GCW COLLECTIVE 2023: How to watch with FITE+
FITE+ WELCOMES YOU TO THE COLLECTIVE
It is time for the biggest week of the year in professional wrestling as the most important promotions and the most impactful fighters will all converge in Los Angeles. For this week within the city of Angels,the most dramatic, exciting, over the top, insane celebration of professional wrestling imaginable will all broadcast live as it happens for FITE+ subscribers!
Yes, my friends, it is time for GCW COLLECTIVE once more as all the best from all of professional wrestling's cultures and lifestyles will be celebrated under one roof over the course of this weekend - from the hard-striking Knockouts of Josh Barnett's Bloodsport, to the diversity of GCW: For the Culture, to the shock and awe of Gringo Loco's THE WRLD on Lucha to the romanticism and spectacle of Effy's Big Gay Brunch.
No matter who you are, where you are from or what you love about professional wrestling there is something for everyone under the FITE+ rainbow all this weekend as insanity and diversity intersect like no other place in the pro wrestling universe, thanks to the criminal masterminds at Game Changer Wrestling!
Emanating from the historic Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles, The 2023 GCW Collective will feature the following events featuring some of the most important competitors from across the globe, submerging FITE+ subscribers inside the surreal and underground edge of combat sports greatness that Game Changer Wrestling's more discerning fans live and die by.
THURSDAY MARCH 30!
The weekend kicks off Thursday March 30th with California's legendary Santino Brothers Wrestling, making their Collective debut as the Cali flair of professional wrestling will be in full swing! Willie Mack, Bad Dude Tito, Delilah Doom, Tyler Bateman, Heather Monroe and Che Cabrera will all step into the ring to show the Collective why California is truly the Golden State when it comes to professional wrestling and why Santino Bros Wrestling deserves more respect from the world at large!
Josh Barnett's Bloodsport will take place once again on Thursday, bringing some of the most unique and treasured fighters from across the globe to Los Angeles before FITE+ subscribers. Perhaps the most anticipated fight on the card is the first appearance of Japanese superstar Kota Ibushi since exiting New Japan Pro Wrestling, fighting Speedball Mike Bailey in a true dream match of multi-faceted competitors who are each at the apex of their careers. Legendary UFC fighter Josh Barnett himself will step into combat, battling Timothy Thatcher in a true crossover of legendary tough guys. Jeff Cobb, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Killer Kelly, Yuya Uemura, Marina Shafir and countless other fighters with an insane pedigree in combat will take center ring to show their prowess in the most celebrated hybrid of MMA and professional wrestling ever presented, live on FITE+!
Thursday evening will close with one of the most historic events to ever unfold as part of The Collective as DDT goes Hollywood! Led by Sanshiro Takagi, DDT is perhaps the most insane, fourth-wall breaking, sublime and ridiculous promotion ever seen on Planet Earth. The epitome of DIY professional wrestling, slowly building itself from the fringes of Japanese professional wrestling over the last 20 years, emerging an underground promotional powerhouse as it subverts all expectations to represent all walks of life, twisting all long standing traditions into what might be best thought of as the wrestling world's equivalent of Marvel Studios' Deadpool. Now, it's come to FITE+ as part of The Collective with legendary Japanese stars like Jun Akiyama and Daisuke Sasaki battling alongside mavericks like Eddie Kingson and Joey Janela. AEW's beloved Konosuke Takeshita will return home to DDT to battle Yuki Ueno as Yoshiko, Shunma Katsuma, Pheromones, Michael Nakazawa, Andrew Everett and more strive to showcase the greatness of DDT against the might of everything else set for Los Angeles, exclusively on FITE+.
All things majestic will be raised in celebration at the 2023 GCW: For the Culture, which will close the Collective's first day of events with an incredible bevy of talents fighting to show that they, indeed, represent and celebrate The Culture. Bryan Keith, who has risen from The Lone Star State to become one of the most in demand talents in the world, will get his biggest test to date, taking on the immortally great 2 Cold Scorpio. Should Keith capture a victory over the former ECW World Television and Tag Team Champion, it should catapult him to the next level of his career. Trish Adora, one of the most celebrated women in the sport, will step through the ropes to battle Lio Rush, who has consistently blown fans away with his recent New Japan Pro Wrestling exploits. This sort of dream match could only happen at a weekend like the Collective live on FITE+ for all subscribers. For The Culture will also feature the might of Kevin Knight, Myron Reed, Suge D, Impact's Kenny King, Mazzerati and so many more striking out to enrich and evolve the sport as they seek to earn their place in the Collective time capsule for all eternity.
FRIDAY MARCH 31st!
With no rest for the wicked, The Collective rebounds for Round Two as once again, one of Game Changer Wrestling's favorite sons, Jimmy Fn' Lloyd will present Degeneration-F as some of the most twisted, brutal souls will assemble to battle in mortal kombat live on FITE+. Sawyer Wreck vs. Bobby Orlando, Kenzie Paige vs. Sandra Moone, Jack Cartwheel vs. Hunter Drake plus Cole Radrick, Starboy Charlie and more all seek to achieve ultimate victory!
