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Combat Zone Wrestling – DJ Hyde versus Matt Tremont 2012 – An Ultraviolent Trilogy
“Tangled Web V” – Tangled Web Match – August 2012: This may not be the true starting point of the Hyde-Tremont storybook. However, it does mark the first chapter to Combat Zone Wrestling’s 2012 ultraviolent trilogy. This match was put in place as the result of Greg Excellent cashing in his second wish. As a slight backstory, after defeating DJ Hyde at Cage of Death 13 in December 2011, Excellent earned three wishes. He would chose to cash in his second wish of 2012 to provide Matt Tremont with an opportunity to challenge a man who can ONLY be described as his arch nemesis, the boss, DJ Hyde. Excellent’s gesture may have been politically influenced by some type of locker-room and popular vote. A vote suggesting something or someone finally take-out this abusive pundit, via the use of physical force to put down the contradicting, dictating douchebag known as DJ Hyde. Who better to make the attempt than Tremont? Nobody. Considering CZW’s entire screenplay in 2012 showcases Hyde’s disapproval and ultimate hatred for Tremont; this is the chapter where the possible/probable focal point of CZW in 2012, becomes the actual focal point of CZW in 2012. This 2012 “Tangled Web V” main event is one of the most spectacular matches to fall underneath the category of the death match arts all year long. The very best death match encounters are accompanied by solid in-ring work. This match includes such a theory. This match features a plentiful variety of barbed-wire wrapped plunder accompanied by a wooden scaffold style structure built at the end of the entrance-way. This structure dubbed as the “tangled web” has a table on the ground next to it. Directly above the table at the height of the scaffold is a web of barbed-wire. Imagine a man being chokeslammed from the top of it to the floor. Now, imagine the falling man missing the table completely. This vision becomes reality here. This is a car crash you can’t turn away from. How often does someone get out of that banged-up car before your very eyes as you observe the destruction? Apply that to this match. Visuals tend to define the ultraviolent side of professional wrestling and despite the accidental nature of the spot; the Bulldozer himself will tell you, not necessarily, are the “planed” things in wrestling, the things that push you to the moon. An entire ring was wrapped in barbed-wire to resemble a spiders-web at “Tangled Web IV,” in 2011. Therefore, it seemed unlikely this particular tangled web could match that cringe worthy display put on by Scotty Vortex and Drake Younger. Despite all of this brutalization, what remains far from brutal is the memory of a classic ultraviolent contest. Following insignificant medical attention, the Bulldozer, bulldozes his way back into the contest. A spot that clearly became one of the most dangerous ideas in professional wrestling today (Until the Cage of Death 14 rolled around) was surrounded by a near perfect display of ultraviolence. These two had a spectacular outing against each other and the delivery caught up to the hype long before Tremont stole the lions heart from the locker-room and ran back out with it. The follow up procedure to a tapped arm that allowed Tremont to continue, reportedly came in the form of 100 plus stitches. None of the violent destruction described here serves as the primary reason for the success of this epic hardcore encounter. There is a combination of things that drive this match right into the must-see category of 2012. After Hyde earns the pin fall, Excellent cashes in his third and final wish. He uses it for a rematch to take place between Tremont and Hyde. Immediately upon hearing another plea from Excellent, Tremont challenges Hyde to a “Squared Circle of Fear Match.” – ***1/2
“Redemption” – Squared Circle of Fear Match (No Ropes, No Canvas, Exposed Barbed-Wire Boards) – September 2012: The Ropes have been replaced by barbed-wire and the canvas has been removed. Thus implying the boards normally placed deep underneath the canvas have been exposed. These boards also have thin lines of barbed-wire fastened end to end. If you have never heard of this concept, don’t doubt yourself, it has only been done once before. If you consider yourself a fan of professional wrestling death matches, I would bet there is more than enough potential for you to find more than enough intrigue regarding this match-up in the above opening description. The death match arts is a pure spectacle, comparable to nothing else professional wrestling is known for. Whatever sounds visually stimulating on paper, often has potential to be just as stimulating when brought to life. By the end of the match you may, or