GCW Accused of Committing Fake COVID-19 Testing for Talent Booked at GCW Events

Game Changer Wrestling is currently facing accusations of the company engaging in fake COVID-19 testing for talent booked at their events.

These allegations were made by indies wrestler Dirty Ron McDonald on social media, who accused the company of using him to falsify COVID-19 test results for talents booked on GCW shows. As part of his claims, McDonald shared alleged text conversations he had with GCW owner Brett Lauderdale and falsified COVID-19 test results documents.

Dirty Ron McDonald saying Brett Lauderdale hired him to make fake covid tests kicks so much ass pic.twitter.com/Bl0FyIbCUN

— doxxy (@DoxxxyStocksy) May 25, 2022

Following McDonald’s postings, Lauderdale issued an official statement to Fightful stating that he was advised by his lawyer to not comment on the accusations.

Comment from GCW owner Brett Lauderdale on the fake COVID test accusations: “I’ve referred this matter to my lawyer and as much as I’d like to comment, I’ve been advised not to.”

— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) May 25, 2022

Indies and GCW talent Tony Deppen responded to McDonald’s claims on Twitter stating that GCW’s COVID-19 testing was legitimate and not faked. Deppen stated that talent would hold group meetings prior to GCW shows to be informed of GCW’s policy and deadline for COVID-19 testing and he was pulled from two shows due to his test results not coming back in time.

Before every show we had a group chat where we’d talk about her recautions and the deadlines for our covid tests. I also had to sit out two shows cause my tests didn’t come back in time – and that was at the request of Brett.

— Tony Deppen (@Tony_Deppen) May 25, 2022

Deppen also denied claims by McDonald that GCW talent had to pay for their own travel and hotel stays and received very low pay for their bookings in the company.

Pay for our own hotels, $50 bucks, huh?

I’ve never once paid for my hotel, even the first time Gcw went to la years ago.

And even when we were drawing 50 people I was never paid that little. https://t.co/OAMHcinSdT

— Tony Deppen (@Tony_Deppen) May 25, 2022

SoCal Wrestling reported that several indie wrestlers spoken to stated similar things as Deppen in regards to GCW’s COVID-19 testing policy.

GCW and former AEW talent Joey Janela stated on Twitter that Deppen’s comments about COVID-19 related group chats being held prior to GCW events and talent being pulled from shows if they were not vaccinated or passed their tests was true.