Saturday at the Sandlot: GCW Presents Tournament of Survival 5
Live from the Sandlot at the Showboat in Atlantic City, NJ
August 22, 2020
Available on FITE.tv
It was in the casino entrance of the Showboat last month that I realized I’d become addicted to this summer-long chase that’s taken me from Indianapolis to Atlantic City and back and forth. That Sunday night in late July after the second part of GCW Homecoming had ended (and after I’d had my escapade on the Garden Pier) I found out the rumblings that GCW would be back in AC for the annual Tournament of Survival were legit. In fact, it was my friend and fellow shot-caller Tracey who got to see where my metamorphosis took place.
We were standing there just inside the casino entrance doors talking despite my very hazy and swaying state after so many blunts that night...and by then a few drinks as well. Tracey let on that this year’s Tournament of Survival would be right back here at the Showboat, and it would only be a few weeks away. I was immediately intrigued and knew two things right away: one, I was really enjoying the decadent hell out of Atlantic City and wanted to come back. Secondly, I knew I wasn’t going to miss this show.
“Tracey,” I said in the gravest voice I could muster as lifted as I was at the time, “if I don’t make it to TOS, kick my ass.”
Ten hours later I sat in the Charlotte airport on a layover on the way home from Atlantic City, already booking my flight back in August. The Tournament had officially been announced. This year would be my first time seeing it live. There was no way in hell I was going to miss this show.
Everybody else must have had the same idea at the same time, because damn if the TOS didn’t sell out in a heartbeat. That’s something I’ve learned this summer in times of Corona: GCW tickets are limited to begin with and highly sought after as a result, but the bloodier the event the quicker the sellout. Having gone back and watched previous Tournaments I knew that this one was going to be one of the most savage shows since GCW started running events again. Apparently there was no way in hell any of the die-hard fans were going to miss this show.
On my third trip to New Jersey this summer (second trip to Atlantic City) I felt such a strong positive energy that Saturday afternoon before the show started. Everybody needed this show, whether it was the entertainment factor alone or the camaraderie that comes with being at a GCW event. The event venue itself was incongruously cozy for a show that promised peak brutality and deathmatches. The Sandlot, an open space situated between the Showboat hotel and its parking deck, was comfortably protected from the sun by the time the show started. The ring was set up far enough away from the boardwalk so that there was an intimate feel to the show for fans in attendance while passing people could stop and check out the action from afar.
And then there was the blood. And the glass. And the light tubes. And the barb wire. And the metal chairs. And the busted doors. And the blood.
God, there was so much blood.
On Commentary: OG Kevin Gill & Nick Gage
The people asked and the people received, because Nick Gage was solid on commentary for this year’s TOS! Props to the fans who suggested Gage should be at the table with KG since he couldn’t be in the ring for this year’s tournament. Going back and re-watching the show was special since Gage stayed on point (and funny as hell!) with KG. If you were looking for traditional style commentary, please continue to search elsewhere. This team was actually entertaining.
Match 1: Jimmy Lloyd vs. Rickey Shane Page (w/Gregory Iron)
The mark(s) and brand of 44OH were all over this year’s tournament. All I asked is that we didn’t end up with an IWA Midsouth tournament finish that had one of RSP’s goons walk away victorious like this year’s King of the Deathmatches tournament in Indiana. Nope, this would be GCW’s night. With this opening match I was as desperate for Jimmy f’n Lloyd to win as I was for RSP to lose - that’s how much I wanted to see Jimmy advance. I also wanted to see RSP bleed, but this opening match wouldn’t be the place just yet. Both Jimmy and RSP are guys who can wrestle, though, and it was fascinating to see actual maneuvers being bust out throughout the match in between watching Jimmy get lanced straight through the cheek with a damn syringe. RSP advanced to the next round after getting the win over Lloyd with a chokebreaker. Damn.
