Dark Side Of The Ring - Extreme & Obscene: Rob Black's XPW FULL RECAP
XPW merged promoter Rob Black’s passions for hardcore pornography and deathmatch wrestling, but after he waged a war with federal authorities, his empire imploded. Read the full Dark Side of the Ring episode recap.
The Intro
XPW was known for being crazy. That’s what it was, it was Xtreme Pro Wrestling.
New Jack noted, “We did deathmatches that would be a license to kill for me.”
Jessica Darlin says, “I was a porn star living the dream of a wrestler.”
“If we could degrade people and entertain people, let’s f*cking do it.”
In 1999, adult-film entrepreneur Rob Black combined his passion for violent deathmatches and the spirit of his provocative adult films to realize his dream promotion, Xtreme Pro Wrestling.
In order to become America’s top hardcore wrestling outfit, XPW celebrated those who performed increasingly dangerous stunts.
Rob always thought of himself as like a mafia guy. Can’t leave, 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 beings to crumble as mounting legal bills force his wrestling and porn empires to implode.
The Episode
When multiple individuals are asked by producers if it’s surprising that Rob Black decided not to appear on the episode, it was noted to be a no-win situation for him.
Jessica Darlin, wrestling valet and adult film actress made her official introduction where she noted being part of XPW for about two years and an Extreme Associates contact girl for almost four.
Apparently, Rob Black is someone you love him or you hate him. Rob Black 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.
Jessica noted that what Rob incorporated into his adult films would be the norm today, which was quite wild. She also noted that as a company, they wanted to be the bad boys.
Lizzy Borden was an adult film actress and she came to Xtreme, started dating Rob. Once she became his girlfriend, she was done with the business and didn’t perform. She directed and produced, but became a behind-the-scenes talent.
In addition to his penchant for subversive pornography, Rob Black was enamoured with the underworld of hardcore wrestling and eventually struck a working relationship with Extreme Championship Wrestling’s revolutionary founder, Paul Heyman.
New Jack noted that ECW was the big party. They had fun, they got high, they did drugs, they had a ball. What Paul E brought to the table was a group of guys that did their thing and they had a good time doing it.
Former XPW Producer/Director David Marquez mentioned that regarding the relationship between Paul Heyman/Rob Black, apparently, Rob wanted to bring ECW to the west coast and there were arrangements to do that. When ECW got their network deal, it was essentially, why do we need Rob?
Rob was extremely upset about that and to spite ECW, that’s how XPW came into existence. Rob believed he was going to make this promotion bigger and better than ECW.
Joey Kaos, the rock superstar of XPW made his official introduction. He’s also the owner of Santino Brothers Wrestling in Los Angeles, California. He wasn’t a huge wrestling fan growing up, but was a huge fan of his uncle, Supreme. Joey considered him a godfather of deathmatch wrestling. Supreme was the one who loved wrestling and Joey simply tagged along. Supreme would tell his nephew, “There’s going to be this porno wrestling thing happening.” Joey asked, “Is it going to be wrestling or porn? What is it?”
Jessica walked into Rob’s office then he looked at her and said, “I now own a wrestling company and you’re now going to valet.”
It was a bizarre dynamic as there would be girls having sex in the office, doing scenes while there was also a ring in the back. So, there would be guys going around, they would be wrestling, while there were girls with no clothes on with semen all over them.
Former XPW employee, Sylvia Muoz, believed it was an eye-opening experience. She felt it was much better to see people with clothes on as opposed to the other various sights. There would be male adult films stars she would be conversing with who would openly masturbate in front of her in mid-conversation because they were preparing for a scene. It was just that casual, according to Sylvia.
Joe remembers going into training and there was a woman in the pool eating chicken while the male was urinating on her and it was being filmed. Joey was asking, “What is this s*hit?” He figured, “I guess there are actually people who wanted to see this.” Yes, this is what was funding XPW.
Former live event producer for XPW, Mike Hartsfield brought up going into the cafeteria and there would be a woman dressed up as the Statue of Liberty with three men with presidential masks on, partaking in the filming of a scene on the lunch table.
A lot of them would work their 9-hour day and then stay another 6, or 7, or 8 hours. In fact, there were nights Mike slept in the ring.
David pointed out that in order to get paid for wrestling, he had to edit porn. Not that he was against it, it’s just that the subject matter was so offensive at times. Here he is, an Emmy Award-Winning news guy, editing Fossil F*ckers.
Many of the Xtreme girls, saw William C. Welch (The Messiah) as a new puppy. In the first Battle Royale he was part of, White Trash Johnny Webb gave him the chair shot and he took it square in the head without putting his hands up. Messiah was informed that Rob enjoyed the fact he didn’t put his hands up since it resembled an ECW char shot.
At the time, Messiah was working at a steakhouse and he would show up to work with gig marks, so he would be sent home. They would tell him, “You can’t be around customers looking like that.”
Messiah was considered the top star of the promotion, holding two belts at one time. He believed to have been consumed by the Kool-Aid Rob was serving.
