Deathmatches can be really good and also really bad. I like them and it feels more like REAL wrestling since it's just live action freak show. Regular wrestling just doesn't feel exciting enough to care about.

It's a gimmick.

Similarly to ladder matches. If the psychology of the match is built around the urgency of getting up the ladder, then it's good. However if setting up ladder outside the ring or 15ft away from title's reach is the priority so you can play Hardy Boyz... then it's awfully frustrating.

Storytelling should not be secondary to the prop or gimmick, including death match wrestling.

Well, would have come in dropping knowledge, but that video is an interesting pick as deathmatches likely were what killed J.C. Bailey. It is believed that concussions fucked his brain to the point where he got a fatal aneurysm.

So much potential in that ring during that video, but right after this Bailey would serve a year in prison and be dead in four. Younger would go to WWE where they would rule he cannot wrestle anymore due to the extent of his injuries, which starts him down a path of bitterness leading to Q. His Q believes alienated him from every locker room he was in afterwards until he was blackballed. He is lucky Vince did not sue his ass for organizing Q shit with his official WWE email. Last I heard he is running for US House in Florida to join the America First caucus.

Edit:  Fun story, before he was released, he was actually straight out banned from the performance center after his emails were reviewed and Vince and crew seen videos of him yelling a school board for not doing enough to protect children from liberal sexual predators.  

There was nuclear levels of heat between him and HHH as he felt HHH was bringing in too many minorities and he would get hostile when HHH talked about BLM protests or saying that WWE is place for everyone.  He would talk down to the minority wrestlers to the point of people saying in interviews they wanted to start throwing down.

He is running for House District 30 and should be backed by the people who back Matt Gaetz and MTG.

And Maki Itoh is the undisputed queen of the deathmatch!!!  Literally undefeated in explosion deathmatches!!!

Feb 21, 2022 3:39:42 GMT NATH45 said:

It's a gimmick.

Similarly to ladder matches. If the psychology of the match is built around the urgency of getting up the ladder, then it's good. However if setting up ladder outside the ring or 15ft away from title's reach is the priority so you can play Hardy Boyz... then it's awfully frustrating.

Storytelling should not be secondary to the prop or gimmick, including death match wrestling.

My fav example of good storytelling despite it being a deathmatch was Moxley vs Thumbtack Jack at ToD in a Dog Collar Match.

Jack just wails on Mox then handcuff's him to the ropes and threatens to smash him with a cinderblock and Mox taps.  Crowd was fucking pissed.  Mox in an interview explained that at that point why the fuck should his character continue to wrestle?  He was handcuffed to the roped, Jack was sticking fucking needles into his head, he could not escape and Jack was about to brain his ass.  The only move at that point was to just give up.  After the match he leaves the ring shouting it is just not worth it and does a promo that he just did not have the cards so you have to know when to fold them.  Was such a good match for a deathmatch as you never, ever, see this ending.

Feb 21, 2022 3:39:42 GMT NATH45 said:

It's a gimmick.

Similarly to ladder matches. If the psychology of the match is built around the urgency of getting up the ladder, then it's good. However if setting up ladder outside the ring or 15ft away from title's reach is the priority so you can play Hardy Boyz... then it's awfully frustrating.

Storytelling should not be secondary to the prop or gimmick, including death match wrestling.

That's essentially the problem.

When you have a performer like Mick Foley or Terry Funk work a Death match, it's fine because they understand how to lay things out and typically how to make each bump count. They also know how to promote the match so it isn't just meth-head Cleetus vs. skinny fat manlet hitting each other with light tubes while a bunch of cretins surround the ring.

For the most part death match wrestling was a niche so I didn't really have an issue with it because it was the proverbial if a tree falls in the woods type of promotion. However now that it's become more mainstream with AEW, the same rules apply and outside of Moxley I've never really enjoyed it. I thought Baker/Rosa deserve props for going out there and giving their best but they shouldn't have to be in that position to begin with. Britt was like Mandy Rose trying to set the table up.

Like many have stated, deathmatch wrestling can be great if the wrestlers can tell a story while doing it, as is needed in American wrestling. CZW under DJ Hyde has been pretty good about doing storytelling with the violence (Cage of Death XV was a really good example of it). Granted, it still has its moments of being "two dogs fucking on the side of the road" as Jim Cornette would put it.😂

Over the years I come to the opposite really though for deathmatches. I would prefer a 10 minute fight of two wrestlers fighting like dogs than a 30 minute match trying to tell a story. It is a deathmatch, people want violence. Come out fast and keep moving. You should not be trying to work a normal match when you breaking light tubes over someone's head or slamming through panes of glass. Why I hate barbwire matches too. They gave deathmatches a shit name because you cannot safely work fast with it, so you work slow as hell and tease it a lot, and to cut people you generally need to slow the match down and blade them hardway with it to get blood flowing.

Mar 8, 2022 20:59:58 GMT Leper Messiah said:

As many have stated, deathmatch wrestling can be great if the wrestlers can tell a story while doing it, as is needed in American wrestling. CZW under DJ Hyde has been pretty good about doing storytelling with the violence (Cage of Death XV was a really good example of it). Granted, it still has its moments of being "two dogs fucking on the side of the road" as Jim Cornette would put it.😂

Your right, Leper Messiah, I believe the DJ Hyde/Matt Tremont cinder block match is a good example of good storytelling in a death match.

My favorite deathmatch is still Unfuckingbelieable, the match that made CZW. It was unlike anything people had seen before in terms of shear brutality and non-stop action. Very little downtime, and a super high level of brutality. No deep storytelling but was very innovative, moreso since it was fans bring the weapons with the sick CZW fans who went overboard.  Made me an instant fan of Mondo.  Jun Kasai as well, but find his matches really hard to watch due to just how bad he is willing to hurt himself.  He has done five razor matches so far and it is like now his gimmick.  

Mannnnnnnnnnnnn I haven't seen those smart mark video match slide in a LONG ass time.