Games of Death 4: Deathmatch Wrestling from a Ringside Fan’s View
Here we are again, another long-awaited injection of Deathmatch Wrestling onto the pages of Severed Cinema, and this time with another live show view from the side of the squared circle. Coming from a lifelong fan since the early ‘80s of wrestling, then finding Deathmatch Wrestling in the early 2000s, I’ve hung onto everybody from Abdullah the Butcher, Terry Funk, Mad Man Pondo, Necrobutcher, Ian Rotten (yes, him), Zandig, Nick Gage, to new names such as Shlak, Atticus, Judge Joe Dred, etcetera. That’s from the top of my dome, there’s loads more, I’m a geek for this shit!
The last time was back in April for Bleeding Gum’s Wrestling’s Lust for Death 2 Tournament (see A Ringside Review of Bleeding Gums Wrestling’s Epic Deathmatch Bloodbath ‘Lust for Death 2!’) where me and my Partner in Gore, Willow travelled over 300 miles by train to Scotland and witnessed probably the best damn show on these shores. Unfortunately, BGW went under before their next ground-breaking show which would have combined blood ‘n’ thunder with USA company, ICW: No Holds Barred (I’ve reviewed a couple of their shows before, have a lil search, you’ll find them). Bleeding Gums were guaranteed to become a dominant force in the UK Deathmatch scene (or Britdeath) but it wasn’t to be.
There’s still a handful of companies round an about (Kumite Combat and Championship Xtreme spring to mind) but it’s RISE who get mentioned a lot due to their excursions to the USA a few times. RISE is a rasslin place that has a lot of Deathmatch, loads of standard grappling, and unfortunately a load of ridiculous comedy angles. Before I sound like a miserable old bloke, comedy is great when used in a match or a skit carefully and not to make all around it childish. For instance, two talents who’ll be coming up soon, Big FN Joe and Mickie Knuckles have a lot of funny spots in their matches, their artwork makes people laugh out loud or scream in horror depending on what’s happening… then there’s the other side. Lengthy cartoon shit which ads nothing to what is going on other than raising tired chortles. Thankfully, like last years G.O.D III (see Battleground of Brutality – A Review of RISE Underground: Games of Death III) this was gritty, brutal and just downright messy.
Last year, my two sons attended RISE’s Spooky Slam event with their friend at a time they were hitting loads of shows. They witnessed what was reckoned to be a fifteen-minute comedy almost song and dance number. They were in dread of this years Spooky Slam, that happened to fall onto the same weekend as the latest Games of Death tournament. Luckily for RISE, it was a straight up show taken seriously most of the time. I was ready with my loud gobshit mouth. I would have booed and chanted for wrestling. Not long back we attended a local event by Classic British Wrestling and I had fun booing faces, and cheering heels, faking out the good guys and winding up one of their top faces about his hairline (I’m bald so I can!) All this is on YouTube, you can hear me in each match. Had RISE pulled their childish stuff again – it woulda been on!
Speaking of Mad Man Pondo as I did near the start, we were going to have the awesome honour of seeing him live in the UK as he, Mickie Knuckles, who was at the BGW one, and Hollywood Casanova Valentine were arriving from the USA to bleed buckets for us all. Pondo is known to Severed Cinema for his interview (see Beyond the Ring: Inside the Twisted Universe of Deathmatch Legend Mad Man Pondo) and a review of his book (see Memoirs of a Madman Book Review) so, as said on messenger to him, it’d be great to finally chat face to face.
Sheffield isn’t far from our home city of Hull, so a nice brisk train journey and a check into our hotel, my boys wandered off whilst me and Willow explored. We decided to get a couple of fresh ear piercings since a shop was doing them at £10 each due to a trainee having to finish their course. All good, apart from the fact mine was in an awkward place (the snug) and wouldn’t stop pouring most of the day. No big deal, until we were heading to the first night’s rasslin — luckily down the same street as the shop before they closed. Gush! Crimson stuff all over the place. I headed in to see them; they were mortified as I splattered their floor. I don’t drink alcohol or caffeine, anything like that so they couldn’t figure out why. Either way, I was patched up before I got to RISE and was mistaken for a wrestler covered in blood down my face.
