CZW Tournament of Death 9

[cavedweller73]

This time tomorrow, I'll be out on the open road, heading up to Delaware for TOD 9. From searching around on the message boards, this show looks to be one of the biggest in CZW's history. I've read reports of people traveling from places such as Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Canada, Japan (I'm sure Yuki, who comes over here for all the big deathmatch tournaments, will be there...super cool guy, by the way!) and even some goof from Indiana are planning to be in the field behind DJ Hyde's parent's house on Saturday. Last year, there were reports of 800 people at the show. I think that number is a bit inflated (I'd have put it more in the 500 range), but if they really did have 800 last time, I'm thinking they might break 1000 this time because I've read a lot of reports of people saying they're bringing people who have never been to a TOD before....man, are THEY gonna in for a surprise! Ha ha!!!

Here's the first round matches and the non-tournament matches they have planned:

TOURNAMENT OF DEATH 9

First Round Lineup:

First Time Ever - Stipulation TBA!
MASADA vs. ZANDIG

"Weapons of Mass Destruction" - Kenzans and More!
NICK F'N GAGE vs. Big Japan's ABDULLAH KOBAYASHI

"Havoc's Happyland" - Lighttube Bundles and Structures
J.C. BAILEY vs. DANNY HAVOC

Thumbtack Kickpads and Panes of Glass
SCOTTY VORTEKZ vs. DYSFUNCTION

Non Tourney Matches:

"Sit and Hit" - Taipei Death Match
DRAKE YOUNGER vs. BRAIN DAMAGE

Ultraviolent Tag Team Deathmatch - Fans Bring the Weapons -
DJ HYDE and GREG EXCELLENT vs. SAMI CALLIHAN and JOE 'CHAINSAW' GACY

I think it's a fair bet to say that Kobayashi will be in the finals. I've heard that one of the deals for getting anyone from Big Japan Wrestling to work these shows is that the wrester has to be booked to have a good showing, which is why BJW guys always go at least to the finals of these tournaments. As for who he'll face in the finals, my best guess would be J.C. Bailey. It seems as though he's been winning all the deathmatch tournaments lately, deservedly so. I've also heard some say that Masada might go to the finals, which would be cool because he's awesome. And then I've even heard some people say that Zandig might go to the finals since this isn't "his" tournament anymore, since he doesn't own CZW anymore. I doubt that'll happen though because of how banged up Zandig's body is these days....I don't see him working three deathmatches in one day.

Anyway, I plan on going back to NYC on Sunday and so I won't be back home until late Monday/early Tuesday, but at some point next week, I'll write a review/report of the show and try to post whatever pictures I take.

[iketurner]

Have a badass time! Im sure you will!

[cavedweller73]

As usual with reports of these shows, I'm doing this on little sleep, but I wanted to share my thoughts while they are still somewhat fresh in my head. Overall, this year's TOD was good. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was better than last year's, but I did enjoy it. There were a couple of not-so-great matches and a couple of really great ones, but by far the highlight of the entire day was Abdullah Kobayashi!! What an awesome, insane, silly, respectful, gracious and just downright COOL guy he is!!!!!!! The winner of the whole tournament was a total surprise to me, but someone who more-than-deserves it!

