Dark Side Of The Ring - The Ultra-Violence of Nick Gage FULL RECAP
Nick Gage is the King of the Deathmatch, but his most intense battles were fought outside the ring surviving jail time and personal tragedies. Read the full Dark Side of the Ring recap below.
The Intro
The episode kicked off with clips of Nick Gage’s violence as he said, “I love what I do and I’m the best mother f**cker in the world doing it today.”
Glass, lightbulbs and barbwire, are not things meant for the human body.
This episode is a journey into the underworld of deathmatch wrestling.
Gage’s most intense battle was fought outside of the ring, which left him at rock bottom.
The Episode
Death-matching wrestling is a live-action horror movie. The brutality is constantly raised to new heights in order to satisfy a blood-thirsty crowd.
Nick noted, “You’ve got to love this sh*t” He considers himself the greatest death-match wrestler in the world and when asked why notes, “Because I’m a little crazy in the head.”
His goal is to prove there is a fanbase in this realm.
Jon Moxley is introduced and no stranger to ultra-violence. Prior to becoming a mainstream star, Jon cut his teeth on the deathmatch scene. In his first counter with Gage, he brought out a pizza cutter and legitimately cut open Jon’s head. Gage would then take the pizza cutter and place it in Moxley’s mouth. Jon would recount, “That mother f**cker just cut my tongue out!”
Despite 30 people in the audience, Jon loved the feeling of smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer in the locker room with half his blood gone.
The tournament of death in Delaware where it’s a multi-round endurance test of violence. Obviously, quite the scene.
In the finals, Gage would face Thumbtack Jack in a modern-day horror show.
Brett Lauderdale, owner of Game Changer Wrestling, would relive his experience at this event.
At this time in 2009, Brett was a referee for CZW and this was a clash between two of the greatest death-match wrestlers.
The entire match was a complete pit of glass with vertical light tubes.
The top of a light tube cut Gage the wrong way and he bled buckets worth of blood. Words do not do this graphic scene justice. Nick Gage insisted on having the wound taped up so he could continue. Clearly, it was registering that he should be heading to a hospital as opposed to the ring.
A helicopter would arrive since the ambulance had trouble making it to the scene. This was the last thing Nick remembered. Apparently, he flatlined in the helicopter and was brought back to life. He was legally dead for 7 minutes. This was essentially a boost to his character and how he would a folk hero.
Nick brought up how he wanted to become a wrestler since the time he was 9 years old.
Sondra, Nick’s girlfriend, gets introduced. She’s been with him for over 20 years.
Gage would reflect on the love he had for his mother.
Nick’s dad would often watch Saturday Night’s Main Event, which is where Nick and his brother developed their love for wrestling
The two would found their own backyard wrestling company and even wrap barbwire trampolines. The inspiration behind this stemmed from Japanese Death Match wrestling. Clips of Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk from IWA Japan in 1995 were shown.
Nick loved the blood, violence and story those two told. From there, he started watching ECW, which is where his love truly evolved from.
The Wilson Brothers (Nick and his brother Justice Pain) brought their passion for violence to CZW.
Nick’s girlfriend explained a story where he would lit on fire, which she disagreed with. Nick would be suplexed into a fire and he was legitimately on fire. The stop, drop and roll strategy was ineffective.
When Brett was asked how Nick was deal with the pain, he would respond with, “Well, he definitely was not going to physical therapy or exploring yoga opportunities.”
Nick was popping heavy non-prescription pills such as Oxycodone. When Brett was asked how much of Nick’s income was allotted to drugs, he responded with, “All of it. Definitely all of it.”
Nick was clearly an addict, which essentially became his everyday existence. His relationship with his brother started to deteriorate.
When the two competed against each other, Chris (Nick’s brother), would dislocate Nick’s shoulder and quickly end the match. The two would go through a fallout.
After Nick lost his mother to cancer, he continued to spiral out of control. After a few years, he lost his friends and family while finding himself on the verge of homelessness.
Nick and his girlfriend were both kicked out of her mother’s house.
Brett would come home to find his door unhinged and discovered the two sleeping on his floor. The two were immediately kicked out.
Out of desperation and freezing on the street. Nick would show up to a bank, handed the teller a note that said, “I have a gun. Give me all your money.”
After being handed the money, Nick would split and run to Brett’s house. Nick would drop the money on his kitchen counter. Based on the crisp bills, Brett assumed Nick had robbed a bank.
Jon Moxley recounts receiving a call at home where there was a photo of Nick Gage in the bank lobby. It was clear as day and he wasn’t even covering his face.
Nick would find out that he was wanted after his face appeared in the newspaper on the front page. He and his girlfriend split to Atlantic City in an effort to spend the money as quickly as possible. Knowing he was going to prison, Nick was ready to lavishly blow it all.
Brett talked to Nick daily and wondered when he was ready to turn himself in.
Gage would call Brett, stop by Burger King for a Whopper, drank a 40, smoked a few blunts and turned himself in.
Nick would plead guilty to second-degree bank robbery and was sentenced to 5 years in New Jersey State prison. Despite the sentence, Nick received plenty of support in the form of fan mail.
On March 31, 2015, Nick was released on parole.
Brett would found and run a company named Game Changer Wrestling with a death-match tournament titled the Nick Gage Invitational.
Nick would fall back into bad habits as problems continued to follow him. He falsified a urine test and was caught. This parole violation would send him back to prison for another two years.
In the meantime, Game Changer Wrestling became the premier organization of death-match wrestling.
Nick would call his fans, the Murder Death Kill Gang with worldwide support.
The match between David Arquette is brought up. David jokingly introduced himself as the former WCW Champion. “They can’t take it away from me, I’m sorry.”
Arquette was determined to earn the respect of fans. Upon returning, he knew very little about Nick Gage but didn’t want to be known as a joke anymore.
David and Nick met in Hollywood and Gage warned Arquette that it would violent and incredibly dangerous.
Once Arquette started laying into Gage during the match, Nick promised to take it to the next level. Gage would cut David with a pizza cutter while slamming him with light tubes. Arquette would be stabbed in the neck with a sharp piece of the light tube. After David threw a chair at Gage, Nick would hit him with a judo throw and advised him to stay down for the pin.
Arquette was captured by TMZ and was clearly in over his head.
Following this match, Gage’s popularity continued to grow.
On a cold January morning, Nick’s brother Chris, better known as Justice Pain, passed away. He tragically jumped off the Walt Whitman bridge with a note saying, “Sorry.” Apparently, Chris had stolen a car and was pursued by the police, which was very uncharacteristic of him since he always had his head on straight. Chris was dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues.
The bridge that Chris jumped off is located directly behind Nicks’s house. A somber reminder that leads Gage to pray for him.
In the traditional sense, every day is a battle for an addict. Nick believes that he will go out young and will die sooner rather than later and has accepted this fact.
Nick is just 40 years old and isn’t going to stop due to his connection with the audience.
Jon Moxley would go on to say, “Vince McMahon would kill to have just one guy who connects with the audience like Nick Gage.”
It’s clear that Nick’s story is far from over and this extra bit of notoriety will only further enhance his appeal based on his never-say-die attitude.