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THIS WEEK IS DO OR DIE FOR MATT TREMONT

It is do or die time for Matt Tremont, in more ways than one and if you think this has been an easy week for him, you would guess wrong.

Over the span of the next several days, Tremont’s H20 promotion will be running three events, culminating in their debut at the Trenton Thunder Stadium in Trenton, NJ.  Not only is Tremont promoting and booking all of these events, but he’s headlining against his idol, FMW legend Atsushi Onita in a Double Hell Exploding Match on Sunday 10/31.

To say Tremont has everything within him invested into this weekend, financially, mentally, emotionally is like dismissing Star Wars as just another film.  Competing in the Cage of Death for CZW is nothing compared to walking the tightrope of having everything in your entire life wrapped up in the biggest undertaking you’ve ever attempted.

Tremont has wrestled Onita before.  Once they get into the ring, as insane as it may be to say this, that’s the easy part.  Sure, there will be barbed wire and explosions and blood and bumps, but the true battle for Tremont has been getting to this point and making sure the shows get off the ground and that everything that is supposed to happen in the main event actually does.

Tremont and Onita first tangled at CZW's “Once in A Lifetime” in a bout was easily a financial success but a critical disappointment as it morphed into a six man tag team bout that the audience has zero emotional interest in and the planned explosions were mostly lackluster, to the point Onita called them out as “cheap” on the ring mic after the bout.  While Onita tangled with Tremont in Japan and even tagged with him in CZW once after all this, that moment of something cool and new, something that had never been done before - Onita finally coming to the United States after numerous promises and mistarts and mistakes with other promotions dating back to the mid-1990s - ended up flatlining before everyone’s eyes.

Deep down, Tremont knew that and he always wanted to give the fans and himself the moment they both craved, bringing him back to Onita and getting him to return one more time to the United States.  Now, he has to hope that the lure of Onita in this environment - FINALLY - will overtake the disappointment that fans left with after CZW’s event.  He has to hope that fans, legitimately, are coming out for Wild Thing, explosions, brawling, crying promos and all the other pieces of pomp and circumstance that an Atsushi Onita match in an outdoor stadium can bring.

Undertaking this himself leaves Tremont in the driver’s seat in terms of making sure things are done right; there’s no DJ Hyde or anyone else to point the finger at if this goes wrong.  Tremont’s dream is that for once, the curse of big explosion matches in the United States is broken and he can actually deliver what an audience weaned on decades of Death Match spectacles from Japan imagines will happen before the actual bell rings.  

All of this, however, it also leaves him as the person to be blamed if something goes awry and it’s a pressure that has weighed on Tremont harder than any match he’s ever wrestled.  He has all but lived 24/7 at his Wrestling Academy’s office in recent weeks, keeping round the clock meetings with Onita and others in Japan who will be coming over to handle the technical aspects of the explosion match.  

There is no sleeping anywhere but in that building, not when there’s a hundred fires to put out to make sure the Double Hell match can go off.  Securing the right pyrotechnics, making sure they will be there on time, making sure everything here goes hand in hand with what the Japanese side is needing, all of that hasn’t fallen on a team or a company, but on Matt Tremont as well.  He’s handling 1,000 jobs, all so when the smoke clears, he can do the one job that he loves the most, wrestle.

Forget the usual entanglements and stupidity that comes with trying to produce a large scale event when you are a Mom and Pop shop like H20 is.  Matt Tremont and his wife have to stress every detail beyond making sure the ring, the merchandise, the staff, the talents, the technical end, the booking is all where it needs to be.  Forget the company.  Their very lifeblood as a family is wrapped up into this show and in order to walk away happy and healthy, they will have to extricate themselves on the black side of the ledger in the same moment that Tremont will be pulling barbed wire out of his back.

Their backs are against the wall.  Due to logistics, the Onita show falls on Halloween, which, even in a COVID-19 world, is still one of the biggest party nights of the year, so Tremont is literally in a battle with ghosts and goblins to get people in the building.  Then, not even mother nature wants to give him a bye leading into the main event.  The current weather forecast calls for clear skies, but it’s been pouring all week in New Jersey thanks to a Nor'easter and it’s slated to rain today and tomorrow as well, handicapping any on-site preparations that need to be done.   The window of time is closing rapidly by the second and there is more and more to be done.  Forget taking bumps, do or die time is already here, and oh yeah, the first show is TONIGHT.

