The Great Aussie Wrestler Series : #1 GAVIN McGAVIN

Gday A mate from overseas asked me once if Aussie wrestling had a Austin Aries kinda bloke , you know, a belt collector  and the first person that popped into my head was The Real Wrestler otherwise known as .....

GAVIN MCGAVIN

NOW, I been watching this stuff a looonnnggg time , hell, its 50 years this year , and to that point Ive seen all the best come and go, so you would imagine that im hard to please, and youd be fairly spot on with that thought...ANYWAY, a few years back I got my first look at Gavin, when one day , I went searching for some Aussie wrestling shows and I found the EPW vimeo channel (which i bought a ton of shows off of since) and discovered him just at the start of his run in McMassive...and i must say I throughly enjoyed that tandem  BUT my inner heel was overjoyed when Gav flicked the big fella and proceeded to commence becoming the first and only EPW GRAND SLAM CHAMP....BUT lets not get ahead of ourselves here's the tale of McGavin

Gavin began training to become a professional wrestler in 2008. He made his official in-ring debut on the 21st of February 2009 at EPW Perth Aftershock, at EPW Perth ReAwakening 8 where he won a 6-Way against James Edwards, Jarek Matthews, Kiel Steria, KrackerJak and Marcius Pitt to become the inaugural EPW Hardcore Championship. He would hold this strap for quite some time ....

Gavin would eventually beat Tyler Jacobs to become a Two-Time EPW Hardcore Champion. He would also end up becoming the only Two-Time EPW Hardcore Champion in history. 

When Gavin started teaming with Mike Massive as “McMassive”. They would face everyone from The Blackest hour to The Dropkicks to Cowboys & Indians and TMDK in this initial run

 Gavin made his first wrestling appearance outside of EPW during this time wrestling in ZERO1 Australia, now known as Wrestle Rampage. He also competed in the EPW Invitational Tournament 2013 during this time.

 McMassive’s first shot at the Tag Team Championships came at EPW ReAwakening XII in a Fatal 4-Way ladder match,  4 Months later at EPW Goldrush 2014, Gavin would get an opportunity to claim the EPW Hardcore Championship once more
 A couple of months go by and McMassive are in a Tag Team Gauntlet for the Tag Team Championships at EPW Hell or Highwater 2014.  This streak of them not being able to win the titles continued for a little while longer, might i suggest a little too long,  they also went on to not win  at  EPW State of Origin 2014,  EPW Road to Glory 2014 and EPW ReAwakening XIII, they lost once more.

In between this frustrating (for me and probably most of his fans as well) run of tag matches, Gavin made his debut for Tasmanian Championship Wrestling, 
Finally, at EPW Goldrush 2015, McMassive finally win the EPW Tag Team Championships. They would hold the titles for 119 Days, even debuting for the Australasian Wrestling Federation to defend their titles. 

However, on the 4th of July 2015 at EPW State of Origin 2015, McMassive lose their Titles to Cowboys & Indians (Billy Williams & Eddy Bombay), my first thought was " did they spit in the bookers cappauchino'.. but they did get them back at EPW ReAwakening XIV .

 They would hold the Titles for 119 more days. During their reign, they would also debut in MCW and unsuccessfully challenge  The Estate for the MCW Tag Team Championships, as well as defending their titles at Wrestle Rampage vs Greg Graham & Willy Gibson

At EPW Goldrush 2016, McMassive lost the belts to Generation Zero (Michael Morleone & Hayden Zenith). Gavin made his PWA debut 7 months later against their Heavyweight Champion, Robbie Eagles. Just after that  trip. Gavin & Massive have "disbanded" as a team and when i say disbanded I mean  they didnt hug and say goodbye to each other

EPW ReAwakening 15 (Nov 2016) , Gavin would win the EPW Coastal Championship Rumble to become the inaugural EPW Coastal Champion. This would be the start of, what is arguably Gavin’s best run. He would hold the Title for 245 Days which is the longest reign with the belt. 

During his reign, Gavin would debut in Newy Pro to defend his belt including a match against Newy Pro Heavyweight Champion at the time, Caveman Ugg, he also showed up for Newy Pro in Gosford a time or two where I got to see him go up against Jack Bonza and Unsocial Jordan at separate shows .

 He started a feud with Scotty Ryan in a trilogy of matches. He lost their first match ,but Gavin DQed himself meaning he kept his title at Goldrush 2017. 

