Worst of Wrestling #4: CZW Cage of Death XXI

Welcome back to the Worst of Wrestling. Last time we reflected on the 2022 Royal Rumble and all of the horrible booking decisions that WWE made. We’ve talked about WWE a lot recently, I mean it is pretty much all I talk about on this website, so I look forward to a change of pace here looking at one of the longest surviving independent promotions in the US, CZW.

Combat Zone Wrestling was founded in 1999 and became the home of “ultraviolence”. With the writing on the wall for ECW, CZW aimed to fill the void of hardcore wrestling. On the 16th of October 1999, CZW put on their first Cage of Death event and it became their largest annual event for 20 years. That was until Cage of Death 21, which caused the even to be temporarily retired for 3 years. Was the show that bad?

Let’s investigate what went wrong, but first, a quick history lesson for those unfamiliar with this Deathmatch promotion.

CZW

CZW was founded by John Zandig who created his own wrestling school to hone his own skills, which then morphed into a fully fledged wrestling promotion. The focus of the promotion was on hardcore wrestling, cemented with their working relationship with Big Japan’s Pro Wrestling, another hardcore-based promotion. Although they leaned heavily towards violence, it is not like they didn’t have good wrestlers on their shows. Alex Shelley, Chris Hero, Roderick Strong, Kevin Steen, El Generico, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Adam Cole. Just some of the biggest names to walk through CZW and progress to become major stars.

CZW was founded in New Jersey, but made itself home in Philadelphia, aiming to be a successor to ECW. 2004-2009 was the golden years for CZW where some of their best matches in company history took place. They also formed alliances with Chikara and Ring of Honor to run crossover events and invasion angles. CZW was a pretty hot commodity in a time when mainstream wrestling was not as good as it used to be.

Change of Management

In 2009, wrestler D.J. Hyde purchased CZW from John Zandig and led CZW into a new era. The excessive ultraviolence was toned down and brought more variety to their programming. More homegrown talent was developed as well as an influx of international talent to spice up their match cards.

CZW’s annual ‘Best of the Best’ and ‘Tournament of Death’ tournaments were the promotions biggest events of the year where some of the biggest names on the indies would often appear. New working agreements were established with Germany’s Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Canada’s SMASH wrestling and UK promotions like WrestlePro to host Supercards around the world.

Show quality and general interest in CZW plateaued in the late 2010s, but the company was brought to a complete halt in 2020 thanks to the global pandemic. After an incredibly disappointing 21st Anniversary show in February of 2020, CZW had one show in March and not another for 17 months.

CZW resumed operations in October 2021 but have struggled to recapture the glory they once had. They have not been able to bring in the talent and star power that made some of their past shows unmissable. Now, CZW just feels like another indie promotion which is a shame considering its history and cultural significance.

Cage of Death

CZW’s magnum opus is the Cage of Death, a barbaric steel cage match with a plethora of weapons to maim your opponent with. Light tubes, glass, barbed wire, tables, the lot. At one point, the cage used to have an electrified wall, but that was discontinued after CoD IV after Lobo was accidentally electrocuted early into his match with John Zandig.

The Cage of Death hosted some of CZW’s famous, most violent matches. CoD V saw a 12-man elimination tag, a 30-minute blood-soaked war that might be the first great iteration of the Cage of Death. Perhaps the most famous one didn’t even appear on a CZW show, during the interpromotional war between CZW and ROH. A 12-man tag Cage of Death match closed the Death Before Dishonor IV show in hardcore fashion.

At Cage of Death XX, Mance Warner defeated Rickey Shane Page for the vacant CZW Heavyweight championship in the last great CoD match.

But just how much of a step down in quality is Cage of Death XXI? Let’s find out

CZW Cage of Death XXI, Online Stream Airing Live on 14th December 2019 From The Colisseum in Vorhees Township, New Jersey

We cold open with a shot of the entrance. Out walks a guy in a sparkling silver tuxedo, carrying an iPad and a couple of gift bags. “There he is, the man, Larry Legend.” Larry hands gifts to the audience. He enters the ring as one of the commentators says he is selling out this Cage of Death 21. The camera pans over to the crowd. Hmm. Selling out is not the words I would use.

Off the bat, the audio mixing is terrible. The arena noise and the commentary is quiet so I had to turn up the volume to 100 AND put in my headphones. So when Larry Legend grabs a microphone and shouts “WELCOME TO THE COLISSEUM” I shat my pants and lost my hearing. Larry says “welcome to the Colisseum and welcome as we air live on FiteTV for the Cage, the Cage, the Cage…of Death!” Chants for Cage of Death by the crowd. Larry says we will be starting off with a CZW Rules match. “Let’s start the night with some violence” the commentator says.

No hello’s or introductions from the commentary team. I would like to know who the voices are that I am going to be listening to for the next 3 hours. It gives the show a more professional feel with a commentary introduction. I think the production would have benefitted from an opening video package of sorts, even if it is a generic hype package. Sure it doesn’t mean much for the crowd in attendance, but when you’re trying to gather an audience online too, these things matter.

Also, on Cagematch this show supposedly opens with a match for the vacant WSU title between Brittany Blake and Kris Statlander. Why is this not on the broadcast? You will find out why.

Conor Claxton vs John Silver, CZW RUles Match

Conor Claxton enters to Amityville by Eminem, wielding a staple gun. He is a CZW homegrown talent, trained by DJ Hyde and Drew Gulak in the CZW Wrestling Academy. Some production issues early on as the camera focused on Conor goes dark. He is introduced as the Tournament of Death 18 winner. Larry Legend has such a baffling cadence. He announces “Conor” like it’s his nickname, he says “Claxton” as if that is his first name leading into a surname, but he just stops. If he is trying to stand out and sound unique, he should stop because it sounds bad.

Conor is searching under the ring and pulling out weapons. Commentary talk about how he was embarrassed 2 weeks ago by his opponent tonight. Silver attacked him from behind and cost him a match against someone. They haven’t explained what CZW rules means but I feel confident assuming that this is essentially a No DQ match. Commentary put over John Silver as the Best of the Best tournament winner of 2019 and a former CZW Heavyweight champion.

‘The Meat Man’ John Silver comes out to “I Just Had Sex” by Lonely Island.

Staple Job

John Silver charges the ring and we start with a brawl. John and Conor trade forearms, Silver drops Claxton with a German suplex. Silver puts Conor inside a trash can and kicks him. The action spills outside and Conor Claxton is already busted open. The guy gigged a couple of minutes in from a kick inside of a trash can? Silver does some fun crowd work whilst kicking Claxton. Silver puts him in a trash can again and goes for a lap, but Conor launches the trash can at Silver’s head.

