IWA-Mid South King of the Deathmatches 2018 – Day 1

Diamond(s) in the Sky

After suffering through XPW's godawful production mess and then XBW's godawful everything, I decided this month needs a review of something more reliable. IWA-MS was never without flaws, but I don't recall any total fails where shows were rendered unwatchable by camera malfunctions or a complete absence of sound. That's my baseline. Yes, the bar is really that low by now. Beyond at least passable production values, I have faith that commentary won't be a disaster. Nick Maniwa is consistently above average commentary fare, so as long as he's there, my emotional support Kris Kloss ragdoll will remain on the shelf. Lastly, I trust IWA-MS to have a majority of actual wrestlers with a semblance of a clue what they are doing in the tournament. As much as I love my mud shows, sometimes it's nice to focus on wrestling instead of applauding a DDT as the first proper move halfway through a card.

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ROUND 1

Match 1 – Barbed Wire Boards, Bat & Light Tubes – John Wayne Murdoch vs. Devon Moore vs. Amazing Maria

Match 2 – Taipei Four Corners of Pain – Rickey Shane Page vs. Conor Claxton vs. Bryant Woods

Match 3 – Home Run Derby – Nick Gage vs. JC Rotten vs. Mike Roach

Match 4 – Gusset Plate Chairs, Light Tube Doors, Loose Light Tubes – SHLAK vs. Eric Ryan vs. Aeroboy

Match 5 – Stairway to Hell – Dale Patricks vs. Miedo Extremo vs. Neil Diamond Cutter

Match 6 – Fans Bring The Weapons – Markus Crane vs. G-Raver vs. Ciclope

Recap/Day 1 Final Thoughts

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It's May 2018 and I'm in Memphis, Indiana for IWA-MS's flagship event, King of the Deathmatches. IWA-MS spells it 'Death Matches'. Literally nobody else does though, so I'm not going to fight auto-correct over it.

Anyway, we're at the Memphis Flea Market which wasn't only IWA-MS's home arena at the time, but also the source of the hat from which Ian Rotten pulled some of today's booking choices. Say what you will about the scumbag supreme, but he used to be one of the stronger bookers in his heyday. In this tournament, however, some baffling decisions were made, not least the entire structure. For a long, long time, we'll see nothing but threeways. In round 1, two of the three entrants will advance – which could lend itself to storytelling through the rounds. The fact that round 2 also consists of threeways (and naturally not all pairings can be kept together to settle their first round setups) makes me somewhat skeptical about that though, but we'll see. So let's dive in and find out if the flea market also yielded some treasures.

Ian Rotten welcomes us near a ring that is already prepared with some weapons. Shutters, some kind of wooden frame with barbed wire, a few scattered tubes. To absolutely nobody's surprise, I'm not listening to Rotten as he rambles on and on about his ex-wives and girlfriends. In fact, I'm skipping ahead and after almost 5 minutes of villain monologue, the entrants are called to the ring.

Screenshot Skim Realization: That’s not the mask Aeroboy wore in his match. He might have some surprises in store to shuffle the Best Dressed deck on Day 2.

If the outfits are anything to go by, Bryant Woods in all white will march straight to the Best Dressed podium through a sea of black t-shirts. Closing my keen eye for fashion, I see a fairly promising bunch, some headscratchers, and a few names that ring my alarm bells. 8 minutes in, the group photo has finally been taken and the first match is announced.

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DAY 1

ROUND 1

Match 1 – IWA World Title Match – Barbed Wire Boards, Bat & Light Tubes – John Wayne Murdoch (c) vs. Devon Moore vs. Amazing Maria

Devon Moore wears a black t-shirt to black shorts, black sleeves, blue and white bandanas. Ever the gas station icon, he's inching from 'clerk' to 'robber' here, but seeing that IWA-MS employs a smoke machine at the entrance, I can't really fault him for keeping mouth and nose covered.

Amazing Maria also wears a black t-shirt, but makes an overall much better impression with royal-blue trunks, matching kneepads and a fan, plus proper footwear. Better colors, exposure, wrestling gear, although there's room for improvement.

My ginger prince completes the black shirt trifecta, but pairs his with tan shorts and one of his better flannel choices; green-black. I'm not quite at the point where I whip out the paint brush and dreams of Venetian renaissance paintings in his honor, but I'm not ruling it out in the long run either. For the moment, I will say that Murdoch has the greatest potential for improvement out of these three. He's the most likely to remove the shirts which would leave him with good exposure and the lightest color shorts. With today's competition in mind, that might be enough for a spot on the podium.

Haha, one cut later, I'm eating my words. Maria took her shirt off and revealed a gray tank top. This changes things and makes her the very clear winner. Even if Murdoch removes his two layers of fabric, Maria would still beat him due to her non-black wrestling attire.

