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53-600: The team disbanded following Acid's death in 2010. Kashmere has managed the new BackSeat Boyz tag-team of JP Grayson and Tommy Grayson since 2023. The Backseat Boyz were well known for their work in Combat Zone Wrestling . They began wrestling together in the early years of the company with Dewey Donovan as their manager. The Backseat Boyz became CZW Tag Team Champions by defeating the Haas Brothers in June 2000. They began

106-406: A kayfabe angle which led to an inter-promotional feud throughout most of 2003. During the night of the initial invasion, the crowd was so riled up that they began hurling chairs into the ring at Ian Rotten, Corporal Robinson, and J. C. Bailey of IWA-MS. The Delaware wrestling commissioner, who was in the ring at the time, was struck in the side of the head. The feud was based in both promotions and

159-696: A World 4-Man Tag Team Shuffle Championship. Although the World Tag Team and Deathmatch, titles are the only ones still active. Currently, the BJW roster is split into "Deathmatch BJ", "Strong BJ" and "Strong J". The deathmatch workers wrestle for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship , the non-deathmatch heavyweight workers for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship , and the junior heavyweight workers for

212-477: A cross promotion with Tidal Championship Wrestling. In January 2012, CZW & ECW's arena was sold and was later temporarily closed, not reopening until December 2013. The closing of the venue forced CZW to look for a new home, now running monthly events at Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey. After 13 years in business together, in 2013 Combat Zone Wrestling and Smart Mark Home Video ceased partnership after

265-465: A deal for pay-per-views on In Demand . Combat Zone Wrestling's yearly death-match tournament features the use of fire, weed whackers , light tubes, and other weapons. Previous winners include Wifebeater (TOD 1 and 3), Nick Mondo (TOD 2), Necro Butcher (TOD 4), Nick Gage (TOD 5 & TOD vs. Gorefest), Drake Younger (TOD 6), Brain Damage (TOD: FF), Jimmy Havoc (TOD 7), and John Zandig who gave

318-707: A developmental brand associated with their training school called Dojo Wars to showcase CZW prospects. CZW's secondary live show. Wrestlers from across the country come to CZW to showcase their talent to earn a spot on the CZW main roster. Combat Zone Wrestling's biggest show is the end of the year Cage of Death. It always features the "Cage of Death" match, a steel cage with various weapons, objects, and plenty of wrestling violence. Electrified cage walls, cacti , ladders , tables , steel folding chairs , barbed wire , light tubes , fire, glass, thumbtacks , and baseball bats have been used in it. Matches that also always include

371-443: A falling-out. As of February 2013 all Combat Zone Wrestling events are filmed, edited, and distributed by RF Video. On July 12, 2017, it was reported Dave Marquez had bought into Combat Zone Wrestling as part-owner of the company. CZW also partners with other promotions like: Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) for their German events, Serbia's Combat League Wrestling (CLW), and the remnants of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), in

424-474: A feud with Nick Mondo and Ric Blade, who eventually beat them for the tag team title. After losing the title, Acid and Kashmere continued teaming together and competed against teams such as The Briscoes , the H8 Club, and VD. They also competed in singles action, and Trent Acid even won some singles titles. In 2003, The Backseat Boyz joined Messiah in his attempt to take over CZW and eliminate Zandig as part of

477-597: A few more matches in CZW after Cage of Death, and in February 2004, they officially parted ways with the company. The Backseat Boyz also wrestled in Ring of Honor . They made their ROH debut in 2002 as CZW invaders at Glory By Honor when they jumped in the ring after coming through the crowd and made a challenge to any team. The challenge was accepted by Homicide and Steve Corino . The Backseats won after Corino turned on Homicide. One year later at Glory By Honor II , they competed in

530-610: A long hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic , CZW returned to promoting events in 2021. Since its return, CZW has stopped holding hardcore matches, apart from their annual Tournament of Death. CZW events are currently held in Blackwood, New Jersey and Havre de Grace, Maryland , along with occasional events in other east coast venues. Combat Zone Wrestling's Pro Wrestling Academy was founded in New Jersey by John Zandig in 1998. After training

