King of the Deathmatch

The King of the Deathmatch is a professional wrestling tournament where 8 or more professional wrestlers compete to be crowned 'King of the Deathmatch'. King of the Deathmatch tournaments are single-elimination tournaments which are similar to World Wrestling Entertainment's King of the Ring tournaments. Deathmatch tournaments include the typical weapons used in hardcore wrestling such as barbed wire, nails, thumbtacks, fire, and light tubes. They are known for their large amount of blood loss. Usually the match is declared by pinfall.

The promotions who host tournaments annually include Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and IWA Mid South, and the now defunct Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW). The first, and most infamous, King of the Deathmatch Tournament was the 1995 IWA event, highlighted by the brutal final round between Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) and Terry Funk. IWA East Coast holds it's annual "Masters of Pain" Tournament in Charleston, West Virginia every November. The first "Masters of Pain" tournament was held in 2006 and was won by Japanese wrestler Jun Kasai. The 2007 tournament was won by Coke Hane. The "Masters of Pain" is most known for the unusual stipulations of the matches. Light tubes, lobsters, barbwire, panes of glass, cacti, and thumbtacks are just a few of the weapons allowed in the ring. During the 2007 tournament, Japanese wrestler Jaki Numazawa threw a barbwire bat into the crowd of spectators. Luckily, no one was injured.

ee also

*IWA King of the Death Match
*IWA Mid-South King of the Deathmatch