Game Changer Wrestling returns with their FITE+ debut, as they takeover Chicago for the 7th Nick Gage Invitational Tournament.
The seventh Nick Gage Invitational is finally here, opening up a new era for Game Changer Wrestling, being not only the largest attendance for an NGI, but the first event on FITE+ for GCW.
The man himself Nick Gage did his intro for the show, warming the crowd up and claiming that GCW is the best deathmatch company in the world.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Opening Round Three Way Match: Alex Colon vs. Sawyer Wreck vs. Hunter Freeman
The three-way first round match opens the show, being there is 9 entrants into this year’s tournament, a three way must happen. The contest is between the “Feminist Killjoy” Sawyer Wreck, the deathmatch icon and last year’s winner Alex Colon, and the newcomer Hunter Freeman, who recently defeated Jimmy Lloyd in Los Angeles to prove his worth in the GCW game.
The three-way contest is interesting, filled with competitors that have gained a lot of attention over the last few months, obviously apart from possibly the best American deathmatch wrestler Alex Colon. Hunter Freeman’s freestyle brawling is a key for him, while Wreck’s sheer size and intensity of the comeback would be her’s, meanwhile Colon’s experience strikes the advantage.
There’s nothing too out of the ordinary, Freeman seems to take the brunt of the match, with some nasty tumbles to the outside. Sawyer Wreck lands a brutal chokebomb on Hunter Freeman midway through, onto a board of cut-up aluminum cans that looked nasty.
With Colon bound to go deep, Wreck and Freeman had their time to get over, with Wreck doing so incredibly, especially with the spot of her duel Gory Special/Boston Crab on the two at the same time, which blew minds. The final comes from Colon’s classic Spanish Fly off the top rope onto a bundle of tubes, to get the three count on Freeman.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Opening Round Match: Ciclope vs. Toshiyuki Sakuda
Half of the GCW World Tag Team champions Los Mezicos, Ciclope, makes his arrival next as he takes on Japanese deathmatcher Toshiyuki Sakuda, who comes out masked as usual. Their international styleclash comes ahead in the deathmatch landscape, the two are long-standing members of the scene, and willing to take whatever steps to move ahead. Sakuda has been at GCW before, although mostly on their Japanese shows, but was an entrant in Tournament of Survival 4, in which he lost the first round to Alex Colon, the eventual winner.
Their battle is as violent as you’d imagine, from the sky game to the ground game, utilizing their plunder. Although, the common theme of the match is the usage of skewers, which became more uncomfortable as we went along, in a good way of course. During a section, Ciclope forced skewers through the cheek of Sakuda, which remained for several moves after until he pulled them out viciously. Sakuda later sticks a metal skewer through Ciclope’s cheek, which remains until the end.
Sakuda looks really good here, but Ciclope is something else. The finish comes from a moment of underestimation, as Sakuda armed with a bundle of tubes on his back, lands a soft senton bomb onto Ciclope, but it seems to wake him up further, as he recovers quickly and chokes Sakuda out on the ground for the win. After the match is done, the two show respect, as Ciclope removes the metal skewer from his face.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Opening Round Match: Miedo Extremo vs. Cole Radrick
The other half of Los Macizos comes out next, with the task of facing this year’s darling, Cole Radrick. For good reason, Cole Radrick is the fan favourite for this whole tourney, but has a long way to go.
Radrick takes a proud beating in this one, but his scrappy underdog traits brings him back into the fight time and time again, even after Extremo launches him over the top with a Razor’s Edge through a barbed wire board on the outside, he’s able to come back.
It feels like Radrick is always in the underdog role, as the finish seems to present this too, as Radrick completes his comeback after suffering some harsh strikes from the GCW Tag Champion to land Lil’ Sebastian’s Curse for the three count. He’s scrappy, lovable, and should be the next GCW Champion. Although, that’s an argument for another time.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Opening Round Match: John Wayne Murdoch vs. Big F’n Joe
The final of the first round is next, as the British deathmatch fighter Big F’N Joe finally hits an American GCW ring, after years of working with rivals ICW No Holds Barred. He’s up against “The Duke” John Wayne Murdoch, a match-up that was made in Liverpool back in September.
Big F’N Joe looks great here, as he normally does, with sheer violent intent, the way he smashes light tubes is like nobody else. Murdoch however has become one of GCW’s icons over the last year, since his feud and subsequent teaming with Alex Colon, and wouldn’t give Joe an inch.
There’s a fun spot in the middle, as Joe brings in a cardboard cut-out of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, which is covered with single tubes, and hits a Rock Bottom on Murdoch, to a crowd cheer. Joe also brought in a tree branch with him, a strange weapon to bring, it’s used on him later on, which must hurt.
