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.
Deathmatches aren’t ballet. Considering these matches contain the word death in the title, it should be no real surprise that there is some element of danger in performing them. Despite the spectacle going on, these are still people attacking each other with a whole manner of sharp objects and broken glass. It’s only a matter of time before you get hurt performing them. Today I have selected two examples as we’re on day 13, many people’s most unlucky number.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MuwL60I9vU]
Example one: CZW Tournament of Death 8
Nick Gage was on a roll during CZW’s 8th edition of the TOD as he had defeated long-time rival, Deranged and made his way over Jon Moxley and Scotty Vorteckz to make his way to the finals of the tournament. All he had to do was beat Thumbtack Jack and he’d be the King of TOD. After a gruelling match against Jack, Gage lost and took a bump through light tubes that gave him a cut so deep it severed an artery. He had to be airlifted out of the venue and treated at a hospital. There was even footage of him bleeding out as medical staff tried to attend to him. All the time he looked like a scowling badass. He would luckily recover and attack Jack at an event a week later but it was still a scary injury that could have gone way worse. Always remember that broken glass is not your friend, it is a deadly, very deadly weapon.
Example 2: GCW Tournament of Survival 4
Example two was very much the same ascent to the finals of a tournament gone horribly wrong. G-Raver was on a run as he went through Nick Gage and Jimmy Lloyd to progress to the final against Alex Colon. It was set to be a leftover fuckery match with barbed wire ropes. The only problem was these barbed wire ropes were way too slack, so Raver, a satanic luchador went to bound of the ropes and fell straight through, concussing himself. Watching live, and due to Raver’s contact, we all thought he was dead. He was barely moving and clearly out of it after colliding with the floor. Raver was helped out of the tournament forcing an impromptu final to be made. Luckily, he too made a full recovery and performs still where he is looking to be one of the biggest a best deathmatch stars in America. The lesson here, always make sure your ropes are properly set up if your match is built around them.
Remember deathmatches are dangerous if not done wrong. As a final primer here’s a video of Rickey Shane Page getting a piece of glass pulled out of his head.
Not fun. #BJW pic.twitter.com/SN7xyVSx4b
— Rickey Shane Page リッキーシェーンページ (@RickeyShanePage) October 6, 2019
Come back tomorrow for your next deathmatch treat!
Images courtesy of Fite TV, Reddit, Cultaholic Videos courtesy of Rickey Shane Page and Crazyman 5000 on YouTube