{"id":70993,"date":"2020-06-21T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=70993"},"modified":"2021-05-12T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:51:25","slug":"indie-watch-the-apex-of-combat-lee-moriarty-set-to-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/06\/21\/indie-watch-the-apex-of-combat-lee-moriarty-set-to-soar\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Watch: &#8220;The Apex of Combat&#8221; Lee Moriarty Set To Soar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Indie Watch is our regular series that looks at all of the amazing talents working the independent circuits around the world. Some are veterans revitalizing their careers, some are indie prospects hitting their peaks, while others are names to be on the watch for! This edition looks at a rising star from the Pittsburgh indie scene, &#8220;The Apex of Combat&#8221; Lee Moriarty.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s been wrestling for just over five years, but in the past two years, the US indie scene has become increasingly aware of a young man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who has emerged beyond the regional indie circuits and making waves with his athletic prowess in the ring. Called &#8220;The Apex of Combat&#8221;, the 26-year old <strong>Lee Moriarty<\/strong> is now breaking out into one of the Can&#8217;t-miss prospects in the US indie scene, following his huge debut with <strong>Game Changer Wrestling (GCW)<\/strong> this past weekend.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/apexofcombat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@apexofcombat<\/a> with a devil walk DDT!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GCW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#GCW<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WRLDonGCW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WRLDonGCW<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GCWrestling_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@GCWrestling_<\/a> <br \/>\u25b6\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZFfwa3jlHs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZFfwa3jlHs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0ZOZGfVrZP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0ZOZGfVrZP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rob (@HeyImRob) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HeyImRob\/status\/1274461275544846344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Lee Moriarty began his training in 2015 under <strong>Brandon K<\/strong> and <strong>Dean Radford<\/strong> at the <strong>Pro Wrestling eXpress (PWX) Wrestling Academy<\/strong> in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, within the metro Pittsburgh area. He made his PWX in-ring debut that December as part of the tag team <strong>The Order<\/strong> with <strong>Ganon Jones Jr.<\/strong>, defeating <strong>The Enforcers<\/strong> (Crusher Hansen &amp; Maxx Daniels) for the PWX Tag Team Championships, going on to hold them for 189-days. PWX would remain Moriarty&#8217;s home-town promotion, and he would continue to polish his craft with the company, winning the PWX Heavyweight Championship briefly in April of 2016, and becoming a 2x PWX Three Rivers Champion (in 2017, PWX rebranded as <strong>Fight Society<\/strong>, where Moriarty continues to wrestle).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Welterweight Wrestling: Ace Austin vs. Lee Moriarty\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YDr3a8_-d0s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 2016, he also began working with <strong>RYSE Wrestling<\/strong> in Lemont Furnace, about 60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, and he continued to expand into other regional promotions throughout Pennsylvania, as well as working into the Midwest, particularly in Ohio, with Cleveland&#8217;s <strong>Premier Championship Wrestling (PCW)<\/strong> and the <strong>Professional Ohio Sports Entertainment Review (POSER)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lee Moriarty vs Ophidian The Cobra (AEW\u2019s Serpentico)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Izz9loDAGM4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He got his big break in the Midwest when he made his debut with <strong>Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW)<\/strong>, one of Ohio&#8217;s premier indie promotions, in February of 2019, and has since gone on to become one of AIW&#8217;s most exciting new stars, facing the likes of <strong>Wheeler YUTA, Dominic Garrini, Mance Warner, Eric Ryan<\/strong>, and <strong>Erick Stevens<\/strong>. In March of 2019, he made his <strong>CHIKARA<\/strong> debut as part of the 2019 <em><strong>CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Tournament<\/strong><\/em> but was knocked out in the first round when he was defeated by <strong>Boomer Hatfield<\/strong> in a four-way elimination that also included <strong>Lady Frost<\/strong> and <strong>Jay Sorbet<\/strong>. To close out the year in AIW, he had a stellar run of matches against indie legend Alex Shelley in AIW, that saw Moriarty defeat the Motor City Machine Gun at <em><strong>AIW Baby It&#8217;s Cold Outside 2<\/strong><\/em> in December.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Welterweight Wrestling: Myron Reed vs. Lee Moriarty\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JA80XfmxBas?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lee Moriarty also expanded into the exploding Indiana indie scene, first with <strong>Paradigm Pro Wrestling<\/strong> in 2019 and in early 2020 made his debut with <strong>Bizarro Lucha<\/strong> and <strong>Black Label Pro<\/strong>. But arguably his biggest debut to date has been his recent debut with GCW at <em><strong>The Wrld on GCW, Part 2<\/strong><\/em> this past weekend, also in Indiana. Originally scheduled to make his GCW debut over WrestleMania Week in Tampa, Florida at the GCW event\u00a0<em><strong>For The Culture<\/strong><\/em><em>,\u00a0<\/em>it was sadly delayed following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of live events. But GCW instead brought Lee Moriarty in for their first live event back in Indianapolis, where he faced another top prospect in <strong>Tre Lemar<\/strong> for one of the events standout matches. GCW has had a phenomenal track record the past few years with finding regional talents and exposing them to the world, including such since-signed talents as <strong>Jake Atlas<\/strong> (NXT), <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2018\/08\/19\/mr-fun-size-an-exclusive-interview-with-marko-stunt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Marko Stunt<\/strong><\/a> (AEW), <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2018\/11\/14\/emerging-west-coast-indie-star-jungle-boy\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jungle Boy<\/strong><\/a> (AEW), and <strong>Chris Bey<\/strong> (IMPACT), as well as new indie darlings like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2019\/07\/10\/alex-zayne-gcw-backyard\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Zayne<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2019\/08\/16\/blake-christian-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Christian<\/a><\/strong>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2019\/07\/16\/indie-watch-rich-homie-juice-aj-gray\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>AJ Gray<\/strong><\/a>. With an explosive showing on Saturday, June 20 in Indianapolis, &#8220;The Apex of Combat&#8221; could very well be the next name to rise to the national level.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/gorelandodeath\/status\/1274462298141347842<\/p>\n<h3><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/search\/indie+watch\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check out our full list of previous Indie Watches, showcasing emerging talent from around the world!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"td-post-content tagdiv-type\">\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indie Watch is our regular series that looks at all of the amazing talents working the independent circuits around the world. Some are veterans revitalizing their careers, some are indie prospects hitting their peaks, while others are names to be on the watch for! This edition looks at a rising star from the Pittsburgh indie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":70996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5274,6],"tags":[4130,6165],"class_list":["post-70993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-gcw","category-north-america","tag-indie-watch","tag-lee-moriarty"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}