♪ (chanting) Nick ...in' Gage! ♪
The most ultra-violent athlete in GCW history!
Nick Gage is on a rampage!
I love what I do, and I'm the best mother... er
in the world doing it today.
♪
- Glass... - Into the glass!
Lightbulbs...
- (shattering) - Oh!
- Barb wire. - (screaming)
Nick Gage, and there he is!
These are not things that are meant
for the human body.
♪
[Narrator] Beyond the fantasy world of
larger than life heroes and villains,
lies the brutal and unforgiving underworld
of Deathmatch wrestling.
(cheering)
And its undisputed king, Nick Gage.
What we're gonna do, is we're gonna
light these bitches up.
Yeah!
- (shattering) - Oh, my!
This isn't a children's TV show on Saturday morning.
Oh!
When that bell rings, it's real to Nick Gage.
This is gonna be a fight.
For the uninitiated,
stepping into Gage's domain is
an invitation to an arena of pain,
where blood will be spilled.
Oh, my god! He just snoofed David Arquette!
He's starting to bug out a little bit,
and that's how he got cut in the ...ing throat.
Oh!
I told you not to ing cut me.
I'm an actor so, I was in over my head.
But for Gage, his most intense battle
was fought outside the ring,
as the harsh consequences of his lifestyle
bled out into real life.
He's cut, bad, bad, bad, bad!
Leaving him at rock bottom.
Painkillers, Percocet, OxyContin,
all those things.
What do you mean Nicky robbed a bank?
Why would you do something like that?
You're killing yourself!
Cut that ...in' camera! Cut the camera.
Gage is in the house, Gage is gonna do what he wants.
And any time you want to ...in' fight me, you can.
♪
[Audience] Oh!
[Announcer] Pile driver through the window!
(cheering)
Deathmatch wrestling is a live-action horror movie.
♪
Raised on the blood-soaked matches of their heroes,
its participants strive to outdo icons of the past.
(indistinct shouts!)
By escalating their brutality to
new life-threatening heights.
Quick! Someone call 9-1-1!
All to satisfy a blood-thirsty crowd.
The king of ultra-violence, Nick ...ing Gage!
(cheering)
You gotta love this shit, man.
'Cause guess what, that shit hurts.
[Announcer] Oh!
[Nick] And that shit burns.
[Audience] Oh!
And that shit might say, "Why the... am I doing
this shit right now, 'cause it ain't the pay day."
♪
My name is Nick Gage.
I'm the greatest Deathmatch wrestler in the world.
I'm the leader of a gang called Murder Death Kill Gang.
I represent Eastern Block Hate Club so,
that's who I am, man.
I'm probably a little, little, little crazy in the head.
♪
Ah, my pain tolerance is high.
- ! - To pain!
I also want to show other wrestlers that
this style of wrestling's alright, man.
And it can be done, and there is a fan base,
and it's awesome.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage! Nick ...in' Gage!
Some Deathmatch wrestlers are some of the best storytellers,
the best in the world at connecting with an audience,
Nick Gage being one of them.
My name is Jon Moxley.
I am a professional wrestler.
[Announcer] Jon... Moxley!
(cheering)
Jon Moxley is no stranger to ultra-violence.
Oh, good god!
Before reaching world championship status
in the mainstream, Moxley cut his teeth on the indie
Deathmatch scene where he routinely
crossed paths with Nick Gage.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage!
Who he is in the ring, when he walks out,
and that music hits, and he comes out like,
"Yeah! Nick ...in' Gage!"
High-fiving, getting all pumped up. "Yeah!"
Getting all excited, that's how he is all the time.
My first one-on-one encounter,
he pulled out a pizza cutter.
[Commentary] And now he's got a pizza cutter!
[Jon] I'm thinking, you know, give me a nice workin'.
I'll do a little poke and twist,
it's all an illusion.
Not so much.
[Audience member] Nick ...in' Gage!
Ah! Oh, look at this! Oh!
[Jon] He gives me the pizza cutter.
The crowd goes, "Oh, yeah! Kill him!
Cut his ...ing head off!"
So, he gets excited.
Nick Gage will do whatever it takes to be
CZW world champion once again.
I'm the one to just tackle you and
start having a real fight here.
I'm trying to keep this match on track.
We got a good story. You know, the crowd's into this.
You know, please don't pizza cut the...
out of my face so much.
And this crowd is eating it up!
And now he's excited and I just feel the
excited energy and I'm like, oh, god, no, no.
