- Go! - [Screaming]
XPW was known for being crazy.
That's what it was, it was Extreme Pro Wrestling.
And when we did death matches,
that would be a license to kill for me.
I was a porn star l living the dream of a wrestler.
If we could degrade people and entertain people,
let's... ing do it.
In 1999, adult film entrepreneur Rob Black
combined his passion for violent death matches and
the spirit of his provocative pornography...
[Audience chanting] Show your tits! Show your tits!
To realize his dream promotion,
Extreme Pro Wrestling.
XPW was a labour of love for Rob.
He wanted it to work.
Oh, no!
In order to become America's top hardcore wrestling outfit,
XPW celebrated those who performed
increasingly dangerous stunts.
But then you want to come out there and put a gun into
my mouth and blow the back of my brains out.
I outdid you.
Oh!
But that's what it would take.
Rob Black had no appreciation for wrestling
because he had no... ing clue about wrestling.
Rob always thought of himself as like a mafia guy.
Can't leave, you know, no one leaves the family.
When the violence in the ring bleeds out into real life,
Rob Black's command over a legion of young
wrestlers begins to crumble, as mounting legal bills
force his wrestling and porn empires to implode.
I don't remember the pain of it because
I was going into shock.
It got real dark after that.
Dumbasses. Like, what were we thinking?
Just, we weren't.
Rob knew just how to push. He said, "How far can I go?"
We're known for all the taboo stuff that everyone said
you can't do, and we do it.
And he just pushed a little too far.
♪
Tongue my sweaty balls. They're big.
They're not hairy. They're smooth and shaved.
But they're sweaty.
Honestly, I think it's a no-win situation for him. I really do.
It's probably better that,
that he doesn't say anything, you know?
But he's the type of guy where he wouldn't want to be
part of somebody else's production and
somebody else's project.
If you can't hold court and you're just gonna sit in a
chair and get asked questions...
that's just not Rob.
Oh-ho, ha!
[Inhaling] [off-screen] Don't hold back.
Okay, I'm ready.
I'm Jessica Darlin.
I was part of XPW for about two years.
Look at that!
And I was also Extreme Associates'
contract girl for almost four.
Rob Black is someone, you love him or you hate him.
I can do whatever I want! I own this... ing company!
And you don't!
Rob Block is, in wrestling terms,
the ultimate heel.
He is a wrestling owner, promoter,
and he had been in the adult film business his whole life.
Kick your arms back so your... in' tits...
'cause I'm gonna go in with the camera.
He was doing stuff, like today would be the norm.
Gaping buttholes and pissing and puking and really wild sex.
He was doing it when no one else did.
And that's who we were.
We wanted to be the bad boys.
I do what I want because I'm the owner's wife.
Lizzy was a adult film actress and,
she came to Extreme, started dating Rob.
What are you doing?
[Rob] Cut. You don't say nothing.
You just come... you just...
You said ask you what you're doing.
[Rob] No, no, no, I'm gonna ask you what you're doing.
[Lizzy] Oh, sorry.
She became his girlfriend and she was done with
the business, you know, she didn't perform.
Like, she directed and produced.
And, she was part of porn,
but she was on the other side of it.
Kiss me.
In addition to his penchant for subversive pornography,
Rob Black is enamoured with the underworld of
hardcore wrestling, and eventually strikes a working
relationship with Extreme Championship Wrestling's
revolutionary founder, Paul Heyman.
ECW was the big party.
New Jack serenading Angel.
We had fun, we got high, we did drugs,
we... ing had a... ing ball.
I am New Jack, the original gangster.
What Paulie brought to the table was a group of guys
that did our thing, and we had a good time doing it.
- The challenger! - [Cheering]
What I remember about the Rob Black,
Paul Heyman relationship was,
Rob wanted to bring ECW to the west coast.
And there was arrangements to do that.
I'm David Marquez. I was the producer and
director of the XPW television show.
Welcome to another edition of XPW TV.
But when ECW got their network deal,
it was kind of, "Why do we need Rob?"
So, that all went out the window.
Rob was extremely upset about that and to spite ECW,
that's how you get XPW.
Because me and WCW have a common hatred for that
son of a bitch Paul Heyman, back on the east coast.
That's what set Rob Black off where,
I'm gonna make this better than ECW.
You know, I'm gonna do this in spite of you.
I'm Joey Kaos, the rock superstar of XPW.
And the owner of Santino Brothers Wrestling
in Los Angeles, California.
