I'm sorry to start a column like this but as many of you know Masakazu Fukada of New Japan pro Wrestling died of internal bleeding of the brain.He suffered the injury in October after a stiff elbow drop.2 days later he slipped into a coma.He died at 3:30 in the morning Wendsday April 19.He was a tremendous wrestler and it is a sad loss to the world of wrestling.

In Big JApan news,Here are the current cards for the World Extreme Cup.(thanks to Shootangle.com)

Big Japan announced the participants for their "World Extreme Cup" event, so 
here are they:  Seiji Yamakawa, Shadow WX, Tomoaki Honma, The Winger, Crazy 
Sheik, Mike Samples, Harley Lewis, Terry Bull, Mustafa, Tower of Doom, John 
Danzig, & Wifebeater.  Here are the upcoming line-ups for that tour:
April 24th at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo

World Entertainment Wrestling Hardcore Title - Seiji Yamakawa vs. Kintaro Kanemura
Chihiro Nakano vs. Hiromi Yagi
WEC League - Block C: Mike Samples vs. Tomoaki Honma

April 25th in Miyagi at Sendai City Gym #2

WEC League - Block A: Mustafa vs. Harley Lewis
WEC League - Block B: The Winger vs. Terry Bull

April 26th in Aomori at Hirosaki Citizen Gym

WEC League - Block A: Seiji Yamakawa vs. Harley Lewis
WEC League - Block B: Crazy Sheik vs. The Winger

April 28th in Hokkaido at Obihiro City Gym

WEC League - Block A: Tower of Doom vs. Harley Lewis
Tomoaki Honma & Seiji Yamakawa vs. Men's Teioh & Jun Kasai

April 29th in Hokkaido at Tie-san Hall in Sapporo

WEC League - Block A: Tower of Doom vs. Mustafa
WEC League - Shadow WX vs. Tomoaki Honma
Kiyoko Ichiki & Genki Misae vs. Chihiro Nakano & Yoshiko Tamura

April 30th in Hokkaido at Tie-san Hall in Sapporo

WEC League - Block C: Shadow WX vs. Mike Samples
Special Flourescent Lampboard Death Match - Jun Kasai vs. Mitsuhiro 
Matsunaga
Kiyoko Ichiki & Genki Misae vs. Chihiro Nakano & Yoshiko Tamura

May 1st in Hokkaido at Hakodate Citizen Gym

WEC League - Block A: Seiji Yamakawa vs. Tower of Doom

May 3rd in Tokyo at Akihibara Station Special Ring

WEC League - Block B: John Danzig vs. The Winger
WEC League - Block C: Shadow WX vs. Wifebeater
Special Fire Death Match - Jun Kasai vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga

May 4th in Fukushima at Eastern Bicycle Track Special Ring

WEC League - Block A: Seiji Yamakawa vs. Mustafa
WEC League - Block B: John Danzig vs. Terry Bull
WEC League - Block C: Mike Samples vs. Wifebeater

May 5th in Kanagawa at Shinkawasaki Kokura Overpass Lower Plaza Special Ring

WEC League - Block B: John Danzig vs. Crazy Sheik
WEC League - Block C: Wifebeater vs. Tomoaki Honma

May 6th in Saitama at Honjyo Gym

WEC League - Block B: Crazy Sheik vs. Terry Bull

May 7th in Kanazawa at Ishikawa Prefectural Building #3

Wildcard Matches - Third place finishers for Blocks A, B, and C

May 8th at Fukui Citizen Gym

Leader of Block A vs. 2nd place finisher in Block C

May 9th in Shizuoka Cool Messe

Leader of Block B vs. 2nd place finisher in Block A

May 10th in Tomiyama at Takaoka Techno Dome

Leader of Block C vs. 2nd place Wildcard finisher

May 11th in Nagano at Minowa Townspeople Gym

Wildcard 1st Place Finisher vs. 2nd place finisher of Block B

May 12th in Nagano at Matsumoto City Dome

WEC Special League Match

May 14th in Kanagawa at Shinkawasaki Kokura Overpass Lower Plaza Special 
Ring

WEC League Cup Championship Match
WEW League Cup Third Place Deciding Match

The battle for the most hardcore promotion in the United States has begun!
Combat Zone Wrestling, anindependent wrestling promotion based in new 
Jersey, has accepted the challenge set forth by CHAOS, THE CHAOTIC CULT, and IPW
HARDCORE WRESTLING as they will send 3 of their wrestlers to Florida to
compete against IPW at MAY MASSACRE!

