Matches from GCW If I Die First 2/5/22

Ninja Mack/Dante Leon vs. Jordan Oliver/Nick Wayne  

ER: I loved this. This tapped into a great 10 minute high spot opener tag that all my favorite American indies have produced. Ever since Jersey All Pro gifted us with this kind of wrestling, there's been some bad copycats and some inspired acolytes. This match was the latter. You watch these guys work bigger and more complicated stunt spots that build to multiple physics defying spots, and you begin to notice...Jordan Oliver has a peach fuzz beard...Nick Wayne has a puka shell necklace...Dante Leon looks like he deals E...there's an actual ninja...this basically IS 2001 Jersey All Pro. All four are guys with cool stuff to show off and a good idea about where to put it. Dante Leon looks like a weenie but throws the hardest elbows of the match, also whips himself into the mat on back bumps and arm wringers. Oliver has precise timing and knows how to build to and payoff big bumps: Early on he sees Ninja heading for the turnbuckles and heads him off at the pass, sending him flipping fast in a crash to the floor; later Ninja Mack stops him on his own trip to the top, and Oliver crashes to the floor 3/4 of the length of the ring away. Ninja Mack is pure uncut joy to watch, the most 2001 JAPW guy we've been gifted with, showing it's still possible to be an innovative flyer. Everybody here gets great showcase dives and they all rule, but Ninja breaks out a double handspring top con giro that was so fast I thought the video started glitching. He has strike combos that go directions you don't expect, and he takes bumps that land in ways you haven't seen. The finisher train looked great, everyone found increasingly stupid ways to get themselves cuttered, and Ninja Mack's finisher just shows that he's an Evolved Sasuke. Great mood-setter right here.  

PAS: Very fun stuff, just four kids with ideas, some of which are great, some of which maybe not so much. I have been watching a lot of GCW for my Ringer column, and they do this kind of spotfest a lot, and it is almost always worth watching. Ninja Mack is Blitzkrieg level crazy, as wildly athletic as anyone in wrestling ever. He is perfect in these kind of throw at that wall see what sticks matches, and has so many fun possible opponents. Can you imagine if Claudio works some GCW dates? A Low-Ki rematch? Chris Hero returning from podcasting to beat his ass? Wayne is a high school kid, and has already signed a AEW contract. I imagine he has quite a future, and already fits well in this kind of thing.

John Wayne Murdoch vs. ASF

ER: This is a great wrestling match story. ASF is the new guy local who wasn't booked on the show, who steps up above his weight when a storm prevented the travel of several real Murdoch opponent. That's a match set-up I really like and this delivered. Maybe ASF got to show off too much cool stuff, but for a new guy he does have a lot of cool stuff. He has a real knack for smacking his head into things painfully, flying headfirst into a propped up chair, later going forehead first on a Flatliner. When it's his time for crazy highspots, he hits a Homicide-like tope con giro through the ropes that sends he and Murdoch through several rows of chairs, and follows up with a big flip dive. There's some punishing in-ring stuff, like Murdoch putting ASF kidney first through a folding chair, or a swinging ASF DDT that looked like something that could have pinned JWM. Great plucky energy from ASF, and JWM played off it well. 

