John Zandig

John Zandig
Data
Ring name	The Icon John Zandig Zandig The Ultraviolent Icon
height	188 cm
Fighting weight	116 kg
birth	April 4, 1964 Sewell , New Jersey
Announced from	The Combat Zone
Trained by	Larry Sharpe
debut	June 14, 1996

John Corson (born April 4, 1964 in Sewell , New Jersey ) is an American wrestler . He became known under his ring name John Zandig .

Corson is the founder and former promoter of the wrestling promotion Combat Zone Wrestling .

Career

Sports background / beginnings

Corson was a plumber before his wrestling career . He was an avid bodybuilder and wrestling fan. When he wanted to become a wrestler himself, Corson was only given very superficial training by some local promoters and was basically cheated out of his money. He was finally trained as a wrestler by Larry Sharpe from 1994 in the World Wrestling Association New Jersey . This was an association affiliated with the NWA New Jersey since 1993 and Corson specialized there in the hardcore style , as it was operated by the then promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling . He himself had recognized that his wrestling skills were very limited and in this way Corson had found a gap that enabled him to compete regularly as a wrestler.

Corson made his wrestling debut on June 14, 1996 as a 32-year-old in what was then NWA New Jersey, when he defeated his opponent Dave Dutch under the ring name The Icon . In the first time Corson appeared in the NWA New Jersey. There he was allowed the heavyweight title of WWA New Jersey, already on December 7, likewise year WWA New Jersey heavyweight championship , win . He was allowed to hold this title for 358 days.

Head of Combat Zone Wrestling School and establishment of the CZW Promotion

1998 Sharpe's doctorate was discontinued and Corson founded the Combat Zone Wrestling School as part of the NWA New Jersey , which was now operated by the local NWA as a training school. Since February 19, 1999 Corson appeared under the ring name John Zandig . On that day there was a show by the wrestling school, the proceeds of which were donated to a charity. Surprised by the success of this show, Corson decided to do a real doctorate out of his school.

John Zandig's induction into the Hardcore Hall of Fame (2008)

The first official event of the Combat Zone Wrestling promotion took place on March 27, 1999. At that time, the CZW was still considered an offshoot of the NWA in New Jersey and wrestler Nick Gage , one of Corson's four students, was able to win the newly created CZW Heavyweight Championship that day . This title was already won by Corson on May 22, 1999 and later elevated to a world title through global defenses. Corson was to hold this title a total of 6 times during his career. The CZW promotion offered its audience not only mat-oriented wrestling but also extremely bloody hardcore matches . The latter in particular made this league known in the independent wrestling scene. As early as 2001, Corson publicly admitted in an interview that he rejects this type of wrestling, although he and the CZW had taken it to a new level. On July 24, 1999, Corson and Nick Gage became owners of the CZW Tag Team Championship .

Collaboration with Big Japan Pro Wrestling

With the exception of his early engagements in the National Wrestling Alliance , which took place between June 14 and 16, 1999 and consisted of three matches, Corson only appeared in the CZW until April 24, 2000. At the beginning of 2000, a close cooperation with the Japan- based promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling was started and so Corson took part in a show of this league in Japan that day. Corson had taken over the booking of the shows and so the matches were presented very brutally. The CZW wrestlers injured their Big Japan opponents one by one. Corson won the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship three times in this promotion . Through this feud program CZW vs. BJPW and the associated loss of their wrestling squad , the Japanese doctorate quickly came to the brink of insolvency. The cooperation with CZW was ended again in August of the same year and Corson's last engagement with Big Japan was made for August 8th. Occasionally, however, some wrestlers from the CZW were hired by Big Japan later. They started a bloody feud program with the IWA Mid-South , which was operated by the former ECW wrestler Ian Rotten .

Events in Europe and renewed engagement in Japan

After the Japanese market disappeared, Corson decided to expand Combat Zone Wrestling to Europe . On June 15, 2002, he took part in a show of the Irish Whip Wrestling promotion based in Ireland , where he played two matches for the CZW World Heavyweight Championship against his former student Justice Pain . But in December 2003, Corson was signed again in Japan when he appeared on December 5th and 6th in shows hosted by the promotion pro wrestling ZERO1 .

Cooperation with IWA Mid-South and end of career

After 2003, Corson only competed in the CZW. On June 28, 2003, Corson and the CZW hosted the Extreme 8 - Death Match Challenge show in Dover , Delaware . This is where the CZW vs. IWA-MS graduated. At the end of this there was close cooperation between the two promotions, which now led an almost identical wrestling squad.

As a wrestler, Corson appeared less and less in the following years and he slowly began to withdraw from the wrestling business. He was now only in the various deathmatch tournaments of the league. In the summer of 2008, Corson officially handed the booking within the CZW to wrestler DJ Hyde . He bought the promotion from Corson in 2009 and the latter gave their official final death match on October 25, 2009 at CZW Tournament of Death: Rewind . There, Corson lost to his former student Nick Gage in a Tournament Of Death Rewind First Round Pane In The Glass Match . Subsequently, he was bid farewell to the new owner DJ Hyde as the real Iron Man of CZW and received the title belt of the CZW Iron Man Championship , which was discontinued on July 11, 2009 . Corson only appeared once as a wrestler after his retirement, on May 8, 2010. On this day he took part in a Tournament Of Death IX qualifying of the CZW Fist Fight event and was able to defeat his opponent Brain Damage there .

successes

title

• World Wrestling Association New Jersey

• 1 × WWA Heavyweight Champion

• Combat Zone Wrestling

• 6 × CZW World Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × CZW Ultraviolent Underground Champion
• 1 × CZW World Tag Team Champion with Nick Gage

• Big Japan Pro Wrestling

• 3 × BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion
• 1 × BJW Tag Team Champion with Nick Gage

Awards

• Hardcore Hall of Fame (Class of 2008)
• The Real Iron Man of CZW (2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.cagematch.de/?id=5&nr=1359
2. ↑ “I hate these things! I have no idea how we got started with them. The crowd likes them, and get a good pop, but I don't likes them. I don't know who started the light tubes - maybe they started in Japan or Puerto Rico, but we just took it to another level. " John Corson in Rampage. The official Magazine of Wrestling's New Generation , 2001, p. 93

Web links

• Profile on Cagematch.de
• Profile on Neckbruch.com