Ciclope vs. Green Phantom vs. Miedo Extremo
Match starts off with Los Macizos teaming up for a short bit at the beginning to take Phantom out and then they start fighting each other. Well it actually starts with the ref nearly falling backwards into a pane of glass after calling for the bell which would have been hilarious.They go right into breaking lighttubes on each other. Extremo hits a very nice looking tiger driver into a cross armbreaker on a bundle of lighttubes on Ciclope which gets broken up and I'm pretty sure he reinjures his shoulder thats all taped up as he goes to the back when he hits Phantom with a chair and then can't hold him up for a DVD. Ciclope takes control of the match and hits a senton onto a pane of glass over top of Phantom and then hits a DVD off the apron through a table which they just barely hit. Ciclope gets Phantom back in the ring, covers him with a pane of glass then does the Eddie Guerrero shoulder shimmy before hitting a frog splash onto Phatom for the three count.
A very rewatchable match that is pretty much all hardcore moves, but doesn't have the problem of feeling like it doesn't escalate. There's nothing that feels too big too early in the match and Phantom does more than I wrote in the overview, but a lot of people in their first tournament appearance do have to impress by taking a beating. It's funny to see him in their as a tall muscular guy against the short, stockier Macizos. Macizos love throwing tubes, but their always a little sloppy about catching them which makes those spots look a little awkward. 6/10
Joey Janela vs. Tomoya Hirata vs. Toru Sugiura
Tomoya and Toru toss Janela and start with some normal wrestling, but Janela recovers and comes back in with lighttubes to both men and then puts a bundle down and tries to knock Tomoya down with a clothesline. Tomoya resists then toss the bundle to Janela and lariats the tubes into Janela's chest. Tomoya actually has a pretty good crimson mask going which doesn't always happen when you're relying on the weapons and not blading. Tomoya and Toru both hit dives tot he outside and Toru takes a phone from a fan and pretends to make a call. Janela catches Toru as he's trying to get in the ring and hits a DVD on the apron. All three men get back in the ring and exchange strikes and lighttubes and there are several times where it looks like the ref is going to inadvertently take a tube to the head. Joey sets up a barbed wire door across some chairs and a lighttube cabin next to it then goes for a superplex on Toru, but Tomoya comes in and powerbombs him down. Janela gets barbed wire stuck in his hair so they cut the barbed wire off the board and he's got a crown of barbed wire the rest of the match. Tomoya and Toru exchange some big power moves most impressively Toru picking Tomoya up for a one handed powerbomb that he gets him up high for. Janela hits a package piledriver on Toru then puts a lighttube cabin on top of him and then a chair on top of that and hits a brutal top rope double stomp which looks amazing and brutal. Tomoya hits Janela with a lighttue fan and then military presses him through the other barbed wire table. Toru comes back in and breaks a lighttube over Tomoya's head then hits a headlock take over to get the three count.
This match was very good. Like the previous they do crazy shit the whole time, but they escalate it well and the headlock takeover finish is kind of anti-climatic I do like when deathmatches are insane, but it comes down to just wrestling to determine who wins. Plus when everybody's all fucked up grabbing a pin like that seems quite believable. Janela looks insane walking to the back after the match with a tooth missing and the barbed wire stuck in his hair. Everybody looked great in this match. Tons of cool stuff and they do good wrestling while also using lighttubes and barbed wire. 8/10
El Desperado vs. John Wayne Murdoch vs. Matt Tremont
Tremont fires the crowd up as the three men meet up and just start exchange forearms. Tremont hits a punch to both competitors sending them to the corner then tosses Murdoch a bundle and splashes him in the corner, then he tosses a bundle to Desperado and charges, but Desperado runs out and meets him with a crossbody block. Murdoch and Tremont brawl on the outside and Desperado hits a beautiful tope con hilo through the ropes. Desperado takes Tremont into the ring and hits a belly to back suplex on him then Murdoch comes in and rips Desperado's mask then Tremont and Murdoch team up to cut his forehead with tubes and rip the mask open further. They start brawling on the outside and Murdoch takes Desperado around the ring with a side headlock driving the broken lighttubes into his face to show all the fans. The three men meet in the middle of the ring with on their knees with lighttubes and start exchanging them until the ring is nice and smoky looking. Tremont and Murdoch brawl on the outside and Desperado hits Tremont with a lariat that sends him into the barbed wire spidernet that collapses under his weight and falls into the fans before they lift it up, move and set it down on the floor. Desperado hits Murdoch with a big powerbomb variation onto the cut can board. Desperado pulls the other can covered board into the middle of the ring and Murdoch surprises him with a brainbuster onto the board. Murdoch sets up two chairs and puts a pane of glass on top then pulls Desperado to his feet and the two men brawl on the ropes. Murdoch hits a headbutt then hits the Destroyer through the pane of glass for the three count.
