100. HOMICIDE
Real Name – Nelson Erazo
Aliases – The Notorious 187; The Latin Terror
Hometown – Brooklyn, New York
Debuted – March 5th, 1993
Titles Held – NWA World Tag Team, ROH World
Other Accomplishments – ROH MVP in 2003; slap to the side of the head caused Steve Corino to permanently lose most of his hearing in his left ear; TNA Match of the Year in 2006 for LAX’s Ultimate X against A.J. Styles & Christopher Daniels
Nelson Erazo, better known to fans around the world as Homicide, has been an independent wrestling mainstay since 1993. While he competed regularly throughout the 1990s with his stiff, gangsta gimmick, his most notable contribution to the independent scene in the decade came via his training school, The Doghouse. The Doghouse produced 22 graduates, notably Low Ki, perhaps (unfortunately) better known as Senshi in TNA and several former ROH wrestlers such as Dan Maff and Monsta Mack.
Homicide, with his style which is a mix of Terry Funk and Satoshi Kojima with a splash of lucha libre, first began gaining attention in Jersey All Pro Wrestling along with partner Boogalou with whom he formed the Natural Born Sinners. The JAPW work lead the then fledgling Ring of Honor to notice The Natural Born Sinners who became members of the ROH roster with its very first show.
The team was quite dominant in ROH until Boogalou jumped ship to join XPW, while Homicide stuck it out with Ring of Honor. This move would prove to be the best of Homicide’s career as he went from a member of a mildly over tag team to a major singles threat over night. As a singles wrestler Homicide’s natural charisma and in ring talent allowed him to immediately get over with the notoriously hard to please ROH fanbase. Homicide got so over, in fact, that when the Reborn Era kicked off, Homicide became one of ROH’s major faces.
The Reborn Era of Ring of Honor began because TNA pulled all shared talent from ROH in the wake of the Rob Feinstein controversy, which we will not get into here. This controversy lead to ROH leaning more heavily on developing it’s own stars, since they could no longer rely on TNA mainstays AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels. Two major stars tend to get credit for the success of the Reborn Era because they have gone on to have huge success in bigger companies: Samoa Joe and CM Punk. No less important, and in fact the third major pillar of the Reborn Era, was Homicide. As the company’s major heel he made life miserable for Samoa Joe, throwing a fireball in his face and disrespected the incredibly important Ring of Honor title by stealing it after Joe and Punk had an hour draw. This was only the beginning of the reign of the heel Homicide as he formed the viscous faction The Rottweilers and warred with nearly every face on the roster whether Bryan Danielson in their Best of 5 series or his brutal confrontations with Colt Cabana where he attempted to murder Colt, who he considered soft. Homicide was perhaps the most effective heel in ROH’s formative years.
Come 2006 Ring of Honor, the company in which ‘Cide made his name, was fighting for survival against CZW and lacking in manpower and ruthlessness against the hardcore company. In the company’s darkest hour, Homicide saved Ring of Honor during cage of death, proving once again that he was a fabulous hardcore and technical wrestler. This lead to Homicide as a face and the Road of Homicide, the storyline that dominated the second half of Ring of Honor’s best year ever in which they swept every major publication’s promotion of the year balloting. Homicide vowed to either win the Ring of Honor title, dethroning arch-nemesis Bryan Danielson in the process, or leave ROH for good. Despite many roadblocks placed by the champion and Jim Cornette, the commissioner, Homicide was able to prevail on the year’s very last show, cementing himself as a ROH icon and a MVP for the company in the year of it’s greatest growth.
While this was going on, TNA noticed Homicide’s skill and signed him to a contract. Despite lackluster early results, Homicide joined up with the stable LAX to become the hottest homegrown (and I use that term begrudgingly) TNA property since the rise of Samoa Joe. Homicide teamed with Hernandez, a huge power wrestler who lacks skill in the ring and tires fast, and Konnan, an aging but impressive mouthpiece to wreak havok on the TNA tag scene, feuding with teams like America’s Most Wanted and Team 3-D. Although it takes a whole team to be successful, it is hard to imagine how far that team could have gone without Homicide carrying it in ring, especially in the team making feud against AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels.
Currently, Homicide and LAX are still wreaking havoc on TNA and looking for another title run against Team 3-D.
Homicide uses a brilliant blend of brawling, strong style grappling, old school heel antics and lucha libre to be one of the best and most underrated wrestlers on the planet. If not for his great work, ROH might not exist today past the Reborn Era and certainly the company would look much different without his historic run in 2006. Adding in that he is a part of one of the best tag teams in the world currently and completely carries the in ring portions of their matches and you have Homicide, our number 100 entry in the Top 100 American Wrestlers of the Modern Era.
The entire Top 100 Wrestlers feature can be found here.
