Match of the Day - Greg "The Hammer" Valentine goes hardcore

Greg Valentine vs. Kendo Nagasaki - No Rope Barbed Wire Deathmatch - BJW (1995)

It may seem surprising at first that Greg "The Hammer" Valentine would be found here fighting in a Japanese deathmatch in one of the most violent Japanese deathmatch promotions, Big Japan. But if you really think about earlier Greg Valentine (before the jet black hair, Rhythm & Blues days), Valentine was just out to hurt people. John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats made a great point about Greg Valentine during an intro to his live song, "Song for Greg Valentine" where Darnielle describes Valentine as a wrestler more out to break his opponents' legs and cripple them than to win matches. Which is pretty awesome, by the way.

That being said though, this is not the Greg Valentine that fought Roddy Piper in a brutal dog collar match or tried to end "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin's career, this is a miserable shell of a man who happens to be fighting in a Japanese deathmatch. Thus, this match really suffers because of it. Granted this match is still violent and features all the goodies that you would expect in a deathmatch like barbed wire, brawling through the crowd, and that red wet stuff, it's very slow and with little to no drive. No one breaks their legs, no one gets crippled, no nothing.

Match of the Day - ECW's barbed wire TLC match

Sabu vs. Sandman - Stairway To Hell match - ECW House Party (1998)

Even ECW had their own variation to a simple ladder match going in the late 90's to early 00's. The match was called a "Stairway To Hell" match and was much more like a pole match than a ladder match as the object was to retrieve a weapon hanging above the ring for use, but the retrieval did not end the match. The weapon of choice, of course, was a big ball of barbed wire.

This is ECW's first Stairway To Hell featuring the cane wielding, beer drinking, cigarette smoking, Sandman versus the homicidal, genocidal, and incredibility suicidal, Sabu.

Theme Results

TLC: All of 'em.

Match of the Day - FMW takes a whack at WarGames: the match beyond!

Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki, & Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, & Atsushi Onita - barbed wire baseball bat ladder WarGames deathmatch - FMW Super Extreme Wrestling War (1997)

Part 1:

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling decided to take the concept of WarGames from NWA/WCW and replace the two ring element of the match with hardcore weapons like ladders, barbed wire, steel chairs, and handcuffs. The one thing that makes this match a WarGames-type match like the ones seen on the Great American Bash tour of 1987 with the Horsemen and Road Warriors, other than it being held in a caged structure, is the "staggered entry" format. Two men start in the cage and after a certain amount of time, another member from either team gets to enter the cage... but once this match got underway, that was also thrown out as all hell broke loose.

Part 2:

Yes, the match was one big cluster of violence, but really, that's what WarGames was all about; you got to see your favorite team (the good guys) take on the rival team (the bad guys) with little to no rules or restrictions. Granted this particular "WarGames" match didn't have the double ring set up that the original was known for, it still had the best wrestlers from FMW destroying one another inside one cage!

Match of the Day - The barbed wire kickpad incident

Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Katsumi Usuda - BJW vs. Battlearts (1998)

When Battlearts own, Katsumi Usuda took on Big Japan Pro Wrestling deathmatcher, Ryuji Yamakawa in a special BJW versus Battlearts event, Usuda decided to get a little hardcore himself. Part way through the match, Yamakawa grabs some loose barbed wire from under the ring and throws it into the squared circle. Before Yamakawa has a chance to do any damage to Usuda with it, however, Usuda takes the barbed wire and wraps the wiry mess around his kickpad. Usuda then proceeds to kick the living shit out of Yamakawa with it until his opponent is heavily scarred up.

Check it out!

Match of the Day - Sleeveless-flannel monsters ball match: Abyss versus Mick Foley

Hardcore Wednesday:

Abyss vs. Mick Foley - Monsters Ball Match - TNA Bound For Glory (2009)

Everyone's dream match, right?

Just watch.

Special guest referee: Dr. Stevie Richards.

Also features "Zombie Hot" Daffney taking a barbed-wire board bump. That was awesome *chants*.

Match of the Day - Megumi Kudo the former kindergarten teacher retires Combat Toyoda

Hardcore Wednesday:

Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda - No-Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch - FMW (1996)

In what is said to be one of, if not, thee first female wrestling hardcore matches, Megumi Kudo (in the pink) takes on Combat Toyoda (the bigger one) in a deathmatch featuring exploding barbed wire rather than traditional ring ropes, and it's not a pretty sight.

For any of you at home who are unaware of this sort of "deathmatch"-type of match, it's essentially the most violent matches conceived, so take "Extreme Rules" and times the violence/weapons/bloodiness by 100%. This deathmatch in particular took place in Frontier Material-Arts Wrestling (FMW) founded by Atsushi Onita, the guy who brought the deathmatch-type hardcore-based wrestling to Japan after spending an early part of his career touring Memphis.

Japan always has a way of taking a good thing from America to the extreme whether it's hardcore-style wrestling, horror movies, reality shows, or music. So much so actually, that we go and copy them right back...

Unfortunately though, the copycats we make here in the states turn out to be The Hunger Games, Wipeout, and Combat Zone Wrestling.

Anyways, this brutal deathmatch has to be one of the most tastefully violent female wrestling matches I have seen. It has emotion, it makes sense, and it also features wrestlers - female wrestlers, I may add - that could actually wrestle. Combat Toyoda is by no means a "diva" and Kudo, who may look like a little pink power ranger, is one pretty face you didn't want to mess with... and this match proves it.

This match is also noted as Combat Toyoda's last match as she would retire right after this match. Kudo, the victor of this barbaric match believe it or not, would continue to fight in such matches until her retirement match in 1997 against Shark Tsuchiya in the longest titled match: a "No ropes 200V double hell double barbed wire barricade double landmine glass crush death match".

Also, Megumi Kudo was supposedly a kindergarten teacher before making her return to wrestling via FMW. I really don't know if this is true or not.