This Saturday, Synergy Wrestling in New Jersey returns with the 2020 Garden State Invitational, featuring eight stars from the US indies competing in a tournament. Last year saw Anthony Greene win in a field that featured Brandon Kirk, Homicide, Warhorse, Jimmy Rave, Joe Gacy, Josh Briggs, and Steve Mack, with 2020’s field featuring all first-time entrants, guaranteeing a new winner this year. The entire event will be airing live on FITE.tv at 7pm EST.
GSI Tournament, First Round: Simon Gotch vs. KTB
Simon Gotch returned to the US indies with ease following his departure from WWE in 2017, picking up in the likes of Black Label Pro, CHIKARA, Beyond Wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), and others, including stints with Ring of Honor. He joined Major League Wrestling (MLW) in 2018, where he’s part of the CONTRA Unit team that’s terrorizing MLW. In his first-round match, he’s facing former GCW World Champion KTB, an underrated big man who has more athleticism than he lets on, but who is one of the toughest competitors in the US indie circuit.
GSI Tournament, First Round: Tony Deppen vs. Gregory Iron
Tony Deppen had to beat JD Drake on July 11 to qualify to enter this year’s GSI but now he’s in, he’s set to face an indie veteran in Gregory Iron. Tony Deppen saw a career year in 2019, as one of the Gatekeepers in GCW, as well as working in Beyond and CHIKARA (amongst others), plus partaking in his first-ever Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) Battle of Los Angeles. But Iron is no slouch – he’s a 14-year veteran of the North American indie scene with companies like Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), AAW Pro, Freelance Wrestling, and House of Glory, as well as Canada’s Smash Wrestling and Alpha-1, where he’s a former AIW Intense Champion and A-1 Alpha Male Champion. Two tough fighters, this should be a banger.
GSI Tournament, First Round: Gary Jay vs. Matt Cross
16-year veteran Gary Jay has been a staple with St. Louis Anarchy and Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW) in Texas for years, but he’s finally getting his due appearing in big matches for the likes of Black Label Pro, GCW, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), IWA Mid South, and ACTION Wrestling. He also made his debut with Beyond Wrestlingthis past fall, winning the Discovery Gauntlet in his first match. He’s facing another longtime veteran in Matt Cross, who has worked just about everywhere as an international star on multiple continents indie scenes, most notably as Son of Havoc in Lucha Underground. Two guys who have seen a lot of battles over their collective lengthy careers, this one should be a clinic.
GSI Tournament, First Round: Myron Reed vs. Jordan Oliver
Jordan Oliver had to beat LSG to advance in his qualifier on July 11, and now the young star faces his MLW stable mate Myron Reed from Injustice. Oliver is a regular with GCW and a former CZW Wired Champion, and together with Reed in MLW, the young unit is changing the landscape in Major League Wrestling. Reed has been one of the top young stars in the US for a while now, working with AAW, Rockstar Pro, CZW, IWA Mid South, and many more, although he’s found most of his success as a tag team specialist, winning tag team gold in IWA Mid South with Sugar Dunkerton (AEW’s Pineapple Pete) and Trey Miguel, AAW with AR Fox, and Glory Pro with Stephen Wolf. But don’t count him out as a singles competitor just yet – he’s also the reigning MLW World Middleweight Champion and former Crown of Glory Champion in Glory Pro. Two stars with bright futures, looking to have match of the night.
Synergy Cruiserweight Crown: TJ Crawford vs. Kasey Catal vs. Ellis Taylor
In one of two non-tournament matches, three wrestlers will compete for the inaugural Synergy Cruiserweight Crown on Saturday night. Chicago’s TJ Crawford is a rising star from the Midwest who was trained by Pat Buck & Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins) at Create-A-Pro in New Jersey, where he competes for WrestlePro (he’s one-third of the reigning WrestlePro Trios Champions, The Beach Bums). New York’s Kacey Catal is another Create-A-Pro student who has risen the ranks quickly in only three years, winning the inaugural Empower Championship for Empower Wrestling, a new all-women promotion based out of New Jersey, that she still holds over 270-days later. Philadelphia’s Ellis Taylor is a product of the CZW Dojo, but the 21-year old has become another rising star in the US indies as part of the youth movement stable Young Dumb N’ Broke alongside Jordan Oliver, Charlie Tiger, Griffin McCoy, Valentina Vazquez, and Jae Fre (Taylor and Tiger are the current reigning Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment (AWE) Tag Team Champions).
Synergy Championship: Frightmare (c) vs. Desean Pratt
Synergy Champion Frightmare is set to face former CHIKARA roster-mate Desean Pratt (formerly the masked Amasis in the Osiris Portal with Ophidian) on Saturday night, but these two have a grudge to settle beyond championship belts. The two feuded for seven years in CHIKARA, with their last encounter happening at CHIKARA Temple of Doom in December of 2016, where Frightmare beat Amasis, forcing him to unmask. The fate of Synergy’s top title will be decided when these two long-time rivals look to settle the score once and for all.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Synergy Wrestling’s Garden State Invitational airs live on FITE.tv at 7pm EST on Saturday, July 25, 2020.
