By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S CZW “CAGE OF DEATH XV” iPPV REPORT
DECEMBER 14, 2013
VOORHEES, N.J.

The show opened with Tommy Dreamer coming out and kicking things off with Maven Bentley. They did a nice ceremony for CZW’s retiring ringside photographer Lyle Williams and gave him a plaque. Who says CZW doesn’t have some class?

Chris Hero’s music played and he opened the show saying he wanted to be in the first match so he could be part of ROH's "Final Battle" show. He didn’t really say that, but he did say he wanted the match now. CZW champion Drew Gulak sold being upset that the match is opening the show and yelled at Tommy Dreamer for giving it the okay. It was a nice touch for Gulak to make his entrance while still putting on his ring jacket as he sold being upset.

(1) CZW champion Drew Gulak beat Chris Hero via submission to retain the CZW Title. Gulak worked over Hero's leg the entire match. Hero mounted a comeback and hit some nice strikes. I had originally though Hero was a little sloppy going for a double rotation maneuver, but since watching the show I have found out it was a tribute to former CZW owner John Zandig. This was a good match, but the action never really kicked into high gear before Gulak forced Hero to tap to a modified ankle lock. (***1/2)

Masada returned to CZW after the match and confronted Gulak.

(2) Joe Gacy beat Chuck Taylor & A.R. Fox & Anthony Nese & Azrieal & Andrew Everett in a six-way Scramble match. This was a crazy match with a lot of great high-flying and well put together spots. It was just as good as I thought when I saw it for the first time on iPPV. Fox and Everett shined bright here hitting some spectacular high-flying maneuvers. I was surprised to see Gacy get the win after blocking Lo Mein Pain and hitting a big splash off the top to pin Fox, but he held his own working with the high-flyers in this match. (***3/4)

(3) Greg Excellent beat Freight Train with a single-leg crab. Cherry now has to conform to Excellent's rules. He carried her away on his back and the fans chanted, "Yes!" This wasn’t a very good matchup at all with Freight Train out of his element in this environment. (NR)

(4) CZW Tag champions BLKOUT (Ruckus & BLK Jeez w/Robbie Mireno) beat Juicy Product (J.T. Dunn & David Starr) to retain the CZW Tag Titles. Jeez pinned Starr with a Double Stomp. The fans wanted to see Juicy Product win and were deflated when they lost. The match itself was good in spots, but didn’t click overall. (**)

(5) Kimber Lee (w/The Gulak Campaign) beat Christina Von Eerie with a roll-up after the Gulak Campaign interfered. After the match, Von Eerie attacked Lee with skewers. Gross. (*)

(6) Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & Johnny Silver) beat The Colony. This match was a little better than I thought it was originally. They started the match hot and heavy and the pace never really slowed down, although this wasn’t a long match. Silver looked good here hitting some impressive power moves with the highlight being a running spinebuster into the turnbuckles on Fire Ant. The Beaver Boys won with a tandem wheelbarrow slam on Fire Ant. Good match. (***)

(7) Chris Dickinson beat Davey Richards. I got to see the entire match on DVD and although I don’t think this match reached four stars, it was a heck of a hard-hitting contest. Richards worked over Dickinson’s leg throughout the match and they built up to some hard hitting exchanges. The lights went out a couple of times in parts of the venue towards the final stages of the match. It was nice to see these two work a little storytelling into the match. Dickinson hit a spinning kick to Richards’s head early in the match and the announcers discussed how perhaps Richards wasn’t ready for that maneuver since he hadn’t done a lot of preparation for Dickinson. Later in the match, Dickinson went for the same kick and Richards turned it into an ankle lock, which popped the crowd. Dickinson ended up winning the match after hitting a burning hammer for a nearfall and immediately following up with the brain eater. Afterwards, Dickinson put over Richards, who then said he believes ROH has lost its heart. Richards added that his time on the independents is coming to an end and he couldn't think of a better place to wrestle one of his last independent matches. Nice post-match exchange and I can’t say I was surprised that Richards took the opportunity to bury ROH while saying his goodbye to the CZW audience. (***3/4)

(8) OI4K (Jake Crist & Dave Crist & Nevaeh) beat CZW owner D.J. Hyde & The Front (Sozio & Biff Busick) in a six-person tag match. Neveah pinned Hyde after multiple chairs to the head. That's not a typo. The match was pretty good other than the chair shots. (**)

(9) CZW Wired champion Alex Colon beat Shane Strickland to retain the CZW Wired TV Title. Colon won with a big double stomp. Underwhelming until things picked up at the end. (**)

(10) Nation of Intoxication (Danny Havoc & Devon Moore & Lucky 13) beat The Forgotten Ones (Drew Blood & Matt Tremont & Ron Mathis & Rory Mondo) in a Cage of Death match. The rules are eliminations take place by pinfall, submission, or being thrown to the floor from the cage. Moore and Mondo kicked things off. Ron Mathis was out next leaving Moore at a disadvantage. Lucky 13 was out next to even the odds. Lucky sent Mathis through a plate of glass with a dropkick for a 2 count. Matt Tremont came out next to give The Forgotten Ones the upper hand. Lucky and Mondo took a beating after Tremont got into the cage. The announcers said this was a different Tremont after he aligned himself with The Forgotten Ones. Danny Havoc came out next to even the odds. He went right after Mondo and tossed him into the side of cage that was lined with barbed wire. Drew Blood came out as the last announced participant entered into the cage. The announcers said Blood was the mastermind behind all of this. The Forgotten Ones stood tall after Blood wiped out Havoc by tossing a chair at him. The announcers said there was a rumored fourth person to join the NOI. The announcer did the countdown for NOI’s mystery partner, but nobody came out.