Devon Moore, who is so attached to his black t-shirts that I'm not even sure if he has a torso, obtains a microphone before the match begins. Thanks to my shit hearing, I don't know what exactly he's saying, but it appears he wants Murdoch's title. Which is red. I totally forgot IWA-MS had such ugly titles.

13 minutes in, the bell finally rings and Nick Maniwa on commentary makes his presence known. Even better, he says he'll be joined by Reed Bentley soon. That pleases my inner commentary snob. Bentley is one of the very few wrestlers who understands that commentary is about enhancing the match, not putting himself over.

Devon Moore, lazy as ever, leaves the ring to Murdoch and Maria who start off with a forearm duel. They leave to continue the exchange on the outside, Murdoch shatters the night's first light tube on a rather unimpressed Maria, and Devon Moore randomly dives onto Murdoch, then wanders away. Ok, maybe we do have some storytelling here, with Moore trying to save his energy up for later. Weird strategy for a challenger in a title match though.

Moore smashes a tube bundle on Murdoch, wanders away, and Murdoch slams Maria onto a tube on the apron. Apparently everyone had enough of Moore's laziness now as Murdoch chases him into the ring and Maria takes position on the top rope. She floors both with a double dropkick, then arms herself with the barbed wire bat and continues her attacks and draws blood on both opponents.

The camera is a little erratic. Reed Bentley explains what shutters are to Nick Maniwa. Murdoch goes through the wobbly barbed wire frame when Moore evades a Cannonball and goes to the top rope. Maria cannonballs herself onto the Murdoch and the barbed wire, Moore follows up with a Coast to Coast that is barely visible due to the camera's movement. He gets floored by Maria right away, then she has to be freed from the barbed wire...

Actually, everyone is stuck in barbed wire. Murdoch is still in the frame and getting cut out by Ian Rotten, the referee tangles himself in an attempt to free Maria... No, Devon Moore is not trapped. He attacks Murdoch, but is cut off by Maria who is back in control over the shutter. Not for long though. She gets attacked by Murdoch, the shutter gets demolished on his head, Moore wanders off to celebrate himself in the crowd, the camera drowns in utter confusion.

Maria is back in the ring, Murdoch and Moore are brawling outside, Maria dives onto Murdoch with a cannonball, but the camera really doesn't make it easy to figure out who is where. Thankfully, Maria and Moore return to the ring where Maria kicks out after a piledriver. Commentary isn't sure about it, and a fan's head blocks the hardcam's view in the middle of the ring. Murdoch returns to this limited field of vision and floors Moore with a Sick Kick, then sets up chairs. Moore wanders around on the outside while Maria maneuvers Murdoch to the top rope, then gets put through the chairs with a Deep South Destroyer and Murdoch gets a three count.

Moore hits Murdoch with a stick of sorts, possibly a kendo stick, but commentary speculates about a light tube. Either way, the match is over and Maria gets standing ovations and a handshake from Moore.

It wasn't a masterpiece, that much is certain. What's stranger than the match itself is the constellation. Amazing Maria is in KOTDM because she won Prince of the Deathmatches 2018 about 2 months prior which earned her the spot. I like IWA-MS's consistency – princes have always 'cashed in' their reward – but I question why somebody fresh off a rookie tournament victory was put in a world title match here. The introductions also put a very clear gap between the entrants: Amazing Maria, freshly crowned (albeit not a real rookie with 7 years of experience). John Wayne Murdoch, reigning champion and the KOTDM two years prior. Devon Moore, winner of KOTDM 2008. A rookie, a champion, and a guy who hasn't done anything worth mentioning in a decade walk into a bar... This just spelled 'foregone conclusion' from the get-go.

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Match 2 – Taipei Four Corners of Pain – Rickey Shane Page vs. Conor Claxton vs. Bryant Woods

Yesterday I saved no less than 26 puppies from a house fire which is why I'm getting rewarded today. After Murdoch in green, I'm also getting Mr. Claxton who put far less effort into his color choices. Black shirt, black trunks, asymmetric kickpads – my favorite – and proper footwear; serviceable, good exposure, but not really a masterpiece of deathmatch fashion.

RSP is annoyed that Claxton gets Comic Sans medieval poetry and he doesn’t, but that’s his problem, not mine.

It doesn't matter for two reasons. First, Conor Claxton would be as gorgeous as the glorious sun itself if he wore a literal trash bag. Secondly, one of his opponents is Bryant Woods, a virtuoso of drenching his pristine white attire in crimson glory. On this card, there's only one man who could pose a serious threat to Woods – Dale Patricks, if he brought his white satin shorts, and that remains to be seen.

