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-)

GOSFORDMANIA - The World Cup Edition

Gday

Once again Newy pro brought their ring to Gosford and put on another night of great graps, which for the purposes of this blogaroo, and to put a time stamp on it , Ive called

THE NIGHT ENGLAND BEAT ABBA AT THE WORLD CUP IN RUSSIA - MANIA

How about that for a mouthful..anyway...the two gents who commenced the proceedings were...

the Full Rapscallion and leader of the green nation vs the master of gravity , and true to form Mick was his usual grappling greatness with a hint of joker level insanity which was just enough to throw some stones through the window of reality...Matt on the other hand came at Moretti from all possible angles and dazzled the Green goblin smewhat , MIck did try to ground Matt and even tried to gross him out ( he grossed out all the kids at ringside) with a sweatyballs elbow drop or two 

BUT, young Mr Diamond wasnt having a jot of it and clattered Moretti with a superb Diamond Cutter (or whatever he calls it) for the first 3 count of the night ....excellent start

Righto , next up came the leader of the Red Nation  and a bloke making his Gosford debut , who apparently is a 1980s superhero ...

Now the last time I saw Luchi he was waving a sign that said , and I quote, "People are Pollution"....BUT this time he was Captain Planet , who had a mess on his hands as he was versing and I quote Bonz directly " THE best technical wrestler in Australia" , and to be fair Bonz tried to stretch Luch a whole lot , mind you the tree hugger fought back with much aplomb  and even got Bonz rocking on occasion , Bonz went back to the mat work and tied Luchi into various knots and pentangles , Luchi went to the air and landed funny tweaking his knee, the room as one thought thats that then Bonz for the win ...BUT...a shcoolboy roll up out of nowhere got the debuting Captain Planet the victory.

THE 3rd match of the evening was another chock full of debuts AND chock full of Big Fudge  

(apologies for not having a picture of Parker Tomas in the match card, i couldnt find one)

Match started out with everybody puliing various condiments out f their dakks except Rig he only found two fingers , which he displayed to the crowd in a rather rude gesture that got me caned in the 70s ANYWAY...Rig got bounced around for most of the match with occasional fight backs , he must be tough , he survived Fudges awesome finisher , the Butt Punch (silly as the people elbow, but what do I know) 

Headhunter Rig handed out some rather rough manouvers to Thomas and Fudge but got side swiped by Jax Jordan whot got his shoulders down for the 3 count

Match number 4 was upon us and this particular athletic displayed the skills of SMS member Unsocial Jordan and the leader of the Blue Nation ( and Concretes opponent next week in Charlestown for the MIddleweight strap Adam Hoffman 

A bloke near me asked what the hell was that brace Hoffman was wearing on his whole arm, I answered "No Idea pal, but it aint loaded with any international objects that ive seen"

Both chaps got stuck straight into some grappling and dazzled each other and the ref, and the ring announcer and the crowd with their unwavering abilities, with Hoffman getting a foot in the 3 count door by doing some serious brutality to Jordans arm, naturally being a leader of a Nation Hoff was predestined to try chicanery of some description... which was tacked onto the end of a spectacular spinebuster , Jordan fought back with some top shelf flying and speed based manouvering BUT the intial shoulder damage caused by Hoff led to Jordan tappin out to the leader of the Blue Nation..

Match number 5 was introduced and the competitors in this tag match was The Velocities (Jude Londo & Paris De Silva ) vs JUAN DIRECTION ( in this case Giant Juan and one other Juan, I think it was Romantic Juan but dont quote me, they really should put something on the ring outfits so we can tell them apart,  the other two Juans were ringside , and the thougt occured at this point that if the Juans ever turn heel 3 of them could do swaps while the ref wasnt watching, not Giant Juan his too frigging tall

ANYWAY...The Velocities took to the skys to try and dazzle the luchadors at their own game and to be fair they succeded, naturally Giant Juan was hard to drop but a collection of drop kicks by Paris and Jude had Giant reeling , Romantic hit the ring and was dazzled again by  the Velociraptors , at this point Jude got walloped a tad hard and his elbow pad flew into the audience , howabout that then...anyway Paris took care of Romantic wih some mind warping flight and Jude tagged in and dropped Juan Direction with a JudeBuster for the victory.

