A Ringside Review of Bleeding Gums Wrestling’s Epic Deathmatch Bloodbath ‘Lust for Death 2!’
As regulars to these pages know, my Partner in Gore, Willow, and I are Death Match Wrestling fanatics. I like to share reviews and such now and then. I keep trying to convince Chris Severed to dedicate a section of the site to Death Match, given its growing global popularity as more fans discover the thrilling blend of wrestling skills and hardcore violence—think barbed wire, glass, light tubes, sharp metal, and anything as a weapon (I’ve even seen crowd members and a thumbtack-covered rubber chicken used). So far, he’s refused. Meanwhile, if you’re new to Severed Cinema you’ll find reviews for IWA, GCW, ICW NHB, XPW and many more DVDs, plus a brief explanation of how I found this artform, and my youthful teen love for territory wrestling which featured hardcore monsters such as Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody. I covered The Crippler’s album (see The Crippler: I’m Just Going to Let Myself In album review) from Shlak and Dan O’Hare. I’ve also interviewed the legendary Mad Man Pondo (see Beyond the Ring: Inside the Twisted Universe of Deathmatch Legend Mad Man Pondo).
Anyhow, last year I reviewed a huge Deathmatch event which hit my home city, Hull, hosted by the UK’s RISE and ICW NHB from the USA (see Battleground of Brutality – A Review of RISE Underground: Games of Death III). I waited for the DVD to drop out beforehand. However, this time around it’s different because I cannot wait ‘til the end of May so I’m going to review another massive tournament which was held in Scotland: Lust for Death 2, by Bleeding Gums Wrestling.
At last year’s event, big names from the USA such as Atticus Cogar, Krule, and Danny Demanto, clashed heads and mixed blood with UK beasts, Big FN Joe, Lou Nixon, Jack Harrop, Michael Caden and BA Rose, to name a few (throw in Japanese icon, Abdullah Kobayashi as well). This time Lust for Death promised to be equally as historic, because they’d bagged the services of three of the biggest names of all time for the show: Necro Butcher, Jasmin St. Claire, and Mickie Knuckles.
Necro Butcher is a walking genuine legend. They call him The Godfather. He’s been in the squared circle since the late ‘90s. He has forged a career in many wrestling companies worldwide. He also had a memorable appearance in The Wrestler flick starring Mickey Rouke. He has beaten cancer, a broken hip, and many other things to soldier on and give the people what they love. Jasmin St. Claire was once upon a time a porn actress — a very famous one — but moved into rasslin, getting herself known in TNA, XPW, and co-running a company called 3PW many years ago. Last but definitely not least, Mickie Knuckles is without a doubt the most successful female warrior to dominate the scene ever! She made her debut in 2003. She has battled men and woman over the decades. Like Necro Butcher, her name promises insanity and violence.
On a personal note, Necro Butcher has been my favourite of the underground hardcore and Deathmatch scene since the mid-2000s when I watched a badly copied CZW DVD. He combines a Bruiser Brody brawl with excellent storytelling in the ring plus of course the ability to absorb tons of pain. This was his first time across the Atlantic Ocean. Now Mickie Knuckles reminds Willow of herself in a few ways, Mickie was someone who she has wanted to meet for a while now, as I have waited years to speak to Necro. We would get our wish.
Saturday morning, we woke up early to get a train at 7am to travel for nearly six hours from the UK to Dundee in Scotland. We had a couple of hours to spare to grab lunch, check into our hotel, and then head across to the building hosting the event. It was held at a cool old church that has been turned into a club. I’ve said before, Deathmatch Wrestling attracts loads of metalheads, oddballs, weird freaks, and standard rasslin looking fans. They were all queuing outside. We strolled up and got chatting with a fella who’d never been to a Deathmatch show. We told him a few pointers, especially safety tips — not that safety bothers us, as you’ll read later on. We then spoke with other people in the line, including a man who’d received a wonderful gift box from one of the wrestlers, Lou Nixon as this chap had been going through a rough time lately.
