“What’s In A Name? The Tanning of GCW Wrestling”

JihaD Scorcese
Nov 5 · 10 min read

“I done done it all from jacking and slanging, n — — , trust that / Stealing cars, snorting dope, getting bust at / Never going to school, all kind of bulls — — / Calling my momma in, I got her looking unfit,”

  • B.G, “Hard Times” — Chopper City In Da Ghetto

When rapper B.G dropped his major label debut, “Chopper City in Da Ghetto” in 1999, he introduced the world to a different side of New Orleans far beyond the syrupy hand grenades, powdered beignets, and general debauchery that defines the Big Easy’s culture for the droves of tourists swarming the French Quarter. Songs such as “Trigga Play,” “Made Man,” and “Uptown My Home” are the closest you can get to the infamous UPT projects without the creeping paranoia, drug sales, death, and sounds of gunfire that helped make New Orleans the murder capital of the world throughout the late 90’s. B.G, real name Noel Dorsey, as a 12 year old drug dealer, emerged from heroin addiction, his father’s murder, and multiple arrests to become a platinum rapper on a national tour by the age of 18 thanks to one word repeated twice: “Bling Bling.”

Everyone remembers “Bling Bling,” right? The song, produced by Mannie Fresh, is generally accepted as the seminal record of 1999. Signature triggaman drums and an infectious hook combine for an almost comical lack of fiduciary responsibility as B.G, Mannie Fresh, and Juvenile rap about “candy-coated helicopters” and having “the price of a mansion around my neck and wrist.” The line that caught my attention, however, was Baby “Birdman” Williams’, who sneers, “Heart full of anger cuz n***a I don’t give a fuck” in between promises of having sex with all the listener’s hoes and describing his own jewelry. While ‘Bling Bling’ was taking over the radio, being added to Webster’s Dictionary, and changing the lives of everyone involved in the record (minus Turk), here was Baby outlining in plain language that all this money talk came with a very human price, one that went ignored as fans flashed their fake gold teeth and waved invisible Rolexes into the sky.

I bring this up because Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), one of the most successful independent wrestling promotions in the US, has named their latest wrestling show after the seminal album. The artwork harkens back to ‘Bling Bling,’ with a diamond-encrusted GCW chain and logo. By itself, this seems relatively innocuous, right? However, a cursory look at recent events begin to highlight a disturbing trend in presentation of their product.

Advertisement for upcoming GCW show

A frightening pattern of cultural appropriation is emerging. GCW show titles such as “2 Cups Stuffed,” “Hit Em’ Up,”“To Live and Die In LA,” “Code of the Streets,” “400 Degreez” “The Block is Hot,” and “Slime Language” are all overt references to hip-hop culture, ironically sanitized and repackaged to present their form of professional wrestling. Popularly categorized as “Deathmatch Wrestling,” GCW’s no holds-barred wrestling features shattered glass, barbed wire, falls from high places, and lots of blood. A LOT. I have attended a few GCW shows, and have enjoyed a quality deathmatch or two; these types of matches (and GCW shows in general) are often welcome changes of pace. GCW’s mix of characters, athleticism, humor, and yes — the violence — have turned an upstart New Jersey-based promotion into the hottest independent property in professional wrestling. Period. Don’t believe me? Ask Joey Janela. Ask Orange Cassidy. Ask PCO. All three wrestlers parlayed exposure from GCW shows into lucrative contracts with major wrestling organizations such as the Tony Khan/TNT-backed All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Sinclair Broadcast Group-backed Ring of Honor (ROH).

However, the intersection between how GCW markets their product and who they market it towards shows the imbalance between how wrestling perceives black culture and how they appropriate it for their own gain. Like most wrestling crowds, GCW shows traditionally trend white. Although true data does not exist (or isn’t available), a cursory look at most GCW screenshots or videos show crowds of raucous white people at 80% or higher. Their champion? Nick Gage, a sneering ex-convict who calls himself a “gang leader” and the self-proclaimed “King of Ultraviolence.” His overall presentation — bald head, bandanna, camo pants, exploitation of previous criminal exploits — draws obvious parallels to ECW’s New Jack, who rode a high pain tolerance and effective presentation to infamy during the late 90s.