[Announcer] Kaos!
I wasn't a huge wrestling fan, growing up.
I was a huge fan of my uncle, Supreme.
He is like a godfather of death match wrestling,
and that is his legacy.
- Who am I?! - Supreme!
He's the one that loved professional wrestling.
I just tagged along 'cause I loved my uncle.
[Cheering]
And I remember my uncle Supreme telling me,
"Hey, so you know that there's this porno wrestling happening."
"Porno wrestling?
Is it gonna be wrestling or porn? What is it?"
♪
I walked in the office, and I believe Rob just looked
at me and said, "I now own a wrestling company and
you're now going to valet."
So, it was a crazy dynamic.
You would have girls having sex in the office, doing scenes.
We also had a ring in the back.
So, guys going around, they'd be wrestling,
with girls with no clothes on with cum all over them.
It was definitely an eye opener working there.
My name is Sylvia Munoz,
and on the wrestling circuit I'm Jezebel Romo.
But, at XPW I was the merch girl
or the extreme bitch.
It was almost a joy to see people in clothes.
That was more of a turn on than seeing all the tits,
ass, dicks and... you know, then you had like one of the
porn guys there and he's sitting there and
he's talking to you, and he's like,
"Hey, so, how, how's your wrestling scene?"
And how's this and how's that? And I'm just like,
"What? What are you doing?" He's like,
"Oh, I'm just getting ready for a scene, you know,
gotta stay hard." And it was just that casual.
I remember walking in and going to training,
this chick was in the pool eating chicken while the guy
was peeing on her and they're filming it.
And I'm like, "What is this shit?"
I guess there was people that wanted to see it
'cause it was funding XPW.
I remember leaving my desk...
going into the cafeteria,
and there being a woman dressed up as the
Statue of Liberty, and
three guys with presidential masks on...
partaking in the filming of a scene on the lunch table.
My name is Mike Hartsfield and I'm a former live event
producer for Extreme Pro Wrestling.
A lot of us would work our nine-hour day
and then stay another 6, or 7, or 8 hours.
There were nights I, I slept in the ring.
In order to get paid for wrestling,
I had to edit porn.
Not that I was against it. It's just that...
the subject matter was so offensive at times.
Here I am, an Emmy Award-winning news guy...
editing Fossil... ers.
[Laughing]
I think a lot of the Extreme girls saw me as like a...
I hate to use this analogy, but like as a new puppy
or something like that.
And it was awesome.
[Laughing] It was awesome.
My name is William Welch.
And, in XPW my gimmick was The Messiah.
The first Battle Royale I ever was part of,
White Trash Johnny Webb gave me the chair shot.
And I took it square in the head,
didn't put my hands up.
I was told that Rob liked the fact that
I didn't put my hands up.
I mean, it looked like an ECW chair shot.
And as he walks by me he goes,
"What's up, Jesus?" Like, I went, "W-what?"
I was gonna be called The Saviour or The Messiah.
And, between the two, I could care less
'cause I think they both stink.
But it's way better than Jesus.
The Messiah has returned.
Going for a power bomb on the thumb tacks!
At the time, I was working at a, a steakhouse.
And I'd show up to work with gig marks
on my head from bleeding.
And they would send me home.
Like, "You can't be around customers looking like that."
It looks like something out of a horror movie!
Messiah was the big dog in XPW.
And he held two belts at one time, you know?
...my guardian angel...
Messiah, baby!
Mr. X-P-W.
I think it was drinking the Kool-Aid that Rob was serving.
Whether it's brainwashing or whatever the case is and,
we were brainwashed.
I mean, there wasn't one guy on that roster who didn't
bust their ass for that company.
[Cheering]
I mean, some of the things I've seen,
I don't know why they would do it,
but they did it.
[Screaming]
In the long run, it was really, really... ing stupid
to do a lot of those dumb things that we did.
My name is Luke Hawx.
In XPW, I went by Altar Boy Luke.
I did a 450 off the balcony through a table
with thumbtacks with Supreme on it.
The thumb tacks had actually broke off into my hand and
I had to use pliers to pull the thumb tacks out.
It was always, "Okay, now what can you do next?
How can you top it?"
We want to do this fire spot so,
we sent a ring crew guy to get some lighter fluid.
And, it turns out he got charcoal fluid,
which is oil-based.
Regular lighter fluid, it's alcohol based,
so it burns up quick.
