Welcome to your yearly installment of Combat Zone Wrestling’s version of “Apocalyse Now” meets “Passion of the Christ”… better known as the thirteenth annual Cage of Death last night before a packed, and I do mean, packed house at the historic ECW Arena..
Pre-show, Eddie Kingston and Vin Gerard got in a fight (worked?) outside The Arena. Gerard then got in line for Cage of Death, with what looks like the beginning of a Brian Pillman-type “not part of the show” campaign to work Eddie Kingston, including stopping me during COD and asking me to post that he “would wrestle Kingston in any promotion, even outside of CHIKARA”.
The Honor Guard of United States Marines (in full Marine dress blues), which included a Staff Sergeant who had sttod done it at Cage of Death 11, did tours of duty in Afghanistan, and asked to come back to work this event; stood at the multiple toy boxes at the door of The Arena with people handing over toys from seemingly every direction at some points as trhe crowd came in. The Toys for Tots collection went on all day, with hundreds of toys being donated by the day’s end for the children of the Delaware Valley.
Then, Cage of Death…
This year’s edition, as you can see above, was a combination of suspended cage sides, glass panels, and barbed wire…and ladders reaching to a platform at the top of the Arena, with the CZW World Heavyweight Title belt hanging off of the top of the Arena..
The Cage of Death main event (with ladder match rules) saw Devon Moore retaining his CZW Heavyweight Title (in a major surprise to everyone in the crowd) over MASADA, Scotty Vortekz and Robert Anthony. Highlights include Scotty Vortekz being peeled out of the barbed wire on the side of the ring, while stomped on by fellow Nation of Intoxication member Devon Moore…Robert Anthony back first into a pane of glass… ..sickening headbutts by Scotty Vortekz and Devon Moore …Stereo power bombs through glass panes by MASADA on Devon Moore and Anthony on Vortekz, onto a leaning supported side of the cage…Devon Moore spearing Anthony off of the upper frame of the Cage….Vortekz fighting for position on the platform on the top of the side of the cage, throwing MASADA off the side…. Anthony powerbombing Vortek though a pane of glass on the side of the Cage, falling to the Arena floor.
The finish saw MASADA and Devon Moore going up opposite ladders to the platform just below the Title Belt hanging off of the top of the Arena. Both reach the belt. but the belt drops, just so Robert Anthony comes back into the ring, reaches through the cage, but Moore falls through the ceiling and just barely reaches the belt first to retain the title.
Post-match, DJ Hyde called for the cameras to be turned off, which cut the iPPV feed. Hyde went out of character, was clearly happy with the show, put over all four workers in Cage 9of Death and the CZW locker room…then announced CZW will return on Saturday, January 14 in a double header with EVOLVE at The Asylum Arena in Philadelphia.