Last time the cats from Game Changer Wrestling came to town, we were given the unruly and absurdly fun “The Untouchables.” They said they would be back and in a big way. Thus we were given the “Nick Gage Invitational 3: Thy Kingdom Come,” a death match tournament, and they made good on their word. Since I had such a blast the last time out, I knew I had to attend this show. Sometimes pre-game margaritas at Chipotle and bloody glass shards flying at your face are just what the doctor ordered. This is a sick, twisted doctor who should have his license revoked, but that is neither here nor there.
A few days prior to the event I scanned the GCW Facebook page and bought a VIP Front Row ticket from somebody who couldn’t attend, and I was happy that I did. I was thinking, “You know, I sat in the second row last time, and I just didn’t have enough bulb glass shards on me, let’s go bigger this time.” Lo and behold, by the evening’s end, I was pulling the glass out of my shoes and my hair, and covered in no fewer than two wrestlers’ blood. In all, a good night.
There were eight matches on the card: Five opening-round death matches and one death match final, a four-way match for Tony Deppen’s GCW Extreme Championship, and a singles contest between Kyle the Beast and local stand out Isaias Velazquez, who was given a surprisingly favorable amount of offense given these matches seem angled toward getting KTB over as a dominant monster.
The opening round death matches were each unique in their own way. The first match saw former child actor Jimmy Lloyd take the bump of the night as he was chucked Mankind-style off the top of a store front. This is an abandoned shopping mall, remember, the layout is a bit wacky. That was a good 10-15-foot plunge, and if I remember correctly, Lloyd cut his wrist when he fell through the pile of plunder on his way down. He bled badly, and everybody around me didn’t want to see that. The cool thing about death matches is the fans know exactly how much is too much, and despite their suggestive name, nobody actually wants to see a death in the match. Lloyd eventually won after he taped up his arm, but he’d have to be taken to the hospital by Nick Gage himself, thus eliminating him from the, uh, elimination match he was scheduled to be in later. Go hard, then go home.
Nick Gage, “The God of this Shit,” which continues to be my favorite wrestler nickname, then challenged Scotty Vortekz in another stupefying test of endurance and stupidity. This was a comparatively tame affair to both the opener and Gage’s previous death match in Chicago, but both men still brought the heat. At one point Scotty dumped a bag full of thumbtacks onto Gage’s chest, then hit him with double knees from the top. It was pretty gross watching The King’s blood seep from the fresh puncture wounds, but hey, that’s what I paid to see. Gage won this one and got himself into the finals, but not without a hell of an effort from Vortekz.
Japanese import Isami Kodaka defeated the criminally underrated G-Raver in the third death match of the evening, and this one was solid. Not my favorite, but very fun, and a tremendous showing from Kodaka, who drew the biggest reaction of the night up to that point. The GCW fans all knew who he was, and they didn’t shy away from showering him with love. This match had all the typical G-Raver fare, including him taking his own tattoo needles to the top of his noggin, but what I found fascinating was how Kodaka played to the audience. He spotted a fan taking pictures in the front row, so he brought Raver over to the fan, held him up and started carving his forehead with a broken light tube as if to say, “Did you get a good shot?” Kodaka won and became the next man entered into the main event.
The fourth match was perhaps better in concept than execution, as it was the one death match with a stipulation going in. It was a “109 Degrees Below Zero Death Match” between Dysfunction and Markus Crane, and it didn’t really connect for me. Half the ring was taken up by a gigantic wooden box that inside it contained blocks of dry ice, which the wrestlers involved in various spots that were hit or miss with the crowd. Overall, this match, which Crane would win, just came off a little overdone and awkward, though the moment where Crane threw a handful of the ice down Dysfunction’s shorts was a nice touch, only to be outdone by Crane ingesting some of the ice before he barfed it up all over the ring. Reckless.
The final first round match in the NGI was the one with the most story going into it, Alex Colon vs. Masashi Takeda. Colon, who had my favorite match at GCW’s “The Untouchables” back in May in the same building, had dreams about facing Takeda, but to get to the finals of the tournament, he would have to beat him. He knew he’d have to go above and beyond to do that, but he just didn’t have enough to topple the Crazy Boy, who got by far the biggest reaction of the night. The fans loved Takeda, and rightly so. He killed himself for this match, as was evidenced by his swanton from the top to the floor while Colon was covered by a pane of glass. Watch this match when you can, you won’t regret it.