And then he takes the pizza cutter and
he puts it in my mouth.
[muffled] And slices it across my mouth. Agh!
[Announcer] Nick Gage is getting carried away
with his ultra-violent ways.
And I'm like, that mother... er just cut my tongue out.
Look at Moxley's face already!
Is my tongue still attached?
Okay... and we continue the match,
and the intensity's off the charts.
Oh! What a head butt! Right to the sternum.
Once you go out there and you get into it and you feel
that Nick Gage intensity, the 30 people in the crowd
are going, "Yeah, kill him!" And you're just like, "Get him!"
But it's like, this is what you live for.
I don't give a shit how much money I make,
I don't give a shit how much of a star I am.
I don't give a... about any of that.
I do this for that feeling.
♪
I love the feeling of being in a locker room
with half of my blood gone,
smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer.
And that is a feeling that is so addictive,
what keeps you coming back.
I think that's probably what keeps Nick Gage coming back too.
Oh, yeah, what a finals this is gonna be with Nick Gage.
For nearly a decade, Gage built a reputation
on a fearless appetite for violence,
but he would be put to the ultimate test on
the most ruthlessly unforgiving stage...
the Tournament of Death.
Oh!
Every year, fans descend on backyard farm lands to
witness a multi-round endurance test of violence.
(cheering)
Where wrestlers must survive several gruesome matches
over the course of a single day.
Oh!
Tournament of Death takes place in Delaware,
out in this field, kind of like Woodstock
for Deathmatch wrestling.
Fans out there parking their vans,
getting drunk, smoking weed.
You know, we need a place where we can have
blood, and glass, and fire, and...
cops aren't gonna break up the party.
It's quite the scene.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage!
In the finals of the tournament,
Gage is to face Thumbtack Jack in a fight that would
redefine the meaning of Deathmatch wrestling.
Nothing could prepare the crowd for the
real-life horror show that was about to unfold.
Okay. This is ...ing insane.
I was right there for this.
My name is Brett Lauderdale.
I'm the owner and promoter of Game Changer Wrestling.
Definitely been through it all with him.
Good and bad, you know. Very good and very bad.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage!
At this time in 2009,
I was a full-time referee for CZW.
You know, I was in the ring.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage!
This was a really significant match because
Nick Gage was peaking in popularity at this time.
He was as popular as he had ever been in his career.
And, Thumbtack Jack, I mean,
he was an import from Germany.
You know, he was an international Deathmatch star.
So, it was really a clash at that time of like,
the two most popular Deathmatch wrestlers.
They imported some ing douchebag
from ...ing Germany.
They're talking all this shit about Thumbtack Jack,
"He's tough as hell and all that shit."
And I'm thinking, man, this is my ...ing house.
This is my backyard,
and I'm gonna smash this mother... er.
You know what...
He looks like a ing pussy to me.
(cheering)
200-light tube Deathmatch, entire ring surrounded by
vertical light tubes stuck in between the ropes.
Complete pit of glass.
(chanting) Nick ...in' Gage!
I remember him getting whipped into the ropes,
which were, of course, surrounded by tubes.
I remember that.
Oh!
And, at first, it didn't look anything like
out of the ordinary.
Thumbtack Jack!
One of the video guys, they all reacted immediately.
Oh! Oh, shit!
He's cut!
[Nick] What happened was, the light tube,
when I hit it, the top of it snapped.
So, the bottom of it's sticking there and
I just hit it the wrong way and then, bang, got me.
Looks down, lifts his arm and just...
(gurgling)
Oh! Oh, shit!
It was just buckets of blood.
I'm like, oh, ..., I'm ...ed up.
I know my body. It sliced my arteries.
He's cut, bad, bad, bad, bad!
But we've got... Nick Gage has been seriously,
seriously injured.
Thumbtack Jack frustrated at this turn of events.
(indistinct shouting) Jon! Jon!
A guy like Nick Gage, to just get up and walk off
like that, you know it had to be serious.
(gasping)
The nurse lady, he wanted her to tape him up
so he could go back to the ring.
Tape that ...ing shit up. I'm not losing to this dude.
- Tape that shit up, yo. - Lay down first!
Put a bunch of towels on it and tape it up.
- No! - I only got one move, man.
- No, no. - This is your last move.
Well, can I act like I'm trying to go out there and
you guys bring me back out? - No, no, no!
