Welcome back to 31 Days of Deathmatches Volume 2. The second edition of the annual deathmatch advent calendar put together by yours truly. Each day we will open another bloody door on the calendar and explore another deathmatch until we hit Halloween. We’re going to explore a ton of different companies, wrestlers, and stipulations as the days go on with a few surprises here and there. So, strap in as we prepare for another round of blood, broken glass, and barbed-wire on our road of deathmatches.
Earlier in the year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Casanova Valentine. Within the hour or so I spent talking to him I learned all about the underground wrestling world of no-ring deathmatches. These specialist matches are deathmatches without the ring and very few rules. You have a room, often a bar, full of weapons and you fight until you score a pinfall. You don’t need a ring to have a match and these styles of matches and the action they contain prove it. I’m going to be focusing on Casanova Valentine’s No-Ring No-Rules/ New Fear City matches but if you need more of these when you’re done here be sure to check out No Peace Underground and Timebomb Pro-Wrestling for more no-ring goodness.
Our first match is probably the most famous one featuring Casanova Valentine taking on G-Raver at Deathmatch 9. Whilst I could have picked his encounters with Jeff Cannonball, Markus Crane, Nick Gage, or DJ Hyde, this one is the one that I feel most people will have had a glimpse into before. Plus, I just want an excuse to write about G-Raver because he’s still one of the best deathmatch Luchadors ever. This got very damn violent as Raver showed no mercy and jumped Valentine early. Between glass, barbed-wire, chairs, and tacks, things got ludicrously messy as the crowd tried to rally behind Valentine. This is by far and away one of my favourite examples of no-ring deathmatches and it deserves the recognition it gets. The image of Valentine with a forehead full of tattoo needles should be burned into deathmatch pop-culture for all time.
Our second match is from the New Fear City/MV Young Fashion week show. it would see Casanova Valentine taking on the Leader of the motherfucking PolyAm Cult, MV Young. Amongst the glamour and fashion, we’d have the barbarism and bloody art of a no-ring deathmatch. This was a prime example of mixing a wild crowd with two wrestlers willing to throw down and break some glass. I had never seen MV Young in a deathmatch up until this point and I liked what I saw. It was nice to watch the two fight on a stage full of instruments and utilise improvised weapons alongside the old reliable light-tube. There was bar fighting, brawling, and cake crotch shots crammed into 15 minutes of action. Between the Text Message Break-up onto a TV, MV’s relentless striking, and all the carving up with broken glass. We were treated to a nice little match with a lot of violence and Valentine pulling off a Muta Lock using Satan’s Cock. Deathmatch MV is more than welcome on my screen again.
Our third match is from just before lockdown where Valentine took his signature style of no-ring violence to Australia and more specifically, Joel Bateman for the Deathmatch Down Under. This would be the first no-ring deathmatch in Australia so of course one of Australia’s best deathmatch stars, The Smash Hit Joel Bateman would step up to claim his place in this historic match. This was one of the last deathmatches before the COVID lockdown took hold. This was also by far, the longest match of my little collection here, clocking in at around 22 minutes. The crowd was hungry for it as Valentine and Bateman tore each other apart with tubes, staple-guns, hack-saws, and good old-fashioned brute force. We even got to see a beer waterboarding. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a crowd chant “twist his dick” so many times. It was a nice, drag-out brawl around a packed bar with more creative weaponry. It’s nice to see that the Australian deathmatch scene exists and produces some supremely fun guys to watch. Come back tomorrow for the next deathmatch delight.
All images courtesy of Nick Karp, Go Pro-Wrestling, Casanova Valentine Twitter, videos courtesy of Casanova Valentine YouTube