GSW [Gravitational Singularity Wrestling] - The First Saga!

[SupineSnake]

Spoiler: full post

Those from #Earth (@EarthOfficial) that have been following our #Voyager reveal will have noticed one thing that the previous seventeen have in common: they are all, from a terra-centric perspective, aliens. We saved your home turf hero for last: #Voyager 18 is ‘Earth’s Mightiest Warrior’, Jonathan Gresham. That’s right: ‘the Octopus’ will be joining GSW as a travelling member of #theSeagull’s cast of characters. As soon as his CVISA is sorted, of course. Gresham’s status as a civilian from a Mark Four planet makes this process a difficult one, and he is expected to miss at least the first two shows whilst this bureaucracy is taken care of. VC Aruk Heimlecher (@VCHeimlecher), one of GSW’s senior architects, thinks he will be worth the wait.

Gresham’s highly technical style will be well-known to those travelling to GSW via Earth-portal, where he is renowned as one of the most gifted in-ring practitioners of his generation. Indeed, Gresham has been hand-picked as Earth’s sole representative for #theFirstSaga, chosen as a barometer to measure how (or if) the human species can measure up to those from the wider cosmos. When he is finally able to join his fellow #Voyagers aboard #theSeagull, he will hope to prove the mettle of his planet and cut down his extraterrestrial opposition with his ‘Octopus Stretch’ and ‘Shooting Star Press’ finishing moves.

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[Mandalorian]

Can’t wait to see Gresham put an Octopus stretch on the dude with 89 arms

 

[SupineSnake]

Spoiler: FULL POST

[image two (no hornets, repost)]

PERSONA NON GRATA.

This man - codename 'Fox' - is a known associate of the hostile agitators known as '#theSwarm' (or, in some circles, '#Hornets'). If you see this man (or anyone bearing #Hornet insignia) in or near the Seagull, or know anything about potential schemes, plots, ruses or lampoons designed to undermine GSW, we encourage you to reach out to your nearest #CosmicWarden.

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[Death By Looch]

This BTB already won my heart.

Spoiler

 

[SupineSnake]

So what exactly is Gravitational Singularity Wrestling?
By Shake Meltzer. PWOutsider.
September 27th, 2023.

GSWrestling.com: ‘dramatis personae'.
(click me! - google docs)​

Intrigue and confusion descended over a small corner of the internet wrestling community over the past week, mostly in the wake of GSW’s roster reveal. Many of the names and faces unveiled by the promotion were unrecognisable, and others accompanied by complicated, sci-fi themed backstory. This resulted in a roster reveal that was - at times - barely comprehensible through repeated unexplained references to fictional species, planets, and galaxies. The promotion is sticking to its in-universe kayfabe, which already seems somewhat convoluted after only a few Instagram posts. So, what was it that they revealed that caused this aforementioned minor stir? Join me as I attempt to piece together - from the promotion’s limited public statements and information from sources close to those in the know - everything that we currently know about ‘Gravitational Singularity Wrestling’.

I: The Roster - GSW’s ‘Voyagers’.​

The key to unpacking what’s going on at GSW is in breaking the roster - referred to as ‘Voyagers’ - down into three groups:

Group 1: independent workers.
- Amira Blair (wrestling as Valkyrie Parker).
- Bryan Keith (wrestling as the Gatekeeper).
- Jonathan Gresham.
- Kidd Bandit.
- Kikutaro (wrestling as Kikutaro-486Δδ).
- Leon Slater (wrestling as Gabriel Evangeline).
- Masha Slamovich (wrestling as Karma).
- Maki Itoh (wrestling as Grunge-α).
- Rayne Leverkusen (wrestling as Collector Rayne).
- Safire Reed (wrestling as Borg III Chestnut).

Group 2: students.
- Bilk the Hungry.
- The Chameleon.
- De Large.
- Squalid.
- Styx.
- Torrance.

Group 3: kaiju.
- Briareus.
- Kulvoxx the Destroyer.

Leaving Group 1 for now, we settle upon the subtitle ‘students’ for Group 2 based on reports surrounding GSW’s formation last week (rather than information revealed in the company’s Instagram posts themselves). A paper-trail of business transactions and company filings confirmed that GSW had opened a wrestling school, hired trainers, and been operating with its first class for most of the last year. It was later reported by Frightful, quoting sources close to one of these aforementioned trainers, that these trainees would work the promotion’s first series of shows alongside more established talent. This first series of shows has since been dubbed ‘the First Saga’. It appears that the recent roster reveal confirms this, with six of the names unveiled unrecognisable. The same can be said of the accompanying photographs, even considering the considerable amount of make-up and photo manipulation techniques used to achieve the otherworldly look their characters often require. I myself confirmed with several sources now in the employ of GSW that these six names constitute the GSW dojo’s first and second classes, who have been training in the Peak District facility for anything between six months and a year (Earth-time).

In Group 1, we find a mixture of well-established and more obscure names from the independent scene. The company, however, chose to use very few of their actual names in the roster reveal posts. Eight of the ten external talents hired by the company for its first run of episodes will be competing with new ringnames, and only Jonathan Gresham escapes the science-fiction treatment completely. He will play himself in the series, touted as ‘Earth’s Mightiest Warrior’ in his reveal post’ and seemingly positioned as a representative of the blue planet. Of note is the fact that the company has announced that Gresham will not appear on at least the first two shows, but sources within the company have hinted that he would still be present in some capacity.

