Professional wrestling is off the mainstream highway of entertainment, and down the wrestling sub-genre side streets, is one called Death Match Wrestling.

The concept is simple, it’s professional wrestling, with added elements of violence, that often leads to a lot of blood, and even more gasps from the audience. Barbed wire, panes of glass, light tubes, nails, cinderblocks, fire, and kenzan flower spikes are common elements in the story telling of death match wrestling.

Some of these images capture the story the athletes were trying to to tell, others document the moment between real pain and acted pain. The blood is real. The passion is real. The consequences are real.