I feel like ROH and CZW were the children of ECW. ROH for the high level indie work rate, as CZW is one of the mainstays of American Ultraviolence that ECW birthed.
Did ECW really have a high level indie work rate? I never thought it was known for that personally... I could see a more realistic/gritty approach to wrestling being the influence ECW had on ROH more than work rate!
CZW Is now full of nobodies they don’t have none of the names that carried them through the 2010’s they’re going to GCW. Now it’s a boring indie fed. They don’t even do death matches anymore
As the second student aka Billy Baja . Thank all my brothers for training as we were building up the company. I really thank John Z. for discovering me and seeing that I could move on to the NWA. I stopped wrestling in 2005. After getting married to my first wife and having a son. But the memories I have with all of the original guys is great! We always helped each other to get ready for the shows. We were a tight group. I miss everyone and hope all are well. God bless. #CZW #FakeYou
CZW made a cameo in the 2008 movie The Wrestler. DJ Hyde and Necro Butcher also made cameos in the film. Another interesting fact is that the CZW hardcore match scene in that movie was filmed in the old ECW arena.
I learned about CZW back in 2002/03 when, somewhere on the internet, I found a clip of Mondo vs Zandig's rooftop spot... It was the most insane wrestling move I've watched. I became a fan instantly.
Awesome video, Dave!! I followed and attended CZW shows from 2003-2010, was there for the IWA-MS “riot,” when Zandig was hung from the ceiling via meat hooks, my favorite moment was when New Jack appeared as a member of Team Zandig @ Cage Of Death 5, amazing pop!! Saw Nick Gage catch on fire at Tournament Of Death, one of the best matches I ever saw was Trent Acid vs Homicide in May 2003, the blowoff COD match vs ROH was awesome to see live.... Chris Hero was one of their best ever in CZW .... thank you again for this great video!!
Dave covering CZW? Jeezus!!! I do have to say, the promotion, booking wise, got a lot better under DJ Hyde, as Hyde's people started booking a lot more competently, even in the deathmatch stuff.
The “second wave” of death match guys coming out of Ohio and even from Japan were the real definition of hybrid death match workers, and they started booking matches with skill, similar to how they do it in BJW. Guys like danny havoc, drake younger, Moxley, Masada, etc. All came into the company when DJ took over. Most were taking the lead from Mondo after he retired.
Thanks for this Video. CZW was so exciting back then. So many great fighters. Dranke Younger, Brain Damage, Nick Gage, Zandig, Necro Butcher and so on.
@@acceptable1609 Nick Gage is the subject of an episode of Dark Side of the Ring. Cornette has flat-out refused to review that episode on his podcast, on the grounds that he thinks that Nick isn't a real wrestler.
@@perfectprince8062 He did a shoot interview about how much he hates hardcore/ultraviolent wrestling. The story goes that his hatred boils down to how thanks to Ian Rotten, it is now impossible to do business in his home state as a wrestling promoter and his feeling that a lot of the people who do these dangerous spots are gonna die crippled/addicted to painkillers.
I worked at a gas station and the lunch truck that came in every days driver was the re erand john dahmer. It happened that i told 2 of my friends to apply there for a job. He ended up giving us front row seats for the first 3 yeaes of czw. After going to tge first show, we all thought it would go nowhere and it was really bad. I mean really bad. But the 2nd show was amazing, and they took off big time! A lot of great memories of going to every show for those 3 years. Eventually, they put us in the 3rd row for some reason, i think they wanted to replace us with hat guy and his friends and some other guys. Dahmer must not have had the same pull and we were done with it. Plus i got tired of wrestling i general then. Sadly i and my group never went again. But we had such great times and im hrateful we got to see it grow from a tiny steaming hot, and freezing cold little warehouse.
I heard that they're gunna have a whole episode dedicated to Nick Gage on The Dark Side of the Ring. Also, Vice had already done a documentary on CZW specifically which was very interesting as well with DJ as the guy already running the show. All in all, CZW is a very interesting wrestling promotion.
I actually got a lot more respect for DJ after the vice documentary after he got kicked out of working in finance because of his criminal record. he faced and beat his demons and is now making a living following his passion. Nick gage is just an idiot, you've been on tv so you go rob a bank, what did he think was going to happen.
