Hey y'all! Little bit of a different comp today, because this one's a collaboration with my friend, Tetra. Check out @tetrabot9000 on X and @tetrab0mb on Instagram if you like good photography and sometimes the occasional writing thing. Here's the comp:
As this is a collaborative effort, this blog post is also gonna be a bit different. Tetra wrote a bit about the stuff they wanted to be included in this comp, so I'll specify who's from what in this.
Wouldn't suggest reading further until after you have finished watching. I can't stop you from doing that either way, but I do suggest you experience this compilation without knowing the contents within it.
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Nick Gage promo hyping up NGI2
"SHLAK. One minute, this guy's hanging from meat hooks, drinking a beer. Two hours later, I walk by his van... and he's smoking, CRACK. Now I know why this guy don't feel no fuckin' pain!"
"Markus Crane, this guy, he lands on pigeon spikes: punctures a lung! What the fuck is wrong with this guy?"
Matt Tremont vs SHLAK [GCW World Title/Nick Gage Invitational 2 First Round] - GCW Nick Gage Invitational 2 (9/16/17)
Tetra: The second Nick Gage Invitational is one of my favorite tournaments. It is truly near and dear to my heart. I'll expand more upon this when we get to my last match, but Matt Tremont, the veteran, enters this tournament against a rookie in SHLAK who is willing to take as much punishment as dearly possible.
Matt Tremont is dedicated to putting down SHLAK, a man who, in the lead up to this tournament, had described him as a crack smoker. Off the jump, Tremont greets him with a light tube bundle and bursts it in one of the most aggressive ways anyone has burst a bundle in a death match, much to the commentary's chagrin.
SHLAK takes some gnarly stuff, getting whipped with barbed wire, vicious headbutts from Tremont, but SHLAK delivers his own as well! He sends Tremont through the barbed wire ropes, and even suffocates Tremont with a plastic bag before going back to light tube offense. I can't think of a better way to start off my portion of this. This just rules.
Rastaman vs Carl Malenko - BATTLARTS (11/26/00) - FUN
Mike: I'm telling you, I really like this Rastaman guy from everything I've seen. This is clipped, but it's still more than enough shown to get a good feeling about the match. Carl Malenko is also the best Malenko and just a crazy good wrestler that I wish got a chance to do more beyond BattlArts. This match is a bit unlike a lot of the famed Bati-Bati stuff you'll see people recommending.
Nick Gage vs John Wayne Murdoch [King Of The Death Matches 2015 Finals] - IWA-MS (6/27/15)
This is a minute-long clip from the match.
Tetra: This whole match is great, but for the most part, in order for brevity, you just need to see Gage and Murdoch fighting it out in the crowd in a bar-fight. This IWA Mid-South crowd is hungry for violence, and they're eating up everything these two are doing. Especially since Gage had just been put on parole at that point. This is one of my favorite old generation vs. next generation matches, and, both men refuse to pull any punches.
Yuki Ishikawa vs Ryuji Hijikata - AJPW (7/22/04)
Tetra: I've spoken about this match at length with my friends, but there is one key proponent of this match. You don't necessarily need to win a match to end up the ultimate winner, sometimes, you just need to survive. Hijikata is aspirational in the way that he walks away tough as nails, and demands more, whilst Ishikawa smiles at his petty little beating. Sometimes, this is what I want to see.
Masahito Kakihara vs Tatsuo Nakano - UWFI (9/21/92) - REALLY GOOD
Mike: There's tons a blood in the matches Tetra picked, and lots of guys getting beaten the hell out of, so I wanted to keep things in theme with this classic. Nakano and Kakihara, well, they beat the hell out of each other for less than five minutes. Nakano puts up the fight of his life to outmatch the quicker Kakihara.
? vs. ? (Raff-Sanz Promotions ?/?/97)
Mike: This is a quick clip from a Dominican wrestling show in the 90s. There's music playing, commentary sounds like they're speed-talking, and the wrestlers just do a lot in the span they have. I think it's neat.
Masked Holiday vs Great ZAKO (Unemployment Pro Wrestling 11/21/18)
Tetra: This is one of my favorite matches, mainly due to how avant-garde it is. For the most part, wrestling has always been a very interesting performance art to me, and this encapsulates it. Professional wrestling can happen anywhere, even in the weirdest little spaces. Whether in a parking lot, or in a tiny little apartment where walls become weapons. Both Keita and Zako showcase their knowledge of their surroundings by taking everything to their advantage, even as the match transforms between an astounding technical showcase with the little space they have, to a messier brawl. Too small to be a bar fight, too large to be just an exhibition, but just big enough to prove that anything can be done if you are aware of your space.
Matt Tremont vs Nick Gage [GCW World Title Nick Gage Invitational 2 Final] (GCW Nick Gage Invitational 2 9/16/17)
Tetra: This is one of my favorite death matches to ever occur on American soil. This is a cinder block canvas death match, for Tremont's GCW World Championship. Tremont had defended this whole tournament, and the finals were obviously going to be Gage vs. Tremont, but at the same time, this match for the most part was a dream. Gage had just been released from his parole violation, had fully served his time for the bank robbery, and had fully come out a different man. He was always hardcore, but he came out this shredded monster who was dedicated to put any challenger who stepped in his way in the ground. Nick Gage had a mission statement, and it was to conquer the world of American death match wrestling once more.
Matt Tremont had announced beforehand that this would be his last death match tournament, and would start to wind down as well, (lol) and everything crescendoes into this spectacle of this being Tremont's last shot at winning a death match tournament, and Gage proving himself once more to the hardcore fans who had embraced him just like before, if not even more. In a way, this feels like the biggest death match that could occur on American soil. Especially once they bring out an incredibly nasty stipulation that, to my knowledge, hadn't been brought out on American soil. At least, not to this extent.
Every match, every competitor, featured something that proved how bad they wanted to win this tournament. Markus Crane had torn some of his flesh off trying to get to the second round, getting cut in a distressing way from a Spanish Fly onto a light tube bundle. Matt Tremont had been attacked with a gusset plate board from Miedo Extremo, a weapon that is now so common-place today, but is still shocking to see. Gage and Ciclope in the first round went hard at it, fish hooking Ciclope with a rod, and reeling him off of the top rope, and even doing his signature face wash with a razor board.
It only makes sense that Tremont and Gage would kill each other. They needed to kill each other. Especially since Gage is stepping into a different world. Really, it's how you become a made man.
Wow, Tetra wrote A LOT. Now I feel a bit bad for just leaving my little comments on the matches I included lol. Truly thank you though for all of that, yknow I appreciate it.
Thank you for reading both my and Tetra's thoughts on these matches/this comp today; I hope you enjoyed! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.
