by: Aniruddh Nambudiri

Despite being enamored by wrestling, very rarely does it make me fully emotional. There are quite a few exceptions though. Seeing Hangman Page cradle the world title at All In earlier this year was one of those moments. Seeing Eddie Kingston finally get to be one with the All Japan legends that he idolized growing up at the pre-show for Full Gear 2022 after winning a match against Jun Akiyama, the so-called fifth pillar of the four pillars that helped AJPW reach its critical peak in the 1990s was another one. Recently though, I have been thinking about another one of those moments. A moment so brutal in memory yet one filled with so much emotion, an image that has become relevant again in 2025 after they once again tore the house down in a blood-soaked war, one dubbed their final meeting (at least until or if the 2035 match happens). These are matches I would never show someone just getting into the sport, but they are by far the peak of storytelling within a few matches. A few matches turned these two into rivals whose names will be associated with each other whenever you hear them. They are so different from each other though. Once again though, to bookmark one of the greatest matches, friendships and rivalries in pro wrestling history, it’s time for Jun Kasai versus El Desperado. 

Jun Kasai is a freak. That is just how he is. He is an absolute freak who is a legend because of that reason. He harkens back to the best of FMW in his work and he is as wild now as he was when he came into the picture in BJW all those years ago. If you need any more proof of that though, his body bears all the marks and scars that over 25 years in death match wrestling gives you. The crowd chants his name as he comes out on this September day in his Clockwork Orange inspired outfit and in all white. This is the man El Desperado wants to face because this is the man he wants to have the chance to beat. He is an icon of the Japanese death match scene. 

On the other side is El Desperado. He is not famous for death matches or even violent bouts. What he is, however, is one of the best junior heavyweights in a stacked New Japan roster. He really hit his stride around 2018 and by 2020, he had a reputation for incredible matches in many different styles. He does have signature things that make him incredible. His ability to tell in-match stories better than most wrestlers are able to whilst having this otherworldly presence with his look. Then there is the mask. One of pure fascination that is able to switch between black and white depending on the occasion and it truly gives him the outlaw look he goes for. In 2025, he represents a hero and the face of the junior heavyweights. In 2022, he wants to prove he can survive Kasai. 

The first moments of this match where they try to do a ‘real match’ have always been funny to me. Everyone came into this building knowing that was not going to happen, but no one could see what came next. Despy gets thrown into a board covered in barbed wire and then Kasai comes alive. He breaks the rules in an already lawless land. He tears his mask. El Desperado’s face is exposed with the white face paint as his mask hangs around his neck and he already looks outmatched. Kasai is alive and now comes the violence. 

Every time Despy screams is blood curdling. It is disturbing on a deep level. He sits on the side of the outside completely hunched over with his mask completely torn, the camera tries to give him the grace of at least not showing his face fully. Despy tries to fight him, the man who immediately broke the biggest rule of Lucha Libre and Kasai seems unfazed. The barriers can barely hold when Kasai throws him around. He came in unfazed and now Kasai is punishing him for not treating this match with the utmost respect coming in. The red is covering his white tights and his face is in full view when Kasai drives another blade into his forehead. 

Kasai grabs a board covered in the same blades he used and Desperado stares into the crowd. It’s at this moment he has found a second wind, a motivation he talked about in the press conference before this match. He fights back and drives Kasai into the board and is now on the offensive. A flurry of moves not dissimilar to the ones he used in his bouts with Hiromu Takahashi and Okada. He is just trying to wear down the monster that is Kasai who flips him off when he powers out. Desperado then makes a mistake. He brings a guitar into the mix and takes his eyes off Kasai and ends up wrapped in the remains of it as it is smashed over his head. 

A steel platform stands in one corner of the ring and it gets a lot of use in the next bit. Desperado is sent face first into the top, Kasai is driven into the side with his back and then Desperado gets the big move he wants, a massive suplex that sends them both crashing to the mat. Finally, Kasai shows that the match is getting to him and Desperado knows that. He looks crazed, an intensity no one expected. He screams Kasai’s name as he tries to kick him and though he misses, he has finally been driven to the dark place in his head. Desperado powers out of Kasai’s offense and as he does, the desperation has now begun in the heads of one of the most dangerous minds in Japanese wrestling. 