And it starts pooling up on this table and they put the
flame and it just... And it goes out.
We know what the image should look like and
it's not happening. It's not so, she keeps doing it,
and then we get this good flame,
and they go for the spot.
- Oh! - [Cheering]
Since there was so much fluid,
his shirt got soaked.
It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible.
He was running around the ring, screaming.
I don't blame him.
[Screaming]
And I saw Kaos pinning Supreme and lifting up,
and part of Supreme's skin is on Kaos and...
it was just, it was pretty traumatic.
I went straight to the hospital.
I remember going upstairs to go see my uncle Supreme,
all wrapped up.
And I remember him saying,
"Damn, that was a good match. That... ed it up."
Like, that was like his response.
The roster's willingness to sacrifice themselves
on a nightly basis...
along with tantalizing appearances of crossover
porn stars, made XPW a hit with local fans.
In response, ECW stages their first ever live show,
in Los Angeles.
Heatwave 2000!
Rob Black always got this 'I'm a mafio' mentality.
So, in his mind, ECW's coming into our territory.
'Cause you're in our backyard.
Why? Why, Paul Heyman?
They're coming to like kind of shut us up.
In retaliation, Rob Black orders his ring crew to
distribute XPW flyers at the event,
and has his top talent sit ringside to cause
a disrupting presence.
Rob Black, he can get you to go to war for him.
100%.
He had that ability to get you to say,
"..., dude. we're gonna ing die for you.
We'll die right here at Heatwave for you, brother.
Like, let's do it. Die for the cause."
Sitting in the front row,
and then, the main event comes on.
So, I turn to the hard cam and I throw the 'X' symbol,
like, this is it.
Security just mobs us, just grabbed my neck,
like, with their gorilla paws.
We're getting thrown out of this building.
♪
They close the doors.
And it's quiet.
There's all this ruckus, and it's just quiet.
And we're like, "Where is everybody?"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena,
the XPW ring crew is not so lucky.
And we beat the out of them.
I had just had surgery on my leg so,
I hit somebody in the face with a crutch.
A guy came up, he's like, "New Jack, I don't want no trouble."
I was like... that, whop!
You don't go after Supreme, you don't go after Messiah,
you don't go after Kid Kaos.
You go after a couple of the 140-pound ring crew guys?
That's what you do?
'Cause your company and you are a piece of...
And us at XPW are gonna flush you,
the piece of..., right down the toilet.
I straight up told Joey, I straight up told him,
this was stupid.
And in the back of my mind I'm also thinking,
Rob Black was supposed to be here.
Where, where is he?
♪
In April 2001, financial ruin forces ECW to fold,
allowing rival promoter, Rob Black,
to welcome their top talent into XPW's
growing empire of extreme.
Everything that Rob Black said, like, happened,
you know, to be honest with you.
To his credit, like, "I'm gonna bring in Sabu,
I'm gonna bring in Shane Douglas." And we're like,
"Yeah, right," and then he'd bring this guy in and
we'd be like, Jesus, this is... this is real.
For... sake, we've got Terry Funk.
I mean, we were big.
[Announcer] Terry Funk...!
We made it.
It was gonna be ECW on steroids.
[Laughing] That's what he said.
But I laughed and I said, "Let's do it."
I'm Sabu.
After I left ECW, Rob Black called me up.
Then I go out there and I find out
it's a half a porn company.
Sabu is here, in XPW, ladies and gentlemen!
It's Sabu!
You know, and then he got like Candido,
Kronus, and... New Jack.
What you consider a wrestling ring,
I consider a killing field.
And a few other guys.
So, it started to look like a reject ECW, you know.
♪
What they gonna say to me?
I ain't give a... About Paul E.
or no... ing body, you know what I mean?
I didn't give a... About them mother... ers.
I was out there making money.
I got to eat.
And get some porn.
[Laughing]
Well, what we have here is our warehouse,
which houses all of our
dirty, filthy pornography.
♪
He was like, "Jack, get whatever you want."
I was driving the forklift around,
going to get my porn.
And I was shaking boxes out.
I swear to God, I had over 1000 DVDs.
[Laughing]
Despite the demise of his main competitor,
Rob continues to escalate the violence in XPW
to disturbing new extremes.
There was a show where I was wrestling Supreme and Angel...
Down goes Supreme!
And I put my hand up an the chair,
smacked me, and it looks brutal.
Like, he kills me with the chair.
