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75-496: 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 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

150-668: A Chokenstein and the injury put Yamakawa out of action for several months. He returned to action on December 2, where he teamed with Kintaro Kanemura to defend the Hardcore Tag Team Championship against the BJW Tag Team Champions Daisuke Sekimoto and Men's Teioh in a title vs. title match at a BJW show, with the BJW Tag Team Championship also being defended in the match. Sekimoto and Teioh won

225-406: 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

300-698: A minor league or farm system for the larger national promotions, as wrestlers in "indie" companies (especially young wrestlers just starting their careers) are usually honing their craft with the goal of being noticed and signed by a major national promotion such as WWE , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) (which also owns Ring of Honor (ROH)), or Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in the United States, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, or New Japan Pro-Wrestling , Dragongate , All Japan Pro Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom or

375-565: 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 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

450-512: A FMW show and defeated GOEMON and Onryo to win the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship . They successfully defended the title against Azusa Kudo and Mammoth Sasaki on March 5. On March 18, Yamakawa participated in a tournament for the vacant BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, competing against Wifebeater in the quarter-final round. During the match, Yamakawa fractured his skull after Wifebeater delivered

525-410: A champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as Thundercats and X-Men . (These gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick

600-482: 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

675-467: 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

750-710: 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

825-442: 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

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900-527: A five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the Big Daddy -orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By

975-525: A good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full-professional contract. The advent of the Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach

1050-581: A large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of any almost open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to professional wrestling schools , serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes

1125-549: A larger audience outside of their local areas. Unlike the North American or Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the Northern Territory . Tours from

1200-404: A loss to Poison Julie Sawada . He would lose to Ryo Miyake on October 26 and then suffered a second loss to Sawada on the promotion's last event on October 27. He then joined the newly founded Tokyo Pro Wrestling (TPW) at the company's debut show on December 7 by teaming with Ryo Miyake against Yoshihiro Tajiri and Fukaya in a tag team match, which the latter team won. Yamakawa debuted for

1275-424: 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

1350-486: 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

1425-541: A major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when Bert Assirati was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship , Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from

1500-434: 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

1575-532: A region and maintain a consistent schedule. After Vince McMahon , seeking regulatory relief, gave in 1989 testimony in front of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission where he publicly admitted pro wrestling was in fact a sports-based entertainment, rather than a true athletic competition, many state athletic commissions stopped regulating wrestling. This obviated the need for complying with many expensive requirements, such as

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1650-483: 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

1725-410: A tag team with Tomoaki Honma to participate in the 1999 Maximum Tag League , which they won by winning all of their matches in the tournament. On December 4, Yamakawa defeated Shadow WX in a four corners lighttubes board deathmatch to win his second Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship. Yamakawa lost the title to his tag team partner Honma in a 5-inch spike nail and barbed wire double board deathmatch in

1800-482: A week or once a month in local towns. Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract

1875-640: Is based on the Child's Play movies.) Until 1984, no independent puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either New Japan Pro-Wrestling or All Japan Pro Wrestling . ( International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988

1950-573: Is considered by some to be a forerunner to indies since some stars of the past got their start in these low quality local rivals to the big regional territories. The modern definition of the independent circuit came about in the middle to late 1980s and fully formed and flourished after 1990. These promotions initially sought to revive the feel of old school territorial wrestling after former territories either went national, such as WWF , went out of business, or eventually did both, such as WCW . Several indies did in fact manage to tour different towns within

2025-456: 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

2100-547: The CyberFight promotions in Japan. It is also not uncommon for veteran wrestlers who have had past tenures with major promotions to appear on independent shows, either as special attractions or as a way to prolong their careers. The "indie" scene in the United States dates back to the days of regional territories. When a promoter ran opposition in even one town controlled by a National Wrestling Alliance sanctioned territory, they were often called an "outlaw" territory. This

2175-479: 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

2250-659: The WEW Hardcore Championship . Yamakawa debuted for FMW on April 11 as he, Tomoaki Honma and Winger unsuccessfully challenged TNR members Jado , Gedo and Koji Nakagawa for the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Yamakawa successfully defended the Hardcore Championship against Kanemura on April 24, before losing the title to Kanemura at the FMW 11th Anniversary Show . Yamakawa and Tomoaki Honma lost

