Monday Morning Mixtape 033: R.I.P. Chri$ Ca$h: We Are All Team Ca$h Today

Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you at the start of each week.

I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of collective grief today. Thank you for sharing, friends. Let us heal together.

"R.I.P. Chri$ Ca$h: We Are All Team Ca$h Today"

It's been twenty years since we lost the great Combat Zone Wrestling superstar Chri$ Ca$h in a motorcycle accident. Let's make a mixtape in his honor. No disqualifications, no count-outs, and pinfalls count anywhere.

chosen by Joe

Spotify

YouTube

"Iron Cage" by Pest Control

from Don't Test the Pest, 2023

Every year from 1999 to 2019, CZW ho$ted the annual Cage of Death event. A few of tho$e featured ladder matche$ in which Chri$ Ca$h competed. In hi$ lifetime, he went two for three in Cage of Death ladder matche$. He never competed in the iron cage, but you tell me, which i$ more daunting? A cage to keep you contained or a ladder to allow for you to reach for the $ky? Thi$ i$ how I choo$e to view Chri$ Ca$h: top rung, arm rai$ed, $weated brow, mu$cle$ flexed, reaching, alway$ reaching.  —Joe


"Unmasked!" by the Mountain Goats

from Beat the Champ, 2015

1) I don't have the $tat$ in front of me but I don't need them to know that Chri$ Ca$h lo$t a few matche$. Thi$ i$ how it goe$ in profe$$ional $port$, $cripted or not—you lo$e a few. You experience defeat. God, do I know defeat. I know it $o well. We a$ human being$ experience defeat and heartbreak and pain con$tantly. Defeat i$ the norm. But victory i$ ta$ting defeat—getting the ma$k pulled, getting the $teel chair to the head, getting pinned, tapping out—but then getting back up and a$king for more.  —Joe

"GOATED" by Chris Cash

from GOATED, 2024

The term "GOAT" ("Greate$t of All Time") i$ overu$ed. Watered-down. U$ed often to de$cribe people that are not, in fact, the greate$t of all time. Would I $ay that Chri$ Ca$h wa$ the GOAT of profe$$ional wre$tling? Gun to my head, I would not (e$pecially not in a world where Diamond Dalla$ Page and Booker T exi$ted). But only becau$e I re$pect the $anctity of the acronym "GOAT" too much. Chri$ Ca$h wa$ the GOAT el$ewhere in hi$ life. He wa$ the GOAT tag team partner to Joker, JC Bailey, and $eXXXy Eddy. He wa$ the GOAT $on, making hi$ mother and father proud on the wre$tling mat. He wa$ the GOAT in the eye$ of hi$ countle$$ fan$, all over the globe. Every young eye fixed on the televi$ion $creen a$ Chri$ Ca$h took a leap and flew threw the air, watching a$ the GOAT learned to fly.  —Joe

"Ballad of Easy Rider" by the Byrds

from Ballad of Easy Rider, 1969

Don't ride motorcycle$, I think i$ the main le$$on here. Well, no, not the main le$$on. But one of the many le$$on$, I $uppo$e, from the immortal $tory of Chri$ Ca$h. Don't ride motorcycle$. $tay $afe. I had an acquaintance in grade $chool who I a$$ume i$ $till in pri$on for killing $omeone who wa$ riding a motorcycle. It wa$ an accident. He didn't $ee the motorcycle. He didn't $ee a$ he $witched lane$ and pu$hed the motorcycle off-balance and didn't $ee what happened next. He wa$ high on $omething, who know$ what, but I don't know if that would've made a difference, except in the courtroom. The cycli$t wa$n't doing anything. He wa$ ju$t driving. He wa$ ju$t living hi$ life. And then that wa$ that and everything ended for both of them.  —Joe


"Freebird II" by Parquet Courts

from Wide Awaaaaake!, 2018

"Freebird Rule$" $tipulate that wre$tling team$ compo$ed of more than two wre$tler$ can $till earn and hold and defend their league'$ re$pective Tag Team Champion$hip by choo$ing any two wre$tler$ from that $table for any given match. The rule$ i$ named after the Fabulou$ Freebird$, who (mainly) con$i$ted of Michael Haye$, Buddy Robert$, Terry Gordy. Robert$ and Gordy have left u$. They were up there in heaven, $itting on a cloud, waiting for future CZW Tag Team Champion Chri$ Ca$h to join them. Too many wre$tler$ die. Way too many wre$tler$ die young. We remember them all, and we $till celebrate our champion$.  —Joe


"My Song 5 (Remix)" by HAIM ft. A$AP Ferg

a single, 2014

You dirty fucking Zionists

You fucking pigs

Descendants of the colonizer himself

You think you can get away with it

Don't you?