may not feel this was the spectacle that it could have been based on the gimmick in play. However, that conclusion may simply be connected to the bar set at “Tangled Web V” in August. As a professional wrestling enthusiast driven by the responsibility of being a realist, I do not allow this responsibility to put a damper on my desire for creative content. Therefore, what took place inside the ring and outside of it post-match, did feed my wrestling appetite. Hyde lost the match and therefore fires Tremont. Tremont heads from the ring, straight to his car, straight out of Delaware. The way this was sold had me frowning. As translucently upset as Tremont for the time being. This is obviously easy enough to understand and is not the most inventive angle in professional wrestling. However, if you followed the Tremont-Hyde saga, this is an essential chapter where more than one page would turn. It somehow came across brilliantly and somehow managed to impact the success of what these two accomplished in the ring together for the second time in 2012. The chokeslam from the edge of the ring and onto a pile of light-tubes and chairs stacked at ringside. Suplex-style bumps of all kinds onto an exposed canvas lined with barbed-wire boards, should provide you a visual stimulating enough to understand the legit danger this ultraviolent stipulation carries. The visual of these two standing in this style of ring screams death match. If you can handle the pace, or lack thereof at times, the match credibly earns the right to be dubbed as a spectacle. A spectacle regardless of whatever insignificantly subjective, nerdy wrestling worth I choose to apply. – ***
Cage of Death 14 – Cage of Death Shattered Dreams Match – December 2012: If there was any concrete left to dry following the first two matches, this is where everything cements itself to become one of the most memorable, extended confrontations in combat zone history. Flashback to October 2012 at “Cerebral,” where Tremont sits at ringside, doing his best to make his presence known. Flashback to November 2012 at “Night of Infamy,” where the roster protests Hyde’s decision by walking out of the venue with Tremont, threatening to quit until he gets what he deserves. One more match. A match that cannot come in the form of a Greg Excellent wish. What Tremont did deserve, what he would get, what he earned, would come in the form one last opportunity for Hyde to shatter his dreams of hardcore-fan, turned hardcore superstar. Over an entire year in the making, the entire Hyde-Tremont narrative was one massive tangled web of redemption. All of it caged by fear over a possible death to a career. The cage of death is what the WWE and Eric Bischoff forgot about when referencing the elimination chamber as pro wrestling’s most sadistic structure. All cage of death matches are built in different fashion. Each year provides a structure that has its very own design. Shattered Dreams would point to the cage primarily being composed of panes of glass. If death matches are spectacles, you won’t find a more fitting description of what went on inside, outside and all around the Shattered Dreams Cage of Death. Spears through panes of glass. Chokeslams through chairs and barbed-wire boards. An ultraviolent frog-splash from the top of the cage through a pane of glass. What follows all of that will be remembered, stored and locked-up in the CZW history books. A death valley driver from the top of the cage through stacked panes of glass and through a makeshift structure at ringside. If that sentence is not mind-blowing, it perhaps, is simply enough, not for you. A throwback Zandig-Lobo finish like this may only register with your wrestling wits if you are familiar with the combat zone. The images of both men crawling out of the makeshift structure and back into the ring are just as powerful as the spot itself. Tremont stands triumphant after pinning Hyde. This wraps up an ultraviolent trilogy, finalizing the combat zone wrestling story of the year in 2012. No matter what subjective worth is applied, the true worthiness comes from what the Hyde-Tremont trilogy meant to CZW in 2012. – ****
The incident at “Tangled Web V.” The refusal to be put down following a chokeslam onto light-tubes and chairs at “Redemption.” The glass shattering plunge from the top of the cage at “Cage of Death 14.” All of these moments were surrounded by both Hyde and Tremont forcing us to hear what they had to say, forcing us to fear for them during each confrontation, but most importantly, forcing us to believe all of this was something special. Above all of this, there are three sizable paragraphs, made up of thoughts on three significant matches, all culminating in an episodic ultraviolent trilogy to form one massive year-long spectacle.
