GCW: Midwest Weekend HOT TAKE
"Since its founding, Detroit has been a place of perpetual flames. Three times the city has suffered race riots and three times the city has burned to the ground. The city's flag acknowledges as much. Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes."
- Charlie LeDuff
If there is one promotion that has leveled up over the last several years, it is Game Changer Wrestling. For a promotion that many years ago had gone into suspended animation, over the last six years, it has spread across the United States and the globe with its unique hybrid style of flying, fighting, brawling, wrestling and intimate insanity that plays out like a twisted kaleidoscope before our very eyes.
Perhaps it's fitting that this weekend's GCW events, Evil Deeds and the Nick Gage Invitational, will emanate from the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan. Like GCW, Detroit is an insane amalgamation of art, technology and street smarts. After all, what other city could lay claim to the auto industry, Motown, Dwayne McDuffie and Robocop? Only a city that can host the best GCW wrestling one night and then the next, showcase the brutality and death match artistry of the NGI!
Detroit is a city that never lets its guard down. It's ready to get to work and it's ready to fight the rest of the world, whatever is called for. There's never been a more perfect destination for Game Changer Wrestling to hang its hat for a weekend.
When you go to Detroit you see a town that is resilient, that's just fighting to win again, and there's an energy to that. Just watching a city really fighting to get back on its feet and watching the inner strength of a city is tremendous." - George Clooney
GCW's latest march to greatness kicks off this Friday evening November 13th with Evil Deeds as GCW invades Detroit's Knights of Columbus featuring a most unique first-time ever encounter as Matt Cardona, who's very existence in GCW defies all logic takes to the squared circle against Alex Shelley, one of the Motor City's finest sons.
Cardona represents everything that GCW fans detest about modern day professional wrestling while Shelley radiates every nuance of the art and majesty of professional wrestling's most pure beauty. Shelley is known for painting masterpieces in the ring while Cardona has attempted to subject GCW's fans to their deepest nightmares. When the bell rings, the balance of GCW's twisted universe will once again hang in the balance.
This weekend's GCW events will also feature the Game Chamber debut of Leon Ruff, the underdog star who brilliantly captured the hearts of fans in both WWE and EVOLVE. Since departing WWE, Ruff hasn't had the chance to compete in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, providing an emotional moment and outlet as Ruff begins to pen the next chapter of his life and career.
Evil Deeds will see two of the finest international female competitors facing off for the first time. Charli Evans, who's flight from Australia to the United States to surprise boyfriend Everett Connors has inspired the lovelorn everywhere this month, will step into GCW combat for the first time, facing Japan's Rina Yamashita. Yamashita has battled across the spectrum of promotions, from Ice Ribbon to JWP to DDT Pro Wrestling with unbridled intensity that Evans will truly have to dig deep within to attempt to match.
Another attraction at Evil Deeds will see Matt Cardona's love Chelsea Green take to the ring against one of GCW's most loyal competitors, Allie Katch. Allie, one of GCW's most colorful characters, seeks to defend the promotion's covenant, seeking to strike back against all that Cardona has brought against the Game Changer Wrestling's fans and stars.
Another of Japan's baddest athletes, Masashi Takeda, who has fought through the blood drenched trenches of Big Japan in building his international career, will make his way to Game Chamber Wrestling this weekend, forging a dream tag team with one of the most ferocious death match competitors in the United States, Alex is Colon. The unfortunate opposition for these death merchants, Neil Diamond Cutter and Jeff King, have certainly earned their stripes in GCW in standard and extreme competition but this will be perhaps the most dangerous environment they or anyone else can ever find themselves in. Evil Deeds is aptly titled, indeed as that's what we'll be seeing when the bell rings to signify the start of insanity.
The newly contractually freed Jordan Oliver has been one of the true shining stars of independent wrestling over the last year and at Evil Deeds, he'll unite with third-generation star Nick Wayne to face Atticus Cogar and Eddy Only. Cooper has matured into one of the true MVPs of GCW in recent months while Eddy Only has submerged himself through the craziest of weapons and pain in Death Matches. This unique tag team bout can only be fostered by a promotion like GCW.
"Detroit... where 'mother' is half a word." - Glenn Frey
Then, Saturday afternoon November 13th, the sixth annual Nick Gage Invitational Tournament will commence with eight of the most dangerous, insane competitors from around the world converging on The Motor City to showcase how twisted and brutal they can be, all in the name of proving they will ascend to the levels of depraved excellence carved into history by former GCW World Champion Nick Gage.
Whether it be Masasi Takada returning to the dark roots of his Big Japan days or the modern day monstrosity of Alex Colon seeking to swing light tubes and shatter opponents, the NGI is a true monster mash assembly of some of the sickest, skewed combat sports fighters ever competing under one roof.
Take AKIRA, who has carved his name brawling through every arena, parking lot, club and street, capturing the imagination of those who have seen his patented violence. Or Rina Yamashita, diving into the chaos and barbed wire with zero hesitation because of everyone populating NGI SIX, Yamashita may be the most cruel and intense. The fairer sex is the apex predator - and no one is safe. Then there's Eric Ryan, who just made history competing in the first-ever Iron Man 60 Minute Death Match. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, indeed.
This will be an afternoon certainly not sponsored by Disney, but will instead be an event long remembered in Detroit and beyond by FITE viewers. It will be the event where eight competitors who have long walked their own path, independent and rebellious in their own ways, seek to battle through Dante's nine rings of hell in order to ascend to the bloody, broken throne of the Nick Gage Invitational, to prove to the world what they already know - that they are the sickest of the sick, and that's something that GCW celebrates, the wonderful sickness of professional wrestling.
Evil Deeds will be committed by the stars of GCW this weekend, shining brightly through the warped, upside down deviance, broadcast across the stars and cosmos and all points in between, exclusively right here on FITE!
Mike Johnson is the lead reporter for PWInsider.com and has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He can be found on Twitter @MikePWInsider and MikeJohnsonWrites.com.