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 we’re joined by VP Discord members Emmo (whose blog can be found here) and Smoltz (who also took the beautiful picture you’re looking at, of Abdullah Kobayashi’s big ass). More panel members are always welcome; see the blurb at the bottom of the column for more info.

XBW Carnival of Chaos (10/4/25 — via YouTube)

I will never stop preaching the good word of X Brand Wrestling. This is a show that appears to take place in an alley somewhere. Unlike many of their shows, this one has a ring. The entire thing feels like it’s been thrown together on a shoestring budget and a lot of favors being called in, barely one step up from backyard wrestling. There are people wrestling on this show who could charitably be called “potentially trained.” The first match is between two guys named Crazy Dave and White Trash Mike.

In a world where so many deathmatch promotions are trying to be GCW or ICW NHB, XBW is the promotion that can’t help but fall face-first into being like prime IWA-MS. Sure, there’s no young Chris Hero or young CM Punk. On the other hand, they have a four-way ladder match where some skinny maniac jumps off of a roof, and something called a “Chairs of Death” match that seems like it was mostly a way to set up a scantily clad valet being atomic-dropped onto a spiked chair. This is wrestling as conceived by people who spend too much of their time watching Saw movies, and coming from this website, that’s maybe the highest compliment that I can give.

Twin highlights of the show: One, the main event. Mikey Anarchy and Louie Ramos Jr. take on Anthraxx and Alex Stretch in a No Ropes Barbed Wire match. None of these four gentlemen are very good at workrate or ring psychology, but what they lack in other areas, they make up for in their ability to endure pain. Mikey Anarchy’s back bleeds so much that it looks like he’s got gaudy red angel-wing tattoos. This is what real “for the sickos” wrestling looks like. Two, the part in Soultaker vs. Jimmy “Chondo” Lyon where Soultaker tips over the porta-potty that’s twenty feet away from the ring. I’m convinced that no one knew he was going to do that. I’m equally convinced that that was the show’s only bathroom. Indie wrestling is beautiful. [pto]

Joe Dred vs. Necro Butcher (SVN King of the Deathmatches 2025, 10/4/25 — via Sole Streaming)

I’m gonna start this by fully admitting that I am not the biggest fan of Joe Dred/Dred. From all that I’ve seen he tends to be a rather boring deathmatch guy with some rare exceptions. This match is one of those exceptions. Necro and Dred spend the first couple of minutes working a mostly normal, straightforward wrestling match with some decent looking holds and an honestly really funny looking ground & pound exchange before it just turns into largely a mauling from Dred. Necro getting busted open hard, looking like he got attacked by a grizzly bear as the match goes on and Dred just literally carves Necro up, was fantastic. What was also fantastic was Dred breaking a bottle over Necro’s head and in turn taking out one of the cameras. Necro’s selling is honestly what makes the match great for me, he makes Dred look like an absolute monster. The finishing moments of the match where Necro becomes a Deathmatch Hulk Hogan™, getting cheered on by the crowd with “USA USA USA” for whatever reason so he can not just brain Dredd with a chair but break the backrest of it as well was absolutely immaculate. Should also add that this is the least annoying Kevin Gill commentary work that I’ve heard since… well, ever. So that’s an added bonus. All in all, God fucking bless the Necro Butcher. [Emmo]

SVN King of the Deathmatches 2025 (10/4/25 — via Sole Streaming)

The match that caught everyone’s interest in this tournament was Dred vs. Necro, which Emmo handled above. (Poor Nate Webb, making a return before he was back in solid ring shape, earning money for his ailing cat, and yet overlooked in favor of so much “wow, Dred had a good match, not that he deserves any credit for it” discourse.) The other day, I was talking with the guys from Official Grapply Podcast, and I observed that I can still remember title reigns from 2000 WWF, but if you asked me to name a single Money in the Bank briefcase holder from the last ten years, I would draw a total blank. “King of the Deathmatches” is just as devalued as holding a Money in the Bank briefcase. Promotions still do it because it draws more than zero people, and because they’ve been doing it for long enough that it’s easier to call it a tradition than it is to come up with a new idea. Props to Aeroboy for taking home the trophy, but I can’t tell you what winning it actually means anymore, other than working three deathmatches in one evening. Put this old, tired tournament to bed. [pto]

Deathproof Fight Club Deathproof Tournament 2025 (10/11/25 — via IWTV)

Deathproof Fight Club is a lighter-hearted deathmatch performance. The vibes feel less desperate and meth-y than something coming out of SVN or IWA-DS, and the weapons and stipulations are more creative. A “100 Cheese Graters” match! A chair covered in wiggly dildos! These are the things we used to get from deathmatch tourneys all the time. I do want to call out one bit: during Warhed’s entrance, he goes into the crowd, and hammers skewers into the heads of willing audience members. Most of them laugh about it, and I can just imagine Atticus Cogar and MASADA seething at their gimmick being killed. But then there’s one guy who gets the skewers stuck into his head and immediately hates it. The camera can’t help but capture him grimacing and stalking out of frame like he’s regretting every single life choice that led him to that one moment. [pto]