match number six for the evening was the reigning Newy Pro HW champ 'Full Force" Matt Rogers vs Jay "MIchael Elgins aussie twin" Law, who for your information was the very first Newcastle Pro Wrestling HW Champion, and as you would expect these two big lads just got stuck in and pounded each other , with Law getting a step up by working on Rogers leg , BUT bash as he may Law soon fell victim to a Full Force assault (and a pumhandle slam) for the victory by the champ

Next up came the womens division match and in particular the legend that is Madison Eagles and he opponent in this case was a cosmic trippy chick from Byron Bay that goes by the name Bel , I worked up that way  years back and I reckon Mullumbimby is wayyyy more trippy than Byron...so maybe Bel just moved to the Bay ANYWAY....

Madison once again proved she was the penultimate worker when, for the first few minutes, she did virtually nothing and had the crowd annoyed , a sign of great wrestling in my humble ...

Maddy did the shooter bit and  rubbed her chin into Bel's decorative diamontes on her forehead ,  it's the little things. that work aint it,  a bit of baseball slide action occured and  Bel got back into it with a very Orton like rope assisted DDT,  This annoyed the Queen of the Green Nation and she tried harder to crack Bel's diamontes...Maddy even tried  to make Bel taller, shortly after this Maddy got the win with a thunderous SUPERKICK thingymajig.

Now it was time for the Main Event of the evening 

and it was the Middle weight Champ, the Strong and Bravidson . Concrete Davidson vs the Prince of all wrestling from Wollongong and Armada (are they still a thing?) MIchael Spencer , who brought Massive Q with him , so you knew shenanigans would occur .

Spencer regally adorned in his Marvel fanboy gear cheated his arse off, To no avail for Davo was on the ball and kept thwarting him...Q spent the night blocking everyone's view until he grabbed Concos leg right in front of the zebra (and not for the first time) and he got sent to the back .

It was at this point that a schmozz occured , ref #1 got walloped, he sure could sell a kick to the head, Conco and Spencer went for a brawl through the room while the zebra Uno  was snoozing,  it was at this point Davo and Spenny hit the ring and Zebra #2 also arrived and within mere moments  was also snoozing his head off after getting whacked , it was clearly a game of maim the zebras ...there was even a 3 rd zebra with a lady GaGA hairdo who try as he might couldnt avoid getting smacked either ....Spencer went for the second hooker move of the night and fish hooked Concos eyes , but Davo fought out of it even after faling victim to a Spencer applying a Nakamura knee , the Middleweight Champ grabbed hold of the smary nitwit from the Armada and duly applied a awesome Electric Chair for the victory ..once again sending everyone home happy..

Newy Pro 70 tix link

just a quick point , it may be my wrestling nerdom BUT I really though Hoffman would stick his nose in Conco's business seeing as how they got a title match next week in Charlestown  ...but what do I know 

at this point I think i'll chuck on some artfications i did of some of the talented folk from the show...so here they are

Seeyas Later

GOSFORDMANIA 2018 -.the return of the Novacastrians

WOO and also HOO , wrestling returned to the local entertainment establishment ...and it was Newy Pro and Im a huge Newy Pro fan ...so I frequented  the hostilities

The kickoff for the evening was a member of "the Armada" Michael Spencer vs a bloke id not had a chance to see yet, a member of "The Velocities" Jude "the Dude" London 

, Spencer took the time to inform the assembled throng that he was the prince of wrestling and we should all prostrate ourselves upon his entrance , 

yeah bollocks buddy, Jude on the other hand was a ball of speed and got stuck straight in , Spencer kept trying to ground him and succeded a time or two , 

but Jude took the air and defied gravity like a champion, then after a couple of lethal injection attempts , 

The Dude hit a Atomico Sling blade for the 3 count...crcking debut, hope he comes back.....PS they even did wrestles with the lights out , speaking of which , the lights got a pop from the crowd when they decided to cooperate.

