasuhide Tayama vs. [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi[/B] [I]Tosh is on fire! The Roaring Lion may be strong, but Hyonbashi is on such an incredible tear that it's hard to imagine anyone beating him.[/I] Shingen Miyazaki vs. [B]Jimmy Cox[/B] [I]The Master of the Immortal Driver needs to win here. On the one hand his skills are... questionable, but on the other he needs to be kept strong so that his matches against other Main Eventers are credible. Miyazaki is good, and can afford to lose to Cox.[/I] Coleman & Ferdinand vs. [B]Marlowe & Umaga[/B] [I]It goes against the grain, but I predict that a team including a guy working for Burning Hammer for the win. Coleman and Ferdinand just... well, they don't grab me. They don't have the same kind of personality that The Wild Boys do, and even in GCG personality counts for a lot.[/I] For the dark I scheduled Cameron Vessey vs. [B]Dean Daniels[/B], because I could. [I]Cammy doesn't win. He just... doesn't.[/I]

[1PWfan]

Good point about the Gaijin. That's largely because I forgot about that, but the official reason is that Dansigny's doing so well that they've backed off a bit, and are letting him do his own thing. ******** [FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="6"]GCG Phenomenon Tour[/SIZE][/FONT] Coming to you from the Shimonoseki Hall in Chugoku, to a sold out crowd of 300. Small, sure, but it’s our first sell-out of 2007, and that’s gotta be a good thing. [B][U]Pre-Show/DVD Extras[/U][/B] [B]Dean Daniels vs. Cameron Vessey[/B] I’d set this to 8 minutes so I could squeeze in another dark match, but that was probably a little too short for these guys to really spread out. Cameron certainly was struggling a little: I think he’s got used to having more time to space out his offence, so this match felt a little rushed, and Cameron didn’t pick up the stuff I hoped Dean would school him on. Still, me and Han did some good stuff from the desk (Han’s really improved for this tour, he’s almost good), and whilst it was bad, at least it was only a dark match. [B]Winner:[/B] Dean Daniels [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]C-[/I] [B]Pistol Pete Hall vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] This was good enough to be on the main show, although it had no chance of making it onto the card. I’d done this largely so Pete could school Brandon, but there isn’t a huge amount to teach Ol’ Dozerino, so I settled for it getting the crowd pumped up before the show kicked off. A nice solid brawl that, whilst not among Pete’s best, was still pretty good. Pete got the win here: Dozer’s a young lion, and Pete’s one of our big names, so I couldn’t have done it the other way. [B]Winner:[/B] Pistol Pete Hall [B]Match Rating:[/B] B- [B][U]The Show[/U][/B] [B]Jimmy Cox vs. Shingen Miyazaki[/B] I largely put this on first because the tag title match didn’t deserve to be a curtain jerker, and it delivered a nice little opener to pump the crowd up. Jimmy came down with his first ever case of bad chemistry, but the popularity and skill levels were high enough here that it didn’t drag things down too badly. Jimmy got the win here: he is in the main event after all, and whilst I was wary of giving Shingen a loss ahead of his title shot down the line I figured he wouldn’t lose anything from getting beat by a main eventer like Jimmy. [B]Winner:[/B] Jimmy Cox [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]B-[/I] [B]Coleman & Ferdinand vs. Marlowe & Umaga[/B] These are two of our most popular teams, so this was a pretty hot match to begin with, but damn if it wasn’t good all the same. Marlowe and Umaga work well together as a team: it’s not so much a question of chemistry as the simple fact that they LOOK like a team, as they’re both all out, beat-the-cr*p out of you wrestlers. What’s more, they’re both more talented and younger than Coleman & Ferdinand, making them very attractive prospects as tag champions. And when Rhino hit the Samoan Charge on Stuart Ferdinand for the win, we saw our first title change of 2007. Congratulations boys, you’re our new champs [B]Winners:[/B] Rhino & Umaga [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]B[/I] [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi vs. Yasuhide Tayama[/B] This match was largely to see if Tosh could play ring general, which he’ll need too when he takes the title (and he will have by the end of the tour). He proved that he could here, delivering a very good match. It helped that he and Yasu read from the same playbook in terms of wrestling styles (they’re both hard-hitters), but this was still a damn good match. What’s the betting that Hiro and Tak screw up the main event? [B]Winner:[/B] Toshiharu Hyobanshi [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]A[/I] [B]Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. Takayuki 200[/B] And of course we have a total balls-up for the main event. I don’t know what went wrong here: I don’t think there was any bad chemistry, and both these guys are talented workers, but that was a dud main event. It’s possible that the crowd were burnt out after the Tosh/Yasu match, but we’ve run matches together before without adverse reaction. Still, whatever the cause this match was a let down for the main event [B]Winner:[/B] Hiroyasu Gakusha [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]B[/I] [B][U]Overall Rating:[/U][/B] [I]B+[/I], solid enough but disappointing when you look at the actual card.

