[2000-08-06-BJW] Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Jun Kasai vs Zandig & Nick Gage (Barbed Wire Fire, 2/3 Falls)

[soup23]

This is always the toughest matches for me to rank because from a technical standpoint, this of course wasn’t amazing. However, if polled in 5 years about the year 2000 as a whole, I think this will be one of the most memorable matches of the entire year where I can recollect certain things. This was the ultimate spectacle. The setting looks awesome and post apocalyptic with the industrial buildings in the background. At one point, the camera pans on Matsunaga and Zandig in the ring engulfed with fire around them and you can see the subway passing by. It was beautiful in the way it was framed. Beyond that, Zandig nearly gets ran over by a car and then stops said car with his strength. Some of the Zandig dives look rough and he gets powerbombed through a table barely making contact. I personally would never want to wrestle in a deathmatch but this one seemed even more dangerous than usual with the flames getting out of hand and overall height of some of the dives/bumps. This is certainly a match that needs to be watched just for the shear insanity. Because of that, I do feel like this match deserves a spot in my end of year top 100 even though it is the bottom rung of garbage in a garbage match setting. **** (8)

[Edwin]

I haven't watched this in years, but its still as bizarre today as it was back then. Its just a pure spectacle that must be seen.

 

Here's some highlights of it:

• The ring has no mats and is just on plain boards and the ropes have been replaced with barbed wire.
• Matsunaga pulling Zandig through rocks with a car.
• Matsunaga trying to run a tied to the post Zandig over with a beat up white car only for Zandig to stop it with his brute force.
• Wifebeater setting the barbed wire on fire as the locals try and put them out with fire extinguishers.
• Zandig stumbles through the woods on the ring and almost catches himself on fire.
• Kasai tries to do a dive over the flames and almost catches himself on fire as he botches it and stumbles to the outside of the ring.
• Matsunaga botches a powerbomb off the car onto a flaming table and almost breaks Zandig's neck.
• Kasai hopes in a BJW truck and he has someone drive it ringside while the cameraman is on top sitting in a chair still filming.
• Kasai tries a dive off the top of the truck and pretty much misses everyone and lands on the boards.
• Zandig tries powerbombing Matsunaga through a table off the hood of the car.
• Kasai gets press slammed off the top of the truck through three flaming tables.
• Gage giving Kasai a Michinoku driver on top of the boards of the ring.
• Gage slipping in the wet ring.
• Barbed wire bates come into the hands of Matsunaga and Zandig.
• Gage setting part of the board in the ring on fire.
• Zandig does a dive off the top of the truck onto Matsunaga in the ring.

Insanity.

[AstroBoy]

My God this was insane. As far as deathmatch wrestling goes I am surely drawn to the spectacle element. I appreciate and think that there can be *good* deathmatches with strong psychology and a strong story. But I am watching this match -- and all wrestling to some extent -- to see the bizarre. To see the larger than life, to see the car crash, to see the morbid and the fascinating.

 

This was all of that, and in the case of the car, some of it literally. Some of the falls here are absolutely horrific especially Kasai diving right into the barbed wire on accident and Zandig getting dropped in the worst fucking powerbomb ever off the hood of a car onto a table where he just lands on his face in the concrete. The slam off the truck to the tables that just spread apart on impact was also brutal. As something that you can't look away from this was unbelievable.

 

***1/2

[G. Badger]

This match was in need of a Cousin It level clip job. Whew...the spots were pretty sick but, everything in between was garbage. No pun intended.

 

I've seen my fair share of sleazy death matches but, this was really poor overall. Kasai is a nutjob who is awesome and that is on full display here. Gage would have really benefited from a monster mask because he is one notch away from backyard wrestler. Frankly, this was backyard wrestling. Well, gravel parking lot wrestling. Zandig looks good from a physique standpoint and is passable but, in essence is from the Sandman school of wrestling.

 

There are some great death matches out there but, this isn't one of 'em.

[Tim Evans]

Zandig vs Car might be one of the best feuds in 2000 so far. The atmosphere around this match makes it for me. The fire, the fans running for their lives when the car comes through, the smoke from the fire, Zandig tied to a ring post trying to stop the car from running into him. Just awesome. Sure the match wasn't very good but i was entertained. Also babyface Gage and Jun makes me laugh every time.

[ohtani's jacket]

And then there was this... This was some Escape From New York shit right here. I don't know if it was any good but this is what wrestling will look like if a world leader ever pulls the trigger. 

[GSR]

I’ll try and set the scene here as a ring has been set up in the middle of a street, flats and houses on all sides, the ropes replaced with barbed wire and covered in soaked rags which are to be set alight.  Matsunaga mows down Zandig with a car that he and Kasai drove to the ring in and now Gage is stood on the roof of it trying to keep his balance while he drives it.  After tying Zandig to the back of the motor and dragging him along the dirty road, he then ties him to the ring post as it looks like the plan is to crush him with the car.  Bloody hell it is!  Zandig having to lock his outstretched arms to keep the car at bay until Gage can come to his rescue.  It’s a tad surreal to hear a “C-Z-Dub” chant in a Japanese accent, but surreal sums this match up to a tee.  There are people literally hanging off the buildings to watch Gage and Kasai go at it beneath them.  Zandig repeatedly slams the car door into Matsunaga before throwing him into the ring.  Fucking hell, one of the wooden slats comes loose and Zandig loses his balance on it, almost falling into the firey rag.  Scary shit right there.  Someone is trying to extinguish the rags while at the same time Wifebeater (who is acting as a second for the CZW duo) lights more!  This does look like something out of a movie with all the black smoke bellowing upwards.  Things get crazier as Kasai goes to leap off the back of Matsunaga, over the flames and onto their opponents on the floor, only to botch the dive and land on the barbed wire bringing everything on that side down.  The heat must be something as both Zandig and Gage are dowsing themselves with water to cool off.  The madness doesn’t stop as Matsunaga nearly breaks Zandig’s neck when powerbombing him from the bonnet of the car and onto a flaming table by not launching him far enough.  Kasai dives off a truck that was driven closer to the ring but manages to miss the three men he was aiming for landing flush on the wooden boards!  Zandig shows Matsunaga how you should powerbomb someone off a bonnet, only it’s a reinforced table that doesn’t break.  Kasai climbs back onto the roof of the truck where he’s met by Zandig who press slams him from it and through a couple of flaming tables on the concrete.  Death Valley Driver by Gage for a two and I’d completely forgotten that you need to pin someone to win, getting totally lost in the spectacle.  Frog splash off a ladder and that finally does for Kasai.  The match is continuing so this must be elimination rules, Matsunaga getting Gage to submit just fifteen seconds later by choking him with a barbed wire baseball bat.  Zandig attacks Matsunaga with the bat and hits a Falcon Arrow.  Gage hasn’t left and is still involving himself and nothing is being done so maybe this is two out of three falls then?  If so why isn’t Kasai helping out his partner?  Whatever, Gage sets some of the ring boards on fire and Zandig leaps from the roof of the truck, into the flames and onto Matsunaga for the final fall.

One of the craziest things in (and out) a wrestling ring that you are likely to see.  In highlighted form, limited to the big spots and with all the fat trimmed, this would look like one of the most amazing matches ever.