Crisstopher The Freakshow Crow Is the Brother Of Drake Gallows
Crow made his debut on August 19, 2007, just 4 days after his 18th birthday.
He teamed with Damien Morte as the newest member of Nemesis in a Hardcore Rules Tag Team Match
against X-Rated.
He would be victorious in that encounter and would spend most of the the next 4
years in SWCW. Almost immediately, he was swallowed up in the fued between
X-Rated & Nemesis. 2 months after his debut, X-Rated again challenged Morte
& Crow to a specialty match, this time a Ladder Match, which Kevin
James Sanchez & Shane Sanchez won.
One of the things
Nemesis was best known for was how they entered federations other than SWCW.
They would purchase tickets and sit at ringside, mocking the wrestlers and
drawing attention to themselves. This was how they entered MSWA, although the result wasn't quite what they
expected as Crow's first official MSWA match on March 16, 2008, saw him teaming
with Se7en and losing to the team of Jason Kirby and fellow Nemesis teammate Damien
Morte as part of the Lethal Lotto Tag Team Tournament going on at the time.
Crow's first truly high-profile one-on-one match was a Barbed Wire
Casket Match against Kareem Sadat in SWCW on May 31, 2008. It was
absolutely brutal match that went all over the arena and although Sadat came out
victorious (after a chokeslam into the casket on Crow), it proved that Crow
could be considered a hardcore icon in SWCW. Much of his SWCW career had been
spent in Hardcore or specialty matches at this point and that would continue as
the feud between Nemesis & X-Rated erupted even further. One more time, the
teams met each other in a specialty match, but this time it was all 3 members of
Nemesis (adding Rage
Logan to the mix) against Nemesis in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs match.
Again, X-Rated walked away with a vicory, essentially bringing an end to the
feud, but it wasn't easy to gain and all 5 men walked away with a little more
respect for each other.
On November 22, 2008, Crow made his official
debut in IZW,
defeating Randy
Price. Price would be one of 2 people who he had programmes with
in IZW, the other one being Austin Tacious. The Crow/Tacious feud was Crow's
first long-term venture as a fan favourite and it resulted in a Dog Collar Match
between the two on January 31, 2009, which Crow was victorious in.
Unfortunately that was the last success he had in IZW on that run as he went on
a losing streak for the next 4 months before leaving the company on May 9, 2009.
Crow's impact in MSWA was always minimal as he never seemed to be high
up on the card. The one exception was when he was a key player in T. M. S. winning the MSWA Mid-South Tag Team
Title on January 4, 2009. In the opening match, Max
McGuirk & Crow had a match which Max won by DQ. This prompted
then-Mid-South Tag Team Champions The Forsaken to come to Crow's rescue and propose a
6-man match for the main event, but T. M. S. only agreed if the tag team belts
were on the line. Even though Crow wasn't a member of the championship team, T.
M. S. still won the belts when he was pinned in the course of the match. Crow
would come and go over the course of the next 2 years in MSWA, but was never
much of a major player until a couple of months ago when he and his brother Drake
Gallows were the first team to challenge The New Age Syndicate for the MSWA Tag Team
Titles.
After spending the end of 2008 and the first 5 months of 2009
exclusively working for IZW, Crow returned to SWCW where he teamed with Jason
Kirby (a partnership that had been on and off over in MSWA as well) and lost to
old foes X-Rated. Now committed to SWCW, he set his eyes on taking some championship
gold. He came close in June 11, 2009 when SWCW ran a show in Chandler and he
faced SWCW Cruiserweight Champion Sage for the title. The match ended in a double
pin and was ruled a draw, but fans who saw it knew that Crow had a legitimate
chance at winning that belt.
Fate had different plans for Crow, who was
solidly a member of Nemesis at this point. In one of the most complex set of
circumstances to happen, Crow ended up winning the SWCW Tag Team Titles. But
instead of winning it with a fellow Nemesis member, he became champion with
Shane Sanchez, who was part of X-Rated. This came about as a result of a 6-Team
Elimination match, where wrestlers were taken out one at a time by pinfal or
submission. Crow & Sanchez were 2 of the final 5 people left and at that
point, whichever 2 could scale the ladders and grab the belts would become
champions. Crow & Sanchez, who had spent much of the previous 2 years in
battles against each other, now found themselves having to work together as the
newly christened "Rated N".
Meanwhile, Crow had reentered
IZW with Rage Logan, bringing Nemesis into the tag team picture down there. The
quickly faced off against Tag Team Champions Arrogant Money, then defeating BLK-OUT to become the #1 contenders to the IZW
Tag Team Titles. They were supposed to receive a title shot at Chaotic
Christmas that year, but that match never happened both men were taken out and
replaced by the New Age Syndicate, who would go on to win the titles.
Crow's partnership with Shane Sanchez did help him get into another high
profile match as the championship pair faced off against The Canadian Red Devil & Sage, with the winning
team advancing to the Ultimate X Match at Ultimate Xmas. As with the show in
Chandler, Crow & Sage ended up pinning each other simultaneously so both men
advanced to that match, which was ultimately won by Damien Morte.