Wrestling fans all across the nation have been following this volitale
situation which was started by Chaos and The Chaotic Cult when he went on a
vulgarity-laced tirade about Combat Zone Wrestling, in essence challenging
them to a hardcore war.

CZW responded to the challenge and has agreed to send ZANDIG, WIFEBEATER and
RIC BLADE to
compete in the huge May Massacre show at Jannus Landing on May 19th. Not 
only
have the three agreed to compete in the fist part of the May Massacre
weekend, they have also been signed to compete the following night in 
Crystal
River, the second part of this huge weekend. "Not only are we going to
destroy them once," said Zandig, "we are going to bloody them the next night
as well. We'll see how tough this Chaotic Cult is. Fans have never seen
violence like we distribute, and now it is IPW's turn to feel our wrath."

The stage has been set for IPW vs. CZW as the IPW office has released the
card for the first part of the May Massacre weekend. In the main event tag
team match, it has been billed as an IPW vs. CZW 4 CORNERS OF DEATH MATCH
which will pit THE CHAOTIC CULT with Psycho vs. ZANDIG and WIFEBEATER. The
corners of death will include broken glass, sharp tacks, pointed cactus, and
mousetraps. With stipulations like this, it should turn out to be the 
biggest
war on the independent circuit this year!

RIC BLADE, from CZW, has challenged JET JAGUAR for the IPW Light Heavyweight
Championship. Blade and Jaguar will be joined by SCOOT ANDREWS to make this
match a 3-way dance for the title. As usual, Jaguar will be escorted to the
ring by his manager, SIR RONALD J. NIEMI IV, who has had plenty to say about
CZW and the challengers to Jaguar's title.

Not only with this card feature the competitors of CZW in two incredible
matches, MAY MASSACRE sports a full card of insane matches as many IPW feuds
need to be settled. In a TAIPEI DEATH MATCH (in which sharp broken glass is
superglued to gloves wore by the combatants) it will be the insane O.D.D. as
he will battle HACK MYERS. This show also marks the return of THE SOUTHERN
POSSE, Gentleman Rick Thames and Sonny T, as they will challenge INNER
AGGRESSION for the IPW Tag Team Championship in a Double Bullrope Match, a
specialty of the Posse. THE FREAK FOUNDATION along with a mystery partner
will battle A.S.S., AL BINO and HAVOC, with new member STD, in a 6-man Tag
Team Elimination Ladder Match. Also, Mr. Peskin and "Supercool" Scotty Wrenn
w/ Al Getz has challenged "Uptown" Frankie Capone
and "Fantastic" Tommy Rogers to a 'Loser Gets Strapped 10 Times' Match.

MAY MASSACRE also marks the return on one of the most popular competitors
EVER in IPW, as 'THE NAVY SEAL' TERRENCE BLACK has returned from Puerto Rico
to immediately challenge 'MARVELOUS' MIKE SULLIVAN for the IPW Heavyweight
Title in a Falls-Count-Anywhere Match! "Shit has been goin crazy since I
left," said Seal. "It's time for me to start kickin ass, and me and Sullivan
have had wars before and I am ready to take his IPW title."

This proves to be one of the most insane weekends in IPW history. The card
for the second half of May Massacre has not been released as of press time
but be sure to check back here often as it will be released soon.

Pride will be running it's "King of the Cage Grand Prix" soon that will involve Ken Shamrock.News as it arraives on it.