Otis Cogar vs. Emersyn Jayne (GCW Fight Club 2025: Night One – The Art of War Games, 10/11/25 — via TrillerTV+)

Emersyn Jayne is one of the great deathmatch finds of 2025. In a genre of wrestling that’s traditionally dominated by “bald guy with huge gut but completely smooth Hank Hill ass,” there’s always room for someone small, agile, and fearless. Otis Cogar is a guy who only looks tall when he’s standing next to his brother Atticus, but he’s still able to physically dominate Emersyn here and really milk the big-vs.-little dynamic. There’s a part in this where Emersyn gives Otis a German suplex into a bundle of light tubes, and I can’t tell if Otis turning his face directly into the glass as he fell was an accident or not. If it was an accident, it was a great one that made him look especially fearless in risking a face full of broken glass. If he did it on purpose, then he’s completely fucking insane, thank Christ. [pto]

GCW Fight Club 2025: Night Two (10/12/25 — via TrillerTV+)

There are those who would look down upon Mr. Danger, claiming that he’s appropriating the nickname of an old Japanese man famous for knife crimes and hepatitis. I would say to those people: shut the fuck up and watch Mr. Danger vs. Shane Mercer. Shane Mercer is someone who I usually like best in a scramble or a big tag, where he can hit his super-athletic highspots and then get out of the way, but he’s great here as the musclebound bully throwing around the smaller and slenderer Mr. Danger. File this in the Stupid Light Tube Tricks category.

Later in the show, we get a tag team deathmatch with Matt Tremont and Bear Boulder squaring off against Shotzi Blackheart and Emersyn Jayne. Everything I said about Emersyn Jayne earlier still applies, and Bear Bronson is the other breakout deathmatch success story of 2025. Shotzi gets a lot of shit from people who think that wrestling is just about the actual wrestling, but she’s game to do all kinds of crazy shit. People said that kind of stuff about Lita, too, and history proved them to be fools. Tremont remains Tremont, a rock, unconquerable, still at the top of the game even if it seems like he’s staring down some kind of invisible countdown that ends with his knees giving out like Iron Sheik’s. This one is a banger, people, and just the right mix of wrestlers that no one’s weaknesses are too exposed, while supporting all their strengths.

The main event, with VNDL48 (the Cogar Brothers and Christian Napier) taking on Charles Mason, SLADE, and Krule, is the most ECW-coded match that you’ll see all year. Brett Lauderdale is usually good for pulling off an annual tribute to Paul Heyman finding virtue in excess, and this match is it. It’s a high-level performance in front of an unfortunately small crowd. The first six minutes are three simultaneous walk-and-brawls going at 100mph, with SLADE and Mason especially fighting like rabid animals. The stunt-show portion of the match is equally brutal, with Atticus Cogar taking a bad spill onto a barbed-wire board and Mason doing an elbow drop of a ladder, hitting Christian Napier on a table that not only doesn’t break, but it also fucks up Mason’s leg from the impact. Things careen toward an ending where Mason gets kayfabe-KOed by a chair shot, and SLADE puts up a valiant last-stand effort until Napier has to break part of the venue’s set dressing to keep him down. This leaves only Krule standing, and the Heyman booking goes into overdrive. Krule takes out all three VNDL48 members and pins Atticus for the win, but that’s not the end. VNDL48 murder Krule with chairs, but he keeps getting up. They smash him with boards, they stab him with skewers, slap gusset plates into his titties, give him a full-on Conchairto… Krule just keeps getting up, until a light-tube Tokyo Tower gets swung full-force at his brain. This is the sneaky good match of the month. Seek it out and soak in the vibes of barely controlled violence. [pto]

Tank vs. Tommy Trainwreck (ICW NHB Volume 84, 10/17/25 — via IWTV)

This match is honestly a stark difference from the previous Butcher vs. Dred bout I watched, and honestly? It’s equally as fun to watch. This is a fast paced weapons-heavy fuckfest that is a brawl on the outside for a majority of the time. Tank is a genuine maniac in the ring, I love him carving the hell out of Tommy’s forehead. It looks so fucking sick. This is also my first time watching a Tommy Trainwreck match, and I like him! The spot where he had the gusset plate slapped onto his arm, walking around asking fans in the crowd to take it out of him was a little entertaining. I also really liked the forearm into backfist spot that these two did, and more importantly loved seeing Tank get a win here. 10/10 on the sermon by The Rev, by the way. Man’s a legend. [Emmo]

Tank vs. Cousin Condry (ICW NHB Volume 85, 10/18/25 — via IWTV)