After making the trip up to Delaware on Friday, Saturday afternoon, I made the trip down to Townsend to go hang out with my blood-thirsty brethren at DJ Hyde's parent's backyard. I left early since I had heard there was going to be quite a crowd. To get to the field, you have to drive through the center of Townsend (which is a town about the size of Haubstaut, IN). When I got there, I was driving past Main St. and saw DJ Hyde himself hanging a cardboard sign that said "CZW" with an arrow onto a telephone pole. I drove down the country roads and got to the place and was one of the first. I saw lots of workers milling around. I park the car out in the back field and started walking up to where the ring was set up. They weren't letting people into that area yet, but they had the merch table and concession stand set up. So, I went over there to see what was going on. The first thing that caught my eye was they were selling a BJW DVD! It cost $35 and everything on it was written in Japanese, but I didn't care and that sucker was MINE!!! Ha ha!!! Then, the guy from Brutal Butcher Shoppe (who's making CZW's shirts now) was setting up his stuff. I bought a TOD 9 shirt and he was selling some of his old shirt that he was mostly just looking to get rid of for $15...I got myself a "Sick" Nick Mondo one...I couldn't pass that up! I figure I'll wear it to some "family" show and make fun of some 8 year old in a John Cena shirt....HAHA!! Just kidding!!! Anyway, after I bought the shirts, I look over and here comes Abdullah Kobayashi lumbering towards the table. He wasn't wearing a shirt and man, his body is scarred up! He looks as me and sees that I'm holding the BJW DVD. He says, "OH! BJW!!!" I said, "Yes, I just bought it." He then says, "Sign??" I said, "Yes, please!" So, he opens it up for me and signed it for me. I then shake his hand, bow slightly to him and say, "Thank you very much!" What a cool guy!!! I then head back to my car to put the stuff away and no other than Nick Gage is sitting in a lawn chair beside my rental car, smoking a joint with some guys. He looked to be trashed (imagine THAT!!) so I didn't say anything to him. I then went to get into line to get into the ring area. Devon Moore was out in the field, riding around on a riding lawn mower, which was pretty funny! Once inside, I noticed that they screwed up to seating arrangement this year. Last year, I was in the "West" section, which was in the shade, by the trees, but this year, they had "West" right out in the sun and 95 degree heat. Oh joy!! Thank God for SPF 70 sunblock! Everyone with reserved seats was messed up as to where they were suppose to be sitting. I overheard one guy say, "Does anyone have a compass? I need to find my seat!" Ha ha!! There were a lot of interesting people milling around in the crowd, including Steve "Monsta" Mack of Jersey All-Pro Wrestling fame!

The show actually started pretty close to 3P.M. DJ Hyde came out and addressed the crowd, which looked to be in the 450-500 range. I've heard reports that there were 1000 out there, but there's no way. The crowd looked slightly smaller than last year, but still a good turn-out, considering the heat! Anyway, DJ talked about Trent Acid passing away and plugged the Acid-Fest show they're doing in Philly in two weeks. Devon Moore then came out and started talking about how he's going to be facing Johnny Kashmere at that show. If that match really happens, that would be something interesting to see. Anyway, Moore really put over Acid and then they did a ten-bell salute to him. That field was so silent during that salute that you could literally hear the wind blowing! DJ then said that he was going to put Devon in a match since he wasn't booked for the show. Someone in the crowd yelled, "Hey DJ, I'll give you $250 to keep him off the show!!!" Gotta love CZW fans! Ha ha!!! In all truth, I wasn't too happy about Moore being on the show either since he always seems to "phone it in" at TOD's. Anyway, it was on to the first match...

J.C. Bailey (with Billy Gram) vs. Danny Havoc
"Havoc's Happyland" Lighttube Bundles and Structures
J.C. came out and "heeled it up" big time! Most everyone still showed him a lot of respect though. This was Havoc's first match since he broke his heel in Lafayette, IN back in March and he was WAY over with the fans, as usual. The match was brutal with lots and lots and LOTS of glass and lighttubes flying! Both guys got cut up badly and were bleeding buckets all over the place! J.C. ended up winning the match after a Michinoku Driver onto a bunch of lighttubes.

Abdullah Kobayashi vs. Nick Gage
"Weapons of Mass Destruction" Kenzen and more
Gage came out first and was doing all his usual "Who's da MAN!!??" stuff on the mic, which is always entertaining. Kobayashi came out and was almost the heel, just because Gage is always so far over with CZW fans! Gage got right into Kobayashi's face and was doing his whole, "I'm going to f**k you up!" thing. Kobayashi then grabbed the mic away from him and acted as though he was going to talk. Someone near me yelled, "We're going to need sub-titles for this!" Kobayashi then screamed one word....."C**KSUCKER!!!!!!!" and the fight was ON!!! At one point, Gage even pulled his shirt off, for the first time EVER! I couldn't believe it! They beat the holy HELL out of each other! At one point, Gage hit Kobayashi with a water jug bat that had Christmas ornaments on it....sick, sick stuff. Kobayashi was bleeding buckets, but then started acting like a Japanese movie monster, which was awesome. He then started easting a lighttube and spit glass into Gage's face! At some point, Kobayashi pulled out a shopping bag and dumped kenzans all over the ring! Kenzen are little disk-like things that have spikes all over them. He dropped Gage onto them and Gage sold it like crazy. Later in the match, Gage set a kenzen onto Kobayashi head and then DRILLED him with a chair, driving the kenzen into his skull...and it stuck too! He then did another one and it stuck as well. He then did a spot where he was going to pull them out, but they wouldn't budge and Kobayashi had then stuck in his head the rest of the match. The end came with Kobayashi putting lighttubes onto Gage's chest and dropping an elbow onto him from the top rope for the pin. After the match, Gage cut a promo saying that he would beat the hell out of anybody from BJW. Hopefully, this will lead to more BJW talent coming over. Kobayashi then got onto the mic and tried to cut a promo the best he could, considering his limited English. Basically, he said that he loved America and was glad to finally be here. This match was by far my favorite of the whole show!

