I came to Atlantic City, New Jersey for a weekend of deathmatch wrestling provided by ICW No Holds Barred. The first night of what could possibly be ICW No Holds Barred’s final weekend was a chilly Friday night in Atlantic City. The event was the Mystery Vortex, where all the matches were a surprise, took place outside at the beer garden at the Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall. The second night was NHB Volume 97 at the Anchor Rock Club and it had an incredible lineup that was announced. 

The Mystery Vortex started with Danny Demanto on the mic, but he was interrupted by Angel Metro and her boyfriend Lucky 13. They started talking shit, which brought out Danny’s girlfriend, and extremely scary human, Vixsin. Vixsin and Angel wanted at each other, but Danny said the match was going to be Lucky and Vixsin and that Angel had the go to the back. This match was insane and each wrestler looked amazing. Lucky likes to leave his feet a lot and when you are in a no ring deathmatch, a lot of times this can backfire.

They fought all over the beer garden, with Vixen getting the win with the help of a lot of barbed wire. She slammed Lucky on a barbed wire board, then placed a barbed wire chair on him and slammed on top of that for the win. This bought Angel back out. Angel and Vixsin came to words again. They are really hyped for this match on Saturday and so am I.

The match between JB Anderson and Dimitri Alexandrov was due to be extra violent as soon as you saw the weapons that were in the pit and the ones that each brought to the ring. JB’s specialty is carpet strips, so there were a lot of carpet strips around the pit. He came to the ring with a shield with carpet strips on it. Dimitri, who is also crazy, bought a bat with scissors on it to the ring. This was a very fun match with lots of violence. Both are able to to dish out and take a lot of punishment. In the end Dimitri got the win.

After a small break we hear Reed Bentley’s music. When Reed shows up for a fight, you know you are going to get a good fight. He is taking on Dr. Redacted. Obviously, this was great, they both love to find creative ways to hurt their opponents. Reed has the doctor down and out comes his Rejects tag partner, John Wayne Murdoch. They beat up Redacted for a while until Jimmy Lloyd comes out to make the save. This then becomes a tag team match. It went into the crowd, then into the street. At some point as they are fighting in the street the cops showed up, but they did not interfere in the match. The wrestlers came back to the pit and all four were fighting each other again. Jimmy Lloyd got ziptied to the barricade and both Rejects teamed up against Dr. Redacted. They finished the match with a Super Tombstone on a chair on Redacted and continued to beat him down to make sure he is not 100% for Saturday’s title match against Murdoch.

As Saturday night’s event came around, there was a feeling in the air that it could be ICW’s last event, so as everyone was ready to party, they were also a bit melancholy. 

The owner of ICW, Danny Demanto, came to the ring to open NHB 97. He said that he had some bad news to open the show. Hoodfoot and The Bev would not be there due to personal responsibilities. He then put over Hoodfoot, and how important he has been to the company. Danny then said that he had an injured leg and would not be able to compete in his scheduled match against SHLAK. This brought out SHLAK, who mocked Danny and said that he would even put his CZW Ultraviolent Championship on the line. This led to Danny saying that his injury was as real as the knife that stabbed Krule and that the match is on for SHLAK’s title. 

Bobby Banks takes the mic to introduce the first match, and it is a best 2 out of 3 falls match between friends and teammates, MM3 and Tommy Vendetta. Tommy and MM3 hug before the match and even kiss when the crowd asks for it. This was a very fun match, no animosity, just two friends beating each other up to see who is better. Into the third fall, Tommy brings a ring bell into the ring to use as a weapon. He goes to stomp MM3’s face in it, but when he does, the bell seems to collapse and reveal that it is not a bell at all, but a cake. This led to MM3 turning the table and getting the win 2 falls to 1. This was a really fun match and props to the young woman (marjdotjpg) who made the cake, as they had everyone fooled.

The next fight Lucky 13 faced Dimitri Alexandrov. This was a great battle that really turned up the violence. Dimitri brings a bat with scissors on it to the ring. This was used in the match and Lucky was cut open. Lucky used his quickness and agility to attack and evade Dimitri. This led to Lucky putting Dimitri’s head in a chair and stomping on it from the top rope to pick up the win. Great match to escalate the violence and lead to the next match.