583-424: A lot of CZW's logos and TitanTron work, among other things, briefly departed from the company in late 2005 after an altercation between Pancoast Productions owner Mike Pancoast and John Zandig . At their Cage of Death 7 show at the end of 2005, CZW roster member Chris Hero cut a promo challenging "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson of Ring of Honor (ROH) to a match at the next show. The angle would develop into

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636-482: A major part led into CZW's Tournament of Death 2, five IWA-MS wrestlers and three CZW wrestlers entered into the 8-man single elimination tournament. The semi-final saw two CZW wrestlers John Zandig and Nick Mondo compete in a 2 out of 3 light tube log cabin match, a match which is said to have ended Mondo's career (However, in Mondo's shoot interview he stated that T.O.D 2 was going to be his last appearance anyway). Towards

689-496: A match which ended Yamakawa's career after the Wifebeater chokensteined him off the ring apron through a table set up on the outside. In a 'shoot interview' Wifebeater stated communication difficulties between the two were a major factor which led to the incident. Wifebeater pleaded that they should not execute the manoeuvre, though the move went ahead and saw Yamakawa's head slam against the concrete. Both wrestlers have stated that it

742-434: A one-time match between Matt Tremont and Atsushi Onita . On December 9, 2017, CZW's Cage of Death 19 show ended with Nick Gage and Brett Lauderdale from rival promotion Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) invading the ring. Reportedly, CZW booker Giancarlo Dittamo had pitched an invasion angle to D. J. Hyde, but was shot down. Without telling anyone, Dittamo decided to go through with the angle regardless. Police were called to

795-493: A relatively new promotion, BJW needed mainstream publicity. NJPW agreed to a feud, which would allow Big Japan wrestlers to appear in their company and use New Japan's popularity to give exposure to their company. In return, Big Japan agreed to lose the feud and the majority of the interpromotional matches, therefore strengthening the New Japan brand. The situation provided an interesting clash of wrestling styles, as NJPW often favored

848-534: A rematch of their FMW 4th Anniversary Show encounter. However, the match fell through when Onita cancelled and in its place Nick Gage and the Wifebeater performed in the first ever 200 light tubes match in the United States. The show was later called 'They Said it Couldn't be Done'. In 2001 WGTW-48 began broadcasting CZW footage under the title Fake You TV , which was available in many northeastern states in

901-405: A strong style of competition. The two promotions held Wrestling World 1997 , the biggest event during the interpromotional feud and the fifth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show . In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, BJW competed against CZW. CZW was a relatively new American promotion at the time, and also largely focused on an extreme style of wrestling. Wrestlers feuded in both companies having matches in

954-586: A tag team gauntlet match for the vacant ROH Tag Team Championship and won by defeating Special K in the last match. This win made them the first team in history to win the tag team championship in both ROH and CZW. They only held the title for a few weeks as they lost it to Special K at the following show. They continued wrestling together in ROH until Johnny Kashmere left the company, leaving Trent Acid to wrestle in singles competition. The team also competed in their own promotion, Pro Wrestling Unplugged. On June 18, 2010, it

1007-625: A three-way working relationship with CZW and German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), which led to the creation of the World Triangle League tournament. The working relationship ended in 2015. BJW has also had a long working relationship with the Union Pro Wrestling promotion, which has included BJW workers holding titles in Union Pro and vice versa. The relationship ended in 2014 when UPW shut down. On December 15, 2023, BJW

1060-513: Is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasaki , during the boom period for Deathmatch wrestling in Japan. Kendo Nagasaki left in 1999; Shinya Kojika is still president of the company to date. The promotion followed in

1113-431: Is also often used liberally in these matches, sometimes wrapped around other weapons, laid on the floor surrounding the ring, wrapped around the ring ropes, or even replacing the ropes altogether. In its early years, BJW was unable to directly compete with the budgets of its competition. This led to the innovation of several unique gimmick matches, many of which helped hide its monetary shortcomings. These include: Away from

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1166-455: Is used. (Randy Summers and Brandon Watts) The Maven Bentley Association ( MBA ) is the sister promotion to CZW ran by Maven Bentley. In 2007, CZW had a short lived interpromotional feud with the MBA. In storyline, MBA's founder Maven Bentley was portrayed as a power-mad middle manager who ran amok in CZW and abused his authority. Bentley hired a few of CZW's own wrestlers to help him take over