[Brett] For Nick, it's not registering, you know,
like, "I'm gonna prove how tough I am by going back
out to the ring and finishing this match,
even if that means I have to die out there."
- Let me go back out there. - Nicky, no.
Get that shit on camera, that I ...ing want to
go out there, smart mark.
- I know. - Put this shit on camera.
Nick, Nick! I understand!
!
♪
I was in the back, you know, of course,
getting bandaged up and shit like that.
Cut that ...ing camera! Cut the camera.
And they're like, "Well, they're trying to get the
ambulance on the ing property,
but the ambulance can't get on the property,
so we need a helicopter." (mimics helicopter chuff)
Here comes the ...ing helicopter landing down.
♪
And I get in the helicopter and
that's the last thing I remember.
♪
The nurse did say, "You flat lined while you were
in there and the doctors brought you back 'cause
you lost too much blood."
Nicky died and was legally dead for 7 minutes.
♪ (helicopter chuff) ♪
He died at Tournament of Death.
It's supposed to be a turn of phrase.
You're not actually supposed to die.
And he did.
It just cements and solidifies
Nick Gage's spot as a folk hero.
(chanting) Nick ...ing Gage!
It was probably a boost to his whole character and
his allure that you can't kill him.
He says to this day, like, that he's willing and ready
to die in the ring if that's what it comes to.
And I mean, can you doubt him after that?
Oh, no way. No, I don't go out like that, man.
I'm gonna do this 'til I can't do it no more.
I already made my mind up.
♪
I've been wanting to do this since I was probably
9 years old, man.
Grew up in National Park, New Jersey, born and raised.
I represent that shit to, to this day.
National Park, New Jersey's a low income,
probably middle class, you know,
in the 80s and stuff like that.
I was raised by a single mother.
Patty Dukes, Pat Wilson, man, I love her.
This is my mom, man. Patty Dukes. Mom Dukes.
The whole town called her Patty, or Mom Dukes.
Beautiful lady.
Nice one to show everybody that I was raised the right way,
you know what I mean?
Oh, my gosh. His mom was everything to him.
Everything, everything.
My name is Sondra Culbertson.
And, we went to the same high school.
Been with him for...
20, plus, years now.
His mom would literally brighten up our day.
It could be the worst day possible,
she'll just come walking in the bedroom, "Hey, guys!
I got you food! Let's eat!" I mean, she was just...
a very, very happy person.
Very happy, and loved Nick. Loved Nick to death.
My mom had breast cancer so, we did the walk every year
for the breast cancer walk of Philadelphia, man.
'Cause I just love her and I just wanted to,
you know, it's your mom, man.
You appreciate her.
I had a brother, Chris.
We'd just ...ing go around, you know,
being crazy, played football, played baseball.
We were always the ing guys who, like,
get in the fight, in the football.
"Oh, there goes the Wilson brothers again.
They're fist fighting."
♪
My dad was a big wrestling fan so,
you know, that's where it comes from.
We would spend, like, weekends at his house.
And he's watching Saturday Night Main Event.
We don't have to turn it on, Dad's got it on already,
you know what I mean.
Sometimes I think he regrets that shit,
you know, when he was alive 'cause, man,
we tore his ing house up. Yeah.
♪
We had a backyard company called
Hardcore Backyard Wrestling.
♪
We would videotape our ...ing matches
and shit like that.
One time, we took barb wire from the farm that we bought,
and we wrapped barb wire around the poles and
we had a no rope barb wire match on the trampoline.
♪
Probably Japanese deathmatches we started figuring out.
(Announcer speaking Japanese)
Once I seen Terry Funk and Cactus Jack doing their thing...
(screaming)
The blood, the violence, the way they told the story...
We separate the men...
from the old bastards!
It was on. I'm like, we gotta do this.
This is what I wanna do, man.
This is awesome!
Then we started getting into ECW.
- For the love of god! - Oh!
ECW's the reason why I ...ing love doing this shit today.
Out of that came CZW.
- (shattering) - Oh!
And now we're taking it to a whole 'nother level of
craziness that's never been seen in the United States before.
Wrestled in every single CZW Tournament of Death.
Driven by their passion for the hardcore style of ECW,
the Wilson brothers brought their backyard wrestling roots
into upstart promotion Combat Zone Wrestling.
As Nick Gage and Justice Pain.
Justice...! Pain!
Bam! Ha-ha!
ECW was so offended by it.
"Oh, these guys might get hurt."
Oh!
