Nelson Erazo (born March 20, 1977) better known by the ring name Homicide, is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his tenures in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring Of Honor (ROH).
He began his career in 1994 and worked on several independent promotions. During the 2000s he worked for Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He became one time ROH World Champion and during his time with TNA, he was part of the Latin American Xchange stable with Hernandez, winning the TNA X Division Championship one time, the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice and the TNA World Tag Team Championship. During the 2010s and 2020s, Homicide would work on several promotions and had brief stints with ROH, TNA and National Wrestling Alliance, becoming ROH World Tag Team Champion and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion.
As part of his independent career, Homicide worked for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he is a one-time World Tag Team Champion and winner of the Tango & Cash Invitational tournament alongside B-Boy, and Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW), where he has held both the Heavyweight Championship and the Tag Team Championship seven times each.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1994–1997) A native of Brooklyn, Erazo was a wrestling fan from the age of five and decided that he wanted to become a wrestler at the age of fifteen. After amassing a series of athletic qualifications including football and amateur wrestling, he was offered a scholarship to the University of Miami, which he rejected, preferring to pursue "fast money". Erazo trained himself as a wrestler in a bodega, debuting on March 5, 1994. After wrestling for three years without any formal training, Erazo attended a professional wrestling school in New Jersey operated by Manny Fernandez.
Erazo worked on the independent circuit throughout the 1990s. In 1997, Erazo was part of faction called The Wrecking Crew in Bobby Lombardi's Long Island Wrestling Federation (LIWF). Then while on a year-long hiatus from wrestling, he operated a training school in Cypress Hills New York known as LIWF's "The Doghouse" along with Laithon and Lowlife Louie. The Doghouse/LIWF produced approximately 22 graduates, including a number of ROH wrestlers, such as Low Ki. Erazo also formed a tag team called The Natural Born Sinners with Boogalou (which saw Boogalou wear a Leatherface mask and Homicide wear a Michael Myers mask).
Jersey All Pro Wrestling
The Nation of Immigration (1997–1999) Homicide joined Jersey All Pro Wrestling on September 7, 1997, and quickly became a mainstay of the promotion. He formed a tag team with Kane D known as The Nation of Immigration (N.O.I.), and on March 22, 1998, The N.O.I. defeated The Sickness and The Blood Angels in a three-way tag match for the JAPW Tag Team Championship in Newark, New Jersey. They lost the title to The Skin Head Express on May 20, but regained them on August 25, defeating Russ and Charlie Haas in a weapons match. Their second reign lasted until January 29, when they lost to D-Sex. Homicide would later hold the title twice more, with Don Montoya and with B-Boy.
Heavyweight Champion (1999–2005) Homicide won the JAPW Heavyweight Championship for the first time on July 9, 1999, by defeating Don Montoya in Bayonne, New Jersey. He lost the title to Chino Martinez on August 29. His second reign began when the champion, Jason, vacated the title on November 18, 2000, by no-showing the event. Homicide defeated Jay Lover for the vacant title that same night in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. He lost the title to one of his students, Low Ki, on July 7, 2001. Three more Heavyweight Championship reigns followed in 2001 and 2002, with Homicide firmly establishing himself as a dominant player in JAPW. Homicide's increasing commitments, including tours of Japan with Big Japan Pro Wrestling and ZERO-ONE, led to a decline in his involvement in JAPW after late-2002.
Dan Maff, another student of Homicide's, won the JAPW Heavyweight Championship on December 13, 2003. He held the title throughout 2004. In March 2005, however, Homicide and Maff had a legitimate falling-out, with Homicide announcing that Maff had betrayed him, and that he would refuse to work for any promotion which employed Maff. This effectively led to Maff being blacklisted from the professional wrestling indy circuit. As a result, the JAPW Heavyweight Championship was vacated. Jay Lethal had pursued the JAPW Heavyweight Championship for several months and was widely expected to be the next champion. The title was put on the line in a match between Lethal and an undisclosed opponent on March 26. The opponent was revealed to be the returning Homicide, who defeated Lethal for an unparalleled sixth JAPW Heavyweight Championship. His reign lasted until May 21, when Lethal finally won the belt in a four-way match. The following week, Homicide announced that he was temporarily leaving JAPW, but promised to go on a "murdering spree" and become a seven-time JAPW Heavyweight Champion when he returned.