Conor grabs the staple gun and asks the audience for things to staple to John Silver. He staples 2 dollar bills to John’s chest. Silver staples a dollar to Conor’s forehead. Then John staples a dollar to his cheek, twice. So far we have seen a single German suplex, a bunch of forearms, a bunch of kicks and significant overuse of a staple gun. One of the commentators reference Captain Lou Albano walking around with rubber bands in his cheek and suggests one of these guys as a baby stapled him. I doubt there is much crossover of CZW fans and Lou Albano fans.

Conor hits Silver with a chair. “Welcome to my world now bitch” before giving Silver the most pitiful slap of all time, then a brainbuster on the chair. I assume it was on the chair, the camera shot missed it because the barrier is in the way. Bulldog onto a chair and a dropkick by Claxton. He gets a 1 count thanks to John Silver grabbing the rope. “there are no fucking rope breaks in a CZW match you fucking idiot. There are no fucking rope breaks you fucking moron” Yikes. I doubt that was a staged mistake, those words felt real.

The Finish

Silver hits a frankensteiner. He follows up with a superkick and a spin doctor for a 2 count. Conor counters Silver and climbs up to the top rope, but Silver throws a trash can at his head. Silver tosses him off the top onto the trash can but it only gets a 2. Silver pulls out a kick pad covered in thumbtacks and puts it on. Conor just kneels there and does nothing as Silver wins up the kicks. Conor calls him a bitch so Silver starts kicking him in the head. Claxton catches him rebounding off the ropes with an Attitude Adjustment through the chair then a piledriver which also gets a 2 count.

Claxton pulls out a barbed wire door from underneath the ring. He shouts at Silver “remember this from last month?” which makes me realise that there must be a longer, larger story to this match that commentary are just not referring to. The door is set in the corner. They trade big strikes, Silver hits a Razor’s Edge through the door. Silver follows up with a running knee and pins to win. There is no way that those shoulders were actually down though. Conor was mostly on his side and you can tell from the camera angle that his shoulder couldn’t have been down properly. Commentary call this a level of retribution for Silver. For what?

Analysis

Let’s talk positively first. There are some early signs of quality from John Silver here. John plays to the crowd well, his moves were executed well and he has a good look.

This match was at its best okay, at its worst garbage. The stapling went on for far too long. I don’t mind it being used, but the largest portion of this match was walking around the ring stapling each other with money. It’s crap viewing. From what I saw here, Conor Claxton is not a good wrestler. I might be wrong, but this was not a good first impression.

For the longest time there was barely any moves being hit. Then in the final third of the match they just hit big moves that lacked any real purpose. The AA into the chair followed by the piledriver could have been a finish but it was just a series of moves that meant nothing.

I have to call out commentary here because they spent too much time talking shit when they should have been putting over the bad blood Silver and Claxton have. They referenced an incident that happened 2 weeks ago, but Claxton also referred to an incident from a month ago. How did this begin? How did we get to this point? What are the motivations? These are all responsibilities for a commentator to cover and they didn’t do a good job.

Where are they now?

John Silver of course is still wrestling for AEW and ROH and has done ever since 2020. Conor Claxton wrestled for CZW until they had to close their doors during the pandemic. Claxton last wrestled in a King of the Deathmatch tournament in Canada so he is still doing his thing I guess.

Young, Dumb N Broke vs Azrieal, Jimmy Rave & Monsta Mack

YDB is made up of Charlie Tiger, Ellis Taylor and Griffin McCoy. There is little information on these 3 guys, they have all been featured on Game Changer Wrestling over the past few years which is the highest platform they have reached in their careers. Azrieal, which is a terrible way to spell his name, is a near 20 year veteran who has wrestled all over the indie scene including ROH. He has also appeared on AEW Dark in 2021. Azrieal is a former 2 time CZW Tag Champion. You’ve probably heard of Jimmy Rave, he was a great fixture of the early years in ROH. He is a 1 time CZW Iron Man Champion and has worked for both TNA and WWE as well. Monsta Mack is a 20 year veteran, wrestling and winning championships all over the independent scene.

“This is classic old school vs new school”. Apparently YDB have been talking trash about these experienced wrestlers. Commentary tell the story that Jimmy Rave beat Griffin McCoy twice. McCoy blamed his then girlfriend Valentina for the loss, they broke up and now McCoy blames Rave for their break-up. See how easy that was to do? Why couldn’t that be done for the opening match. YDB are accompanied by the CZW Wired Champion, Jordan Oliver. These 4 look like the biggest group of twats I have ever seen. They are heels so that is a good thing. Charlie Tiger looks like a budget Nick Jackson. Griffin looks like one of the lads from Friday Night Dinner, not the specky one. Taylor looks like every indie wrestler ever.

6-man Action

Azrieal starts with Taylor and do some fast paced wrestling. Arm drags, dropkicks, the whole sha-bang. Griffin tags in and Azrieal drops him too. Tiger now tags in but gets caught in an Octopus stretch. “Huh, we gotta whole zoo in the ring”. Tiger gets to the ropes but Monsta Mack tags in. Azrieal tags back in immediately for some reason so that they can do a stalling suplex + dropkick combo. Mack barely lifted him up, the move looked shitty. Taylor & McCoy try to pull Rave & Mack off the apron but fail. This distracts the ref so Tiger can gouge Azrieal’s eyes. Tiger launches Azrieal into his own corner, taking out Rave and Mack too somehow. Azrieal is seated, Tiger hits a cannonball the long way with a double enziguiri combo from his stablemates.

YDB get heat on Azrieal now. They so focused on getting their shit in that they’re barely playing to the crowd. They are not getting any reactions. If they did I couldn’t hear it because the audio is poor. Azrieal fights out of the corner and tries to get a rag to Jimmy Rave. Azrieal definitely was within reach of a tag but obviously he wasn’t supposed to tag, so this looked foolish when he got stopped. He kicks YDB away and gets the tag to Rave to an anti-pop which is a shame. Jimmy Rave hits a comeback, a clothesline gets a 2. We can see Mack and Azrieal who have been “taken out” clearly watching on from the outside waiting for their spot. YDB try to triple team Rave, he fights them off and tries to lock in a crossface but it is broken up.

The Finish

We have another YDB heat segment beating down Jimmy Rave, hitting some poorly coordinated tandem offence. They target the left leg of Rave. At this point I started to +10 a few times because this is slow and boring. Rave fights out and gets the tag to Monsta Mack who drops everyone with forearms. Mack looks like a Geodude. Mack is blown up after a minute and all of his offence looks sluggish. He back drops Tiger onto Griffin. Mack has Taylor in a press slam, Azriel hits a double stomp mid move. A good spot. Mack and Azrieal hit tandem suicide dives which was cool too.

Griffin and Mack trade slaps in the ring. Mack lazily moves to the corner and gets a boot up. He tries and fails to climb up to the second rope so he just quits whatever he was going for. Powerslam gets a near fall. Mack goes to the corner again but Tiger lifts him up. Now they basically just do the exact same spot we saw before. Double foot stomp but this time into a Death Valley Driver, not a press slam. It only gets a 2. Azrieal Northern Lights suplexes Tiger into the corner. He hits a cutter. Ellis Taylor hits a weird springboard cutter thing that looked kinda cool. Each man takes turns coming into the ring to hit big moves. We are down to Griffin and Rave in the ring. Griffin eventually traps him in a pinfall and wins the match.

