Richie Freebird

The name of the act is a ‘suicide position’ human suspension. The hooks are inserted through the skin, and the participant is then lifted up via a block and tackle and suspended in the air by the hooks for a period of time.  In this instance, the suspendee was dragged out to the arena by Zandig with the hooks already inserted. Long time deathmatch associate and body modification enthusiast Whacks then hoisted him up into a full suspension using the rigging equipment shown in the photo, where he remained for a few minutes. I suspect Whacks had carefully inserted the hooks backstage prior to the spot, as knowledge of the procedure is required to ensure that the hooks are positioned correctly for the skin to cope with distributing the body weight safely.

It looks absolutely gruesome, and in that way it served its purpose as a shock deathmatch spot. However, I read some articles on the act a few years ago, and the community of suspension participants describe the procedures as pleasurable and comparable to meditation. I’m sure you’d need a certain type of mind set to enjoy something like that, but a range of suspension techniques do exist as a somewhat fringe hobby for body modification practitioners.

I'd read some comments from other fans that this year's ToD was tame, by the standards of the scene. I can tell you that Zandig's show was anything but tame, as you can see from the following picture -

There seemed to be a lot of quite vocal hatred towards DJ Hyde and CZW on this show both by the crowd and by John Zandig himself on the house mic. I've been quite out of the loop in recent times, but I assume there's been a feud going on? I don't think it was too long ago that Zandig did a few appearances for CZW and wrestled a match against DJ.

I think you'll enjoy the Zandig show. It certainly proved an entertaining riot for me. This year's Carnage Cup has also now been, as has the King of the Deathmatches tournament. I hope to see them all eventually, as the GCW Tournament of Survival II show certainly reminded me why I have been so entertained by this style for so many years.

Did any deathmatch fans see John Zandig's GCW Tournament of Survival II show? I hadn't watched any shows in probably a couple of years prior to this, but Pogo's passing got me thinking about the old scene again and I decided to check out one of the summer Tournaments. The show was actually pretty insane. I think it marked only the second time I've seen human suspension performed as part of a pro wrestling show. There were razor boards, boards mounted with actual wood saws and even the weed whackers were out, all in the first round alone. Some decent names from the deathmatch scene turned out for it too, as well as an unexpected but crowd-poppable run in and promo from bizarre lunatic Teddy Hart. I'd fully recommend giving it a look if you enjoy the wilder side of deathmatch tournaments.

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

Pogo usually got off pretty light in his deathmatches, his schtick usually revolved around him handing out the punishment (usually to Matsunaga). I know the bump your talking about when he dropped down into the pit of exploding barbed wire. 

Then there was the time he straight up poured petrol on Matsunaga's head and literally set it on fire.

What did you make of Saenchai's performance? It looked like he struggled to adapt to the rule differences in the first two rounds. I actually had him losing the first round until he scored the knockdown. He just couldn't seem to help catching the kicks or trying to initiate the clinch, which must be absolutely instinctive to him after so long fighting Muay Thai. By the third I think he'd settled into the style and fully took control of the fight. He was certainly confident in his kickboxing ability, and seemed to enjoy the show boating between rounds. Entertaining little spectacle on the whole.

Richie- your legs are going to be more sore tomorrow FYI

Spot on with this one Neil. I feel like a rusty old gate today.

What seems to be effected even more today though, is my stomach. We did about 50 sit ups as part of the circuit exercises on Tuesday, and I had no aches or tension at all in my stomach yesterday. I thought thar I'd simply got away with it without any aches, but today it's really quite tender!

Crikey, that's an eye opener. I would have thought a cold bath would have had the complete opposite to the desired effect. I thought it would have just increased the tightness and promoted all kinds of cramp. I always thought the ice bath thing was more for "mind over matter" type training, to get you used to overcoming all kinds of different physical challenges through mental will power. I had no idea something like that would benefit muscle recovery.

Thanks again gents!

Thanks Neil, Lamby and Ghostface. I think I'll go for a walk tonight then, and have a long bath (which I enjoy doing anyway, and did straight after training last night). I went on a half hour stroll at dinner time today and have been lugging semi heavy bits of kit around at work all day too, so I've been keeping somewhat active throughout the day.

It was kind of an abrupt ending to the training last night. With it being winter the team are currently doing circuit training and indoor football until it gets a bit lighter and the unlit pitch is trainable at night times. We played our game for around 50 minutes, at which point the manager declared "right lads, that's it for tonight". There was another team outside waiting to use the facility, so our lot just jumped in the cars and off we went. I'll focus more on a warm down at home next week.

My sister kindly provided me with a creatine drink when I was moaning about my legs later on last night. My friend also advised me to eat a steak for tea after training, so hopefully both of those factors contributed to lessening the stiffness / pain. As you can probably tell from my posts in here I'm still very much a novice at this fitness game. All advice is greatly appreciated guys, thank you.

So, as predicted my legs are pretty stiff and sore after my first football training ever last night.

In situations like this, what would be more beneficial - A full night' relaxation to allow them to recover, or going for a bit of a walk to keep them active and not stiffen up any more?

I did my first ever session of football training tonight. I was fucked off the warm up and circuit training at the start of the session, but by the time it came to play a match I'd kind of got a second wind. My legs are stiffening up already and are going to probably be pretty damn sore tomorrow.

I managed to play for around 50 minutes though, so I surprised myself. My jogging sessions have lasted a half hour tops (and some of that is spent walking) and I've been absolutely fucked off them. Hopefully my legs will be repaired in time for next week's training. I think the jogs will have to go on hold for at least a couple of days after that.

Richie you going to reviewing cod?