Bryant Woods wears all white, including sportswear, and he has proper footwear. No surprises here. He's so far ahead of the curve, he could just leave right now without getting his hands/gear dirty and still end up on the podium.

RSP sure makes no effort to change that. Black shirt, black long shorts (last week I decided to refer to this kind of shorts as 'capris', but it doesn't sound right), but at least proper footwear.

With this extremely easy fashion call out of the way, let's take a look at the stipulation. IWA-MS sure has some funny corners. They appear to be made of carpet strips, the constructions look flimsy, and they are not where one would expect corners to be. These wobbly things are outside the ring, mostly. Some carpet strips are in one corner, but look more like leftovers. There's also a crate with all sorts of bottles. The brief close-up gave me the impression that this is hot sauce and other condiments. I will admit that I was distracted during Claxton's entrance, and he may have broken glass on his hand tapes, but I'm relatively sure that neither Woods nor Page... I went back to check. RSP's entrance is very blurry and the smoke machine contributed to that, but he does have taipei gloves and showed them off to the crowd. During the introductions, Ian Rotten – a terrible announcer who always reminds me of the old lanista in Spartacus Gods of the Arena - also specifically mentions the carpet strips. I rest my stipulation complaints.

As soon as the bell rings, RSP rushes Woods, but gets interrupted by Claxton right away. RSP fights him off though, and shortly after, Claxton and Woods team up against Page with a double suplex, then carpet strips and a barbed wire bat.

Commentary speculates that Claxton is taking risks by not keeping an eye on Woods while he carves RSP's forehead, but for the moment, the alliance is holding. Woods waits for Claxton to draw blood, then gives Page a handful of salt and lemon juice from the condiment box. The teamwork continues, including attempts to double pin Page, then Claxton sets up a chair and a double team bulldog into it follows. The cover still goes nowhere, the teamwork continues, until Page counters the punches and gains the upper hand after a Scoop Slam against Woods.

After tossing Claxton through the carpet strip leftovers in the corner, RSP takes him out of the ring. So far, there has been very little punching and carving for a taipei match and that is not a complaint. Woods joins the duo with a tope suicida, but RSP moves out of the way to gather carpet strips. He continues to turn his opponents' attacks against each other, then tries to move one of the incredibly wobbly carpet strip contraptions into the ring. Claxton does the same with another and I agree with commentary – it's a miracle these things didn't fall apart upon being touched. Or just looked at too hard.

The not-so-shining trapezohedron surprisingly doesn’t collapse completely.

Page returns Claxton to the ring and takes him to the top rope, but Woods is back and interrupts whatever RSP was planning. Instead, he goes down with a double suplex – the alliance between Claxton and Woods is still intact, and they try another double pin that yields a two count. That's when the alliance ends with Claxton's quick roll-up attempt on Woods who kicks out and rewards the betrayal with a Torture Rack Bomb into the carpet strips.

RSP quickly death valley drives Woods through the remaining contraption and gets a three count. Not my ideal outcome, but I liked the storytelling and the fact that all three almost immediately forgot about the taipei part of the stipulation and focused on the more interesting weapons.

So far, things are going really well for me. Within two matches, I got both ear and eye candy, no major production issues, some good storytelling, and a decent field for Best Dressed. Naturally, I’d have preferred Woods in round 2, but seeing RSP was the ‘defending King of the Deathmatches’, this outcome isn’t too surprising.

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Because all good things must come to an end, we cut to JC Rotten wandering around in the ring, apparently in a pre-taped segment. It is only a few seconds long and informs the discerning viewer that JC thinks 'MDK is shit'. It's rare I agree with Rottens, and I'd have phrased it differently, but at the core, I'm more on board with that statement than not.

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Match 3 – Home Run Derby – Nick Gage vs. JC Rotten vs. Mike Roach

Mike Roach wears an orange shirt that has 'SACRIFICIAL LAMB' written all over it to tan shorts and proper footwear. Ok, maybe the shirt says 'PTW', but functionally, that doesn't matter. In this match, Roach is up against the promoter's son and Nick Gage, the most inexplicably hyped name in deathmatch circles. What do you expect to happen? The only question is which of Roach's opponents is going to pin him. Anyway. Overall, this outfit is meh (not awful) on exposure, low on sportswear, but the colors do some heavy lifting.

It's at least better than JC Rotten's choice of a black shirt and what appears to be long jeans. JC also brought a strip of orange tape with the word 'FUNERAL' on it which he awkwardly uses to threaten Roach by holding it in his general direction. Jesus Christ, JC. It's one word. You really had to write it down to remember?

