VIEW FROM THE RISING SUN
by Masanori Horie
"Ultraviolent Style Wrestling," the Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) promotion, was founded by a wrestler / promoter, Zandig (John Faretti), in Mantua, New Jersey last year. They have held some of the most insane and hardcore shows in Southern New Jersey recently, with chairs, barbed wire, barbed wire bats, thumbtacks, mousetraps, and even staple guns and weed whackers. John Faretti, 29 years old, was trained at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory in New Jersey. He debuted as a wrestler named "Icon" about six years ago.
CZW, along with their sponsor, ADV Films, made the announcement in February that they would bring the "Barbed Wire Explosion Death Match" to the United States for the first time ever on Sunday, June 25th, 2000. On the potential pay-per-view, where Atsushi Onita would take on Terry Funk, there would also be the "CZW Style" Cage Death Match and the "Freaks of Nature Matches," with snakes, alligators, and piranhas in the corners of the ring. There are still details being worked out over PPV now, and a subject date was postponed to Sunday, July 2.
At the same time, CZW vs. Great Kojika's Big Japan Pro Wrestling / "World War 2000" is going on as a separate thing from Onita vs. Funk. ADV Film's president, John Ledford, from Houston, Texas, came to Big Japan Pro's show at Korakuen Hall on February 22. Kojika and Ledford had a meeting and made a deal to distribute Big Japan Pro videos in the United States. CZW sent CZW Heavyweight champion Zandig, CZW Ironman champion Wifebeater, Hard Core Nick Gage, and Justice Pain to Big Japan Pro's show at Nakamura Sports Center in Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture on April 5, 2000. Wifebeater, Gage, and Pain, with Zandig, who had a weed whacker at ringside, beat BJW Death Match Heavyweight champion Tomoaki Homma, WEW (FMW) Hard Core champion Ryuji Yamakawa, and Jun Kasai when Wifebeater beat Kasai with a Choke Bomb (13:58). Fans were really shocked (1) when Wifebeater pressed Pain over his head and dropped him from a 30-foot balcony onto Homma and Yamakawa, (2) when Wifebeater took a bump on those fluorescent lamp sticks, and (3) when Zandig stapled a CZW bumper sticker to Kasai's forehead. Their ultraviolence made fans shudder with fright.
Zandig and Wifebeater, with a yellow CZW flag, a weed whacker, a staple gun, a lemon, etc., are travelling in Japan for Big Japan Pro's World Extreme Cup (WEC) Tournament Series from April 24 to May 14, with Abdullah the Butcher, Mustafa Saed, Harley Lewis, Crazy Sheik (Rico Suave from Puerto Rico, who is a son of Carlos Jose Estrada), Tower of Doom ("Macho Warrior Ric Hogan" in the USWA), Terry Bull, who was working for the IWA Mid South in Kentucky and the HWF in Indiana, and Mike Samples. There was big heat between CZW and Samples, who, as a Big Japan Pro gaijin (foreign) booking agent, had publicly stated that Big Japan Pro had nothing to do with CZW, and would not, and that CZW was misrepresenting itself about the situation to fans.
Though CZW has just started here in Japan, and its presence hasn't been established well here yet, we really would like to cheer their hungry motivation to get success and their bloody hard efforts, which we should appreciate more. There are lots of ways and styles to approach and entertain us, such as techniques, power, body, character, gimmicks, speed, stamina, spirit, blood, etc., but the man who can give us the biggest impact, much bigger than our money's worth, will be always the winner.
These are seven key points for current topics:
(1) Atsushi Onita split with the FMW last year. He has run his own promotion, which has held a few shows every month and drawn very well.
(2) Terry Funk has been wrestling for WCW; it is said that he is without a contract.
(3) Big Japan Pro has had some interchanges with FMW since this January. On Friday, May 5 (a Japanese public holiday, Children's Day), Ryuji Yamakawa will have an eight-man Tag Team match on Big Japan Pro's open air show in Shin-kawasaki, Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture from 1:00 p.m., and he will drive an hour and have the WEW Hard Core title match against Kintaro Kanemura on FMW's big show at Komazawa Park Gym in Tokyo from 5:00 p.m.
(4) Big Japan Pro will have a one-week tour from May 25 to June 2, and a two-week tour from June 21 to July 2. Perhaps it will be impossible that they can send wrestlers to the CZW's potential PPV.
(5) While the legal junk with ECW goes on, Sabu has been wrestling for various independents, including CZW's rival Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAP) at Suicidal Hall in Bayonne, New Jersey recently. He is also wrestling for FMW from May 3 to 5. He will face Mr. Gannosuke in a singles match at Komazawa Park Gym in Tokyo on May 5. He will leave Narita Airport straight for New Jersey on May 6 (13 hours time difference between Japan and East Coast).
(6) CZW will have its "A Living Hell!" show at Champs Arena in Sewell, New Jersey on May 6. Hardcore Nick Gage will face a "mystery opponent."
(7) Some wrestlers from FMW will be at ECW's "Hardcore Heaven" at The Rave / Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 14 after having wrestling attraction shows for Tokyopop.com's booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles from May 11 to 13.
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