This is a good match, although it does have some of of the deathmatch things that I dislike that make it seem too fake. It's still good and it's always fun to watch one of these with a guy who is just a really good wrestler who wants to try deathmatch stuff. Everything Desperado hits is crisp as fuck and there's a shot of him pulling himself up in the corner with his mask ripped where he looks badass as hell. A bunch of good stuff in this match and you can't argue with a barbedwire spiderweb bump. I hate that Murdoch uses a top rope Destroyer for a finisher though. 7/10
Rina Yamashita vs. Kasey Kirk vs. Sawyer Wreck
Sawyer overpowers both of her competitors in a three way lockup so they team up against her. Rina and Kasey take turns breaking lighttubes over Sawyer's head but Sawyer fires up and hits Rina with a spinning back kick from so far away because of her long legs which looks cool. Sawyer puts Kasey into a Guerrero special then puts Rina in a boston crab as well. Sawyer and Rina exchange a couple of lighttube shots then Rina breaks one over her own head and digs into the forehead of Sawyer. Kasey shows back up in the match and brings a chair with her to take the advantage and hits a piledriver on Rina onto the chair. Rina kicks out of a cover attempt and then counters Kasey's attempt at another pilderiver with a suplex onto the chair. We get to what starts out as my least favorite moment of the match where everybody stands around as they all grab gusset plates and pound them into their own foreheads, but then they start exchanging foreheads which kind of fixes it. Rina breaks up a pinfall from Sawyer with a double stomp off the top then goes for some rollups, but it kind of stymied by how tall Sawyer is so they look pretty rough. Kasey and Rina end up on the apron and drag Sawyer out with them. Sawyer fights back and shoves both women off the apron by the throat through the pane of glass on the floor. Back in the ring Kasey hits a crossbody with a chair with lighttubes attached and then Rina hits the weakest strong zero on Sawyer for a two count. Rin puts Sawyer on the top rope and hits the splash mountain onto some chairs and Kasey breaks of the fall. Rina puts a bundle of lighttubes across Sawyer's chest and then hits splash mountain on Kasey through the lighttubes and then pins both women.
This match had a lot of awkward moments in it and was definitely the weakest of the opening round matches. It had by far my least favorite deathmatch trope of people doing damage to themselves with weapons. Sawyer also made the mistake of wearing white gear to show how bloody she got, and then doesn't get that much blood on her gear, which seems to not be her fault considering how many lighttube attacks she takes. There are some good bumps in the match at least so it's got that going for it. 4/10
Alec Price vs. Gringo Loco vs. Blake Christian vs. Jack Cartwheel
We start with everybody playing to the crowd and then everybody doing a cartwheel until we get to Blake who flips the crowd off instead. Jack goes to do another cartwheel and Blake superkicks him halfway through. Jack reminds me a lot of Matt Cross, but a little too focused on the acrobatics he can do to the detriment of the match. A lot of back and forth before Blake takes control of the match and works over Alec in the ring and keeps the other two men on the outside. Price makes a comeback and hits a top rope legdrop to a standing Blake then just leaps the top rope onto the other two on the outside. Jack hits some nice acrobatic moves including a big dive, but he gets back in the ring and Alec dodges a move from the top and Gringo hits a sitout piledriver. Gringo goes to the top rope, but Jack stops him first, but Gringo fights back and shoves him off the top and hitting th ropes on the way down. Alec goes to the corner and hits a hurrincanrana on Gringo taking him to the mat. Gringo hits the base bomb on Jack, but Blake hits a kick on Gringo and steals the cover and the three count.
These scramble matches are hard to care about since they seem so pointless and especially since they all end by somebody hitting a big move and then Blake Christian stealing the pinfall. This one is pretty good because nobody tried for something they're not capable of doing which helps a lot. 5/10
John Wayne Murdoch vs. Ciclope
We get a bunch of lighttubes breaking early and then some rollup attempts that can only get two. Murdoch sets a pane of glass up in the corner and then grabs the weedwhacker, but Ciclope dodges it and hits a lowblow then takes it to the midsection of Murdoch. Murdoch is seated on the apron and Ciclope puts a bundle of lighttubes on his chest then hits a big crossbody that sends both men down to the floor. Ciclope then stomps a lighttube right on the face of Murdoch. Ciclope gets some chairs and sets the barbed wire door across them. They fight on the top rope and Murdoch steals Ciclope's headphones and hits a destroyer through the barbed wire door, but Ciclope gets right up. Murdoch hits a running knee that sends Ciclope throught the pane of glass, but kicks out at two. Murdoch holds onto Ciclope and rolls him backwards into a leg choke to get the submission.