Nick Gage wears his bank robbery memorial outfit; black t-shirt, camo shorts, sneakers, white and red banda... No, wait, he did not cover his face when he robbed the bank. A middle-aged spectator almost has a heart attack at the sight of Gage. I continue to be baffled, so I move on to my final fashion evaluation.

JC removed his black shirt and now I see that he does indeed wear blue jeans. I can't tell what the footwear situation is, so I'll just acknowledge the improvement in exposure. Ultimately, Roach has the lighter colors and is definitely in the clear about footwear, so I default to him as the victor.

Nick Gage proclaims his godhood for the 426th time.

The ring has plenty of weapons, most of them bats and bat-adjacent items like kendo sticks and water jugs. The worst weapon, however, is the microphone as Gage seizes it to announce himself and declare his godhood.

Gage immediately rushes Roach, Devon Moore joins commentary, I spiral into despair. When I manage to pay attention, Rotten and Roach duel with water jugs, a light bulb bat gets shattered on the latter, Gage beats everyone down with a thumbtack and possibly gusset water jug. The beatdown continues on the outside where Gage hits Rotten and Roach with a trash can, then carves with a bat commentary claims has gussets. I see a close up and can assure you this looks a lot more like roofing nails. Surprisingly, Roach gets some offense against Gage, and Rotten staples his silly 'FUNERAL' sign to his head. Gage's head, not the guy he threatened with it earlier. Now there's some teamwork between Roach and JC; a double suplex, but the two can't agree which of them gets to pin Gage. Nice. A different twist on the alliance angle.

Pictured: Not Mike Roach.

Gage returns and distributes back elbows and whoa, an actual wrestling sequence after a piledriver attempt against Roach! That was unexpected and looked more coordinated than not. Maybe I wrote this off too quickly.

The camera briefly becomes fascinated with a ring post, but the wrestling between Roach and Gage continues and leads to a very nice Uranage and a pinfall attempt from Roach. Then JC Rotten returns to the ring and tries a Pedigree on Roach, but gets backflipped out of the ring, possibly through a light tube bundle that the camera earlier tried and failed to capture. I've only heard Bentley and Maniwa for a while, too. This is really picking up more than I thought.

This is all the camera captured of the backflip Rotten set up for the better part of 5 minutes.

Roach leaves the ring to get a huge ladder. That's an interesting choice while both opponents are down. There's now visual confirmation that Rotten was backflipped through a board with light tubes as the camera drifts across the remains.

Roach sets the ladder up in a corner, then gets a skewer bat across the back from Gage, gets thrown against the ladder, and floored with a lariat. Gage also chooses not to pin his opponent and instead engages the returning JC Rotten which amounts to a terrible double underhook DDT. Rotten stacks something, most likely a painted light tube board of sorts, on Roach, then climbs the top rope with the ladder and smashes down onto Roach. Gage puts Rotten onto the ladder, then pins Roach for a three count.

This match was much better than the setup suggested. Instead of a quick, one-sided beatdown of Roach, there was balance and far more selling from Gage than usual. He did leave the big bumps and nasty weapons to Rotten and Roach, but in turn he was involved in the better wrestling sequences with the latter (and Rotten's contribution to that was rather negligible overall). Credit where credit is due: For a Nick Gage match, this was really solid.

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Match 4 – Gusset Plate Chairs, Light Tube Doors, Loose Light Tubes – SHLAK vs. Eric Ryan vs. Aeroboy

Ugh, short entrances. Not ideal for my outfit verdicts. There's a lot to work with here, but I only get a few seconds of footage. Eric Ryan wears tattered jeans shorts, proper footwear, white belt. During his entrance he wore a white vest, so the belt is not considered a clash. Exposure is decent, sportswear is low, colors are meh since the white is gone.

Aeroboy wears a black shirt, reddish tights, proper footwear, red mask. During the entrance, he also wore a red-white glitter cape which scores quite a few style points. Clear color theme, a cape fits his Underground Hero nickname, and he has the highest wrestling attire ratio in this match. Which isn't hard because neither Eric Ryan nor SHLAK have any wrestling or sportswear except for the footwear. Aeroboy's one clear weakness is that he's the most covered.

SHLAK wears his usual outfit. Shirtless and dark-gray shorts, proper footwear. Hardly spectacular, but he has the best skin exposure in this match. I'm calling this a tie between him and Aeroboy, with the prognosis that SHLAK has the greater potential for improvements via visible battle damage later.

My first thought: What a curious clash of styles. Powerhouse SHLAK, luchador Aeroboy, and Eric Ryan whose MO is 'taking a beating for 3/4 of the match, then making a sudden comeback'. My second thought: Since KOTDM 2018 has a subtle theme of predictable booking, my money is on Aeroboy to advance to face off with either or both of the other two Mexicans.

