Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

EFFY Gets the Last Word on The Big Gay Brunch

EFFY being advertised for the GCW Big Gay Brunch 8.

Deathmatch wrestling is a world of blood, fire and brimstone. Inside this destructive epicenter, like a flower in a warzone, a punk rock rainbow has emerged. A random EFFY has appeared. 

“We have to kind of peel ourselves back, you know, there’s a weird middle ground,  we used to be a carnival trick, to trick people out of their money, and now we are an art form that is measured and studied, you know, with full think-pieces on a match. And we have star ratings on everything. Neither one of those positions is necessarily wrong, but there is a middle ground where we can respond to the performances.”

Betting on EFFY

EFFY sat down with Last Word on Sports and Botched Spots and Chair Shots, Will Gray, for an intimate chat about “The Big Gay Brunch“, GCW’s The Collective and coming out of the busiest two years of his career.

“I feel great. I’m excited. I swore off the media for a while, and now I’m returning to my media throne. I’m trying to make sure there’s no facade, or anything. Somebody told me recently, like, I don’t know how to turn it off.”

As a wrestler EFFY has spent the last four years of his life on the road building a brand, betting on himself, and leaving it all on the line. Wrestling, like all things post-COVID pandemic, was forced to evolve and change in our new world. As a self described “fantastic fantasy person” the evolution of EFFY was no different.

“I’ve been full time as EFFY since the pandemic began. You know, I left my career behind, you know, about four years ago. And a lot of people are still surprised when they hear this is all I do, which is like I’ve learned the blessing and the curse of that which is like, “I love my job, I have a fantastic job, but it is my job.”

Prior to the pandemic EFFY was searching for a footing in the wild world that is professional wrestling, and as he describes it, it was a “journey of self discovery.” In 2024, or even prior to now, there was no blueprint on how one becomes a successful professional wrestler. So like Colt Cabana, Matt Cardona or even fellow GCW alum Nick Gage, EFFY cut his own path to success.

“It’s been a journey of self-discovery, but it’s also like, All right, well, I’m going to be pushing this ball up the hill for a long time. I don’t have any goals of, you know, being contracted anywhere. I feel free and I’m able to kind of control what I do and how I show up. And so with that being the case, I’ve had to get a little smarter because there’s not really a blueprint necessarily.”

The Origins of The Big Gay Brunch

“If you’re kind of loud and confident, you can get things done”

Brett Lauderdale, the person behind Game Changer Wrestling, has never shied away from being different from the competition. Lauderdale acquired Jersey Championship Wrestling in 2015 and rebranded it GCW. With this rebranding came a whole new approach on how independent wrestling was done. Lauderdale gave his wrestlers a voice and a way to showcase their talent and similar talents how they see fit. 

From Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport to Joey Janela’s Big Spring Break, Lauderdale would give a dynamic showcase and approach to pro-wrestling that was scarcely seen in the states. With this evolution came the Big Gay Brunch.

“I was kind of getting in with GCW and, you know, figuring out my place there. What I noticed was if you’re kind of loud and confident, you can get things done and I think, you know, it’s something I admire in Brett that he sort of looks for people to be able to, you know, not just mention something once and it gets done, but mention something and then have a plan and have an idea that you continue to stick with.”

The Brunch initially was a way to showcase talent from the LGBTQ+ community. In the independent world the old homage of a hotdog and a handshake is more than a myth. Wrestlers and managers struggle sometimes to even get paid by promoters, and in the LGBTQ+ community it was worse. EFFY’s plan was to give the community a place that could showcase their talents that might not otherwise be showcased.

“I think obviously to uplift a lot of the LGBTQ talent that was not getting booked that I thought was talented, that was kind of getting crumbs, especially for the LGBTQ shows that I was working. There were always pay discrepancies, there were always issues with travel. There was always the idea that, like, you should just be happy, y’all are getting anything”

Death Threats and Fighting the Fight

“They actually have fun. It’s not just a sense of reverence, but it’s a sense of, you know, we party better than you.”

The first Big Gay Brunch did not go off without a hitch. It did not go off at all, actually. It was also an unplanned casualty to the COVID pandemic. On top of all of the struggles of a pandemic, EFFY was also targeted with death threats and warnings to cease and desist.

“And then the very first one, you know, it got canceled because of COVID, but we also ran into issues because people were sending me death threats to the venue that we were using. And we ended up having to have a statewide investigation into domestic terrorism threats because people were threatening to show up and just shoot the event up or shoot me up. And there were multiple occasions this was happening. And I was sort of like, Oh shit. Are we in over our heads?”

The threats didn’t stop the party from moving forward. EFFY would go against the threats head on.

