Onita vs Funk

I got a dropkickd which is fun. But they lack a lot of promotions and matches. What's not fun is how many matches it's missing, so here....

Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Time Bomb Death
FMW Genten 4th Anniversary Show

Womens wrestling and Death Match wrestling have a lot in common. While most male matches are about inflicting violence, these two are about suffering, and the glorious will to live. We bleed, but we don't die. We bleed to survive. Suffering is a shared experience that brings wrestlers together.

I watched this with my friend April after watching The Rock vs Hogan, a wretched match. This match had similar pacing. It wasn't about working fast, or big moves. It was about believability and fear. The match couldn't be too exciting, because that would distract you from what's important. Fear. They fought for their lives, and often than fighting was messy. Why shouldn't it be? A little bit of sloppiness is warranted in times like this. Crispness isn't important, believability is, especially with stakes like this. So the match plodded, building to it's little, explosive, mini climaxes. Much like the Rock vs Hogan, but these two actually worked.

The match almost ends flatly. The DDT is sudden. I was ready to be disappointed, but the counter for the Big Bomb kept counting. Watching Onita, too shocked and dazed to think straight, trying to escape the ring was entrancing, only for then, with seconds left, he runs back into the ring to beat down Terry Funk again.

Before the end, he covers him, protecting him with his body. I don't know the story, I don't know the reason, but I could tell Onita, despite whatever led him to this fight, saw Terry Funk as a rival worth protecting.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for whatever that's worth)