As many people know, The Backseat Boyz, Trent Acid and Johnny Kashmere, are easily the best tag team to ever wrestle in CZW history. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. It is my opinion, that they were the best tag team to ever perform in CZW. The Backseat Boyz have had a storied history with CZW. They held the CZW Tag Team titles for more than years combined, during their 3 title reigns. (Kashmere even won it two more times with other partners.) Trent Acid, who's been very successful as a singles wrestler, ever since Kashmere's time off from wrestling, is considered one of the most talented men to wrestle for CZW. Despite the Backseat Boyz talent, and all the contributions they've made to CZW, they always have had a storied rocky relationship with CZW Owner, John Zandig. The Backseats and Zandig butted heads numerous times, but the Backseats always wound up back in a CZW ring. The latest incident, concerning the departure of The Backseat Boyz from CZW, occurred at Best of the Best IV, which is CZW's annual Super Junior Heavyweight tournament. It is also the same tournament, that Trent Acid has won in the past. Trent Acid no-showed the event, the same day of the show, citing problems with then CZW booker, and head of Smark Mark Video, Mike Burns. Zandig cut a promo on Trent Acid on that show, and Trent Acid, and Johnny Kashmere, haven't been back to CZW since.

During this latest sabbatical from CZW, The Backseat Boyz have branched out. Johnny Kashmere decided to run his own promotion called Pro Wrestling Unplugged. Kashmere has taken time off from wrestling to focus on this project. In the meantime, Trent Acid is making a claim as one of the best overall wrestlers on the indy scene today. Trent returned to JAPW, and debuted in USA PW, while continuing to work for, what many consider the top promotion today, Ring of Honor. With Trent doing his thing, and Kashmere doing his PWU thing, going back to CZW or even talking about going back to CZW never happened.

Just like The Backseat Boyz were doing their thing, CZW was doing theirs. CZW, without Trent Acid, at Best of The Best IV, had one of the greatest shows of the year. CZW started running Pay-Per-View tapings. CZW seemingly looks like they are trying to relive the past, and build to the future, as they brought back Justice Pain, M-Dogg 20 and Kaos. Sonjay Dutt cemented himself in CZW, as one of the greats, by winning BOTB IV and having solid matches. The Blackout has exploded as one of the more entertaining tag teams in CZW. An influx of talent joined CZW, during The Backseats abscence, such as Jay Lethal, Pinkie Sanchez, Spyral, Ghost Shadow, the IWS crew, and more. Guys like Homicide, Danny Maff and AMIL returned to the company. CZW went on with no problems, until their 9/11 show.

At the 9/11 afternoon show, The Blackout did a segment with a girl over the age of 18. She took off her top, and had patsies covering her nipples. To be honest, it's nothing that you can't see from just watching Sex in the City repeats on TBS. Unfortunately for CZW, some (and the following adjectives are my opinion) crazy, irresponsible, bitch mother was in attendance. She couldn't believe what she saw. She didn't want her kid seeing this. Instead of placing some blame on herself, for not researching what she was attending, she decided to blame CZW, and the person who's license was being used to run the show, Rockin Rebel. The fallout of this was nasty. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, is like no other. They are anal. With bigger problems in the world today, you'd think governing what goes on at wrestling show, with a fine tooth comb, wouldn't be that important. Well you'd be wrong. The end result was Rockin Rebel pulling his license from CZW, forcing CZW to find someone else with a license, that they could use. CZW will now be forced to censor their own product even more. Rebel was gone from CZW.

After pulling his license from CZW, Rockin Rebel, who was scheduled to wrestle and let PWU use his license, for PWU's 9/25 show, went on PWU's radio show after the incident. He described everything that happened, and said it would be too much of a risk for him to let CZW use his license again. After all, this is how Rebel makes his living, and he can't take a chance losing his livelihood for CZW. Rebel's interview is archived on PWU's official website.

9/25 came and went, and PWU ran a successful show. There was one incident that occurred with Nick Gage, and PWU obliged Rebel, and said they would not be using Gage in the future. PWU owner, Johnny Kashmere, said it was nothing personal, but strictly business, as he valued Rebel and Rebel's license. Up to this point, there was no bad talking from Zandig or The Backseat Boyz about each other, or each other's promotions.

Shit started hitting the fan this past weekend, between Zandig's CZW and Kashmere's PWU, after CZW's show on 10/9. According to several CZW Wrestlers and Johnny Kashmere (Who heard the information secondhand) Zandig held a meeting in the locker room. According to the wrestlers and Kashmere, Zandig told everyone if they worked PWU, then don't come back to CZW. Zandig put down Kashmere, and even went on to say that Kashmere was trying to shut down CZW. This all got back to Kashmere, and Kashmere, along with his tag team partner, Trent Acid, retaliated on Zandig and CZW, by going on a public rampage.

The Backseat Boyz went on the official PWU hotline, The Acid Line, which can be heard at 1-215-701-7143. The Backseats went off on CZW and their wrestlers. Among the topics discussed and bashed were:
CZW the promotion- They talked about how CZW lost their TV deal because of Zandig. They talked about how CZW dropped the ball with them.
Justice Pain- The Backseats hinted that Pain abused steroids like it was nobodies business.
Robby Mireno- He was called a pimpled face mark, who practiced doing wigga promos.
The CZW Fan Board- They got tore up for bashing Kashmere in the past.
Whacks- called a freak, and they told him to go hang out in a tattoo shop.
Derek Sabato- called a mark booker who has no business being on Zandig's booking staff.
Others were bashed too. As of this writing, the hotline was still up. The Backseats challenged anyone to a fight at the Berywn Tavern, where Kashmere works. The hotline is very interesting and to fully comprehend this story, you should call it.

