Jun Kasai vs. El Desperado | JTO TAKATaichiDespeMania 9/12/2022 | There’s No Pride In Death, Live For Today
By Nathan Heslip
Image courtesy of Proresu-Today.com
Sometimes professional wrestling can be beautiful. Even at its most violent in a match like this, professional wrestling is beautiful.
It’s been over 2 years since this match. At the time that I’m writing this review It’s just a day after the 2 year anniversary of this match. I always had this match on the list but anytime I had started it, I’d always close it out. I would change my mind or realize I still had other matches or shows to finish. But two years later, I’ve finally watched it and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch it. I am a huge deathmatch wrestling fan and especially a fan of Jun Kasai. I remember seeing the huge amounts of praise even a close friend of mine gave it a 10/10 rating so I knew I was in for a good time. Then… I just didn’t watch it.
What drove me to watch the match was the numerous re-posts of the aftermatch promo where Kasai tells Desperado to never welcome death after Desperado told Kasai he was willing to live or die in that ring that day. I never watched the promo either, I always wanted the raw reaction of seeing it after the match. And trying my best to remember what happened in 2022 and my viewing of wrestling, I think I had only seen a few quotes but I had long forgotten them by the time I put on the match. The only thing that stayed in my mind whenever I would think about this match was the exchange of the same rose Kasai had given to Desperado back to Kasai as a thank you from Despe for the match.
I skipped just a bit too far ahead already talking about the post match stuff. I found out that this was their second death match. Except the first one was nowhere near this one. But even with their first encounter in mind, you can tell Despe seems just a tiny bit out of his element walking into the ring, while Kasai has done this many, many times before. This isn’t his first rodeo. There’s just something that awakens inside me whenever I hear Kasai’s music. I can't explain it. Despe popping for Kasai as he’s getting to the ring is so cool too. I love it, he’s so excited he can’t contain himself.
Love that after Despe escaped Kasai’s headscissors he’s just like “Ah screw it here’s a chair let’s go wild” then the usual deathmatch stuff happens. Kasai ripping at Despe’s mask trying to open the same spot that was opened from their first encounter and it gives Despe that babyface sympathy from the crowd. And then with a few cuts to the head and some insane crashes into the barricade, the mask slips down, showing Despe’s face.
This is where the fun truly begins.
Blood is pouring out of Despe’s head splatting on the rolling cradle logo… Despe is laughing. He’s smiling through the pain, but it only fuels Kasai to cause more damage. Being able to see Despe’s face adds that emotion aspect as you can see the pain not just through his body language as you would if he still had the mask on. Douki coming out to Despe’s corner after seeing Despe being brutalized only for Kasai to dig a knife into Despe’s forehead in front of him is great. Almost psychotic how great it is. Despe getting sometime to breathe managing to get up on Kasai and drop him on the razor board that Kasai himself brought in gives Despe the hope of getting the victory on the legend.
And don’t let me forget about that fucking guitar shot.
I leapt out of my seat laughing like a maniac, the guitar Despe brought into the match used against him, it’s a favorite trope of mine whenever a wrestling brings in something to use and the other wrestler uses said weapon against the wrestler that brought it to the ring. BUT THEN THAT FUCKING CHAIR SHOT YEAHHHHHHHH!
This rules, argue with a wall if you disagree.
Kasai looks to finish Desperado but Despe keeps fighting. Kasai brings in a board covered in cut up cans and throws Despe on it with a powerbomb, does his signature Pearl Harbor splash but Despe still powers through, he won’t let Kasai pin him again. Kasai pulls out another razor board but Kasai left Despe alone just a bit too long again as Despe back russian leg sweeps Kasai into the board and Despe slams Kasai’s head into the board over and over again. Despe is getting back into it little by little, causing nearly enough damage to put Kasai away once and for all.
In what kinda feels like Despe’s first huge highlight of the match is a splash to the outside putting Kasai through a table. But instead of rolling Kasai in the ring and ending it, he makes the same mistake as Kasai had. He let Kasai breathe. He let Kasai get back into the match. KASAI BRINGS IN SKEWERS! The weapons he adopted from one of his best opponents Masada being driven into the skull of Despe with a brainbuster for added damage. A fork board is introduced next being set onto four chairs by Kasai making a makeshift table in the process. Kasai brings Despe up on the metal platform being held up in the neutral corner and he hits a destroyer off the platform into the forks to the horror of the announcers and members of the audience, but joy to the soul of myself watching at home. I love you, Jun Kasai. Just the image of Kasai using the forks from the board and slamming it into his head gives me the energy to run through a brick wall. He’s not called Crazy Monkey for no reason, now.
