"Combat Zone Wrestling's Past: ULTRAVIOLENT REVELATIONS"

WRITTEN: Saturday, November 2, 2002 - Saturday, November 9, 2002

For the past year or so, I've been following the storylines and results of New Jersey-based Combat Zone Wrestling. CZW is owned and operated by John Faretti, who competes in the promotion as one of it's top stars, Zandig. CZW runs shows 2-3 times per month in the Philadelphia and New England (mainly in New Jersey and Delaware) areas. When Extreme Championship Wrestling went bankrupt in March 2001, CZW began to gradually rise to become one of the very top companies on the U.S. indy wrestling circuit. Faretti brought in a host of former-ECW stars like Super Crazy, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Rockin' Rebel, Tommy Dreamer, Tom Marquez, Little Guido, John Kronus, and others. He used them to help draw former-ECW fans that were left craving a company that was able to bring them premiere aerial and technical wrestling balanced with violent hardcore matches.

Within the last year, internet wrestling journalist Bob Magee, owner of the Pro Wrestling's Between The Sheets website, began taking it upon himself to fire upon North Hollywood, California-based Xtreme Championship Wrestling. XPW is owned and operated by adult entertainment video distributor Robert Zicari (known as Rob Black in XPW storylines) and his wife, Janet Romano (known as Lizzy Borden in XPW storylines). Black, a native of New York who was a regular at ECW shows in the New England area, used the money that he had made from his adult entertainment endeavors to fulfill a dream that he had had for much of his life - to launch his very own professional wrestling company.

Holding it's debut show in Reseda, California on July 31, 1999, XPW - like CZW - quickly ascended to the top of the indy circuit and gave former-ECW fans living on the west coast a dose of the premiere scientific and aerial wrestling and the extreme brutality that had made ECW so famous during it's prime. XPW stars like Chronic (became the EWF World Heavyweight Champion as "Iceman" John Black), Damien Steele (became a two-time WWC Lightweight Champion and a regular performer with both IWA Puerto Rico [a former-WWF/E developmental league] and Ultimate Pro Wrestling [UPW]), Homeless Jimmy, Nozawa, TOOL (who, after leaving, XPW, became a top star in the EWF promotion in Southern California as Gary "Krusher" Key), and most notably The Messiah, who went on to be the World Heavyweight Champion of both MPW and CZW (and also CZW's Ironman Champion), all found sufficient success on the indy wrestling circuit outside of XPW.

Black purchased full-page ad space in the now defunct World of Wrestling (W.O.W.) Magazine and began releasing XPW home videos through Goldhil Home Media International. By the end of 2001, XPW had found so much success that they were able to begin releasing both home videos and DVDs of full XPW shows and "Best of" wrestler compilation videos on their own, without the distribution assistance of Goldhil (at this same time, CZW was relying on Robert Feinstein's RF Video and SmartMarkVideo to tape and release their videos).

Magee began his Internet war against XPW in early 2002 and has yet to have it cease. The bashing reached an all-time high in August 2002, mere days after XPW made a shocking announcement that they'd be invading the East Coast on August 31rst at Viking Hall in Philadelphia, PA. Beginning around that time, Bob endlessly berated XPW for not obtaining a valid promoter's license and surety bond before the show occurred. However, something that so few are aware of is that CZW has also performed questionable actions in the past.

Back when CZW ran in Sewell, New Jersey, building inspectors decided that The CZW Arena, as CZW called it (it's actually The Champs Indoor Soccer Arena), didn't have enough bathrooms that the fans that attended their shows could use. Also, it has become obvious that no-shows are fairly common in CZW. At March Violence (3/11/00), CZW was unable to deliver on the previously-hyped Hit Squad/Thrill Kill Kult match when only one member of Da Hit Squad (a successful indy tag team comprised of Mafia & Monsta Mack) appeared at the event, the other having no-showed. The match was rescheduled for CZW's next show.

At Crushing the Competition (2/10/01), Justice Pain and former-ECW World Television and Tag Team Champion Yoshihiro Tajiri faced off in the main event. Just when it looked as if Pain was going to put away Tajiri, Mikey Whipwreck ran down the aisleway and made the save for Tajiri. The show ended with the announcement that CZW's next live event would feature a tag team main event of Justice Pain and Wifebeater against former-ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mikey Whipwreck and none other than "The Chair-Swinging Freak" Balls Mahoney. However, when CZW's next show, Break on Thru (2/17/00), came around, it was revealed that Mikey wasn't at the show so the fans would instead have to opt for a match between Balls Mahoney and Wifebeater.