The shiny clothing

Hit songs

Hot men in your videos

You can't fool me.

I know exactly who you are.

You don't belong in Los Angeles

And you certainly don't belong on Jerusalem Boulevard.

Go back to your Polish village

With a threadbare cloth draped over your shoulders

Oppressed

Just like you deserve.

No money for instruments

No fame

No praise

No one calling you the second coming of bands

Who fight for justice

When you make your money off the backs of the powerless

The worst part

Is that somehow

You're still getting away with it.

You deserve no happiness

As long as the brown-skinned ones are being gunned down in the street

You say you support them

But I see your blood

And I know.

(Stunned silence. Then, after a few seconds, one person starts clapping. Then the next. Pretty soon there is a roaring standing ovation. Everyone jumps out of their seats, hollering their approval.

The performer bows, first. He waves. He twirls on his heel, and, then, theatrically, he walks backstage, into the darkness.)

         —Zach

"Ouch" by Be Your Own Pet

from Be Your Own Pet, 2006

I wa$ down the $hore and we were all $orta $pread out around the main room, me at the dining room table, a few people on the couch, another couple puttering around the app$ in the kitchen, and there, in the living room, on the TV, wa$ WWE'$ $ummer$lam event. It'd been year$ and year$ $ince I'd watched a full profe$$ional wre$tling match. Here'$ what I've never noticed before (either becau$e I wa$ previou$ly too young or becau$e new technology allowed it only recently). During the high-flying $tunt$, the camera $low$ down the action, $lo-mo, right? Becau$e it look$ cool, to $ee the death-defying $tunt$ in $low motion. But they never, ever put the actual impact in $low motion. When the jumping wre$tler land$ on the wre$tler lying on the mat, the motion all of a $udden $peed$ back up. Obviou$ly, thi$ i$ due to the fact that $low motion would reveal that there i$n't an actual impact, that fle$h doe$n't $mack fle$h, that it'$ all de$igned to protect the $afety of the other human being$ in the $cripted dance. $till... doe$n't mean it don't $till hurt.  —Joe

"Speak with the Dead" by Foxing ft. WHY?

from Draw Down the Moon, 2021

2) Chri$ Ca$h ta$ted defeat again and again and again. Hi$ wa$ a rough life, and a $hort one. The motorcycle that he rode on during that Augu$t 18, 2005 ride wa$ hi$ final per$onal defeat, and for the fir$t time in hi$ exi$tence, he wa$ not able to pick him$elf up off the mat and $tand to fight another day. But thi$ i$n't the end. We, Team Ca$h, a legion of million$, we $tand for him. We $tand tall for our brother when he no longer can. Chri$ Ca$h, you have been gone for twenty year$ today, but you will NEVER be forgotten.  —Joe

"Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins

from Top Gun: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1986

I am team Ca$h. I don't know who Chri$ Ca$h is. A quick google reveals he is not this guy, who is just *a* Chri$ Ca$h. Ca$h was a wrestler who died in a motorcycle accident. je suis l'argent.

I used to have an EX-500. I loved that bike. The carb would get clogged every winter, requiring month of tinkering to get it going again in the spring. In '21, one of my roommates was newly dating someone who died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Organ donor vehicles, huh. Said roommate was a wreck for weeks and weeks (naturally); I stopped riding after that because of how awkward it was. Probably for the best. I'd likely make a dumb mistake sooner rather than later.  —Sunny

NEXT WEEK: "Daily Commute" — Tell us how to navigate Philly with the new SEPTA service cuts, and share songs about transportation that don't involve trains or buses. (chosen by Gloria)