He grabs a board covered in cans broken in half and places it on Desperado. He scales the top rope and puts on the goggles. It’s time for his massive move, the Pearl Harbor Splash. The goggles he uses are from his grandfather who died in the wars and he emphatically screams and salutes from the top rope. A move that shows the reckless abandon of Kasai and a move that has ended many matches across his storied career. The crowd screams with him as he salutes. He has Desperado where he wants him, but he spends too much time and Despy screams at him and in a place where before this match he would throw a punch or kick, he just slaps Kasai straight in the face and a clap resonates across the hall. Desperado tries for the suplex again, this time into the cans but Kasai finally plays dirty. 

A low blow as Desperado desperately clutched to the ropes and then he ends up with his back in the cans after a brutal powerbomb. Kasai scaled the ropes; the end is near. An emphatic scream and salute and Kasai nails him with a Pearl Harbor Splash from the top rope as Desperado remains lying on the cans. The pin looks decisive, and then Desperado kicks out and he is still screaming in pain. His body gave out but his spirit forced him to get up. 

Kasai then brings out two wood boards covered in more blades and sets one in the corner. He sets the other up and tries to put Desperado through the other, but the setup gives him some time and they both go back first into the board. Kasai gets up first, a brutal maneuver but something he has seen before. Despy’s eyes are wide open in pain as he writhes in it and Kasai tries to drive him headfirst into them. Desperado screams in denial and borrows a move Kasai used on him, he goes low and then repeatedly bounces him in another gruesome scene. The big moves are now going Desperado’s way and his eyes are still wide open, but now in a focus and desire to end Kasai. 

He sends Kasai through a table on the outside he sets up and screams in pain on the floor after but for the first time in this match, Kasai is in a worse way. He begs Kasai to get up, he pushes the ref checking on him, but Kasai was playing possum and now comes the part that Japanese deathmatches are most known for. Jun Kasai pulls out a packet of bamboo sticks and drives a whole roll of them into the forehead of a prone Desperado. This is the point where people outside this loop will say the match has gone too far. An image so visceral that whenever sticks are used in wrestling like this, the image goes viral as some talking head inevitably says something about it acting as if there is a moral high ground in the sport. Over here it goes over exactly as intended. The crowd cheers on Kasai as he proceeds to then drive his own head into the blades that he used on Desperado. The fighting spirit he is looking for is in that board and each drive is him trying to reach that place where he can finally end his opponents after all they have been through. He drives Desperado into the corner with more blades and another visceral scream echoes across the hall with Kasai back to engineering his next messed up idea. 

The idea is to bring out a board of forks with the sharp end up, a weapon that has now become more popular with its use in AEW. These are usually the worst watching for me as there really is no smoke and mirrors in these positions. When Kasai drops him headfirst into the pile, it really is just two wrestlers falling onto a bed of forks and hoping that they do not go as deep as they usually would. A violent spot that ends with Kasai laughing and showing off as he certainly has ended the night. He poses and then rolls the lifeless body of El Desperado onto the mat and lays on him. He counts the three with his fingers in the air and a carefree smile and Desperado somehow kicks out. Never mind, Kasai will instead lariat him to end this. Heck just for the fun of the game he will do it after sticking a fork into his forehead for no reason. He runs across a reeling Despy and nails him with a perfect lariat. A fully cinched in cover and Desperado still kicks out. He cannot put him away, not yet. He has fought too hard to go down after all of this and he now sits up completely dazed. The smile from Kasai’s face is gone. The man is now just angry. 

