Labor of Love: By Design
Icebox Project Space
1400 N American St.
Philadephia
Aug. 29, 2026
Sometimes we can’t do it all alone. Sometimes to achieve your goals, it's best to align yourself with someone who holds similar aspirations. That’s part of what I love about tag team wrestling – seeing two people come together as a cohesive unit to chase success together. There was plenty of that and more at Labor of Love’s latest event By Design, which hosted the first round matches of The Commonwealth Cup, a tournament to crown the company’s inaugural Philly tag team champions.
Returning to The Icebox Project Space that hosted The Exhibition earlier this year, Labor of Love delivered yet another jam-packed night of drama, violence, and entertainment featuring local favorites and international talents. With a competitive field filled with teams of varying dynamics — from lovers to friends to to seasoned veterans — the bulk of By Design felt like a celebration of tag team wrestling.
The first tournament match of the evening set the tone that anything could happen when the lesser known team of Bang & Matthews pulled off a surprise victory against Killer GOAT, the team comprised of real life couple Killer Kelly and Myron Reed, who both have years of television appearances on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (Reed is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling).
The next tournament match featured two Labor of Love recurring teams, The Outfielders & Wilde LLC. Although originally billed as a tag team match, before the bell Dr. Ethan Wilde informed us all that he had been given permission to make this into a three-on-two handicap match with the addition of Wilde GPT to his team. Shea McCoy & Weber Hatfield of The Outfielders watched in bewilderment as Dr. Wilde shouted orders for his human partner, Dylan Mesh, to relay to their AI companion. As expected, the strategy was destined for failure as Wilde GPT loudly announced its (often useless) instructions over the PA system for The Outfielders to hear as well. Inevitably, Dr. Wilde grew frustrated with the chatbot, which led to Wilde GPT downloading itself into a physical form, turning on its masters before being beaten by The Outfielders. I told you, anything could happen. From the comedic timing of both teams to the crowd's thunderous “Fuck AI” chants, this was probably my favorite match of the night. Sure the commentary was a little heavy-handed, but necessary as our lives become increasingly poisoned by generative AI. I know some wrestlers who use subtext and they’re all cowards.
One of the few non-tournament matches of the event was next with Citywide Street Gang’s Se Morrigan facing Charles Mason in an anything goes singles match which featured duct tape, thumbtacks, tables, and attempted strangulation via plastic bag. After pushing each other to their respective limits, the match ended with Morrigan crashing through Mason and the aforementioned table to claim his victory.
After a brief intermission featuring a performance by local post-punk band Subtle Body, the tournament matches resumed with BestBros returning to Labor of Love to face the team of unlikely allies RULLO & JULEZEE, aka Dolphin Funeral. The black cat/golden retriever dynamic of Dolphin Funeral meshed perfectly with BestBros' dynamic of, well, being best bros. Although Dolphin Funeral were the ones to move on to the next round, the crowd was firmly behind both teams.
The Mecca Brian James, with a little help from his associates Goldie, Vinny Talotta, and Wink Vavasseur, proved that having someone on your team can be helpful even in singles matches as he defeated Big Callux in the second non-tournament match of the night. Big Callux wasn’t without allies as The Outfielder’s came to their defense from a post-match beatdown wielding weapons, possibly foreshadowing a future confrontation with both teams.
The final first round match of the Commonwealth Cup featured Tom LaRosa and Martin Hughes of Citywide Street Gang facing their biggest challenge yet against the team of The Butcher And The Blade, who competed in dozens of tag team matches during their time in AEW. The gang was able to perform the second upset of the night over a more seasoned team and took to the mic to thank the Labor of Love crowd that has supported them, seen their growth as a team throughout the years, and promised to win the entire tournament to become the inaugural Philly Philly tag team champions.
While much of the focus of the evening was on tag team wrestling and laying the groundwork for the crowning of tag champions in the future, the night’s final match was all about the present Citywide Champion solidifying his place in the company against former champion and beloved Labor of Love mainstay, Cheeseburger. It was a violent, bloody encounter that proved Matt Mako is a team of one that can get it done all by himself.
With the first round of the Commonwealth Cup complete, I'm excited to see how things will play out amongst the four remaining teams on their journey to become the first Philly Philly Tag Team Champions.
