Ninja Mack On Working With GCW: They Welcomed Me, You Need To Take A Chance On Them
Photo Credit: Earl Gardner Photography
GCW has quickly become one of the hottest independent wrestling promotions over the last year.
Indie star Ninja Mack recently appeared on the Shining Wizards podcast and discussed his time thus far in GCW and the company taking a chance on him.
“You need to take a chance on them. Going out to Tampa, my first weekend, I flew myself out there. They presented the opportunity and said, “if you can get out there, we’ll put you in our first scramble.” I flew myself. It was $96 round trip, so it wasn’t bad. This was also before Covid started easing up. Those prices are starting to go up now. I flew myself out there to Tampa, I got my own hotel that night. I didn’t even get a hotel the second night. I just got a flight two days later and was going to wing it, just meet people and see what happened. I ended up doing six matches over those two or three days I was there. I even changed my flight to Sunday to get those extra matches in. They presented an opportunity, and I made a little deposit. I put up a little and got the flight. I got the first night in the hotel. But I showed up. I didn’t just get there myself. I got there and performed that first match, and it popped. Then I went out there the second time, and it popped again. They were like, “Ok, come do the night show.” I made myself available. I was there at ringside, I was there in between shows. I never left the building.”
Mack would then delve into the locker room culture in GCW:
“It’s huge. Everyone’s got to do their part. Everyone’s got to make sure they’re hitting their roles. If you’re opening match, you got to be very exciting. If you’re the finishing match, you got to bring that energy to close the show. If you’re in the middle of the card you got to find ways to keep that crowd alive for over three hours, because those GCW shows are not short. That’s three-and-a-half to four hours. Opening match is going to be hot because you got that many people right now. And they’re growing like crazy. We have such good performers that we’re all interchangeable and everyone can perform and get the best out of that crowd. You can put those tag matches with the Briscoes and the Second Gear Crew, and you can put any of them anywhere and you’re going to have a great match. You can put AJ Gray anywhere on the card, and it’s going to be a great match. They find ways to get energy out of all these people, so everyone is stepping up. The young guys are stepping up. I’m very new to GCW. I’ve only been rolling with GCW for four or five months, and I’m grateful that they let me into their locker room, but they’ve been there and know each other. I’m trying to know these guys and get to meet them. But they’ve been nothing but great to me. They’ve welcomed me. Then sometimes they hit me in the head with matches and chairs, but besides that, it’s been pretty good.”
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