Travicity
02-16-2011, 12:30 AM
WHEN THE KING of ultraviolent wrestling suffered severed arteries during a match, he wanted to keep fighting while blood shot from his armpit like a small geyser.
"Just wrap it," Nick "F'n" Gage told the people screaming "Call 9-1-1."
Gage, a berserker whose brutal brand of wrestling has made him a legend in the Philadelphia-based Combat Zone Wrestling, has been set on fire, hit with chairs, tables and worse, and has seen his blood spilled all around the world.
Ads by Google
The only thing that could stop Gage was Gage, also known as Nicholas W. Wilson, the South Jersey native who created the character in 1999. Last month, Wilson, 30, may have sidelined his alter ego for years when he allegedly walked into a Collingswood Bank and handed a teller a note demanding money.
"Gage" was supposed to stir things up at a CZW event held in South Philly last night, but Wilson was in the Camden County Jail on $150,000 bail for robbery charges.
Speaking publicly about his arrest for the first time, Wilson told the Daily News that he's ready to do his time, get clean from drug addictions that have plagued him for years, and eventually get back to what he does best, kicking ass.
"I'm tough, that's just the way it is. I was built that way," Wilson, wearing a red prison jumpsuit, said yesterday morning in jail. "I'll be back. The king of ultraviolent wrestling will be back."
The same professional-wrestling community that identified his surveillance photo after the robbery and contacted police now appears to be rallying around him, hoping he makes that comeback. "Free Nick Gage" shirts already are being sold, and Facebook fans from all over the world have offered messages of support on his page.
"Keep your spirits up and put this behind you," one fan wrote.
Wilson, who grew up in National Park, Gloucester County, but had been living in Camden recently, said that he and his ultraviolent alter ego are different people.
Nick Wilson claims that he's an animal-lover and a sports junkie, and is devoted to his girlfriend, Sondra, who was arrested on outstanding warrants when they both arrived at the Collingswood police station on Dec. 31.
"I'm basically a good guy," he said. "I'm actually pretty cool and mellow."
The one opponent he can't pin, he said, is addiction. Prescription painkillers have been a problem for Wilson for as long as he's been wrestling, but he insists his addictions weren't a result of a decade's worth of punishment in the ring.
CZW
"Just wrap it," Nick "F'n" Gage told the people screaming "Call 9-1-1."
Gage, a berserker whose brutal brand of wrestling has made him a legend in the Philadelphia-based Combat Zone Wrestling, has been set on fire, hit with chairs, tables and worse, and has seen his blood spilled all around the world.
Ads by Google
The only thing that could stop Gage was Gage, also known as Nicholas W. Wilson, the South Jersey native who created the character in 1999. Last month, Wilson, 30, may have sidelined his alter ego for years when he allegedly walked into a Collingswood Bank and handed a teller a note demanding money.
"Gage" was supposed to stir things up at a CZW event held in South Philly last night, but Wilson was in the Camden County Jail on $150,000 bail for robbery charges.
Speaking publicly about his arrest for the first time, Wilson told the Daily News that he's ready to do his time, get clean from drug addictions that have plagued him for years, and eventually get back to what he does best, kicking ass.
"I'm tough, that's just the way it is. I was built that way," Wilson, wearing a red prison jumpsuit, said yesterday morning in jail. "I'll be back. The king of ultraviolent wrestling will be back."
The same professional-wrestling community that identified his surveillance photo after the robbery and contacted police now appears to be rallying around him, hoping he makes that comeback. "Free Nick Gage" shirts already are being sold, and Facebook fans from all over the world have offered messages of support on his page.
"Keep your spirits up and put this behind you," one fan wrote.
Wilson, who grew up in National Park, Gloucester County, but had been living in Camden recently, said that he and his ultraviolent alter ego are different people.
Nick Wilson claims that he's an animal-lover and a sports junkie, and is devoted to his girlfriend, Sondra, who was arrested on outstanding warrants when they both arrived at the Collingswood police station on Dec. 31.
"I'm basically a good guy," he said. "I'm actually pretty cool and mellow."
The one opponent he can't pin, he said, is addiction. Prescription painkillers have been a problem for Wilson for as long as he's been wrestling, but he insists his addictions weren't a result of a decade's worth of punishment in the ring.
CZW