2325-451: The 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. Note: Minimum attendance of 5,000. General Specific Ryuji Yamakawa Seiji Yamakawa ( 山川 征二 , Yamakawa Seiji , born 2 April 1970) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler , better known by his ring name Ryuji Yamakawa ( 山川 竜司 , Yamakawa Ryūji ) . He is best known for his time with Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), where he spent

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2400-438: The BJW Tag Team Championship to CZW's John Zandig and Nick Gage on June 2. On July 2, Yamakawa teamed with former rival Shadow WX to defeat CZW's Justice Pain and The Wifebeater . They lost the title to Abdullah Kobayashi and KAMIKAZE on September 15. Yamakawa reunited with Tomoaki Honma to win the 2000 Maximum Tag League for the second consecutive year. On February 23, 2001, Yamakawa teamed with Kintaro Kanemura at

2475-606: 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 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

2550-723: The Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu , Gran Hamada , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Akira Maeda , Atsushi Onita , and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in

2625-595: The North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . Lucha libre has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent promotion into either AAA or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be

2700-463: 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"

2775-580: The Tag Team Championship, marking Yamakawa's record-setting seventh Tag Team Championship reign, a record for most reigns with the tag team title which would be broken by Daisuke Sekimoto, who won the title for an eighth time in 2017. They enjoyed a lengthy reign, losing the title to Abdullah Kobayashi and Jaki Numazawa on August 15, 2004. He took a hiatus from wrestling in September to recover from his injuries. After two years away from

2850-615: 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

2925-467: 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

3000-423: 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

3075-467: The course of his career. On July 23, 1997, Yamakawa and Yoshihiro Tajiri defeated Kishin Kawabata and Takashi Ishikawa to win the vacant Tag Team Championship . During this time, Yamakawa changed his ring name to Ryuji Yamakawa . They lost the title to Jado and Gedo at a Kodo Fuyuki -promoted Fuyuki Army event on December 22. Tamakawa and Tajiri defeated Jado and Gedo in a rematch to regain

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3150-461: The death of Giant Baba and retirement of Antonio Inoki , which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent, Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from BattlARTS , took place; soon after NJPW stocked the junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as Masayuki Naruse , Tiger Mask , Gedo , and Jado . On

3225-529: 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

3300-553: The end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by Max Crabtree , brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since

3375-642: 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

3450-536: The final round, where they lost to Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto, Yoshihito Sasaki, Shinya Ishikawa and Yuji Okabayashi ). During the tournament, Yamakawa participated in his first deathmatch since 2002, as Deathmatch Champions defeated Deathmatch Young Bloods (Masashi Takeda, Isami Kodaka, Kankuro Hoshino and Mototsugu Shimizu) in a Tokyo Tower vs. Sapporo Television Tower Double Fluorescent Lighttubes match. On November 22, 2011, Yamakawa announced that he would retire on July 15, 2012 and worked his retirement tour throughout

3525-466: 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

3600-673: The impact on the concrete. The reason for the collapse of 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

3675-533: The independents that were signed included Akitoshi Saito , Takahiro Suwa , and Taiji Ishimori ). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability. For most of the years of ITV 's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the Joint Promotions cartel, which

3750-416: The late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead later renamed All Star Wrestling c.  1984 . An alliance with promoter and former top star Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining

3825-455: The late 2011 and the first half of 2012. He wrestled the first BJW match of 2012 by teaming with Yuichi Taniguchi to defeat Atsushi Ohashi and Masato Inaba. On July 25, Yamakawa competed in his retirement match at Ryuji Yamakawa Retirement The Final , in which he teamed with Abdullah Kobayashi and Ryuji Ito to defeat Jaki Numazawa, Shadow WX and Kankuro Hoshino in a Fluorescent Lighttubes and Nail Board Death Match when Yamakawa pinned Hoshino after

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3900-477: The leader. In 2001 in Japan, the Wifebeater and Ryuji Yamakawa faced off in 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

3975-405: The limelight ( Wrestling Association "R" , Universal Lucha Libre , Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , Fighting Network Rings , Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , and Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as Shukan Puroresu and Shukan Gong magazines. With

4050-566: The majority of his career between 1995 and 2012 as a deathmatch wrestler. He was one of the top wrestlers and an over main eventer of the company, winning the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship two times and the Tag Team Championship seven times . Yamakawa was trained by Kazuo Sakurada and made his professional wrestling debut for Network of Wrestling (NOW) on October 25, 1994 in