Kasai hits a running lariat on Despe, but he kicks out at two. Okay, so you’d think Kasai putting the razor board on Despe, hitting another Pearl Harbor splash would get him the victory, right? Kick out at one. Desperado kicks out at one, showing his defiance to Kasai. Despe’s eyes widen as he sits up , adrenaline wearing down. It hurts. But he can do it. He can beat Kasai. He WANTS to beat Kasai. Even if he dies trying, he wants to beat Kasai. Kasai pulls up Despe. Bringing him in for a kiss. Reverse Tiger Driver to seal the deal. It’s over, Despe can rest. He tried. BUT THAT’S NOT IT!!
Kasai knows it, the fans know it. There’s nothing Kasai can do to keep Despe down. Kasai has an idea, he puts up the X. He’s calling for the finish. Kasai lifts up Despe but Despe uses his momentum to pull Kasai up into a reverse tombstone and drive him into the knife board from earlier but Despe can’t get the pin in time! They’re both tired. They’ve put each other through hell. All they can do now is run into each other. Kasai and Despe both run into each other with lariats, Kasai stands but Despe falls to a knee. Despe’s had more damage done to him, Kasai smiles and tries again… but Despe still stands. The fighting spirit is flowing through him. This is what fighting spirit is supposed to be. Despe reels back and they run into each other again. They exchange forearms and Despe throws headbutts at Despe before pulling him into a beautiful spinebuster followed by a Guitarra Del Angel and it’s Kasai who kicks out at one! Despe pulls him up for a Pinche Loco and hits it. It’s finally over. Despe has done it. But Kasai kicks out at two and Despe’s hope washes away.Kasai knows it, the fans know it. There’s nothing Kasai can do to keep Despe down. Kasai has an idea, he puts up the X. He’s calling for the finish. Kasai lifts up Despe but Despe uses his momentum to pull Kasai up into a reverse tombstone and drive him into the knife board from earlier but Despe can’t get the pin in time! They’re both tired. They’ve put each other through hell. All they can do now is run into each other. Kasai and Despe both run into each other with lariats, Kasai stands but Despe falls to a knee. Despe’s had more damage done to him, Kasai smiles and tries again… but Despe still stands. The fighting spirit is flowing through him. This is what fighting spirit is supposed to be. Despe reels back and they run into each other again. They exchange forearms and Despe throws headbutts at Despe before pulling him into a beautiful spinebuster followed by a Guitarra Del Angel and it’s Kasai who kicks out at one! Despe pulls him up for a Pinche Loco and hits it. It’s finally over. Despe has done it. But Kasai kicks out at two and Despe’s hope washes away.
Despe gets desperate he looks around asking the referee if it actually was two. He pulls Kasai up hitting Kasai with his own reverse tiger driver and turns it around into a pinche loco. If this isn’t it, I don’t know what is. Despe might have to kill Kasai to get the win. Despe plants Kasai and pins him. This has to be it. The dagger is driven into Kasai. The referee slams his hand once, twice, and a third time. The crowd erupts, the commentators can’t help but cheer. Despe is finally victorious. The war is over.
I already touched on the after-match promo just a little bit before I dove into the match entirely. I’m sure most of you already have seen this promo, it’s over 2 years old so I’d assume you have but watch it again.
It feels wrong seeing Kasai break down in tears while holding his daughter in his arms talking about how frustrated he is to lose holding the same rose that Despe received from Kasai. It nearly brought me to tears.
Another thing is Despe going through 3/4’s of the match without his mask but putting it back up “because it’d be going into the papers” had me rolling. I love Despe so much, man.
I’ve linked it here. I can’t talk about how perfect this is without just telling you to watch it. So please watch it. You need to.
My Final Thoughts: This is the rare instance where I put both the match and the after-match segment together for my rating. Watching the match is already a trip in it’s self but after you listen to the words Kasai tells Despe it all makes sense why Despe put himself through everything he did. He was willing to die for the love of the game even if it was stupid to do so. That’s how much it meant to him.
This is a match that reminds me how much I love pro-wrestling. It’s something that I’d one day want to tell my children about once they’re old enough to handle something like this of course.
I said it at the start of his piece and I wanna say it again before I head out of here. Pro-Wrestling is beautiful and this match is the perfect example of it. Even if something like this isn’t necessarily your type of thing you should at least take the segment after the match as something to write home about. This is a match that I’ll never forget.