Gringo Loco vs. Psycho Clown 

ER: Gringo Loco has been a real asset as the traffic director and big base of the GCW lucha matches, and here he gets the chance to throw down and have a wild through-the-indoor-sports-complex lucha brawl with one of the biggest luchadors in the world. He gets that chance, and flies into it head first. This had blood, big dives, big falls, big weapon shots, and several dangerous bumps. Loco gets thrown through ringside chairs a bunch, and shows off how well he can catch a dive when Psycho hits a beautiful diagonal dive past the ringpost, Loco absorbing all of it and sending him flying back into more chairs. Loco rips Psycho's mask and gets the blood flowing, Psycho bashes Loco with a chair and gets his blood flowing, and pretty soon they're brawling to bigger and bigger spots. A couple of doors get involved, and I like how doors continue to get used as weapons after they've been exploded. Some wrestlers would attack opponents with pieces of broken table, but it seems far more common when a door gets broken, and I like that. They were good about punching each other to build to big moments, taking a tour through the sports center and showing off what a fun playground it is for this type of match. But even then I wouldn't have predicted a dive off the goal posts. They did a good job of punishing stunt set up. If either man took too long to set up a stunt spot it almost always backfired on them, and after Psycho sets up a door on some chairs, he catches that fire. Hats off to GCW's camera crew who captured Loco's journey as he balance beam walked out on support beam attaching the goal posts to the wall and then flew off the posts with a swanton. Psycho gets hits own plancha off the top of the staircase, and I love how amped Clown always gets after one of his big dives or falls. The fight back in the ring was strong (my favorite was Loko nailing a full extension superkick, only for Psycho to shake it off and run at him with a bull rush headbutt that staggered Loco back into the ropes), and the Spanish Fly finish looked deadly. 

PAS: Phil wrote about this match over at The Ringer. 

Grim Reefer vs. Deranged vs. Alex Zayne vs. Atticus Cogar vs. Dark Sheik

ER: This was kind of messy with several bad landings and one that looked especially dangerous, but it also had a Grim Reefer performance that kept getting bigger and better, some wild dives, and a couple nice surprises. I was mainly excited for this because Deranged doesn't make tape that often and I try to go out of my way to support Special K alumni. Deranged still gets as much quick rotation on his spin kicks, will fly dangerously onto a dog pile powerbomb, will almost smash his face on the apron on a high moonsault to the floor, and will take a couple of gruesome bumps for great yarder offense. Grim was the star here, making a comedy smoking spot work tremendously by throwing perfect worked punches while taking huge drags from a joint. He had a couple of long arm strikes (including punching Deranged in the throat) and other nice strikes while everyone ran at him, Reefer hitting every beat of his timing without missing a puff. He even puts the joint out on Cogar's forehead! Reefer's bumping is also a cut above, getting absolutely spiked on a cutter and taking a Zayne knee strike flush to the head. Zayne can have a few too many steps to his work, but has a lot of ideas and some innovative stuff. I loved his nutso Diamond Dust tope and his big ripcord driver to Deranged. There was a dangerously messy tower spot where Deranged flipped over the top of everyone stacked on the turnbuckles, and Cogar almost died in three different ways. I think everyone got their vertebrae crunched at one point or another, with the worst being Sheik getting stung taking a Deranged cutter off Cogar's shoulders. Sheik barely moved the rest of the match and everyone worked around her, one of those sick things that can happen in a scramble. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWC Legacy Lucha Road Report 10/24/21

Made a trip to my first post-COVID wrestling show with my five year old Zach to watch some lucha. This is the most indy-brained of all of the Denver Lucha promotions. They announced Fred Yehi, Heddi Karaoui and Jake Crist who were all no-shows, but this was still fun shit.

Fuji Man vs. Johnny Crash

PAS: This was a dark match I guess (not sure if this was a recorded show, but they ran a dark match). Johnny Crash looks like a fatter Boom Boom Mancini. This was basically a short comedy squash, with Crash doing some spots around his giant belly. It amused Zach, and was a fine 4 minutes.

Red Viper vs. Big Poppa Lypto

PAS: These are two local luchadores and this was probably the best match on the show. Stiff uppercuts by Viper and punches by Lypto (who came in with a low rider bike which was dope). Nothing super fancy, but we got a couple of nice dives and some big bumps to the floor. Clearly a pair of guys who trained together, but they had everything really solidly together and worked their stuff smoothly. Very entertaining local lucha.

Hijo Del Fishman/Delta Jr. vs. Bruce Wayans/Provider

PAS: This was originally a spot for the uncanceled Crist, but instead they used a local heel tag team. Wayans had a nice spinebuster, Provider the less said the better. Fishman had a dive and threw some hard chops, but this wasn't the Fishman who hellaciously brawls his way through the lucha indies. Zach was into the Tower of Doom spot (his first Tower of Doom), and the finish was cool with Fishman hitting a big splash after Delta hit a top rope rana. It had it's moments, and some moments which weren't much.

