Revenge Recap

GPW Revenge – 1s t of April 2023

Welcome to the GRISS, GPW fans!

We kicked off the year in style with a fantastic show that featured many new faces, some interesting developments and, of course, some great action as always.

The voice of GPW, Luke Woodhouse, attempted to welcome the audience to our first show of the year but was quickly interrupted by Andy Rhodes. Rhodes went on to explain his actions at our last show of 2023 where he brutally attacked his former tag team partner, and fellow GPW mainstay, FOX – noting that he saw a “lazy, apathetic, waste of potential” in himself as well as in FOX. Rhodes then vowed he will not be that person and that 2023 was his year.

FOX interrupted Rhodes after some further goading, but could not get his hands on Rhodes before he hightailed it out of the ring and to the back, preventing a preview of the main event from happening before the show even started!

First Match: Fatal Four Way – Brocky Balboa vs Broderick Valentine vs Ryan Rapid vs Owen Steadman.

Now, onto our first match of the evening!

With Gore having to withdraw from the event due to illness, the scheduled Gore vs Brocky Balboa match was cancelled with Brocky then being added to the advertised Triple Threat Match to determine the 1st & 20th entrant in the David Drane Memorial Rumble match at our next event on the 3rd of June: Heroes Never Die – The person who is successful in winning the match via pinfall or submission is to be the 20th entrant in the Rumble match, while the individual who takes the fall will be the 1st entrant in the upcoming Rumble. With newcomers Balboa, Rapid & Valentine looking to establish themselves in GPW with a huge win, the fan favourite Steadman looked to continue his rise in the company by securing prime position in the upcoming match.

In a match that included fast paced action, highflying and brutal strikes from all competitors, it was a submission that ended this great match with Steadman tying up Balboa in his patented Octopus Stretch – securing the final spot while dooming Balboa to the dreaded #1 position.

Second Match: Liam Lush Open Challenge.

Lush entered the arena to a chorus of boos, looking to continue his so far successful Open Challenges.

Lush recapped the last shows events where he beat the bell boy after challenging anyone in the audience or at ringside to answer his open challenge. However, this time Lush challenged anyone out the back to step up and answer his call.

This call was answered by none other than “The Player” Jake Lindo!

Due to technical issues, Lindo had to answer this challenge without the help of his microphone but was able to get his point across: Lindo has been in Lush’s position before, and made a challenge of his own to Lush to fight a wrestler instead of staff. After a back-and-forth contest, where both competitors seemed to mirror each other at first before Lush took control of the contest, Lush was victorious via Count Out by kicking Lindo in the head as he made his way back into the ring to break the count – a move perhaps a younger Lindo would have approved of.

Match 3: Cousin Ali vs Tommy Hellfire

In the 3rd match of the night, a returning Cousin Ali looked to make an impact against a man who was on an absolute rampage against Darcy Moss during our last event of 2022: Tommy Hellfire. In what promised to be a contest of MASSIVE proportions, this certainly lived up to hype! Both competitors attempted to establish dominance throughout the contest by bashing into each other and fighting around ringside.

However, no matter how many times and how hard Hellfire battered Ali, the big man never left his feet – this forced Hellfire to change his gameplan slightly by locking on his signature rear naked choke in an attempt to suck the life out of Ali and was eventually successful with Ali passing out in the devastating hold.

Seemingly frustrated that Ali never left his feet, even when unconscious, Hellfire grabbed a chair from the timekeeper’s area and proceeded to slam the chair on Ali over & over again. Broderick Valentine attempted to stop this madness but was met with a chair to the stomach. Owen Steadman then made his way out with an effort of his own but was met with a massive chokeslam.

Perhaps fulfilled with his actions, Hellfire then left the ring without a fuss after intervention from our officials, Mikey & Edwin.

While Hellfire may be believe he is finished with his business, something tells us that Ali will not forget his actions tonight.

Post intermission, Luke Woodhouse announced that due to Tommy Hellfire’s actions earlier, GPW Management had made the decision to suspend Hellfire for one show, therefore losing his potential place in the David Drane Memorial Rumble match.

Match 5: Tarlee vs Natasha Valentine.

In a battle between power and technical ability, Australian mainstays but GPW newcomers Tarlee & Valentine looked to make their mark on the GPW women’s division in our first show of the year.

In a match full of twists and turns where Valentine used her power to throw Tarlee around the ring and Tarlee used her expertise to weaken Valentine’s arm to negate her strength, Tarlee was victorious via a Rings Of Saturn variation, catching Valentine in a beautiful transition where there was simply no escape.

With this win, Tarlee has established herself as the person to beat in the Women’s Division in 2023.

Match 5: Andy Rhodes vs FOX.

In our Main Event of the evening, FOX looked to honour the event’s name by exacting some revenge on Rhodes.

After chickening out of a confrontation at the beginning of the show, Rhodes blindsided FOX on his way to the ring to kickstart this contest.

FOX, a man with incredible heart and fight, was able to fight back however the sheer strength and ring savvy of Rhodes allowed him to regain and maintain control for some time.. We saw a rarely sighted dive from FOX & an incredibly close attempt at Andy having FOX counted out, before FOX was able to capitalise on some mistakes by Rhodes to take control back of the match.

However, despite his heart and fight, FOX simply could not overcome the strength and intelligence of this “new & improved” Andy Rhodes, eventually succumbing to a Rock Bottom in a fantastic mainevent to ring in the new year.

With Heroes Never Die fast approaching, what does this loss mean for FOX? And what does this newversion of Rhodes mean for the entire GPW roster?