Deathmatch Interest Thread 2 (NSFW)

[Merzbow]

A convicted woman beater, too. That often gets overlooked as I think it wasn't widely known.

[BomberPat]

other than Nick Khan weirdly being an ECW/hardcore guy (he's apparently the reason New Jack ended up in the games), I can't see any reason for them to be signing Necro to any kind of deal. Even if you leave aside his politics and legal history (none of which would be disqualifying criteria for WWE anyway), what do they possibly get out of it?

They can't own a single bit of footage Necro appears in, there's surely no way they're ever making any money off Necro Butcher merchandise even if they do produce some, and while it would be surreal to see him in WWE 2k27, again it's difficult to imagine the profit margins there. Beyond that, what advantage is there to the nostalgia contracts? It keeps him from appearing in AEW, but has there ever been anything to suggest they might be remotely interested? 

The only other thing I can think of is that it's Dark Side Of The Ring-related, but Necro's way down the list of people to try and get on-side if they want to undermine that show.

[Merzbow]

I'd be surprised if WWE/TKO doesn't already have a working relationship or something close to it with the DSoTR lot to have some sort of influence, mainly via The Rock and his production company who's worked directly with them.

24 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Beyond that, what advantage is there to the nostalgia contracts? It keeps him from appearing in AEW, but has there ever been anything to suggest they might be remotely interested? 

I've seen Tony Khan outright say no to guys who've said less horrible things so I doubt it, unless he's a real sicko and wanted to see Joe kill him off for good.

[Richie Freebird]

CZW Tournament of Death: Day Two. So the day of this particular show fell on the day that we sadly lost Andy "The Butcher" Williams. CZW Boss DJ Hyde took to the ring and called a 10 bell salute in tribute to our fallen brethren. One thing about the the pro wrestling scene. When we lose one of our own, we mourn together. All wrestlers on the card assembled around the ring to pay tribute. Referees, stage hands, etc. all came out to observe the salute. Classy show of respect to open up proceedings on day two. Once again, RIP Butcher, and thanks for coming brother. Okay, on we go to today's carny card live from the Hyde Family Farm in Deepest Darkest Delaware.  

First match - Semi final match. 3 way dance between Dred, Slade & Big Tim Strange. The gimmick here was a panes of glass deathmatch. Winner goes to the finals of ToD 2026. I'll tell you what my friends, that Slade is one scary looking dude. I don't know too much about him but he seems to have been active for the best part of a decade across GCW, CZW, JCW and others. He looks like someone you'd find on one of those sensationalist pseudo-documentaries like "America's toughest prison rapists" or some shit. Just looks like he's ready to rip someone's intestines out and devour their remains. Cold looking dude. Meeting him in a dark alley is not on my bucket list.  

Everyone took their fair turn in going through the panes of glass (its mad how causally I utter this sentence, after watching only a few deathmatches again). I did notice that the big deathmatch cowboy Timmy Strange was carrying some red raw battle scars from the gusset plate match he went through yesterday. I've said it before and I'll say it again - those things are brutal man. Fair play to these men for coming out again after the batterings that most of them went through yesterday. I think I'd be looking for at least 2 weeks' rest to heal up after some of the slasher shit that occurred in the previous day's matches. But that's why its those nut cases out there and not me. Fuck that.  

In addition to the advertised glass panes, All 3 competitors enjoyed crowning each other with chairs baking trays and other whacky nonsense in this one. There was also a giant Budweiser can /container thing (roughly the size of an office waste paper bin, for reference) which was full of shards of glass. I'd put money on those smithereens being yesterday's sweep-ups... Anyway, Dred ended up choking out wild man Slade for the win. The crowd booed heavily at the decision, after Slade's limp arm fell to the deathmatch deck one too many times for the referee's liking. I'm sure these were boos for the kayfabe heel winning the bout and nothing else. Considering its place on the card, it was a decent opener. A fun little curtain jerker to whet the appetite of the gore freaks in attendance.  Dred seemed to catch a bit of a gash in his elbow during this one, but the Hillbilly nurse behind the curtain seemed content that he was fine... Deathmatch logic baby!