What do we have in the ring? Loose tubes, at least one chair, and a door with tubes. Yeah, everything the stipulation lists is there. I just wish IWA-MS had been more creative and given it some kind of name or theme, but then... Seeing the catastrophic, over-complicated themed matches later tournaments featured, maybe less is more in this case.

The opening is fast and wonky. Things almost go very wrong for Aeroboy who fortunately doesn't drop on his head mere seconds into the match. The sequence ends with SHLAK spearing everyone including himself through the door. Ryan leaves the ring to his opponents for some wrestling, and Aeroboy comes out on top after a neckbreaker. It's not entirely clear what happens next because the camera pans away, but from commentary I gather that Ryan returned.

When I can see for myself again, SHLAK is on the outside, Ryan is down after a neckbreaker, and Aeroboy signals a dive. That's exactly what happens, then Aeroboy carves Ryan with a broken tube before kicking SHLAK.

Commentary leads me to believe that Reed Bentley's middle name is Brian, because – like every other Brian in wrestling – he has trouble with the 'Sh' sound in SHLAK. Unlike other Brians in wrestling, I trust Bentley's competence though, so maybe there is some secret pronunciation quirk I'm unaware of.

Back to the action. Everyone is still on the outside. SHLAK tries to choke Aeroboy with a plastic bag, but gets interrupted by Eric Ryan with light tubes. While SHLAK and Ryan brawl, Aeroboy gets the gusset chair and slams SHLAK onto it. My first prediction comes true: SHLAK's outfit is already improving.

Aeroboy returns to the ring where Ryan catches him in a Death Valley Driver position, but Aeroboy fights out and gets a first two count. The camera becomes very unstable, but it looks like Aeroboy stacked loose tubes on Ryan. He climbs the top rope, is intercepted by SHLAK, but still ends up on Ryan and the tubes. SHLAK gets a two count, Ryan is down, Aeroboy is somewhere on the outside. Ryan and SHLAK brawl over two gusset chairs. SHLAK goes onto them, then eats a German Suplex. Again, the camera drifts. Ryan found one half of the door in the debris. It still has one intact tube and gets set up in a corner.

The camera almost misses what comes next. SHLAK lifts Ryan for a Death Valley Driver, Aeroboy is on the top rope (and mostly out of frame) and dives onto both, then they more or less just fall over, but still kind of hit the door in the opposite corner.

This does not go as planned.

SHLAK is in charge now, slams Ryan through the remains of the door again, tries to pin Aeroboy. Bentley works overtime in an attempt to explain the near-botch as a 'happy accident' that got SHLAK the advantage. The camera almost misses Aeroboy's Spider German Suplex against SHLAK, then just barely captures Ryan's Coast to Coast from the other corner. Everyone is down now, then SHLAK chokebombs Ryan and gets a three count. That felt random.

This was a fairly balanced and fairly botchy match. Nothing went super-wrong, but it was close at least twice. First, in the opening sequence when SHLAK didn't catch Aeroboy and almost dropped him on his head or neck. Then again in the attempted double DVD through the door when SHLAK lost balance and just barely got everyone to fall in the door's direction.

Commentary mentioned that this was the first KOTDM for SHLAK and Aeroboy and I think the glaring coordination issues were likely related to that – underestimating the speed and momentum of the Mexican. SHLAK is at his best when he can smash, rush, and overpower, and he's also quite solid on the mat, but I don't think he has the agility to keep up with quick, fluent lucha transitions. I'm chalking this match up as early experimentation; IWA-MS trying to figure out what to do with the Mexican imports. (Not long after, the experimentation paid off and the through-the-roof chemistry between Aeroboy and the more versatile Dale Patricks was discovered. Even burdened with some of the dumbest, most over-complicated stipulations in IWA-MS history, they put on some killer matches in later KOTDMs.)

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Match 5 – Stairway to Hell (Hot Coals, Barbed Wire Ladders, Pits of Light Tubes) – Dale Patricks vs. Miedo Extremo vs. Neil Diamond Cutter

Guess Patricks has to live up to my praise now. However, before I get to that, there's an extended close-up of the pit of coals. I complained about hot coals several times in past reviews – 'the pit is just a board', 'this looks like an ashtray' - so I'm pleased to report that this is a proper pit with proper coals and they look hot. Everything in best order, carry on.

Inspection passed.