A solid fast paced match, although the impact of the weed whacker is hurt by the fact that Murdoch wears a shirt. Not a big fan of no selling the destroyer off the top. I do like seeing submissions in deathmatch tournaments though so that's nice. It was fine. 5/10
Rina Yamashita vs. Toru Sugiura
We start off with them crashing into each other with lighttubes and then exchanging some furious forearms. Rina hits Toru with some lighttubes then sets up a board with lighttubes in the corner then to weaken him stabs him with a lighttube and then starts biting him. Toru countes an Irish whip to the corner and hits a suplex through the board and lighttubes. The crowd is loudly behind Rina and consquently booing Toru a lot and he plays right into it. Rina counters a powerbomb getting back to her feet and lifts Toru up for an air raid crash and runs him into the bundle of lighttubes hanging in the corner. Toru counters a suplex attempt so Rina gets the testicular claw then lariats him down for a two count. She then breaks some lighttubes over his dick with some chairs. Rina goes up top for a splash, but Toru throws a chair to hit her in the face then jumps up and superplexes her. Toru follows up with a fisherman buster for a two count. Toru puts the lihgttubes to the side of Rina's head to kick them, but Rina dodges out of the way and smashes them over his head then hits another weak strong zero for a one count. She follows that up with a low blow and a straight jacket german suplex for a long two count. Rina then hits splash mountain to Toru through the lighttube covered board for a three count.
A really good back and forth deathmatch between these two. It also helps to setup Rina as an underdog in the finals with them really wrecking each other. Really enjoyed this one between the two as they go hard and work what would be a good match even without the weapons, although they definitely help make the match seem way more epic. 8/10
Rina Yamashita vs. John Wayne Murdoch
We start with a test of strength like there isn't a scaffolding next to the ring and lighttubes over all the ropes. Rina gets a wristlock and whips Murdoch, but he puts on the brakes. Murdoch whips Rina into the ropes and she bounces off with a dropkick then grabs a broken tube and cuts his forehead. Rina goes for a powerslam onto tubes, but Murdoch counters and hits his own powerslam and then like a psycho tries to cut her throat with the broken tube. Murdoch piles up a bunch if tubes, but Rina counters the suplex and sends him through the tubes, she picks him back up and hits a german suplex for a two count. Rina mounts Murdoch and starts punching, but he grabs a lighttube and breaks it over her head. Murdoch gets some tubes and piledrives her through them and gets a two count. Murdoch starts grabbing tubes and smashing them over Rina nearly twenty of them probably then goes for a pin and gets a two count. Murdoch sets up some chairs and brings in a pane of glass to set over top of them with Rina underneath it and he starts climbing the scaffolding. Rina fires up and breaks a tube over her own head before climbing up after him. Murdoch sets up for the Destroyer, but Rina gets the testicular claw then tosses him off the scaffolding through the glass. She follows up with a splash off the scaffolding for a one count. Rina piles up the rest of the tubes and chairs then pushes Murdoch up the ropes and hits splash mountain onto the pile of weapons for the three count.
This match has some really great moments and some that don't hit as hard for me. Rina takes a good beating in the early part since she had the tougher semi-final, but it doesn't play into the match as much as it probably should. Loved when Murdoch going nuts with the lighttubes though, that will always rule. The struggle on the scaffolding was a pretty short and the toss off the scaffolding is shot in a way where it is too obvious that Murdoch is just jumping off himself. The kicking out at one was unnecessary, but nothing match breaking. 7/10
After the match Hirata and Sugiura come down seemingly to celebrate with their fellow Freedoms competitor, but they attack Murdoch after the match and then Yamashita. Jun Kasai runs down in a mask pretending to save her and then hits her with a piledriver before Nick Gage leads the locker room down to the ring to make the save.
Overall it was a really good show. There are only two clunkers of matches and even those were easy to watch. A lot of crazy shit happened in the show and it was just an easy to watch show. They did a good job of cleaning up between the matches pretty quickly, and it helped they had highlight videos for the people who were going into the Deathmatch Hall of Fame later that night to fill that time. Rina gets the win and looks good throughout the whole show which is always helpful when you're going to win the tournament. Toru Sugiura was the standout of the show being in the two best matches.