1219-544: The BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship . Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core ( BJW Core ) is a video-on-demand service owned by Big Japan Pro Wrestling. In November 2017, BJW announced "Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core", a new worldwide video-on-demand site for the promotion's events. The service features matches from the promotion's archives, dating back to 1995. The service has a current monthly subscription price of ¥ 888 . In December 2018, BJW announced that

1272-632: The Chikara Wrestle Factory. Shortly after the second class, the academy separated from the Chikara Wrestle Factory and moved its operation back to New Jersey, then back to Philadelphia, and now to Blackwood, New Jersey. Previously, Drew Gulak was the head trainer of the academy, with members of the CZW locker room joining them every session. Early 2000 saw CZW establish a connection with the death match wrestling orientated company Big Japan Pro Wrestling , credited to have popularized

1325-471: The New Alhambra Arena , with head trainers Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush . During 2007, CZW departed from the training school to form their own, much like their older school. The company remained strong in the forthcoming years with new booker, Mike Burns, who was responsible for one of the best runs in the promotion's history. Pancoast Productions, a company which for many years was responsible for

1378-523: The "ultraviolent" style, and Best of the Best , which featured technical and high flying wrestlers. Throughout the 2010s, CZW was part of the Triangle of Unity (also known as the Triangle of Ultraviolence) alliance with Japanese promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling and German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling . In 2016, CZW was covered by Vice Media in the documentary Bloodlust: Tournament of Death . After

1431-528: The Deathmatches, BJW also has had well-established normal wrestling titles. On February 3, 1998, Yoshihiro Tajiri won a one-night-only 8-man tournament in Tokyo to crown BJW's first World Junior Heavyweight Champion. This match showed a distinct departure from the violent matches BJW is known for. The company also has had a World Heavyweight Championship, a World Women's Championship, a World Tag Team Championship, and

1484-525: The Hi-V stable. At Cage of Death V , The Backseat Boyz teamed with the rest of the Hi-V members in the Cage of Death match against Zandig's ultraviolent team. The Backseat Boyz had some setbacks that night as Acid had to wrestle twice and Kashmere had to be the first man in the Cage of Death with Zandig. Both Kashmere and Acid were eliminated from the Cage of Death match, and Hi-V broke up after that night. They only wrestled

1537-458: The Sickness" after Chri$ Ca$ h's theme song from the band Disturbed . The show originally started as a double header afternoon show, with another CZW event taking place later in the evening. Many former CZW trainees have made appearances on past events, including longtime friend GQ, who has wrestled on all of the events. Every year since 2008, CZW has held this event in which a barbed-wire "spiderweb"

1590-604: The US. The Show lasted until June 2004 Anticipating their Cage Of Death 3 (COD) show at the end of 2001, the company needed a bigger venue and made their debut in the ECW Arena . The venue was the first sellout in the building since the era of ECW , and hundreds were turned away from the biggest show in CZW's history. At that time several wrestling promotions were competing for the Northeast fan base that had been left behind by ECW. In what

1643-610: The United States and Japan. During the CZW feud, top star Tomoaki Honma departed the company to become a freelancer. In 2008, BJW entered into a working relationship with Chikara . In October 2008, several BJW wrestlers went to America and faced Chikara in The Global Gauntlet. BJW did well, winning the best of five series on night one, but narrowly lost the Global Gauntlet match on the second night. In 2009, BJW hosted Chikara's inaugural Japanese tour. In 2011, BJW established

The Backseat Boyz - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-469: The arena, but Dittamo, Gage and Lauderdale had all left the venue by the time they arrived. Hyde was reportedly "beyond furious" over the incident, firing Dittamo from CZW. CZW Studios is a video-on-demand service owned by Combat Zone Wrestling. All major CZW events air live on the service, which also features matches from the promotion's archives, dating back to 2002. The service has a current monthly subscription price of $ 9.99. In 2015, CZW Studios signed

1749-423: The arena, but also stated that with the $ 10,000 a month XPW would need to pay for the building, the lease would not last long. Accompanied by incidents relating to Extreme Associates , XPW later folded in 2003. CZW made their return to the arena on March 8, 2003. Shortly after their return to the former ECW Arena, on May 10, 2003, the company promoted a show entitled "Then & Now: A Decade of Defiance." The event

