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| Photos by Matt Watkins |
From Larry Goodman:
Nathan Mowery hyped #11 as the quintessential Blood and Honey. He was not wrong. The card was stacked with name death match talent. New highs and lows of debauchery were reached. A ton of glass panes got shattered. I don't associate deathmatch with warm and tender moments but this show had 'em. The 2016 season ended with one of the best B&H matches ever.
What a scene it was. Might have been 300 people packed into the space outside Monk's Meadery, where there were 30 at the first Blood & Honey in October 2024.
Attendance was significantly more than B & H has ever drawn before. It is the epitome of inclusive environments for pro wrestling. Wrestling luminaries were on hand (see notes).
I've griped about the length of some of the B &H shows. Not this one. It was packed with so many memorable moments that it not feel long with a run time of 3:15.
(1) Scaffold Match: Matt Griffin (with Young Boy Sam & Young Boy Cooper) defeated John Wayne Murdoch in 14:15. The B & H crowd delights in chanting "Fuck you Matt".Griffin was bleeding like a stuck pig in no time at all. He's got a weird talent for gettting great color. Murdoch earned the first of many "you sick fuck" chants during the night for sticking a light tube up Griffin's ass. A box of 2X4s covered with tack strips was a work of art. Murdoch stapled dollar bills to Griffin's body parts and stuffed the money in his pocket. Griffin ended up wearing a light tube walker. Sam and Cooper jumped in to help Griffin as everyone knew they would. Cooper pounded a gusset plate into Murdoch's head. Glorious amounts of juice ensued. Cooper stepped in to take a tube rake for Griffin and got a "your a dumbass" chant for his act of bravery. Murdoch superplexed Griffin onto a light tube construct which exploded nicely. Sam got sacraficed via a running bulldog into a light tube bundle. Griffin and his minions partied on Murdoch with light tube blasts.
Sam suddenly superkicked Cooper and sided with Murdoch. Griffin climbed the scaffold. Murdoch went up after Griffin and was low blowed by double turncoat Sam. Griffin threw Murdoch off a scaffold eight feet above the ring and through the flaming table below.
Griffin, Sam and Cooper all piled on to pin Murdoch.
Griffin blasted referee Jesse Morales with a bundle of light tubes for shits and giggles.
Murdoch admitted Griffin outsmarted him AND he also fucked up because Murdoch was bringing Reed Bentley with him next season. He respected that scummy MFer Griffin but not those other two. Griffin gave Murdoch props for being the greatest American Deathmatch Champion of all time -- "Now give me mine because I beat him."
(2) La Parkita (Jazzy Yang) won the Hardcore Battle Royal to determine the general manager for the 2027 season of Blood & Honey (9:20). La Parkita was first to be eliminated but not really. The final five were Payton & Lizzy Blair, Skitzo, Blak Jak Mak and Corinne Joy. Dante Darko, Travis 3000, Saraya Saber, Chayn Male, and a black guy doing an Amish gimmick (didn't catch his name) were also in the match. I was talking with Jeff G. Bailey and probably left out some competitors altogether. Blair Sisters bled of course. Darko and Mak did a little as well.
It came down to Mak and Joy. Grayson Pierce ran to ringside with a bundle of light tubes which Joy used on Mak and tossed him out for a big pop.
La Parkita reappeared and dumped Joy out to win the match and unmasked as Yang. Crowd was pissed.
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Carson Rogers presented Yang with a bunch of balloons. The balloons floated away and got Rogers a "litter bug" chant. Yang kicked him in the nuts and said "Y'all are fucked next season."
(3) Spectre defeated Kavron Kanyon in 13:50. Kanyon entered to Sinatra's "My Way". They opened with a lucha sequence. Use of barbed wire toy wagon received a "Fisher Price" chant. Kanyon busted a light tube with an Ernie doll on top over Spectre's head and Ernie flew over the fence. One of the loudest pops of the night occured when Ernie got tossed back over the fence and landed back in the ring. Kanyon took a backdrop through a shower door covered with Woobles. They came off the top rope and went through a bridged glass door together. The finish was a running Sabu-style dropkick sandwich into the corner.
Afterward, Kanyon gave Spectre a package piledriver GTS and snapped his neck. Referee John Ellington threw up the X. Crowd chanted "that was murder".
After being murdered, Spectre retired in the ring. When he started to take his boots off. Shouts of "No!", first turned to applause, then to a "Thank you, Spectre" chant. See notes for more on Spectre's retirement.
(4) Keelin Cole defeated "The John Carpenter of Deatmatch" Nathan Mowery (with Bombshell & the Rev) in 13:42. B&H has a homegrown deathmatch star on their hands in Cole. Never thought I'd hear a B&H entrance pop louder than the one Mowery gets. I have now.
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Great opening - Cole with a codebraker into a light tube bundle followed by monke flip to a foam covered with CDs. Mowery bloodied Cole with a gusset plate and carved him up with a hacksaw. Mowery hit a beauty of a tiger driver onto light tubes. Cole hits hard and gets off on being hit.
They encountered a table as impervious to being broken as the three inch glass at the last B&H show. Cole set the table up at ringside tried to put Mowery through it with a moonsault off the ropes. Table did not break. Cole tried again with a DVD. No go. Crowd chanted "one more time" and a second DVD did the trick and had the crowd chanting Keelin's name.
