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.
The Tournament of Death is a yearly staple of the deathmatch scene. CZW put on one of the bloodiest and brutal tournaments of the year with eight competitors fighting to claim death match supremacy. This will not be our only trip to this tournament but for today, the first day in double figures, I’d like to take you to my favourite match from this year’s tourney.
One of the first-round matches for this year’s TOD saw a British import take on a Hipster Heartthrob. I am talking about Big F’N Joe, Rise Underground Champion and someone who very much lives up to his name, taking on Casanova Valentine, my personal favourite of the tournament and king of the no-ring deathmatch. With two big forces colliding, it was only a matter of time before chaos ensued.
.@CasanovaVal666 with the Black death followed by a a stage 5 clinger through a barbed wire board#TOD18 pic.twitter.com/ZqEyx36b5M
— Combat Zone Wrestling (@combatzone) June 22, 2019
Their match was dubbed a bundles and boards match which saw them fighting with boards and bundles of barbed wire amongst the other deathmatch toys. There were plenty of light tubes and glass and skewers whilst also using a garden strimmer that Casanova brought with him. Big F’N Joe’s ring attire which is a bouncer’s shirt and trunks left him exposed to a lot of the glass and object used whilst his “Big F’N Joe” was the target of many a shot. The pair got physical and put on the most competitive and lengthy match of the opening round. Both men were bloodied and cut up with the crowd relishing every second. The finish saw crowd favourite Valentine go over with a top rope Uranage into barbed wire after a massive war.
There’s no controversy with this match, I just loved watching it and it put both of these wrestlers on my radar. Rise Underground is a UK based promotion that I now watch on YouTube and the pair had a rematch there. They also have an upcoming show on Halloween seeing these two square up again. Be sure to check out their social media to find out more. The same for Casanova Valentine who has his own YouTube channel chronicling some of his matches around the world. Let’s just celebrate wrestler’s and promotions for today!
Come back tomorrow for your next deathmatch treat!
Images courtesy of CZW Twitter, Earl Gardner Photography Video courtesy of Rise Underground YouTube, CZW Twitter