Kawasaki Dream was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

supercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

produced by the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails man ...

International Wrestling Association (IWA). The event took place on August 20, 1995 at the

Kawasaki Stadium is a stadium in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The stadium was opened in 1952 and had a capacity of 30,000 people, but was demolished and rebuilt in 2003 as an American football venue and is now the home of the Fujitsu Frontiers of the X-League. ...

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the List of cities in Japan, eight ...

. The event was a huge success for the promotion drawing a crowd of 28,757 attendants, the largest crowd for an IWA Japan show and it was the most successful and biggest show of the promotion. The key highlight of Kawasaki Dream was the 1995 King of the Deathmatch Tournament, an eight-man

single elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, which featured various matches of

deathmatch wrestling Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow the use of numerous items, inclu ...

style. Cactus Jack won the tournament by defeating

Terry Funk Terrence Funk (born June 30, 1944) is an American retired professional wrestler, rapper, disc jockey and actor. Funk is known for the longevity of his career – which spanned more than 50 years and included multiple short-lived retirements – a ...

in the final round. The tournament was critically acclaimed and widely well received by the critics and audiences and the tournament final between Cactus Jack and Terry Funk has been considered by some wrestling journalists to be the greatest deathmatch in the history of professional wrestling.

Event

Preliminary matches

In the first non-televised match,

Keisuke Yamada is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . Originally starting his career in International Wrestling Association of Japan, where he worked under his real name, Yamada found a new home promotion in 1999 in Osaka Pro Wres ...

and Keizo Matsuda defeated

Yoshihiro Tajiri is a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter primarily known under the ring name Tajiri (sometimes stylized as "TAJIRI"), he has also competed under his real name as well as under the names Aquarius and Kikkoman and briefly worked as the ...

and Taisuke Tagami when Yamada pinned Tajiri with an inside cradle. The following match was a joshi match, in which Kiyoko Ichiki defeated

Emi Motokawa , better known by the ring name , is a Japanese people, Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler performing for All Elite Wrestling (AEW). After starting her career in International Wrestling Association of Japan in August 1995, Sa ...

after a '' Tiger Driver''. Later, Iceman took on Kamikaze. Near the end of the match, Kamikaze hit a

German suplex A suplex is an offensive move used in sport wrestling as well as amateur wrestling and professional wrestling. It is a throw that involves lifting the opponents and bridging or rolling to slam them on their backs. Professional wrestling featu ...

and attempted a roll-up on Iceman, who reversed it for the win.

Championship matches

Los Cowboys (

El Texano Juan Conrado Aguilar Jáuregui (November 26, 1958 – January 15, 2006), better known by his ring name El Texano, was a Mexican ''Lucha libre, Luchador'', or Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. From the early 1970s to the early 2000s, ...

and Silver King) defended the

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the ...

against The Headhunters (Headhunter A and Headhunter B). Headhunters threw King into the crowd and double teamed Texano as Headhunter B nailed a superbomb to Texano to win the World Tag Team Championship. Next, Flying Kid Ichihara defended the WWA International Light Heavyweight Championship against Takashi Okano in the first championship match of the event. Okano countered a

hurricanrana Professional wrestling throws are the application of professional wrestling techniques that involve lifting the opponent up and throwing or slamming them down. They are sometimes also called "power" maneuvers, as they are meant to emphasize a wrest ...

attempt by Ichihara into a sunset flip to win the title. In the penultimate match,

Dan Severn Daniel DeWayne Severn (born June 8, 1958), nicknamed "The Beast", is an American professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler. A UFC Hall of Fame member, Severn is considered one of the leading pioneers of mixed marti ...

defended the

NWA World Heavyweight Championship The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is Tyrus, who is in ...

against

Tarzan Goto , better known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ( ...

. Near the end of the match, Goto missed a

clothesline A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points (e.g. two sticks), outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line t ...

on Severn, who hit a German suplex on Goto and applied a

rear naked choke The rear naked choke (RNC) is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. The word "naked" in this context suggests that, unlike other strangulation techniques found in jujutsu/judo, this hold does not require the use of a keikogi ...

to make Goto pass out to the hold and thus retained his title.