Time is a currency I'm twice bankrupt of these days. I haven't even watched this year's Carnage Cup or the Tournament of Death, which used to be 2 massive occasions in my annual calendar. In fact, the last time wrestling was on my screen at all was when I wrote the (still unfinished) IWA:MS review above.

That being said, former UKFF'er and all round good guy Stormy Weathers gave me the iPPV of the Cage of Death for Christmas, so I might write up the main event match if I ever get a spare night in the next week or so. The Cage of Death 6 review I did in the old version of this thread took me about 3 nights, from finishing work to going to bed!

Sorry to bump up this thread but is Rory Mondo retired now?

Rory Mondo has indeed retired from professional wrestling and went on a bit of a world tour holiday to celebrate.

I enjoyed that article Ebb. It lead me to other interesting ones too, via links at the bottom of the page. Astro’s Minnesota Iceman link was a good read too which lead to some other cracking articles. Keep them coming gents, this thread is a fantastic source of interesting reading. Awesome stuff.

Well, after a very heavy day yesterday, consuming probably around 20 beers over the course of the day and night (I went on an away trip to a football game) and smoking a 10 deck of fags, I felt quite tired and hungover today. Still, I forced myself out on my jog and managed to get the furthest I've gotten yet, and that was in the pissing down rain and with an injured leg. I'm going to my first ever football training on Wednesday and have offered to team up with a current player who is struggling for fitness for more jogs later in the week. I also borrowed a cycle and went on my first bike ride since I was a teenager on Saturday, and kept up the jogging over the rest of the weekend. Sporadic bits of weight bar work is occurring regularly in the house, as well as other simple exercises that can be done with no equipment.

I know I've only been on this regime for 7 days, but I actually think I might achieve this resolution this time. Feeling positive about it right now. Good.

Is this right? I've just seen a post about a TNA show at

Wayne's World was on telly last night. This made me a very happy man. A few years had elapsed since I last watched it too, so it was the perfect time to see it again. I don't think I'll ever tire of it. It's fucking brilliant.

I doubled the jog I did on Monday tonight and though my legs feel okay, my lungs started to get a bit ropey as I was walking home. It's still absolutely sod all in the scheme of things, but its better than doing nothing. According to Google maps and my ruler it was roughly 1.5 miles. Laughable, I know, but we've got to start somewhere eh.

There's no correlation between building muscle in an area and fat burning in the same place.

I once read it's a bit of a

Everyone piss off with your awesome goals and dead good levels of achievement already. I jogged for about 10 minutes the other day and felt quite happy with myself until I read what yous fucking super heroes have been up to.

I think I might buy myself a pair of football boots and leave them out in the house, in view, to psychologically boost my mental attitude towards reclaiming a bit of fitness. My local Sunday league outfit are such a shambles that anyone that turns up with boots is eligible to play. As soon as I can run at a decent pace for 15 minutes I'm turning up and getting on that pitch. I might even be ready a week on Sunday if I stick to jogging pretty much every night.

I saw one once where some American woman claimed that aliens had been taking her up to their flying saucers and knobbing her, and that she had given birth to a human / alien hybrid baby girl that was now a few years old. The aliens periodically brought back the daughter to see her during her continuing abductions, so she said.

I think the point of it was "these people aren't actually telling lies as such because they really believe this tripe to be true in their own minds", rather than one of the ones that tries to make out that alien abductions might be real, though.

I managed some more sets on the weights tonight and a slightly extended jog. My lungs don't actually feel as sore tonight, though I suspect my legs might ache a bit in the morning. I just hope I can keep it up for more than a 5-day working week, which is how long my last jogging regime lasted (I think was some time late in 2012).

Well, because I know you're all just dying to know how I got on tonight, I surprised myself by doing a lot better than I thought I would in both the weights and the jogging. I jogged easily more than double what I thought I'd be able to, and was surprised how little strength I'd lost on the weights, having done nothing but sit on my fat arse drinking ale and eating chips and cheese for most of 2013.

Positive start then. I'll be back out on the jog tomorrow if I don't wake up to horrendously stiff legs.

Thanks. I'm going to lift some small weights with my mate and jog down an industrial back road tonight just to test the waters of my (un)fitness. Late on last year I managed to get to the point of being able to jog this same road up and down 4 times.

If I get from one end to the other and still have the lungs to walk back at normal pace tonight though, I'll be happy.

I've set myself a reasonably realistic little goal this time round: To be fit enough to come off the bench for 10 / 15 minutes before the end of the local Sunday League season. I've never played football in my life (save for 2 appearances for the under 16's, over a than a decade ago now) and can't run more than a few paces without losing my breath as things stand.

The standard of the football I watch on Sunday mornings is terrible though, and due a serious lack of commitment from the team they are always struggling for numbers. I think that if I get fit enough to at least be able to run in multiple directions for 10 / 15 minutes there'll be some point where they could do with an extra set of legs. Hell, they were shouting for me to come on the other week when an injured player left them with 10, even though they know I’m unfit and have no experience.

Is that the shittest and least ambitious goal ever or what? Or is it slightly more excusable than having no aim at all?

Definitely. I was watching it late on just before bed, and as the final couple of scenes were taking place I had to sit up and put the light on or else I'd have probably ended up in tears myself. I had to watch a little bit of comedy before calling it a night, that night. As I said earlier, the film resonated in my mind for days afterwards. You know you're onto something special if its affecting you days later.

Darkside Blues (1994) made it's way onto my screen last night, and I quite enjoyed it. A Japanese animated sci-fi flick, and (visually at least) quite a cool one. The story was based around an all encompassing corporation controlling almost the entire earth in