Return (2005–2012)
On October 22, 2005, Homicide teamed with his long-term nemesis Teddy Hart to defeat the Backseat Boyz for the JAPW Tag Team Championship. Their reign lasted until November 12 of that year, when Kashmere and Acid regained the title. On June 9, 2007, Homicide and his Latin American Xchange partner Hernandez defeated Jay Lethal and Azrieal to win the JAPW Tag Team titles, which they would hold for over a year before dropping them to The Full Blooded Italians of Little Guido and Tracy Smothers on November 15, 2008. On October 27, 2007, Homicide made good on his word when he defeated Low Ki to win the JAPW Heavyweight Title for a record–setting seventh time. He would, however, lose the title back to Low Ki that same night when Teddy Hart attacked him during a tag team match between LAX and BLKOUT, where both the Heavyweight and the Tag Team titles were on the line. On May 22, 2010, Homicide wrestled one of his biggest matches in JAPW, defeating Japanese legend Jushin Thunder Liger in the main event of the show. Homicide returned to JAPW on April 14, 2012, when he and Eddie Kingston defeated Philly's Most Wanted (Blk Jeez and Joker) to win the vacant JAPW Tag Team Championship.
Ring of Honor
Feud with Steve Corino (2002–2003)
Homicide's first main independent exposure came in 2002 when he was recruited by the upstart Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion. He and Boogalou wrestled on the first ever ROH show, The Era of Honor Begins, on February 23, and were defeated by the Boogie Knights, by way of DQ. The Natural Born Sinners were a dominant tag team in ROH, beating The Carnage Crew at the July 27 Crowning a Champion event, and also won at the August 24 Honor Invades Boston event, defeating Tony Mamaluke and James Maritato.
After Boogalou suffered an injury and then jumped ship to Rob Black's Xtreme Pro Wrestling promotion, Homicide appeared alone at Glory by Honor. Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, he invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino responded to his offer, and Corino and Homicide faced the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, superkicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide.
Homicide and Corino would begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003, in Queens, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group, Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra sleeper to Homicide, instigating a worked riot.
After regaining some momentum by defeating Christopher Daniels on the April 12 ROH event, The Epic Encounter, Homicide defeated CM Punk in a match for the number one contendership on April 26 at Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II. Homicide faced ROH World Champion Samoa Joe on May 31 at Do or Die, hoping not only to win the title, but to gain revenge on Joe for helping Corino defeat him in his hometown. Despite the support of his manager, Julius Smokes, and his close friend and former student, Low Ki, Homicide lost to Joe, after getting distracted by Smokes and Ki arguing outside the ring.
Homicide was undefeated in ROH throughout June and July, and on August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies he defeated Corino in a rematch of their February encounter. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LaGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Following high-profile victories over Samoa Joe and B. J. Whitmer, Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand.
The Rottweilers (2004) Homicide faced A.J. Styles at The Battle Lines Are Drawn on January 10, 2004. After Styles was thrown from the ring, Homicide dove over the top rope in pursuit and landed in the third row of the audience, briefly knocking himself unconscious and injuring his shoulder and ribs. Styles quickly capitalized on Homicide's vulnerabilities, defeating him following a Styles Clash. After defeating CM Punk at The Last Stand, Homicide took a hiatus from Ring of Honor to "find himself", sending word through Julius Smokes that when he returned, he wanted a shot at Samoa Joe and the ROH Heavyweight Championship.
Homicide challenged Samoa Joe for the ROH World Championship once more at Reborn: Stage 1 on April 23. Homicide showed signs of anger and frustration throughout the match, and after he scored what appeared to be a three count with a roll-up, but what the referee of the match ruled only a two count, he turned into a villainous character by knocking him out. As the recovered Joe went to attack Homicide, the lights in the arena went out and in the darkness Homicide threw a fireball at Joe, which led to him getting disqualified in the match. After the match, Homicide attacked referees and wrestlers who came to the ring to aid the badly burned Joe, before being apprehended by the rest of the locker room. In subsequent weeks, Homicide defeated fan favorites Bryan Danielson and Spanky, cheating and threatening referees in both matches. Homicide faced Joe for the ROH Heavyweight Championship for a third time on May 22 at Generation Next, with Joe retaining in a match which saw him bleed for the first time in ROH. Homicide and Joe continued to feud throughout the summer of 2004, with Homicide recruiting a stable known as The Rottweilers (originally Low Ki, Ricky Reyes, Rocky Romero and Julius Smokes) to help him defeat Joe. Despite the best efforts of The Rottweilers, Joe defeated Homicide to retain his title in a fourth match on July 23 at Death Before Dishonor II: Night 1. The Rottweilers worked as a unit throughout the remainder of 2004, helping one another win matches.
Best of Five Series and feud with Jay Lethal (2005)