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.

BJW is one of my favourite promotions on the planet. Big Japan Pro Wrestling is a strong style and deathmatch haven that has gone on for over 20 years providing some of the most prolific deathmatch wrestlers on the planet with a platform. This particular match is taken from the 24/09/2007 TV show and has circulated YouTube for years. This was how I found it and in tow, part of my introduction to the company.

This match is fought under Royal Rumble rules except that you could also pin your opponent in the ring if needs be. This wasn’t the only deviation from the rules as there were also gratuitous amounts of weapons in the ring and brought into the match by wrestlers. These weren’t just traditional weapons either, there were giant hammers and cacti brought into this carnival of carnage. This was mixed in with traditional wrestling and power moves as the eliminations racked up. This was an extended version of the deathmatch formula that has worked so well for BJW over the years, proper wrestling mixed with absolutely mental spots.

It also featured some of the best past and present BJW and FREEDOMS talent too as the likes of Shadow WX of the old generation and current roster legends Jun Kasai, Ryuji Ito, Abdullah Kobayashi (who would go on to win the whole thing), Jaki Numazawa, Takashi Sasaki (FREEDOMS legend) and Yuko Miyamoto who has just made his GCW debut as part of the Nick Gage Invitational. It’s a melting pot of generations and talent that have paved the way to success for the company over the years. It was the perfect way to find the names to follow if you wanted to get into this company and the Japanese deathmatch scene. YouTube is a powerful tool for finding matches and this was one of my favourite examples of doing so.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJo_EVK5B24]

Come back tomorrow for your next deathmatch treat!

Images courtesy  of BJW, FREEDOMS, Pinterest   Video courtesy of johnstuartwwe YouTube channel