Few people are quite as good at getting a reaction as the Kirks. The second Fantasy hits, the crowd either erupts into cheers or boos, no one is ever silent. One of the main reasons for the cheers at the moment is Kasey Kirk. She is on the rise of a lifetime in ICW and is aiming to take the fight to anyone in any company. As a certified deathmatch superstar, she has put her blood, sweat, and tears into her work. On the eve of two of her toughest challenges to date, we here at SteelChair, myself and Steph Franchomme, got the chance to talk to Kasey as she prepares to battle Reed Bentley and Eric Ryan this weekend. Alongside that, we talked about women in deathmatch, fighting in the chains, the CZW explosion match, and a whole lot more. Enjoy.

First off, why deathmatch? What brought you to the dance?

“When I started wrestling, I never expected to start doing deathmatches. When I first got into it, I loved ECW, I loved watching them but I never really thought I was going to be doing this type of stuff though I was drawn to it early on. Then I met my husband, Brandon Kirk, who was starting to deathmatches around that same time. I just kinda got dragged along for the ride. I went to CZW and was like “wow I really like doing this stuff.” It felt more me and here we are.”

Was it a hard style to adapt to?

“My first deathmatch, first singles deathmatch, was Jimmy Lloyd at CZW. It was a Squared Circle of Sacrifice so I went from 0 to 100. It was exposed boards, and barbed wire, we even did an explosion at the end. I kind of went a bit crazy for my first one but I knew about six months prior, that I was going to do all this. I just took the time to really study it, you can’t really test that stuff because you don’t want to feel or wreck your body going through glass and using tubes ahead of time. I asked a lot of questions, and came to the deathmatch guys, “How do I swing this? How do I take this? How do I protect the other person and myself?” There was a lot of months of preparation and just trying to study it as much as possible before I did it.”

Ironically enough, that was the first CZW show I ever covered for SteelChair and was the first match of yours I’d seen. I have always wondered, was the explosion planned? Everyone seemed to jump and it set off the alarm…

“It was planned. We didn’t tell anyone about it clearly and we did not expect the fire alarms to go off. That was the downfall of losing that building because we got fined a lot of money but yeah, it was planned. It was rigged before the show started and was set off during our match.”

The top story at the moment is your meteoric rise through ICW NHB. How does it feel to go from the woman everyone talks over to one of the undisputed Queens of ICW?

“Oh man, thank you. That’s a loaded question. I have this weird relationship with myself and with wrestling. I am honoured. I’ve worked really hard to get where I am right now with ICW. At the same time, I think I have such a long way to go. I have this really bad imposter syndrome so I’m constantly thinking why is it me? Why is it me? But at the same time, I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. I started as a manager and I did the spots but to be where I am, it’s taken a lot of hard work and a lot of proving people wrong. That part feels really good.”

I don’t think anyone can really argue with it. You’ve been in some of the most brutal ICW matches, especially the ones with Demanto covering you in salt and lime…

“It’s my own sort of confidence issues. I’ve had the most fun I’ve ever had with my career so that’s saying something. I think it’s been a blessing to work with all these amazing people because they have taught me so much. I’m just kind of enjoying the ride right now.”

It started with John Wayne Murdoch but you have now beaten two of the four current and former ICW American Deathmatch champions. How does it feel to look back and think oh shit I’ve beaten all these champions?

“Crazy. I don’t think it was supposed to happen like it did. It was kind of organic in the way that it did happen. Like I said before, I’m just working really hard and it’s fun to see hard work pay off in a sort of weird way. it’s been challenge after challenge, I am exhausted, mentally and physically exhausted. My body is wrecked and this weekend is going to be insane for me but I’m really looking forward to it.”

You’ve got Reed Bentley and Eric Ryan this weekend. A couple of tough challenges I’d guess?

“I would say the most difficult weekend of my career probably. It’s definitely going to be the most painful. I don’t really know how to prepare other than going in and doing what I do every time. This is going to be the hardest weekend I’ve had to date.”

Have you ever been bothered by how people may perceive what you do? The whole anti-intergender crowd and such? Brandon and the thunderstorm match with Psycho Clown just had that happen…

“Good question. I don’t really think about it as often anymore. Only because there has been such a great reception from people about the intergender stuff that I’m doing. Even from people that aren’t super into it. I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback, “oh I can show my daughter this. She can go out and take down someone three times her size. She can do anything. She watches you and she knows she can do anything.” I’ve been getting a lot of that recently which is a beautiful thing. It’s probably the main reason that I keep doing what I’m doing. But you know people always love to talk. People always want to put in their two cents. I’ve said this before but you can’t rationalise with the irrational. If people are against it then okay, I just leave it at that.”

I need to steal that catchphrase for the next time someone criticises me for writing about deathmatches.