At Best of the Best 2 (6/8/02), there were two no-shows. The most notable one was by former-WCW Cruiserweight and Cruiserweight Tag Team Champion Elix Skipper, who had been promoted as a participant in the Junior Heavyweight Tournament for almost a month by the CZW's official website. The reason Skipper was reported as no-showing was reported to be that he had a booking in Japan. The far lesser known "Heavy" Maxx Feury of Canada's IWS promotion, replaced him in the tournament. Indy star Jason Cross also no-showed (it was reported that he purposefully no-showed and didn't have any other obligations or anything to that degree) and was replaced in the tournament by Gabriel of NWA Wildside's Lost Boyz tag team. The deceptions get far more serious than this, though...

It's relatively well known that XPW had hyped the first-ever Exploding Ring Deathmatch to occur on December 3, 2000 between their man, Sabu, and Japanese deathmatch legend Atsushi Onita. That match never took place due to XPW being preoccupied with a lawsuit between them and ECW. While this is common knowledge to most indy hardcore wrestling fans, what's so less discussed is the fact that a very similar occurrence happened with CZW.

CZW Night of the Main Events (2/5/00; Sewell, NJ) began with ring announcer Dennis Shock and Ed O' Mac making their way to the ring. After Shock hyped the card, Ed told the fans that the "big announcement" that CZWWrestling.com had been alluding to for so long would finally be revealed later that night. Less than a half-hour later, CZW owner John "Zandig" Faretti made his way out to the ring and invited to the ring those responsible for the big announcement. A representative of CZW's new sponsor, ADV Films, entered the ring, and so did the former-webmaster of ScoopsWrestling.com (a now defunct pro wrestling website), Al Issacs.

Zandig informed the crowd that Japanese hardcore legend Atsushi Onita had challenged CZW to compete in interpromotional deathmatches and that he, on CZW's behalf, accepted the challenge. Zandig then made the announcement that CZW had hyped for so long - an interpromotional show pitting "Onita Kogyo" (Onita and his stars) against Team CZW (the CZW wrestlers) would air on United States and Japanese Pay-Per-View. In fact, not only did Zandig announce that this Pay-Per-View would air, but he also announced the following to the fans in attendance:

- The show would be taped on Sunday, June 25, 2000 and would air at a later date on Pay-Per-View in both Japan and the U.S.
- Former-NWA World Heavyweight Championn "The Living Legend" Terry Funk would appear on the Pay-Per-View.
- The following gimmick matches would ooccur on the Pay-Per-View: a Barbed-Wire Explosion Deathmatch (it would've been the first to ever occur in the U.S.), a "CZW-style" cage match (a "Cage of Death" match), and a "Freaks of Nature" match, which would feature snakes, alligators, and other deadly animals in each corner of the ring.

CZW fans were, as they should've been, jakked up for this show, for CZW was finally going to be receiving the exposure that they'd been deserving of for so long - they'd be on international Pay-Per-View!

During the next few months, CZW continued to release details to the blockbuster show on their official website - it'd be held at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Terry Funk would appear at the show representing Team CZW and wrestle Onita one-on-one.

A few months after the Pay-Per-View was announced, it was moved a week later to Sunday, July 2.

The problem came, though, when June 25 came around and CZW fans weren't, as Faretti promised, treated to a Pay-Per-View taping featuring their favorite stars, along with Terry Funk, clashing with the likes of Atsushi Onita and other premier deathmatch stars. Soon after the 25th, it was revealed that the taping and Pay-Per-View were cancelled - as Mr. Magee explained in his 6/30/00 "AS I SEE IT" column - "through the efforts of several Philadelphia area wrestling promoters, who lobbied the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission to cancel the show."

Therefore, not only are we still waiting for the falsely promoted Pay-Per-View to air, but we're also waiting for a Barbed-Wire Explosion Deathmatch and a "Freaks of Nature" match to occur at a CZW show. In fact, a "Freaks of Nature" match still has yet to occur at any professional wrestling show, let alone in CZW.