Analysis

I don’t want people to think that I am just shitting on independent wrestling because it is not at the level of mainstream wrestling. I watch local wrestling, I know to expect that it might be a little rough around the edges sometimes. However, I also know that the standard of wrestling today is quite high and I have witnessed some amazing matches at local shows from wrestlers I never heard of previously. CZW have made a name for themselves in the past for putting on great matches from wrestlers we haven’t heard from before. There is a basic standard in wrestling now.

I am not going to be too hard on YDB here because they are only have 3 years of wrestling experience. I think they did a fine job. Their offence could be tighter and they could have done a lot more crowd work to gain more heat, but they put in a solid effort. I did not like them repeating moves like the double foot stomp. They also pulled out a cutter more than once too. I was surprised not to see a bunch of superkicks here. The repetition weakens the impact of the move, which is why moves like the superkick mean nothing anymore.

I felt bad for Jimmy Rave here. Looking at him, it is clear he is not the wrestler he once was but he still had a lot of talent. He was the glue and I imagine had a big hand in the structure of the match. He worked hard and he wanted to put over the younger guys. I thought Azrieal has some ring talent but has zero clue how to sell effectively and just hits moves for the sake of hitting them. Monsta Mack looked completely uninterested in this entire match. He could not give a single fuck about the action or the result. He moved from spot to spot with the enthusiasm of a widow.

This match felt longer than it was. Outside of a few nice moments, this was a filler match.

Where Are They Now?

Young, Dumb N Broke are no longer a stable as of 2024, but they still occasionally wrestle together in different variations. Ellis Taylor renamed himself Pat Dynamite. Griffin McCoy is the only member who still wrestles for CZW today.

Azrieal mostly wrestles for Pro Wrestling Magic in New Jersey, this was his last CZW appearance. This was Monsta Mack’s last CZW show too, he is semi-retired and appears for Titan Championship Wrestling. Jimmy Rave unfortunately passed away in December 2021 after a double amputation due to a MRSA infection. He was honoured on AEW Dynasty by his former manager Prince Nana.

Larry Legend is back and asks how everyone is enjoying Cage of Death XXI. He hypes up a match in 2 weeks time, the WSU champion Brittany Blake vs the Undead Bridge, Su Yung. This announcement bombed. I am unsure why, Su Yung is awesome. Larry then says “that is a WSU double header, tickets special bonus blockbuster buy, both shows, tonight only, $30.” WHAT? What does any of that mean. I have no clue if they’re advertising 2 shows on one day, 2 shows on one weekend. 2 consecutive shows over 2 weekends. Fuck knows! Because Larry Legend is doing a terrible job at promoting. What is the other WSU match if it is a double header? I don’t know. Let’s move on.

Larry Legend tries to push #COD21. Or is it #CODXXI? Unclear.

Gabriel Skye vs Kris Bishop vs KC Navarro vs Leon Ruff vs Matt MacIntosh, CZW Wired Contender match

Hey look it is people I recognise! I know KC Navarro. At this time he was relatively unknown and mainly featured on CZW. Proof that CZW still makes some stars since he is now part of TNA and has even featured on WWE NXT. Navarro comes out with 5 other dudes all wearing clothes saying #blessed. Larry Legend is told to shut the fuck up as Navarro’s manager Jay Free speaks. He insults the audience and introduces the entourage. He puts over KC Navarro as the lord and saviour. The crowd were reacting to this so I think he was doing a good job. Jay Free tells everyone to look under their seats to find…absolutely nothing “you gullible pieces of shit”. This is the first display of good heel heat on this show.

Matt Macintosh comes out, he is a 7 year pro wrestling all over the Tri-State area. He wears a mask but takes it off. I also remember Leon Ruff, he made his name on EVOLVE mostly before heading to WWE in 2020. He is a former North American champion, but here he is still a young lad with a dream. He gets some positive reactions from the crowd. Kris Bishop is from the CZW Dojo, debuting in 2016. He looks like a baby Rampage Brown if Rampage had hair and dressed like a knob. Finally, we have Gabriel Skye, 2 years wrestling experience here and is probably a student of the CZW Dojo too. I swear this is just Azrieal again, they look the same.

Spot After Spot

KC Navarro starts the match by shoving everyone around. They swarm Navarro but his entourage step in to back him up. Navarro and his cronies are all taken out. Bishop tackles MacIntosh to the outside. Ruff manages to botch a roll-up attempt on Skye. They trade counters and reversals. Ruff then does this weird spot where he is jumping from rope to rope in the corner, “dodging” Skye’s attacks, but Sky actually makes contact with him. Skye is flailing his hands at him. This looked awful, a very bad PWG style spot.

Ruff dropkicks him out the ring. Ruff and Navarro now go at it, running the ropes and flipping out of headscissors. KC Navarro is fluid in there and takes the time to actually engage the crowd. Navarro kicks Ruff in the nuts. Navarro and Bishop now run the ropes, huge spinebuster by him. Bishop and McIntosh now run the ropes and do reversals. MacIntosh hits what looked like a snap dragon suplex, but from a half and half position. It looked pretty sweet. MacIntosh hits a standing moonsault and doesn’t go for the pin for some fucking reason. Win the match you moron!

Skye and MacIntosh run the ropes, all of these sequences just feel like the same. Skye botches a missile dropkick. KC Navarro teases doing a dive but he catches himself on the ropes. Bishop does a big dive instead. Navarro is back dropped over the ropes onto the guys, MacIntosh hits a big dive and wipes everyone out. I have to say, why are Navarro’s faction out here if they are not going to help? They are heels, they should be helping them cheat. Ruff does a big dive onto everyone. Everyone slowly stands up and waits for Skye to do a big dive onto everyone. Sure, why the fuck not.

The Finish

Each man takes turns running into the ring to hit offence on each other. Eventually when Skye approaches Navarro, one of his men gets in the ring to save Navarro from the assault. Skye hits a really contrived Ripcord spinning neckbreaker with theatrics. Ruff goes for a springboard move but MacIntosh runs into the corner to dodge. Then, they run the spot again but this time MacIntosh doesn’t go anywhere, so Ruff just jumps up and does a top rope move with a spin, hitting the mat with no one nearby to land. That might be the stupidest thing I have ever seen. I was belly laughing my ass off. Why did WWE sign this guy?

The crowd are confused, so is MacIntosh, at what just happened. You can hear someone shouting “STUPID!” Ruff hits a springboard cutter on Bishop, then a swanton bomb but the referee is dragged out by Maven Bentley, who is the president of CZW apparently. Ruff hits a dive taking out KC’s entourage, Bentley moves out the way. Navarro hits a frog splash on Bishop and wins the match.