4125-596: The match and both titles. Kanemura and Yamakawa unsuccessfully challenged Sekimoto and Teioh for the Hardcore Tag Team Championship in a rematch on January 2, 2002. Yamakawa reverted to competing under his real name Seiji Yamakawa and won the World Extreme Cup tournament later that year by defeating Kintaro Kanemura in the final at Harder Than Hardcore II . Yamakawa adopted the ring name Mr. Big Japan on July 21, 2003. On December 23, Mr. Big Japan and Men's Teioh defeated Badboy Hido and Ryuji Ito to win

4200-456: The move went ahead and saw Yamakawa's head slam against the concrete. Both wrestlers have stated that it 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

4275-426: The need for an on-site ambulance and trained emergency medical personnel at each bout. After the business was thus exposed and deregulated, just about anyone could be a promoter or a wrestler since no licensing beyond a business license was then required. Many thought they could save money by holding shows in lesser towns and smaller arenas with little to no televised exposure, leading to many shows being held only once

4350-476: The new deathmatch wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) at the company's first show Start Up on March 16, 1995 by teaming with Daisuke Taue against Kin Soppo and Nam Ti Ryon in a losing effort. Yamakawa picked the first win of his career by defeating Yuichi Taniguchi on June 2. Yamakawa became a mainstay of BJW by excelling the deathmatch wrestling style and competing in various deathmatches during

4425-504: 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. Independent circuit Independent promotions are essentially viewed as

4500-507: The quarter-final round of the 2000 BJ Grand Prix on January 2, 2000. On January 7, Yamakawa and Honma defeated KAMIKAZE and Shunme Matsuzaki to win the Tag Team Championship. Yamakawa would often represent BJW in wars with rival hardcore promotions Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). Yamakawa began feuding with FMW's Team No Respect group and the rivalry took place in both BJW and FMW. On February 22, Yamakawa defeated TNR member Kintaro Kanemura to win

4575-580: The ring, Yamakawa returned to BJW at Katsura Special 4 on September 23, 2006 by teaming with Kintaro Kanemura against Shadow WX and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in his recovery match, which Yamakawa and Kanemura lost. He wrestled one more match on October 29, which he lost and then went on a hiatus again. His multiple injuries forced him to give up full-time wrestling and he became a part-timer in 2008. On August 19, 2009, Yamakawa teamed with Shadow WX, Jaki Numazawa and Abdullah Kobayashi as "Deathmatch Champions" and participated in an Eight-Man Tag Team Tournament, making to

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4650-451: 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

4725-534: The same year, following the Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent; Nobutaka Araya , Shigeo Okumura and Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been Kaz Hayashi , Tomoaki Honma , Hideki Hosaka , and Ryuji Hijikata .) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents, Daisuke Ikeda , to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from

4800-443: 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

4875-448: The title on January 2, 1998. They lost the title to Shadow Winger and Shadow WX on March 4. Yamakawa regained the title from Shadow Winger and Shadow WX with Shoji Nakamaki on August 9. Nakamaki left BJW on November 29, causing the title to be vacated. Yamakawa reached the pinnacle of his career by defeating Shadow WX in a no rope barbed wire death pallet coffin and fire deathmatch to win his first Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship ,

4950-552: The top title in the promotion on May 30, 1999. Yamakawa became a double champion by teaming with Mike Samples to defeat Shadow WX and Tomoaki Honma for the Tag Team Championship on July 31. Yamakawa lost the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship back to Shadow WX in a.no rope barbed wire fire deathmatch on August 10. On September 7, Yamakawa and Mike Samples lost the Tag Team Championship to the team of KAMIKAZE and Shunme Matsuzaki. Yamakawa formed

5025-478: 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

5100-434: 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

5175-633: Was TCK and Ric Blade. The academy relocated to The 2300 Arena in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, and briefly merged with 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

5250-761: 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

5325-588: Was covered by Vice Media in the documentary Bloodlust: Tournament of Death . After 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

5400-474: Was emphasized by CZW's two annual tournaments, Tournament of Death , which showcased 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

5475-463: Was founded in New Jersey by John Zandig in 1998. After training 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

5550-604: 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

5625-464: Was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory, Atholl Oakley 's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as

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