Ninja Mack vs. Rey Leon

PAS: Ninja Mack is a guy who does a couple of things incredibly. He may be the most agile wrestler in the world and if you put him in the position to showcase that agility you will get something pretty great. Mack was working as a stooging rudo here, throwing weak chops, yelling at the crowd, getting frustrated at lucha chants. It isn't what he does and he just kind of stopped it at one point to hit a crazy flip. We still got the highspots (including a no water in the pool 680 moonsault) but as a whole it didn't connect. Still Ninja Mack is a guy totally worth seeing live, like a crazier Blitzkrieg.

Hijo de LA Park/LA Park Jr. vs. Anthony Henry/Alex Zayne

PAS: Really interesting to see Alex Zayne, another wild high flyer, also miscast as a stooging rudo, but Zayne was great at it. If Alex Zayne is the reason you bought a ticket you don't want to see him work as Dougie Gilbert, but he is a surprisingly great Dougie Gilbert. He totally bought into work Parka spots with the junior PARKS, and was a nasty cut off rudo when it was required. He did hit one awesome looking pop up rana, but the rest was all serving as a foil. Henry seemed more eager to get his shit in, and the worst parts of this match were Anthony Henry doing his stuff. I mean Christ I still have to watch a tough guy NJ elbow exchange in a goddamn LA Park Jr. local indy match?, I can never escape that shit? LA Park Jr. has a great fat tope like his dad, and he hits it twice. Zach was scared of the skeletons so he watched my phone. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki vs. Ninja Mack

30. Low-Ki vs. Ninja Mack Loko Wrestling 9/18

PAS: Ki as a base for a wildly athletic guy is an aspect of his game we haven't seen a ton of, but he is really good at. Mack is a guy with big big spots, who hasn't always had a ton of connective tissue, and Ki is a guy who is great at providing that tissue. This was a killer 9 minute match, where Mack got to showcase his stuff inbetween Ki kicking in his lungs. Mack has maybe the smoothest kip ups I can remember seeing, he just moves from his back to his feet like he teleported, and a lot of the early match is him evading Ki's attacks by flipping in and out of things. I don't know Mack's background, but he wrestles like a college gymnast, with tons of crazy spins and a signature multiple backflip Space Flying Tiger Drop which Ki viciously cuts off with a kick to the back. I really bought Mack's near fall, he hits an uppercut so hard that it sent Ki's prop holster flying into the crowd, but then ate knees on a 630 senton. One Woo kick and Warriors Way later it was over. Totally delivered the big moments and showed that Ki can still keep up with the kids. 

ER: It's a pretty bold move to work a ninja gimmick opposite Low Ki, the man who moves more like a ninja than any wrestler ever. It made me skeptical before even watching the match, which just made me more vulnerable to being blown away by Ninja Mack. Mack is smaller than Ki, and it's cool seeing Ki work a match where he's the guy being evaded by a quick small guy. Mack doesn't move like a pro wrestler, he moves like a ninja, or a circus performer, and there's a no-contact exchange that made me do the 10 second rewind over and over again just to watch their movement. Ki was running the ropes fast and Mack was doing leapfrogs over him, and on the last one Mack just leapt backwards into the air and his trajectory looked like he was going to backflip directly onto the top of his head. Instead he landed pillow soft on his upper shoulders and just glided up to his feet. It didn't look like the movements a man could have made without the assistance of wires. It's awesome to see someone outquicking Ki and Ki having to find his way back into the match, and I don't know if there are many more spectacular ways to transition to offense then to kick a man in the stomach after a multiple back-handspring Space Flying Tiger Drop. Moonsaulting to nothing is bad, but hitting nothing while also getting a boot to the gut on the way to nothing is just cruel. Mack's 630 senton also looked spectacular, and I love how Ki got a hard knee up into Mack's back and then sold that knee accordingly. The Warriors Way that finishes everything is sick, with Ki just sticking straight into Mack's sternum like a lawn dart. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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