Analysis

Again, let’s start positively. KC Navarro is the only guy in this match who I actually enjoyed watching. His stuff looked good, he can sell well and he has a personality actually I would watch on TV. Him winning was absolutely the right call because he is 1,000,000 miles better than anyone else in this match.

Wow, I think I hated this match more than the previous two. Objectively, the work rate was higher and there was a lot more action but none of it meant anything. I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head one memorable thing in this match, apart from Leon Ruff being an idiot. Other than KC, the other 4 guys just hit a bunch of moves and ran the ropes, hitting fast paced offence. All of their shit looked the same, none of the stood out and none of them were interesting.

A big issue with multi-man matches sometimes is just having 1v1 and that was the case here. It was literally always 1v1 sequences, there was no double teaming, alliances or storytelling. The entourage of KC were there and they barely got involved which is weird for them to do. Why are they even out there? Oh thats right, to cushion the blow for all of the copy+paste dives that they all did.

This might be the blandest, paint by numbers match I have ever seen. Thanks to Leon Ruff for providing the one enjoyable moment at his own expense. I am glad that KC Navarro has moved on to better things.

Where are they now?

I already mentioned KC Navarro is in TNA and appearing in NXT, he is aligned with Trick Williams and AJ Francis as First Class. After being released from WWE, Leon Ruff wrestled for AEW and ROH for a year before being released from there too. He, Skye and Bishop are just wrestling around the indies. Matt MacIntosh I believe has retired from wrestling altogether, or at least as quit for now. He hasn’t wrestled in over a year.

Maven Bentley is in the ring and he calls Kris Bishop the future of this business. Everyone who aligns with him becomes champion. He tells Bishop to fall in line and follow Bishop. Maven extends a hand, but Bishop punches him.

I don’t really understand this, am I missing something? Kris Bishop was about to lose, but Bentley saved the match by dragging Ruff out of the ring. Afterwards, it is not Ruff who Bentley approaches, but Bishop? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Oh well, it is not like I am going to stay tuned to find out what happens.

Larry Legend plugs the merch shop.

Anthony Greene & Ava Everett vs Alex Reynolds & Mark Sterling, No Holds Barred

Another match with some familiar faces. If you are in AEW fan, you are familiar with Alex Reynolds and Mark Sterling. Interesting look for Reynolds. He looks almost like an aristocrat with his smug look and his red suit jacket. Alex is called the “Handsome Devil”. The story we get for this is apparently Reynolds is jealous of the attention Greene and Everett are getting in CZW, so he sought out former lawyer “Smart” Mark Sterling to help take them down. We hear Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven is a place on Earth’ as Greene and Everett enter. I didn’t fully hear the call, but I think Larry Legend called Everett the “Platinum Putty”? Or was it honey? Or bunny? I cannot find what this is supposed to be, so who knows.

If you are not familiar with Anthony Greene’s work on the independents, you might remember him from his brief spell on 205 Live in WWE as August Grey. He was only there for 8 months before being released, which feels a bit pointless on WWE’s part. Ava Everett is a newcomer at this time, trained by Anthony Greene at the NEPW Academy.

OMG Actual Storytelling

Greene and Everett rush the ring and they are immediately beaten down by Reynolds and Sterling. They try to whip Greene and Everett into each other but it is reversed and they nearly collide. Greene & Everett feint superkicks, somehow forcing them to lock arms so that Greene and Everett can hit stereo superkicks. I don’t really understand how that makes sense, maybe I am missing something. Assisted headscissors on Reynolds by Greene and Everett. When I saw her run the ropes, I could tell how green (pun intended) she still is. She has this crazy look in her eye, she’s scary intense. Stereo suicide dives by Greene and Everett. They beat down Sterling and Reynolds on the outside. Everett rolls Reynolds into ring and goes for a hurricanrana but gets dropped with a powerbomb. Greene comes in with a chair and attacks Reynolds and Sterling.

Reynolds whips Greene into a chair trapped in the corner. Commentary keep calling them ‘Reynolds and Silver’ instead of Reynolds and Sterling. Reynolds slowly beats down Greene. Everett tries to make the save but she is dropped with a spinebuster. Greene drop toe holds Sterling into a chair. Sterling counters him and suplexes him onto an open chair for a 2 count. Reynolds wedges a door vertically into the ring ropes. They go to throw Greene into it but Everett makes the save with a bunch of chair shots.

She screams “YOU’RE GONNA FUCKING DIE” and she gets one of the louder pops of the night. Sterling goes for a chair shot but misses. Everett goes for a chokeslam but Reynolds saves him. Everett drops Reynolds with a Canadian Destroyer on the chair, sorta, but it only gets a 2 count because he grabs the ropes? Hmm. I have very strong opinions on that.

Ava misses an apron leg drop and casually rolls onto a 6 chair set up on the outside. Sterling spends too much time gloating, allowing Ava to get up and toss Sterling onto the chair set up. Ava runs at Reynolds but gets double stomped. Greene hits a diving crossbody. Reynolds is sat in the corner, Greene puts a chair in between his legs and uses another chair to whack the chair, croquet style. Ava and Greene pile chairs into the ring and ask for a bunch of chairs from the CZW crowd. Reynolds gets up and throws a chair at Ava’s face, Sterling superplexes Ava and somehow manages to miss every single chair that is in the centre of the ring. There are like 20 of them! How did they do that? That only gets a 2 count.

The Finish

Another door is brought in. Greene comes back in and tries to throw Sterling through the vertical door, third time is a charm. Reynolds lobs a chair at Greene’s head. With help from the referee, Alex Reynolds sets up a door on 2 chairs. I have been mostly ignoring the commentary because it is trash, but I heard them go on a conversation about “WWF 2K19” and I just wish they would shut the fuck up. They try to put over the spot by saying “that looks like something you would see in “WWF 2k19” then immediately bury it by saying “boy does that game suck”. The other commentator laughs and says “that doesn’t exist!” Was this supposed to be a bit? I hate these guys.

Reynolds tries a superplex through the door, Greene punches him in the nuts, Ava drops Alex with a top rope chokeslam through the door and she pins him to win.

Analysis

This was the best thing on the show. It wasn’t great, incredibly rough around the edges and some of the spots did not come off how they wanted to. However, they got the fans invested and told a pretty simple story and it paid off. The crowd were more active in this match than they have been all night. Mark Sterling did a great job being a conniving heel whilst Reynolds did more of the in-ring work for his team. Anthony Greene was the best performer here, great selling and I imagine he was at the core of the match structure.

My biggest issue with the match is of course the rope break in a No Holds Barred match. That is bullshit to me.

For someone with only a year of experience under her belt, I think Ava performed well, she showed a lot of intensity and the effort weas definitely there. I don’t mind intergender wrestling, but I admit that there were moments in this match where I struggled to suspend my disbelief. Ava is inexperienced and built like a Slim Jim, there is no way that she can be throwing Reynolds and Sterling around ringside like anybody else.