[Crowd chatter]
As soon as we get to the back dressing room,
Rob Black's in the back and he's going,
"This is... ing XPW!
We don't put our ing hands up!
We don't do it." And like,
he's like, yelling at me.
And I'm going, "Wait, did I do something wrong?"
Because I was always taught, you know,
to put my hand up for a chair shot.
Don't stick your neck out.
So, Jerry Lynn pulls me aside and he goes,
"Don't listen to a thing he says.
He has no clue what he's talking about.
You did it right. You protected yourself,
it looked great." What I didn't know
was behind the scenes that Rob, the next show,
was gonna have me handcuffed and crucified,
basically, chained up like this with my arms out...
And he told Supreme that as payback
he had to hit me several times across the head,
unprotected with a chair.
And, I had no idea it was coming.
- [Cheering] - Oh!
My goodness, you can hear the impact.
Luke's got nowhere to go, nowhere to go!
♪
And, next thing you know, one shot turns to two.
Two shots turn to three.
Oh, my goodness!
Probably cracking my skull.
I didn't go to the doctor 'cause I didn't have
health insurance, but I have a really big indention
from those chair shots in my skull.
♪
So, I remember they were like,
"You're very bad concussed.
You can't go to sleep. You gotta sit up."
And, sitting in the hotel room after just miserable.
My head's pounding, I'm throwing up.
I kind of have no idea where I'm at.
I'm wondering if I'm gonna die.
And this is all 'cause of some God damn idiot
who knows nothing about wrestling thinks I,
I needed to pay for putting my hand up on a chair shot.
With mounting injuries and a waning interest in
performing for blood thirty crowds,
XPW's top star is forced to reconsider
his future in the company.
I just went to Rob, I had the belt with me,
and I went, "I'm done." Like, "I'm done.
My body's beat up." He just looked at me,
and he went, "Okay, if you're done, I'm done."
I'm like, "Wait, what?" He goes,
"If you don't want to do this anymore,
I don't want to do this anymore.
It's that simple. I'm finished."
And I know he would never have stopped doing XPW
because I left.
I know that never would have happened.
Honestly, I got played.
That's what happened.
I remember talking to Lizzy about it and Lizzy,
essentially, said, "That's what he does."
Lizzy said, "He's done that to me too."
Even when it came to like Lizzy, Lizzy Borden and I,
Lizzy said, "Rob wants me to flirt with guys."
I was like, "Why?"
"I don't know, he just likes it," you know.
I think Rob liked having the hot girlfriend and...
I think you look really cute. Keep your top on though.
I'm trying, hun.
You can't have her, but you know, it's...
she's flirting with you,
but it doesn't mean she wants you.
[Rob] Good.
And Rob, you know, Rob was getting like,
you know, BJs like every other day.
You know, he'd tell the girl that was doing it that
he's filming it for another title,
... Smokers, that was the other one.
I know she would get jealous of some of the girls that,
you know, were rumoured to have been with Rob.
Whenever they had an argument,
she would just show up at my house.
And I think I got...
caught in the crosshairs of something that
was going on between Lizzy and Rob.
And I was used as like a chess piece.
[Rob] Look at how beautiful you are.
Rob, [inaudible] Don't.
Please, don't.
[Rob] Let's see your boobies.
You want... What, you want me to do a... ing porno?
[Rob] Spooky. [Lizzy] I'm gonna do a movie.
[Rob] No, you're not. [Lizzy] I want to do a movie.
[Rob] Oh, really? With who?
Who can I do it with?
[Rob] No one.
♪
[Rob] Why would you... [Camera snaps]
I think when it came to me she just,
it just, things got taken too far.
It just got taken too far.
That was the story I remember hearing,
that The Messiah and Lizzy Borden
had something going on.
And then I remember Supreme, we would always just like,
"No, no way. No way,
he wouldn't, he wouldn't mess this up."
Like, "We all love this wrestling thing and
we're all trying to make a go at it."
Ah, yeah, yeah.
Unfortunately, Lizzy and I ended up hooking up.
You know, and I knew it was bad news
as soon as it happened.
'Cause I figured Rob didn't care who... ed his girl.
You know, but he said, as long as it's on film,
he don't care.
But if it's behind his back, he cares.
And I don't blame him. [Chuckles]
So, he wanted to kill him.
♪
Rumours of Lizzy Borden's affair
with wrestler The Messiah
begins to circulate when he doesn't show
for an XPW event.
There was a house show we were gonna do
in our warehouse.