Luke Hawx, who appeared earlier in the season during the Chris Kanyon episode, appeared to say “It was really f*cking dumb to do a lot of those dumb things that we did.” In XPW, Luke went back Altar Boy Luke. He did a 450 off the balcony through a table with thumbtacks with Supreme on it. The thumbtacks had actually broken off into his hand and he was forced to use pillars to extract them. The mentality was, “Okay, what can you do next? How can you top it?”
Joey brought up how they wanted to do a lighter spot, so they sent a ring crew guy to get some lighter fluid. It turns out, he got charcoal fluid, which is oil-based. Regular light fluid is alcohol-based, so it burns up quickly. This charcoal fluid started pooling up on the table and they put the flame and it just goes out. After multiple attempts, there’s eventually a good flame and they go for the spot. Since there was so much fluid, Supreme’s shirt got soaked. It was an absolutely horrible scene. Joey would visit his uncle in the hospital and he was all wrapped up. Supreme’s response was, “Damn, that was a good match. That f*cked it up.”
The roster’s willingness to sacrifice themselves on a nightly basis along with the tantalizing appearances of crossover porn stars made XPW a hit with local fans.
In response, ECW staged their first-ever live show in Los Angeles, which was Heatwave 2000.
Messiah noted that Rob possessed a mafia mentality and felt that ECW was on his turf.
In retaliation, Rob Black ordered his ring crew to distribute XPW flyers at the event and has his op talent sit ringside to cause a disrupting presence.
Rob had the ability to rally the troops.
Messiah reflected on the experience. They were sitting there in the front row and the main event comes on. When the hard camera turned to Joey, he threw up the X symbol. Security mobbed them and grabbed them by the neck. They were getting thrown out of the building. The doors got closed and it got quiet.
Meanwhile, the XPW ring crew was not so lucky on the other side of the arena. New Jack noted, “We beat the fck out of them!” He just had surgery on his leg, so he hit somebody in the face with a crutch. Someone pleaded by saying, “New Jack, I don’t want no trouble.” Jack responded by saying, “f*ck that” and smacked him in the head with the crutch.
Messiah told Joey, this was stupid, while also thinking in the back of his mind, “Rob Black was supposed to be here. 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. Talent such as Sabu, Shane Douglas, Terry Funk, New Jack and Chris Candido all made appearances, which showed there were growing as a company.
XPW was explained to Sabu as ECW on steroids. Sabu also felt this company started to resemble a reject ECW.
New Jack joked that he needed to make money but also cared about the porn. Rob told him, “Jack, get whatever you want.” New Jack drove around the forklift to go get his porn. New Jack estimates he acquired over 1000 DVDs.
Despite the demise of his competitor, Rob continues to escalate the violence in XPW to disturbing new extremes. Luke recalls a time he took a chair shot and Rob cussed him out for putting his hands up. Jerry Lynn pulled Luke aside and said, “Don’t listen to a thing Rob tells you as he has no idea what he’s talking about. You did it right. You protected yourself. It looked great.” What Luke didn’t know is the next show, Rob was going to have him handcuffed and crucified with chains. Rob instructed Supreme that has payback, he had to hit Luke in the head several times with unprotected chair shots. This badly concussed Luke all thanks to Rob who had no clue about professional wrestling.
Messiah would approach Rob with the belt and say, “I’m done. My body is beaten up.” Rob then said, “Okay, well if you leave, I leave.” Messiah believes he got played since Rob would never fold the company if he walked away.
Rob would even instruct his girlfriend Lizzy to flirt with other men, just to tease them. In reality, Rob was getting girls to perform oral sex on him.
There were then rumours that Lizzy and The Messiah had a relationship, which was actually true.
Sabu noted that Rob expressed not caring if anyone had sexual relations with Lizzy on camera, but never behind his back. Essentially, Rob wanted to kill The Messiah on this affair.
During a house show at their warehouse, Sabu showed up and The Messiah did not. Word got around the locker room of The Messiah having sexual relations with the boss’ wife.
Jessica then added sleeping with Billy (The Messiah) too.
Surprisingly, the relationship between Rob Black and Lizzy Borden survived the affair, but The Messiah was promptly exiled from XPW. He was written out of the company through a bizarre storyline that happened with an apparition out in the warehouse. Rob is asking a vision of the Messiah where he is going. It was explained that The Messiah had returned to Heaven.
In reality, Rob and The Messiah did have a phone conversation where Black threatened him with three days to live. Instead, Rob offered to purchase him a plane ticket to Michigan and leave California. Messiah would respond with, “I’m not running.”
With the loss of one of XPW’s biggest attractions, Rob Black looked to stage his most ambitious spectacle yet with a high stakes match between New Jack and Vic Grimes.
Unbeknownst to Grimes, New Jack aimed to retaliate against him for a fractured skull he suffered in a previous match two years earlier.
The idea for the scaffold match was Rob Black’s. Originally, Rob wanted to flip a coin to determine the loser, who would get thrown off, but New Jack said, “Vic is getting thrown off the f*cking scaffold.” He refused to take the bump.
The Free Fall event transpired from The Grand Olympic Auditorium. Insurance waivers were simply made up on a computer to bypass any legal issues. This meant, there wasn’t actually insurance for the event.