RISE, like all such places draws a moderately big crowd of a few hundred, made up of metalheads, freaks, oddballs, drunks, horrorhounds and standard wrestling fans. You get to see regulars constantly and have a brief chat. Arriving early on, we spotted various gladiators of death chilling having a drink or wandering around. Mickie said hello to us, recognising us from Facebook, and maybe remembering our meeting at Bleeding Gums. Last minute addition, Alton Thorne and me spoke about t shirts (I want my t shirts!! Hahaha) then we all drifted inside the warehouse to pin ourselves by the ring on a strong camera side. We’re sluts for this, y’know. Hard Cam means everything! Yes! I have to mention the amount of people who were sat down wrapped in blankets on the opposite side.
Before I begin, this whole weekend had a couple of downs as well as many ups, and Spooky Slam should be seen by all as a prelude to the huge tournament, so you really need to watch everything once it’s on IWTV or YouTube, then on DVD. I’ll get the two biggest downers out and done right away. These were just our opinions and probably doesn’t reflect the majority, however firstly, Alton Thorne was the heel, the ultimate bad of BGW (plus other places like NCW and FUTR) so having him used in his two matches the way it happened was a pure and total waste of a fucking opportunity of great heat building for a long term on and off story. He’s big, he’s skilled and his promos are on point, I guess the bookers didn’t think of what they had. Maybe we’re wrong, perhaps there’s a long-term plan, but we doubt it. We, and a few around us were left shaking our heads (The only long-term plan ongoing is a heel faction called, Risen, lead by the owner, Daniel. They’re all extremely religious and most of the crowd boo — we don’t however, we raise our hands in prayer as they walk by. Their whole story featured in a few matches over both nights).
Secondly, the overall winner was obvious, was telegraphed by himself from the start plus in the final war, if you know ring psychology, which isn’t a bad thing as he’s your everyday looking kid and he’s getting over well in other countries and his home turf, but we personally felt that the bad guy in the fatal four way, had he got over by interference, the heat and rage would have blown the warehouse to pieces. As it transpired this heel was the dominant ingredient so it was balanced – he should have kept the robe on! It gave him power ‘cause he believed! I swear if the fourth member of the final war hadn’t had been him, I was ready to walk out of a show for the first time ever before the end! Nothing against the other three, they are amazing, but we would have been left with a cold soulless battle.
Spooky Slam was genuinely outstanding, and I’m glad both shows were together over the weekend for most of the folks in the ring could really show their skills. Mickie Knuckles rode a bike into the naked asses of Big Joe and Darwin, whilst Pondo in the same match showed the crowd why he’s one of the originals of this artform. Iceman and Drew Parker put on a barnstorming show, Jack Bennett is a heel now, and it suits him better, and the ropes went down to end the night with Euro Champ, Lou Nixon and legend, Trent Seven tearing the place up, among other things. The camera may have caught me yawning now and then for the Amir Jordan vs Saxon Huxley bout. It was good, but nothing I hadn’t seen before, especially from Saxon. Chemistry was off, dunno. I noticed via expressions around and about it wasn’t just me.
Big mention to the DJ, by the way, he kept the bangers going in-between matches with Korn, Soulfly, Judas Priest etcetera. Even bigger mention to Sam and Sue Fisher (two Scottish super fans who travel the country constantly to events – Sue’s leg is covered in tattoos of company logos as well) for bringing a blow up doll dressed as Nick Gage who I named Lil’ Nicky as a photo was taken of us all (see below) Lil Nicky did end up in the ring, but it ended up a big deflating (Yeah, I hear the boos at my sad joke).
Back to the hotel by 12.45 am, pizzas in, check my ear, sleep.
Day two, the set up was a duo of shows as the tournament was massive compared to last years, many more entries. We got our places back at the side of the ring, then settled with waters and protein bars. I won’t go too much into details of the Games of Death matches as I don’t wish to spoil it for anyone trying to avoid such things. However, we had far more gore – including a gnarly arm injury, some incredible match ups like Jack Harrop vs Jack Bennett (yeah, there were some jokes about their names when the crowd chanted) Iceman going face to face against Mad Man Pondo was a dream legends set up, ending with a mental light tube guillotine spot — and Iceman didn’t retire this time round!