I am glad that most of the time saw her being on the back foot because that makes sense. Let her fight through the offence and show resiliency, hitting some big moves or some flash dives. She shouldn’t be overpowering them, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Perfect example of how this can be done is watching Kenny Omega vs Riho, where he is able to overpower her but she uses her quickness and speed to outmanoeuvre and work around him.

Again, commentary was awful and just looking at Cagematch I can tell that there is more to this story than what they told us. Do you fucking job.

Where Are They Now?

As well as the indie circuit, Anthony Greene is a regular over in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Ava Everett has wrestled all over America and Europe, being a record 3-time WxW women’s champion.

Of course, Alex Reynolds and Mark Sterling are regular features in AEW and ROH.

I cannot believe we are only halfway through this show. This has been an absolute slog thus far. 4 matches in an hour and a half and I finally found one I half-enjoyed.

Jordan Oliver (c) vs AR Fox, CZW Wired Championship

Jordan Oliver is a homegrown talent who has been the CZW Wired champion for over a year and is the leader of Young Dumb N Broke. AR Fox is a 2-time former CZW Wired champion himself. AR Fox has been around for over a decade at this point wrestling for EVOLVE, ROH, Impact Wrestling, Lucha Underground, Dragon Gate. He is well travelled, well seasoned and good performer. Commentary put over Oliver as just breaking the record for the longest reign as CZW Wired champion, but they are proved wrong moments later when Oliver speaks to Larry Legend, who announces that he will be the longest reigning champion in just 2 days. “Ohh brother this guy STINKS!”

Seen it All Before

The match starts fast paced with flips and counters, stop me if you have heard that before. Oliver hits a pump kick on the outside. The go counter for counter with some flashy moves. They tease a lock up as AR Fox tries to hype up the crowd so Oliver roll out and trash talks. Oliver throat chops AR Fox and does the crotch chop taunt. Fox returns the favour and does some taunting himself. More rope running, Fox gets the better of him with an enziguiri. Clothesline in the corner, Fox skins the cat into a dropkick which was cool. Fox pulls Oliver up into a Flatliner for a 2. Oliver counters him on the apron and hits a springboard dropkick, followed by a suicide dive. Oliver chops Fox on the outside into a chair, Oliver dropkicks him.

Back in the ring, Fox is struggling on one leg but he manages a counter and kicks Oliver out of the ring. The rest of YDB come out but AR Fox dives over the top onto them. The referee kicks YDB out of ringside. AR Fox goes for a coast to coast dropkick and doesn’t reach Oliver at all. He brings Oliver in for a swanton bomb getting a near fall. A kick combo by Fox, followed by a basement cutter then a springboard cutter. Oliver oversells the move like a fish. It gets a near fall as he grabs the rope. They trade several fast pin attempts. Fox hits maybe the 100th enziguiri of the show. They trade superkicks on the apron, Oliver hits a tombstone piledriver on the apron. Oliver hits a packaged sit-out driver for a nearfall.

The Finish

Oliver does a springboard and spins in the air, I don’t know what he was going for but Fox dodged him. Fox hits a Helluva Kick without the run up. He hits a second one with a run up. Oliver counters him and dives at him to hit a cutter called ‘Lost in the Sauce’ and it gets a near fall. Fox German suplexes Oliver from the top rope and he hits the 450 to pin Jordan Oliver. The fans popped heavily for that result.

Analysis

I thought this match was fine, a lot of spots which I expected but nothing much other than that. They both emptied out their entire arsenal at each other. It is hard to get invested in a lot of these moves when we have seen them used over and over and over again by everyone else on the card. Then there are moves we haven’t seen yet that looked devastating like the apron tombstone was merely a transitional move, he didn’t even attempt a pin.

Whilst I appreciated AR Fox selling the leg, it meant nothing. Oliver didn’t target it at all in the match, it didn’t stop him from hitting any of his big moves and after the match he stopped selling it. AR Fox was bouncing around in celebration like he didn’t get hurt at all. If you’re gonna sell a body part, at least commit to it.

I didn’t hate this. The fans were invested and reacted to what they were doing. The finish was the loudest pop of the night.

Where Are They Now?

AR Fox is signed to AEW and competes for them and ROH. This CZW title was actually the last championship he has ever won. Oliver last wrestled for CZW in 2023, now he is mainly featured on GCW where he is the current tag team champion.

The Rep (c) vs Bear Country, CZW Tag Team Championships

Uh-oh, we have to talk about Bear Country. I’ll save talking about them properly in the ‘where are they now’ portion after the match. Bear Country are made up of Boulder and Bronson and have been a team since 2017. They wear these fucked up looking masks for their entrance, covering the sides of their head and covering their face with wires. It looks gnarly. The REP are made up of Dave McCall and Nate Carter who are both CZW homegrown talent. They are in their second run as CZW tag champs, holding their titles for just over a year at this point. The REP have a great look. They just look like intimidating badasses.

Big Boy Collision

Carter and Boulder start the match. They lock up and run at each other but it is a stalemate between these 2 big boys. Trading forearms, run the ropes and Boulder drops him with a kick. McCall and Bronson tag in. Suplex by Bronson, McCall responds with a spinning knee strike. Dropkick and powerslam combo by The REP gets a 1 count. The action spills out of the ring as all 4 men brawl around the ring. McCall goes for a dropkick but takes out a security guard instead. “you buy a ticket you never know what’s gonna go down”. Dude, HE WORKS HERE. Apron powerbomb by Bronson on McCall. Carter is sat in a chair at ringside, Boulder hits a running hip attack. Bear Country double team Carter on the outside until they roll him in. The crowd are pretty dead for this.

Carter is dropped with a splash and clothesline for a 2. McCall makes a blind tag, I guess the apron powerbomb doesn’t mean shit because he is back in moving normally. He hits a rolling jump onto Bronson’s back and thrusts him into the ground with his knees. Assisted Falcon arrow by The REP for a 2. They go for their finish, but Boulder pounces McCall out of the ring. Boulder misses a moonsault. Senton and neckbreaker combo by the REP gets a near fall, Bronson breaking the pin. Both teams struggle to their feet and trade forearms in the ring. Boulder powerbombs McCall into Carter, they’re both sat in the corner. Boulder carries Bronson and we get a double cannonball in the corner. That spot was cool. McCall kicks out at 2.

The Finish

Bronson accidentally boots Boulder. Bronson grabs The REP and hits a samoan drop + fallaway slam combo. He lifts Boulder on his shoulders for some reason, but they are caught by Carter who hits Boulder off his shoulders, Doomsday Device style. Spinning heel kick by McCall. The REP hit the “Flim Flam” which is basically a 3D and wins the match.

The 2 teams come face to face again, Bear Country want a rematch sometime and the REP say bring it on. The crowd are chanting for it.