And, from what I understand,
Sabu showed up, and The Messiah didn't.
I didn't tell Supreme or Kaos or any of those guys
what was going on.
Those would have been the guys I would have told.
Ah, it just come out. Rob, Rob...
Rob found out.
And they go, it comes out like,
"Hey, yeah, he was... ing the boss' wife,"
and we were, our jaw dropped, like, really?
Why would he mess up this XPW thing, man?
Like, why would he do that?
Like..., like he... ed up.
I slept with Billy, too.
Yes! He, pfft...
They got around, all of 'em.
Rob Black and Lizzy Borden's relationship survives
the affair, but The Messiah is promptly exiled from XPW.
And so, The Messiah was written out of the company
through a bizarre story line that happened with
an apparition out in the warehouse.
Messiah, you can't go. I need you tonight.
Everything is on the line. What are you thinking?
What are you thinking?!
The Messiah has come...
and gone [echoing] gone... gone...
He went to heaven.
That was how they explained him to go away.
Another lame hit, you know, for the company.
This ain't funny. You gotta what...
I don't know what the I'm doing, man.
♪
I had a conversation with Rob where he basically just
threatened me on the phone and essentially was like,
gave me a count down.
"Three days. You got three days to live."
You know, "This is what I'm gonna do for you, Billy.
I'm gonna buy you a plane ticket to Michigan and
you get out of California." "I'm not running."
That's the exact words I told him.
"I'm not running."
With the loss of one of XPW's biggest attractions,
Rob Black looks to stage his most ambitious
spectacle yet with a high stakes match between
New Jack and Vic Grimes.
Unbeknownst to Grimes, New Jack aims to retaliate
against him for a fractured skull he suffered in a
previous match two years earlier.
See, here I can get away with murder.
Murder. I mean real murder,
and that's what I'm getting ready to do.
Rob Black. He told me, he said,
"Jack, we're gonna do a scaffold match.
The loser gets thrown off. I'm gonna flip a coin."
I said, "Rob, you can flip a coin all day long.
Vic is getting thrown off the... ing scaffold."
I said, "I'm not taking that bump. Big is."
Alright, listen to me.
Changing stipulations a little bit, alright.
We need, we need, we need to spice this shit up.
The Free Fall event was a colossal undertaking,
to say the least.
Everyone was under the assuminption this scaffolding
was gonna be used for cameramen,
including the building.
If I had gone about the insurance the normal way
a lot of companies do,
it probably would have been pretty difficult.
So, to bypass a lot of that, I would just make up the
insurance waivers on my computer.
I remember finding an old insurance certificate that
they had used prior, and I scanned it and I whited out
some certain things and then I just typed up
who needed "coverage".
I faxed them the certificate that I made.
And I got a call saying, "Just got the insurance.
We're good to go on the show."
Yeah...
Look at this, Grimes! Grimes is starting!
And yes! Yes, they're both going up.
You know, and that damn thing looked rickety.
It's not meant to have two big guys up there
bumping and fighting.
I remember seeing the thing and
it's kind of shifting back forth.
And I'm just like, holy shit.
And the crowd would, "Oh! Oh..."
And I could see the scaffolding swaying.
[Announcer] What the hell is gonna happen?
And just watching everything going on,
just crossing my fingers.
[Announcer] Please, God! Please have mercy on their souls.
And I hear the crowd gasping,
and I look up and New Jack's got a stun gun.
- Oh, jeepers! - Oh, look at this!
I could not believe it. And I was just like,
it's gonna be over soon. It's gonna be over soon.
[Announcer] No, please, no!
[High pitch screaming] [Audience] Oh!
I'll never forget just like the look on Big's face
when he was just coming down.
And it just looked like pure terror.
It was really an intense moment,
but as he turned over,
his legs hit the ring ropes and
flipped him back into the ring.
If it had hit his butt,
he would have slid out onto the concrete.
His bitch ass would've hit the god damn floor and
splattered like a... ing egg.
♪
That was a little... ing dangerous and a little like,
there is a God and he just saved his ass.
Vic Grimes is gonna need medical attention, please.
Let's clear the building.
Oh, he was like, "Jack, that was great.
I loved it, that was great. Thank you. Here's the bonus."
So, he paid me. [Laughing]
♪
So, I did my last show, which was with Vic Grimes.
Once I got him, I felt like, mission accomplished.
I was done.
So, I left.
♪
With New Jack's departure,
Rob Black loses another big star.