Match 2: Eric Ryan vs. Shane Mercer
I’ll go ahead and say it right now...FUUUUUUUCCCCCK. FUCK. SHIT. I really wanted Mercer to win this one because he was low-key my pick to advance here in the tournament. Plus, the man carries a mace to the ring. A medieval damn mace. The Iron Demon has been wrecking shit this summer and I wanted to see him rewarded by going all the way to the finals if not all the way overall. We might have had that if Eric Ryan wasn’t still riding high from being the other unstoppable deathmatch badass of the summer. This one got crazy with plenty of glass and light tubes and barbed wire. If you had your doubts about the tournament’s brutality based on the opening match, then this one should satisfy you. These dudes got messy. Ryan got the win via ref stoppage after getting medieval on Mercer’s head with a savage stomping. Fuck.
Match 3: Allie Kat vs. Atticus Cogar
Is there anyone in the world that wasn’t pulling for Allie Kat to win and advance here? Here’s another question - is there anyone in the world who still doubts Allie Kat has a place in hardcore or deathmatch wrestling after Saturday in the Tournament of Survival? By this point in the show I was dying for an anybody-but-44OH victory. I truly did believe that Allie Kat could advance past Cogar even though he’s actually one of the more brutal members of his crew (which isn’t saying much for a crew of pussies). There were points in this one where I thought our girl would come away with the victory with as many close call pinfalls as there were in this match. Allie even took the skewers to the forehead like an absolute champion. Cogar had to pull out all the damn stops just to keep Allie down, and it finally took putting her through a flaming table for Atticus to get the decisive victory. Good on Allie Kat for hanging in this tournament in an absolute boss way, but the end result was yet another 44OH member advancing. Shit.
Match 4: Alex Colon vs. SHLAK
And the tides turn...here! Colon and SHLAK put on a banger of a deathmatch that did something different for me here. It’s rare to see actual storytelling in a deathmatch, but these two managed to pull it off. Building the drama from the start and mounting the tension by smashing tube after tube after tube. It was as if we were all watching two experts at work, and it’s a fitting comparison considering both SHLAK and Colon are masters of deathmatches. The balance of power shifted back and forth here as you’d see in any classic grappling bout, but this one was far bloodier - and much more fun, in my opinion. That’s twice in this tournament we’ve seen elements of “true” wrestling in a deathmatch. I was sufficiently impressed. Colon took the win here and advanced to the finals after a ridiculously bloody conflict with SHLAK, who many thought would win the whole tournament. Tides turned indeed.
Match 5: Andrew Everett vs AR Fox vs Jordan Oliver vs KTB vs Lucky 13 vs Myron Reed (Scramblefuck)
Holy shit! As always, GCW ensures someone amazing will make their debut during a scramblefuck match. This time we’ve got AR Fox blessing the ring, and he came to get the fuck down. Fox was the debut star, in my opinion, but Andrew Everett was nothing to miss here either in his first GCW go-round. KTB shined in this scramble with his impressive new streamlined look while Jordan Oliver showed out like the brand-new heavyweight he is. Everyone put damn good work in this scramble right up until the end where AR Fox took the victory after getting the pin on Oliver. Fun scramble to watch from a ways off from the audience; I’ve always been up close to the ring for these matches in recent shows and it’s amazing how much you miss in a scramble when you’re too close to the action. They’re best witnessed either on TV (when the camera work is just right) or live from afar where you can see bodies flying around as they’re meant to in a scramblefuck!
Match 6: Eric Ryan vs. Rickey Shane Page (w/Gregory Iron)
I clearly remember shouting out loud that I hope these two destroyed one another. Pretty sure RSP said something in response but I didn’t give a shit. The plunder in this second round match was downright fascinating; I was particularly impressed with the fork board in addition to the multitude of forks Ryan brought in to cover the ring. I fully expected a rift in the 44OH fabric with this match, seeing that Eric Ryan really has proven himself to be better at deathmatches than his running buddy RSP, who in his own right is not afraid of his own blood. That wasn’t what we got in the end, however; everything I didn’t expect to happen actually happened. I thought Ryan would be the one to advance to the finals and RSP ended up defeating him via a chokebreaker directly onto a light tube (admittedly nice). I thought 44OH might be on shaky ground after this one but they left the ring in solidarity. Damn damn.