1802-512: The classes alone, Zandig enlisted the help of Jon Dahmer, who helped train with Zandig for the next three classes. The first student trained was Lobo , who worked with Zandig before their wrestling careers. Nick Gage and Justice Pain were the next two students to be trained by Zandig. The fourth student and fifth student trained was TCK and Ric Blade. The academy relocated to The 2300 Arena in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, and briefly merged with

1855-439: The death match wrestling style that CZW continued to emphasize in the United States. Both promotions exchanged talent throughout 2000 and 2001 and engaged in a "CZW vs BJW" storyline. The "CZW Warriors" in BJW included Wifebeater , Nick Gage , Trent Acid , Justice Pain , Johnny Kashmere , Nate Hatred, Ruckus , Nick Berk, as well as John Zandig as the leader. In 2001 in Japan, the Wifebeater and Ryuji Yamakawa faced off in

1908-519: The end of the match Zandig Mother F'N Bombed Mondo off a 40 ft rooftop as both men crashed into tables and a light tube log cabin contraption. Mondo continued the Tournament with 3 broken bones in his wrist and won the tournament after defeating Ian Rotten in a 200 light tubes final. During John Zandig 's feud with heel stable the Hi-5, Zandig was suspended in the middle of the ring by meat hooks from

1961-632: The enter promotion "CZW vs ROH" storyline which would see CZW and ROH co-promotion several shows around the Northeastern United States. D. J. Hyde purchased CZW from Zandig in 2009. The first show booked by Hyde was Tangled Web 2. Since then, CZW has held its first shows in Germany, Massachusetts, Ohio, South Carolina and Indiana. They also returned to Japan and has brought back previous stars like Homicide, The Briscoe Brothers, Derek Frazier, and BJ Whitmer. In 2014 CZW toured England as part of

2014-814: The footsteps of organizations such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING), and the International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA Japan), who helped popularise a hard-hitting, violent and bloody style of wrestling known as the Deathmatch, or in more recent years, "hardcore" wrestling. These matches are usually weapon filled, using both "conventional" weapons (such as chairs and tables), as well as "extreme" weapons not usually seen in mainstream wrestling, and previously unused in wrestling at all. These weapons include but are by no means limited to, nails, thumbtacks, fire, and fluorescent light tubes. Barbed wire

2067-461: The high risk wrestling stunts and bumps. The Cage of Death also has different formats and stipulations: singles, tag team, or gauntlet. The first show featured a bloody barbed wire match between Zandig and Lobo. Since then the Deja Vu card has been held on an almost yearly basis. As of 2005 Combat Zone Wrestling annually run a memorial tribute event to Christopher " Chri$ Ca$ h " Bauman titled "Down with

2120-602: The inter-promotional deal is uncertain. After a controversial exploding panes of glass match, between Zandig and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in Japan, 2001, Zandig left BJW with the BJW death match title belt. Many wrestlers of both promotions at the time were confused about the collapse between the two. In February 2000, the company would relocate from their home arena in Mantua Township, New Jersey , to Champs Soccer Arena , in Sewell, New Jersey . They would remain there for two years until

2173-415: The promotion as "ultraviolence". Early CZW matches featured items such as ladders , tables , steel folding chairs , thumbtacks , barbed wire -covered baseball bats, weed whackers , light tubes , and panes of glass . The promotion filled a niche for hardcore wrestling fans that had been left open by the folding of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 2001. In 2009, CZW's founder John Zandig sold

The Backseat Boyz - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-482: The promotion to CZW wrestler D. J. Hyde . Although hardcore wrestling continued to be a prominent part of CZW shows, under Hyde the frequency of hardcore matches would gradually decrease. By the start of the 2010s, CZW had diversified its image by mixing its roster of homegrown wrestlers with international talent and began to showcase additional styles of wrestling. This diversity of styles was emphasized by CZW's two annual tournaments, Tournament of Death , which showcased

