@tarotbyfergus's first death match tournament!

What’s up, Hive? I’m back from Chicago. Over the weekend, I made the drive from Minneapolis to the Windy City with @tarotbyfergus. As a lifelong wrestling fan, he’s been fascinated by the violent side of indy wrestling since I met him. This was a world I was heavily involved in during the 2000’s, growing up on the east coast, going to Combat Zone Wrestling shows in Jersey and Delaware and eventually designing t-shirts for the promotion and many of the wrestlers. In fact, @mtbmondo, one of my closest friends, is a legendary name in the death match wrestling scene.

I always told @tarotbyfergus that we’d one day go to a death match tournament together. I assumed that would have to be on the east coast, but a few months ago, I saw that GCW was holding the 7th annual Nick Gage Invitational in Chicago. I didn’t wait. I just went ahead and got us two tickets. Death match wrestling tournaments are an experience like nothing else. I was most excited about seeing @tarotbyfergus’s reaction to light tubes being smashed over someones head in person. As he mentally and emotionally prepared for this experience, he also brought safety glasses.

Nick Cage, specifically, is a notorious name in this world. He’s been doing it for over 20 years. He’s done it all. He legally died from a sliced artery at Tournament of Death in Delaware […I was actually at that show], he’s been lit on fire, he’s robbed a bank […and consequently spent years in jail], and he almost killed David Arquette in the ring in Los Angeles. There’s an entire VICE episode with him on Dark Side of the Ring. I did t-shirts for Nick Cage in 2010 but haven’t seen him since.

As soon as we arrived, Ciclope, a Mexican Death match wrestler, had a giant steel skewer through both his cheeks. The show was great. I wasn’t disappointed watching the horror and disbelief on @tarotbyfergus’s face. Glass, gussets, thumbtacks, all used in the maiming of the NGI7 participants. At the end of the night, just as we were about to leave, Nick Cage recognized me and said, “Hey, big guy! How the fuck are ya?!”. We caught up quick and got a selfie with the man himself. Perfect ending to a memorable weekend.