9/3 GFW Results: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Report by: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
Global Force Wrestling kicked off a three-day tour of Iowa on Thursday night in Cedar Rapids at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Attendance was in the 150-200 range. They ended up roping off a majority of the seating sections to keep the crowd mostly contained in three areas behind home plate.
1. Colt Cabana def. Ariya Daivari. Lots of comedy in this one with Cabana messing with Daivari’s head gear and rug that he brought to the ring. Cabana was very interactive with the small crowd and was one of the more popular acts of the night.
2. Tommaso Ciampa def. Kevin Matthews. Ciampa was quite popular with the snarky wrestling fans in attendance chanting “NXT” his way. Matthews did well working as a heel to try and get the crowd involved throughout the match.
3. Mickie James def. ODB. More comedy spots with the referee in this one. James was very popular with the crowd and later during intermission taking photos and signing autographs. ODB was also very over with the audience including a post-match promo.
Jeff Jarrett was introduced and thanked everyone for attending. The New Heavenly Bodies interrupted Jarrett’s promo. A tag team called Zero Gravity ran out to make the save.
4. Zero Gravity def. The New Heavenly Bodies. Lots of flips and moves in this one. They set a pretty fast pace and did a good job of keeping the attention of the crowd.
Intermission featured people who purchased GFW guitars to take a photo with Jeff Jarrett at ringside. Various talent had tables setup with merchandise in the concourse area as well.
5. Sonjay Dutt def. DJ Z. The crowd was almost deflated by the time the intermission came to a close. Z requested his hair and face not be touched at the start of the match.
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan was introduced and cut a nice promo about Iowa. He was interrupted by Ariya Daivari which prompted “USA!” chants. Duggan chased him off.
6. Chris Mordetzky (Chris Masters) def. Nick Aldis (Magnus). Both guys worked real hard, but the crowd by this point seemed tired and ready to call it a night. Mordetzky wisely started playing up to the crowd getting in close. Aldis was over as a babyface.
Global Force Wrestling has a ways to go in regards to live event presentation. Pro wrestling in a baseball setting just doesn’t seem to work. Marketing around the summer and the popularity of baseball games in smaller markets like this seemed like a good idea. A smaller and much more intimate venue would have done wonders for the overall live event presentation, especially with how poor attendance was.
The very humid weather didn’t help matters either. With hardly any local advertising or marketing in the weeks leading up to the show, it just felt like a very lackluster effort on the part of those behind GFW to bring people out to the ballpark. It was one of the most underwhelming pro wrestling events I’ve ever attended.