Scotty Vortekz vs. Dysfunction
Thumbtack Kickpads and Panes of Glass
This match was a bit of a "crowd killer" after the last one, but still not a terrible match. LOTS of stiff chops and kicks with the thumbtack pads. The panes of glass had frames around them and didn't break very easy. At one point, Dys had a MAJOR cut on his hand that had to be taped up. In the end, Vortekz did a flippy move off the top rope through a pane of glass for the pin. Not a terrible match, but not a great one either.

Masada (with Billy Gram) vs. Zandig
Fans Bring the Weapons
Masada came out first and then "Youth Gone Wild" came on, but no Zandig! Instead, Devon Moore came out riding the lawnmower he was on before the show. He hopped into the ring and started posing like Zandig. It was now obvious that there was no Zandig and Moore was taking his place. The crowd got completely killed (including me) by that! There was no way in the world either guy could pull off a good match at that point....and they didn't! Moore actually tried harder then I've seen him try at TOD shows before, but the crowd just wasn't having it. Masada looked decent, but some of his moves came off somewhat weak (believe it or not) and the crowd really ripped into him for it...and he looked P*SSED!!!! At one point, they brawled over to the announce stand and was fighting on that. I ran over to get a closer look and it was Botch-fest 2010! Nothing they tried to do worked AT ALL!!! They got back into the ring and Masada stuck a bunch of wooden skewers into Moore's head. That's still a sick spot, but it's been done so much that it doesn't have much dramatic effect anymore. In the end, Masada got the win and thankfully, that was it! In a way, I kind of wish they had replaced Zandig with WHACKS, who was hanging around at the show. At least WHACKS is entertaining to watch just because of his willingness to do anything sick and insane.

They then took an intermission and I ate some food and bought some more DVDs from SMV.

Joe Gacy and Sami Callihan vs. DJ Hyde and Greg Excellent
Non-tournament "Fans Bring the Weapons" match
For this match, the ring was FILLED with stuff. All kinds of crazy and silly stuff was brought. The match was a total brawl all over the field. At one point, DJ was hit with a penyada that was filled with cottage cheese, someone was thrown into an old fence that broke down, Sami jumped out of a tree onto DJ, Greg suplexed Gacy into some brush....crazy, silly brawl that was so much fun to run around and follow! When they got back to the ring, things got more serious. DJ took some lighttube shots and was bleeding REALLY bad. Excellent even got thrown onto some plastic forks at one point. The end came when Sami and Gacy threw DJ onto a barbwire net and then powerbombed Greg though and pane of glass wrapped in barbedwire and set onto of a TV for the pin!!! DJ had to helped out of the wire and Greg was hurt pretty bad. Really fun brawl!

Abdullah Kobayashi vs. J.C. Bailey (with Billy Gram)
3 out of 5 log cabin lighttubes match
Another VERY brutal match from both guys. Lots and lots and LOTS of lighttubes were used and broken, obviously. The best log cabin was a circle thing with tubes all around it in which Kobayashi put around J.C.'s body and then kicked to break. The match went back and forth and came down to the last cabin which J.C. placed on Kobayashi and then did a back senton off the top rope for the win. After the match, Kobayashi got a HUGE "PLEASE COME BACK!!!!" chant!! Also, a piece of skin was hanging from his forehead, which was VERY sick! Though he didn't go to the finals, he won over the entire crowd and without a doubt, stole the entire show!