For my tape of the week I will review every match on Nick D's "BEst of Blass,Lightbulbs,and Thumbtacks" that can be found here

Match Listing...

Cactus Jack & Leatherface vs. Shoji Nakamaki & Hiroshi Ono (No Rope Barbed Wire Thumbtack Deathmatch)
This was the first thumbtack match ever heald.It includes a great pre match interview.The quality on this match isn't very good but it isn't horrible.The actual match is ok.It starts out slow but ends up as a "let's kill Nakamaki" match as almost all his matches do.It inludes a lot of BW brawling where Nakamaki gets torn to shreds and great psychology by Cactus Jack.The ending is kind of weak (as is most Nakamakie/Ono tag matches) with the japs picking up the win.

Terry Funk & Hiroshi Ono vs. Headhunters (This match lead to the Glass deathmatch)
Horrible match,fast foward.

Headhunter A vs. Headhunter B (Glass Deathmatch)
These two fat piles of shit can really kill eachother.This has buckets of blood and can show you that fat asses can do moonsaults.Most of the mtach is them stabbing eachother with the glass and after a while it gets pretty sick.This is a good 15 minutes of brutality enjoyed by all.

Shoji Nakamaki vs. Hiroshi Ono (KODM '95 Thumbtacks Deathmatch)
Extremely brutal.Wish it was longer.Starts out with some stiff bat shots to the chest than a bunch of crowd brawling.fast foward.When they get to the tack ring play and prepare to be amazed.They suplex eachother on the tacks for like a minute than Ono gets the second most brutal tack powerbomb ever.Very good match but too short.

Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato vs. Shoji Nakamaki & Mr. Pogo (Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Thumbtacks Deathmatch)
This has the brutalist tack powerbomb.Yamada and Sato have no shirts on which adds suspense.The majority is just crowd brawling so fast foawrd a lot but than Sato gets thrown off the top onto the tacks and his whole right arm ic overed in em.Than Yamada takes a STIFF powerbomb ine ma dn starts shaking from the pain.It gets very disgusting.Also includes some cool kife shots.

Super Leather & W*ING Kanemura & Hidoh vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Jason The Terrible & Hideki Hosaka (Carribean Barred Wire Spider Net Glass Deathmatch)
Very good match.The only bad parts were the messed up double team moves.This has some sick bumps into teh glass and a nail bat.Watch twice to appreciate it.Very good.

Terry Funk vs. Mr. Pogo (No Rope Electrified Barbed Wire Double Hell Spider Net Glass Deathmatch)
This has to be one of the worst matches ever.fast foward til Funk brings out the fire.

Cactus Jack vs. W*ING Kanemura (Barbed Wire Spider Net Glass Deathmatch)
Amazing match.Watch twice to appreciate.Has great psychology and W*ing takes some of the sickest glass bumps to date.Mick does one of the worst blade jobs ever also.This is one of the best DM's ever.*****

Shoji Nakamaki vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (No Rope Barbed Wire Lightbulbs Deathmatch)
This match is horrible.To add to Matsunaga not doing anything the ring is almost entirely dark at the end.A definite fast foward.

Ryuji Yamakawa & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Great Kojika (Barbed Wire Fluorescents Lightbulbs Boards Deathmatch)
This is great except for Kojika doing absolutely nothing.Yamakawa takes soem great lighttube shots in this.The lighting is great in this.Whenever a bulb breaks these sweet blue lights come one giving it this cool effect.It includes some great mat psychology as well.Very nice.

Ryuji Yamakawa & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Tarzan Goto & Mr. X (Barbed Wire Double Hell Glass Box Lightbulbs Deathmatch... 5/30/97)
This is an ok match but the quality aint that great.Yamakawa takes one of the sickest glass bumps ever.See they have glass boxes with lighttubes in em.Yama is dumped off the apron into the box and starts crawling around and tears his arms up.Pretty good but not excellent.

