If you didn’t catch episode one, welcome to 31 Days of Deathmatches. This is an advent calendar-style countdown to Halloween offering you a door of deliciously gory wrestling per day. Our trip to the spookiest day of the year will take us around the world and through time. This will chronicle some of the most significant deathmatches throughout the years but will mostly consist of my absolute favourite barbed wire bouts and glass shattering matches. Without further ado, let’s open the next door.
As Monty Python once said, and now for something completely different. We’ve covered two deathmatches heavy with objects of destruction. Well, what if I told you there was an amazing deathmatch that was centred around one solitary light tube? DDT hosted their annual Wrestle Peter Pan earlier in the year and I had the pleasure of watching it live. The fourth match of the night was an IPPON Light Tube Deathmatch for the DDT Extreme Title.
It came about because then champion, Akito was being a very boring champion. He was called out for this by ASUKA. They wanted him to take the belt back to where it belongs, the extreme side of wrestling. Since the champion chooses the rules of a title match, he made the most anti-extreme extreme match he could, a single light tube deathmatch that ended when someone broke the light tube. If you broke it, you lost. It even got its own pomp and circumstance entrance before being taped to the ropes on its lonesome.
This on paper sounds awful but in an ironic twist of fate, ended up being one of the most intense matches on the card. it was so easy to break and, on several occasions, it looked like it would all be over only for someone to make a last-minute save. There was chain wrestling involving the tube, near hits and misses, power moves around it and in the end a clever finish that saw Akito protect himself from a Roundhouse Kick by holding up the light tube. ASUKA broke the tube and lost the match because of it.
This could have so easily gone bad. It was only through excellent in ring work and pacing that made it work so well. I mean, all it would have taken was one wrong move and the match could have prematurely ended in disaster. Both wrestlers are excellent talents and managed to take a daft concept and not only make it believe but also intense as hell. This is another thing I want to celebrate on our spooky scary calendar. If you want to watch it yourself, DDT Universe is the way to go.
Come back tomorrow for your next deathmatch treat.
All images courtesy of ddtpro.com, voicesofwrestling.com