Neil Diamond Cutter wears his usual collection of charity bin treasures, but also a black singlet and proper boots. Not great, not terrible, just passable. Geez, IWA-MS, can the entrances be cut any shorter? I barely get to see more than a brief glimpse of peoples' backs. Miedo Extremo wears a red long sleeve flannel, red shorts, presumably proper footwear, but I can't be sure yet. Clear color theme, everything matches the dyed hair, and I expect the flannel to be gone by the time the camera deigns to point to the ring. Dale Patricks wears a black jacket with some kind of blue galaxy pattern. That is all I can see because the camera firmly stays behind his back and points at his shoulders.

When it cuts to the ring, the jacket is gone. As are Cutter and Miedo's flannel. Oh, no, Cutter is still there. He was just hidden behind the barbed wire ladder. So what do we have? Patricks actual outfit consists of black shirt, black shorts, proper footwear, so he's out based on bad colors alone. Skin coverage is about equal. Long story short, I'm giving the win to Miedo. Cutter lowers the singlet during the introductions, but that's not enough to beat Miedo's better colors and wrestling attire ratio.

All weapons are accounted for. The barbed wire ladder is in the ring, the pits of coals and tubes are on the outside. Bryant Woods joins commentary because the 26 puppies I saved went on to stop global warming and IWA-MS wants to reward me for making that happen. It also makes thematic sense because Woods was the one who took the nasty hot coal bump in KOTDM 2017.

Miedo and Patricks immediately rush Cutter who just sits in a corner and send him out of the ring. Nothing against Cutter, but that's great because now I get to see how Patricks measures up to SHLAK against the extremo. The conclusion is as expected as it is brutal: Yeah, Patricks handles the Mexican speed and fluidity way, way better.

With that out of the way, Cutter returns by diving onto both opponents from the top rope, then proceeds to show that he, too, has some lucha libre in him. A dive to the outside almost goes wrong for him, but Miedo and Patricks catch Cutter and introduce him face-first to the apron instead of the pit he was headed for.

Back in the ring, the teamwork against Cutter continues and sends him against the barbed wire ladder with a double chokeslam. While I'm distracted by the ear candy on commentary, Miedo had enough of the partnership with Patricks and attacks him with a light tube. He goes for more tubes, but Patricks cuts him off with a Falcon Arrow.

He gets a first two count, then a chop duel ensues and ends with Miedo back in charge. Cutter returns, only to get carved by Miedo with a light tube. After a brief intermezzo involving Patricks, Miedo turns his attention back to Cutter who goes out of the ring and into the coal pit.

Patricks joins, sends Miedo back into the ring, then suplexes Cutter into the tube pit for good measure. Patricks follows Miedo to the ring for a top rope neckbreaker, then Cutter joins them and gains the upper hand over Patricks. After a strangehold back cracker, Cutter gets a two count, follows up with a Lionsault, but for some reason Miedo interrupts his cover with an attempted suplex. Cutter tries to counter with a headscissor, but ends up getting powerbombed. This time, Patricks breaks up Miedo's cover. So... I take it that Miedo wants Cutter eliminated and Patricks doesn't? Do they, in kayfabe, not know that the second round brackets will be mixed up and they may not get to fight their preferred opponent anyway?

Patricks floors Miedo with a Total Anarchy, then a three way exchange of punches breaks out. Meanwhile, Nick Maniwa gives some context. Apparently, the feud is between Cutter – crowned the first Prince of the Deathmatches in 2010 – and Dale Patricks, who won the same tournament in 2015, while Miedo is pretty much just there because all first round matches need a third guy. The threeway punch fest ends with Miedo and Patricks teaming up again, this time by arranging the barbed wire ladder on the top rope. Then they swap the ladder for Cutter, put the ladder back on the ropes, try to climb it... Commentary is puzzled, the crowd chants 'what the fuck?' in confusion, the ladder/barbed wire seems uncooperative, Patricks makes the executive decision not to climb up, and instead holds the ladder for Miedo to superplex Cutter from the stubborn construction. Everyone involved has more brain cells than G-Raver confirmed.

You bet G-Raver would have tried to stand on Miedo’s shoulders and fucked it all up if it had been him in Patricks’ place.

Everyone is down and out. Miedo gets up first and engages Patricks for a fast paced sequence that ends with an Emerald Flowsion that puts Patricks onto the ladder. Cutter gets involved again and gets a two count on Miedo after a frog splash through light tubes. Miedo retreats, Cutter doesn't miss a beat and goes after Patricks, now with two barbed wire ladders lying in wait. They go to the top rope, and then down with a piledriver against Cutter onto the ladders. Miedo breaks up the pin with a basement dropkick though, and Bryant Woods says out loud what I keep thinking: Why do they keep breaking up covers when this is set for one fall and two will advance?