Next match - Log cabin light tube semi final. 3 way dance between Bear Bronson, Eric Ryan and Eric Dillinger (who came out wearing the same white jeans as yesterday, still absolutely splattered with dried up blood stains). There was seemingly some terracotta left over from yesterday, which got wanged into the mix here for good measure. One of the log cabins was wrapped in barbed wire, adding a bit of sickening spice to the already violent contraptions laid out for this one. We'll come back to this particular weapon in a sec. 

The two Erics seemed intent on teaming up against the bigger, stronger Bronson here, attacking double team style from the off. The first big spot came when our man Bear had the advantage and laid Ryan down with a log cabin for a duvet and then gorilla pressed the blood soaked Dillinger through the lot. Wallop. That looked really cool, my friends. The crowd were fully awake and getting into the afternoon's carnage now... The Eric alliance re-took the advantage though and double suplex through the aforementioned barbed wire log cabin. The barbs definitely sank deep into Bronson's back here, it looked like he had a bit of trouble extracting them. Pure grimace material.  

There was a lot more wrestling on show in this match. Dillinger especially had the hots for hitting his moves, dishing out black hole slams, poison ranas, side-suplexes, and even a fantastic looking cross body dive from the top right over the guard rail to Ryan who was amidst the crowd. He's really impressing over this tournament weekend, is Dillinger. I'll look forward to seeing him again on future shows. He seems to enjoy it out there and his enthusiasm is infectious.  

The writing was taking its inevitable place on the wall when Bronson hoisted both men onto his shoulders simultaneously (incredible strength man, no matter how many times we see this spot it doesn't get any less amazing, does it?). The big bad Bear proceeded to Samoan drop both Erics onto a light tube log cabin. Incredible! Eric Ryan got out of dodge on the double but Dillinger was not so diligent. Eric 2 got hoisted up for the Rikishi-esque sit out piledriver for the 3.  

The fans loved the action in this one, and were happy to donate a lot of their personal beer stash to Bronson after the match (most of which he wasted, much like Steve Austin used to do). So my old man can't get a beer cos that old Bear wasted a beer given to him by another old man? Lets get him. Once again, the post match backstage promos were fabulous. I'm really enjoying this show.  

Next match - 8 man tag featuring those who exited the tourney on day one, plus additional deathmatch guests. Dimitri Alexandrov, Nino Extremo, Akira and Anthraxx vs Toby Klien, Alex Colon, Shlak & Lucky 13. Each team had a reigning CZW champion (Akira, as Heavyweight Champ and Shlak, the Ultraviolent Champ). I guess we can consider these guys the defacto team captains. 

Whilst it wasn't ever a case of goodies vs baddies here, Shlak's team came out to Enter Sandman, drinking beer, with Kendo sticks, while Akira's team came armed with tubes. Akira's lot were made to look stupid as the teams fenced off when Shlak's lads instantly popped all of their tubes with the kendo sticks, rendering their initial weapon selection null and void. Though this one was billed as an 8 man "tag", lets not kid ourselves. There was not a single tag in the match. The whole thing played out to tornado style rules (or lack thereof). Single fall to a finish. And it was bonkers. 

As you can imagine, an unregulated 8 man bat swinging fest was too anarchic to cover blow-for-blow. Just know every man was leaking within a couple of minutes and everyone was getting twatted with every available thing from every conceivable angle. Hardware swinging the hardway. Shlak did seem to be putting as much concentration into relieving the fans of their beer as he did into battering people (at least for a portion of the bout). Possibly needed a little hair of the dog to overcome the previous evening? Pure speculation at this point. The whole thing was just a wild festival of deathmatch violence. Really had that "bar-room melee" feel to it all.  

