Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
CAGE OF DEATH 5: SUSPENDED
Mike Johnson Reporting
Combat Zone Wrestling presented their Fifth Annual Cage of Death event on Saturday 12/13 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA. The show, which drew in the 900+ range, featured the spectacle of a double ring Cage of Death match featuring a suspended cage above the ring for the workers to battle on, as well as the surprise return of former ECW star New Jack to the ECW Arena, and a number of workers break out for the company with their performances tonight. Complete results of the show saw:
*John Dahmer and Cory Kastle won a Three-Way Dance, defeating Jude and Niles Young and the team of DJ Hyde and Josh Samuels (Lit from Ring of Honor) When Dahmer destroyed Niles Young with a top rope piledriver.
*Shun the Kabuki Kid defeated Rick Feinberg, Christian Wolf, and GQ when Shun hit a top rope senton bomb on Wolf to score the pin. Kabuki looked good with his Japanese mannerisms and kicks. John Dahmer attacked and laid out Feinberg after the match.
*The Rockin’ Rebel and Greg Matthews defeated the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz and the team of Z-Barr and Nick Berk in a Three-Way Dance when Rebel pinned DRS’ EC Negro. Barr and Berk are coming into their own as a babyface team, showing a lot of fire here.
*Jimmy Jacobs defeated Sabian and Derek Frazier in a Three-Way Dance. Becky Bayless, who has managed Jacobs on several IWA Mid-South events, managed him here in her CZW debut. A good match with solid work all around. The crowd was having a good time chanting “Huss.†Sabian got a nice round of applause after the bout.
*Jimmy Rave pinned Trent Acid to win the CZW Iron Man championship in a good bout. They initially went to a 20-minute draw with Rave demanding the match be continued. Acid teased he would do it, then walked out and returned to the locker room. Referee Brian Logan began counting out Acid, who returned through the front door of the building and rolled up Rave from behind for a near fall. They went back and forth with a series of two counts, with Rave finally scoring the pin to a huge reaction.
The HI-V came out and consoled Acid. They did an interview to set up the main event with CZW champion John Zandig coming out and walking down the “suspended cage†to look down on HI-V and announced that his team had a mystery sixth competitor that would shock CZW.
*Alex Shelley defeated B-Boy and Chris Hero in an excellent match to become the top contender for the CZW Iron Man championship. B-Boy pinned Hero with a shining wizard to eliminate him. Shelley forced B-Boy to submit to an STF in the center of the ring. A tremendous match.
*The Joker pinned Chris Cash in an out of this world ladder match. Originally scheduled as a tag team bout, Deranged and Azriel worked the Jersey All Pro Wrestling show in Rahway, New Jersey, and were scheduled to head to CZW but it appears that CZW running ahead of schedule (CZW was on all night in that regard) forced the promotion to go ahead with a singles ladder match. As noted above, that negative was turned into a positive as both Chris Cash and The Joker came out of the match as stars for the company. There were a ton of absolutely insane moves including Cash giving Joker a bulldog while Joker’s head was inside a rung of a ladder off the ropes onto a chair, a superplex off the top rope onto a ladder that was set up at a 45 degree angle stuck within the rungs of another ladder, and the finishing move that saw the Joker hit a tigerdriver variation called the Jokerdriver off the top of a ladder through a table on Cash for the pin. Both men were made to be players here.
*Sonjay Dutt pinned Ruckus with a rollup to win the CZW Junior Heavyweight championship in another great match. Dutt hit Ruckus with his own maneuver the Razzle Dazzle (handspring elbow) at one point.
*Team Ultraviolence (CZW champion John Zandig & Lobo & Wifebeater & Ian Knoxx & New Jack & Nick Gage) defeated Team HI-V (The Messiah & Nate Hatred & Trent Acid & Adam Flash & Johnny Kashmere & B-Boy) in a Cage of Death: Suspended Match. The match featured the promotion’s traditional Cage of Death with weapons (a cactus, a trash can, several pieces of guard rails, a table, and other instruments of destruction) with scaffolding across the top of the cage, a second ring filled with “one million thumbtacksâ€ÂÂÂÂ, tables surrounding the ring, and a “suspended steel cage†platform that ran from the stage of the ECW Arena over and across the thumbtack ring to the Cage of Death. There were steel cage partitions set up at a 45-degree angle that allowed the workers to brawl and throw each other into it. The rules of the match were that the competitors started at the stage, brawled to the Cage of Death and then had to return to the stage to escape. The winning team would be the team that had the most members escape and/or eliminated the entire other team by making their feet hit the floor (meaning tossing them out of a cage or taking bumps out of the cage or the suspended platform).