Nick Maniwa theorizes that Miedo is angry that his partner Ciclope got a main event spot and wants to one-up him. I don't know, man. The main event is another first round match and right after this one. There really isn't much of a prestige gap. Less so considering that the reigning IWA-MS World Champion was in the opener. Besides, Miedo really lucked out with two good opponents. Ciclope will find himself between a rock and a hard place in his 'main event', with King Sloppy Markus Crane on one side, and the Sultan of Botches G-Raver on the other.

Anyway, Miedo is on the top rope with Patricks who counters an attempted Sunset Flip at first, then goes down and into a two count when the second attempt succeeds. The camera is very erratic, but gets a grip just in time to capture Miedo kicking a tube bundle on Patricks. After that, he gets a three count while Cutter, the only one who stayed out of the pin breaking parade, once again stays out of it and on the apron.

Other than the puzzling pin breaks, this was a really good match; the preliminary MOTN. Also, Bryant Woods should read audiobooks.

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Match 6 – Fans Bring The Weapons – Markus Crane vs. G-Raver vs. Ciclope

As usual, G-Raver wears every black clothing item he could find and his mask. Too black, too covered up, too much of an asshole. Markus Crane, while maintaining his usual 'I found all this in the trash and it looked fine to me' couture, surprisingly does have a more coherent theme today: Dumpster Diving at the Army Surplus Shop. Not a shred of sportswear, of course, but the camo vest matches the helmet. Measured by Crane standards, that's high fashion. Measured by all other criteria, it's 'at least not all black' due to the beige pants. Ciclope wears almost the same attire as his tag team partner earlier, with the difference that he wears a black shirt over a pulled down black singlet. This isn't double layers, just a slightly worse sportswear to streetwear ratio than Miedo, but still enough to take the victory over the weak competition in this match.

So this is the final first round match and I gotta be honest: There are no non-tournament matches listed. I'm at 1 hour 28 minutes out of 1 hour 55 minutes which leads me to believe this match will either be very long or that there will be some feud shenanigans after it. The potential length is the third reason why I'm not keen on watching this. The two other reasons are Markus Crane and G-Raver. Crane is painfully sloppy and often veers into cringe territory with his incomprehensible gimmick. Raver is not only the concept of botches made flesh, but also an awful person undeserving of my precious attention. The one participant I normally would want to see is Ciclope – and so far, my prediction for a lucha threeway in round 2 is holding up. Aeroboy and Miedo already advanced, so it seems very likely I'll get to bestow my attention upon Ciclope on Day 2. Long story short, I'll skim this match to see if anything relevant to feuds happens during or after, but I won't do a full play-by-play.

Reed Bentley is back on commentary. That's nice. The ring has the usual FBTW plunder; tubes, bats, some kind of board, holy shit, did G-Raver just fuck up an armdrag? It was on Crane, but I already feel sorry for Ciclope just for existing in the same ring as these clowns. Commentary is confused about Crane's various nicknames. Can't blame them. The camera points at the crowd at random times which doesn't help my already shaky interest in following the match. There are some fun weapons though. It would have been so much better with different people.

This is where the camera work is at.

Mentally, I replace Markus Crane with Josh Crane and G-Raver with a literal crash test dummy, just when G-Raver misjudges the distance he has to jump to hit a dropkick from the apron, lightly touches Ciclope – seated outside on a chair – and drops to the ground. Markus Crane has better aim, but not better execution when he dives after Raver with a bundle of tubes. Nick Maniwa claims it was a Rock Bottom, but from the previous match – and the two pits on the ground – I happen to know that commentary doesn't have full view of this ring side, so I give Maniwa's imagination a B for effort to talk this up as a move.

Crane attacks somebody with his gusset helmet, but thanks to the camera, I’m not sure who.

Ian Rotten shouts how much time passed, once at 5 and again at 10 minutes. It honestly doesn't feel that long, so it's at least not a slog. Ciclope shatters a mini guitar on Raver's head, then Crane has serious trouble falling out of the ring after... I have no idea, it looked like Ciclope was going for a suplex or possibly DDT and Crane awkwardly wiggled out? It sure wasn't a counter. A razor board and a bunch of toothpick and gusset plates comes into play. G-Raver embarrassingly tries to 'chain wrestle' Ciclope, then an awkward 'counter' only delays his contact with the pile. Really no clue what this was. Crane gets a two count after a Snowplow that was blocked by the ref.

G-Raver takes aim. The joke writes itself.

15 minutes, according to Ian Rotten. Markus Crane is draped over the ropes in a corner and G-Raver is setting up one of his over-complicated sentons with a light tube. More precisely, Ciclope tries to stick the bundle in Crane's shirt, then joins Raver on the top rope, gets tattoo needles in his forehead, counters with the same, the camera barely gets a good frame on it, then an alleged Brainbuster onto Crane doesn't break the giant tube bundle. Ciclope accomplishes that with a splash from the top rope, but doesn't go for a cover. Everyone is down now and I have little hope that it will get any better.