“Take it. Take it.”

Steph: From what we’ve seen, there are more and more followers for deathmatch. From shows on IWTV, there are people from more and more countries watching. We see more people doing the tubes and other things. What do you think about that and maybe not always in the best way do you think that GCW and the other companies play a part in that?

“You know what’s interesting? After the pandemic started, deathmatch rose to the top in a way because we were the only people doing things at the time and we kind of kept the ball rolling. So, there was a lot of content and a lot of exposure. I think now people almost find it trendy. You look at AEW and there’s a lot of blood on TV now. People think it’s cool, it’s interesting and they’re seeing more of it so the people who weren’t super into it are a little bit desensitised to it now. They’re like, “Okay, I could watch this, it’s interesting.” So, I think that’s really interesting that everybody is on board with it. A lot of wrestlers are trying them now, who normally wouldn’t do them or would do a one-and-done thing. Look at Matt Cardona, who got a huge rise from dabbling into the deathmatch world. It really is interesting how it’s taken off. I’m not really sure why but we’re enjoying people enjoying us.”

Steph: There’s not that many women in deathmatch in general. There’s usually one or two per company and not much crossover. It seems there are one or two in GCW, some in ICW, some H2O, etc. How would you explain that? Is it the companies, the women? What could explain that?

“I think at one point in time, it was just frowned upon. You look at the LuFistos, the Mickie Knuckles of the world, they were doing something and trailblazing something that people were afraid to do. That women were afraid to do specifically. I think that as deathmatch got more accepted, people almost welcomed it. I feel like now it’s becoming more popular for women to be in deathmatch. Although, as you said, it’s few and far between. There’s a few here and there that want to dabble in it but I think, when you start out wrestling and I’ll speak for me, when I started wrestling, I was groomed into the, “you’re going to be a TV wrestler, you’re going to be the cute girl with the sparkly girl and coming out smiling and high-fiving.” It just never was me. It was never who I was. I didn’t know who I was at the time but I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do. That wasn’t the kind of path I wanted to take and I think a lot of women, especially those starting so much younger than I did, you see Billie Starkz, you see young girls getting into it…”

Steph: Masha Slamovich. We see you all…

“Yeah. You see these young girls getting into it. Masha is great, but even when Masha started, she was a super Joshi. She still is but she also morphed into this hardcore hybrid-style wrestler as well. We all started and needed to find where we fit. I think as we got older, we just thought we were going to be ourselves and have fun. I think that’s the main thing and people are starting to break out of that stigma. The “oh, you have to go out in your sparkly gear and do fancy moves,” mentality.”

How has it been to fight alongside and against your husband? Does it bring out an extra edge to your fights? Does it help to have the motivation? I’ve noticed you’ve never attacked Brandon with a Sawzall like Masha attacked AKIRA…

“No, I think it’s really important, we’re still married guys, it needs to make sense. Having him out there with me has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He is so good at what he does, he is the best person to be holding my hand through it, helping me with wrestling stuff, and also helping me mentally calm down. He’ll be like, “you got this”, he’s my number one supporter and my biggest cheerleader for real. I know people are like, “you’re married to him, you have to say the nice stuff” but it’s true. He’s really helped me break out of my shell and find a different side of myself. It’s been helpful, it’s been really helpful.”

Just as a personal curiosity, how hard is it fighting within chains? Are they nicer than ropes or worse than ropes because I’ve seen some rings where the ropes look like they’re made of lead?

“The chains suck. It’s a really cool concept and I’ve gotten a little more used to it now as we’ve been doing this for a while but it’s difficult to number one, find different and creative things to do from other people which can get tricky because you don’t want to be repetitive, you want to do something different every time. It limits a lot of the things you can do and hanging from them, like doing that Spider Suplex I’ve been doing, I mean the bruises on the back of my legs are gnarly. That wouldn’t happen with ropes. I’d probably get little bruises but not like the ones I get from the chains. You have to learn to be creative and figure out ways to do stuff. I definitely don’t recommend hanging yourself by your legs from the chains. “

Steph: Is it easier or harder to wrestle your husband?

“You know what, it was pretty difficult. I only wrestled him one time ever before the ICW match and it was in a tag match that not a lot of people saw. It was a Dojo Wars show for CZW so there were like ten people there. It was a student show and he chopped me so hard. It’s the hardest chop I’ve ever taken in my life and I was like, this is the first and last time I’m wrestling you. Then when they said you’re gonna wrestle Brandon, I was like oh my god, he hurts. I was so terrified. His wrestling style is very aggressive, it’s very hard-hitting because he commits 100% to every move he does. I think that part really scared me cos I knew what to expect from him. But I also trust him with everything so I knew it was going to be fine. Though he did bust my lip open so, that was not fun. it was difficult but would I do it again, probably but not for a while.”