Scotty Vortekz vs. Masada (with Billy Gram)
Barbed Wire Boards Death Match
Once again, this match was a bit of a "crowd killer", however, both guys worked very hard. The biggest thing that sucked during this match was a board was placed in the corner where I was sitting and I couldn't see anything, so I missed most of the spots. During the match, Kobayashi was up on the announcing stand, wearing nothing but a little blue Speed-o and flip-flops and was smoking a cigarette. That was quite a sight! Anyway, during the match, Billy Gram kept getting involved until finally Referee Brett Lauderdale had had enough and speared Gram into the barbedwire board that was in front of me. Scotty and Masada then brawled outside the ring some but once it got back into the ring, Gram got involved again. This time, Scotty took over the beating of Gram and started hitting him with every lighttube he could find. Gram was bleeding buckets!!!! Lauderdale them tossed Gram onto the barb wire board again and Gram's hair was caught. The visual of him laying on the outside with his hair caught in the wire, bleeding buckets was pretty sick. In the end, Scotty got the win and Masada was P*SSED again. Apparently, some fan on the opposite side of the ring was getting on his case and Masada went after him and pushed him out of his chair, but the fan "no-sold" it, which I heard was pretty funny.

Drake Younger vs. Brain Damage
"Sit and hit" Taipei Death Match
This was another non-tournament match and it was VERY brutal! They did the spot where a bucket of glass was brought to the ring and both guys dipped their hands into it to get the glass to stick. Then, both guys punched the living HELL out of each other! Drake was bleeding HARD!!! At one point, Damage was standing on Drake's head and blood was squirting out! There were also some fan weapons involved. The best being two water jugs on a stick that they used, "American Gladiator" style. Drake tried to get Damage into the "Drake's Landing", but Damage got out and hit a sick package piledriver for the win. Sick, brutal match, but it was a lot of fun to watch!

Next was another intermission. I went and ate a slice of discounted $1.00 pizza and then went up to shake Kobayashi's hand again. Some people were getting pictures with him and I HAD to have one, so I asked the guy from Brutal Butcher Shoppe to do and he did. I went behind the table and stood next to Kobayashi. He then said, "CHOP!!!" and pretended to give me a chop to the neck! How cool is that??? I then went up to DJ Hyde and said, "Hey man, thanks for putting on a great show!" I shook his hand and he said, "Thanks for coming out." I also saw Masada signing stuff for a little kid and smoking a cigarette. I wanted to say something to him, but that dude scares me! Ha ha!!

J.C. Bailey vs. Scotty Vortekz
Tables, Ladders, Light Tubes and Anything Else Still Left in the Back Match
I expected Bailey to go this far, but not Vortekz. The match was VERY stiff with both guys beating each other with anything and everything. J.C. was probably bleeding the most of the two, but both were cut up pretty bad. At one point, Scotty had a shard of glass stuck into his back. There were a LOT of near-falls in the match and the crowd ate the whole thing up like crazy with a TON of "Let's go Scotty!!" "Let's go Bailey!!" chants back and forth, kind of like they do at wXw shows in Germany. Both guys were pretty worn out by the end and they were some very obvious botches, but that was to be expected for two guys fighting their hearts out in near-100 degree weather. Nick Gage was up on the announce stand, cheering both guys on. In the end, Vrotekz smashed a TON of tubes onto Bailey and then suplexed him for the pin! It was a somewhat anti-climactic end, but both guys looked as though they were about to pass out from the heat!

And with that, the 2010 Tournament of Death 9 winner is:
Scotty Vorterkz

I didn't see them putting him over this way, but his win is MORE then deserved since Scotty was always the Naptown Dragon who seemed to be out there to make Drake look good and never get any of the credit for himself. Drake, xOMGx (who was just there to see the show!) and DJ Hyde all got in the ring to celebrate with Scotty. Even Nick Gage came down and showed Scotty respect.

After the show, I hung around for a little while and shook Nick Gage's hand. He was playing around with some other guys and pretending to be "evil Nick Gage", but then he broke character and was being cool. I then made my way to Scotty Vortekz who was doing pictures with his HUGE trophy and I said, "Hey Scotty, congrats on the win, man. You deserve it." He said, "Thanks so much! Thanks for coming out to the show!" What a cool guy too! I then got some post-show pictures of J.C. Bailey and Billy Gram.

All in all, it wasn't the best tournament ever, but it was still a VERY fun show. I do think last year's show was a little bit better, but overall, I can't complain!

After I left Townsend, it was still daylight so I decided to drive down to Dover, DE because I had looked up the address for the bar where CZW did the first two Tournaments of Death (the ones in which Nick Mondo took the weed whacker shot from Wifebeater at TOD1 and then took the HUGE bump with Zandig off the roof that ended his career at TOD2). I found the place (which is under different ownership these days) and went to the back where those shows happened. Talk about a surreal moment! That parking lot is REALLY small. I can't even see how they did what they did back there! And honestly, when I looked at the place where the Mondo and Zandig bump happened, it didn't look THAT high, but still to go off of there and hit nothing but concrete like Mondo did, HAD to have hurt!