[1PWfan]

In the wake of the last leg of the Phenomenon tour I signed up another two workers on touring contracts. Mamoru Nagahama was a solid technical worker, whilst Utamuro Nishimuraya was a high-flying veteran who would probably tag up with either Eagle or Amane to fill out the tag division. In other news, WEXXV attempted to sign Cameron Vessey, but he snubbed them out of loyalty to us. I should hope so too: I’m not having GCG wrestlers associating with a garbage company like Warrior Engine, we’ve got an image to maintain. Meanwhile, over in the US the SWF hit trouble again: a couple of months back they dropped to Cult (instantly setting off my talent radar: the minute their contracts were up Enforcer Roberts and Tom Gilmore would hopefully be appearing on the Golden Canvas). Now, both Supreme TV and KickStart (their B show) were on the verge of cancellation. That was a shock: sure, the SWF isn’t what it used to be, but it’s a part of the wrestling scenery. It’s hard to imagine a wrestling world without the SWF. On the signings front, Eisaku Hoshino signed with BHOTWG on yet another short-term contract, whilst NYCW signed Davis Wayne Newton, pretty much America’s hottest young rookie since Bulldozer and Cameron came over here. That was most definitely a nice move on their part: of late, their talent is all either veteran or just cr*p, and having a rookie that good working their shows will definitely help. For the next leg of the tour, probably coming out of Kanto before we swing through the smaller or untapped territories, I put together the following card: Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. Toshiharu Hyobanshi vs. Jimmy Cox Three of GCG’s top stars face off in this non-title match. Whilst Hiro has always managed to retain the title, his record in non-title matches is somewhat sketchier, whilst both Hyobanshi and Cox are coming off impressive wins last week. Bearing in mind that a victory here will ensure a future title shot, who will prevail? Pistol Pete Hall vs. Yasuhide Tayama The Roaring Lion faces off against the veteran gaijin Pistol Pete Hall. Hall represents the past of wrestling, Yasu is the future: in this battle of past vs. future, which will come out on top? Marlowe & Umaga vs. Kawasawa & Nishimuraya GCG’s new tag champions face off against a new kind of threat. Eagle Kawasawa, who did not win a match on the Live After Death tour, has found himself a tag partner in former BHOTWG Super Junior Utamuro Nishimuraya, and the high flying duo are the first contenders to the titles. Alicia Strong vs. Stuart Ferdinand vs. Shingen Miyazaki vs. Hirokumi Saito Four of GCG’s best midcarders face off in a display of wrestling excellence. Shingen Miyazaki is the current number one contender to the Openweight title, whilst Stuart Ferdinand is a former tag champion. Will either of these two established talents take the win, or will one of the two touring wrestlers take the win? For the dark I scheduled Naonobu Murkami vs. Cameron Vessey, as a training exercise.

[Regis]

The problem with the Main Event was simple, I think - T2K isn't a Main Eventer. He's a lower-card guy without as much overness to throw around. The crowd are more likely to give a big pop for two top-end guys, instead of just one. Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi[/B] vs. Jimmy Cox [I]Cox's wins are to keep him strong for jobbing to the other Main Eventers, so he takes the pin. It's non-title, so we can afford to have Hiro lose. Tosh is on a tear, pulling out results you wouldn't believe. So, I predict him for the win.[/I] Pistol Pete Hall vs. [B]Yasuhide Tayama[/B] [I]Pete is good. He can produce awesome results, and is skilled and over to boot. But The Roaring Lion is younger, also skilled, and has better physical conditioning. You need to build new people to the Main Event, and Pete is a prime candidate to slide back down the ranks to teach the younger guys a thing or two.[/I] [B]Marlowe & Umaga[/B] vs. Kawasawa & Nishimuraya [I]Well, they're new champions, and the high-flying style seems out of place in GCG. Also, Nishi isn't actually that good - not compared to the Wild Boys, anwyay.[/I] [B]Alicia Strong[/B] vs. Stuart Ferdinand vs. Shingen Miyazaki vs. Hirokumi Saito [I]She's the booker's girlfriend. I don't need a better reason than that.[/I] For the dark I scheduled [B]Naonobu Murkami[/B] vs. Cameron Vessey, as a training exercise. [I]Down, lion cub! Down![/I]

[hrdcoresidebrns]

Hiroyasu Gakusha vs. [B]Toshiharu Hyobanshi[/B] vs. Jimmy Cox [I]Hyobanshi gets the win and the title shot that has been coming for some months now. Hyobanshi vs. Gakusha = $$[/I] [B]Pistol Pete Hall[/B] vs. Yasuhide Tayama [I]Tayama is my boy, but I see Hall as still having some juice in the tank, and I think he'll get one more run at the top before he drops down the card. Still, I have an odd feeling that this thing could end in a draw, and I would pass out from joy.[/I] [B]Marlowe & Umaga[/B] vs. Kawasawa & Nishimuraya [I]Marlowe & Umaga need the win to build credibility as tag champs. 'Nuff said.[/I] Alicia Strong vs. Stuart Ferdinand vs. [B]Shingen Miyazaki[/B] vs. Hirokumi Saito[I]No need to stall the rise of Miyazaki. He takes the win here.[/I] Dark Match: [B]Naonobu Murkami[/B] vs. Cameron Vessey [I]Murkami gets the win, Vessey gets the experience.[/I]