Pro-Wrestling Death Match Live!

Last Saturday, I joined Rey Rey, Brian, and their friend Sam for pro-wrestling in Zhubei City in Hsinchu County. I met them by taking the TRA train and a YouBike to the sports center where Puzzle Pro-Wrestling was hosting a DEATH MATCH show, with their talent competing against several wrestlers from Japan. What is a death match you may ask? It's an extreme genre of pro-wrestling that usually ends with the wrestlers fighting with weapons and seeing red. It originated in the U.S. with the Texas Death Match, but became famous in Japan, where they added barbed-wire ropes, timed explosives, and glass tubes. I first heard of this match back when I was in 7th grade, reading Mick Foley's first autobiography, Have a Nice Day, where he detailed winning the King of the Death Match Tournament in 1995, defeating Terry Funk and nearly slicing off his remaining ear (he had lost his other ear famously in a match against Vader in Germany the year prior). I'm normally all about the moves, pacing, and…