The origins of Deathmatch Wrestling is in large part, a mystery. Lot's of speculation, suggestions and guesses, but not much concrete proof. No one really knows who first used a foreign object in a wrestling match, but it is documented as starting in Puerto Rico. The "hardcore" match didn't even exist, it was occasional use of foreign objects, such as a chair. The use of such objects became semi-popular with the use becoming more frequent, thus blood in matches becoming more widely done. By 1989 wrestlers such as Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik, Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk were top stars, and in large part due to their violent, bloody matches including chairs, barbed wire and so on.

Also in 1989, Atsushi Onita started a "hardcore" promotion in Japan called FMW (Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling) with the likes of Tarzan Goto, Terry Funk, and others. The "Deathmatch" was born. By now the "hardcore" or "deathmatch" style included not only chairs and tables, but barbed wire, fire, bricks, nails and even explosives.

By the mid 1990s a number of the "Godfathers" are retired or no longer doing that style and younger stars like Sabu, Cactus Jack, Vampiro, Masato Tanaka, Mike Awesome, Kintaro Kanemura, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and others are dominating, and revolutionizing the style. The "Deathmatch" was taken to new extremes by these young lions.

Deathmatch wrestling gained some popularity, or at least recognition in the United States when in 1995, IWA Japan held it's infamous Kawasaki Dream event, later dubbed as the "King of the Deathmatch" tournament. The main event of the night was Terry Funk, one of the Godfathers, against Cactus Jack, one of the young guns in possibly the most famous Deathmatch of all time.

North America, specifically the Eastern US got their introduction to "hardcore" wrestling when Sabu brought the style to Eastern Championship Wrestling, later dubbed Extreme Championship Wrestling. In 1995 ECW had a series of matches that were so violent that it was dubbed "The Summer of Violence." The matches were hardcore matches, and Deathmatches between brothers Ian and Axl Rotten. The two had beaten each other relentlessly in matches involving barbed wire, tables, chairs and the final match, a Taipei Deathmatch. This Deathmatch was for a very long time the most violent match in American Wrestling History. It's still among the most violent, and to some has not been topped, nor will it ever be.

Through the late 1990s the hardcore style in America became more extreme, and American Wrestling promotions were forever changed. "Extreme" was the new rage on the east coast, forcing WCW and WWF to take notice of a new style that was gaining ground, and getting crowd chants at their shows. Because of ECW's contributions to American Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation was able to birth it's "Attitude Era" which ultimately made the WWF the most popular company in America, featuring now former ECW stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin & Mick Foley, and their own stars such as The Undertaker and D-Generation X.

The WWF, again thanks to ECW's storylines, angles and Superstars that were in all honestly stolen, became not only the top company in North America, but eventually became the ONLY mainstream promotion in North America after buying both WCW and ECW. The WWF was later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, not suprising if you know the track record of it's owner, Vince McMahon. Vince has a famous quote, or infamous depending on your outlook in which Ted Turner after launching WCW, called McMahon and said "I'm in the 'rasslin Business," to which McMahon allegedly said "That's great, I'M in the Entertainment Business."

Back in Japan, FMW had stars like Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and returning veterans like Mr. Pogo and Terry Funk. Even The Great Muta himself couldn't avoid the Deathmatch. Muta was in possibly the most widely praised Deathmatch ever, against Atsushi Onita as his Muta rival character, The Great Nita. In 1997-98 FMW and ECW had a talent exchange resulting in a series of matches on both ECW programming, and FMW programming featuring stars that both countries had for the most part never seen. America was introduced to Hayabusa, Jado & Gedo, Kanemura and Tanaka, while Japan got a taste of Extreme with stars like Axl Rotten, Balls Mahoney, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. Hardcore was worldwide and "Extreme" was a household name in America.

Unfortunately both ECW and FMW closed down in the first years of the new millineum. ECW closed it's doors due to poor managment, and FMW due to it's top star, Hayabusa, breaking his neck during a match leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Hayabusa has since been able to function quite well considering all things. Fans of Hayabusa will be pleased to hear that he is doing better every day and has even taken a bump in his wheelchair during a show in Japan.

With ECW dead and gone, America had no real hardcore promotion, and really no hardcore matches with the exception of three small companies, XPW, IWA Mid-south and CZW. None of which are featured on Television. XPW was the most well known because it featured stars from ECW like Terry Funk, Sabu, Shane Douglas, New Jack and others in the hardcore style with their own stars like Supreme, Angel, and Homeless Jimmy.

XPW carried on the Deathmatch style with matches featuring barbed wire, light tubes, beds of nails and so on. IWA Mid-south and CZW did as well, but got nowhere near the amount of coverage XPW received due to their lack of "star" power. Guys like Ian Rotten, Mad Man Pondo, Necro Butcher and Zandig lead the charge for American Deathmatch wrestling after XPW closed it's doors, much like their rival promotion ECW. In America the hardcore style slowly died down, even with the rise (and quick fall) of Wrestling Society X, which was aired on MTV of all places.

WSX featured the hardcore style, and even Deathmatches with former stars of major promotions like Vampiro, Kaos, X-pac, Ricky Banderas and lots of young talent like Teddy Hart and Human Tornado. The company got to air only a few episodes before it was cut by MTV for a "fireball incident" in which Ricky Banderas lit flash paper in Vampiro's face.

Thanks to camera work the old school trick looked horrifying to fans and especially MTV executives. The promotion was shut down, shows cancelled and season 2 never happened. The only thing that American hardcore fans have now is the lack-luster IWA Mid-south ran by Ian Rotten, JCW ran by Insane Clown Posse and the phenominal CZW, Combat Zone Wrestling which is in my opinion the most extreme, the most violent and the most hardcore wrestling promotion outside of Japan, period. In Japan the Deathmatch has found it's home in BJW, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, which is often even more extreme than CZW. The two "rival" companies have interpromotional events and have had them for many years now. To this day the Deathmatch lives on, now in 2009, it's 20th Anniversary year it is even more extreme than ever. With tables, ladders, chairs, barbed wire, thumbtacks, fluorescent light tubes, fire, panes of glass, knives and even some power tools, the Deathmatch is alive and well.

New mainstream American company, TNA has even featrured the style with matches such as Full Metal Mayhem and the rarely done fan-favorite, Barbed Wire Massacre. TNA has had several stars dabble in the style, but one man in particular does it like no other currently wrestling in North America. That man is known as "The Monster" Abyss. Abyss is widely regarded as the new Cactus Jack, a title bestowed upon him by fans. Abyss is among the few mainstream stars doing these kind of matches regularly. He is in good company with stars like Raven and Sabu.

Over on the WWE side of the world the hardcore style, though not common, is still used on rare occasions with matches like TLC, Hell in a Cell, the Elimination Chamber and Extreme Rules matches. Even stars like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker and even Ric Flair himself have participated in matches involving barbed wire bats, thumbtacks and even fire. The Deathmatch is not dead in North America, but it is the "sleeping giant" of wrestling styles. While we've had to say goodbye to several promotions and stars along the way, we have to look back and appreciate what's been done along the way, that gave us what we have today.

Take a moment to appreciate the dues paid by the wrestlers who paved the way, the wrestlers who followed and the wrestlers of today. There are so many Wrestlers who have given us, the fans of Deathmatch Wrestling, so many awesome, bloody and at times disgusting memories that we'll never forget. Thank you to the Wrestlers, thank you to the promotions, and thank YOU for reading this. I hope you liked it, I hope it gave you some history, and most of all I hope it gave you the desire to do some research of your own and discover some really great moments in Wrestling's history.