A Week of Death Valley Days: Isaiah Broner

 Broner is a spiritually WAR wrestler, simple wrestling done with more paprika on every shot, we love a wince inducing forearm or clothesline and Brone induces the most winces of anyone in the world.

Isiaiah Broner vs. Manders GCW 10/24/25

PAS: A lights out match with a pair of KO artists swinging for the fences. Both guys go right up to the edge multiple times in this match. Spamming forearm exchanges has becoming one of the most tired tropes in current wrestling, I appreciate that Broner throws his like Tyson left hooks. Manders is a DEAN~! veteran and someone we will surely use again, and he is the perfect opponent to stand in the pocket and trade with Broner. I didn't think we needed the door spot, especially because in GCW there are doors almost every match, but that is a minor quibble for an otherwise delicious pot roast kind of match.  

MD: I loved how they set the tone from this right from the start. Broner hit Manders. That's fine. People hit Manders all the time. He takes hits. He hits back. He's Manders, right? Not here. Manders dropped in the corner on that first shot. Those chops? They caused him to writhe, to backpedal. Pro wrestling is a world of established meaning and it's been established plenty that Manders is the toughest of the tough. Broner is a tank, sure. Everything he does looks like it hits like one, absolutely. But to see Manders so affected so early into the match? That says something. 

Agreed that the door was maybe a bit much, but if they were going to use weapons in a place where weapons are so commonplace, most of the rest of the weapons shots are the things that'll stay with you, even the stuff with the pumpkin which has to be a fairly high level of difficulty. Broner hurt his arm early on the post, but what won the day for Manders was sacrificing his own arm to punch and lariat through a chair. They set up the stakes, they established the norms, and yeah, it was as believable as could be that 1) it was going to take that much to put Broner down and 2) Manders was one of one of the only people in the entire world that could do it.