Mowery gave Cole a twisting suplex through a shower door. Cole superplexed Mowery through a glass pane bridge and squirted light fluid on Nathan's pant, intent on an insanely dangerous daredevil finish. Cole didn't give up easily but he couldn't get a fire lit and had to settle for suplexing Mowery through a glass pane propped up in the corner.
Cole got the rub. They showed mutual respect and received a "thank you" chant.
(5) Angel Metro defeated Tank (with the Rev). Metro out to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" and a monster pop. She blasted Tank with a crutch and took a scary bump on a rolling senton off the apron.
The woman is made of steel. Tank sliced Metro's head with the sickle and did same between her fingers. They were leaking blood pretty good at this point. Dueling chants broke out. Metro used a pie pan laced with firecrackers. Tank DDTed Metro. She kicked out but the ref counted three and Tank's hand was raised. The match was restarted. Metro kicked out of Tank's chokeslam and rolled him up.
Postmatch, Tanks put Metro over being among the great female deathmatch wrestlers. Said she didn't have balls but had bigger balls than the guys in the back. Tank presented Metro with his sickle (a first) and told her she could use it in the future if she so chose.
It was Metro's birthday. Also John Wayne Murdoch's birthday.
(6) Hoodfoot defeated Hardcore Hillbilly (with Luke Hateful) via referee stoppage in 16:04. Ring announcer Don Miguel was goaded into taking his shirt off to introduce the match. Why I have no clue. HCHB was already minus brain cells from the abuse he'd already taken at Blood and Honey and I promise you he left with fewer at the end of the night. The deranged violence of this match exceeded everything else on the show. Vile, ungodly stuff.
The unprotected chair shot to the head HCHB absorbed in the opening minute of the match made 1990's ECW look like child's play. Hoodfoot pulled HCHB's shirt over his head, inserted a gusset plate through the shirt and pounded it in with barbed wire baseball bat. HCHB had wits about him enough to use a chair to fend off a glass pane being swung at his head. The people chanted "Blood and Honey". HCHB paid Hoodfoot back for the gusset plate. Hoodfoot poured salt in HCHB's bloody head wound. Absolutely murdering eadch other. A Chucky Doll was brought into play. A fan was treated for a laceration. They got a "Both these guys" chant. HCHB broke out a bonafide Lariat from Hell..and some sick headbutts.
HCHB's shoulder got messed up. He repeatedly rammed his shoulder into the turnbuckles trying to knock it back in place.
Hoodfoot shattered a glass pane on HCHB's head with a wind up swing. HCHB withstood the blow. Hoodfoot was about to duplicate the chairshot from opening minute. Referee might have saved HCHB's life by stopping the match.
Hoodfoot said next time it's me or you, no stopping it. Hateful tried to lend HCHB a helping hand. Hillbilly lived to fight another day. He shoved Hateful away and left the ring in a huff.
(7) Doctor Redacted defeated Lil Sicko (with Sadistico) to retain the ICW American Deathmatch Championship in 13:50. Miguel announced that this would be referee John Ellington's final match and gave him a heartfelt send off.
A big piece of what makes Redacted and Sicko main eventers is their execution of this stuff is technically better than almost everyone else. Sicko has athletic ability to burn. Redacted gets high marks for facial expressionlessness and unhinged creativity. Both have great entrances.
Redacted was immediately slung throug a glass pane. Sicko went coast-to-coast with skateboard to put Redacted through an angled pane of glass. Redacted drove Sicko through a barbed wire board and cracked his skull on the edge of pane of glass with Saito suplex. Saito pounded a gusset plate into Redacted's forehead. Sick hit a high speed tope suicida. Redacted put Sicko through a table with a frog splash for a near fall. Sicko gave Redacted a spanish fly onto an ironing board for a near fall and did his signature 619 into a light tube bundle.
Spot of the match was Sicko's spinal tap off the scaffold - a thing of beauty and Redacted got a "that's my doctor" chant for kicking out -- Dueling chants now. Redacted flipped a ladder off the ropes onto Sicko's head. Sicko got turned inside out by Redacted's lariat. Redacted sent Sicko into a barbed wire fence with a DVD, then curbstomped him to oblivion. Put a plastic bag over Sicko's head and suffocated him until it was give up or die.
Redacted put Sicko over as never imitated, never duplicated. He gave props to Mowery for putting Southern deathmatch wrestling on his back.
Yang came to ringside to confront Redacted. Lane Bloodie blindsided Redacted with a ight tube shot to add to the doctor's crimson mask. Sicko and Sadistico made the save.
NOTES: Spotted in the crowd and backstage: Jeff G. Bailey, Grayson Pierce, Alexandra Quinn, Fay Vroyles!! (SHW event manager), Kyle Matthews, Neji Ichiban, Hakeem Young, Nathan Hamilton, Liz (DSW), AC Mack, Rico Gonzalez, Terry Yaki, and Peter Sigmund (not shooting photos)...After a serious foot surgery in 2023, Spectre was not able get back to where he wanted to be in the ring. He's 37 and has other interests he wants to pursue. He's still going to be around wrestling though...Mowery is partnering with Loko Wrestling for a Georgia vs. Texas deathmatch show in Houston next January.