A kneeling slugfest ensues, but for some reason Ciclope first knocks out the ref and keeps attacking him after. The camera gets erratic, drifts around, but apparently there's a ref again and the match continues. 20 minutes gone. The camera man insists to film the action with everyone cut off above the chest, so I'm not sure if it's a different ref. According to commentary, there are two. I think Miedo is sneaking around at ringside. Yeah, there he is, handing tubes to Ciclope on the top rope. Raver interrupts though and for once hits his senton. Then Markus Crane is in charge, somehow, Ciclope is still on the top rope, sets himself ablaze for a knee drop after a Death Valley Driver that – mercifully – eliminates G-Raver.

This was messy as hell, but ultimately entertaining enough to not feel like it went on for 22 minutes, and the finish looked good. (Better camera work could have made it look even better though.) I also consider this outcome as the least possible evil. Crane is sloppy, but at least not a jerk, so I prefer to see him again in round 2 over Bob the Botcher.

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RECAP, DAY 1 FINAL THOUGHTS

Day 1 offered pleasant commentary, a decent to good first round, and I’m less skeptical about the second round now. Still, there were some strange decisions today.

I already mentioned the weird combo in the first match. Yes, in kayfabe, ‘Ian is so secretive about the brackets’ and ‘there are always surprises’, but ultimately Ian did book this and it felt weird. It becomes even weirder as the round continues and the ‘struggle for relevance’ story I suspected between Murdoch and Moore actually plays out between 2010 Prince Cutter and 2015 Prince Patricks later on. Both deliver a performance leagues above Moore, and they bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. From a storytelling perspective, I’d also have found it more interesting to put the three Princes in one match, although I doubt that would have resulted in the same match quality Cutter and Patricks delivered with Miedo. I like Maria, but she’s not much of a luchador and was probably better off with Murdoch to carry the match. Moore rarely contributes much regardless of opponent. More often than not, he sticks to a ‘lazy champion who rests on his laurels’ storyline, minus the laurels to rest on.

The second match was good and had coherent storytelling, but I have a small nitpick. Considering my fondness for Claxton this may come as a surprise, but I’d have preferred Woods to advance. RSP, as last year’s winner, was a given, so the real choice was between his opponents. Claxton was a CZW guy through and through, their homegrown and insta-pushed ‘next big thing’ - a mirror of Murdoch in IWA-MS. In the context of KOTDM, Claxton’s one appearance two years prior served to further the narrative of Murdoch fending off the ‘CZW invasion’, and vice versa, Murdoch never made it far in CZW’s Tournament of Death. Bryant Woods, on the other hand, made his 4th KOTDM appearance in 2018, after a standout debut in 2015 and annual ‘please come back’ chants. He had a foothold in IWA-MS, fans were interested, and no ‘rival’ promotion had their hooks in him. (Unless one counts IWA-DS, but they ran so few shows that it was hardly a factor, and for all his numerous flaws, Brannen never had a problem sharing his roster, if he cared about that at all.) So yeah, it seems like a missed opportunity from IWA-MS’s side to forego a push for Woods.

Match 3 was better than expected and that was not the doing of JC Rotten. The best scenes came from Gage vs. Roach while Rotten was busy wandering around or setting up pillow forts that the camera failed to capture. It was also refreshing to see Gage sell for once, and deliver a balanced match - against Mike Roach, designated first round fodder, of all people. In the long run, there were no surprises here. Of course Gage advanced, of course Rotten did, and of course Roach got his annual first round elimination.

Match 4 was wonky and, as I already said, SHLAK and Aeroboy just wasn’t a good fit. There were decent scenes in it - for the most part, whenever Eric Ryan was alone with either opponent.

Match 5 then delivered on all fronts. Great flow, great pacing, spectacular spots, and - this may have not been emphasized enough above - probably the best performance I’ve ever seen from Neil Diamond Cutter.

Match 6 was a mess, but that’s what you get if you give free reign to G-Raver. If Markus Crane has to serve as a stabilizing factor, that’s just not a good omen. The one excellent decision made in this match was the elimination of G-Raver to spare round two from further disaster.

Today’s MOTN was Patricks vs. Cutter vs. Miedo Extremo. Best Dressed was, unsurprisingly Bryant Woods, and the runner-up was Amazing Maria. Since both are eliminated, the field is wide open on Day 2.

Substack keeps warning me that this is too long for mails already. Normally, that wouldn’t stop me. However, I’m still dealing with offline issues, and this show is twice as long as most others I review. So for once, I’ll listen and split this up in two parts.

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