WARNING STRONG VIOLENCE AND LANGUAGE AHEAD

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.

Okay, this one was hard to pick. Danny Havoc passed away recently and that news broke the wrestling world’s heart. He was a genuine wrestler, a brilliant mind, and one of the best deathmatch wrestlers that ever took to ring of weaponry. The even harder part was trying to nail down a singular match to pick. He had so many memorable matches with Jon Moxley, Rickey Shane Page, SHLAK, and as you’ll see here, Alex Colon. This would be his retirement match. His Viking funeral that he would stick to until making a surprise appearance at a charity event in 2019 and then for GCW Japan and ultimately his last match as a surprise opponent against SHLAK at Run Rickey Run. This one, the main event of Down With the Sickness 2017 was so big it even featured in Vice’s the Wrestlers.

The match started with Danny Havoc coming out with a knifeboard shield and entering a ring full of glass and plunder. It was going to be every bit as explosive as a Viking funeral and would feature many contraptions of Havoc’s own design. He and Colon danced around the plunder and knocked each other into glass panes, Havoc using his shield to do so. Havoc attacked Colon with a carpet strip bundle and through him into a barbed-wire ladder outside. Colon returned fire by driving Havoc onto a plastic fork globe and kneeing it into him then dropped him on the barbed-wire ladder with a bridging Northern Lights. Colon dragged him outside and hit him with a chair and tried to put him through a table. But Havoc broke a strip-bundle over him and tried to fight him on the top. Colon knocked him back down but Havoc recovered and pushed him off the top through a table on the outside. He brought Colon back to the ring and after a small scrap, threw Colon against the barbed-wire ladder with an exploder. Havoc went to the top rope but Colon knocked him down and hit a rope hung double stomp to the apron. He hit Havoc with a bundle suicide dive and took a Gory Bomb onto a barbed-wire board. Havoc followed with an elbow but couldn’t keep Colon down.

Havoc tried to finish Colon with a superplex onto his shield but Colon wiggled free and powerbombed Havoc onto it instead. Colon covered him in salt and locked in a Camel Clutch. Havoc made the ropes so Colon pelted him with a strip and bit his head. They slugged it out as the ring ropes were brought down. A giant ladder was brought in as Colon kept Havoc subdued with strikes and fish-hooks. Colon snapped Havoc with a stunner and set up a giant barbed-wire board. Colon tried to launch Havoc through it but Havoc dodged and dumped Colon through it with a Dragon Suplex. Havoc hit General Order 24 but couldn’t keep Colon down for three. He set up a plunder pile and hammered Colon with forearms. Colon fired back and we got a light-tube duel that led to Havoc hitting Colon with a cactus and Colon driving Havoc off the ring with a DVD into exploding barbed-wire. Colon dragged Havoc back into the ring and hit a massive double stomp off the giant ladder. Colon attacked him with a broken tube and ordered the entry of a light-tube sandwich. By that, I mean two panes of glass sandwiching a whole ton of tubes. That was set up and both men fought up the giant ladder. Havoc tried for General Order 24 but Colon reversed into a Spanish Fly through the tube sandwich to win the match. Both men were borderline KO but Colon was declared the winner and he would be the guy to retire Danny Havoc. A man who ruled deathmatches and went out on his shield in one of the greatest matches in CZW history. This match is available on IWTV, do yourself a favour and watch it.

I’ll end this spot of the calendar with a quote from Alex Colon about what he wanted from this match, “I want people to remember it. Matches come and go, with this I want it to be a memory. To be a memory for at least someone in the crowd. For someone to see me and go, I remember that match you had with Danny Havoc and it stuck in my mind. I want it to mean something to somebody.” I hope this counts, Alex. Come back tomorrow for the next deathmatch delight.

All images courtesy of Pow Yeah, GCW Twitter, CZW Studios, Video courtesy of CZW YouTube