Light tubes are too dangerous?
Get the... out of here.
They're just mad a new generation came along
who's tougher and ...ing crazier than they are.
I love it.
It's a very dangerous situation in there.
When he's in the ring, I'm literally right there.
I'm always in the front. I'm like, "Yeah!
Get him! Kill him!" I'm right there in the front.
I'm just one of the fans.
(cheering)
Oh, man, there's gotta be at least...
at least 100,000 of 'em.
When he told me he was gonna lit on fire,
I told him not to do it.
I think he just told me he wasn't gonna do it
so I wouldn't be, like, freaking out.
And so, when it happened, and I saw the firing coming out,
I'm like, oh, no, here we go.
(cheering)
Oh!
(hysterical shouting)
I saw him get lit on fire and,
I think someone told him, like, stop, drop, and roll.
So, I stop, drop, and roll.
Get this, that shit don't even ...ing work.
I was still on fire and then they put me out.
(shouting)
And then finally, he took off his shirt and
it finally went out.
(indistinct shouts)
After that, I went into the back.
I never do that. It's one thing I don't do.
I do not run into the back.
I'll wait to the end of the show.
But this is one thing, I did go in the back.
He said he was okay, but I knew he wasn't.
- Oh, it burns! - Anywhere else?
- Is it like bubbling and shit? - It's skin.
It's like peeled skin.
That heat was tough. I finished that match.
Slammed down! Someone call 9-1-1!
Well... He was definitely not going to
physical therapy or exploring yoga opportunities.
♪ (electronic) ♪
I was popping heavy, ...ing,
you know, prescription pills, man.
I was popping percs and shit like that.
♪
Ing, I'm Nick Gage, so I'd go into a ...ing
doctor's office, "Oh, give me 30 ...ing... roxicets."
And then they would give them to you.
It was crazy.
And like, I'd never been a druggy guy, ever.
And then, like, you know, when you don't have them
you're like, "Whoa, what the ...'s that?"
♪
At some point, OxyContin got hard to get
because it's very expensive.
He can walk down the street and
get heroin for $10 a bag and
get all the same effects, and get more of it.
All of it. Definitely all of it.
You know, I looked at him like a guy who was
in trouble and he had no choice,
and now he's in this really bad situation.
It is what it is. I mean, he was an addict.
That was, basically, his life.
♪
And here we go, fans! Our main event...
As Nick Gage descends deeper into addiction,
his career and his relationship with
his brother Chris begins to deteriorate.
Face-to-face in the ring, Chris's anger and
frustration is about to erupt.
Let's just put it this way, man.
I went out there and, I wasn't on top of my game.
And...
I just didn't remember how to do stuff. Okay?
I guess my brother was a little upset in the ring so,
he'd say, "Wake the... up."
And, literally, slapped me like a bitch.
[Announcer] ...the current champion, Justice Pain.
So, I'm like, damn, man, what the ...?
The soft paw. Justice Pain,
with that hard left into the head of his brother.
The match started and, a few minutes later,
Chris just grabbed him and...
Put him in his finisher, the Pain Thriller.
Pain thriller! Oh!
You've gotta be kidding me!
- (match bell) - What?
Pretty much dislocated, almost broke my shoulder.
And I was very, very upset about that.
[Brett] That was very weird.
It was like at the beginning of the match, like,
aren't you gonna have a match before you start
working towards the finishing sequence?
♪ (applause) ♪
After falling out with his brother,
it seems Nick has reached rock bottom,
but things get even worse when his mother
loses her battle with breast cancer.
Oh, ah... not good, you know?
♪
Now that my mom died, I didn't give a ..., man.
I didn't really care.
And then I was starting to, you know,
starting to get into that shit, you know.
Bad combination, bro, you know.
Look at his face!
Over the next few years, Nick spirals further into
desperation and finds himself on the verge of homelessness.
So, at this time, I pretty much didn't have no friends
or family no more, you know.
My mom passed away, my dad passed away.
I didn't talk to my brother.
I didn't talk to nobody, man.
So, I'm in the ...ing hood and I move in with, girl's mom.
And... I'm doing nothing, man.
I'm sitting on the couch doing nothing, man.
And one day, she freaked out and kicked us
both out in the cold air.
♪
At that point in time, we weren't really into
going to work, having money, paying bills and
stuff like that. We didn't care.
We did not care at that point.
We did not care.
♪
I was going out of town and,
for some reason, my trip got cut short.