To retaliate against the Backseats, CZWFans.com (which is one of the top northeast indy message boards today) continued to rip Johnny Kashmere. This is when Adam Lash took it too far. Adam Lash, under his message board posting name, posted Johnny Kashmere's full address and cell phone number. That is dead wrong in my opinion, and I covered that in a previous story on this site. The CZWFans.com message board moderators, Barrmark and AdamCircumstance (Their message board names) would not delete the posts, after being asked to by Johnny Kashmere's friends. They said it was staying up. (They eventually did remove it, 15 or so hours later) I thought that lacked judgement, and I know the DOI board doesn't exactly have the best reputation, but you can legally get sued for having someone's personal information up on your website, without their permission. Factor in that they asked for it to be taken down, CZWFans wouldn't have a case. What if Kashmere got attacked or stalked, by someone, after finding out where he lived? Well that's exactly what happened.

Before going into Kashmere's attack, which was covered on this site already, we must mention that the Backseat Boyz retaliated at the CZWFans.com message board, on the Masked Maniac hotline. The hotline, which can be heard at 516-214-8333 featured the Backseat Boyz for a 1/2 hour. The Backseats explained how the post with Kashmere's information was up. The Backseats challenged anyone looking for Kashmere to just come to The Berywn Tavern. Backseats did another rip job on people in CZW. Among things ripped where:
The unprofessionalism of the CZWFans.com moderators for leaving the post up. After all, they could've got sued if anything bad happened to Kashmere. The person who posted it wouldn't get in trouble legally, just the moderators. I'm speaking from experience here, as something like this happened on the DOI boards.
Zandig, as the Backseats followed up on what they were saying on the Acidline.
Mike Burns from Smart Mark Video. Trent Acid openly threatened Burns and told Burns to watch his back, for all the the things Burns had done to him.
Smart Mark Video. They got bashed for trying to expose wrestling, and for being "geeky" with all their K-5 talk.
Other aspects of CZW were also bashed.

After spending a combined total of an hour bashing and telling their side about CZW, and having Kashmere's personal information on the CZWFans.com message board for around 15 hours or so, Johnny Kashmere was attacked. Like it was covered here earlier, Kashmere was attacked at his own home by Wifebeater, a former CZW World Heavyweight Champion. Luckily for CZWFans.com, the person who attacked Kashmere already had Kashmere's address already. CZWFans.com was not responsible for the attack, but they were responsible for the prank phone calls Kashmere received. Those phone calls could've been prevented by not allowing the information to stay up. If it was say Zandig's information, it would've most likely been taken down right away. Hopefully there won't be any, but CZWFans.com could be liable if any future attacks occur. CZWFans.com and The Backseats are right now in the middle of a verbal and printed feud.

After the attack, which Kashmere has decided not to press charges on, people were wondering if it was a work, or an angle for PWU. If Nick Gage isn't allowed in PWU, I'm sure you won't see Wifebeater. It should be interesting to see if Wifebeater says anything at CZW's "Night of Infamy" show on 11/14. Meanwhile, PWU returns on October 23rd and November 5th with two big shows, and it should likewise be interesting to see if Kashmere says anything then.

This recaps everything that has happened so far. Did Kashmere deserve it? Absolutely not. No one in wrestling deserves to have all their personal information up on a message board. No one needs wrestling to mix in with real life by having someone getting attacked in their own home. Would Kashmere deserve getting hit at the Berwyn Tavern? I guess so, because he challenged people to show up there.

Who's right? Who's wrong? Well I do believe Zandig should've talked to Kashmere straight up before telling wrestlers not to work for PWU, if they wanted to work for CZW. Kashmere could've confronted Zandig about his comments before blasting him publically. I understand Kashmere's emotions, as Kashmere has not tampered with any of CZW's business. I do believe the CZWFans.com board was wrong for allowing the post to stay up, even though they weren't responsible for the attack, despite being responsible for the prank phone calls. I can't support Wifebeater's decision to jump Kashmere at his own home either, as he was Kashmere's friend in the past, and Kashmere doesn't deserve to be attacked in his own house.

Honestly, I'd like to see the CZW vs PWU feud die. No one gained from the Philly Wars several years ago, and PWU and CZW will lose more fighting together, then they could gain by working together. Let's be honest, a Backseat Boyz "PWU Invasion" in CZW would be an electrifying angle. Whether Zandig could swallow his pride, and let the Backseats show why they are a big draw, and if The Backseats could swallow their pride, and work for someone who they don't trust, remains to be seen.

Wrestling is a down cycle as it is. Stuff like this brings wrestling down and splits fans. At this time, wrestling promotions do need to unite with each other, instead of fighting with each other. Fighting promotions in NJ, has practically wiped out anyone that's not named JAPW from drawing 650+ people on a consistent basis in NJ. Philly has had their history, and we are supposed to learn from history. For CZW and for PWU, I hope they can beat their heat, and even if they don't like each other, they don't need to sabotage each other. Wrestling shows need as many fans as they can get, as the more fans a show get, the longer promotions can continue to run.

So in closing, I think the fans should check out both promotions and support them. Both are going in different directions and have different visions. CZW is known and everyone knows what those shows are like. PWU is a great atmosphere and it's a way to enjoy life and wrestling at their shows. No one gains from fed wars like these, so hopefully no damage, from an attendance perspective, happens to either promotion.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com