Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is ready for its biggest annual show of the year, Cage of Death XX, this Sunday when CZW returns to the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia for a night of great indie wrestling and hardcore action. CZW will also be looking to crown a new CZW World Heavyweight Champion following the injury to its previous holder, MJF, who had to vacate it following a broken elbow. As is tradition, Cage of Death features a Cage of Death match, which is more than just your standard cage match. Cage of Death is a cage match filled with all kinds of weapons and nastiness – previous COD matches have included electrified cage walls, light tubes and even a cactus or two. Expect this year to be equally as insane (and bloody). CZW Cage of Death XX will be streaming live on the Highspots Wrestling Network on Sunday starting at 7:30pm EST.
Leyla Hirsch vs. Mercedes Martinez
Leyla Hirsch is a rookie with CZW and a recent graduate of the CZW Academy. She’s appeared on CZW Dojo Wars, but she’s making her main roster CZW debut at Cage of Death XX and her work is definitely cut out for her. She’s facing one of the toughest veterans of the indie scene in former 2x SHIMMER Champion, 2x WSU Champion and reigning Phoenix of RISE Champion Mercedes Martinez, who is coming off a solid run in this year’s WWE Mae Young Classic. It’ll be a tough test for Hirsch, but she’ll ultimately come out a stronger competitor, win or lose.
David Starr vs. Anthony Greene
Hometown boy David Starr makes his CZW return, following a loss to MJF for the CZW World title back in October. The current reigning RevPro Undisputed British Cruiserweight Champion has had a great 2018 and won his first CZW Best of the Best tournament this spring. He faces Anthony Greene, a man who made his CZW main roster debut this past June at CZW Dark City, who is currently on a four-match win streak in CZW, with victories over Francis Kaspin, Joey Ryan, Space Monkey and Dan O’Hare heading into Sunday.
CZW Wired Championship: Jordan Oliver (c) vs. KC Navarro
Jordan Oliver has emerged as one of CZW’s most exciting young prospects himself in 2018. He spent 2017 and much of this year as part of the CZW Dojo Wars, but made a huge debut on the main roster at Dark City with an upset victory over Rich Swann. At CZW Better Than Our Best in October, he defeated Blackwater for the CZW Wired Championship and has already had one successful defense against former IMPACT star Andrew Everett last month. He’s facing another hungry Dojo Wars pupil whose made his presence known on the main roster this year in KC Navarro, who also wrestles with New Jersey’s Superstars of Wrestling Federation (SWF), where he’s a 2x SWF Cruiserweight Champion. These are two of CZW’s future superstars and they’ll be looking to steal the show.
Joey Gacy vs. Alex Reynolds
Joe Gacy has seen and done it all in CZW in his 12 years with the company, as a former 2x CZW World Heavyweight Champion and 3x CZW Wired Champion. This match is a battle of two Northeast indie veterans, as Gacy puts it on the line against Alex Reynolds, another 12-year veteran, and longtime star of the New York scene, with New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC), where he’s a former 2x NYWC Heavyweight Champion. He’s also one half of the Beaver Boys with John Silver, with whom he captured the CZW World Tag Team Championship back in 2014.
CZW World Tag Team Championship: BLK OUT (BLK Jeez & Ruckus) (c) vs. The REP (Dave McCall & Nate Carter)
The war to own the CZW tag team division continues between two of it’s best tag teams in the company’s history. BLK OUT have practically run the tag division since 2004 when they won their first CZW tag titles, and since then, they’ve won them six times (although one reign was BLK Jeez & Robbie Mireno instead of BLK’s usual partner Ruckus). The REP has been running riot since they debuted in 2012, and are looking to regain the CZW Tag Team titles they lost this past September after a 273-day reign on top. This will be as physical as it gets and a true battle to lay claim to the best tag team in CZW.
Mitch Vallen, Jimmy Lloyd, Dan O’Hare & Maria Manic vs. The Office (Brandon Kirk, Conor Claxton, Kit Osbourne & Kasey Catal)
A massive 8-person tag match, that will pit two very dangerous teams against each other in what is sure to be a bloodbath. Mitch Vallen is another new star that has come up this year from Dojo Wars and he joins with CZW veteran Dan O’Hare (who is also the reigning H20 Hybrid Champion) and Jimmy Lloyd, who is slowly but surely become one of the new faces of American hardcore and CZW. But arguably the most dangerous member of this crew is Maria Manic, who has made a career out of kicking asses all over the ring, be in man or woman. They face a unified group known as The Office, featuring CZW veteran Kit Osbourne. The 2x CZW Medal of Valor Champion is joined by another former Medal of Valor Champion in Conor Claxton, Brandon Kirk (who’s also a regular with GCW), and Kasey Catal, who has worked for Women’s Wrestling Revolution as well.
Rich Swann vs. John Silver vs. Shane Strickland
As one half of the Beaver Boys, John Silver is a former CZW World Tag Team Champion, but he’s become a huge singles competitor with the likes of Beyond Wrestling and he’s on a five-match win streak in CZW, with victories over Matt Riddle, Myron Reed, Drago, “All Ego” Ethan Page, and his own tag partner, Alex Reynolds. His win streak is on the line in a triple threat against two international stars who cut their teeth in CZW early in their careers. Rich Swann has been on fire on the indies since his departure from the WWE, as the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion has become a star with IMPACT Wrestling, MLW and others in 2018. Shane Strickland has been one of 2018’s breakout superstars, after his CZW World Heavyweight Championship reign last year. He’s captured the EVOLVE Championship, MLW World Heavyweight Championship, he’s a 2x DEFY Champion and on Friday night, defeated PCW ULTRA Heavyweight Champion Penta El 0M for his second reign in California.
Atsushi Onita & Matt Tremont vs. MASADA & DJ Hyde
Atsushi Onita, the legendary Japanese deathmatch pioneer and former owner of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), made his US return last year to CZW, where he faced Matt Tremont at CZW Once In A Lifetime. He returns once more, but this time he’s teaming up with his former rival and former CZW World Heavyweight Champion Matt Tremont in what is sure to be an absolute war. They face off against another hardcore legend in MASADA, who has spilled his (and other’s) blood in Big Japan, CZW, Ring of Honor, GCW and countless other places over the past 16 years. MASADA teams up with DJ Hyde in what should be another red ring extravaganza.
Cage of Death Match: CZW World Heavyweight Championship: Rickey Shane Page vs. Mance Warner
With the CZW World Heavyweight Championship vacated due to the injury to MJF, it’s up in the air to be decided inside the Cage of Death on Sunday night. In the main event for the evening, former CZW World Champion Rickey Shane Page looks to regain the belt as he takes to the cage to face one of the fastest rising indie stars and new faces of American hardcore in Mance Warner. A 2x IWA Mid South Heavyweight Champion, Warner has only been wrestling since 2015, but in the past year is breaking out nationally. This could be Warner’s big moment.
Breaking News!
CZW "Cage of Death Twenty" will go live at 7:30pm EST Tomorrow!!!
Witness the spectacle of Onita's return to the Combat Zone,
RSP VS Mance Warner in the cage,
Strickland, Swann, Starr and all the stars of #CZW #CODXXSignup now at https://t.co/iBntuyDZJa #HSWN pic.twitter.com/AAmfuOwtYJ
— Highspots.TV (@HighspotsWN) December 8, 2018