A few promos were shot outside (we were caught in one with a marvellously excited lady) then a loud ton of shouting erupted from the front. UK wrestling icon, Iceman was chasing some guy that had upset a few people. “Go, on – fuck off!” Iceman shouted down the street. I honestly thought it was a promo at first as we couldn’t see the very front where it had happened, “He’ll come back in a minute to see if the shot was ok.” I said, but it turned out to be legit.
Once inside (the place was filling up rather quickly), we secured a position at ringside. We recognised a few people from the GOD event last year mulling around, along with a few of the talents like Big Joe, Lou Nixon (we heard him in conversation say the infamous “Wey aye” which had been recently mimicked in promos on RISE which is a Geordie thing, if you don’t know, look it up). the Harrops. and Tim Strange. It was announced that the VIP passes would be open upstairs soon where you get to meet the Americans. We didn’t have a VIP pass — I caught hold of Andy, the owner of Bleeding Gums who I’d spoken to online a bit and asked if we’d be okay just paying there and then. He said, it’s up to them, but should be fine. Off we trotted, only a couple of folks waiting so far. The trilogy of terror arrived, and Jasmin recognised us both from a video I’d posted on social media that morning. Willow bought a t-shirt, then suddenly we were photographed with everybody via Willow’s phone plus a professional. Necro and I chatted for a bit whilst the three women fooled about on the sofa (Willow told me afterwards Mickie and Jasmin were planning on grabbing ass, maybe hers, by what she gathered they were whispering so Willow made a dive off the couch). We all hugged, and I noticed we’d beaten the huge queue. The craziest thing was, we didn’t pay VIP, we were willing to, but for the price of an awesome t-shirt, all good. We wandered back to our spot by the ring awaiting the start.
Match one, the first of the gory tournament was a Fish & Chips Death Match. Basically, the standard mandatory weaponry abounds, but with the added fun of vinegar and salt to rub into gashes and slices (fishhooks on the ropes to). Ouch. It fucking stank the building out. Behemoth, Tim Strange dominated because he’s generally an immovable huge object with awesome facial hair.
Next up comes the ring crew building a fortress of carpet grippers aka carpet strips, depending which country you’re from. I sent a pic to one of my wrestling fanatic buddies who trained to be a grappler years ago, but is currently a carpet fitter (he was supposed to come with us, but unfortunately couldn’t make it). He said he’d rather get put through loads of glass than be hit with one of those. UK workhorse, Danny Darko went against Tommbie, who is a face painted satanic dead man walking looking dude with a nice gimmick and a valet/manager called Veronica Salt that appears regularly with various heels throughout.
Following up, the one and only Mickie Knuckles took on another UK workhorse, the Sad Boy, Michael Caden (who incidentally later on when I purchased a fresh blood art piece off him, recognised us from our Severed Cinema articles and reviews) and it was a wonderful mix of intensity, comedy plus loads of blood. However good this was so far, nothing prepared us for the next bout.
Match of the night for us easily had to be the tag team match. An all-out brutal masterpiece, an onslaught of violence and crimson masks genuinely spurting and gushing all over. The storyline? Well, Big FN Joe and Lou Nixon have issues with one another. Something that will likely spill into the USA soon because both are regular British beasts in the States. Big Joe betrayed Lou, teaming with his once best buddy who had been his nemesis for a while, Leonardo Darwin (one of the UK’s top heels in the business). They shaved Lou’s head for shits and giggles, then filmed a load of videos taking the piss. Lou Nixon and his BTT partner, Brett Semtex got to share the ring with Big Joe, of course, Lou was after revenge. Joe’s partner for the night, Jack Harrop (Iceman’s son) was caught up in the massacre. Brett Semtex really shone in this war, he took a lot of punishment and dished it out.
