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DANNY HAVOC PASSES AWAY

Game Changer Wrestling announced that Danny Havoc, who was a regular for Combat Zone Wrestling, GCW and IWA Mid-South over the course of his career, had passed away.  He was only 34 years old.  GCW's announcement:

Havoc, real name Grant Berkland, was originally trained by Mike Quakenbush, DJ Hyde and Chris Hero.  He was born and raised in Iowa and wrestled in his family's barn with friends before attending a Combat Zone Wrestling tryout.  He began training and officially debuted in an "Ultraviolent Rumble" at 2005's CZW Tournament of Death.

Havoc was a regular for CZW for many years and worked for a number of other Death Match style promotions including IWA Deep South and WXW in Germany when they promoted their Gorefest tournaments.  Havoc won CZW's Tournament of Death in both 2008 and 2013, GCW's Tournament of Survival in 2006 and a number of others similar style tournaments.

During his time in CZW, he was pushed as one of the top talents in the company, mixing crazy Death Match bumps with dives and truly solid work in the ring.   It sounds cliche to write this, but he was someone who worked really hard and put his body through a lot to try and break new ground and to make fans happy.  He was probably one of the most important talents of the post-John Zandig era of CZW after the initial generation of names like Lobo, The Backseat Boyz, Nick Mondo, Justice Pain, etc.  Among talents, Havoc had a reputation for being incredibly smart and kind towards others in the locker room and had a big passion for performing.

In 2009, Havoc and Sami Callihan headlined CZW's Cage of Death, their biggest event of the year and it was among the best COD matches the promotion had ever held. Callihan was one of many who paid tribute to Havoc this evening, stating:

During his time in Combat Zone Wrestling, Havoc held the promotion's Tag Team titles, Junior Heavyweight Championship and was a two-time winner of their Ultraviolent Underground Championship.  

His work in CZW led to Havoc wrestling regularly for Big Japan, teaming with Drake Younger (current WWE referee Drake Wuertz).    Internationally he also wrestled in Japan for FREEDOMS, KAIENTAI Dojo, and DDT Pro.  He appeared in Mexico for DTU.

Havoc announced in September 2017 that he had retired from wrestling after a loss to Alex Colon in CZW, citing numerous injuries from his in-ring style.  CZW issued the following this evening:

Havoc returned several years later, initially working a fundraising event promoted by Matt Tremont's H20 promotion in New Jersey to raise money for wrestler G-Raver, who was injured working a death match.  From that point on Havoc, worked primarily for Game Changer Wrestling when he did wrestle.  He made six appearances for GCW over the last several years, including competing in Japan for FREEDOMS as a representative for GCW.

During his career, Havoc appeared on ViceTV's The Wrestlers as well as on now-defunct pop culture cable network G4, in both cases documenting his work as a death match performer:

There is no word yet on the circumstances of Havoc's passing.  His wife Brianne passed away earlier this year at the age of 27.

Our deepest condolences to Havoc's family, friends and fans.

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