The next day, I hopped on an Amtrak train and went back to New York City. This time, I mostly checked out shops and other places in the Greenwich Village/East Village/Soho areas. I ended up buying a bass ukulele (which is a really cool, strange little instrument....it's a uke, but it has these thick, plastic strings on it and it actually sounds like a bass guitar!) from a little music shop around the corner from where CBGB's used to be. I also went to the top of the Empire State Building, which was AWESOME!!!!

Yesterday, I drove back to Indiana and on my way back, I drove up to Skanksville, PA and saw the Flight 93 crash site. Flight 93 is the plane that was hijacked on Sept. 11th and was brought down by the passengers in PA before it got to wherever it was the hijackers were planning to crash it into. They're in the process of building a bit memorial there, but right now, there's a temporary one and it's VERY powerful and emotional to see.

Anyway, it was a cool trip and another really cool adventure that would have never happened had it not been for my lack of a life and crazy love of indy wrestling!

I'll try to post my pictures from the show as soon as I can. I think I took close to 200 this time...I'm not even sure!

[iketurner]

Awesome post. I enjoyed reading your review!

[MorrisDay]

You amaze the s**t out of me!!
AWESOME stories man!!
Please post pics!
.
And I would like to see the bass ukulele too!

[cavedweller73]

Thank you, guys! I just love having a place where I can share thoughts on these journeys. To be honest, I ended up getting something else from New York City this time....a chest cold. Maybe it's some kind of Manhattan flu! Ha ha!! So anyway, I'm sick as a dog right now. I haven't even gone through my pictures yet, but I'll post them as soon as I can. I'll get some of the uke too. That thing is insane! It looks just like a baritone uke, but has these huge strings and when you play it, it literally sounds like an upright bass! I first saw one in Louisville a few months ago and I HAD to have one! I bought it before I went to the Empire State Building and one of the security guys wasn't sure I could take it up with me. He talked to his supervisor and then came back and said, "He said it's okay to go up....just don't go up there and start playing it!" I laughed and said, "I won't!" Ha ha!!!

Anyway, the official pics from the show are up on Lyle C. Williams' (AKA "Evil Empire") site. However, his site has a tendency to crash, and did when I was checking it out, so I haven't even seen all of them yet, but as always, his pics are AWESOME!!! Here's a link, but bear in mind that it might not work (like right now!).

www.lylecwilliams.com/czw2461.html

And then here's a couple of You Tube videos that are already up from the show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5kABB4uGh0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgHsdgfZNGM

In that second one, at 1:40 there's a picture of Greg Excellent bending over and if you go straight up from there, you can see me in my tye-dyed Pink Floyd shirt and safari hat looking at something else! Ha ha!!

[MorrisDay]

Stealing a phrase from Biz Markie.....
"Oh SNAP! Guess what I saw!"
.

.
and out of ALL of those pics ....This has to be my favorite (besides ALL of Kobayashi's)
.

.
Who throws a watermelon? Honestly?

[cavedweller73]

HAHA!! I saw that picture yesterday that I'm in and thought, "Oh jeeze!" HAHA!!! As for the watermelon thing, I'm not sure what that was all about. There's some kind of thing they talk about over on the CZW fans board called "Sup girl". I have no idea what it is because it's probably some "hip and trendy" thing that's a million times over my "un-hip and un-trendy" head. Anyway, someone brought that melon and had "Sup girl" written on it. There was also a globe that someone brought with "Sup world!" written on it. I believe that ended up getting smashed over Kobayashi's head by J.C. Bailey.

Anyway, I finally have my pics up. After the TOD pics, there are some pics of the bar in Dover, DE where they had the first two TOD, some pictures of the BJW DVD Kobayashi signed for me and two pics of my bass uke that I bought in the East Village.

viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=443693995&albumId=1429310

By the way too, sometimes when I hop onto this board, I will click on the latest post on the main page and not even look at the full list of topics. So just in case anyone else does that, I just made two more posts on here. One of which is the card for the ROH show in Louisville and some VERY interesting news about Bryan Danielson working a show in Indianapolis next month.