To make matters worse, The Messiah
publicly admits to his affair with Lizzy Borden,
boasting about it at a show in southern California.
I was told by people at the Extreme Associates office
that Rob was keeping tabs on me,
that he knew and was aware of everything I was doing.
I then started getting very resentful.
... who?
I know in Rob's mind,
you weren't supposed to hear about me ever again.
In my mind, I'm stuffing it down Rob's throat.
And I was happy to do it.
I hate that... ing fat... sucker!
The whole entire place started changing,
"You F'd Lizzy."
Me, being in my 23-year-old...
frame of mind...
I, I, I yelled...
And she... ing loved it!
[Cheering]
It wasn't the most smartest thing I've ever done.
'Cause up to that point, I'd always just denied it.
But I remember saying, like, man, Billy,
like, hey, just let it go, bro.
Like, let it go. Like, he fired you.
You... ed the boss' wife. Like, you guys are even.
Just let it go.
If you're gonna tell me I can't do something,
you're gonna threaten me...
I'm gonna prove to you that I can do it.
I'm gonna show you that I'm not scared of you.
I'm not wasting anymore of my... ing time
talking about that fat...!
With The Messiah's outspoken bravado and
XPW's diminishing attendance...
Rob Black's frustration intensifies.
XPW had put on a show.
I purposely sit up in the nosebleed section.
The match wasn't, wasn't very good.
The crowd started throwing like around a beach ball,
and chanting, "beach ball".
You know, the beach ball would get snatched and,
you know, the crowd would go, "Oh!"
The crowd was not being receptive.
I guess Rob found out I was there.
And I was told he threw a temper tantrum backstage.
My phone rings, it's Dynamite D.
"Hey, you need to leave." "Why do I need to leave?"
"Rob is pissed off
and he's yelling at all of us because you're here."
♪
I hung up the phone and we left.
I mean, we left. That was it.
♪
I had just got home from work.
I just bought a Nintendo GameCube,
so I was gonna play some video games.
The front door opens, and these two guys walk in.
I immediately assume they were with my roommate,
so I didn't think anything of it. I even said,
"Hey, what's up?"
I could see the reflection off the TV of the two guys.
I see the one guy lock the door.
And then, I see both of them going,
"You get him. No, you get it."
And, I turn like this to then confront them
and then, boom, they just jumped on me.
♪
One of them got me in a chokehold,
but I knew he didn't have it in right.
I get choked out all the time and I knew
what a choke hold felt like.
One of 'em got my hand down,
and the other one had clippers.
And...
Got it around my thumb and then snapped it and...
thumb popped right off.
Then they went to my other hand and I kept it in a fist.
So, they couldn't get it and they started pounding
on my hand to open up my fist.
And I wouldn't do it.
We had like a little fish tank.
They busted it over my head.
They were trying, I think, to knock me out.
I was able to get to the door...
without having my thumb, it was like I'm,
I was waving at the lock.
So, they got me, pulled me back in.
They just got on top of me and started, like, you know,
punching me in the face or punching me anywhere.
By this point, both of them are gassed out.
And tired.
One of 'em threw a punch at me.
I got him in an arm bar...
and just wrenched on it, and he screamed.
When he screamed, I let go.
Made it to the door and was able to unlock the door
at that point.
And the door just flew open and they both ran out.
♪
Got a cup of ice.
And then began to try to search for my thumb.
But, it was hard to find anything and
I couldn't locate it.
And then I think I just passed out.
♪
While The Messiah was fighting off home invaders,
his XPW colleagues were unaware his life
was in serious danger.
On this particular night, GQ Money and I
were gonna film a segment for XPW TV.
And, then all of a sudden, there's a knock on the door.
Open the door, it's Rob Black.
What the... is Rob Black doing here?
Like, Rob Black has never been here.
Like, why is he here?
And he was not the Rob Black that we knew.
He kind of just sat on the couch.
It was like, why are you here?
Why are you here? I had no clue.
I woke up the next morning. Billy said,
Two Black guys came into his house and there was a fight.
To this day, I don't know if they were after to kill him,
what they were after to do.
But a lot of us were just in shock, in awe.
And, you know, it's like...
and then the rumour started flying, the speculation.
I remember how I first saw it.
It was on America's Most Wanted.
And I remember I was sitting with my husband and I go,
"Holy shit, that's Messiah.
Oh, my God, they cut off his thumb.