A match with two different parts, beginning with a short little brawl between Tank and Cousin Condry, who I’ve also never seen before but looks to be wearing one of Joe Gacy’s old CZW masks with a jumpsuit underneath for some reason. There’s not too much to it other than these two guys throwing arms at each other, which looked alright. They both brawl to the back where Tank is… knocked out? It’s not really shown WHAT happens but Tank seemingly is unable to appear and Cousin Condry tries going for The Rev when… THE POON DAWG ARRIVES!!! This Tank shaped individual seems to completely throw Condry and commentator Jeff G. Bailey completely off. Really nice surprise. This second part of this match is also pretty damn fun. It’s entirely just them beating the hell out of each other. PD’s back suplex to Condry through a door looked great. Loved the usage of the thumbtack bat from PD, alongside all the tubes that got used. Honestly might be the first deathmatch I’ve ever seen to be won by just a regular backslide? Poon Dawg works smarter, not harder. Watch this match if only for the chance to see the absolute legend. [Emmo]

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Vixsin (ICW NHB Volume 85, 10/18/25 — via IWTV)

If Emersyn Jayne and Bear Bronson were the breakout deathmatch finds of 2025, the one to watch in 2026 might be Vixsin. She comes across like an Australian Sádika, albeit without Sádika’s crucial ingredient of “thinking wrestling is real and trying to kill her opponents for real.” This match in particular is a showcase for Vixsin enduring John Wayne Murdoch’s over-the-top violence clinic. The crowd connects with her instantly, and it’s hard not to come away impressed. Expect to see a lot more Vixsin in the Death Panel from here on out, when she’s working places that actually make tape. [pto]

Arizona Deathmatch Company Death in the Desert 2025 (10/18/25 — via YouTube)

Arizona is a desert. No shit, right? But aside from the climate connotation, Arizona is a cultural desert without a real identity. Independent pro wrestling in the state is no different. Largely left out of the superindie booms that excelled in its nearby neighbors of Socal, Vegas, and Texas, independent wrestling in Arizona was a solely local affair with the occasional fake luchadors. Hell, Arizona even missed the Wrestlemania Weekend boom a year early and was forced to suffer through Gabe’s malformed DGUSA and a floundering HDNet era Ring of Honor. There’s been a noticeable shift in the landscape this year. GCW, in its herculean effort to cross every state off its list, began running shows in the Phoenix area (Mesa, to be exact for the locals). So naturally once it was discovered there was an audience of “national” independent wrestling – its niche (but still attractive) cousin – would be quick to follow.

All this to stay, on Saturday October 18 2025, it was billed as Phoenix’s first deathmatch tournament, the aptly-titled Arizona Deathmatch Company ran its inaugural show – Death in the Desert. Recalling the roots of indie wrestling, live from a VFW, a pretty diverse intergender eight-person tournament took place. You had your California crew – JD Horror, Sage Sin Supreme, Michael Krueger. You had your deathmatch mainstays – Hardcore, Chuck Stein, Neil Diamond Cutter. Finally, you had a legend – Abdullah Kobayashi.

What everyone’s biggest takeaway should be – NDC is the man. Better yet, Neil fucking Diamond fucking Cutter is the fucking man. NDC easily put on the three best matches of the night – all very bloody affairs. Bell to bell, and hell even before the bell once his entrance music hits, there is no one better at engaging a crowd that might have already thought they’ve seen everything that night. NDC is a true deathmatch worker, in every sense. Put on a complete banger and the MOTN with Kobayashi as one would suspect with more tubes that you can count. Absolutely worth taking the 15 minutes out of your day to watch. Abby sustained a pretty nasty and deep cut in his arm off a light tube elbow, but it seemingly barely fazed the man who has seen and taken it all. Even after the match, Abby took the time to put NDC over on the house mic for his upcoming finals match with Masada, as NDC was urging him to get stitches. This wasn’t fake enthusiasm either. Abby pulled up his own chair ringside front row to get the best view of the main event, which delivered as well. Masada’s work can be up and down depending on the day, draw, opponent, lunar phase but NDC dragged a complete match out of him and rightly won the inaugural tournament and title holder of “AZ Death Match Champion” – cheesy “you deserve it” chants be damned. [Smoltz]

IWA-DS Carnage Cup XV (10/25–26/25 — via Title Match Network)

I’ve been struggling with what to say about the Carnage Cup for weeks now. It feels too big-time to be a backyard show, but too unpolished and untrained to be a “real” show. Truth be told, the vibes that it gave off this year are ones of aimless misery. On the one hand, you have Sid Fabulous getting slammed onto a board of staple removers and coming up with one of them stuck sideways into his back. On the other, you have Skitzo splitting his pants while somehow doing a bad job of falling backwards through a board. Through it all, you have Necro Butcher roaming around, drinking beers in the front row when he’s not carving more ursine gouges into his skull. Add in pouring rain, Kris Kloss being as shrill as ever, and a heartfelt speech from the Holocaust-denying promoter while he’s accidentally cosplaying Peter Griffin, and the whole thing starts to make a case that being a wrestler isn’t fun or cool, it’s just a struggle to avoid having a “real job” at a gas station or a Wal-Mart. Oh, and between the two nights, it’s like eight hours long. I forget who won. [pto]

You — yes, YOU — can join the Death Panel. I’m looking for capsule match/show reviews (100 words minimum, 300 words maximum) of October 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.