Eric Gargiulo (born July 18, 1972) is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

announcer, wrestler, commentator, and

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

. Gargiulo is most known for his years announcing and hosting for Combat Zone Wrestling.

Professional wrestling career

Gargiulo trained with Jim Kettner and a variety of East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA) wrestlers in 1994. He made about a dozen appearances wrestling for the ECWA and on independent shows.

Announcing

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Gargiulo was a ring announcer for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He made his debut in November 1996 in Staten Island, New York. Gargiulo announced road shows for the company through May 1998.

Pro Wrestling Radio

Gargiulo began Pro Wrestling Radio in January 1999. Pro Wrestling Radio aired on WBCB 1490 AM out of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

from 1999–2009. The radio show is the longest consistent running professional wrestling radio talk show on terrestrial radio. It featured interviews with a variety of guests, including Steve Austin,

Ricky Steamboat Richard Henry Blood Sr. (born February 28, 1953), better known by his ring name Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his work with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promot ...

Bret Hart Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legend's contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling backgr ...

, Edge,

Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...

, Tito Ortiz,

Bruno Sammartino Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (October 6, 1935 – April 18, 2018) was an Italian-born American professional wrestler, best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE). There, he held the WWWF World Heavywei ...

, and Superstar Billy Graham. Chris Jericho was the first guest on the debut show. Sammartino made more guest appearances on the show over ten years than any other guest. In 2009, Gargiulo took ownership of the show and began broadcasting the show exclusively live online. The show periodically airs via podcast. The show is also available through

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

via podcast.

Combat Zone Wrestling

Gargiulo joined Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) as a commentator and announcer in 2000. He first entered CZW as a backstage interviewer and then made his announcing debut on the ''Caged to the End'' home video. Gargiulo was immediately paired with John House on the broadcasts. Gargiulo announced and hosted shows for CZW through 2007. His work included pay-per-views, television and home videos. Gargiulo also traveled to Italy for CZW’s first Italian tour. He also worked behind-the-scenes helping write, book, and script for CZW.

Other promotions

Gargiulo has worked for most of the major independent pro wrestling companies as an announcer. Gargiulo announced for Dangerous Women of Wrestling’s television and home videos. In addition, he announced pay-per-views for Women's Extreme Wrestling from 2001–2008. During this time, he also called the action with Buck Woodward for several Japanese Pro Wrestling pay-per-views from 2002–2005. He announced the final two shows for Court Bauer’s Major League Wrestling. Gargiulo and Steve Corino announced the first two

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...

(ROH) home videos together. Gargiulo, however, left the company shortly before the third show due to conflicts between CZW and ROH. Gargiulo reunited with ex-CZW partner John House in 2007 for several Pro Wrestling Unplugged shows. He has also worked for Chikara. He later semi-retired as an announcer.

The Camel Clutch Blog

Gargiulo began the Camel Clutch Blog in 2007. The blog was published online by phillyburbs.com. His blog topics included professional wrestling,

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

, the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

, and politics. The blog was highly ranked and often featured on Yahoo BUZZ. In 2009, Gargiulo took ownership of the blog. The Camel Clutch Blog was a popular sports blog on the Internet. The Camel Clutch Blog stopped regularly publishing content in 2017.

Other websites

Gargiulo developed and sold the website NFLLockout.com to the NFLPA for a reported $25,000.

Shoot interviews

Along with Rob Feinstein and Doug Gentry, Gargiulo helped innovate the professional wrestling

shoot interview A shoot in professional wrestling is any unplanned, unscripted, or real-life occurrence within a wrestling event. It is a carny term shortened from "straight shooting", which originally referred to a gun in a carnival target shooting game that did ...

concept. Gargiulo began hosting shoot interviews for RF Video in 1996. He continues to host and write interviews for RF Video, Inc.

Author

Eric wrote and edited the questions for the WWE Pop Trivia Quiz Deck. The trivia game was published by Insights Publishing in 2019.

References

External links

Camel Clutch blogPro Wrestling RadioEric's Twitter
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gargiulo, Eric 1972 births 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American color commentators American male bloggers American male professional wrestlers Combat Zone Wrestling Living people Professional wrestling announcers