He would retain the title the next month at Collision Course 2017 in a No DQ Match against Ryan. The Rivalry would reach it’s climax at Hell or Highwater 2017 in a Steel Cage Match. However, Scotty Ryan would walk out that night as the new EPW Coastal Champion. Gav would try to regain it at ReAwakening 16, but was unsuccessful.

With him having lost the Coastal Championship, Gavin made his feud with Julian Ward his priority. They had a Match at Hot Summer’s Night 2018 which Ward won via DQ. Then PROGRESS X EPW was announced and Gavin was desperate to get on the card. At first, he pushed for a match with Pete Dunne. But it was EPW Legend Davis Storm who was chosen to face Dunne.... I wonder if Gav was as royally annoyed as I was,  anyway as the days went by, Gavin still didn’t have any opponents for PROGRESS X EPW. 

He eventually sent out an E-Mail to the entire EPW Roster and his challenge was answered by three people. Gavin McGavin vs Tyler Jacobs vs David Nero vs Lord Jonathan Wimbledon was the match that Gavin got for PROGRESS X EPW. He ended up winning the match as well....Although can you picture McGavin v Dunne, Gav may have to head to NXT UK to get that hit out

After the PROGRESS X EPW match, Gav attacked Julian Ward backstage which let to a confrontation between him and Davis Storm. The Match was made. Gavin McGavin vs Davis Storm [ also one of my all time favourites] for Collision Course 2018. The Match was highly built up by both Gavin & Davis. 

Eventually, two stipulations were added to the match. If Gavin lost, he couldn’t compete for any Championships until 2020. But if Gavin made Davis tap out, Davis would have to retire. The Match finally happened on the 12th of May. Gavin ended up winning the Match with some help from the ropes. He didn’t make Davis tap out however, so Davis kept his career, still,  Gav got a lot of upward trajectory from this win. But... what now?....

Simple, he went out beat everyone they put in front of him and at EPW Vendatta 2018 , beat The Don for the EPW heavyweight strap which as of this blogaroo was approximately 154 days ago....and he has since gone on a National Tour...5 months, 41 matches , 7 companies , 6 title defences in 4 states

AND FINALLY leave us not forget the forthcoming hostilities between Mr McGavin and The Rapscallion Mick Moretti ( who is also getting a blogaroo)...dont miss it , gonna be a Hot Summer Night alright

THE REAL WRESTLER ON THE INTRAWEB

Gavin McGavin Big Cartel Webstore

McGavin Facebook

McGavin Twitter

McGavin Instagram

MCGAVIN STATS

Height: 5' 9" (175 cm)

Weight: 157 lbs (71 kgs)

From: -

Debut: February 21, 2009

Nickname: The Real Wrestler

Finishing Moves: - The History Maker

Signature mOves McGavin-plex , OMGMG, Rope Assist DDT , Back Superplex, Crossface

Theme Song: "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy

CHAMPIONSHIPS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Explosive Pro Wrestling

EPW Championship (1 time)

EPW Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Mike Massive

EPW Coastal Championship (1 time)

EPW Hardcore Championship (1 time)

EPW Hardcore Shield (1 time)

Wrestler of the Year (2017)

Match of the Year (2017) vs. Scotty Ryan at Hell or Highwater

Most Improved (2010)

West Australian Pro Wrestling

EPW Match of the Year (2011) vs. Bobby Marshall at Re-Awakening X

Tag Team of the Year (2013-2015) - McMassive

PROMOTIONS

Explosive Pro Wrestling (2009-)

Zero-1 Australia [SA] (2012-)

Lucha Royale (2011-2013)

Lucha VaVoom (2013)

Wrestle Rampage [SA] (2014, 2016)

Tasmanian Championship Wrestling [TAS] (2014-2015)

Australasian Wrestling Federation (2015-)

Melbourne City Wrestling [VIC] (2016)

Pro Wrestling Australia [NSW] (2016-2017, 2019-)

Newcastle Pro Wrestling [NSW] (2017-)

House of Hardcore (2017)

Professional Championship Wrestling [VIC] (2017)

PROGRESS Wrestling (2018-)

Riot City Wrestling [SA] (2018-)

World Series Wrestling (2018-)

New Valhalla Wrestling [QLD] (2019-)

Wrestling GO [NSW] (2019-)