Yep, the bruiser from the Blue Mountains ( winning the Big Mike lookalike contest) Jay law was out next and 

he was taking on Gorgeous Georges great great grandaughter, the rather flamboyant , from Oxford St, Ricky South

aw was a tad grumpy and threw his weight around  with clotheslines and slams, Ricky on the other hand tormented the crap out Law, blowing kisses and such like

,  and then to finish it off, hit Jay with a stylish clash and a powerslam for the win

....oh yeah the winner gets a heavyweight title shot 

First out came , I believe they called themselves "The Babes" (cant see it myself )

, Harley Wonderland and Carter Deam's and they took on

 #SMS members Facebrooke and Unsocial Jordan...now, the babes were outstanding in their heeldom , they absolutely confounded the zebra (who i'm fairly sure was on work experience) what a clueless dolt

 ....missed more evil stuff that the vice squad in the 70s ...geez, ARGHHHHHH...

anyway, Carter wasnt a bad worker to be fair but in the end Harley got the pin over Facebrooke for the win.

Big fudge and jt Robinson were gonna stoush to try and halt their losing streaks 

, Robbo ( 1 year) Fudge (forever)...

Too be fair Fudge had JT rockin and rolling for a bit, he even hit the floor a couple of time to slow down the king of ice cream...

Fudge got robbo on the ropes and tried for a belly to back suplex but robbo was a bit too heavy , he locked in a white noise slam and pinned fudge to end his run of crap luck

....kids went awww poor fudge, I went , time to turn into a whiny heel buddy and sneak your way to a few wins

I have to say Im a bit stoked that Full Force has the strap, wish he would make his mind up if his a heel or not , stay grumpy by all means , but unstraddle that fence fella

.....and he was going up against another sms'er SNAPCHAD...Chad looked keen and was up for it , but really, how keen can you be to get slammed , shoulder blocked , clotheslined and generally pounded on by Full Force for a half hour

 , Chad mask must of been too tight , anywhoo, Rogers bashed him into a pinning predicament for the win, 

Rogers next victim apparently s Ricky South who gets the honor by beating Jay law, methinks his gonna get mashed into a fine paste , but you never know.

Now I have to admit to being a bit of a fan of masked wrestlers , just not all of them , so when I saw that 4 Nations (Bonza & Hoffman) were goona go all four horseman on those babbling nimrods Jaun Direction , I was most stoked , I was gonna see a slaughter

 ...and the Nation boys statted off hot . pounding and stretching whichever Jaun they had hold of , At this point I must wonder allowed if Adam Hoffman is bionic , 

that arm protector of his looked lethal, anyway, the dancing fools got a bIt of action going until Hoffman hit a Arn Anderson quality spinebuster on one Juan, it was at this point those boy band wannabees crotched Hoffman on the top turnbuckle and snuck a pin in over Bonza to qualify

...I was nearly as pee'd off as the Nation, I would imagine.

Main event time . Newy Pro middleweight title , Conco vs Wahlberg....Matty was out first wearing a Central Coast Bears shirt and commenced to cut a promo about us not having a NRL team, whIch was fine, then he turned on the Mariners , 

well,I been a Mariners member for years so that was me done , he must of read my mind, which was saying, shut up and wrestle you loudmouth bogan nufty, oh yeah AND they'd nicked Concretes pushie (b*sta*ds) 

The Champ was out next which shut up stupid and his mates , the match commenced and the whole timeWahlbergs mates tried to help out , the trainee zebra didnt help , geez what a plonk, 

BUT Conco prevailed , he hit The Red Cup Kid with numerous Hammers and Concrete pylon power bombs ( you can call em electric chairs if you like) 

and even with Harley and Carter hanging around ringside , 

Wahlberg got slapped and the ref counted 3 ( which is about all he can count i reckon) Conco got his pushie back, and The Babes left whinging

 ....AS IT SHOULD BE 

PS ..Matty Wahlberg is one of the best heels ive seen in ages and since I been going to matches since 19 and 69 thats high praise from a jaded old bugger like me...keep it up son , you took me out of my head their for a bit ...good job.

Also got to meet Unsocial Jordan and Jude the Dude took a pic for us (thats not a selfie , right?) 

also my inner magpie took over and i grabbed some shiny newy pro pins, and then my alter ego Recking Ball got to meet Big Fudge , it was a deadset mask appreciation-a-thon

Top night of Newy pro entertainment ...Seeya next time