Tremont is well liked among everyone in the Northeast wrestling scene and beyond, to the point that AEW’s Cody Rhodes at one point, planned to do a Death Match against him.  Tremont carries himself like a lovable grizzly bear.  There’s an aura of toughness and fearlessness about him, but also a lot of warmth and heart.   He loves professional wrestling with all his soul, to the point that he’s given way more physically for way less money than anyone should, but those are memories and scars that are intertwined with the pride Tremont carries with him.

This week has been no different, so take a moment to acknowledge the scars and stress Tremont has put on his own emotional and mental state just to get to this point.  There were moments that will never be publicly acknowledged where things could have fallen apart 100,000 times, but somehow, some way, Tremont has gotten himself and the promotion to the starting line of the weekend.

Getting into the ring will be as brutal as one might imagine but this Sunday evening, it will also mean Tremont has successfully completed running two shows at his Academy live for IndependentWrestling.TV (who obviously have a vested interest in the weekend) and that the undercard for his show Sunday went off without a hitch, well as much as a pro wrestling show can.

Then, the ropes can come down, the barbed wire can be assembled and Matt Tremont can say a private prayer as Journey begins to blare from the sound system, knowing, perhaps ironically, that the hard part of his job is done.  Then, he can head to the ring, having stepped out of his self-imposed retirement, in order to finally achieve his dream.

All three H20 events this weekend will stream live on IndependentWrestling.TV, featuring:

The Hustle Cup - Tonight, 8 PM, from H20 Academy in Williamstown, NJ:

The Hustle Cup First Round: Edward Hawkins vs Deklan Grant vs GG Everson vs Reid Walker

The Hustle Cup First Round: Santiago vs Frank Bonetti vs Celcio Vega vs Austin Luke

The Hustle Cup First Round: Adonis Valerio vs Duncan Aleem vs Leroy Robinson vs Marcus Mathers

The Hustle Cup First Round: Nick Grande vs Anthraxx vs Rocket vs Darien Hardway

Rickey Shane Page vs Ryan Redfield

Bunkhouse Barbwire Brawl: Drew Blood vs Alex Stretch

H2O Tag Team Champions Kristian Ross and Chris Bradley vs The Extricated (Mouse and Aiden Baal and Mouse)

Frankie Pickard vs Eddy Only

Saturday 10/30, 8 PM, Tremont’s Death Match Tournament from the H20 Academy in Williamstown, NJ:

First Round: Bobby Beverly vs Lucky 13 vs Dan O'Hare vs Eric Ryan

First Round: Mitch Vallen vs Bam Sullivan vs Atticus Cogar vs Mickie Knuckles

First Round: Chuck Payne vs Neil Diamond Cutter vs Kennedi Copeland vs Austin Luke

First Round: Anthraxx vs Chondo vs GG Everson vs Brandon Kirk

Jeff Cannonball and Greg Excellent vs Gregory Iron and Eddy Only

Texas Bullrope Match: Ron Mathis vs Rickey Shane Page

Sunday 10/31, 8 PM Destiny: Onita vs. Tremont from Trenton Thunder Stadium in Trenton, NJ:

Double Hell Current Blast Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs Matt Tremont

44.OH! (Rickey Shane Page, Eric Ryan, Bobby Beverly, Gregory Iron, Atticus Cogar and Eddy Only) vs Chuck Payne, Ron Mathis, Devon Moore, Lucky 13, Chondo and ?

H2O Hybrid Champion Kennedi Copeland vs Mickie Knuckles vs Jenny Rose vs Masha Slamovich vs Kasey Catal

Hideki Hosaka Memorial Hardcore Rumble

Effy and G-Raver vs Marcus Mathers and Austin Luke

Tickets for this Sunday's Trenton event are now on sale at this link.

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