Nick Gage

Nicholas William Wilson (born September 22, 1980), better known by his ring name Nick Gage, is an American professional wrestler.

He is signed to Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), where he is a former 3 time GCW World Champion.

He also wrestles for various other promotions on the independent circuit.

He is the only man to win the "big three" of American deathmatch tournaments: the CZW Tournament of Death, the IWA Mid-South King of the Deathmatch, and the GCW Tournament of Survival.

Nicholas William Wilson was born in National Park, New Jersey, on September 22, 1980.

He was raised by his mother.

As a child, he idolized NFL player Lawrence Taylor.

He wanted to be a professional wrestler at a very young age, and later recalled watching NWA as a kid and calling WWF "corny".

In the early 1990s, he was starting to lose his love for wrestling when ECW got him back into it.

He would begin wrestling in backyard hardcore matches, making makeshift rings out of barbed wire, and wrestling his older brother Christopher and their friends.

He and Christopher trained as professional wrestlers together.

Gage and Hatred would break up in 2003 when Hatred joined Messiah's stable, the Hi-V.

Gage and Hatred would embark on a bloody feud against one another, competing in a Tables Match, Cage Match, Dog Collar Match, as well as a 200 Light Tubes Death Match.

The two would trade the Big Japan Death Match Title between one another.

Gage would take part in Cage of Death V: Suspended, as a part of Team Zandig, to take on the Hi-V.They feuded for nearly one year, and met in the Cage of Death match at Cage of Death V.

At the end of the match, Hatred turned on Messiah and rejoined Gage.

After reforming, they regained the tag championship, but lost it to The Blackout.

At Cage of Death VI, The H8 Club of Nick Gage and Nate Hatred faced the H8 Club of Wifebeater and Justice Pain, with the winners winning the right to the H8 Club name.

That night, Nick Gage and Justice Pain turned on their partners joined each other.

They would then win the tag team championship and hold it for many months before losing to Necro Butcher and Toby Klein.

Even after the loss of the Tag Titles, Gage and his brother would continue to feud with The Tough Crazy Bastards.

Gage would find himself in the finals of the annual, Tournament of Death, along with the Necro Butcher and CZW owner, John Zandig.

In this match, Gage would, figuratively, get set on fire, due to a botched Suplex, which saw Gage deliver it to Zandig, over the top rope and off the apron, onto a flaming board, which incorporated other Ultraviolent qualities.

Christopher would become known by the ring name Justice Pain, though he retired in 2007 and died by suicide in 2020 when he jumped off the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Gage is known for being the first ever CZW World Heavyweight Champion and for being part of the H8 Club tag team.

Before teaming with Nate Hatred as the H8 Club, Gage won the CZW World Tag Team Championship with Zandig.

Gage would also find great success in his run for the CZW Ironman Title, which he had several brutal matches with the likes of LOBO, The Wifebeater, Nick Mondo & Mad Man Pondo.

One of the most notable matches from the time period was the first ever, 200 Light Tubes Death Match against The Wifebeater.

He would later team up with Hatred and wrestle such teams as The Briscoe Brothers, VD, and The Backseat Boyz.

Together, they won the tag team championship from the original H8 Club of Wifebeater and Justice Pain.

Along with being the first-ever CZW World Heavyweight Champion for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), until late 2010, Gage wrestled at nearly every CZW show and competed in more CZW matches than any other wrestler.

In addition to these accomplishments, he has held the World Tag Team, Iron Man, Ultraviolent Underground, and Death Match championships during his CZW career.

Gage's late brother, Chris Wilson, was also a professional wrestler; he performed in CZW under the ring name Justice Pain.

The brothers even joined a stable known as “The H8 Club” with fellow CZW talent Matt Tremont, Nate Hatred, and Wifebeater.

In April 2011, Gage was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree bank robbery.

He was ultimately released in 2016.

After his release later on in his career, he became an infamous name in the deathmatch indie scene and gained a cult following known as the Murder-Death-Kill Gang (often shortened to MDK).

In his entrances, he is introduced as "representing The M.D.K Gang, The H8 Club, and all his comrades in prison, eastern block".

His infamy as a "folk hero" of both independent American wrestling and of the deathmatch scene led him to be the subject of a 2021 episode of the docuseries Dark Side of the Ring.

John Pollock of POST Wrestling describes Gage as a "cult figure" of professional wrestling.