Death Match wrestling has gone from a feud-ending violent spectacle to something you’ll see in your local bingo hall venue in front of 12 people… but how did the craze start?
Whenever someone utters the words “professional wrestling” it often conjures up mental images mental images of stars from the past like Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Mick Foley and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
To many, it also sparks modern names such as Cody Rhodes, John Cena and Rhea Ripley – but away from the bright lights, glitz and glamour of the WWE machine is an underworld of violence, broken bones and near-death experiences.
Death Match wrestling, while it has made it onto mainstream shows in places such as Japan and in the United States via All Elite Wrestling (on rare occasions), it is mainly something you’ll see only when something goes viral… and usually for all the wrong reasons.
But how did this violent and gruesome match stipulation usually involving lots of blood, light tubes, pizza cutters and electrocution and explosions come into being?
Well, you can thank Puerto Rico for that – kind of.
Although the first use of a weapon in a professional wrestling match is largely unknown (it was probably a steel chair, let’s be honest), wrestling lore largely credits Puerto Rico with implementing the hardcore style of wrestling.
But the Death Match itself didn’t actually make its debut until around 1989 thanks to the long-defunct Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling company where iconic names like Terry Funk, The Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher took pleasure in disfiguring and often trying to dismember their opponents.
According to the experts at Lucha Central, a feud between FMW founder Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto needed something big to end it – and this is where the death match as we know it today was born.
They explain: “The feud required something special to blow it off; enter the first ever Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match, held at FMW’s first Summer Spectacular event on August 4, 1990.”
Around 4,500 fans attended Tokyo’s Shiodome for the bout, which saw Onita defeat Goto by knock-out in 11 minutes.
The match was officially known as a No Rope Barbed Wire Current Blast Death Match, and the pair had several more over the next year with each blood-filled bout topping the previous clash.
The death match became coveted over the next decade or so, with icons like Cactus Jack (Mick Foley), Sabu, and more taking part in something only seen as the last resort match between feuding warriors.
It grew in popularity in the 90s mainly thanks to the hardcore wrestling company known as Extreme Championship Wrestling, which is something fans still look back on with fondness today.
However, in recent years, the match type has become something of a way to make people go viral for what many brand as stupid stunts.
Recently we’ve seen a son electrocute his father, a man nearly slice himself in half on a door, glass shards nearly severe the artery of a wrestler and more.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great bouts out there in recent years – including between females such as Mille McKenzie and Emersyn Jane, or any of Charli Evans’ death matches – but it does appear that the long and historic legacy of the gruesome battle has now become something done just to “pop the boys in the back” for a “handshake and a hot dog,” as the wrestling saying goes.
And to answer the most burning question, nobody has actually ever died in a death match . . . yet.