Sozio talks the state of Combat Zone Wrestling, Retribution iPPV and more (Part 1)

Former Combat Zone Wrestling world champion Sozio sat down with philly.com in advance of CZW's Internet pay-per-view on Aug. 8, Retribution.

Here's Part 1 of the conversation. Read Part 2 HERE.

For more information on the iPPV, visit CZW's web site.

Q: What are you looking forward to at Retribution?

Sozio: The eighth [of August] is a big day. Although it is a pre-show match, it is a big match for me in the sense that it's my opportunity to rid Combat Zone Wrestling of the group that I was once the leader of known as The Front.

Ever since leaving the group back in January, after I lost my world title, I've personally tried to take a little bit of a different route, showing a little bit of a different attitude. I'm not necessarily so much of a bad guy anymore, and I don't think that the rest of the group particularly appreciated me leaving. I don't think they appreciated the new leaf that I've been trying to turn over, and for the last couple of months, they've been taking it out on me every chance they get, costing me opportunities to be in tournaments. Just trying to stop my momentum, so I'm really looking forward to getting the opportunity to wrestle Ryan Galeone, and if I beat him, I get five minutes alone with Trooper Audubon. It's not going to be good for him if I get my hands on him.

Q: What's it like getting the chance to perform on an Internet pay-per-view for Combat Zone Wrestling?

Sozio: The opportunity to be on i-pay-per-view every month is really awesome because for a lot of the fans that can't make the drive to Voorhees, N.J. or South Philadelphia or wherever we're running, the i-pay-per-view gives them a chance to tune in either live or watch the show later. It's really awesome because it's a platform for people like myself to be seen by everyone instead of just the people we get to come out to our shows.

Q: What do you think of the state of CZW and where it is at the moment?

Sozio: I think we're gearing up for that next step. I think the company has been around for 16 years now. I've been along for the ride for 12 of those years and I've seen a lot of talent come and go. I really think that the group that we have now … we have a lot of really talented people. We have a lot of people that really look like they're TV-ready. We have a lot of people that can perform at that level, talk at that level, wrestle at that level.

Like I said, we're all really excited. I think that the state of the company now, we are as ready as we're going to be. Now, we just got to do it. Now, we just have to have the pay-per-view, see how we do, work out any kinks and go from there. Chalk it up as a learning experience and hopefully we'll get the chance to keep having pay-per-views and that it won't just be a one-time deal that it doesn't go so well so we never do it again.

This is the next natural step for an independent wrestling promotion that's been around and that's as popular as we have for as long as we have.

Q: While CZW does well for itself, it isn't necessarily flourishing financially. With that said, do you feel as though the promotion is truly ready for this next step to pay-per-view?

Sozio: Absolutely. I'd be lying if I said that there weren't some people on our production side, on our management side that are really questioning it. Are we ready as a company, as professionals, as a production company? Are we ready to put on a live event that we cannot screw up?

We can't go long. We can't go short. We have to be right on time. It's definitely a demand that we're not used to, but I think as a whole I think it's the right step, I think it's the next step and it's just a matter of everyone coming together and working together. I think we can do it. It is what it is at this point.

Q: What do you think of the reputation CZW has outside of its normal fan base?

Sozio: For a long time, that's always been a stereotype and anyone who has ever been a victim, whether it's religious, ethnic, any sort of stereotype, you know as well I do that it's a stereotype. It's just something that people believe based on what you've seen or what you've heard or whatever, but it's obviously not the truth.

For years and years and years, I would say for most of the company's life, it has not been a strictly hardcore, ultraviolent company. Combat Zone Wrestling's catchphrase or tagline is "Combat Zone Wrestling: Like nothing else." The reason we can say that is because we are probably the only professional wrestling promotion where you can have that ultraviolent hardcore extreme wrestling, and you're also going to see some of the best cruiserweights, high-flyers. You're going to see some of the best wrestler, grappler types of guys. You're going to see some of the best big guys around. You're going to see some of the best little guys around.

You're going to see some of the best women around, some of the best tag teams, some of the best groups. You're going to get a little bit of everything in every Combat Zone Wrestling show you go to. Will there always be something catering to our hardcore audience? Most likely, I mean, there's always going to be some form of ultraviolent match or hardcore match, at least one per show. We can't forget out roots. We can't forget what the company was initially put on the map for.

Q: What is like being a wrestler being from the Philadelphia given its wrestling heritage?

Sozio: It's pretty cool. The thing about wrestling, however, a lot of us are from this general area. A lot of people that I've met and come up with in the business, a lot of the promotions locally that I've worked for … to a degree, a lot of the people that worked for certain promotions lived near those promotions.

That's not always the case. We have people that come to CZW that drive two hours, three hours, five hours, 10 hours, 13 hours. Fortunately for me, Combat Zone Wrestling is a close booking. I guess where I'm going with this is that we have a lot of representatives from Philadelphia.

(Side note: Sozio went to Philadelphia University and has a degree in digital design.)

Q: If you weren't wrestling, what would you use that degree for?

Sozio: I have been able to put it to use here and there. Over the last couple of years I've held a couple of different jobs, some in my field and some not. I've just about always had a job in addition to wrestling. There have been a few times here and there that I've been unemployed either between jobs, I moved or had been laid off or things like that.

For five years, I was an art design manager for a company in Belmar, N.J. that manufactured promotional products. Things like lip balm, hand sanitizer and pretty much anything you could slap your logo and phone number and web site on and advertise with. I was able to utilize my degree as a graphic artist, designing labels for products, designing imprints for different products and things like that.

I've also designed a lot of T-shirts for myself and a lot of other wrestlers. Some of Kimber Lee's T-shirts I've designed, I've done one for Latin Dragon, I've done a couple for Sami Callihan (Solomon Crowe) when he was still on the independent circuit, a couple for Greg Excellent as well, so I've been able to put my knowledge and my skills to work. Whether it was at a shoot (real) job or whether it was just to help me in wrestling, I've designed my gear. I've designed some other people's gear at times.

It's certainly never been something I've been able to turn into a gig or a full-time gig because I'm somebody that's always benefited off a more structured, fixed income as oppose to kind of waiting for people to order stuff from me so I could make a little money. It's never been how I've kind of lived my life. Some people can do that sort of thing. It's just not for me.

Right now, my shoot gig is that I'm a receiver in a warehouse right now for a place that manufactures dance costumes right now. It's getting me through right now. Until the next thing happens, it's getting me by. It's certainly not something I'm choosing as a career. It's just something I'm doing right now. I'm not even 100 percent sure that I would go back to graphic design, but it's certainly something that will always be with me and it's certainly something that has taught me a lot about the whole industry.

Q; How much of a safety net does having a skill like graphic design provide for you?  For some people, all they have is wrestling.

Sozio: Yeah, it's a scary thing. It's really funny I think that some of those people that really have nothing but wrestling are some of the biggest trash talkers. Some of the people think that this is it for them and they're really going to make it. God bless everybody, but the WWE is not after you if you're not good. They're not after you if you don't look the part. They're not after you if you can't stop slapping your leg every time you strike somebody. They don't want that kind of stuff.

It just seems like some of the people that are just [about] wrestling, they don't get the big picture. They're not getting the fact that if they don't make it or if they don't ever cross that threshold where wrestling is their life and it's what's paying their bills and it's what's sustaining them, that it's a sad, sad life if this is all you did.

Everybody is going to forget about you. The fans are going to forget about you. Your "friends" that are all of your buddies in the locker room, they are going to forget about you, and that's what some of these guys don't understand. Without naming any names, some of them just don't get it.