NJPW Star El Desperado To Compete In GCW Tournament Of Survival

Nationally touring independent promotion Game Changer Wrestling had been promising a mysterious 12th and presumably final entrant for this Saturday night's Tournament of Survival death match tournament in Atlantic City, and when the announcement came on Monday afternoon, it delivered in ways that nobody could have expected. That's because the final entrant is NJPW's El Desperado, the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion who sometimes dabbles in the dark arts of death match wrestling.

Desperado appearing in GCW is not surprising in and of itself, as the promotion has booked other NJPW stars like Minoru Suzuki, KUSHIDA, Tajii Ishimori, Will Ospreay, and Zack Sabre Jr. in the recent past. Desperado doing a death match isn't necessarily surprising either, as he's done a few in his career, almost all of which were against death match legend Jun Kasai. (The "almost" being because he also had a death match against Jon Moxley at NJPW Music City Mayhem last July.)

But the idea that he would be competing in a death match in GCW, much less their marquee death match tournament? That's a different story, particularly given the politics of Desperado being the only major promotion wrestler in the tournament, although the 12-person format will likely give him chances to lose in three-way matches without being pinned. Though no specific brackets or matchups have been announced as of yet, Desperado joins a field that also includes GCW Ultraviolent Champion Rina Yamashita Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS stars Tomoya Hirata and Toru Sugiura, Joey Janela, Sawyer Wreck, Kasey Kirk, John Wayne Murdoch, both of Los Macizos (Ciclope and Miedo Extremo), reigning IWTV Independet Wrestling World Champion Matt Tremont, and Montreal-area veteran Green Phantom.

Tournament of Survival will air live on FITE+ this Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. ET.