The stars of DDT from Japan and GCW from America will collide in this insane explosion of some of the greatest, creative and hard-hitting professional wrestling athletes in this world or any other. Among the dream matches slated for DDT vs. GCW on FITE+ on Friday March 31st include MAO & Mike Bailey vs. Nick Wayne & Jordan Oliver, Dark Sheik vs. Saki Akai, Blake Christian vs. Kazusada Higuchi, BUSSY (Allie Katch & Effy) vs. Pheromones (Danshoku "Dandy" Dieno & Yuki "Sexy" Iino) and Tony Deppen & Homicide vs. Jun Akiyama & Tetsuya Endo, meaning the legendary Homicide and the legendary Akiyama will finally, after all these years, meet inside the squared circle!!
Joey Janela's Spring Break has always been the heart and soul of GCW's biggest weekend of the year and 2023 will be no different, spiking the Friday festivities as only the twisted mind of Joey Janela can. The main event this year features lucha sensation Hijo del Vikingo taking on Speedball Mike Bailey in a match that may see the very realm of space and time itself torn asunder as these fighters seek new and inventive ways to strike, battle and fly through the air to defeat the other. Vikingo is not coming to The Collective to be embarrassed live on FITE+ but Bailey, who had perhaps the greatest performance run of anyone of any Wrestlemania weekend ever last year in Dallas, is no simple opponent. Even with Maki Itoh, Kota Ibushi, Joey Janela, GCW World Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns and more in battle at Spring Break, it's going to be near-impossible to top that main event.
Friday night will close out with a battle between Jimmy Jacobs and Lio Rush headlining GCW Emo Night as these two generational talents take to action against each other for the first time ever. The Emo Night festivities will also feature, among others,Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Lil Aaron, Kevin Blackwood, Horse Head and more.
SATURDAY APRIL 1st
The diversity and vibrancy of professional wrestling will once again be on full display when GCW opens the doors to Effy's Big Gay Brunch, showing all things powerful and spectacular about the LGBTQ+ professional wrestling community. From GCW faithful like Effy, Allie Katch and The Dark Sheik to New Japan's Fred Rosser to some of the world's emerging top talents, including Sawyer Wreck, Kidd Bandit and more, The Collective once again thrusts the spotlight on some of the most dangerous, talented members of professional wrestling rainbow for all FITE+ subscribers!
Saturday night's alright for fighting and when there's luchadors about, it's time to showcase the greatest of Lucha Libre, free fighting, from Mexico and beyond to every device held by a FITE+ subscriber! When genuine, authentic lucha libre is presented, there is nothing more mind-bendingly special in the genre of professional wrestling. GCW's resident lucha ace, Gringo Loco leads the charge with an incredible lineup of international lucha libre sensations, including the most talked about Mexican star of the 21st century, Hijo del Vikingo as he enters the ring to battle and soar above it against Impact Wrestling's celebrated Laredo Kid. The legendary Negro Casas will bring some of the old school Arena Mexico flavor as he battles the ground and pound might of Tony Deppen. Loco himself will battle Lucha Libre AAA's most celebrated brawler Psycho Clown, plus Los Macizos, Sexy Star, Damian 666, Dulce Tormenta and Bestia 666 spotlight the most important lucha event this year held inside the United States!
No matter who your favorite stars are and what your personal taste for professional wrestling is, this week is the true holiday season for all who love combat sports. In unison, we stand gathered together, unified by our love of this grand sport, waiting for the moment the Knockouts occur, the brawls erupt, the luchadors soar and the bell rings to signify that greatness is upon us yet again. The Collective, live on FITE+, represents all of us, who have ever dreamt of the next great showdown who have ever loved a pro wrestling match with all their hearts, and who have ever been disenfranchised just for believing in the sanctity of professional wrestling and what it has brought to your life.
Game Changer Wrestling and FITE+ once again unite to stream live from Los Angeles to your devices across the world, bringing you the momentous occasion known as The Collective, where stars are born every year, where veteran return to flourish once again and every single person witnessing the madness and the greatness that is forever intertwined with professional wrestling, find themselves reminded, over and over, why they have returned to this glorious place known as The Collective - to be re-energized and live vicariously through their heroes.
The curtain raises this Thursday as FITE+ presents every second of the action for Game Changer Wrestling's Collective. An infinite amount of professional wrestling excellence, all shapes and sizes and styles pushing the envelope to re-define greatness yet again, all under one roof for just one price.
On behalf of FITE+, welcome to the most wonderful time of the year. Enjoy the mayhem and the bloodshed and the action and the emotional release that comes with the roller coaster that is professional wrestling at its best. The Collective is here, live on FITE+
Mike Johnson is the lead reporter for PWInsider.com and has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He can be found on Twitter @MikePWInsider and MikeJohnsonWrites.com.