@@JM-fr5ge FACTS! It is not the same as it used to. It went from being all about hardcore wrestling & being just like ECW to being just another indie wrestling promotion
My favorite matches are with Sabu in combat zone wrestling and CM Punk versus former heavyweight champion Justice pain. Also big Japan vs. Combat zone wrestling the Winger versus Trent acid for the a junior Heavyweight Championship. Also the combat zone wrestling vs Ring of Honor very good rivalry
I agree with you Robert also the riots between combat zone wrestling and Ring of Honor I own two DVDs were they show that also Jim cornette's promo against them
@@dtk4569 yea they seem to have scrubbed all tje footage off youtube but basically the fell on a broken lighttube and ended up with a 2 inch deep gash in his arm pit. It cut 2 major arteries and he almost bled to death. Thw footage was nuts, after he landed gage lifted his arm and a waterfall of blood started pouring out. Him, tje reff and the fans all freaked out. Gage got up and went to the back right away. He cut a promo while czw nurses were trying to stop the bleeding. It was really fucking bad.
Was a fan of CZW when it first began and have some of their shows from 2001 on vhs . Also have Best Of' s vhs tapes for Zandig, Wifebeater .Justice Pain and "Sick" Nick Mondo . Also have a few of their dvds like Tournament Of Death and have vhs tapes of their 2 year feud with BJW and the bloody wars that went on Recently picked up a Best Of Zandig In BJW dvd with all his death matches there . Seen the explosion death match with him and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga which was the main event at BJW;s Ante Up show where he regained the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Title then cut a promo saying that CZW was done with Japan and carrying BJW on their backs but took the Death M,atch Title with him which was put up in the 1st Tournament Of Death won by Wifebeater and called the CZW Death Match Title also held by "Hardcore "Nick Gage and Nate Hatred before it was vacated and they introduced the Ultraviolent Underground Title in 2005 which JC Bailey defeated Necro Butcher in a Barbed Wire Cage Weapons Match . CZW over the years switched ownershhip that saw Zanding sell the company to DJ Hyde but continued doing the death match style they were built on . The last major match they was when "Bulldozer"Matt Tremont called out legendary pioneer of the Death Match in Atsushi Onita to face him in a Death Match . It was supposed to be an Explosion Death Match the venue was not capable of hosting such a match furthermore it was turned into a 6 Man match w/Team FMW beating Team CZW but Onita offering Tremont a chance to come face him in Japan in which he did . They faced eachother in Explosion Death Match for Tremont's H2O promotion in which Onita won . Haven't heard too much about CZW anymore . Basically just another East Coast indy . Far from the glory days they once had .
CZW Best of the Best and Tournament Of Death was where CZW absolutely shined. But as of now they're really are a shell of their former selves. They cut down on the deathmatch by alot, which hurt them, but what really kicked them in the nuts is alot of the regulars just straight up stop showing up. If anyone who follows the deathmatch scene would know what I'm talking about when on twitter alot of former CZW guys just straight up trash DJ Hyde. Then around the time of speaking out movement multiple women explained how much of a creep DJ was.....
Former CZW Champ Bulldozer Tremont had a store at the Berlin Farmer's Market, and a lot of the talent is from here in South Jersey, like Atlantic City and Hammonton
While their school has been in a few different locations, a lot of the time it’s been based on Blackwood, NJ, though it was based at the ECW Arena for about a year or two at one point.
They did a great intergender deathmatch that looked really believable (and that's not easy to do with a size disparity like that) so props to them. Obligatory JYEEEZUS!
Can't believe the permanent damage or possibility of being crippled for life the wrestlers went into every match just for a few bucks and some painkillers. Some of the matches in czw are so brutal that it makes the taker vs mankind hell in the cell match look like a disney movie.