Analysis

There was never really a moment where either team was in control. This was a lot of back and forth but not in a good way, they just exchanged spots with little selling or effectiveness attached to them. Like, how are you going to bust on an apron powerbomb in the first couple minutes of the match and have it mean nothing? He just gets up unphased? That sucks.

The action was all executed well and there was a few moves in here that I actually liked. But again, there is no story or structure to this match. Just 4 dudes going out there and hitting whatever they have learned from wrestling school.

Where Are They Now?

The REP are still a team together and they last wrestled for CZW in 2024, wrestling across the Northeastern parts of America.

Well, Bear Country are no more. They got their big moment making it to AEW in 2021 and they wrestled their frequently until the end of 2024, being renamed the Iron Savages. Their time came to an end after Bear Boulder was arrested for domestic violence and battery, so his career is pretty much done. It seems pretty cut and dry that he is guilty.

Joe Gacy (c) vs Matt Tremont, CZW Heavyweight Championship

Matt Tremont has been wrestling for CZW since 2011 and has been a regular when many have came and went from this promotion. He is a former CZW heavyweight champion, winning the strap in 2015 and holding it for 399 days. Matt has had some bloody wars with the likes of Nick Gage and DJ Hyde. He is considered a deathmatch legend and held in high regard in the deathmatch wrestling scene.

Matt is a rotund dude, covered in scars and looks legitimately tough as fuck. Joe Gacy has only held the title for a few months at this point. Gacy has built a fan base as a mainstay in CZW thanks to his exhilarating wrestling style and charismatic persona. Gacy enters wearing a plain white mask and he has the words “unwanted” written on the front of the title. Why? Because he is the unwanted maniac. He also spits on the title, disrespecting the gold and in turn CZW.

So apparently, if Joe Gacy wins this match then DJ Hyde’s career with CZW is over, but that is coming from commentary and not the ring announcer so it could be bullshit for all I know.

What Am I Watching?

Gacy leaves the ring and waits for a microphone by the unorganised ring crew. He recaps the rules which commentary mentioned so I guess they weren’t lying. Why wasn’t that rule announced then? Gacy asks Tremont to lie down so DJ Hyde can leave. The fans actually cheer for this which I doubt was the expected reaction. Tremont slowly sinks to the mat and teases lying down, but of course he doesn’t and hits an uppercut. Tremont hits a barrage of punches and the action spills out of the ring. Oh, because this is for the CZW world title it is of course Hardcore rules.

Gacy is already bleeding. The two men trade punches on the outside. Gacy sits Tremont in a chair at ringside and hits a running knee. The chair collapses under Tremont’s weight. This is the THIRD time on this show we have seen this sat in a chair on the outside spot. Tremont catches Gacy mid-dive with a punch. More brawling around ringside, Gacy pulls out a door and hunts for some chairs. Commentary can barely fill the silence because they are so bored. So am I. Tremont gouges Gacy with a crowbar on his head and in his mouth. “Matt Tremont just forcing that rod into the mouth.” Whichever one of you commentators said that, think about the words you’re using.

Gacy has to re-set up the door on the chairs, eventually choosing to use a bin so it stops falling off. They are on the apron, teasing a spot but Gacy kicks him off. more walking and fighting on the outside. Gacy rolls him in for a 1 count. He locks in a sleeper hold spot. I cannot believe I am watching a fucking sleeper hold spot right now. Superkick by Gacy gets a 1 count. Gacy pulls out 3 doors and puts them in the ring.

Alarming

At this point in the match, the fire alarm goes off and completely derails any small fan investment that was left in this match. They don’t manage to turn it off either and it goes on and on. It is fucking annoying to listen to. Gacy sets up 3 doors in 3 corners. Fans chant we want fire and commentary claim they have been getting it. No they haven’t. Tremont suplexes Gacy through a table for a 2. They trade punches, Gacy accidentally clotheslines the referee.

Tremont hits an AA but the referee cannot count the pin. Tremont gestures to the back and gets handed some light tubes. Gacy counters, locks in a sleeper so Tremont sends them both through the second door. Some dude called Anthony *something* comes out and do you know that door + chair + trash can set up that Gacy fannied around with earlier? Well he takes it down and puts the door from the apron to the barricade. WHAT WAS THE POINT? He tries to attack Tremont, but DJ Hyde comes in to punch him. Hyde teases a piledriver through the door, but DJ Hyde’s wife Lauren enters the ring. She hits him with the slowest, laziest shot to the head with the light tubes I have ever seen. Of course it breaks, because it is light tubes, and he tumbles through the door.

The commentator who is trying to explain why this is happening just stutters, mumbles and fumbles all of his words, half-finishing sentences so you know about as much as I do why this happened. Tremont grabs Anthony, but now we have ANOTHER run-in, this time from some chick called Valentina who low blows Tremont. Commentary don’t know why this is happening. Anthony spears Tremont through the door. Discus clothesline by Joe Gacy, a new referee comes down and counts the pin. That Maven Bentley guy is back and he is celebrating this result.

Analysis

I do not say this lightly. That might be the single worst wrestling match I have ever seen. This would fit perfectly on the Heroes of Wrestling card. This is AWFUL in so many ways. First of all, the wrestling is terrible. Gacy tried bless him, but there was no way he could get anything good out of Tremont here. Tremont looked like a relative of former NWA champion Tyrus. Tremont could barely move never mind work a match. They go from spot to spot, move to move with very little thought or reasoning to it. So much time was wasted on Joe Gacy setting up a door on the outside, only for it to mean nothing and be moved around. What is up with that? Tremont hit like 3 moves, Gacy worked around him but he could not save this from being utter dogshit.

Then there is the booking. Overbooking should I say. 4 run-ins and not a single one of them presented in a way that made sense or provided excitement. Commentary blundered the whole thing by not calling any of it appropriately, so no one had a clue what was going on unless you were a hardcore CZW fan that knew all of the lore already. I’m not sure who is in charge of booking, but if it is DJ Hyde then he is stroking his own ego with this one.

Finally, the alarm that would ring for 11 BLOODY MINUTES. How does it take anyone 11 minutes to stop a fire alarm? I know a bit about this thanks to work experience. I know that it takes a matter of seconds to locate on alarm and silence it. Hell, even if there is a fault or damage caused to it, you can have that silenced with relative ease. 11 minutes of an alarm going off is completely insufferable and killed any possibility of this match being enjoyed by anyone.

Promo Time

Joe Gacy requests his music be stopped and also the fire alarm is stopped. I can’t believe he even has to ask. Gacy says he was there when DJ Hyde bought CZW and now he is on the last night he owns it. He says his CZW career sits in a pile of broken glass. Tonight we will celebrate that he is done. Gacy hated him the moment they met. Never forget this face, because I did this to you. Gacy says maybe with new ownership we can get this place cleaned up and have the fire alarm noise stopped. Gacy just sits in the ring staring at the ceiling.