2279-529: The promotion. Those wrestlers included Diehard Dustin Lee, Scotty Vortekz, Brain Damage , and D. J. Hyde. Bentley himself got involved physically in the feud as he was scheduled to face Lobo in a lumberjack strap match at Cage of Death 9 . Bentley would lose the match, ending the feud. The MBA returned to The Arena for its Economic Crisis event on January 31, 2009. Big Japan Pro Wrestling Big Japan Pro Wrestling ( 大日本プロレス , Dai Nihon Puroresu ) ( BJW )

2332-451: The roof of the arena. The incident led into the setup of the main event at Cage of Death 2003, where a cage was suspended from the roof, the event was called Cage of Death 5: Suspended . The company remained successful that year and had a sold-out crowd for their annual Cage of Death show. During 2005, CZW established a connection with local promotion Chikara , which established into a joint training school known as 'The Wrestle Factory' in

2385-430: The service would shut down at the end of the year, with plans to relaunch in February 2019 using a new service provider. The service was then reactivated. Big Japan has had interpromotional feuds with both New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). These were both kayfabe feuds that were done to generate more income for both companies. During late 1996 and early 1997, BJW agreed with NJPW. Being

2438-443: The state of New Jersey banned the use of ultraviolent weapons (such as glass, barbed wire, and fire) in wrestling. To counteract the ban, CZW branched out from New Jersey to Delaware , where they would host their more ultraviolent shows throughout the rest of the company's existence. On June 25, 2000, CZW was scheduled to host a pay-per-view event, which was to be headlined by Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita in an explosion match in

2491-427: The trophy over to Thumbtack Jack who lost the Tournament of Death trophy at Best of the Best to D.J. Hyde (TOD 8). Due to the incidents at TOD 8 another event named TOD 8.5 Rewind took place in the same year which was won by Thumbtack Jack. Scotty Vortekz won TOD 9. Masada won TOD X, XI and TOD: Europe. Combat Zone Wrestling's yearly tournament that differs from other CZW events in how it emphasizes athleticism more than

2544-434: The use of weapons. The Best of the Best tournament is, by design, a Junior Heavyweight Tournament. In 2005, however, the tournament was formatted as an open weight tournament. The next year, it returned to its original format. Previous winners include Winger, Trent Acid , B-Boy , Sonjay Dutt , Mike Quackenbush , Ruckus , Joker , Sabian , Egotistico Fantastico , Adam Cole and Sami Callihan in that order. CZW launched

2597-743: Was a tribute to ECW and to all previous promotions that held events at New Alhambra Arena during the last ten years. On October 25, 2003, the promotion made their debut in Italy with an attendance record of 2,000 people filled the Palasport Arena in Pistoia, later on March 27, 2004, the company returned for another event which featured Sabu in a tables match this time only drawing 500 people in Parma. On June 14, 2003, mid-south based promotion Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA-MS) invaded CZW as part of

2650-573: Was announced as one of the founding members of the United Japan Pro-Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project. Wakashishi Kikusui Cup Champion All Asia Heavyweight Championship BJW Tag Team Champion A derivation of this stable also appeared in Fire Pro Wrestling Returns as

2703-410: Was announced by Kashmere on his Facebook that Trent Acid died. He was found dead at his home by his mother. He was 29. Combat Zone Wrestling Combat Zone Wrestling ( CZW ) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion founded in 1999 by John Zandig . Commonly associated with the 2000s hardcore wrestling genre, early CZW shows showcased a brand of wrestling dubbed by

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2756-463: Was half of each other's fault when Yamakawa did not take the move as it should be performed; back first, though some even blame the Japanese tables, which are smaller, more sturdy and harder to break, the table in this incident did not break and simply slipped from underneath of Yamakawa thus only connecting with his legs, causing his head to take the impact on the concrete. The reason for the collapse of

2809-591: Was later known as the "Indy Wars", CZW, XPW, and 3PW all competed for control of the ECW Arena. XPW were given the lease to the arena in late 2002 after Rob Black offered around $ 60,000. On December 12, 2002, as part of a triple-header of wrestling in Philadelphia Ring of Honor ran shows in conjunction with CZW and 3PW in what was to be the latter two promotions last events in the arena. During CZW's event, Zandig publicly stated that they had offered $ 32,000 to stay in

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