The board with the blades is back and he places it on Desperado to finish it off with a Pearl Harbor Splash. The board breaks on Desperado’s body and it seemed like with that board snapping, so did he. Out of nowhere, Desperado kicks out at 1. Kasai is shocked, a man who rarely shakes is now shaken. He tries to hype up the crowd after, but Desperado has lit up the crowd once again as he still rolls on the ground in pure pain. This is the death he said he was willing to go through to get to Kasai and here it is. Kasai is impressed with him and he plants Desperado with a kiss in the middle of the ring to signal the end. The true end this time to him. He drops him on his head with a reverse Tiger Driver and Desperado still will not stay down. The crowd cannot believe it. Kasai cannot believe it. Heck the announcers cannot believe it. A man who had barely sniffed the deathmatch scene was now showing he was alive in it. Another board of blades is brought in by Kasai but Desperado plants him headfirst into it with a brutal reverse Hitedonashi driver. Desperado drives himself knee first and another scream is let out, but Kasai’s face now bleeds a new red. 

The weapons are no longer needed. In the middle of the ring stand two completely broken men and now they start trading strikes. Some really nasty looking headbutts, forearm strikes and lariats as both scream each other’s name with their final strikes as Desperado shakes Kasai and hits him with the Spinebuster and finally the Guitarra de Angel. Kasai kicks out at 1 the same way Desperado did earlier. Unlike Kasai though, Desperado stays focused on ending him and hits the Pinche Loco after and Kasai kicks out at the last moment. Desperado screams knowing he only needs one more. He screams and Kasai tries some moves, but his fate is sealed. A reverse tiger driver of his own and another Pinche Loco and Desperado has conquered a mountain no one thought he could. A brutal masterpiece of a story that ends with Desperado beating a legend at his own game. He went through death itself to beat him like he said he would and by the end, the most twisted version of himself was unlocked through all the pain Kasai put him through. 

At the end of it all, Desperado staggers and a beaten Kasai lays with his head to the ring. Desperado never hated Kasai, he loved him like many in that building did. He chooses to stay in the ring and then a mic comes to his hand and the emotions begin. They both bow at each other and Desperado breaks down. He just beat one of his idols and got given the chance to thank him for everything he did. Pure love exists in this ring and when Kasai gets the mic, Desperado is already a mess. Before this match, Desperado said he did not care if he lived or died in that ring as long as he bested Kasai. A sentiment you would think a man like Kasai would agree with. A man who puts his body on the line regularly to entertain and has set up spots that surely seem like death to both him and his opponents. You would be wrong. The speech after is about life. Kasai talks about how Desperado needs to respect the life he has and the love he gets from all the people in his life, now including Kasai. The honor they have to perform and risk their own lives in this ring after all the unfortunate lives that have been lost in matches that reached levels nowhere even near how brutal this one was. People like Plum Mariko and the immortal Mitsuharu Misawa who passed away in the ring in normal matches through the pain and struggles of being a wrestler for a living. 

In the end, Desperado gives back the rose Kasai gave him to challenge him to this match. The original exchange that brought both of them into this ring and a fist bump that is more emotional than any hug in wrestling has ever been. Kasai leaves and carries his daughter in his arms as he thanks the crowd and only then, Desperado is left in the ring and tries to put the remains of his mask back on. After an encounter with all of it off, he finally can take the lesson he learnt in this and take them forward. A match so perfect in emotion and story that is elevated by the sheer violence of it all. A perfect match in my eyes. I come close to crying almost every time at the end when I watch it. After, of course, fearing for the worst even though I know everyone was fine in the end. This match made Desperado a hero and put an even bigger spotlight on a legend who very rarely worked for major companies in his career. This gave Jun Kasai a match on a New Japan card, something no one could have thought of happening even five years ago. This match and the discovery of his wonderful documentary made Kasai a hardcore icon. Desperado used the momentum from this to where he is now, the current Junior Heavyweight champion at New Japan and maybe their last bout is a story for another time. Their love for each other never waivers as well. They teamed with each other and even when they faced each other, it was a competition more than a blood feud. There was still as much emotion as this but again, maybe that is a story for another time.