Crow
& Sanchez would lose the tag team titles at the next show to the team of Locked
& Loaded. But Crow quickly rebounded, challenging Xavior for the Cruiserweight Title. He defeated
his former Nemesis partners Damien Morte & Xavior in a Handicap Match for
the opportunity, then 2 weeks later, on February 28, 2010, defeated Xavior for
the title in a match officiated by Rage Logan. Crow would hold on to the
Cruiserweight title for about 3 months before Morte cashed in the Sure Shot
Title contract he had from winning the Ultimate X match and won the belt on May
23, 2010. It was the last championship gold Crow ever held.
Crow had one
last major push for a title when he was one of the 4 people in a "3 Stages of
Hell" match at the Ultimate Xmas event on December 18, 2010. Crow, Rick Russo, Kevin James Sanchez and Maniac Mike all competed to for the Sure Shot
Contract at this year's event. After Russo & Sanchez were eliminated, the
match became a Ladder Match, with Crow coming ever so close to winning, but
ultimately Sanchez grabbed the contract, which he would cash in in 2011 to
become the SWCW Champion.
In an interesting twist of fate, April 2 saw
Crow face off against old foe Austin Tacious in Tacious' return to wrestling
after several months off. Bad luck seemed to follow as Tacious suffered a major
ankle/leg injury in that match, which Crow won.
Like many brothers, Crow
& Gallows longed to compete against each other, but only got to do so one
time, at the SWCW event on June 4, 2011. Gallows won that confrontation and
Crow praised his little brother for having come such a long way in a short
time.
Crow's last match was June 11, 2011 where he was chosen in a "Pick
Your Poison" stipulation to face John E. Stone. He defeated Stone and earned a
spot in the "6 Sides of Sickness" Fatal 4-Way match for the SWCW Title that also
featured Rick Russo. But Crow never got to take that championship opportunity.
Late at night on June 22, Crow's car hit a ditch and flipped, killing the young
star just 2 months before his 22nd birthday. Friends in the wrestling industry
have posted tributes to Crow all day. BYEW management has stated that all the
procedes from their show on Saturday as well as the money from sales of
merchandise will go to Crow's family to help defray the cost of his funeral
expenses. In slightly less than 4 years and 97 matches, Crow managed to touch
an entire state, working in 8 federations. The young father loved his family
and his fans. His last Facebook status simply said "Everyone has a purpose.
Stop and think, what's yours?" Few better epitaphs could be written on
purpose.
Crow made his debut on August 19, 2007, just 4 days after his 18th birthday.
He teamed with Damien Morte as the newest member of Nemesis in a Hardcore Rules Tag Team Match
against X-Rated.
He would be victorious in that encounter and would spend most of the the next 4
years in SWCW. Almost immediately, he was swallowed up in the fued between
X-Rated & Nemesis. 2 months after his debut, X-Rated again challenged Morte
& Crow to a specialty match, this time a Ladder Match, which Kevin
James Sanchez & Shane Sanchez won.
One of the things
Nemesis was best known for was how they entered federations other than SWCW.
They would purchase tickets and sit at ringside, mocking the wrestlers and
drawing attention to themselves. This was how they entered MSWA, although the result wasn't quite what they
expected as Crow's first official MSWA match on March 16, 2008, saw him teaming
with Se7en and losing to the team of Jason Kirby and fellow Nemesis teammate Damien
Morte as part of the Lethal Lotto Tag Team Tournament going on at the time.
Crow's first truly high-profile one-on-one match was a Barbed Wire
Casket Match against Kareem Sadat in SWCW on May 31, 2008. It was
absolutely brutal match that went all over the arena and although Sadat came out
victorious (after a chokeslam into the casket on Crow), it proved that Crow
could be considered a hardcore icon in SWCW. Much of his SWCW career had been
spent in Hardcore or specialty matches at this point and that would continue as
the feud between Nemesis & X-Rated erupted even further. One more time, the
teams met each other in a specialty match, but this time it was all 3 members of
Nemesis (adding Rage
Logan to the mix) against Nemesis in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs match.
Again, X-Rated walked away with a vicory, essentially bringing an end to the
feud, but it wasn't easy to gain and all 5 men walked away with a little more
respect for each other.
On November 22, 2008, Crow made his official
debut in IZW,
defeating Randy
Price. Price would be one of 2 people who he had programmes with
in IZW, the other one being Austin Tacious. The Crow/Tacious feud was Crow's
first long-term venture as a fan favourite and it resulted in a Dog Collar Match
between the two on January 31, 2009, which Crow was victorious in.
Unfortunately that was the last success he had in IZW on that run as he went on
a losing streak for the next 4 months before leaving the company on May 9, 2009.