In a November 5, 2000 interview conducted by Eric Gargiulo (the full interview can be found HERE), Terry Funk discussed how he became involved in the proposed match, but why the match didn't happen due to CZW's lousy payment policy:

"They contacted me, but it was about three quarters bullsh*t. Nobody ever sent me any papers on the thing. They [CZW] said, 'Would you do this for this certain amount of money?' and I said, 'Of course I would.' That's how that got out. I've got some guy, and I'm still waiting for his money from up there right now. I said, 'Send me half of the money' and he said, 'Will you come up here and wrestle for me?' And I said, 'Sure, I will for this amount of money and send me half up front.' So, he agreed and he's advertising me without sending me half up front so if he's out there listening and he's in your part of the country, he better get my money to me or else I'm not coming."

There is virtually no difference to this and what Rob Black did by promoting the Onita/Sabu Exploding Ring Deathmatch, yet Mr. Magee for some reason beyond my understanding practices in about half of his columns and devote less than half a column to times that CZW has lied to their fans.

In late May 2000, CZW announced that they had reached an agreement for a weekly television program Saturday nights at 9:00 p.m. EST on WGTW (a local station that airs in parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland). CZW hyped that their debut on the station would be on June 16. However, about one week later CZW announced that they were postponing the TV debut until July 5 due to not being ready production-wise.

CZW eventually announced that their TV deal had gone through and that their first TV tapings would be held on Friday, June 8 in Sewell, New Jersey. However, a few days before the show, RF Video broke some important news. Shawn Michaels trainees Michael Shane (Michael's real-life nephew) and Oz would be unable to make the show because Shane's car, which they were using to drive to the show together, had broken down. Both men had been promoted by CZW to appear at the show. With them unable to make it, CZW was forced to find replacements. While they announced before the show that the two wouldn't be attending, it was a prime example of false hype by CZW.

On May 12, 2001 at Stretched in Smyrna (Smyrna, DE), CZW held perhaps their most violent match to date. The show's main event featured Wifebeater and John "Zandig" Faretti battle it out in an Ultraviolent Deathmatch for Wifebeater's CZW World Heavyweight Championship. Light bulbs, some boards wrapped in barbed-wire, hot candle wax, tables, a weedwhacker, broken glass, a rope (which was used to stretch the already severely lacerated open back of Zandig so that the white of his bone became visible), and other tools were used as weapons. Respected Internet wrestling journalist Stuart Max of Wrestling Viewpoint! described Zandig's back as it looked just five minutes into the match as "beyond description, blood just... everywhere." Stuart offered the following analysis after his description of the match:

"I'm not sure what to really make of this. I guess it wasn't really a match as it had Zandig vs. Wifebeater for about 2 minutes at the start and 2 seconds at the end. Every fan has a line he or she will draw when it comes to garbage wrestling. Some won't even watch it, offended by what it stands for. Some will accept chairs, tables and blood. Some will accept barbed wire, light bulbs and other dangerous materials. My line is right near the end, but THIS abortion crossed it. In NO way was this a wrestling match. It was a hideous, gross display of bloodshed and gore for NO OTHER REASON but most of the guys involved can do little better, so to remain over with the fans they have to constantly up the ante and take their "ultraviolence" to a new level...These CZW garbage wrestlers has done some disgraceful stuff in the past, but I think this tops it. I won't rate it, as it wasn't really a match, but as a "scene" and what it was symbollic of/stood for, it was -***** (note the negative symbol). Having watched this, I fear what their next attempt to outdo this will feature."

Just minutes into the match, representatives of the firehouse who were in attendance at the show placed a call to the local police force to put an end to the show due to the excessive amount of blood being shed. Luckily (for the good of the reputation of not just CZW, but of all of U.S. indy wrestling), no arrests were made.

During the match, the face of the cameraman filming the action (who was actually RF Video's Doug Gentry) was cut open fairly severely by broken glass.

For months, CZW had been hyping what they called their biggest show ever, Cage of Death 3, for Saturday, October 13, 2001. However, in early October, they announced that the show would be postponed until a later date. That date was later announced as December 15 at Viking Hall in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In late November, CZW announced that premiere rap group The Insane Clown Posse (consisting of Shaggy 2 Dope & Violent J), who had competed or appeared in ECW, WCW, the WWF, and XPW, would make an appearance at Cage of Death 3. In a case of broken promises, just a few days before the show, CZW announced that The I.C.P. wouldn't be at the C.O.D. 3 show. They gave no reason to the public for this sudden cancellation. Like the Michael Shane and Oz booking cancellations, CZW did announce before the show that Shane and Oz wouldn't be at the show, it was another example of false hype by CZW.

