Strangle-Mania: Viva Las Violence

Background

On March 12, 1996, the Insane Clown Posse released a VHS tape titled ICP's Strangle-Mania, a compilation tape which featured matches from the Outrageously Violent Wrestling From Japan video collection overdubbed with commentary from the ICP themselves with Violent J (Joe Bruce) being called Diamond Donovan "3D" Douglas and Shaggy 2 Dope (Joe Utsler) being called Handsome Harley "Gweedo" Guestella.^[4] The success of the video would lead Bruce and Utsler to co-produce their own wrestling show with the Northern States Wrestling Alliance (NSWA) and booker Dan Curtis titled Strangle-Mania Live which was held at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, Michigan.^[5] The show would sell out and featured numerous independent wrestlers such as Mad Man Pondo and Ian Rotten with the Insane Clown Posse themselves main eventing the show against the Chickenboys in a steel cage match.^[6] The Insane Clown Posse would team up with Dan Curtis again to produce a show titled Hellfire Wrestling at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit which featured a 20 man battle royal for the Hellfire Championship as the main event. This was initially going to lead to an eighty-city Hellfire Wrestling tour, but two days after the show, Curtis had passed away in his apartment after a sudden diabetic problem.^[7] The Hellfire Wrestling tour would be cancelled. A second VHS video tape titled ICP's Strangle-Mania Volume 2 would be released on August 4, 1999 which featured several bonus matches and would also feature Twiztid's Jamie Madrox as "Lucious" Johnny Stark on commentary.

On December 19, 1999 the Insane Clown Posse would team up with bookers Brian Gorie and Dave Prazak to hold the first "Juggalo Championshxt Wrestling" show which would be taped and be released as JCW Volume 1 on May 9, 2000 with commentary provided by the Insane Clown Posse as 3D and Gweedo and Madrox as Johnny Stark.^[8] The show would be main evented by the Insane Clown Posse fighting team of two Doink the Clowns (played by Tarek The Great and Truth Martini) to become the inaugural JCW Tag Team Champions.^[9] When the video was released, it lasted 38 weeks on the Billboard Sports and Recreation Top Sellers list with it charting as high as number 2 at one time.^[10][11] However, Prazak would leave the promotion due to financial issues, leaving Gordie to book a 15-day Strangle-Mania Live tour from April to May 2000 with dates spanning from Detroit, Michigan to Denver, Colorado. JCW Volume 2 would be taped in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 19, 2000^[12] and in Cleveland, Ohio on May 4, 2000.^[13]

On August 31, 2018, Insane Clown Posse would be featured as guests at the inaugural Starrcast convention in Schaumburg, Illinois. At the convention, the duo would host a panel titled Strangle-Mania with the Insane Clown Posse in which they provided live commentary on the making of the tape and the matches to the live audience. The panel was streamed live on FITE TV.^[14]

On January 5, 2026, Game Changer Wrestling announced that JCW would be part of their annual WrestleMania weekend Collective event at Horseshoe Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.^[15] The event's name would later be revealed on Insane Clown Posse's social media pages as Strangle-Mania: Viva Las Violence and would feature the final match for Vampiro who first held the JCW Heavyweight Championship in 2000.

Storylines

Strangle-Mania: Viva Las Violence featured professional wrestling matches that involves different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.^[16] Storylines were produced on Juggalo Championship Wrestling's various events and on their weekly internet show, JCW Lunacy.