You know, I walked up to my door and my door was like...
unhinged, open, and I was like,
you know, is there somebody here?
I saw two people sleeping on the floor,
and I was like, oh, my god, that's Nick and his girlfriend.
♪
And, I mean, I was pissed.
Him, man. Kicked me out of his house.
It was ...ing ten degrees out.
So, now I'm angry and upset,
and I need money and I got nowhere to go.
♪
So, that leads to, you know...
The day of.
♪
I needed money, man, and I'm freezing, and...
everybody's kicking me out. So, let me go get mine.
♪
So, I'm walking down the street and I see this bank.
I look around and I'm like, ah...
I'm not... And I left.
I pussied out.
So, I'm walking down the street, like, "Mother... er!
Man, you ing pussy, man!"
So, I showed up at the next bank and
I went right in that bitch, man.
I wrote the note, handed it to her.
"I have a gun. Give me all your money."
♪
"Hurry the... up!"
You know, I had to lose my temper a little,
you know, she's taking too long.
♪
She handed me the money and
I ran all the way to my boy's house, man.
♪
My front door opened.
He just walked into my kitchen and dropped
a bunch of money on my kitchen counter.
And, I was like, you know...
"What is that?"
He said to me, "I just robbed a drug dealer."
And then I looked at the money,
and we're talking brand-new, crisp $20 bills.
And, I said, "Did you just rob a bank?"
So, I'm at home and I get a call.
"Man! You gotta check your email, man.
You just got... You gotta look at it."
I get on the computer and I open this ...ing email,
and it's a picture of him, like,
at the bank lobby, and it's...
it's Nick Gage, clear as day.
♪
I don't think I even realized the camera was there.
I think I was just looking up for some reason, man.
But, I looked right in that bitch.
It was a spur of the moment thing, as you can see.
I don't even have a mask on.
(chanting) Nick ...ing Gage!
Nick Gage always come in the ring with a handkerchief
on his face, like he's gonna rob a train.
And the time that he chooses to not wear the mask
is when he actually robs a ...ing bank!
♪
I actually found out from the newspaper.
And, his face is on the front of the page and I'm like, what?
I, I just didn't know what to say.
And I'm like, what happened? And he told me.
And...
I just, I was with him though.
I didn't leave him, I didn't turn him in.
I was just with him.
Whatever he does, I'm with him.
After the robberies, I'm like, ...,
we gotta get out of here so, we went to Atlantic City.
My only objective is, spend this ...ing money.
♪
On the run from the law, Nick Gage and
his girlfriend Sondra head to Atlantic City.
Without an end goal in sight,
they enter a casino with one objective.
I'm thinking, you're going to prison.
But at least ball out for like a ...ing week.
♪ (dance music) ♪
This was a tough situation for me because I'm not gonna
be a snitch and I'm not gonna rat him out.
But, I told him, when you're ready to turn yourself in,
let me know. And you know,
I spoke to him every day and it was,
"Alright, are you ready? No?
Alright, well, talk to you tomorrow."
That went on every day for, I don't know, 8, 9 days.
And then, he called me and he said, "I'm done. I'm ready."
♪
I drove to Atlantic City and I picked him up.
I took him to Burger King and he got
his favorite, he got a Whopper.
And then it was, "Guess this is it."
I drank a 40 and I smoked a couple blunts and,
walked in and turned myself in.
In the State Supreme Court of Camden, New Jersey,
Nick pleads guilty to 2nd degree bank robbery
and is sentenced to 5 years
in New Jersey State Prison.
♪
They took me up to Three North C,
which is a murder block, gang block,
and a... gun block.
So, they put me in there, right.
And they just go, "Go find a ...ing bed."
(exhales) Go find a bed, right?
That's harder than you think, man.
Chris never visited me at all.
No phone calls, no nothing.
[Brett] I visited him regularly from day one
until the day he walked out.
I honestly felt like he was like a brother to me,
but Chris looked down on him.
He thought it was shameful, you know.
He's a ...ing criminal, you know.
"My brother's a criminal. He got himself
into this mess and he can get himself out of it."
♪
So, I'm just trying to get everything together and,
all of a sudden, I started getting
nonstop ...ing fan mail.
From fans that don't know me from a ...ing lick,
"Keep your head up, man. You'll get out soon, man.
Stay focused." And I realized,
"Man, people love me, man."
And it's not just a couple people,
it's like masses of people.
They really sent him letters.
No joke, that's what happened.