Then there is SHLAK. There is no way to put this, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it: SHLAK may or may not be a Nazi sympathizer. And a rape apologist. I outright refuse to attend any show where he is booked. Nazi tattoos, Nazi poses, and a string of questionable responses to poignant questions about said alleged Nazi sympathy bother me and it should bother those booking GCW.

SHLAK using a Nazi pose (Far left), 2017

It doesn’t. It did bother other promotions, such as EVOLVE Wrestling and their lead booker, Gabe Sapolsky, who immediately pulled SHLAK from all his shows and banned him from all World Wrestling Network (WWN) events, which include EVOLVE, SHIMMER, Style Battle, and Full Impact Pro (FIP).

Originally a Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) mainstay, GCW is now SHLAK’s primary wrestling promotion, and where the most fervent supporters of GCW’s brand of wrestling (who shifted from CZW as the brand began dying out) consider him a pillar of the company. He is booked on all their major shows, travels the world thanks to GCW, and the acceptance of his behavior caused a particular subset of fans in the Upper East Coast to adopt Nazi salutes and throw change at Jewish wrestlers, including noted independent wrestler David Starr (real name Max Barsky), who addressed this very issue during a reddit AMA.

While GCW considers itself more mosh pit than hip-hop, there is clearly a push by their promotions team to lean upon stereotypical African-American culture to sanitize their product without eliminating the edginess that has propelled them to such a massive success. While metal is often considered counterculture and rage, Hip-Hop as a culture has become a cultural safari — the danger is present, but rarely fully realized. Steve Stoute, music executive and author, coined a term for utilizing hip-hop and black culture as a crossover marketing strategy: Tanning. Tanning is defined as a “blurring of demographic lines, causing a transformational shift in which people no longer identify along racial lines, but shared cultural values.” In an interview with NPR (2011), Stoute outlines why hip-hop is an effective tanning strategy [Emphasis mine]:

“But I will say to you that one thing about hip-hop that’s very important — I think it’s important in every art form, but this art form in particular — was credibility. That’s why it was always important, like, you know, this artist — Jay-Z’s from Marcy Projects and it’s dangerous and 50 Cent got shot nine times, so he’s really authentic. And this guy, Lil Wayne, is from Magnolia Houses, which is the worst part of New Orleans. He’s really authentic.”

Original GCW show titles from 2016 included “Bullets Blazing, “Bullet to the Head,” and the always creative “Bloodlust.” These titles, while hardly inspiring, more aptly described the heavy metal influences that permeated early GCW wrestling. Beginning in 2017, however, the breakout success of Joey Janela’s Spring Break 1, emanating from Orlando, FL, created a legitimate buzz for a relatively small promotion. Show titles evolved from “The Acid Cup” to names such as “Worst Behavior,” “Hit Em Up,” and “Ready to Die” — for rap fans: Drake, Tupac, and Notorious B.I.G references — as the company began their expansion outside of their east coast base. GCW promotions shift to overt references about drug use, violence, and negative stereotypes that relate specifically to Hip-Hop and Black culture amount to tanning their violent deathmatches and questionable characters for larger public consumption. Proximity to the credibility Hip-Hop offers has allowed GCW expand from 17 shows in 2018 to 48 and counting in 2019. This last point is of particular note, especially when one considers that GCW rarely utilizes or promotes black talent, even while they happily exploit their culture.

Slime Language Advertisement, based on Young Thug’s Slime Language album (2019)

There is a peculiar irony at work here. A majority white wrestling organization, promoting primarily white wrestlers of questionable character and talents, utilizing black culture to expand their business, all while not even performing even AEW-level lip service to booking black talent?

Yikes.

And before anyone jumps down my throat about, “Well, black wrestlers don’t WANT to perform in deathmatches!,” let’s actually explore the truth: not only do many black wrestlers want to participate in deathmatches, but to distill GCW down to merely deathmatches does a massive disservice to their overall product. Black wrestlers such as current IMPACT! Wrestling standout Willie Mack and rising independent talent AJ Gray openly campaigned for deathmatches (with Willie performing in a deathmatch for Lucha Underground in 2018), while Dallas-based Phoenix Kid regularly performs in the type of deathmatches in which GCW specializes.

