July 21st, 2024: Book Club - Session 3

Match 1: SeXXXy Eddy vs. The Arsenal (CZW, July 24th, 2004)

The cool thing about watching two people that are new to you is that you never know what you're going to get. Although deathmatches are not my preference, I went into this with an open mind, with the excitement of the unknown.

From what I know about SeXXXy Eddy, his origins stem from the Quebec independent scene, of which I have dabbled into for other fascinating talents such as Max Boyer and Damian. I also know him for the stripper-styled gimmick, and his insane imploding senton bomb, the Total Sextacy. I know nothing about Arsenal going into this match, but some after some quick research, I was highlighted to the fact that Arsenal shares an origin with Eddy, both being from Canadian hardcore promotion IWS.

This being a light tube deathmatch, there already was an apparent sense of danger explicitly stated in the stipulation. I knew that I was in for chaos and carnage. 

Boy, did it deliver.

The match began slowly, with really compact work that followed a solid pace. Out the gate, the bombs thrown felt big, and it only felt like they would up the ante from there. Even after some dives with reckless abandon from both men, and some messy, but impactful hits Arsenal, including a corner wheelbarrow facebuster that sent Eddy's face into the light tubes (squick for me as someone who values his eyes), and a corner running Death Valley driver Arsenal calls the DVD2K1, the blood quickly began to pour.

The pace was unrelenting, and it felt that none of the action would let up; the more light tubes broke, the more violence there was. From this, I began to understand what makes deathmatches so special.

There is an implied escalation that MUST to be fulfilled in order for a match like this to work. You already go in expecting to see blood, but the factor that sets something like this apart is the unpredictability. I didn't know HOW much either man would bleed, and I didn't know how reckless a match like this would be. Adrenaline-pumping, through-and-through.

What comes next is what *made* the match for me. At some point in the match, an artery in Eddy's arm gets ruptured. Eddy's response? He drinks his own blood. In any other scenario, I find that spots like these feel forced; a way to say "I'm so HARDCORE!"; like in modern deathmatches where a wrestler will drive skewers into their own head, or break a light tube over their own forehead, pretending to slit their throat with the splinters.

This moment felt earned; the proverbial cherry on top, and a climax of all the things that led up to this moment. It was a striking visual symbol of how both of these men would stop at nothing, sacrificing everything to not only win, but essentially maim their opponent in doing so.

This was the moment that turned me from being wary of the very idea of deathmatches, to becoming hooked on the danger.

Verdict: Really liked

Match 2: Keita Yano vs. Katsumi Usuda (BattlArts, November 16th, 2008)

Now, we get to my suggested match for book club! I watched this match, and immediately fell in love with it. I then forgot about this match, until I remembered it again, and fell in love with it again.

BattlArts, for me, is a very special promotion. With few exceptions that I can think of, since the promotion folded in 2011, nobody has really been able to recapture that same magic that this promotion had. Everything about it just felt... magical.

Keita Yano, at this point in his career, had some unique quirks to his work, but the amount of outlandishness that we know him for today is minimal, as he had only started his career two years prior, in 2006. Since we already know all the other things I think about Keita Yano (if you don't: the gist is, I think he's one of the best ever), let me introduce you to Katsumi Usuda.

Usuda is a no-nonsense veteran striker who has this scrappiness and fire to his offense. A student of Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Usuda wrestles a very MMA-based style, and is extremely aggressive, constantly finding himself on the attack with blazing kicks and silky-smooth submission work.

This plays out in the match in a way I find beautiful. Keita is extremely fluid on the mat, and balances his strategy with offense with that trademark Keita flair, like a double springboard dropkick followed by his trademark submission, the yurikamome. Not to be outdone, Usuda has a strong sense of urgency underneath an exterior of quiet, subtle intensity; his actions speaking where he does not shout.

The match shifts gears as Usuda decides to change strategy; now instead of matching Keita with grappling, he instead unleashes on Keita with extremely precise and LOUD kicks that sound like cannons firing. The match finishes after Keita was worn down with multiple incredibly sharp kicks, and a punt kick delivered with finality, that knocked him out for good measure.

As you couldn't tell, I adore this match. It was a wonderful blend of the slick grappling and hard strikes that teeter on the edge of realism, while keeping a foot in the door acknowledging their own pro wrestling roots. This match, for me, is a great encapsulation of what the "BattlArts style" had to offer when it was still around. I also believe that this is one of the most accessible Keita matches, a showcase of how good Keita is while not alienating newer eyes who may be turned off by, or not accustomed to his now-idiosyncratic style. 

More than anything else, this is a match that I can see as many times as I've had, and still fall in love with the work as if I was watching it for the first time, every time.

Verdict: Loved, would recommend