That's what kept him pushing and,
it was really amazing how many people
really looked up to him.
This is just a stack that came out of one box
of letters, you know, that he had,
he had gotten and saved.
I don't think he realized the impact that he had on people.
There were three things I wanted to do.
I wanted to come out and show everybody,
look, I changed my body, I changed my mind,
I changed my soul. And then, I wanted to put
ing Deathmatch wrestling back on the map, man.
♪
And I started training, training hard.
I mean, he went from eating Burger King Whoppers
to exercising hardcore, twice a day, every day.
On March 31, 2015,
just over 4 years into his sentece,
Nick Gage is released on parole.
That whole night I didn't sleep.
I was so excited.
We went like an hour before he actually came out so,
we're like looking and looking and looking,
and finally, I see his big 'ol head walking through,
like, the thing.
As soon as he opens up that door,
I just took off running.
And it was just one of the happiest days.
Finally they give me release papers and I finally
go through them gates, and then, you know,
you got your girl coming running up, boom, and...
Lauderdale was there and, you know,
and shit, man, it was awesome.
Take this ...ing shit off. Take it off.
Jesus Christ.
Take that stuff off, man.
We threw that stuff all in the trash can and everything,
and brought him his other clothes.
Put 'em back on and, it was, it was cool, it was cool.
The king is ...ing home!
(cheering & applause)
I just spent 4 and a half years in ...ing hell!
And you know what, I was ...ing okay with it.
While Nick Gage returns to
rock his crowds all over the country,
Brett Lauderdale becomes the owner of
Game Changer Wrestling.
His goal is to launch Nick to headliner status,
and as a tribute to him, Brett's first ever event
would be a Deathmatch tournament,
appropriately dubbed The Nick Gage Invitational.
♪
The day before The Nick Gage Invitational,
and I want to say maybe around 2:30 or 3pm,
I called his phone and somebody close to him
answered and was crying, saying they got him,
they took him. They ...ing took him and
put him in the car and he's gone.
♪
He was doing really good for a while, and then...
You know, he definitely fell into some bad habits again.
(laughs) You can't, you know,
you can't run away from them problems.
They just, they just follow you.
♪
They brought me in for the drug test,
and then I tried to falsify urine.
And they caught me, you know.
Did he tell you what happened?
Okay.
- Right. - Yeah.
That's part of it.
I think there was more to it than just having
a jar of somebody else's piss. He may or may not have...
also tried to use some sort of device,
I don't know, and they caught him.
And that was it.
♪
You know, I was angry, like,
"You ...ing stupid mother... er,"
like, "You had everything here and you couldn't
keep it together," you know.
And, "You're in jail right now."
After being a free man for only a few months,
a parole violation sends Nick back to prison
for almost another two years.
Welcome to Game Changer Wrestling!
While Nick serves his sentence,
Game Changer Wrestling grows to become the
premier promotion for Deathmatch wrestling.
Determined to give Nick yet another chance,
Brett Lauderdale continues to make plans for his return.
♪
The second time, I think I was way more confident that
he was gonna stay out this time.
- What's going on, Nick? - What's up, man?
And, also, it helped that GCW was like a thing now,
like, we were among the industry leaders.
So, not only did he have a home to come back to,
but he was right back on the big stage.
(cheering)
His popularity grew while he was gone.
Like, there was no forgetting about Nick Gage.
Fans are writing me for 7 years I was locked up.
"Just keep your head up," so,
I wanted to come out and...
you know, my gang be together, man.
So, I came up with the Murder Death Kill Gang.
(chanting) MDK! MDK!
Murder Death Kill Gang, that is my fans.
It means something in my heart, you know what I'm saying?
(chanting) MDK! MDK!
I didn't realize how popular I was.
Man, this MDK everywhere, man.
It's like MDK ing Australia,
MDK Europe, MDK Japan.
Whole 50-state MDK, man.
MDK! MDK!
(chanting) MDK! MDK!
While the MDK Gang continues to grow worldwide,
Brett is arranging one of the most bizarre
deathmatches in wrestling history.
Ah, the match with David Arquette.
I knew you were gonna ask this one.
(cheering)
♪
I'm David Arquette,
former WCW Champion.
They can't take that away from me, I'm sorry.
Arquette pairs off with Bischoff in the ring!
During WCW's decline in the year 2000,
while promoting the movie Ready to Rumble,
David Arquette won the heavyweight championship in
a moment that will forever live in wrestling infamy.