On July 15, 2002, Gabe Sopolsky published the following on the RF Video website:

"We have heard that Justice Pain cut a promo at the CZW show on Saturday basically challenging anyone from ROH to fight him next month. I want to make this very clear right now that ROH WILL NEVER work with CZW. This was a grandstand challenge, meaning that CZW had Pain cut the promo trying to punk us out knowing that we won't respond or send a ROH wrestler to fight him. The funny part is that a lot of CZW fans seem very excited about the possibility of someone from ROH fighting Pain. All Zandig did by having Pain cut this promo was set his fans up for disappointment when nothing happens. I will probably have more on this in a week or so once I watch the tape and hear exactly what Pain said. I will talk about why ROH will never, ever work with CZW. On a side not to Zandig, we don't want a war. You go do your product and we do ours. The fans will spend their money on which product is better. It's that simple. We won't distract from our show with CZW references. In fact, at our last show one of our wrestlers wanted to cut a promo running down the use of light tubes and stuff like that and we wouldn't let him. It has been talked about to have a spot in a match where someone no sells a light tube to kill that gimmick since everyone knows they don't hurt, but we won't do that. If you want to keep putting us over on your show and advertising for us, that's cool Zandig, but we will never respond to you and never put you over on our show. It just shows an insecurity in your own product when you do things like that. If you have confidence in your product, there is no reason to issue grandstand challenges."

In an 11/3/02 post, Mr. Magee ripped on XPW for promoting a show that was hyped to feature The Sandman's retirement match, stating the following:

"As for the November 16th Sandman "retirement match", at least two other companies are advertising Sandman for upcoming shows:

He's advertised as working Bam Bam Bigelow for the New York-based USA Pro Wrestling's Eighth Anniversary Show on November 22nd, found at this URL

He is also advertised to be working Konnan for a December 5th show with Legacy Wrestling Enterprises in Fort Worth, TX, which can be found at http://www.geocities.com/lwewrestling/konnanbanner.jpg (note: you must cut and paste this URL into your browser as banners stored on Geocities will not link directly).

While XPW is hardly the first promotion to do this, and undoubtedly won't be the last, one wonders what reaction this will draw from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, which has been watching the actions of XPW in recent months."

Actually, when Mr. Magee stated that XPW wasn't the first promotion to hype a retirement match that wasn't, he couldn't have been more correct. This is because, less than one month before he wrote that column, CZW did the very same thing.

It was at CZW Beyond the Barrier (10/12/02; Philadelphia, PA) that one of CZW's premier deathmatch competitors, known as "The Wifebeater," (Yes, that's what he's known as.) announced his retirement from the squared circle (He had competed in the sport for the past three years.) due to legitimate injuries that came from the ultraviolent deathmatches that he had competed in during his CZW competitor. It was announced that Wifebeater's final match would be against arguably his greatest rival of all, John "Zandig" Faretti. The showdown would occur in a "No-Rope Barbed-Wire 100 Light Tubes 'I Quit'" match at CZW Havoc in Hellaware on October 24, 2002 in Dover, DE.

The match occurred in front of about 200 fans (which is a very low attendance for CZW, especially when they've promoted a retirement match for one of their top stars) and, after both men had bloodied eachother to a pulp with barbed-wire, light tubes, and other weapons, the bout was ruled a No Contest when several other CZW performers interfered. It was announced that the bout would continue on November 9 at CZW Night of Infamy.

Although there were far less in attendance than there were expected to be, the fans who did buy tickets to the show were made to think that they were attending a retirement show of one of their CZW heroes, when in reality, they were just attending another CZW show, and one which has been called one of their worst in the last two or so years. Fans who wanted to see Wifebeater step into the ring would have to spend more of their money to buy tickets to his retirement match (if it in fact turns out to be a retirement match, that is; Let's hope that he doesn't pull a "Funk" and return again.) at the next CZW show. This was just another example of Faretti decepting the loyal CZW fans.

I would like to let it be known what my objective in writing this column was. I started it with the simple purpose of describing how Bob Magee and much of the rest of the Internet have been rather ignorant. Specifically Mr. Magee has made it one of his primary goals to place a negative reputation upon XPW and - at the same time - constantly put CZWW over at his every chance, he has failed - in my opinion - to prove his impartiality. CZW has made more than their fair share of mistakes, yet Mr. Magee continues to put down XPW for practices very similar to what CZW has done. I feel that this is wrong.

