CZW Wrestling’s toxic, abusive, bigoted culture must come to an end

Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) has consistently violated the basic rights and dignity of its performers.

CZW came under fire recently as a result of the deathmatch-heavy promotion re-releasing competitive women’s matches and advertising them in a blatantly sexualized manner without the consent of the performers.

The events that followed have shed light on the company’s abhorrent history.

Old women’s matches through the CZW and WSU umbrella were repurposed with titles such as “Hot and Sweaty Combat” and “All Assets Revealed”, implying a more risque undertone than the original intentions of the performers and match coordinators.

This was met with much negative reaction from both fans and performers alike, criticizing the company for utilizing misogynistic marketing tactics for their old footage and not consulting the performers to use their likeness for the redistributed shows.

The public response prompted CZW to release a statement via their official Twitter account:

"“Two years ago, CZW entered into a licensing agreement with a national media distributor to license CZW and WSU footage. That company has the right to utilize the footage without limitation. They have repackaged and renamed shows as it is their right to do so. Our athletes, regardless of gender, are just that, athletes, whom we are proud of and appreciate. We stand behind the ring action in all our footage.”"

In CZW’s statement, they shifted blame to their national media distributor, attempting to absolve themselves of any responsibility in the process. Even in the event CZW’s agreement with said distributor left them without say in the repurposing and re-marketing of the content, they had blatantly neglected to contact the female performers involved ahead of time. They were unable to consent to being objectified and having their work as wrestlers misrepresented.

LuFisto, Kimber Lee, and current Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace were just a few of many to speak out, expressing disappointment at their likeness being used without their permission – let alone in a manner that directly contradicted the body of work they had left during their respective CZW tenures.

https://twitter.com/Kimber_Lee90/status/1261408312471375872

In an interview with Fightful’s Robert DeFelice, LuFisto discussed the events that led up to her calling out CZW.

"“It’s [the] end of March because a fan tweeted, ‘I can’t believe they’re calling Mercedes Martinez and LuFisto a catfight. I’m like, ‘excuse me? Links to this?’ And then I see the press releases. They’re putting it on all the websites and that’s where I see it, ‘sweaty girls in dirty fights and catfights’ like baring all out. Then it’s me and Mercedes. I know that this show is from what we signed up for was called, [something] like Breaking Barriers?"

In addition to the misogynistic promotional tactics, the response from the female performers brought awareness to a toxic work environment. Kimber Lee claimed she and other women were told— based on the direct quote tweet of the CZW account, assumed to be current CZW owner DJ Hyde—that they would not be booked if he didn’t feel a desire to sleep with them. This was corroborated by Jordynne Grace who dropped a quote of her own:

Joey Janela—who had a four-year stint in the promotion—chimed in accusing Hyde of forcing the female talent to share hotels and cuddle with him.

As the accounts of sexual harassment accumulated, other former CZW talents were quick to join the discussion and bringing even more accusations to the forefront. Former CZW Tag Team Champion, JT Dunn—via his Twitter account—recounted his first experience with DJ Hyde in CZW affiliate, Women Superstars United locker room.

According to Dunn, Hyde announced to his purchase of WSU to the entire locker room as well as the departures of some women from the roster in the process. Per Dunn, Hyde declared that the ones who were still employed were only there for sexual purposes. Finally, Dunn stated that Hyde also went out of his way to pull him aside and went as far as threatening to fire him when he found out Dunn was dating someone on the roster, solely because he didn’t ask for permission.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, there were critics who questioned why these experiences were never expressed in public as a way to detract the legitimacy of the claims. Dunn retorted, stating that CZW talent did speak up but went unheard and had their careers jeopardized if they continued to speak out further.

Dunn also claimed that in the multiple times he tried to voice his concerns, people would attempt to normalize the destructive work environment and brush it off with, “That’s just CZW”.

Kris Levin—who was a referee at CZW from 2011 to 2013—expressed joy that CZW’s shady operations were finally being brought to the forefront. Levin referenced the toxic work environment, blatant misogyny, constant bullying, and lack of regard for the safety and well-being of their workers as reasons he didn’t enjoy working CZW monthly shows.

Former CZW World Champion, MJF who is notorious for remaining in character on Twitter and when interacting directly with fans broke kayfabe to point out the racism and antisemitism that he witnessed and encountered in the promotion.

CZW alum, Chrissy Rivera put out a powerful warning to all women currently employed at Combat Zone or WSU:

"“Just a thought: to the current women who work for CZW or WSU. If you have any self value , think twice about working for a toxic place like this. You don’t want to be in the situation we are in currently. A place that was once fun, positive, and empowering is now tainted.”"

Rivera is probably referring to the pre-Hyde era of CZW when it was run by founder and then-owner John Danzig. While CZW has arguably never been perfect, it is abundantly clear that said empowerment and positivity Rivera is reminiscing on has been vacuumed dry by the current ownership and replaced by putrid, abusive working conditions.

When shamed by “fans” for advocating for the closure of CZW, Dunn elaborated.

"“That name now carries years and years of tarnished reputation. I’m  not opposed to that place closing for another with a new name. The darkness is too deep there and changing the leader won’t help everyone”."

When racism, antisemitism, and sexual harassment are so commonplace in a company that they’re considered a comes-with-the-territory part of CZW’s work culture, the promotion—to Dunn’s point—needs a drastic overhaul especially in leadership and even a shutdown to eradicate the toxicity.

For just over two months, CZW has knowingly allowed their distributor to utilize their women’s wrestling content in a manner clearly not intended by the performers. To say every wrestling promotion is problem-free would be a stretch but the issues and poor leadership within CZW are too prevalent for anyone to continue supporting the promotion in good consciousness without a seismic shift.