I actually tried out for CZW for a few weeks it was something. I couldn’t continue because I lived in Philly and was 18 with no car Most of the people were respectful others were eh
I was born into a family that took me to Wrestling Events in the early 80's and I grew up watching NWA AWA WCCW and ICW. Until I got old enough to go on Tour with the Dead I'd be literally on the road driving to concerts between 1990- 2000. So my last memory of wrestling before I took a ten year hiatus was Flair and Steamboat and the NWA selling their flagship show to become WCW. Unbelievably I never saw wrestling for the next ten years so I never to this day watched WWE and I never saw ECW or WCW. I mean I did see a little bit of Eastern Championship Wrestling ECW but that was tape trading after my return to active wrestling fandom in 2000. But I was fortunate that I literally began following wrestling again after a decade right at the beginning of promotions like CZW ROH TNA and Chikara. I was in my glory going to local wrestling shows and helping out at the local wrestling dojo. Unfortunately I got in into other things shortly after that and I was forced to take a second ten years hiatus again from wrestling but once again I was fortunate enough to be here just in time to see the return of the NWA, the formation of AEW and a slew of other new independent promotions that I follow regularly.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling yeah I have a tendency to do that too much. But I am grateful to have been there from the beginning to see CZW, especially ROH now that they are going on hiatus or whatever. I expect someone to come in and save the day for ROH, maybe Tony Khan or someone new. I wish I was rich and I would buy ROH and pay them to continue doing their thing
Messed it up though they had Jody fleisch and Johnny storm from the uk promotion FWA but they decided to burn that bridge which is why they never came back, CZW always made me think "good but its a shame certain things are a one and done".
CZW despite being totally different now, will always be my favourite promotion. I remember when I was young, downloading random wrestling music videos. One of them had this promotion with yellow turn buckles and ref outfits, so I had to know more. One night I downloaded a match in a crowded fire station, the famed Nick mondo and Jun Kasai vs. Justice pain and Johnny Kashmir, a fans bring the weapons match. I was hooked ever since and it totally changed by views on wrestling forever!
I can't even watch it anymore cuz it's so damn boring now. Like, I remember how violent & hardcore it used to be. How entertaining the deathmatches were & everything..... Now it's just a complete joke of a company. Nothing about it is special & I can barely sit thru 5 minutes of watching the product.
I'm from South Jersey and now living in Delaware; CZW is still popular here. I never went to their shows, but they do the death matches here. Being from Droz's hometown I'm not interested in that crazy stuff. Great video.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling very much so! I love history of wrestling. CZW and XPW have been at the top of my list for a while now. Thanks for your time and work!
I think The Monster Abyss should win the prestigious CZW World Heavyweight Championship to strap the gold around his waist and represent Ultraviolent wrestling all over the world as well as defend the title all over the world just like Zandig and others did
Oh my God. A CZW episode. This is going to be crazy as somebody who has connections to czw there's a lot of history between the zandig era and the DJ Hyde era of combat zone wrestling since 1999 I have bled the black and yellow since 1999 longer than I have been a fan of WWE which has been since 2002
@@DaveKnowsWrestling especially DJ he's awesome. He gave me a job opportunity when I was 19 and I almost took it but with my cerebral palsy it would be hard for me to be on the road 300 days a year
I remember back in high school, the long forgotten days before youtube, I used to download TV rips (in .wmv format, of course) of CZW Fake You TV from some obscure wrestling forum. I really liked Trent Acid and thought he was going to be a huge star. Boy, was I mistaken...
@@DaveKnowsWrestling It was also my introduction to guys like Sonjay Dutt and Jimmy Rave (both of whom really impressed me with how hard they worked) and a young up-and-coming Alex Shelley and Jimmy Jacobs. CZW was my gateway to all kinds of other indies and wrestlers who would go on to be top guys.
Wait, are you saying glass barbed wire and fire are the only things banned in NJ? So that means someone could technically make use of a naval cutlass and it'd be perfectly fine right? Jokes aside, I could definitely see that happening in CZW. According to Dj Hyde a fan once straight up brought a gun for a fans bring the weapons match.
Let's not forget CZW brought all the Quebec wrestlers from IWS like: Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Lufisto and Sexy Eddy and exposed them to the american audience for the first time
No... Sami Zayn is a homegrown NXT talent and never existed anywhere else before that. P.S. On an unrelated note, El Generico has retired from pro wrestling and is a completely different person
I stopped watching wrestling like 6-7 years ago but lately got interested due to AEW. I really like GCW but its nowhere near czws glory days. CZW had amazing talent and I'm so glad some of them get to see the spotlight, cool video. CZW was a big part of my teens always fun to remember back on it
@@DaveKnowsWrestling do you have any recommendations for must see matches the last 1-2 years? I used to love czw and PWG. I watched some AEW and liked what I saw!
Great Video, Dave. Was this the fed that did the camera-shaking to 'enhance: the exploding objects? I wonder if the AEW pyro crew thought of that last sunday?
@@DaveKnowsWrestling I clicked your about tab hoping you would have an email. You did, so I sent you an e-mail with some info you may find kind of cool PS, what was that image from at 4:28?