“I thought I would be in trouble because, you know, they were getting mad over a promo I did where I said, Listen, if you come to my event and you do homophobic stuff, I’m going to beat your ass in the streets until you bleed. And I was basically told that under the protection of me being a fictional character as EFFY, I can say whatever I want, like beyond free speech, I can say whatever I want. It shouldn’t be treated as absolute truth. So they were investigated for that and nothing ever came of it because the event was obviously canceled. But it sort of also opened the door to me going like, “Oh, I can kind of say whatever I want.”

EFFY would go on to say that the fight isn’t over. The LGBTQ+ community has been beating down the pro-wrestling door for the last four years but the war is still raging.

“But I think if you look at where wrestling was and where wrestling is, it looks different because I exist. And I think that that’s like a very cool thing to be able to look at. It doesn’t mean the fight is over. It doesn’t mean we’re done, you know, trying to push or change what’s going on. I mean, you’re looking at, you know, genuinely if something is not there, they don’t have a single out gay person on TV right now. AEW You know, they got rid of Sonny Kiss. They’ve been featuring a nonbinary talent like Abadon more. They’ve been featuring trans talent like Nyla Rose more. There does seem to be a little more, you know, LGBTQ representation with people like Diamante, people like Kiera Hogan that are there on the show. But it still feels like we’re banging the door down.”

Big Gay Brunch Tampa

“I am the most worried person about the event.”

Planning a wrestling show is neither easy nor cheap. The promoters and bookers have to make sure they put the best card out there for the patrons, paying to see the show, without breaking the bank. With a show like the Big Gay Brunch also comes the need for inclusion and making sure everyone has a voice. For the Brunch, this all falls on EFFY.

“I’m holding myself to such a high standard on these events and I’m holding myself to such a standard of making sure not only are we bringing in, you know, big names to draw tickets, not only are we bringing in the big names that have already been there before or stars that we’ve used in the past, but also leaving the room to highlight new talents that are on the up, not closing the door to things just because.”

The Big Gay Brunch in Tampa, the same weekend as WWE’s Royal Rumble, will be no different. The wants of both, EFFY and the talent, is to make this the biggest show of the weekend. At the core of the Brunch is a wrestling show, but for EFFY it is more than that. It is a way to demonstrate the art of pro-wrestling in a way only the LGBTQ+ community can.

“I know that. Like, it’s just a wrestling show. I try to remind myself that sometimes, like, okay, it’s just a wrestling show, but then when it comes down to it, it’s like I fight my breath to get things across and do things a certain way and make sure that I’m putting on an event that I feel proud of after the fact. And I feel, you know, it meets the goals but is also highly entertaining.”

The upcoming event in Tampa will feature tons of independent talent from the community. From Pollo Del Mar, manager from the NWA to Japanese phenom Akira. Akira has a history in Japan for extremely violent matches and in true EFFY fashion he found a way to make it work.

“Akira is like, over with big Japan right now doing bloody good matches. I just saw him get a glass pane dumped on him on MLW. And then come to find out there’s this alternate personality that Akira has as you know, a beautiful Kawaii Maid and I sort of reached out was like, Is this something you would wrestle in? You know, because I understand like, all right, one thing is an Internet thing. I don’t know if you want this to be on your wrestling record. And, you know, Akira is proudly pansexual, has come really far and, you know, publicly acknowledging that. And now I’m giving you a chance to come in and go like, okay, now I need you to show that the Maidkira is just as tough as Akira.”

Advice for ‘Mania Week

“I’m happy people are showing up and choosing us as their form of entertainment when there’s so much competition on the table instead of worrying about, Well, if you’re going to really understand this feud”

EFFY would consistently put over the importance of being entertaining to the crowd paying to see the show. The wild happenings of Mania week are also around the corner and with that comes another GCW Collective and another Big Gay Brunch in 2024. EFFY had these words of warning for the younger talent heading into the busy week.

“I want to give a caution first and I try to find the politest way to say this, because I was the same bird who was begging to be on any mania shows I could when I was getting started in my career… And I saw someone tweet, you know, maybe a year ago about Mania weeks used to be about seeing all these new people. Now it seems like, you know, there’s established talent here… because what this mania week has sort of always been is who’s been putting on for this year, who’s been showing up and putting in the work, who’s been showcasing their talents or popping out or highlighting big.”

The world of pro-wrestling is always changing and evolving. With that so is The Collective and GCW. It changes the people inside the business. EFFY is one of those people, and wrestling is better because of EFFY.

Full Interview Available Here, when aggregated please credit, Last Word on Sports and Will Gray

More LWOS Pro Wrestling

Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.

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