10 Most Brutal Women's Wrestling Matches Ever

Speaking of Combat Toyoda's retirement bout...

During its initial 1989-2002 run, FMW became famous for putting on some of the most violent wrestling matches seen around the world at that time. To be fair, once a promotion was founded by legendary hardcore icon Atsushi Onita, you always had an inkling that this company may be a tad more than just your basic mat-based action.

In 1990, Onita brought in Noriyo Toyoda alongside Megumi Kudo and Reibun Amada to form a group called the Three Outbreakers. Skip ahead barely a month, Toyoda and Amada had a change of attitude, turned on their stablemate Kudo, and Toyoda dropped the Noriyo in favour of Combat.

So often it's been said how it's better to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, and it was with a literal bang that Toyoda called time on her career. Having established herself as one of the most violent women in wrestling history, she handpicked Megumi Kodo for her retirement match in '96 - which was as an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch.

Just seeing Toyoda, championship gold in hand, staring a hole through her BFF-turned-rival-turned-BFF is enough to send a shiver of terror down your spine.

Like so many of the best deathmatches, Combat Toyoda vs. Megumi Kudo doesn't do too much too soon. Instead, the early goings finds the pair feeling each other out, desperate to avoid the barbed wire that surrounds them.

Once things really get going though, man, do they really get going. Barbed wire pierces plentiful flesh, bodies are burned, and there are countless shots of a watching audience who have their heads in their hands at what they're seeing.

The end saw Kudo get the win, leaving even Onita in awe, as Noriyo 'Combat' Toyoda rode off into the sunset.