GCW: I Can't Save You - or, a photo gallery of the time I saw Maki Itoh in Columbus.
By: Erin
Posted: November 15, 2023
May 12th, 2023 marked a monumental moment for me - my return to independent wrestling! Well, sort of.
You see, at the start of the year, Mandy and I got back into wrestling in a big way. The biggest contributor to that was Mandy's desire to watch more Japanese wrestling, and I had heard good things about Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. We ended up springing for Wrestle Universe, which at 900 yen a month is an absolute bargain. Not only do you get TJPW, you get DDT, Ganbare Pro, and Pro Wrestling NOAH as well! Four awesome wrestling federations all in one! As predicted, TJPW was the first one we really fell in love with, and it's a big thanks to the over-the-top characters mixed with the special blend of in-ring humor and heart, as well as some seriously sick moves.
One wrestler we knew from TJPW before diving in was Maki Itoh, the vulgar "fired idol" who calls people simps on Twitter and says "fuck" really loudly. She also sings her own entrance music. Basically, she rules. And what do you know, one day Game Changer Wrestling announced they were booking her! Our wonderful friends Silas and Lazer let us know, and before you know it we had gotten tickets to the Valley Dale Ballroom to watch Maki Itoh wrestle Steph De Lander. Oh, and there were a lot of other cool wrestlers there, too!
There were a lot of highlights that night. Our friend Def nearly got in a fistfight with Matt Cardona when Matt heckled us and we heckled him right back, getting into a yelling match that lasted so long security had to pull Cardona to the ring to start the match. I got to see Nick Wayne months before he was signed to AEW, and the main event was a bloody and brutal affair between Mance Warner and Masha Slamovitch. At the end of the night she accidentally called Columbus "Cleveland", which lead to some boos, but she laughed it off and there was a pop when she got the city's name right. I had a great time with my friends basically acting as plants, causing the crowd to cheer and boo, and even being one of the few sections who knew that the proper response to "Who's the cutest in the world?" was a resounding "ITOH-CHAN!!". The Valley Dale Ballroom is a really unbelievable venue with two levels, cool lights, and a classy vibe, and it was fun to go back there a few weeks later for Unsanctioned Pro's anniversary event.
Most importantly, however, was that I got to reunite with people I hadn't seen since I was part of wrestling in 2018 - particularly Cole Radrick and Trey Miguel. We had a lot of private, meaningful conversations that healed a rift in my heart, and it all but reaffirmed that no matter what, I will always, always love professional wrestling.
In the end I took a ton of pictures, and frankly they all turned out pretty badly...but I wanted to toss them up here anyway! So, enjoy all my over-excited cell phone pictures from the time GCW came to Columbus!