Quarterfinals

The first quarter-final match of the King of the Deathmatch tournament was a Barbed Wire Board and Chain match between

Tiger Jeet Singh Jagjeet Singh Hans (born April 3, 1944) is an Indo-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler, known better by his ring name Tiger Jeet Singh. He was known for his elaborate ring entrances, and generally performed as a heel. He wrestled in Japan ...

and

Mr. Gannosuke is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) under the ring name . Honda was quickly pushed as "Mr. Gannosuke" due to his resemblance to the actor Ashiya Gannosuke and he beg ...

. After brawling at ringside for much of the match, the action returned to the ring where Singh applied a '' Cobra Claw'' on Gannosuke onto barbed wire for the win. The next Barbed Wire Board and Chain match featured

against

Leatherface Leatherface is a fictional character in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' film series created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. He first appears in ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' as a disfigured, cannibalistic and mentally unstable mass murderer ...

. Leatherface gained early control by hitting a

moonsault A moonsault, moonsault press, or back flip splash is a professional wrestling aerial technique. It was innovated by Mando Guerrero. Much of its popularity in both Japanese and American wrestling is attributed to The Great Muta, despite it being u ...

on Funk. Near the end of the match, Funk hit Leatherface with a chained first for the win. The third match in the tournament was a Barbed Wire Baseball Bat and Thumbtacks match between Cactus Jack and

Terry Gordy Terry Ray Gordy Sr. (April 23, 1961 – July 16, 2001) was an American professional wrestler. Gordy appeared in the United States with promotions such as Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim ...

. Jack was dropped numerous times on the thumbtacks until he hit a

DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...

to Gordy on the thumbtacks for the win. Shoji Nakamaki faced Hiroshi Ono in the next Barbed Wire Baseball Bat and Thumbtacks match. Ono hit two

belly-to-back suplex A suplex is an offensive move used in sport wrestling as well as amateur wrestling and professional wrestling. It is a throw that involves lifting the opponents and bridging or rolling to slam them on their backs. Professional wrestling feature ...

es to Nakamaki on the thumbtacks until Nakamaki countered a third suplex attempt with a

powerbomb A powerbomb is a professional wrestling throw in which an opponent is lifted (usually so that they are sitting on the wrestler's shoulders) and then slammed back-first down to the mat. The standard powerbomb sees an opponent first placed in a sta ...

and then followed with a full nelson facebuster to Ono on the thumbtacks to advance to the semi-final.

Semifinals

The first semi-final match was a Barbed Wire Board and Glass match pitting Terry Funk against Tiger Jeet Singh. Near the end of the match, Singh raked the eyes of Funk to avoid a spinning toe hold by Funk and spiked his eyes and then Cactus Jack interfered in the match on Singh's behalf as he tried to hit Funk with a

saber A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

but Funk avoided it and Jack accidentally knocked out Singh with the saber, allowing Funk to pin him for the win. The next semi-final was a Barbed Wire Board and Spike Nail match between Shoji Nakamaki and Cactus Jack. After a back and forth match, Jack hit a double-arm DDT to Nakamaki into the barbed wire board to advance to the final.

Final

The final round of the tournament was a Barbed Wire Rope, Exploding Barbed Wire Boards and Exploding Ring Time Bomb Deathmatch between Terry Funk and Cactus Jack. Tiger Jeet Singh interfered in the match on Jack's behalf by hitting Funk with a sabre and then the two

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

ped him into the barbed wire which allowed Jack to gain momentum over Funk. Near the end of the match, Jack hit a

diving elbow drop Aerial techniques, also known as "high-flying moves" are maneuvers in professional wrestling using the ring's posts and ropes as aids, in many cases to demonstrate the speed and agility of smaller, nimble and acrobatically inclined wrestlers prefer ...

to Funk from the top of a ladder to gain a near-fall and then climbed the ladder to hit a second diving elbow drop but Funk knocked him out and Jack fell into the barbed wire ropes. Funk then collapsed himself into the barbed wire ropes. Jack got up first but Funk could not get up and was unable to answer the referee's ten-count. As a result, Jack won the match and won the 1995 King of the Deathmatch Tournament.

Results

Tournament brackets

References

{{Mick Foley 1995 in professional wrestling Professional wrestling in Japan Professional wrestling shows August 1995 events in Asia 1995 in Japan International Wrestling Association of Japan Events in Kawasaki, Kanagawa 20th century in Kawasaki, Kanagawa