10 Most Messed Up Moments In Wrestling Matches

6. Masashi Takeda's Back Is Ripped Apart By...

Knives GCW
GCW/FITE

Weapons in pro wrestling range, as everything else in pro wrestling does, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The table bump is great. It's just so satisfying. It doesn't matter how often it's done, or how apparent it is that the actual thing is made from compressed sawdust. It's the perfect illusion, across the noise and the snap, of carnage. The steel chair is a bit lame now, since the person taking it has to politely position themselves, but the impact is still nice and visceral and - relatively - safe. Kendo sticks are cool but profoundly overused.

The cinder block is about as believable as Triple H claiming the Wednesday Night War was made up when he literally, on the first night NXT ran on USA, said he needed his fans with him in the "foxhole".

Rather a cinderblock than a board of f*cking knives.

At GCW Life Fast, Die Young last year, the gimmick wasn't a gimmick. Christ knows what they thought was going to happen. Masashi Takeda took a flat back on 10 upturned knives that did not budge on impact. The match was called off immediately because several deep, gaping, pouring holes instantly materialised on his body, like the pencil had just been removed from the Ziploc bag of water.

A disgusting, literal nerve-shredding scene that condemned death match wrestling as nearly exactly that.

In this post: 
Mick Foley
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!