Aside from being covered in carpet strip slinters earlier, we were covered in broken glass. Excellent. Also, our trainers held many thumb tacks from the battlefields. “Please, don’t touch the weaponry,” pleaded the ring announcer more than once. Fuck that! Me and another guy helped ourselves to a few metal skewers and I bagged a bit of barbed wire, Souvenirs, I love em! The fella who was grabbing skewers with me said, “I got hit with these, I’m having them!”
INTERMISSION TIME: and it’s Jay Creepy’s guide to the toilets! If you recall back at the GOD III tournament I found a pint of piss plus a dodgy looking wrestling DVD which I reviewed afterwards (see That Wrestling DVD I Found in the Men’s Toilets – A Review of ‘Human Cockfighting ’96’), oh yeah, and at Offalfest last year (see Carnage and Chaos: A Journey Through Offal Fest 2024), I was treated to a god damn lack of toilet seats and that mad sticker infested set of mirrors. The cubicles in this edifice had broken locks but overall was in very good condition. I was rather disappointed, until I saw the urinals — they were mouths (see pic below) And then, oh my word, Severed brothers and sisters, and then I spotted him, a guy who spends all night standing in the toilets with an array of aftershaves, dishing out hand soap to each man who ventures inside the catacombs of human body waste. He smiles, “Welcome into my office,” then tries to sell you stuff whilst you wash your hands. I’ve heard of these fellas, seen them on TV, but never, I mean never have seen one up close and in person. Beautiful.
So round one of the tournaments was finished. I won’t describe any of the other actual tournament clashes as it’ll spoil the results, but I will say the grand finale is one of the greatest matches we have witnessed live or otherwise. Bleeding Gums deserve so much recognition for the organisation behind this whole event. The sheer completion of a cycle for the last one standing made it just perfect.
Meanwhile, two non-tournament matches arrived. One bloke we hadn’t seen before Alton Thorne, the BGW DeathMatch champion, took on the smaller but bouncy, Jack Bennett. Alton is a genuine monster, pure bad guy star power. We had nettles and syringes in this one. Afterwards, Alton leaned into the camera and gripped the mic hard, calling out ICW owner, Danny Demanto for a few reasons — the company is arriving at Scotland this September (the next day, Danny responded on social media asking who this guy is, lol).
Of course, the big meaty match of the evening was Necro Butcher Vs. Iceman — tTwo absolute legends clashing for the first time ever. You don’t come into this one expecting Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, or Will Ospray technical stuff, you have two fellas, one in his early fifties, the other near fifty, who have been smashing skulls and bodies for a combined timescale of over half a century in many countries laid on the punches and headbutts inside and outside the ring. They were basically smacking the shit outta one another! They collided with audience members (including Willow who was sandwiched between them at one point) and showered blood everywhere (I was splattered across my arm whilst filming a close-up angle). Weapons were aplenty. There were chairs and water jugs, nothing fancy or pretty, just two older veterans crashing about until one went down. Incredible, such a moment in history.
Bleeding Gums Wrestling felt like an old school Deathmatch DVD or tape; it was brilliantly unpredictable at times. Everyone put in the work. If you’ve never been to a live Deathmatch event, the thrill matches expectations more and more. This one far surpassed last years shows, and afterwards we got a great pic with Big FN Joe. Willow got to tell a couple of the wrestlers how she trained many years ago with PWA — that’s why I never annoy her (too much) otherwise I’d be in a submission hold with no ref to see me tapping out. The next evening as an unexpected bonus, we had a few beers and food with the one and only, Necro Butcher. That was something to tell the future grandkids.
I wholeheartedly throw total support into this company. We will hopefully be returning to Scotland in September for the aforementioned BGW and ICW weekend show. Here are a couple of links, one to their website (BGW Online), and the other to Deathmatch Outlaws where (among merch like t-shirts, etcetera) you can pre-order the magnificent BGW Lust For Death 2 – 2025 DVD to this event.
Thanks to Willow and Craig St. Claire for the photographs.