Are we ever going to see the Kirks take over the world? With the ICW Australian tour coming up and the UK tour coming up, will we see The Kirks worldwide?

“I hope so. I want to go worldwide and he does too so, hopefully.”

Get all the Tim Tams…

“Oh my god, all the Tim Tams.”

What dream matches death or otherwise do you want to have?

“I have an unrealistic one that will never happen because he is retired and very adamantly doing it for his mental health but Sick Nick Mondo is my absolute all-time dream deathmatch. There’s no one that tops that. That’s up there. I’m calling someone out tonight, a deathmatch legend. He’s on my list so I’m excited about that. So yeah, I’m calling Matt Tremont out at his own place. Besides those, I don’t really have a super long list. Even with regular matches, I don’t have a list because the ones I used to have when I was just starting, I got to wrestle a lot of cool people I wanted to wrestle, it kind of broke my heart. They say never meet your heroes. Some people really crushed me just mentally. Now, I’m very open-minded. A lot of people I think I can have cool matches with, I’ve had the best matches with. I try to stay super open-minded because you just never know.”

I have to ask; how did it feel to get revenge on AKIRA?

“I had been waiting for that day for a year. I always joke about it now that I have my Harry Potter scar because I have a little scar on the side of my head from those trash can lids. I was like, we have to do this, we have to circle back. It went viral that year and a half ago and it’s funny to be able to do it. I should have done it harder; I was way too nice.”

Steph: What kind of advice would you give to anyone who wants to cross the line into the deathmatch world?

“Just do what makes you happy. Life’s too short. You just got to go for it. At some point, self-love doing the things that you want to do are the most important things in your life. Happiness is the most important thing and if it’s something you want to do, go for it. Surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing because safety is the number one thing. I think there’s a lot of people that do deathmatches but make sure it’s safe. Make sure you’re going in there with someone you trust. Just go for it, live your best life.”

What keeps you moving forward with it?

“I question that all the time. Why am I doing this? I guess like I said before, the reception from the little girls. I think that’s been the biggest thing to keep me going. I’ve met a lot of parents and a lot of children, which is so wild that say I want to be big and strong, just like you. If I can keep showing them that anything’s possible then that’s enough to keep me going until I physically can’t anymore.

Steph: I never understood why so few wrestlers cross wrestling borders. Would you like to move across more?

“I’m in and out of H2O. I’ve just done JCW. So, if people want me, I will go where I’m wanted. Going to new places and working is part of the ultimate goal. Just going everywhere and working everywhere. If people want me, I’ll be there.

In a non-egotistical way, do you think you’ve become an inspiration as you’ve shown literal blood, sweat, and tears can push you up the ranks?

“I hope that someone can look at my journey and go oh I can have my own journey and be successful at it as well. My path was very non-traditional. I struggled with a lot early on in my career to get to where I am now. I hope people can be like oh, she got through it, she found herself, and now, she’s being successful and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Hopefully, other people can have a bit of hope too.”

Where did the idea for the 187 Tube Chair drop come from? It’s one of the coolest finishers ICW has at the moment…

“Thanks. I think it started in my match with Danny Demanto, he wanted me to do a splash with the chair. At the beginning of that match, the first thing I did, I dove to the outside and crushed my sternum pretty bad. So, I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish the match, let alone hit a splash. I was like absolutely not, that’s going to kill me. I decided to sit out with it. Everyone was like, you’ve got to keep doing that. It basically happened to avoid doing a splash. It’s not a great bump to take constantly but it looks cool and it’s fairly easy for me and the other person so we’re off.

Steph: Is it easy to have a rapport with the women of deathmatch? Especially since only one or two seem to ever be on a show. Are the men welcoming?

“The locker rooms I’ve been in lately, I’ve felt more comfortable and more accepted than probably any locker rooms I’ve been in. Which is crazy but it’s still hard for multiple women to be on a show for some reason. It’s weird when you go into a locker room and there’s usually only one or two or three women. That’s a little bit frustrating as a woman because you want to see opportunities for everybody. At the same time, when you are in a locker room, from my experience at ICW it’s predominately men and they take me under their wing. Like a little sister. They have been extremely supportive and have wanted me to shine. That’s something I’ve never really experienced in my career. I still think women in wrestling need to fight for more opportunity and for more exposure definitely but we’re working on it.”

We need Danny to book a “Tournament of the Tough Women.” We’ve had Battle of the Tough Guys…

“Yeah, that’d be sick.”

Kasey Kirk on Social media: Twitter, Instagram

Get Kasey Kirk’s Merch: Here

Very Deathman Thanks to Miss Nygma – All images courtesy of ICW, Red Shoes Media