Mickie against Caden was cool because of their round at BGW, and rising UK star, BA Rose took a terribly insane plunge through a barbed wire contraption. Then we had the rise (no pun) of Franco Fate. A few UK Combat Zone Wrestling veterans were on the card, like most UK Deathmatch get togethers, you can rely on Tim Strange, Danny Darko and of course Big Joe. For those who maybe don’t know, Combat Zone, or CZW is like the great old one of underground bloody rasslin in the USA. They’ve been around since the late 1990s and has had a yearly test of strength for Deathmatch warriors called the Tournament of Death. Those three have all appeared and splattered the gore – Big Joe won in 2023 – the second British bloke to do it in its history since 2002. I have a feeling Jack Harrop and Lou Nixon will be in a future annual tournament for them.
Speaking of Danny Darko, he was coming in with a totally brutal injury from a previous match elsewhere and total respect to RISE, they protected him perfectly, managing to have him in action but twisting it a bit. Well done.
The grand finale had the four bloodied limping survivors fight in a ring filled with 200 light tubes. Lots of crimson masks, plus a very well-done explosion which had hundreds of people scream out in total shock.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes through the night, me and my eldest lad had overheard drama involving Lou Nixon who wasn’t happy about a couple of things. His pal, Bret Semtex (who we saw having breakfast at our hotel) tried to calm shit down, but it boiled onwards. I have good hearing, and I heard a lot of a conversation he had with a lady at the merch tables before he stormed off, saying “I can’t hang around fuckin’ selling!” as an apology to her. Turned out to be two things, but mainly about Mad Man Pondo. If you wanna hear all about it, here’s a link to Lou’s YouTube channel, he starts speaking about it from the 13–14-minute mark: youtube.com/watch?v=PrKYh7D1cA8
Also, if you read this, fuck you to the bloke behind me with your two mates when my youngest son spotted you about to pour beer down the back of my jacket til he told you to stop. Deny it? Say my lad was talking shit? Yeah, you ended up with me in your fucking face you prick whilst Willow glared with her white zombie contacts! We noticed you didn’t come back after the interval; you stood elsewhere you scum faced fucknut! Always someone to ruin things.
Fun loving times having glass shower us, and I got Pondo’s blood on my jacket. Oh yeah, a glass sheet shattered on the opposite side and the shards came right over into our faces. Incredible!!! One thing I love to do is collect bloody souvenirs of match used fuckery for our shelf. So far, we have barbed wire, Atticus Cogar’s blood stained skewers, Tommbie’s tattoo needles, and now a splattered razor-sharp gusset plate.
We got photos with big Hollywood Cass, spoke for a while, and of course my youngest son needed one with Mickie (Mickie loves the UK, she comes over on a regular and feasts on Full English Breakfasts) and Pondo. Me and Willow bagged one each with Pondo. We didn’t talk as long as I expected due to people wanted to get to him, I would have loved to have shot a quick Severed promo with him, but y’ know, maybe another time. BA Rose has agreed to a future interview. You’ll understand why when you read it.
We support underground wrestling because it is intimate, it’s different, it delivers the goods. The workers toil hard in the ring and behind the scenes to make it all work. There are rarely any egos out of control, there’s simply misfit family units. The fans feel like they’re a part of it because they genuinely are. I’ll never bad mouth a company like endless warriors online do as what are they gonna do if they all close down one by one? We’ve lost many recently so treasure what’s still around whether you like their bookings or not. Before you say, hey, Jay didn’t you bad mouth earlier on? You contradicting buffoon! Nah, I was gutted cause I’m a huge fan of Alton, but I’ve really pushed everything else, so there!
When at events make sure you have enough cash to buy t shirts. T shirts are brilliant. We’ve got way too many but never enough.
Once the DVDs are out, I’ll likely do another review from the POV of watching at home – plus the fact our pics don’t capture the sheer beauty of the spurting blood.