Tonight is the dawn of a new era, with DJ Hyde gone he can do whatever he wants. One thing left for him to do is to defeat the best the world has to offer. Out comes a masked man and it is revealed to be Alex Shelley! The name plate spells his surname wrong for fuck sake. Also, barely a pop. One guy shouts oh shit. The fans chant for him but there was no reaction initially.

THE ALARM IS STILL GOING.

Alex Shelley calls him a tough motherfucker. When he returned to wrestling, Shelley wanted to return to all the promotions who did right by him and CZW is one of the best. He puts over the fans and wrestlers like Joe Gacy making this place. The alarm finally goes off to the loudest pop of the night. “Thank god it stopped” says Shelley. Shelley throws down a challenge whenever Gacy wants to prove himself. Gacy appreciates the words, he is the best and he accepts the match. They do not say when. In fact, that match never happens thanks to 2020.

You’re telling me that I have sat and watched a show full of mediocre wrestlers and ALEX FUCKING SHELLEY was backstage watching the entire time?! What the fuck? I can see from Joe Gacy’s promo deliver why WWE were interested in him. He has a unique charisma that does indeed share some similarities to a Bray Wyatt type.

Where are they now?

Matt Tremont is still doing his shtick across the indies, most prominently GCW. Joe Gacy, and Alex Shelley for that fact, is part of WWE. Joe Gacy is part of the Wyatt Sicks and Alex Shelley is in the tag division with Chris Sabin as the legendary Motor City Machine Guns.

Brittany Blake vs Kris Statlander, WSU CHampionship

So I thought we weren’t going to see this match since it opened the show. However, they have decided to air this match here instead to kill time whilst they set up the Cage of Death. Even though they have the power of editing on their side, this is somehow even worse production than I have grown accustomed to. Poor camera work and quality, poor audio mixing and quality. Kris Statlander comes out to E.T by Katy Perry, obviously.

Brittany is a product of the CZW Dojo whilst Statlander is a relative newcomer to wrestling at this point in time. Statlander is in full Area 51 alien gimmick. Cagematch list this being for a vacant title, but commentary and ring announcers say Statlander is the reigning champion. Kris hands over an invisible belt for the referee to raise. Huh. Is this a bit, or is the title not available? There is no information on this being a made-up, invisible belt but commentary are not providing anything either. They are playing along with the gag.

The Match

Kris wiggles her fingers for a ‘boop’ but Brittany attacks. They do some chain wrestling. Kris rolls out the ring and just stands there as Blake runs at her with a dropkick. Then Brittany hits one of the worst suicide dives I have ever seen in my entire life. Kris catches a rana and powerbombs her on the apron. First time we have seen that move tonight! Not. Kris beats down Blake in the ring. She does a flipping senton but gets none of it. She hits some crappy chops in the corner. Blake does a handstand kick in the corner. Kris shows good power and hits a Finlay roll, but misses a moonsault. Running knee by Blake for a double down.

The two camera angles they keep using is jarring because they are in different qualities. It is very noticable. Kris and Blake trade moves in the corner, Blake hits a bulldog, followed with a top rope dropkick. Statlander hits a nice reverse electric chair drop for a near fall. Brittany hits a float over DDT for a 2. Blake locks in a shitty Cloverleaf but Statlander fights out. Scissor kick by Kris gets a 2. Statlander hits a kick and goes for her finish, but Blake rolls her up for the 3. Brittany wins the invisible title.

ANALYSIS

Because of how they decided to cut and edit the show, only after this match ends do we hear commentary say “welcome to the Cage of Death 21. I am Emmel J alongside Kalief Bryan.” At least that is what I think their names are. WE ARE 2 AND A HALF HOURS INTO THE SHOW AND WE ARE BEING WELCOMED AND INTRODUCED BY COMMENTARY. This is some of the worst production I have ever seen.

The match wasn’t great. Kris Statlander is incredibly green here and a lot of her offence was off. However, I do see the potential here. Some of her stuff was executed well like the electric chair. She has a unique character and comes across genuinely likeable. I understand why watching her AEW would be interested. Brittany Blake looked like shit here. Sorry to say, but none of her stuff looked good and I don’t feel too bad saying it because she has been wrestling for over 5 years at this point. Kris Statlander was a 3 year pro and wrestled far better than she did.

Where Are they Now?

Well, Kris Statlander certainly improved a lot and is now one of AEW’s best women’s wrestlers. Also one of the most underappreciated too. Brittany continues to wrestle across the US. She had a brief run in Japan with Ice Ribbon too, but unsure if she is scheduled to return.

Larry Legend returns ahead of the main event. Tables, chairs, glass, light tubes, barbed wire. The lot is here. The cage itself looks a little shitty, I was expecting to see something pretty gnarly but it is a black and yellow cage that isn’t even metal. I’m unsure if it ever used to look different, I haven’t watched these matches before.

Larry Legend literally wanders around the ring for like 5 minutes trying to figure out a way into the ring. There is no door, so he has to climb over and into the ring. Have they not done this before? Have they changed the cage recently or something? This is the 21st time CZW have held this match and the production crew seem lost out there. Larry makes the climb into the ring for the announcements. He later announces this can only end in pinfall or submission inside the Cage of Death.

JImmy Lloyd vs Brandon Kirk, Cage of Death

Mercifully, it is main event time. Brandon Kirk comes out first, accompanied by Kasey Catal. Brandon looks like Steve Corino from Temu. Kirk is a 10 year veteran, specialising in deathmatches. Jimmy is a 5 year pro who is also a deathmatch wrestler. Jimmy Lloyd looks like fat Joey Janela. He plays around with a table and chairs set up on the outside so I assume that someone is getting thrown through that later, we will see if I am right. Jimmy nearly knocks over and breaks a pane of glass just by entering into the ring. He walks around, readjusting all of the glass set ups in the ring, Kirk clicks on and also resets one for some fucking reason.

Apparently these 2 are sworn mortal enemies who have fought each other in various match types, but never the cage of death. That is literally all the story that commentary give us.

Fuck This Shit

I now realise that because there isn’t a door, they aren’t even going to properly set up one of the cage walls. The wall is leaning outwards a bit and it looks amateur as fuck. The crowd chant for blood. Kirk and Lloyd play to the crowd a bit. The first move of the match, Lloyd dropkicks Kirk through a pane of glass. Kirk of course just gets back up, counters Lloyd and throws him into a pane of glass. Lloyd no-sells it, so Kirk throws him through another pane of glass. Lloyd recovers and lifts Kirk up and hits an AA through the final pane of glass. 4 glass spots in under a minute.

Lloyd sets up a bigger pane of glass. Lloyd hip tosses Kirk into it. They didn’t even attempt to make this look like a real fight. Lloyd gouges Kirk with a piece of glass. Lloyds pushes Kirk into the cage wall. They throw some punches and hit stereo pump kicks on each other for a double down. They take turns grabbing light tubes and just bashing each other over the head with them. Both men gig themselves and are now busted open. Both men trade kicks, Kirk hits a clothesline for a 2. Superkick by Lloyd, Canadian destroyer by Kirk, running knee by Lloyd.

