FREEDOMS/Jun Kasai Produce Shin-Kiba Deathmatch Carnival 2023

I'm back after a couple of months off due to private reasons and came back in time for Game Changer Wrestling's comeback in Japan. After two shows of their own the latest FREEDOMS show in Tokyo was held under the banner of "FREEDOMS versus GCW" and Jun Kasai's Shin-Kiba Deathmatch Carnival seemed like absolute fitting for that.

TATSUHITO TAKAIWA DEF. REKKA & KIKUTARO (9:09)

Since the show was broadcasted live on FITE TV I've never seen a better production quality on a FREEDOMS show ever before. While I'm not the biggest fan of Kikutaro and comedy matches itself he's a lovable character. I can guarantee that the best parts of the match were when Takaiwa was involved, what a surprise huh? The grumpy vet put both geeks to sleep with his Death Valley Driver.

DRAGON LIBRE & GENTARO DEF. E.R.E (DOBUNEZUMI FUKKI & KYU MOGAMI) (9:30)

I have to say the E.R.E dou of Fukki and Mogami has something I really like and that is this bad boy-ish "I don't give a f-" about you attitude. While these two rarely win any matches together I would love to see a short run of them with the straps. What definitely was way more interesting than the match was when New Japan's Hiromu Takahashi came to the ring and Dragon Libre challenged him to a match. Hiromu accepted and will appear on FREEDOMS big Yokohama Budokan show on August 11^th. Wrestling is crazy!

KENGO & MINORU FUJITA DEF. F-SWAG (JUN MASAOKA & YUYA SUSUMU) (9:44)

Kengo and Fujita both repping title belts of other companies which made F-SWAG obvioulsy way more cooler than them. The last six months happened a lot with all four of them: While Kengo made his long overdue comeback after an injury, Fujita challenged for the big belt last months in a very good match and the other two founded F-SWAG when Yuya Susumu returned from his intermezzo with Pro Wrestling NOAH. This was pretty decent and was the perfect set-up for a future Junior Heavyweight Titlematch between champ Jun Masaoka and Kengo down the line.

DEATHMATCH SIX MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
E.R.E (TAKAYUKI UEKI, TOSHIYUKI SAKUDA & VIOLENTO JACK) DEF. CHARLI EVANS, MASHA SLAMOVICH & SAWYER WRECK (9:53)

On paper this was a super interesting match. You've got three insane dudes and on the other side three crazy ladies, it couldn't get any better, right? And yes there were some cool spots like when small Sakuda had to work against the much much bigger Sawyer Wreck which lead to a piggyback fight. Overall I expected a bit more deathmatch/hardcore type of stuff, the stuff you saw were pretty basic to be honest. Sakuda stapled Evans to the head and rolled her up with a crucifix for the "w".

BLAKE CHRISTIAN, GRINGO LOCO & JOHN WAYNE MURDOCH DEF. MAMMOTH SASAKI, TAKAHIRO KATORI & TAKASHI SASAKI (13:50)

Having Katori, Murdoch and Gringo Loco together in a match wasn't on my wrestling bingo card at the beginning of the year. And that the first half of the match was about Katori's rabbit either. Blake Christian wanted to kill the stuff animal while Murdoch protected the rabbit like his baby. The most impressive stuff here were the highflying moves of Gringo Loco and Blake Christian, the latter won the match for his trio. Afterwards Daiju Wakamatsu came to the ring and asked for a match with Takashi Sasaki.

DEATHMATCH SIX MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
JIMMY LLOYD, JOEY JANELA & SHANE MERCER DEF. JUN KASAI, MASASHI TAKEDA & YUSAKU ITO (11:00)

We start right away with action in and outside the ring. Janela and Takeda going against each other with a bleeding Takeda after just two minutes, Janela flying into the barbed wire board and Yusaku Ito from Dove Pro biting Janela and spitting blood all over the place. Sickos! This was pure entertainment with Shane Mercer toying around all people, especially Yusaku Ito. Speaking of Ito, he definitely took the opportunity to become more popular to a brighter audience. The preparation for Kasai's Pearl Harbour Splash was insane when all three japanese put skewer into each others forehead and then trying to beat up Jimmy Lloyd. However Jimmy's comeback led the americans to win the match when he and Mercer beat up Ito. Fun stuff.

DEATHMATCH SIX MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
DAISUKE MASAOKA, TOMOYA HIRATA & TORU SUGIURA DEF. LOS MACIZOS (CICLOPE & MIEDO EXTREMO) & RINA YAMASHITA (20:41)

After nearly four years of abstinence Los Macizos are back in Japan, back in FREEDOMS back on their former home turf. Alongside GCW Ultraviolent Champion Rina Yamashita, she's always on the GCW side when they're in Japan, they took on the current tag team champs Toru Sugiura & Daisuke Masaoka and world champion Tomoya Hirata. The match started before the bell with a big brawl across the whole scenery. And that's exactly what I want of a show like this, pure chaos across the ring, in the ring and everywhere. In every corner of the camera something happened, tubes were broken left and right, people bled like crazy and you could feel the heat between the two promotion representatives. After a trio lighttube hit from the FREEDOMS team, Miedo Extreme got bullied by Toru Sugiura but the mexican raised his shoulders twice but couldn't raised it for a third time after the traditional lighttube forearm strike by the longest reigning King Of FREEDOM World Champion.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall this was a decent show with a fun semi & main event when you're into chaotic deathmatch brawls. The undercard was solid, you won't miss anything if you skip it and go straight to the final two matches though. FREEDOMS next big show will be on August 11^th when they'll held a show at the Yokohama Budokan again.