Murdoch’s sadistic side comes out to play, as he decides to remove Joe’s shoes and socks, a strange occurrence, but it all comes into play in the end, as Murdoch lifts and forces Joe to land feet first into the glass tubes, which must have hurt like nothing else, before landing a brainbuster through a Tokyo Tower lighttube structure for the win.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Semi Finals Match: Alex Colon vs. Ciclope
The semi-finals begin with Colon taking on Ciclope, a match-up that just comes out with pure fire. Ciclope and Colon are two of the best in their game, and show that in their match, showing skill in the way that they smash their tubes, and pull off their moves.
The two mostly wrestle around lighttubes, which is believable knowing how good they can be with the tool. The second round as a whole doesn’t seem to be too long, but it’s just enough, Colon eventually nabs the win after landing a DDT off the turnbuckle through a glass of pane, with Ciclope’s face going through first, for the win.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Semi Finals Match: John Wayne Murdoch vs. Cole Radrick
John Wayne Murdoch takes on Cole Radrick next, a match that the GCW faithful wouldn’t mind any outcome. Murdoch takes a gash on his arm early on, which seems to become a nagging thing throughout. Luckily, it seems to be an isolated incident, he continues.
Radrick runs the same way, taking the beating and answering what Murdoch has to offer. Raddy brought a NERF gun to the ring with him, a weapon that would later be used on him. The nerf gun, funnily enough, featured darts on the inside, which Murdoch fired into the skin of Radrick.
John Wayne Murdoch is able to give Radrick enough of a beating to take him all the way out and ends up with the win. It’s a quick match, likely the shortest in the tournament, but nothing bad.
Afterwards, Alex Colon rushes out to confront Murdoch, a moment that needs Nick Gage to break-up. That’s right, Nick Gage, the voice of reason here.
Scramble Match: Jimmy Lloyd vs. Jordan Oliver vs. Nick Wayne vs. Alec Price vs. Blake Christian
There’s a scramble between the finals, which is a fun in-between. The five in the match are featured the next night in Wisconsin, and show off something that we haven’t had all night, just ultrafast action.
Nick Wayne and Jordan Oliver are the standouts in the match, especially during the sections in-which they pull out their tag team moves on others. Blake Christian, a favorite in GCW (in any venue that isn’t The Showboat) as standard shows his fluid and flawless style. There’s a great bit where he lands a tombstone on Nick Wayne on the outside, which just shows his unique fashion.
Jordan Oliver is able to come up with the victory in the end, which seems perfectly fine.
Nick Gage Invitational 7 Finals: Alex Colon vs. John Wayne Murdoch
The finals, with two sides of the ring ropes covered in tubes, the other in barbed wire, it’s a big fight feel. The battle of the Mega Bastards doesn’t disappoint, with the two best American deathmatch wrestlers do battle one more time.
Colon takes the lead early, breaking the tubes on the sides, and sending Murdoch tumbling to the outside. Murdoch definitely looked more damaged coming into this, with that gash from earlier. Although Murdoch consistently comes back with the fight, with some strong offense.
Colon brings a light tube fan to the ring, but it’s used on him with by Murdoch with good intent. Their match isn’t as good as their famous war when Murdoch first came to GCW, but it’s fun regardless.
The finish comes as Colon attempts a Spanish Fly off the top, through the Glass Panes across chairs under them, although The Duke stops him, and lands a wild Southern Style Destroyer through the plunder, and locks up Colon in a submission move, to which surprisingly, Colon is forced to tap.
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John Wayne Murdoch wins the Nick Gage Invitational, which the crowd are ecstatic about.
Results
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 First Round Three Way Match: Alex Colon def. Hunter Freeman and Sawyer Wreck
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 First Round Match: Ciclope def. Toshiyuki Sakuda
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 First Round Match: Cole Radrick def. Miedo Extremo
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 First Round Match: John Wayne Murdoch def. Big F’n Joe
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 Semi Finals Match: Alex Colon def. Ciclope
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 Semi Finals Match: John Wayne Murdoch def. Cole Radrick
- Scramble Match: Jordan Oliver def. Jimmy Lloyd, Blake Christian, Nick Wayne and Alec Price
- Nick Gage Invitational 7 Finals: John Wayne Murdoch def. Alex Colon to win NGI7
The show was alright, felt a little lackluster considering how large the show was in stature. The matches weren’t imaginative, for deathmatch tournament standards, each one felt like another light tube smash-up, especially with how fantastic the competition was.
The time it took between matches was also quite frustrating, but understandable. Hopefully, the Tournament of Survival will rectify this with some strong match-ups, but that’s a long way away.