He's over to Arquette! 1, 2, 3!
(match bell rings)
(cheering)
What started as a ratings stunt,
would cause wrestling fans to hold a grudge against
Arquette for nearly two decades.
Just won the world title! He can't believe it!
David Arquette won the world title!
Most of the audience hated it.
They really thought it was disrespectful to the belt.
♪
Wrestling was something that was unfinished for me.
A true wrestling fan at heart,
Arquette was determined to earn the respect of fans,
and spent years preparing for his return to the ring.
When I came back, they said,
"Do you want to wrestle Nick Gage?"
And I didn't know who Nick Gage was.
I looked him up and, I thought, this is kind of
the perfect place to prove at least that I'm tough enough.
I just didn't really want to be a joke anymore.
Arquette made it clear that not only was he down to
wrestle Nick, he was down to have a Deathmatch.
Are you sure he wants to do a Deathmatch?
You know, does he know what it is?
And he said, "Yeah," so, I said, "Alright."
So, we went out to LA, you know,
the day before the show and we went out,
all had steaks on Arquette.
[David] We met at Musso and Frank's.
I'm from Los Angeles, so I wanted to have a
proper lunch at the oldest restaurant in Hollywood.
[Nick] I said, "Listen, this shit is not fake.
This shit is real. That glass is real.
You're gonna bleed.
Are you sure you wanna do this?"
I knew it was real glass. I knew it was dangerous.
I'm crazier than the next person,
so I was into it.
But I clearly said at that steak dinner,
"Don't cut me.
I'm an actor, so don't cut me.
I know I'll bleed, but don't cut me."
So, I was like no problem, man,
but you gotta know, man, this is what I do, okay.
And I'm not gonna go soft on you."
My other guys are nervous 'cause it's David Arquette.
He's a ...ing actor. I'm just thinking, like,
I'm going to ...ing whoop his ass.
From Hollywood, California...
David...!
Arquette!
(cheering)
that shit!
(cheering)
You know, I was supposed to, like,
hit him a couple times, like, badly.
♪
Oh, my god!
♪
And then he was like, "Then I'll hit you for real."
Oh, my god!
He just snoofed David Arquette!
It was just supposed to be go all out, like,
him ...ing freaking out and knocking me to the outside
and just diving through the ropes.
Beautiful!
All that shit's him, man.
That wasn't no ing planned out shit.
This guy's willing to do anything.
Holy shit!
He started like laying in a little and I'm like,
you know what, I'm about to take it to the next level.
Oh, no, Gage!
(cheering)
Nick Gage! Going for blood!
Oh, no! Oh, my god, pizza cutter.
Demanding the audience film this!
There was a pizza cutter involved.
He's like, "You won't even feel it," and I was like,
this ...ing asshole.
What the... are you doing, Nick Gage?!
But I'm like, I'm feeling like my ...ing forehead's
cut clean open.
Then he put it in my mouth too.
Nick Gage, no!
At this point, I'm not having the trust
that you need in a wrestling mate so,
kind of like building up to being ...ing pissed.
David Arquette probably thinking about his spa,
his private air conditioned garage...
I got a ...ing piece of a ing light tube, right?
I smashed it over his head.
Oh!
He's starting to bug out a little bit.
Oh, my god! No, no, no!
And it stabbed him in his neck.
I was like, oh, shit, did I just kill David Arquette?
♪
Everybody's just like... (gasps)
"Oh, shit, we're gonna watch a guy die."
Arquette trying to keep the blood in, it looks like.
Holy shit!
I've been doing this so long that I looked at his neck
and there was nothing squirting. He was fine.
He had a little bit of a cut and a leak,
and I was like, oh, he's alright.
Let's ...ing keep going.
Oh!
When Arquette threw that chair I was thinking, like,
ah, he just ...ed up and Nick's about to
beat the shit out of David Arquette for real.
Oh!
I hit him with a Judo throw and I sat him down,
and I said, "Stay down or I'm gonna ...ing hurt you."
Here we go!
Gage! Gage just got him!
(cheering & applause)
Holy shit!
He did good, man,
until he started being a ...ing crybaby.
He ran into ...ing Luke Perry's car and got out of there and
I haven't talked to him since.
How are you feeling after the fight yesterday?
Interesting.
You look in pretty good shape.
Thank you.
The next day, they got me at TMZ,
and I was still pissed.
Because, things went out of control.
I was in over my head.