Gresham is undoubtedly the most widely-known wrestler on the list, which perhaps explains the retaining of his famous name. The only other ‘Voyager’ working under their pre-established ringname is Kidd Bandit, though their entire ‘Earth run’ has been incorporated into a wider bounty hunter gimmick. Elsewhere, the biggest names in the line-up are Masha Slamovich, Bryan Keith, Maki Itoh, and Kukutaro, the last of which will wrestle as a version of himself from a parallel universe. The remainder of the list - Amira Blair, Leon Slater, Rayne Leverkusen, and Safire Reed - are fixtures on the British and Irish independent scenes, meaning a healthy home presence for the promotion based near Manchester.

Group 3 are kaiju, and it remains unclear what their role will be in relation to the rest of the roster. One would have to assume that Kulvoxx will be an ‘invisible’ wrestler, and that Briareus - a peripheral figure in Greek mythology - will be a suited competitor in the Kaiju Big Battel vein.

So far, so Chikara.

II: The Others - on-board the Seagull.​

The promotion also updated its previously dormant website (GSWrestling.com) to reflect these updates, as well as publish a full breakdown of additional personalities that will accompany the ‘Voyagers’ on its first tour. The link to this full list is at the top of this article, but here’s what we think are the most important points:

1. Alex Shelley is a Young Squid.
Directly after the list of eighteen ‘Voyagers’ on GSWrestling.com’s roster page is a short blurb about ‘the Young Squids’, who bear a striking resemblance to the NJPW young lions. They are supposedly the most recent intake at the GSW Dojo, which could realistically be true in the cases of Squid A, B, and D. Their images resemble those of the ‘student’ contingent of the aforementioned roster, and no additional information is given about them. Squid C, on the other hand, is instantly recognisable as Alex Shelley, who will seemingly play the role of a green trainee, offering ice-packs to the full-time ‘Voyagers’ that he hopes to one day emulate.

2. GSW has its own Yoshihiko (sort of).
The twenty-time Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion Yoshihiko was not (maybe surprisingly) revealed as part of the GSW extended roster, but the promotion seemingly has its own variant in the form of Gunner Plunk. Gunner appears in the ‘also on-board’ section of the ‘dramatis personae’ page, where he is listed as ‘head trainer of the GSW dojo’, as well as ‘vulpan’ and ‘allegedly inanimate’. Vulpans, as we learn elsewhere on this page, are a species almost indistinguishable from us humans except for their tails.

3. Sawyer Wreck is tending bar.
Also in that same ‘also on-board’ section is Wrecks IX, listed as ‘the owner (and only staff member) of the Cellar’, which is a ‘cantina bar on the third level of the Seagull’. The Seagull is the large spaceship that acts as the kayfabe setting of GSW’s shows, accessible to fans from Earth via ‘portals’ (which incidentally are small venues around the UK). More interesting than this revelation of an on-board bar are the image and Instagram handle accompanying this (allegedly non-wrestling character). Sawyer Wreck, an established name on the independent scene who has become a regular with Game Changer Wrestling, will be pulling pints in the Cellar, and you’d have to imagine a transition into a wrestling role will come about during ‘the First Saga’.

4. More 'established' talent hidden away.
One more face from the independent scene in Damian Fenrir also appears in the ‘security’ section of the ‘dramatis personae’. This part of the list is mostly members of the SEALS (the Seagull Elite Airship Liaisons for Security), who are responsible for safety and order aboard the ship. At the end of it, though, is Korul, who will be acting as private security for Director Zulff (one of two authority figures) and will be played by Fenrir. There are a large number of other peripheral characters listed with images in a similar style to the ‘student’ subsection of the ‘Voyagers’, and it’s difficult to know how many of these will appear in the ring before the First Saga is through.

III: The Outlaw - Jimmy Lloyd and the Swarm.​

Jimmy Lloyd does not appear in the company’s character list on GSWrestling.com, despite his picture being used as part of the series of Instagram posts that was the promotion’s roster reveal. This does make sense given the nature of the post concerning him, with Lloyd - who has the in-universe name ‘Fox’ - labelled a ‘persona non grata’, meaning his presence is unwelcome aboard the Seagull.

Lloyd’s Fox character is being pitched as the leader of ‘the Swarm’, a group of agitating protestors in an antagonistic position to Vice Chancellor Aruk Heimlecher. Heimlecher is one of the company’s two authority figures and a ‘combative theatre agent and promoter’ in charge of the roster’s largest stable, Flash Ltd. This group lists Styx, Karma (Masha Slamovich), the Chameleon, Bilk the Hungry, and Kikutaro-486Δδ as its membership, and one would imagine - given the name ‘the Swarm’ and the dynamic set up between Heimlecher and Lloyd’s Fox - there will be more Hornets appearing during the First Saga to even the balance.

Also notable is the declaration of ‘Four Sagas and a Movie’ in hashtag-salvo at the end of some of the company’s posts. It appears those behind the project have already mapped out exactly how long this fledgling promotion’s run will be.

More, undoubtedly, to follow.