Intermission followed, and the room briefly cleared as fans ran to their cars to grab their alcohol and smokables. What I love about GCW and these death match shows is how everybody is of the same culture and mind-set. It’s largely an inebriated, more sociable brotherhood earmarked by sex, drugs and today’s equivalent to rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s provided me some of the best memories I’ve ever had attending shows. Last week at “All In” I ran a social experiment by wearing a Roman Reigns T-shirt, just to see if anybody there was insecure enough to give me shit for doing so. And you know what? I got a lot of shit! I wore another Roman shirt to GCW over the weekend, and I had people complimenting me on it, even telling me I was “cool” for expressing myself so proudly. (Author’s note: I am not “cool.”)
Not to delve into too much of a tangent, but this is a different world when it comes to the type of people who attend GCW. Such a friendly, nonjudgmental bunch that enjoys its wrestling and welcomes new fans rather than pushes them away, which I appreciate as someone who’s been to only a few of these things. Gatekeeping can be a major issue in the context of wrestling fandom, but I have never once experienced that attending a GCW show. That alone will keep me coming back. A show, company and fanbase that allows me to feel and act my age, and act myself, will always have my support.
After intermission concluded, they brought the crowd back in with a singles match between KTB and Freelance Wrestling star Isaias Velazquez. I thought this would be a squash but it was an overall competitive match that saw Isaias get a good reaction from his local fans, and get some nice offense in. His knee strikes looked particularly sharp. It was no match for “The Beast,” though, as he put his opponent away after an impressive powerhouse showing that included a back-flipping powerslam-type maneuver from the second rope. If you’ve seen Bandito hit that move, or maybe Josh Alexander, just know KTB is bigger than both those dudes and he did it from the second f%^&ing rope.
A bonkers four-way for Tony Deppen’s Extreme Championship followed, and his challengers were PCO, “Spyder” Nate Webb and Gringo Loco, the latter-most of whom trains wrestlers in the same building the show was in. Talk about “home field advantage,” right? Gringo and I got into it on Twitter before the show, playfully, of course, because I said I was putting my money on PCO to take home the title. In the match he went far beyond his usual approach and did some of the wildest stuff I’ve seen from him. At one point he nearly murdered PCO with a top rope Falcon Arrow, then he brought out a stun gun to shock him, and man, it was silly in the best way possible. This was some Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg-level shit right here. PCO won, as he should have, but everyone else looked like they were having the time of their lives out there.
The finals of the Nick Gage Invitational Tournament would cap the evening, and as I mentioned, Jimmy Lloyd was out due to nearly having his hand cut clean off his body. His injury was brutal, but so was this main event, and it was outstanding from bell to bell. Now that I think about it, I don’t think GCW uses a ring bell, actually. Huh. Gage, Kodaka, Crane and Takeda were the four competitors. This was an elimination-style match and it was hot from the jump, with all four guys just beating the shit out of themselves, slamming tubes into their own heads, taking back bumps onto more tubes, firing themselves up while whipping the crowd into a frenzy. And, ya know what? It worked.
Crane was eliminated by both Japanese wrestlers who came together to take him out, and Gage worked overtime to then eliminate Kodaka, who stuck around ringside but didn’t otherwise get involved. That left Gage and Takeda as the final two, and honestly, it felt like it could have gone either way. Gage had never won his own tournament before, so he was due, and he was wearing that really sick white Michael Jordan Bulls jersey he died in about a decade ago, but it just wasn’t meant to be as Takeda took it home to uproarious applause. Fun story about that Bulls jersey: Gage sold it to a fan for $20 after the show, and it was the most badass thing I had seen in some time. Why didn’t I think of that as I was grabbing my mark pic with Gage? Probably was more concerned with the blood on my hands, now that I think of it.
“Nick Gage Invitational 3: Thy Kingdom Come” was another solid effort from GCW and its death match syndicate, and once the main event concluded, fans were told the company would be back again someday. I can’t help but feel spoiled, as Chicago has become such a hot bed for all sorts of wrestling over the last few years, the 31 flavors of the genre. Whether it’s top names on the indies, women’s wrestling, nostalgia-heavy wrestling, or death matches featuring men or women, Chicago truly has it all, and GCW has made a concerted effort to be a part of it.
I have heard rumors that the Galli Arena in Villa Park will be torn down at the end of the month, so that may be the final time GCW runs that building. In the event that is true, they went out in style. Now, let’s see what the have in store for us next.
