A quick look at one of the stand-out matches from a weekend of wackiness in the States – as we take a look at GCW’s Backyard Wrestling!
In the early 2000s, Jackass was a pretty big thing. Despite only lasting for three seasons, it spawned several movies and spotlighted a culture of what could be best described as reckless pranks. Part of the periphery of that saw backyard wrestling get some buzz – and somehow, a pair of video games. Of course, backyard wrestling has been a thing on some level as long as wrestling’s been around… which takes us to the current day. Game Changer Wrestling, last year, debuted a Backyward Wrestling show, which was exactly what it said on the tin: wrestling, in someone’s back yard, with a lot of the roster reprising characters they used to play-wrestle as.
Skip forward to 2020. The Independence day weekend in the States having markedly changed as a result of the pandemic. Outdoor shows are just about the only game going in the indies right now… which takes us to this year’s Backyard Wrestling show – an event that went off the deep end at points with fireworks and diggers being used as weapons. In addition to the rest. We’re going to take a look at one of the matches from the card now…
We’re in someone’s back yard in an undisclosed part of the USA. You’d have to assume somewhere in or around New Jersey, since Nick Gage worked this show and later appeared on ICW’s similar outdoor show a few hours later. Your ring announcer and one of your commentators is Kevin Gill, who’s going for a modern day Lawrence of Arabia look with his baseball cap/towel sunburn-preventing combo.
Quick Result
Paco Loco pinned KC Kwik in 16:30 (***½)
KC Kwik vs. Paco Loco
Since kayfabe’s dead anyway: Kwik is Kit Osbourne, and Paco Loco is Chris Dickinson…
We’ve a snafu with the bell as Loco charges into Kwik with a big boot and a “Benoit-like elbow” at the start. Kwik tries to chop back, but he’s quickly ragdolled and driven into the mat with a snap powerbomb. CHRIST. We’re not even a minute in. Kwik rolls outside to recover, but Loco reached under the ring and grabbed a light tube. Which he cracks into Kwik’s gut like a baseball bat, shattering it on the outside. Kwik tries to get one in retaliation, but he’s cut off and thrown through a door that was propped up against a trampoline on the outside… which gashed his arm badly. Joey Janela on commentary calls out Kwik for not having taped his arms earlier, and as they looked to tape him up, Loco posts Kwik and throws him back inside.
Chops from Kwik take Loco to the ropes, but a Saito suplex quickly turned it back around briefly. As did a Judo throw and a half-nelson suplex that took Kwik into the corner once more. Loco rolls outside for more plunder and comes back with some doors that he tosses into the ring. Oh, and light tubes too. Oh yeah, there’s also a scaffold right by the ring, but Loco doesn’t climb it as he returned to the ring… and threw the referee into the ropes as ringside attendants taped up Kwik’s arm. Back to the action, Loco kicks at Kwik before he set up a door in the corner… but first he jerks at the taped-up arm. Kwik surprises Loco with a light tube shot as he was setting up a second door, before busting more tubes over him in the corner.
Kwik tries to follow up with a suplex, but Loco blocks it and throws him down… before Kwik’s spear took Loco into the door… but not through it. Any chance to groan was quickly snuffed out when Loco tried to Border Toss Kwik through the door… but he bounces off it! One for Maffew there…
Loco’s bleeding, but he picks up Kwik and death valley drives him through a second door, which breaks at the first try… but doesn’t put KC away. After taking KC to the corner, Loco chops out the referee for shits and giggles, before the pair exchange palm strikes to the face. KC sweeps a leg and hits a back senton to Loco, before a running knee… got no count, because the referee was still out. Kwik attacks the ref too, then heads up top for an elbow drop that gets a delayed two-count. He tried to head back up top, but Loco crotches him and joins him in the buckles for an avalanche death valley driver that plants Kwik… before a second snap powerbomb just bounces KC off the door for a near-fall.
Heading outside, Loco goes towards the conveniently-placed digger, but instead moves away and has some people carry across a rickety wooden scaffold with two tiers of doors wedged in it. He goes back into the ring and quickly eats a Shiranui from KC for a near-fall, before Kwik headed out to climb the scaffold at ringside. The proper scaffold. He takes an age to get up there, and gets caught by Loco, who leaps up onto the top of it, and spray something in Kwik’s eyes… causing him to fall off the scaffold through the table scaffold below… but the match continues! Loco rolls him back inside for a delayed two-count, before Loco sprung up top… and got crotched.
A top rope ‘rana from Kwik brings him down, ahead of a snap superkick that almost ends it… a second superkick gets him a little closer, before a third one was nastily countered into a Dragon screw as Loco applies a Figure Four. Kwik grabs some light tubes to break a pinning attempt from the hold, as the pair resume trading chops. Loco’s bleeding from the shoulder… so Kwik rakes the eyes before he went for a second Shiranui… which gets countered into a tombstone, before Loco bounces him off the door for a third time… and mercifully, that was enough to get the pin. You talk about Japanese tables, but that, my friends, was a Japanese door… and there was no way they were breaking it. Good on them for not spamming it in one go and risking looking daft by doing so. This was wild – I mean, for a show called Backyard Wrestling, you’re not going to get anything overly technical. What we got here was a lot of big hits, and a lot of weaponry. Albeit nowhere near the insanity of later in the show, that’s for sure. A pretty decent palate cleanser – but one that may not be to everyone’s tastes! ***½