by Daniel Johnson
Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) debuted in Rhode Island last night with a stellar show at Fete Music in Providence. CZW To Infinity featured a great mix of action ranging from a slew of technical wrestling in the main event to a thrilling CZW World Tag Team Championship title change to good old fashioned ultraviolent wrestling. This card had something for you no matter what kind of wrestling fan you are!
To whet the fans appetites there was an unadvertised pre-show match pitting Le Tabarnak De Team (Mathieu St. Jacques and Thomas Dubois) against Da Hoodz (Kris Pyro and Davey Cash). At one point Pyro signaled for the end with a top rope maneuver.
However, Jacques and Dubois ended up catching him. From there the more muscular Le Tabarnak De Team dominated their opponents with some power moves leaving the smaller side looking downtrodden.
In the end though Da Hoodz went home happy. After about 10 minutes the show then officially began with a bout for the CZW Wired TV Championship between defending champion Shane Strickland and challenger Joe Gacy. Like in the pre-show match this performance featured the lighter talent as the fan favorite with a bulkier heel. Gacy used his size advantage big time, which allowed him to wear Strickland down with some submission holds and get him backed up into a corner figuratively and literally.
Strickland’s superior speed gave him an advantage that ultimately Gacy just couldn’t compensate for leaving him frustrated with a loss.
The first tag team match of the official show saw Tremendous Investigations, Inc. (Bill Carr and Dan Barry) take on The Front led by Sozio. Sozio’s partner tonight was Stockade. As usual Carr and Barry were full of energy and laughter.
Then they saw the big man they had to face, Stockade:
Although when the bigger man of Tremendous Investigations, Inc., Carr locked up with Stockade it got a great reaction, Stockade spent a lot of his time in this match pummeling the much, much smaller Barry. Stockade was also surprisingly agile for his size and at one point hit a flying kick that made someone near me say in disbelief, “How does he even get his knee up that high?” The other members of The Front also cheated by attacking Barry when he was on the outside. For all Stockade’s surprising versatility and for all Sozio’s underhanded tactics, Carr and Barry still walked away with the win leaving The Front to escort their fallen tag team to the back.
The next bout was the lone women’s match of the evening and was promoted as a Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) showcase. Alexxis Nevaeh was announced as being from Boston, Massachusetts, but early in the match her opponent, Kimber Lee got some cheers leading her to say that Nevaeh’s hometown likes Lee more than they like her. Because I guess all people in New England come from the same town. At any rate Lee hit a beautiful stalling suplex.
From there Lee continued to control most of the match and really put the screws to her foe.
After Lee won she gave some Campaign for a Better Combat Zone salutes as Nevaeh was left defeated on the mat.
The next match started getting things going towards a more unltraviolent direction and featured hard hitters MASADA and Chris Dickinson. MASADA got an insane reaction when he came out. “Dirty Daddy” Chris Dickinson also had at least one huge fan who cheered him with all sorts of inappropriate sexual comments. Or at least they would be inappropriate anywhere outside of the Combat Zone. As for the in-ring action MASADA bled in this one with a cut that started out fairly small:
MASADA’s blood flowed more and more freely as the performance went on and Dickinson tried multiple times to put him away for the night. Although Dickinson managed a pretty sweet powerbomb, MASADA came out on the winning end.
The last bout before intermission turned the volume way up on ultraviolence and featured Matt Tremont wrestling Danny Havoc in an ultraviolent deathmatch! In case you ever wondered why so many hardcore guys shave their heads long before they go bald just take a look at this photo of Mat Tremont:
Yes, Tremont was absolutely gushing (and I don’t mean in the puppy love sort of way). This bout featured a lot of classic CZW staples including barbwire, chair shots and a trashcan (though oddly enough no staples). At one point it looked like Havoc had Tremont put away for sure after a moonsault onto a board that had Tremont underneath. However, Tremont got out of the pin meaning Havoc had to punish him more.
At the match’s conclusion it turns out Havoc bit off more than he could chew because Tremont not only wrapped him in barbed wire, but got the victory.
Havoc’s stablemate, Devon Moore from the Nation of Intoxication came out for the save when Tremont continued to assault Havoc after the match, but then Havoc got on the mic and said that this was between him and Tremont. Well, it looks like the beef between these two hasn’t been squashed just yet.
The first match back from intermission saw DJ Hyde battle Kevin Steen. The two made their way up to the stage where some fans were seated. Steen dominated and at one point basked in his own glory.
Steen then mocked Hyde by grabbing a seat while Hyde composed himself.
Steen tried to end the encounter with a package piledriver, but was unable to lift Hyde so he just gave him a shot in the sack instead. After the match Steen got on the mic and said how impressed he has been with CZW since just recently coming back to the promotion.
The second title bout of the night, this one for the CZW World Tag Team Championship, was up next. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn and David Starr) took on defending champions The Beaver Boys (John Silver and Alex Reynolds). The two teams had a nice long bout which saw Dunn shed some blood after a particularly rough spot.
Towards the finish fans erupted with a much deserved, “This is awesome chant.” The Beaver Boys tried numerous times to split up Dunn and Starr, but were unable to put Dunn away with a pin. When The Juicy Product rebounded they had no such problem pinning the champs for Dunn and Starr to both earn their first CZW gold!
The main event of the night between CZW World Heavyweight Champion Drew Gulak and Biff Busick featured a ton of the two feeling each other out and displaying some great scientific wrestling.
The two also let loose with some strikes and moves that at least looked plenty stiff if they weren’t the genuine article.
After both men were exhausted Gulak planted Busick on the mat and then barely was able to climb on top of him for a three count.
Although the bout started with a handshake, Gulak refused to give Busick another after the fight.
When CZW will appear next in Rhode Island is anyone’s guess, but judging by the reaction of the show fans will be amped up again next time Fete Music is transformed into the Combat Zone. In the meantime Beyond Wrestling will be appearing next at Fete Music on May 18 with Beyond Wrestling Unbreakable.
Photos 1-21: Daniel Johnson / Johnsontranscript.com
Categories: Smooth Runs
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