I shouldn't have been there in the first place,
but until you're in a Deathmatch you don't know
what a crazy Deathmatch is.
He's the leader of the MDK Gang!
Nick's gruesome win over Arquette went viral,
becoming one of the most
talked about things in wrestling.
As Nick travels the country over the next year,
his diehard fan base continues to grow.
And his personal and professional life were
finally trending in the right direction,
until tragedy struck again on a cold January morning.
♪
When we found out about his brother,
he was actually leaving to go somewhere,
I forget where it was.
And, he called me up, he was very,
like, frantic on the phone.
I'm like, "What are you, what's going on?"
I was heading into work, and he told me and I'm like,
"What do you mean?"
(chanting) Justice Pain! Justice Pain!
Hey, listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth.
I swear to God, I didn't feel like wrestling,
I didn't feel like coming here,
doing this shit, talking to the people.
I didn't feel like doing that.
When I got here, I got in front of
all you crazy mother... ers.
I swear to God, that made me forget about the situation
and it made me forget about what my brother did to himself
so, I want to say thank you to you people.
(cheering & applause)
♪
My brother jumped off the bridge...
The Walt Whitman Bridge,
if you guys ain't familiar with that bridge.
♪
You know, he just left a note saying,
"Sorry," that's it.
My understanding is he stole a car and the cops
threw the lights on, and before they could get to him
he ran and jumped off. And that was it.
Just, it's really upsetting because
Chris always had his stuff together.
Like, he had the car, he had the wife,
he had the kids, he had the job.
I've known Chris for so many years.
I never thought Chris would have done that.
It was... it was shocking, actually.
For years, Nick was the one who was in trouble.
And then, as the years progressed,
they totally flipped positions.
There was serious mental health issues,
serious substance abuse problems.
To the point of the family leaving.
And Nick would tell me crazy things.
He would be insisting that there was somebody
coming for him, the cops are coming,
the FBI is coming and serious shit like that.
And that was the first time that I had ever really felt that,
you know, sensed that kind of emotion and
feelings from Nick that, like,
this really did affect him, you know?
Yeah, I think deep down and in reality,
probably some regret.
♪
The bridge he jumped off of is behind my house
so, as soon as I come out of my house,
I see the bridge every day that my brother's jumped off of.
So, I kind of say a prayer for him, just say,
"What's up, Chris?" And shit like that and...
it's just like, damn, man, everybody that you
grew up with in your household is gone and
it's just you rockin' it.
I'm just gonna keep moving forward, man,
make them proud. It's the only thing I can do.
Who's to say what redemption is?
Like, what's the finish line for Nick Gage?
When is this all a success?
I mean, you could say right now it's a success, but...
I mean, he's gotta finish it out now for the rest of his life.
In the traditional sense, I mean, you know,
in the traditional addict sense, like,
every day is like a battle, you know.
And, some people aren't always up for that battle
every single day.
♪
Time's ticking, you know.
I already know in my mind that I'm gonna go out young.
Do I have a death wish or nothing like that?
No, but I feel like I'm gonna die sooner than later.
I believe that.
Yeah, I'm definitely cool with that, man, you know.
Just, I'd rather die a good way than a bad way,
you know what I mean. Ah, ah.
♪
But I'll tell you what, I'm 40 years old and
I'm still going ing hard, man.
MDK! MDK!
He's not gonna stop, and I'm not saying he should
'cause he's got the #1 talent you need.
It's not biceps, it's not abs. It's the ability to connect.
Vince McMahon would ...ing kill to have one person with
that connection with the audience that Nick Gage has.
I kind of think his story is just kind of getting started.
If I didn't have him,
I don't know where I would be right now.
I really do not know.
He is my everything, he really, really is.
He's my best friend, too.
He gets on my nerves, don't get me wrong, but he's...
He's alright. He's an alright guy, I'll tell you that much.
He's alright. And he's gonna keep going.
He's gonna keep going until, I guess,
until he turns, like, 60, maybe he can't go anymore.
I don't know. (laughing)
♪
Them fans are ing awesome, man.
And I think I represent for, like,
some of them people out there that's gotten in trouble,
or went through some things,
and then trying to bounce back.
Well, look at Gage. He bounced back like that.
All that shit keeps me going and I'm ...ing proud of it.
And that's the MDK Gang, man.
This is for his brother!
Nick Gage with the Pain Thriller!
- 1, 2, 3! - (match bell)
(cheering & applause)
♪