Kasai powerbombed on razors?!?!

[darktowerchilde]

There is a sick pleasure one gets from seeing people subjected to that sort of pain, as well as a sense of "I can't believe they did that!" Mick Foley's HITC bump is a prime example: people kept seeing it over and over again, rewinding the tapes, watching the mpeg, using images of it as wallpaper, wanting to know if the bump was intended, if the cage top was fixed to break easily, who's idea it was to do it, whether people knew it was going to happen, what would possess Foley to actually do it, how much he was actually hurt, etc.

Fans either enjoy the violence, can't believe people would actually do that, respect the person for doing the bump, the promotion for allowing it to happen, or they possess a mixture of those notions. Wrestlers realize that doing the style may get them exorbant amounts of money in the right market, cover up wrestling weaknesses they possess (though Kasai is a pretty good wrestler), prolong their drawing ability (since people like Wifebeater and the Sandman can do this for years if their body holds up and settle into a reputation), and allow people to get over without building up a character or wrestling that extensively. New guys breaking in WILL get work if they are willing to do this, no doubt about it. And of course, there are bragging rights one can get for doing these things. Take a weedwhacker shot and people will talk about it. Fall off some place high or darn near kill a man with a blade and people will talk about it and you will get booked because of the controversy, for better or worse. Your name will be chanted by fans: look at people like Necro Butcher, Honma, Masato Tanaka, Kasai, Nick Mondo, Wifebeater. People chant there names when they work because of the damage they withstand and inflict on others.

Look at Jun Kasai: he's got to be one of the most famous wrestlers in Deathmatch circles, he's one of the most infamous wrestlers to step out of BJPW, certainly people know his name on these forums that nomally don't like Deathmatch wrestling. People have pointed to him as the future of this genre of wrestling, and it isn't because he knows wrestling holds and has a few sweet suplexes. It's because he bleeds like no one else, will let his body get ravaged like no one else, and does things like getting powerbombed on razors, that no one else has yet down. Maybe we're wrong, maybe we shouldn't endorse this, shouldn't mark out over it, I dunno. What I do know is that these wrestlers will let these things happen to them, either out of a need to mark fans out or their own personal beliefs about this type of wrestling (Kasai seems to do these things more for himself then his fans, as if he's testing to see how much he can take) and Kasai will lead the way as long as his body holds out.

[Psikyo926]

Man....thats crazy! I dont have a problem seeing a hardcore match, but razors? Jeez man. Thanks for the gifs, man.

[Poweraxe]

nah neither me, but i bet it was the same when they did the first barbed wire match or fire match. death match wrestling is evolving and the fans have seen hundreds of barbed wire matches, people want to see something new, i have the upmost respect for any wrestler who does this.

[Shadow_WX316]

Yea that is true, people want to see new deathmatches and more sick bumps so they just decided to go with it, and Jun Kasai, since he is crazy and doesn't care about his own body, did the match and got powerbombed into the razor. Figures that he did it.

[darktowerchilde]

Kasai's not stupid though: he retired briefly when BJW wouldn't pay for his hospital bills. He might do these insane spots but he won't let a company screw him over for it. He might be a lunatic but he's a lunatic who doesn't want to kill himself and not get what he's due.

[AbBY]

There is no need in that kind of bump. Razors?! How stupid can you be?! I don't care how "Hardcore" someone is, that is just plain stupid.

Pretty much everything that is done in a hardcore match is stupid. Explosions,fire, this guys are just sick!

[darktowerchilde]

To be honest though, you hear more about career-threatening or career-ending injuries from non-deathmatch wrestlers than you do deathmatch wrestlers. About ten or so people who've wrestled for the WWE in the last five years have suffered broken necks and many have had to receive vertebrae-fusing neck surgeries that have effectively ended their careers, wresting in "normal matches". People like Terry Funk, Mick Foley, Abdullah the Butcher, Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka, Kanemura, Sabu, the Sandman, the Dudleys, Tommy Dreamer, Wifebeater, Nick Mondo, etc. have wrestled for years, recieving many injuries, but few out right career-ending ones. Out of that list, Mondo is pretty much the only one completely retired (and probably Dreamer after ONS) and he still may come back to work the occasional match. And the bumps they take that damage them the most hardly ever involve barbed wire, thumbtacks, lighttubes, fire, razors, etc. but involve tables, cages, and bumps from high places, which have little to do with deathmatches/ultra-violence matches: Foley's bumps at HITC, Wifebeater's bump at COD 3, Mondo's bump at the Ultraviolent Tournament of Death (hitting the tables and the concrete damaged him more than the lighttubes) . Guys can wrestle in barbed wire for years and their bodies will hold up.

[kwilson83]

I don't really think that it is a viable argument to say that death match wrestlers have longer careers with less serious injuries then non-death match wrestlers. Even a few of your examples show that: Wifebeater took a long time off due to injuries even though he is still a young, at 34 Foley said his body was too messed up to regularly wrestle anymore, and Kanamura (one of my favorites) took a long time off after his famous fire bump. Abdullah pretty much sticks to forehead bleeding, which won't kill your career, just give you a messed up looking forehead.

I do understand your argument though. Cuts and burns will heal over a few weeks, while broken necks take a long time. Unfortunately, when you look at the death match wrestlers in Japan and America right now, most are still in their 20s. Personally, I doubt that their body will be able to allow them to wrestle until they are 35 to 40 like most non-death match wrestlers do. When dealing with fire, glass, etc. it only takes one bad fall to kill your career. Just ask Mr. Pogo. True, non-death match wrestlers can also end their careers in a heart beat, but being suplexed through glass and nails is probably less safe then just being suplexed on a wrestling mat.

[darktowerchilde]

It depends. For one thing, most deathmatch wrestlers wrestle fewer matches in a given time period than most normal wrestlers. A guy could make a living wrestling mostly in hardcore matches every few weeks as opposed to a wrestler who has to wrestle several times a week. Most of the big bumps that end people's careers aren't what I would consider a "deathmatch" bump i.e. a bump using barbed wire, thumbtacks, fire, lighttubes, etc. Wifebeater had to take time off due to a spot that involved a fall into tables: a hardcore spot but not a deathmatch spot, such as the Kasai razorblade bump.

I think it would be foolish to say that deathmatch wrestlers aren't beaten down; that's not what I'm saying. It's true that deathmatch wrestlers peak at a younger age than non-deathmatch wrestlers, but it's also true that the majority of the wrestlers I've mentioned have not had surgeries that force them to retire from wrestling. Most of the older guys, like Taz, the Brooklyn Brawler, Arn Anderson, etc. have to have neck, back, knee, etc. surgeries as the result of accumulated damage over the years, not as the result of a horrific spot gone wrong. Most of the deathmatch/hardcore wrestlers I mentioned are still capable of working matches; guys like Tazz are not. Mick Foley's career was cut short but it wasn't ended: he could, if he wanted to, have a match and not have to worry about a broken neck acting up. It's the nature of the damage that has to be considered: a guy certainly suffers alot in deathmatches but what prevents people from wrestling tend to be things that aren't the result of a dangerous, deathmatch-esque bump. Terry Funk's knees bother him the most and they weren't damaged from explosions and such. A single bump like the razor blade spot tends not to end careers. Most of the famous deathmatch wreslters can, and have, wrestled into their forties.

[Shadow_WX316]

how do you do a Gif of a clip?