Don’t be fooled by the wide difference between the two rankings of these teams. While 2007 WFTDA champions and still #1 ranked Kansas City has to be considered the favorite here, WFTDA newcomer Denver is no newcomer to derby — they’ve been around since December 2005 and steadily working on their game. They’ve won both their bouts since their inception to WFTDA — a 106-98 win over Cincinnati and a 117-71 win over a Minnesota home team, the Atomic Bombshells.

More pertinent to this particular matchup, though, is the fact that Denver and Kansas have faced off twice before, and both have been fairly close contests. In the summer of 2006, KCRW pulled out a 84-60 win in a 40-minute game … but in their first full-length meeting, in March 2007, Denver led after each of the first two periods before finally succumbing to a furious third-period Kansas City rally, 80-68. (Denver coach Angus Con recaps that contest here.)
That game came just a month after Kansas City’s 4th place showing at Dust Devil 2007, though, and KCRW has faced tremendously high-level competition since then — Arizona, Minnesota, Gotham, Rat City, and Carolina (twice.) Carolina was the only team able to beat them, and even then only by the slimmest of margins — a 96-95 nailbiter that ruined KCRW’s first bout in the #1 slot. One would think that KCRW’s been more tested than Denver in the 11 months since their last meeting, so if Denver can manage to repeat or improve on their last performance against Kansas City, it’ll likely have a tremendous effect on their ranking next quarter.
KCRW brings mostly the same crew that went up against Carolina in December, with the notable exceptions of Archie Lee and Nationals MVP Xcelerator, who’ll be missing the bout with a broken wrist suffered a month ago while snowboarding. Ami-Geddon and Red Ripper step in to replace them. We’ve gotten some conflicting reports as to whether Denver’s phenomenally talented all-around force Rockett (not to be confused with KCRW’s phenomenally talented all-around force Snot Rocket) will be suiting up for Denver — if not, the Colorado girls still have some serious weapons in Angela Death, Boo Boo Radley and Jersey Trouble, among others.
UPDATE: Angela Death confirms Rockett is not skating, recovering from a torn MCL suffered while skiing (snow sports haven’t been kind to these two teams recently!) Indy Structible is also off the roster with back trouble, so Denver will be taking 13 skaters to KC.
UPDATE 2: KCRW controls the upstarts, rolling to a 150-80 win.
Additional reporting: Ivana Clobber, Friction Vixxxen
244 Bruz-Her // 111 Annie Maul // 19 Rita Ploy // 911 Patti Wackin // XOXO Princess Slay-Ya // 999 Bad Omen // 11 Jessika Rabid // 1UP Missile Toes // 4 Snot Rocket // 007 Dee Claw // 816 Jade Lightning // XX Dominant Jean // 42 Red Ripper // 7 Ami-Geddon
XIX Angela Death // O2 Atomic Fire // 10 Berlin Brawl // 5 Boo Boo Radley // 357 Bria Fraid // 1,2,3 … Candy Vour // 3 Dharma Gedden // 99 Disco-A-Gogo // 31 Fiona Grapple // (908) Jersey Trouble // 212 Peekaboo Screech // 1.21 Sheila Tack // V Slick Vick