More light tube offence by Jimmy Lloyd. With help of a producer and the referee, Jimmy Lloyd sets up a big pane of glass. Another production guy brings in a barbed wire board. They are literally just setting up the spots for these guys! This is a circus, not a wrestling match. Kirk lobs a chair at Lloyd’s head. They set up a barbed wire board on 2 chairs. Lloyd leaves the ring and now the next few minutes is literally just these 2 guys grabbing furniture to set up whatever the fuck they have in mind.

A double stack of barbed wire boards is in the centre of the ring. Kirk goes out and follows Lloyd up the wall of the cage. Kirk grabs Lloyd and pulls him off and through a door and chair set up on the outside. Barely a reaction. Lloyd climbs the cage, Kirk’s valet Kasey Catal climbs up and gets thrown through a barbed wire board set up.

EMbarrassing

Kirk and Lloyd are on top of the cage on a walkway. They use light tubes. Kirk sets fire to a hanging piece of glass. Kirk is pushed through the fiery glass, through the double barbed wire board set up in the ring. Lloyd goes for the pin and gets a 1 count.

A fucking 1 count.

Jimmy Lloyd hits what looked like a shitty One Winged Angel kinda move through a pane of glass to win.

Analysis

If you actually like this sort of stuff, then I don’t think you are a wrestling fan. This is not wrestling. This is garbage. I just watched 2 men put on a circus display of torture porn and call it deathmatch wrestling. Contrived spot after contrived spot after contrived spot.

There is a place for hardcore and deathmatches in wrestling. The likes of Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, Sabu and others knew how to have a violent war but actually have the violence mean something. Nothing in this match meant anything. We saw two men, posing as wrestlers, maim each other whilst waiting for staff members to hand them more tools of destruction. Then what is the fucking point?! What are you’s fighting for? We aren’t watching you find ways to kill each other because you hate each other. We are watching you kill each other just for the sake of it. What a damning exposure of the wrestling business.

So yeah, fuck Jimmy Lloyd and fuck Brandon Kirk and fuck anyone who thinks this shit is any good. This is just a much more extreme version of indie spot monkey’s who hit a shit load of flashy moves and cannot do anything else. Joe Gacy vs Matt Tremont was better than this, at least it had a story and one man trying to put on a something watchable.

Where are they now?

Jimmy Lloyd is still doing his bullshit around indies like GCW. Brandon Kirk retired in early 2025.

Why this Show sucks

The Production

I have mentioned it a lot throughout the show but I will reiterate how bad this production is. The audio, the camerawork, the misspelling of people’s names. Sure, this is an indie promotion. But a promotion with 10 years experience. I have watched indie promotions with far less experience have much better production values. Shout out PROGRESS wrestling and NORTH wrestling from the UK.

Editing the opening match and putting it later in the show, cutting out to commentary introduction until 2 and half hours in, is below amateur levels of production. This is embarrassing.

Commentary

Whoever the fuck they are, they are not commentators. They sound like this is the first time they have ever watched wrestling. They can call some moves, but they waffle on about nonsense and they cannot piece together any stories to make matches worth investing my time. Their failures make it IMPOSSIBLE for a newcomer to get into CZW, because they can never understand what is happening. I believe CZW have replaced them now, but I don’t care to find out if the new line-up is much better.

Oh and Larry Legend sucks too. I don’t care how nice or cool he might be. He cannot announce well.

The Wrestling

KC Navarro, Anthony Greene, Ava Everett, Mark Sterling and Alex Reynolds are the only people on this card that I think deserve to walk away from this show and says “damn I did good tonight”. That is one full match and 1/5 of a match. That is an incredibly high amount of bad performances on this show.

I think bad is too strong of a word. There is potential to be seen in John Silver, Kris Statlander and Joe Gacy. AR Fox actually did some good wrestling but far from what he is capable of. The rest of them can never wrestle again and I wouldn’t mind too much.

Some terrible matches. Either because the wrestlers sucked, or they’re all about moves and nothing else. The sheer amount of superkicks, enziguiris, forearm exchanges, suicide dives, cutters, moonsaults. I can go on. None of these guys are original. They are hitting the same shit over and over again, making each match more painful to watch than the last. Crappy, bland, indie-riffic wrestling.

The “Wrestling”

The No Holds Barred tag match, although not great, was a solid example of how to do violence correctly by incorporating a story and actual selling to keep the fans engaged. The CZW rules opener, the CZW world title match and the Cage of Death were perfect examples of how NOT to do hardcore wrestling.

I’m a pretty open-minded guy. As long things can be made sense of, I can watch some absurd shit. Hell, Invisible Stan vs Invisible Man I think is a harmless, stupid comedy fun. The way it is presented and interacted with by the fans and the referee allows me to be interested in it.

This, was mindless rubbish. I wasn’t interested, the fans barely cared and even commentary seemed to lose interest.

Final Words

It won’t surprise me one bit if CZW is a dead promotion within the next 10 years and it is a real shame. A spiritual successor to ECW has lost its way. Their fan base has dwindled and negative response to their product still loom over them today. Fans question their booking decisions, their over-indulgent hardcore matches and lack of star power. The only recognisable names I can see that CZW bring in are Rich Swann and the 44 year old, barely functioning Nick Gage.

Some of the greatest wrestlers in the world passed through CZW at one time. The early 2000s was a perfect blend of ECW violence but also a showcase of amazing wrestling talent from the likes of Kevin Steen, MJF, Swerve Strickland and Tajiri to name a few. Ever since John Zandid sold the company, it appears to have been on a steady decline that was greatly accelerated by the 2020 pandemic.

I am so incredibly tempted to put this show above Heroes of Wrestling, purely for the fact that a lot of this bullshit was not even wrestling, but clowns playing wrestler. However, there were some positives I managed to bleed out of this stone which I don’t think I was able to do as much of HoW. So a close second place it is.

I watched this show in Fite if you wanted to check it out yourself. Here is a link to the CZW YouTube if you want to find some more hardcore shit that they do.

Worst of Wrestling Leaderboard

1. Heroes of Wrestling
2. Cage of Death XXI
3. 2022 Royal Rumble
4. NXT Season 1

Let me know if there are any other terrible wrestling shows you think could be a contender for worst of all time. I have a massive list already but I am always willing to add more. For now, it is time to spin the Wheel of Woe.

Wheel of Woe

Sorry you don’t get to see it spin much, recording issues.

We return to familiar ground, back with WWE and venturing into the PG Era of the company’s history. Raw and Smackdown battle for brand supremacy, but also the WWE are in the midst of a fight against one of the most poorly booked factions in WWE history, The Nexus. Which brand will walk out on top? Can The Undertaker defeat his brother Kane? Most importantly, how badly does Bragging Rights 2010 measure up against the crap we have already watched? Join us next time to find out.