Combat Zone Wrestling
| Combat Zone Wrestling | |
|---|---|
|
|
| shape | promotion |
| Establishment date | February 19, 1999 |
| Location | Newark, Delaware |
| Territories | Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Japan, Germany, UK |
| founder | John Zandig |
| owner | Combat Zone Wrestling, LLC |
| management |
DJ Hyde Dave Marquez |
| Branch |
Pro-Wrestling Ultraviolent Entertainment |
| Further information | |
| Website | Official website |
Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is the name of a US wrestling promotion that is based in Newark , Delaware . Promoters are wrestler DJ Hyde and his partner Dave Marquez.
history
CZW as an NWA offshoot
Wrestler John Zandig had been running a wrestling school in Westville, New Jersey, called the Combat Zone Wrestling School , since the end of 1998 . Zandig's school then worked closely with the New Jersey-based NWA New Jersey .
With some of his students he gave a public event on February 19, 1999 called CZW - Opening Night , the proceeds of which were donated. Surprised by the positive result, shortly afterwards he founded the Combat Zone Wrestling promotion , which was based in Mantua, New Jersey.
Zandig's new league started as an offshoot of the National Wrestling Alliance , as their first pro wrestlers came from the NWA New Jersey and were supplemented by some wrestlers from the CWZ wrestling school. The first official CZW event called CZW - The Staple Gun was held on March 27, 1999 .
Rise in the independent scene
After the closure of the NWA New Jersey, the CZW succeeded it in the state and established itself as a pure “hardcore” promotion from the year 2000, when it added the subtitle “ Ultraviolent ” to the league name . After a change of location, the promotion was now registered in Deptfort, New Jersey, the CZW wrestlers competed in Sewell, New Jersey.
In 2000, CZW had already established itself in the international independent scene and worked closely with Japanese leagues such as Big Japan Pro-Wrestling . With the independent league IWA Mid-South a brutally laid out feud program was started, which only found its conclusion with the “IWA Invasion” (2003) in Delaware.
Deathmatch wrestling is prohibited in New Jersey
At the end of 2000, the New Jersey National Sports Commission continued to forbid the CZW from performing “hardcore” and “death” matches after serious injuries occurred at events. Zandig circumvented this problem by expanding the scope of his doctorate to neighboring Delaware in 2001. For the CZW, this meant that mostly technical wrestling and "hardcore matches" in the old style (and under strict conditions from the sports commission) were held in New Jersey; pure "death matches" now took place in Delaware, which to date has no sports committee. The year 2001 is considered to be one of the most important years in the history of the CZW: On the one hand, the climax of the cooperation with Big Japan took place when the successful "CZW Invasion" took place, as a result of which this Japanese league almost went bankrupt. (Zandig had taken over the booking of the shows and his wrestlers injured one Japanese superstar after another; the most brutal wrestling matches between the two promotions took place during this time.)
On the other hand, the League Extreme Championship Wrestling ceased operations in April of that year and the CZW was able to expand its activities to Pennsylvania. The CZW was dissolved in New Jersey and now reactivated in Philadelphia. The CZW events now took place in the old “ECW Arena”, the “Viking Hall”.
Cooperation with IWA Mid-South and others
In 2003 a cooperation with the previously competing IWA Mid-South was started. As a result, the operation of the CZW Wrestling School was discontinued and the new cross-league CZW Professional Wrestling Academy was founded in Philadelphia , the head coach of which was DJ Hyde. He previously competed with the various IWA associations (IWA Mid-South etc.), Maryland Championship Wrestling and Fight The World .
As an independent promotion, CZW also works with other independent promotions in the independent scene. For example, wrestlers from RoH and TNA as well as from ECCW compete at CZW.
Change of ownership and cooperation with wXw
In 2009 John Zandig withdrew completely from wrestling and handed over the management of the CZW to wrestler DJ Hyde. Under this, on the one hand, the collaboration with Big Japan Pro Wrestling was renewed and, on the other hand, a collaboration with westside Xtreme Wrestling began. On June 1, 2013 it was announced in Oberhausen that the three leagues would set up a joint event banner called the World Triangle League , under which a four-day program would be held in October.
Current title holders
| Championship (s) | Reigning champion | Date of title win |
|---|---|---|
| CZW World Heavyweight Championship | Joe Gacy | 13th September 2019 |
| CZW Wired Championship | Jordan Oliver | October 13, 2018 |
| CZW World Tag Team Championship | The REP ( Dave McCall and Nate Carter ) | December 9, 2018 |
| CZW Medal Of Valor Championship | Eran Ashe | 20th October 2018 |
Well-known events
- CZW - Cage Of Death
- CZW - Ultraviolent Tournament Of Death
- CZW - Best Of The Best
- CZW - 18+ Underground
literature
- Rampage, The official Magazine Of Wrestling's New Generation , Wrestling-Magazin, 2001
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Combat Zone Wrestling Title History. (No longer available online.) CZW, archived from the original on December 22, 2010 ; accessed on June 2, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