Lucky went up top and took out a something to cut at the top of the cage. He cut the top of the cage and a bunch of chairs went flying down onto Blood. He then opened the mystery box and a bunch of broken glass, thumbtacks, and Legos flew into the ring. Mathis was the first person eliminated after Havoc sent him through a table covered in barbed wire at ringside. Havoc and Lucky took the chair fence and sent it into Mondo. Tremont took an unprotected chairshot from Lucky. Blood set up a big chair structure in the middle of the ring. He and Moore went to the top of the cage. Moore ended up hitting a DVD off the top of the cage on Blood through the chair structure. He then pinned Blood to eliminate him. Moore then got eliminated when Tremont tossed him out of the cage. It was down to Lucky & Moore vs. Tremont & Mondo. Mondo and Havoc went up to the top of the cage. Mondo ended up tossing Havoc off the top of the cage through several panes of glass to eliminate him. Lucky was now alone in the match to take on Mondo and Tremont. The fans chanted “F--- you Mondo.” Tremont set up a table covered in barbed wire in the ring. The announcers said nobody could save Lucky now. Tremont and Mondo went up on top of the cage with Lucky. Lucky tried to fight back and got Mondo on his back while Tremont taunted the fans. Lucky then jumped off the cage with Mondo on his back and drove him through the table. He then covered Mondo to eliminate him. Both men ended up on top of the cage. Tremont was about to finish off Lucky when music played and Nick Mondo came down to the ring. The fans went ballistic when Mondo came out. Mondo climbed to the top of the cage and went after Tremont. He nailed Tremont with a kick and then Lucky sent Tremont flying off the top of the cage through a bunch of plunder for the win. This was hard to watch at times given the brutality of the match. It was safer than other COD matches, I’ve seen, but I’m not a fan of the wrestlers taking these kinds of risks. The fans popped for the big spots, but they only went nuts when Nick Mondo made his return after not being in CZW for around a decade. (NR)

Lucky cut a promo after the match. He thanked the fans for coming out. Lucky challenged Blood to a match at the next show. Moore then got on the mic and told the fans to give it up for Nick Mondo. Rory recovered and got on the mic and said no several times. The fans began chanting yes. He said Nick was supposed to be dead. He said he started this to live up to Nick. He said Nick had left the fans behind. Rory challenged Nick to a match. Nick told Rory when he walked away ten years ago; he didn’t plan on coming back. He said every time he saw Rory take a bump, his past haunted him. Nick said Rory wanted to take two weed whacker shots for the finish of Cage of Death to honor Nick. He said the only way he could stop it was to come back to CZW. Nick said he came back to tell Rory he had done enough to earn his respect. Rory said that’s all he wanted was for his idol to come back to CZW and earn his respect. He said he didn’t think Nick would come back and he thanked him for coming. Rory said things had gone too far and he was pretending to be someone he’s not. Rory said this was his last match ever and thanked the fans. Nick put Rory on his shoulder and the fan applauded.

Overall score: (7.0) – I can understand Chris Hero having to go on first given that he had to get to ROH, but I was surprised that two of the best matches on the show went back-to-back to start the show. With the CZW Title and Scramble match going on back to back, the card hit a big lull in the middle.

The crowd was red hot to start the show, but noticeably lost steam after the Scramble match. The Colony-Beaver Boys match finally brought the show back to life, as the crowd was engaged after The Colony made a surprise appearance to take on The Beaver Boys. I really enjoy watching John Silver wrestle. He has good charisma and for his size, he hits some really impressive power moves. Just watching his spine buster into the corner on Fire Ant if you want to see what I mean.

This is a show worth watching, but overall, it would have benefitted from better pacing. CZW’s annual “Cage of Death” show is a spectacle. The crowds are normally big and usually red hot for most of the action, however, that wasn’t the case on this show.

There are some really good matches worth checking out on this card including Gulak-Hero, the Six Way Scramble, The Beaver Boys-Colony, and Dickinson-Richards. Most of the other matches were average at best and the crowd clearly lost interest in the show at certain points, although they were into parts of the main event, especially the conclusion when Nick Mondo made a surprise appearance.

CZW has cut down on a lot of the more violent aspects of the promotion with more of a focus on wrestling and storylines. It’s an interesting promotion to follow because there are some talented performers and interesting stories to follow and things seem to be coming together for the company in many respects.

I’m not a fan of the Cage of Death match. It’s a stunt show of big bumps, blood, and weapons. Cage of Death this year was safer than other Cage of Death matches I’ve seen, but there were too many unprotected chairshots and dangerous risks taken for me to enjoy the match. I do have to give the wrestlers involved credit for the trapdoor spot midway through the match. That was crazy. I also enjoyed the finish of the match with Nick Mondo coming out to save the day for NOI. Rory’s retirement speech at the end of the show was a nice touch as well.
Overall, this was a really long show that would have benefited from better pacing. There are several good matches to see and the show-closing angle was well done, but I was expecting more out of this card than it delivered in terms of overall match quality up and down the lineup. This is worth checking out on DVD as there’s some nice production enhancements that were missing from the original iPPV airing and the show is edited together well.

You can purchase CZW “Cage of Death XV” on DVD by clicking HERE or by visiting Highspots.com. For more information on CZW visit CZWrestling.com

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