The structure appeared quite rickety and shifted back and forth. New Jack then revealed a stun gun then tossed him off the scaffold. Vic missed the tables, but thankfully, his legs hit the ring ropes and flipped him back into the ring.
The reaction from Rob Black to New Jack was, “That was great! Here’s a bonus!” This was New Jack’s final show with the company.
With Jack’s departure, Rob Black lost yet another star. To make matters worse, The Messiah would publically reveal details about his affair with Lizzy Borden. Apparently, Rob Black was keeping tabs on Messiah along with all of his movements. Out of resentment, Messiah would continue to shove his presence down Rob’s throat. Up until one particular show in Southern California, Messiah would deny the affair until he openly alluded to it in front of a live crowd.
Joey and others suggested that Messiah let it go since he and Rob were even between being fired and the affair. Messiah wanted to prove he wasn't afraid.
During an XPW show, Messiah sat in the nosebleeds and noted the show was particularly compelling. Backstage, Rob Black was throwing a temper tantrum. Messiah received a call from a former colleague to leave since Rob was taking his frustrations out on the locker room.
Messiah had just purchased a Nintendo Game Cube and received a knock on the door, which he assumed were his roommates. He could see the reflection off the tv of two guys with one locking the door. Once Messiah turned to confront them, he was jumped. One of the men grabbed Messiah in a chokehold while the other grabbed his hand. One of these men pulled out clippers and cut Messiah’s thumb off. The men went to his other hand, but he kept it like a fist.
The two men proceeded to beat on him and even smashed a fishbowl of Messiah’s head. At one point, he got away to the door, but couldn’t unlock it without his thumb, which is detached and on the ground. The two would then hit Messiah all over his body to the point of being gassed out. Messiah would then lock one of the men in an armbar to the point where he screamed in pain. This time, Messiah made it to the door once again, but this attempt was successful. The two men both immediately ran out.
Messiah grabbed a cup of ice and began to search for his thumb. After not being able to locate it, he passed out.
While The Messiah was fighting off home invaders, his XPW colleagues were unaware his life was in serious danger.
Joey brought up how on that particular night, GQ Money and him were going to film a segment for XPW TV. All of a sudden, there’s a knock on the door and it’s Rob Black. This was confusing to Joey since Rob had never previously stopped by.
When Billy’s (Messiah) former colleagues found out about this near-death attack, they were in shock.
Jessica first came across the situation on America’s Most Wanted where she said, “Holy sh*t! That’s Messiah. Oh my god, they could off his thumb. What’s going on?”
There was audio is played from a message that New Jack left Rob Black asking about what happened to Messiah.
Joey then noted that Rob randomly told after all of this, “What out who you hang out with. You might have your arm chopped off.”
The crew all speculated that Rob had something to do with it.
Dark Side producers requested comments about the incident but received no response back from Rob Black.
The Messiah felt the biggest thing that he could do was go back and continue wrestling, which is what he did.
With no evidence linking Rob Black to the assault on The Messiah, he was never charged. However, he and Lizzy began to draw the attention of authorities of federal authorities for posturing in the media about pushing legal boundaries with their latest adult films.
They were doing such extreme stuff
David watched Nightline all the time and on one random day, Rob is a guest of Ted Coppel. Rob was attempting to justify the lewd acts that were in these videos against freedom of speech. John Ashcroft, the Attorney General of the Unites at that point was coming after Rob.
Rob always wanted to be like Hugh Hefner or Larry Flint. Furthermore, Rob would actually challenge John Ashcroft and the United States Government.
Kevin brought up a speech from Rob where he noted, “When we get raided by the fed…” It wasn’t if but when.
David recalled the morning of the postal raid at Extreme Associates. They 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. They put two and two together and figured out that the government somehow, someway, figured out how to get Rob.
David asked, “How can you go on network television and challenge the government? Who does that?”
Rob felt that the feds were going after him first since he was defying them the most.
Facing multiple charges of violating federal obscenity statutes, Rob Black and Lizzy Borden faced 50 years in prison and millions in fines. The legal battle quickly consumed all of Rob Black’s resources, spelling the end of XPW.
There would be times when there would be just a month of talent check bouncing. There would be 20 people in the lobby pissed off.
The lawyer fees killed the business. Therefore, you can’t produce movies, you can’t pay wrestlers, you can’t pay actors and you can’t pay actresses.
Messiah believed that Rob ultimately thought that the adult industry would come to his support. Everyone saw through Rob’s BS.
While many charges were being dropped, there was one that finally stuck. Unable to mount a costly defence, Rob and Lizzy opted to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to distribute obscene materials.
Rob was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. It’s assumed that Lizzy went down just because her name was on the title.
Messiah felt that personal feelings aside, Rob got what he deserved since he taunted the government on national television. Absolutely ego.
After serving his time, Rob Black left the world of wrestling behind and his relationship with Lizzy also came to an end.
The talent who appeared on the episode all noted they wouldn’t have changed a thing. Even Messiah doesn’t regret it since it eventually led to his wife and two daughters, so it was all worth it.
As for Rob Black, apparently, he is married with two kids and runs a hamburger joint on the east coast.