While writing this column, I seemed to find myself getting carried away at times. I found myself getting carried away and beginning to dislike CZW for what it's done in the past. I seemed to be forgetting one of the primary messages of this column - that every pro wrestling company has made its mistakes. Whether it be WWF/E, WCW, ECW, a U.S. indy company, a foreign promotion, or another federation, they've made their fair share of mistakes. XPW - in my opinion - has certainly made its fair share of mistakes - if not, but nothing that was too much worse than any other wrestling promotion.

I don't know why Mr. Magee feels that he must be so ignorant to the errors of CZW's past and criticize other companies - especially XPW - for the same things that CZW has done. Does his friendship with CZW owner and promoter John "Zandig" Faretti make him partial towards CZW? Does he simply have a bitter dislike towards XPW? Is he honestly unaware of the past errors of CZW that have been explained in this column? I don't know. All I do know is that Mr. Magee feels the constant urge to ignorantly put down XPW with absurd claims and accusations, and that I've had enough it.

This column was not of meant to persuade anybody to not buy CZW video tapes or not watch CZW again, but rather to show that almost every wrestling promotion - current or present - has, at one point or another and in some way or another, engaged in questionable business practices, no matter how slight they are. I will not stop watching CZW because they've engaged in these practices. What goes on backstage has little significance to me, for the in-ring action is what I believe counts. I felt that I had to get this all off of my chest because I am tired of Mr. Magee's seemingly endless berating of XPW

If you have any questions, comments, or other feedback, I can be reached via e-mail by clicking HERE or via AOL Instant Messenger as HHH4LifeDX69.

by Jonathan Barber

The following sources were used to write this column:

- The Internet Archive: WAYBACK MACHINE
- the old CZWWrestling.com website
- Pro WWrestling Between The Sheets
- RF (Rob Feinstein) Video
- W.O.W. Magazine
- Wrestling Viewpoint!

4w-wrestling.com

I was at Heatwave on Sunday.  I have been to 5 XPW shows and know most of the wrestlers fairly well.  XPW had been hinting  a bum rush on there website for weeks now.  "On July 16th…The Revolution Begins".   What did people expect would happen.  I got to the show with my "Rock-is-Dead.com" and "Shork" signs.  Chris Klaus and Guido come in and sit atop the balcony.  They are greeted with numerous boos and "XPW Sucks" chants.  Than came Mr. 80's "Dynamite D", a Westside N*****, and some XPW ring crew.  Than in came Homeless Jimmy, Kid Chaos, Supreme, and Kristi Myst.  The way the XPW seating layout was this.  Guido, Mr. 80's, Westside Nig, and various officials atop the balcony front row.  XPW official Kevin Vargas and Damien Steel seated in the back of the arena but not in the balcony.  Than sitting front row, tv camera side was (From left to Right) Supreme, Kristy Myst, Kid Chaos, Kris Klaus, Messiah, and Homeless Jimmy.

Then, it went down during the main event.

Tommy Dreamer and Justin Credible give each other the stare down and start talking trash.  What I am going to tell next YOU DID NOT SEE ON TV.  Kristi Myst stood up and attempte to flash the crowd and the television cameras (which weren't running).  As she was taking off her top, Francine came over and pushed her.  At this point all the other XPW guys were ALL together.  This push prompted all the XPW guys to stand up and start swearing.  At this point Justin Credible mouthed the words "XPW bitches…….".   To which Tommy Dreamer and Justin Credible exited the ring, a long with a good hunk of the ECW locker room.  At this point Kid Chaos did the XPW "X" sign and got it on TV.  The pieces of trash which are ATLAS security, than attempted to take the XPW wrestlers out of the arena.  

At this point I attempted to run out of the building and go help the XPW guys in any way I could.  As I was running a big, ugly cop came running straight at me, and literally ran into me.  This guy weighed like 400 pounds and he knocked me over.  I got up to run outside with the XPW guys, and than this same cop grabs my back and throws me back.  They than sealed off the exits….(that's got to be illegal) and wouldn't let anybody else out.  

There are two stories to what happened in the Parking Lot….. They either got there asses kicked, or they got out as fast as they can……