Welcome to the Death Panel, a monthly round-up of deathmatch stuff that looks interesting, either for good reasons or for bad ones. This month, the Panel is joined by HenryHeadCheese from the Violent People Discord server! More panel members are always welcome; see the blurb at the bottom of the column for more info.

Nicco Grey vs. Jake Devore vs. Willy Tiny vs. Mikey Anarchy vs. Stefan Havok vs. Anthraxx (XBW Ultraviolent Freedom, 7/4/25 — via IWTV)

There’s not much worth highlighting on this show, because if you’ve seen an X Brand Wrestling show from the murder basement, you know what you’re in for, and if you haven’t, you also probably know what you’re in for. One moment sparked joy for me: during the six-man elimination main event, Anthraxx put Stefan Havok in the Rings of Saturn. Havok went limp, and Referee Evan put his fingers on Havok’s neck, to check his pulse. The referee then growled “fuck” and signaled for the bell, and the only way I could parse it was that Anthraxx somehow killed Havok. [pto]

Bear Bronson vs. Beastman (GCW The Top Play, 7/5/25 — via TrillerTV+)

The Bear Bronson train keeps picking up steam, as he turns a corner post-AEW and establishes himself as a deathmatch mega-bleeder. On the other hand, I think that the Beastman train has already ground to a halt. Putting Beastman in long singles matches is becoming a great way to signal to me that I can play on my phone for a bit, or get up to go to the bathroom, because no matter how long my attention drifts away from the match, I can remain confident that I won’t have missed anything interesting or fun. Get him out of here. [pto]

Cíclope y Miedo Extremo vs. Ludark y Guerrero Azteca vs. Silver y Star Kid (Producciones el Padrino, 7/5/25 — via YouTube)

I’m not sure that a more professional filming job would have made this match any more interesting to watch, but it’s absolutely worth checking out a highlight that the Mask Toyss channel smartly clipped out for your viewing pleasure. We might have lost Mike Awesome, but thank goodness we still have Miedo Extremo; more to the point, thank goodness we have people willing to trust Miedo Extremo to give them an Awesome Bomb over the top rope to the outside without murdering them. Finding little things that make you happy is key to keeping your sanity as a wrestling fan. [pto]

Danny Demanto vs. Bear Bronson (ICW No Holds Barred Vol. 80, 7/18/25 — via IWTV)

Danny Demanto does an entrance with Jeff Cannonball set to “Because the Night” and you can feel the love both have for each other radiate off the screen, which is really sweet. I’ll talk more about Jeff Cannonball after the match. But Jeff Cannonball is awesome, I remember talking to him and Terra Callaway during 2020 and more (we talked a lot about Shrek). He has been very kind and welcoming to me during a weird time of my mental health/life and is overall a joy to interact with.

Demanto enters the ring but doesn’t have an opponent. I have not watched many Demanto matches, but what I have seen is cool so far. Bear Bronson enters, he is new to deathmatch wrestling and seemingly fits well in it. He has a very great balancing act of showcasing his vulnerability/being kind of out of his depth in story and getting caught, but also using enthusiasm and being super powerful to pull himself through. He’ll kick out at 2.2, after being hit with a popping bat thing and speared through a pane, but he’ll be shaking before and after, giving a feeling that he can power through but it’s difficult.

Danny Demanto is a great establishing force, taking Bronson through a tour of getting attacked by deathmatch weapons. One of the big visuals that sticks out to me from this match is Demanto’s smile. I think he in part enjoys inflicting this pain and in part is impressed/surprised. He brings it and is a great challenge. After the match, that makes even more sense, as he talked about about how he followed Bronson’s career. Interested in checking out more from both. Very good match.

Jeff Cannonball also makes a speech; he is currently battling ALS. Despite Cannonball’s difficulties, he talked about love and how much pro wrestling means to him. Cannonball Forever!

Sean Henderson Presents (You, Me, Us: A Benefit For Jeff Cannonball, August 10th in Philadelphia, PA), Joey Janela/Tony Deppen (CannonballFest, September 14th in New Providence, New Jersey), and Inner Species Wrestling (Cannonbrawl, October 18th in Kahnawake, Quebec) are all fundraising shows for Jeff Cannonball. Here’s his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rgs2d8 [HenryHeadCheese]

ICW No Holds Barred Vol. 80 (7/18/25 — via IWTV)

If you want to see the most consistently high-level deathmatch production going right now, you have to step into the chains. I’m sure that there’s other stuff that’s just as fun and weird, but maybe not filmed as well, maybe not curated as well, and certainly not as easy to find. Online wrestling fans love talking about “floor vs. ceiling” (also, input and output), and ICW NHB has the highest floor of any deathmatch company in the world right now. Nathan Mowery, AKIRA, and the Pillars may not do much for me, but there are so much worse out there.

This show had another Bear Bronson showcase, and Dr. Redacted and JB Anderson going full gonzo in a ring over-stuffed with carpet strips, but the two highlight matches were the Blunt Force Trauma Deathmatch between SLADE and Otis Cogar, and the Dry Ice Deathmatch between Bobby Beverly and Reed Bentley. SLADE is going to get himself crippled or killed one of these days, so we have to enjoy him while he’s here: bleeding like he’s been shot, giving Otis the world’s ugliest chokeslam on the bad angle of a cinderblock, and receiving such a beating with a chair that for once, it felt like the ref calling for a stoppage was the right decision.

Meanwhile, I implore everyone reading this to consider the case of Reed Bentley. Is he the most underrated (or “sneaky good,” if that’s how your brain works) deathmatch wrestler right now? He’s a name that I never see come up in these conversations, which is criminal. He’s such a fearless performer, and always manages to bring the best out of his opponents, even when it’s something like him and the Bev using frozen carbon dioxide to give one another chemical burns. Seek out more of him. [pto]

Emersyn Jayne vs. Luke Jacobs (TNT Summer Explosion 2025, 7/26/25 — via TrillerTV+)

I went into this expecting to see the worst tendencies of Britwres, because I’m still recovering from watching fifty-minute Marty Scurll and Jimmy Havoc matches over a decade ago. Assuming the worst might have been what made this match such a pleasant surprise. It’s not going on any year-end lists, and it’s got its flaws: doing a yay-boo strike exchange two-thirds through the match, making a big dramatic spot out of pouring some thumbtacks onto a canvas literally already covered in broken glass, et cetera. Maybe it didn’t need to be over twenty minutes, but I still wouldn’t have trimmed too much.

Emersyn Jayne and Luke Jacobs paced the match like a TV main event, making sure that there were set-ups and teases to go with the payoffs. In a year where I’ve stopped watching AEW, I haven’t been watching twenty-minute Epic Bangers every week, and maybe that helped me enjoy this one as much as I did. The inversion of the expected story was fun, too. Instead of a match where the bigger and stronger Jacobs threw Jayne around all match, they played up Jacobs being the novice against Jayne’s deathmatch pro, and had her slowly grind him down. [pto]

You — yes, YOU — can join the Death Panel. I’m looking for capsule match/show reviews (100 words minimum, 300 words maximum) of August 2025 deathmatches for the next edition of the column. Contact me on X at @ptotime, on Bluesky at ptotime.bluesky.social, or via the Violent People Discord at @pto if you want to add your voice to the mass of freaks baying for fresh blood.