Crow's impact in MSWA was always minimal as he never seemed to be high
up on the card. The one exception was when he was a key player in T. M. S. winning the MSWA Mid-South Tag Team
Title on January 4, 2009. In the opening match, Max
McGuirk & Crow had a match which Max won by DQ. This prompted
then-Mid-South Tag Team Champions The Forsaken to come to Crow's rescue and propose a
6-man match for the main event, but T. M. S. only agreed if the tag team belts
were on the line. Even though Crow wasn't a member of the championship team, T.
M. S. still won the belts when he was pinned in the course of the match. Crow
would come and go over the course of the next 2 years in MSWA, but was never
much of a major player until a couple of months ago when he and his brother Drake
Gallows were the first team to challenge The New Age Syndicate for the MSWA Tag Team
Titles.
After spending the end of 2008 and the first 5 months of 2009
exclusively working for IZW, Crow returned to SWCW where he teamed with Jason
Kirby (a partnership that had been on and off over in MSWA as well) and lost to
old foes X-Rated. Now committed to SWCW, he set his eyes on taking some championship
gold. He came close in June 11, 2009 when SWCW ran a show in Chandler and he
faced SWCW Cruiserweight Champion Sage for the title. The match ended in a double
pin and was ruled a draw, but fans who saw it knew that Crow had a legitimate
chance at winning that belt.
Fate had different plans for Crow, who was
solidly a member of Nemesis at this point. In one of the most complex set of
circumstances to happen, Crow ended up winning the SWCW Tag Team Titles. But
instead of winning it with a fellow Nemesis member, he became champion with
Shane Sanchez, who was part of X-Rated. This came about as a result of a 6-Team
Elimination match, where wrestlers were taken out one at a time by pinfal or
submission. Crow & Sanchez were 2 of the final 5 people left and at that
point, whichever 2 could scale the ladders and grab the belts would become
champions. Crow & Sanchez, who had spent much of the previous 2 years in
battles against each other, now found themselves having to work together as the
newly christened "Rated N".
Meanwhile, Crow had reentered
IZW with Rage Logan, bringing Nemesis into the tag team picture down there. The
quickly faced off against Tag Team Champions Arrogant Money, then defeating BLK-OUT to become the #1 contenders to the IZW
Tag Team Titles. They were supposed to receive a title shot at Chaotic
Christmas that year, but that match never happened both men were taken out and
replaced by the New Age Syndicate, who would go on to win the titles.
Crow's partnership with Shane Sanchez did help him get into another high
profile match as the championship pair faced off against The Canadian Red Devil & Sage, with the winning
team advancing to the Ultimate X Match at Ultimate Xmas. As with the show in
Chandler, Crow & Sage ended up pinning each other simultaneously so both men
advanced to that match, which was ultimately won by Damien Morte.
Crow
& Sanchez would lose the tag team titles at the next show to the team of Locked
& Loaded. But Crow quickly rebounded, challenging Xavior for the Cruiserweight Title. He defeated
his former Nemesis partners Damien Morte & Xavior in a Handicap Match for
the opportunity, then 2 weeks later, on February 28, 2010, defeated Xavior for
the title in a match officiated by Rage Logan. Crow would hold on to the
Cruiserweight title for about 3 months before Morte cashed in the Sure Shot
Title contract he had from winning the Ultimate X match and won the belt on May
23, 2010. It was the last championship gold Crow ever held.
Crow had one
last major push for a title when he was one of the 4 people in a "3 Stages of
Hell" match at the Ultimate Xmas event on December 18, 2010. Crow, Rick Russo, Kevin James Sanchez and Maniac Mike all competed to for the Sure Shot
Contract at this year's event. After Russo & Sanchez were eliminated, the
match became a Ladder Match, with Crow coming ever so close to winning, but
ultimately Sanchez grabbed the contract, which he would cash in in 2011 to
become the SWCW Champion.
In an interesting twist of fate, April 2 saw
Crow face off against old foe Austin Tacious in Tacious' return to wrestling
after several months off. Bad luck seemed to follow as Tacious suffered a major
ankle/leg injury in that match, which Crow won.
Like many brothers, Crow
& Gallows longed to compete against each other, but only got to do so one
time, at the SWCW event on June 4, 2011. Gallows won that confrontation and
Crow praised his little brother for having come such a long way in a short
time.
Crow's last match was June 11, 2011 where he was chosen in a "Pick
Your Poison" stipulation to face John E. Stone. He defeated Stone and earned a
spot in the "6 Sides of Sickness" Fatal 4-Way match for the SWCW Title that also
featured Rick Russo. But Crow never got to take that championship opportunity.
Late at night on June 22, Crow's car hit a ditch and flipped, killing the young
star just 2 months before his 22nd birthday. Friends in the wrestling industry
have posted tributes to Crow all day. BYEW management has stated that all the
procedes from their show on Saturday as well as the money from sales of
merchandise will go to Crow's family to help defray the cost of his funeral
expenses. In slightly less than 4 years and 97 matches, Crow managed to touch
an entire state, working in 8 federations. The young father loved his family
and his fans. His last Facebook status simply said "Everyone has a purpose.
Stop and think, what's yours?" Few better epitaphs could be written on
purpose.