Wrestler AJ Gray expressing his desire to participate in Deathmatch Wrestling

Even taking away the supposed lack of black deathmatch wrestlers, GCW also routinely puts on some of the best technical, unique, and comedic wrestling you will find anywhere. Shows such as Orange Cassidy is Doing Something, or Whatever. Who Knows? featured a one minute match, a dodgeball contest, a Christmas Deathmatch (in April, or course) and Jon Gresham wrestling Japanese legend Shinjiro Otani in a brilliant exhibition of chain wrestling. Out of the 40 plus talents that appeared on the show? Two of them were black. TWO.

I attended the Orange Cassidy show, and I had a blast! The GCW experience is usually unlike any that traditional wrestling shows offer. However, I was acutely aware of who was around me, and where I was. Being a black wrestling fan tends to be like that, but I digress…

Using cagematch.net, I began looking through each of the GCW cards for 2019. A simple review of the last ten GCW cards (out of the current 48 ran throughout the course of this year alone) show an almost disgusting lack of booked minority talent. For the sake of argument, I removed the two Tokyo shows from my data point. Now, beginning with GCW’s Tribute to Homicide (7/14/2019), GCW has averaged less than ONE African-American talent on their card. ONE. Of the ten cards I surveyed, two of the cards contained the same talent — AJ Gray — who did not participate in a deathmatch.

This does not mean, however, that these shows were devoid of minorities; many cards featured Hispanic, Japanese, or other international talent. However, GCW isn’t naming their shows after Hispanic albums, or Japanese stereotypes, or international drug use. GCW’s use of stereotypes to market their product hasn’t gone unnoticed either. Other wrestling fans have noticed this strange fascination with black culture in their naming conventions. More importantly other wrestlers have noticed. Some are speaking out, in ways large-and-small.

I reached out to a few different African-American wrestlers about this topic. Some responded. Some ignored me completely. One told me to bury the story. One wrestler, who asked not to be identified, told me the following:

“[P]eople have been profiting off of the back of black culture without every [sic] contributing to it. We don’t get to be us, because they’re too busy being us. It’s as if Our culture is good enough but we aren’t.”

I consider none of their responses wrong — as a fan and a writer, my only concerns are my entertainment and the subjects in which I focus. For them, a match with GCW may be an opportunity — more money, more exposure, a chance to break out of the independent scene. Multiple talents from GCW have since signed deals with WWE and AEW, as well as ROH and NJPW. So I get it. Pro Wrestling has never truly been a safe space for the black fan, much less the black athlete. Discussing exploitation in a genre of entertainment that traffics in stereotypes, revels in misogyny, and has maintained a love-hate relationship with the talent that effectively drives its popularity, is going to be a difficult conversation. However, I again turn to Steve Stoute (2011), who said [Emphasis mine]:

“As long as you’re saying, thank you, you’re not doing what [Champagne] Crystal [sic] did. When Crystal [sic] said, I don’t make the champagne for them, that’s the ultimate disrespect and slap on the face because, you know, you’re unpaid sponsors and you’re not even being told, thank you….I don’t see anybody being exploited unless you start avoiding the real conversation, which is saying that these guys have done work that has benefited your property.”

Who exactly is benefiting from GCW’s tanning of their product? Outside of Private Party (now signed to AEW), no black talent has worn a GCW title on any level, and since the rebranding from Jersey Championship Wrestling to GCW (2015), no person of color has worn the GCW World Championship, effectively whitewashing their top title. That, coupled with their conspicuous booking choices, the continued defense and promotion of (at best) a person who associates with known Nazis, are actively exploiting black culture for profit. This is not new, or even unique to GCW, but with GCW’s increasing profile and growth, one must at least ask themselves how we can hold professional wrestling companies accountable for their presentation of their product and their talent, particularly when they traffic in culture capital.

Note: Since the creation of this piece, wrestler AJ Gray has announced GCW-Backed show entitled “For The Culture.” As more information is released, more will be added to this discussion.

JihaD Scorcese

Written by

A G-Unit Historian, Pro Wrestling Snob, and a writer of dope raps. Remember — You ain’t gotta like me or love me; I love you. Follow at @JihadScorcese

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