Before the match, John Zandig sent ring announcer Robby Minero to the back and brought out old announcer Dennis Shock to handle the announcements for the bout. Zandig and Johnny Kashmere started the bout brawling on the suspended cage, which looked awesome. As they made it to the ring, both Trent Acid and The Messiah from HI-V came out to make it a three-on-one. B-Boy was next but was told to wait on the suspended platform as they worked over Zandig.
“Natural Born Killaz†played and the ECW Arena popped huge out of shock and then realization as New Jack entered the match as the surprise babyface competitor. He worked over B-Boy on the platform, then hit the Cage of Death. He took out all the heels, and helped Zandig up, then attacked him and sided with HI-V. New Jack began using a staple gun on Zandig.
Lobo was out next, followed by Ian Knoxx. Lobo made it to the Cage of Death while Knoxx brawled with B-Boy on the suspended platform. Knoxx rammed B-Boy into one of the side partitions, which “gave way†and B-Boy took a bump into the thumbtacks. Knoxx then hung off the partition and dropped into the ring, giving B-Boy an elbowdrop. It was two awesome bumps that looked dangerous but the cage was built to give away in that manner so it was as safe as it could have been. It was just an awesome visual. Adam Flash was out, followed by Wifebeater out next.
At this point the match broke down with a ton of insane bumps as guys were being eliminated by sick bump after sick bump. New Jack dove off the top of the cage onto Zandig, who was laid out on a table on the floor. Acid hit a Yankuza Kick on Knoxx (who was made a player here with his bumps tonight), who took a bump off of the suspended cage, past the Cage of Death through a table on the floor. Lobo hit a Death Valley Driver off the top of the Cage of Death on both Johnny Kashmere and manager Dewey Donovan through two tables to the floor. Nick Gage took a bump into the ring of thumbtacks as well, sent off by Trent Acid, who them took his own bump into them. Wifebeater hit a sidewalk slam off the suspended platform into the tacks on Flash.
With everyone eliminated (only Flash and I believe Wifebeater made it back to the stage, making it 1-1 for each team), Nate Hatred and Messiah worked over Nick Gage and laid him out on a table. Zandig told Hatred “Now! Now!†over the house mic and Hatred turned babyface, attacking Messiah and reuniting his H8 Club team with Nick Gage. Gage poured thumbtacks over a table and he and Hatred sent Messiah off the top of the Cage through the table. They then tossed him out of the cage for the victory, eliminating him. All of Zandig’s team (except New Jack) celebrating in the ring. Zandig told the fans that the last year had been rough on CZW, but this was a start for a new year for the promotion.
When the only downside of a spectacular main event is that there is way too much going on at once to take in and a series of insane bumps that are topped within minutes of the other, you know you walked out seeing something special. For all its faults, CZW was on fire tonight with a good series of matches on the upper portion of the card and a blowaway, insane main event where everyone worked well beyond all semblances of logic, reason, and sanity. I would rate the main event as among the best live matches I’ve seen all year from an entertaining standpoint.
CZW NOTES: Although there were cuts and soreness after the main event, miraculously no one walked out with any injuries. Trent Acid ripped up his hand pretty bad in the thumb tacks and Adam Flash was banged up but no one was hurt….There were plans to bring Nick Mondo in at one point for this show, initially to work the main event and then after he decided to retire, to make a retirement announcement. Once Mondo announced his decision to retire on his website, the promotion opted not to bring him as the word was already out. The crowd seemed to think early on that Mondo would be working, although once New Jack showed up, the audience dropped all Mondo chants....The promotion debuts in Allentown, PA on 1/16/04 and returns to the ECW Arena on 1/17/04 with CZW champion John Zandig vs. New Jack in a Street Fight and the start of a â€ÂÂÂÂstrong style tournamentâ€ÂÂÂÂ.....Tony Mamaluke informed the promotion earlier this week that he had relocated to the West Coast and would be unable to make the show. Scotty Matthews (who debuted for the promotion last month) was tapped to take Mamaluke's slot in the Four Way but did not appear the night of the show….The video of the event can be purchased at www.smartmarkvideo.com and I would highly advise getting your hands on a copy of this video or DVD just for the spectacle of the main event, although there are several great wrestling matches on here as well.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