Match 7: Atticus Cogar vs. Alex Colon
Hot damn, was this the match that made Cogar’s bones as a deathmatch specialist? I’d damn sure say so. Colon was clearly the more experienced deathmatch master in this match, but Cogar was willing to go all out and get reckless against the battle-scarred expert. As good as this semi-final match was, the one thing I could not get out of my mind is how much it would suck to see two 44OH guys end up in the final round. This match had to go Colon’s way just to prevent that bullshit from happening. Thankfully the match went in favor of the veteran when the rookie made a grave deathmatch mistake of trying to look too cool. Cogar took too long to light a sheath of glass on fire, giving Colon just enough time to recover and send his opponent shattering right through the glass via a Styles Clash. From there, Colon got the pinfall victory and would go on to face RSP in the finals.
Chris Dickinson vs. Eddy Only
There’s no way I’m really calling this a match because Dickinson made such short work out of Eddy. Granted, it is Eddy’s fault since he’s the one who came out to the ring to make an impromptu challenge to anybody. Your fearless writer was even bold enough to try to step up (as evidenced by Eddy’s willingness to fight a woman), but I was wearing a skirt and looked too good to step in the ring with trash. Plus I was high. Dickinson, however, was quick to answer the challenge and made quick humiliating work out of Eddy, finally knocking that nasty cowboy-killing cigarette out of his mouth and dispatching his equally nasty ass right outta there with a Pazuzu bomb.
Match 8: Alex Colon vs. Rickey Shane Page (w/Gregory Iron)
The final round of this year’s Tournament of Survival was not only delivering bragging rights to the winner, but in my opinion the winner would extend those rights to his respective crew. With that said, there was no way any of us wanted to see RSP take the final round victory in this tournament. A win for Colon meant a lot here; not only would he get the glory of repeating his previous year’s victory but it’d feel like a win for GCW overall to see 44OH soundly defeated after having dominated so much of this year’s tournament. I stayed relatively and safely close to the ring for this final round, partly because I wanted to see this action play out right there in front of me and also because I was just stoned and drunk and staying in one place was out of the question. Probably wasn’t the smartest idea I’ve ever had since glass was flying fucking everywhere and these two guys were gouging the shit out of each other with it. I hung back a little bit as the light tubes continued to explode over heads and backs. By the end of the match blood was everywhere, all over the blood-stained mat, all over the glass, all over Colon and RSP, all over the tarp outside the ring.
You’ve never really experienced a deathmatch until you can smell the blood. Metallic smell, maybe mingling with a little spooky dust from the light tubes. It’s not a smell that’s easily forgotten.
That’s when Colon was in his element, covered in blood and surrounded by broken glass and barb wire. That’s when he won his second Tournament of Survival after he beat RSP decisively for the victory. That’s where I realized I’d just witnessed something fucking lit. Deathmatches there in the sandlot, out far enough away where any random passerby or dog-walker could glance over at all of us celebrating there, watching a bleeding man attain his second deathmatch tournament victory in a row. Makes me wonder what thoughts would be going through that random person’s mind about what the hell we were all doing there with the wrestling ring and what the hell just happened out there.
Post-Show Thoughts
Oh, the blood.
Blood mingled with camaraderie isn’t so hard to look at, though. It’s just different when it’s in person. I grew up on Memphis wrestling and came of age with ECW, so blood in matches is as normal as breathing to me. The thing is, though, I only watched those matches on TV. It’s a hell of a big difference when you’re there in person and seeing (and smelling) the blood dripping off a person just a few feet away from you. I’ve said it before, shows like these aren’t for everybody. They are, however, damn sure right up my alley. Tournament of Survival 5 was a killer.