The classic indy spot of everyone getting everyone else in a big chain sleeper hold (or a "human centipede of sleepers", as the commentary team would dub it) got rolled out. I don't know how you feel about spots like this, but to me this is a bit of a Harrison at this point. I do appreciate that a deathmatch fan calling anything out for being formulaic is a touch ironic. Either way, one man was missing from the Centipede, young Nino. The Mexican boy wonder treated us to a missile dropkick to break up the pantomime spot and scatter bloodied bodies asunder.  

Alex Colon really seemed to have it on him tonight. He beat up young Nino hard with several tube shots and big moves, then mercilessly tapped the Mexican out with a deep crossface hold to pick up the win for his team. Eddie kept the hold on way after the bell, leaving Shlak slightly bemused. "He's just a kid" Shlak would repeat to his mates in the back. Not sure if it was just character work or old boys getting arsey with kids for stealing the lime light. Or maybe I'm simply looking too far into what was just an agreed piece of booking. Either way, top carnage, top match, and a real pace setter for the rest of the card. Wonderful stuff so far.  

I hope I get time to do some more for you guys but I can't say when right now. There's about 3 hours of material left in the show at this point, and I'm fully anticipating blood splattered fireworks. Thanks for reading old friends, you guys are all awesome. 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Richie Freebird
Couple of pictures got duplicated.

[Richie Freebird]

Next match. Women's deathmatch. Nixon Newell vs Nat Castle. Newell, announced as hailing from the Welsh valleys, has appeared for AEW, Shimmer, WXW, Progress and very interestingly, WWE. Newell's name pops up in two Royal Rumble matches (2023 & 24). This got me thinking, has anyone else entered the WWF / WWE Royal Rumble and competed at Tournament of Death? I'm not 100% on this, but I'd guess Newell is the only one. Having been mostly out of the mainstream scene for years, I'm not all that familiar with her work. I have no idea if Nixon has too much deathmatch experience, but she sure as hell looked up for it on this night. Commentators mused that her dream as a kid was to enter the Combat Zone, insinuating that her prior career was a stepping stone to this grimy theatre. Something tells me a bit of liberty was taken here.... Castle was trained by Bear Bronson and was making her CZW debut under the "Latina Spice" gimmick.   

Both lasses seemed content to go with a hybrid wrestling match and deathmatch, as moves like "old-school into a hurricanrana", 619s and buckle bombs got the energy flowing early on. The real disgusting peak of the bout came however, when Welsh wonder Newell grabbed a revolting gusset plate and slapped it right into poor Nat's forehead. Oh lads, you had to see it. The spikes pierced Castle's forehead instantly, and within 2 seconds a mass of blood just engulfed her face. Really sick spot here at the hands of our old friend the grimy gusset plate. These menacing mingers are supposed to be used in engineering construction to hold beams together during structural builds. Certainly not to be smacked into young women's foreheads. Proper stomach churning violent crap on this exchange. Urgh! 

Between a combination of sympathy for the gusset shot and a direct effort to heat up the crowd with gesturing and taunts, Castle became the face and initiated what was a thoroughly entertaining back and forth with kendo sticks. These girls didn't come to piss about here and proceeded to beat seven shades of shite out of each other with the sticks as the buzz in the crowd reached a fever pitch. Amazing atmosphere for this match. 

The elephant in the ring was a massive door with the words "Break this for Mickie" in reference to women's deathmatch legend and all round hard-case OG Mickie Knuckles. I'm not sure if this was referencing a specific storyline, feud, angle, or whether they just wanted to keep Mickie's name out there as a pioneer of this garbage, but the door was clearly there for a reason. Young Nixon ended up with Castle on her shoulders and finished this war with a power bomb through the door, which by this point was set up over chairs and adorned with light tube bundles. The fucking thing smashed like a beauty and the whole spot looked brilliant. 1,2,3, good night Nat.  

