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.
So here we are, Halloween. We’ve made it to the end of this bloodstained rainbow. It’s time to open the final door in the calendar and it needed to be something special. I had several ideas but, in the end, I went with my most likely match of the year. It featured my favourite wrestler on the planet right now, Jun Kasai and one of the best active deathmatch wrestlers around right now, G-Raver. Raver is a satanic Luchador deathmatch star, how is that not awesome? He got the main event of the second night of the GCW in Japan tour battling Jun Kasai at the New Face of War.
You can bet that there was broken glass aplenty and more blood than your local blood bank. Kasai showed his usual sign of respect by giving Raver the finger and the pair got going. The crowd were torn during the feeling out phase. Both men were insanely popular with the crowd. The pair quickly started breaking light tubes over one another and brawling. Raver was in Kasai’s house so he was not going to get it easy. It was Kasai’s brute force approach and power game against the flippy shit of G-Raver. A clash of styles everyone needed to see. Raver used speed and glass to get the advantage over Kasai. But it didn’t last, as Kasai hit Raver with a Piledriver through light tubes, posing afterwards. He would even hit Raver in the dick with a tube. Every time Raver had an advantage Kasai would slap, or more accurately, glass him and regain control. Even a flower pot was broken up and used as sharp debris.
Holy shit！
Holy shit！#GCW#GCWinJapan #GCWJapanTour pic.twitter.com/27mR2LsSj3— みすた～あす (@mrass1215) August 23, 2019
In the end, Kasai would win. Raver had proven his worth by kicking out of the Pearl Harbour Splash, dived into butcher’s knives and glass before finally giving out. Kasai even hit Raver with the One-Winged Angel but it wasn’t enough originally. I loved this match first viewing. I loved it on the second viewing. The chemistry between the pair was on another level as both men were at the top of their games. It really was a battle of the best. All this carnage occurred as a commentary with Jimmy Lloyd tried their best to comment on what they saw. The squeamish nature of King only elevated the drama. No match gripped me quite like this one. I have ranked it above everything else I’ve seen or been to this year and that is a massive statement. That is why it was the final door and why it is my match of the year (so far.)
@crazymonkey0901 Jun Kasai shouts out @KennyOmegamanX before using his move as tribute to put the hurt on @StaySickGRAVER!! @GCWrestling_ is the absolute best wrestling in the world#GCWJapanTour #NewFaceofWar#GRavervsJunKasai pic.twitter.com/SHYClLlT2a
— DeathmatchEmpire (@DeathmatchE) August 28, 2019
Thank you to anybody who has stuck with this. 31 days was a lot. I hope that you’ve found a new match through this or a new thing to enjoy. It was surprisingly challenging to pick 31 whilst also taking into account suggestions from others. I thank both Steph Franchomme and James Truepenny for keeping up with this crazy undertaking, editing these pieces as they happen, anyone who suggested a match and every wrestler who has been featured. It’s been fun and here’s to more blood and guts wrestling appearing soon.
Images courtesy of GCW Twitter, G-Raver Twitter, DeathmatchEmpire Twitter, mrass1215 Twitter