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.
We continue our tour of FMW next with one of the best matches they ever produced. I present to you Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda in a no-ropes electrified barbed wire match. This would be Toyoda’s retirement match and my god would it be a masterpiece. This is lauded as one of the best women’s deathmatches out there. Maybe even the best. Toyoda picked Kudo to be her final opponent in the company and the Kudo gave it everything she had so the pair could have a match with no regrets. It was the penultimate match of the show but probably the most important of the night.
The opening stages are a masterclass in tension as the two trade kicks and chain wrestling holds whilst trying to avoid the barbed wire. Toyoda and Kudo have to reposition themselves so often and catch themselves before they can plummet into the hellish wire. It’s Kudo who takes the first shock, being dropkicked into the lethal wire. Toyoda meets the wire soon after, torturing Kudo til she relents, using Toyoda’s momentum to drive her into an explosion. Toyoda gets it worse as the wire clings to her and has to be pulled off. Kudo uses this to lock on a Sleeper Hold and transitions it into a Guillotine. She tries to throw Toyoda into the wire again but she’s too exhausted. For her efforts, Kudo takes a trip instead. The best-barbed wire spot sees Kudo launch herself at Toyoda to drive her into the wires again, causing another explosion.
#OnThisDay in 1996: FMW 7th Anniversary Show: No Ropes Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match: Megumi Kudo defeats Combat Toyoda pic.twitter.com/07ygvwbnu6
— Allan (@allan_cheapshot) May 5, 2017
The list could go on. This was a well thought out, well-paced, intense bout that saw the wrestling take centre stage whilst the barbed wire was something to aim for and use to shift momentum. It was a match taking place in a deathmatch environment more than a spot fest. Which is always something to respect. In the end, Kudo won. She had withstood the wire and the brutal power of Combat Toyoda to win with the Kudo Driver. The crowd were torn the whole match on who to root for and in the end, both women received the respect they deserved. This wasn’t just a good deathmatch, it was an amazing wrestling match. It left both women unable to stand but Kudo dragged herself across the ring to be with Toyoda. Is there any bigger sign of respect?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSdMiVV_fnQ]
Come back tomorrow for your next deathmatch treat!
Images courtesy of Allan Cheapshot, HardcoreLuchaResu, Instazu.com Video courtesy of TheRBottom (YouTube)