Splendid match here, but my God the visual story of this thing pretty much started and ended with the gusset plate incident. After the match Newell called out Mickie Knuckles, with the insinuation that the ask was for a first round match in next year's ToD. I'll tell you what fans, on the strength of this one I'd gladly keep my IWTV subscription going to see it. Well done both lasses. They raised hell here and the fans ate it up. 

Speaking of fans eating it up.... next match - CZW tag team title tournament match up. James Shook & Nathan Mowery vs Rickey Shane Page and Nick Gage. The angle going into this one was that RSP and Gage have got a "will they / won't they" trust issue going on as the two have feuded in the past. Shook came out bandaged up to high heaven and was seriously favouring the left arm after the previous evening's warfare. These guys are either crazy, stupid, or both to be wrestling consecutive nights in this style. Mowery came out licking his hacksaw blade (as you do). Mentalist. RSP got a good reaction, but when that classic familiar tune hit, the fans erupted. Nick Gage ran out to Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (second Metalica tune used for entrance music today) and launched himself into the adoring crowd for hugs and high fives. Lovely stuff.  

It's great to see some of these deathmatch oldies having a bit of longevity in the scene these days. In the early days we lost far too many, far too young, but guys like Gage, Pondo, Necro and now Toby Klein seem to have laughed in death's face and can somehow continue with this barbaric degeneracy well into middle age. I know 20+ years have passed since Gage was bashing heads in the early tournaments and everyone declines physically with age, but my god he looks like the local mad man from the rough part of town who lets crack cocaine consume him, but not defeat him. The bloke looks completely tapped at this point. He can certainly still go though, so absolutely fair play to him in terms of athletic ability. He's not out of this bizarre race yet. 

Enough chit-chat, lets get down to the action. This one was a trip. Wild as hell. It almost looked like a wrestling match was going to break out in the early going as a couple of arm drags got traded in the ring. It seemed like there was a collective sense of "what on earth are we doing?" from the combatants, as convention was thrown out of the window and replaced by glass shards smashing over men's faces and bodies. The fun burst its banks quickly and spilled over into the crowd and surrounding areas. Big spots earned the fan's air horn treatment as DDTs were whipped out on top of scrap cars and bodies were sent flying through the glass fronts of old vending machines. Hilariously I caught a voice on the PA system advising the crowd that any food products inside the smashed vending machine were 5 years out of date and not to be eaten. Brilliant. 

There's no way I can capture everything that went on here, but it was a great match up which built and built. One of the great angles of the match was Mowery's hacksaw vs Gage's pizza cutter. Both weapons were teased, blocked and built up, and eventually human forehead skin suffered at the hands of both instruments. I'll never take a hacksaw to the head for granted. This spot will never be normalised to me. Light tubes are like forearms at this point, but workshop tools designed to cut steel angle bar are a level above. Gruesome scenes in this one. At one point a light tube was pulled across a man's face from behind until it snapped. This seemed a much more violent way to break a tube than the traditional top of the head spot. RSP was absolutely pissing claret at this point. 

The fans were on their gothic feet and absolutely loving the action as this one developed. Gage popped the crowd with a face wash and Vader-bomb elbow, a selection of tricks from the greatest hits collection. At one point Mowery through an elbow drop through some tubes. One of the stupidest moves in this stupid style. It obviously does way more damage to the man performing the move.... but logic and reason is way off in the rear view mirror by this point, lets face it. It seems that Gage could trust Rickey after all, when the two looked at each other to confirm their alliance before planting the tournament exitees with stereo DDTs and stereo choke breakers for the double pinfall win. Outstanding. Just a gory, dingy war which at times felt like something from  Abel Ferrara's 1979 video nasty classic The Driller Killer. Superb. 

This show so far has been tremendous, on the whole. I did come a way from a couple of the previous tournaments mildly disappointed (the rain ruined one of the shows either last year or the year before), but this one could have come right out of the heyday.