What's going on? What's going on?"
But who would want The Messiah hurt, for real?
To answer that, cops have been delving into the
secretive and sometimes sleazy subculture
of indie wrestling.
I remember looking at my husband and going...
"..., we all know who did this.
It, we all know who's behind it.
But..., we can't do nothing."
And I can't prove it.
What's going? What's happening?
Is that true? Did Rob
Really, Rob Black had something to do with it?
No, come on!
And I actually asked Rob about it one day.
...saved message Sunday 1:09 AM.
I was like, "Did you do that?" And he was like,
"Uh, no, Jack, I had nothing to do with that."
You know, there's speculation. I don't know who did it.
I know that Billy said it was two Black guys,
you know, that physically did it.
After this had happened, I remember Rob Black
saying, "Watch out who you hang out with.
You might get your arm chopped off."
What did that mean?
Be careful who you're hanging around with,
you know what I mean, like...
'cause he was pissed that we were
still friends with Messiah. Oh, yeah, 100%.
He was pissed that we weren't like,
"... that guy," you know what I mean?
I actually ended up leaving, I would say within
a couple of weeks to a month after that.
It wasn't fun when people were going,
"One thumb up," or trying to shake your hand and
going like that, instead of the normal.
And, you know, and laughing about it.
There's no proof, and this is just one girl talking...
We all think Rob had something to do with it.
♪
[Chanting] Messiah!
The biggest thing I could do...
in my opinion...
was to go back doing what I love.
Which was wrestling. And that's what I did.
And everybody in this arena, get a good look 'cause
this is no... ing work.
I have no... ing thumb and I don't give a shit 'cause
I can still open beer, still play... ing video games,
and still write a "you" telegram
to anybody I... ing want to!
With no evidence linking Rob Black to the assault on
The Messiah, he is never charged.
However, he and Lizzy begin to draw the attention of
federal authorities for posturing in the media about
pushing legal boundaries with their latest adult films.
A girl being kidnapped, being forced to have sex.
Being butchered at the end, and spit on.
She's being degraded.
We're known for all the taboo stuff that everyone
said you can't do, and we do it.
And we sell it, and people are entertained because
people are bored with the other stuff.
They were doing...
such extreme stuff.
And I wasn't into it and it wasn't where I wanted to go.
And, so I finally just said, you know,
"Hey, Rob, this is...
you know, this is where it ends."
I watch Night Line all the time.
♪
And, just on random day...
Rob's a guest of Ted Coppel.
He was trying to justify the lewd acts that were in
these videos against freedom of speech.
And, John Ashcroft, the Attorney General of the
United States at that point, was coming after him.
We're not drug dealers or...
or murderers, you know, we make movies.
Rob always wanted to be like Hugh Hefner or Larry Flint.
We make movies.
Just like Hollywood makes movies.
Just like...
Oh, no, they're not just like Hollywood makes movies.
In your movies, women are brutally raped.
They're actually beat up.
"I'm fighting for your first amendment rights."
And he wasn't. He was fighting for himself.
Zicari, quote, "issued a challenge to
Attorney General Ashcroft," and said that Ashcroft,
quote, "could not do anything about his films."
And I'm at home, and I'm like...
"You're challenging John Ashcroft?
You're challenging the United States government?"
Like, why would you do that? Why would anyone do that?
There was a time when there was a meeting in Rob's office.
Rob stood up from his desk and said,
"Hey, when we get raided by the feds,
everyone report to Kevin. That's your
that's who's gonna get information,
that's who you need to speak to."
"When we get raided by the feds"?
It wasn't "if" it was "when".
I remember the morning of the postal raid
at Extreme Associates.
We figured out what was going on because
everyone was wearing United States Postal Service,
kind of like the CIA or FBI jackets you see in
the movies and television.
And, we put two and two together and figured out that
the government somehow, some way
figured out how to get Rob.
How can you go on network television and
challenge the government? Like, who does that?
And he did. And he got popped for it.
♪
They had to go after me first because
I had the biggest mouth.
You can't start a war on pornography unless you
go after the person that is...
defying you the most.
Right here is the federal 5.
These are the 5 tapes that could put me in jail forever.
I was really interested on where it was gonna go
because I thought that's a, that's a brilliant question.
Like, who in government is gonna decide what's decent
or indecent between two paid actors?
But I mean, it was like Rob knew what he was doing,
and he knew that legally you cannot have someone
sit there and say, "my 13-year-old ass."