Ryuji Yamakawa & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Tarzan Goto & Mr. X (Triple Hell Deathmatch... Nakamaki gets his arm opened by the glass, sickening)
This is simply grossw.First Goto takes a nasty tack bump then it turns into anothe r"Let's kill Nakamaki" match.It has some ok brawling but Goto proves how siick he is.They subdue Yamakawa and tear Nakamaki to shreds.First they dump him in the glass box than Goto grabs a piece of glass and cuts his arm.HE stomps his arm a few more times than digs the glass AT LEAST an inch in his arm.Nakamaki starts crying and my friend was laughing at him til he saw the glass actually going into his arm.More killing of Nakamaki.They set the tack board between two chairs and leave it and attack Nakamaki some mkore.Nakamaki and Goto brawl a little while Yamakawa sneaks up on Mr. X and gives him a Onita type bomb on the tack board and it DOESN'T BREAK!It's quite sick looking although you never see the tacks in his back.After it Nakamaki gives an interview and opens his arm to show the cut.It's VERY gross.

Shadow WX vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (Crocodile Deathmatch)
This is ok.It is a BW board,nail board,lighttube board DM.It starts with some standard crowd brawling.Next WX is suplexed threw a lighttube board in a pretty sick spot.After a little more brawling.WX gains control and powerbombs Mats off a balcony threw a tube board in a messed up spot and than finishes him with a gross nail bump I'll let you see to find out.Too short but had some ok bumps.

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Mr. Pogo (No Rope Barbed Wire Fire & Glass Deathmatch)
Horrible match.I won't even go over it.

Tomoaki Honma & Jason The Terrible & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Shadow WX & Shadow Winger & Gennosuke Kobayashi (Honma's back gets all sliced up. Must see to be believed!!)
This is a sweet match.It starts out Honma and Kobayashi but than the other 4 interfere turning it into a 6 man tag.Noone does anything except for WX and Honma.They do some sick stuff.Honma gets a circle tube broken around his neck and he has glass sticking out of his neck the rest of the match.They break like 10 lighttubes over eachothers head and than Honma gets powerbombed off a balcony threw a lighttube board and FUCKS HIS BACK UP!Click here The match continues a few more minutes but nothing worth while.

Part 3 (Big Japan is #1)

Shadow WX vs. Ryuji Yamakawa (No Rope Barbed Wire Fire Deathmatch with Lightbulbs, the famous 5/30/99 match. Yamakawa gets a fluorescent stuck in his shoulder legit!!)
This is an ok match but the gross out factor carries it to a great match.It starts with some dumb crowd brawling than they fight on a semi.Yama gets powerbombed off it in a dumb spot (you didn't see it) and when he gets up the fun begins.He gets a flame throwerbut never uses it.However WX breaks a tube across his arms lodging some glass in his neck and it looks like he slit his throat.While climbing down Yama gets a tube thrown at his back and a piece of glas sgets lodged in his shoulder.Very gross.Than YAma gets powerbombed on 5 tubes.Very cool matc.Watch twice.

Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryuji Yamakawa (Barbed Wire Boards, Fluorescents Boards, Spike Nail Boards Deathmatch 6/20/99)
Bets DM ever.Has tons of sick lighttube bumps including a tombstone off the apron threw a tube to the floor and a balcony jump.I don't want to spoil it so I won't go on but watch 3 times definately.

Shadow WX vs. Mike Samples (Fluorescents Lightbulbs Deathmatch)
WX and Samples both suck.Just contains a couple ok tube shots to the head and some cool fire usage.

Tomoaki Honma vs. Shadow WX (Barbed Wire Board, Fluorescents Lightbulbs Boards Deathmatch)
BLOODIEST MTACH EVER!Honma gets brutalized.Remember Mick's face from the KODM finals.Honam gets that mask after the first 5 minutes.Honam takes a good 20 tubes across his back and head and a powerbomb onto the tubes and a brainbuster onto a tube board.It starts with some ok crowd brawling but picks up soon after.They use the BW boards in some ok spots.Definate 2 viewings.

Hope you enjoyed my column and next week I will review the IWA KODM for ya'll.Have fun.