You, you can't do it.
But he didn't care.
The funny thing about my business is
I don't force it on anybody.
The only people that are gonna be forced to watch
my movies are the 12 people that sit in that jury.
Facing multiple charges for violating federal
obscenity statutes, Rob Black and Lizzy Borden face
50 years in prison and millions in fines.
The legal battle quickly consumes all of
Rob Black's resources, spelling the end of XPW.
There were times when there would just be a month of
talent cheques bouncing.
And there would be 20 people in the lobby pissed off.
And, literally, everyone with a cheque in their hand.
XPW will be starting in just a few minutes.
So, please, grab your seats and get ready to get extreme!
[Booing]
It killed the whole business.
Because all the lawyer fees.
And, you can't produce movies.
You can't pay wrestlers, you can't pay actors,
you can't pay actresses.
I think he ultimately thought that the
adult industry would, you know, come to his support.
And they saw through his BS.
He should have known it then,
but he definitely knows it now.
Dude, the government, they got more money,
they got more lawyers, and they got more time.
These charges were getting dropped,
and dropped, and dropped, and one finally stuck.
Unable to mount a costly defence,
Rob and Lizzy opt to plead guilty to a single charge of
conspiracy to distribute obscene materials.
I believe he got a year and a day,
if I'm not mistaken.
I remember when I heard that Rob and Lizzy
were thrown in jail.
I kind of feel bad for Lizzy 'cause it's like, you know,
she wasn't the most innocent sweet thing in the world either,
but I think she went down just because
her name was on the title.
I thought he got what he deserved,
not because of what happened to me,
but to go on TV and ask the government,
"Yeah, yeah, come. Come at me. Do it."
Just the ego, the absolute ego.
After serving his time,
Rob Black leaves the world of wrestling behind
and his relationship with Lizzy would also
come to an end.
You know, I've asked myself over the years,
it's been almost 20 years, and I've asked myself:
If I could do it again, would I?
..., yeah.
Yes!
Every part of it. Even the bad times, I would.
Yes! Of course I'd go back.
'Cause we had something incredibly special there.
I mean, it wasn't just the wrestlers,
and it wasn't just Rob Black.
It was a combination of everything that made the magic.
Everybody wanted the show to succeed.
Now I'm in Hollywood. Now I'm living my dream,
and I have the greatest job in the world and...
that might not have happened if I wasn't in XPW.
That time is incredibly important to me.
All of the situations that, you know, involved,
and the friendships that are still happening to this day.
Me and Sylvia, we actually got married at
a pro wrestling show.
We're actually celebrating our 9-year anniversary next week.
We are like peanut butterand jelly.
We just love wrestling and that's all we do.
So, my uncle, Supreme,
the people just really loved him.
You know, unfortunately, he passed away last May 6th.
There's just a lot of like love,
when he passed away, just a lot of love that...
that people just messaging and just talking about him,
and just I know it really touched me,
but I just so wish, like...!
I just so wish that like people would have let him
know when he was alive because he loved that shit.
Like, who doesn't? But, man, without Supreme,
I'd have never been a wrestler, whatsoever.
I don't know what I'd be doing.
I'd be driving a truck, I guess, I don't know.
Embracing now with his uncle Supreme!
I would not change one thing from the simple fact of...
all of that led me to my wife, and now I have my two daughters.
So, it was all worth it in my eyes.
Because at the end of the day,
Messiah means nothing.
Once I get walk through that door at home,
I'm just dad and husband.
And, that's the most important thing to me.
What we're doing right now will put XPW back on the map
for a few months.
But, it ain't nothing that they did to be like,
"Oh, they're gonna go down in history," besides me
throwing Vic Grimes off that... ing scaffold.
As far as I know, Rob is happily married.
He has a couple kids and, I think he's running
a hamburger shop... back east somewhere.
I'm not quite sure where. But I always wonder, like,
does would he want if he could come back, would he?
And I, I don't know.
I have no idea who the Rob Black is now,
or who Robert Zicari is nowadays.
'Cause I wonder, is he still Rob Black?
And, action.
Honey, why are you so worked up?
Everything's gonna be okay.
They turned their backs on me.
I'm playing with dolls. I'm done with all that.
It's gonna be a new me.
People are gonna regret what they did to me.
What are you talking about?
You'll see, you'll see.
I gotta get something to drink.
I'm dying over here.
♪
Turn their backs on him?
♪
[Rob] Cut.
♪