Angel Metro and Vixsin put on an incredible match it was very bloody and used weapons that should not be made or touch a human body. This rivalry has been going on for a while. They had words at the last ICW show that was in Atlantic City back in January. They have been going back and forth online since. On Friday, Vixsin defeated Angel’s partner, Lucky 13 then Angel and Vixsin had to be restrained from each other. There was barbed wire, gusset plates, lots of light tubes and much more, including a bed filled with just the barbs from the barbed wire. They both had their faces covered in blood and Angel had an incredible crimson mask. The end came when Vixsin crashed into a barbed wire board and Angel hit her with a Twist of Fate for the win. This was everything I hoped it would be and the match of the weekend so far.

SHLAK defends his CZW Ultraviolent Championship (which gets booed in the intros, the title, not the SHLAK) against Danny Demanto. In this match, SHLAK was a deathmatch technician, constantly going after Danny’s legs with chairs and more conventional submission maneuvers. Danny kept fighting back. SHLAK hits a flaming elbow from the top. SHLAK gets the win as Danny is rendered unconscious. This is another instant classic match and we start getting the feeling that this could be one of those classic all time great ICW shows.

After that is another great match between Eric Ryan and Reed Bentley. This match went back and forth with lots of weapons being used. They used VHS tapes, pottery, and all of the  conventional deathmatch fare. Eric Ryan got a nasty cut on his arm, which referee Shiny Shoes paused the match to let Eric bandage it up. Eric came back fighting but Reed put him away with a piledriver. I’m sure everyone was a little disappointed that they needed to end the match early, but it was still a great match.

The next match featured two crazy men who just like to fight. SLADE started fighting in the jail at Rikers Island and Casanova Valentine is the king of the no ring deathmatch. They both took an absolute beating, but I would say that SLADE took the worst of it. SLADE got so many tacks in his head that it was shining in the lights, while his back looked like it had a giant tattoo on it. He also got hit with an exploding bat that was so incredibly loud. Cassanova got the win with a ref stoppage as he was stabbing SLADE. Cass got on the mic and showed respect to SLADE, Danny and everyone else in the back after the match.

The main event is for the American Deathmatch Championship between the Champion John Wayne Murdoch and the challenger Dr. Redacted. This is possibly the last deathmatch for ref Shiny Shoes as he will be retiring from refereeing soon. Being a referee for deathmatch wrestling has to be one of the hardest jobs in wrestling and ref Shiny Shoes has been one of the best. This was a crazy match from the beginning, as there were light tubes surrounding the ring. Redacted beat JWM all around the ringside area, then put him through a pane of glass.

However, JWM did have a trick up his sleeve, as his Rejects tag partner Reed Bentley came out to help him. They took out the ref and beat up Redacted, until Redacted sprayed mist into Reed’s face and threw Reed out of the ring. Redacted kept pounding Murdoch with light tubes and was able to pin him for the win.

After the match, Murdoch said that if he was going to lose the title, he knew that it was going to be to Dr. Redacted. ICW NHB owner, Danny Demanto, then came out to the ring for the announcement that we all did not want to hear. Danny said that ICW started in 2001 with owner Jac Sabboth. Danny took it over in 2019 and the chains came up in 2020. However ICW dies today in 2026. ICW was an LLC, so the person suing ICW will no longer have anything to go after. However, the chains are not going anywhere and they will return, and they will make it to NHB 100 and it will be under the NHB banner. It may take a few months for everything to get worked out, but they will be back. In the meantime, Dr. Redacted stated that he will take the American Deathmatch Championship and defend it in any country and any promotion.

Overall, I had a really fun time at both shows and am really happy that Danny will continue to promote shows because they have the best deathmatch promotion in the country. 

Friday was a little chilly, but still had a great atmosphere and everyone in the pit delivered. The confrontation between Angel Metro and Vixsin to start the show, followed by Vixsin and Lucky 13 was great. They had a great match, but my favorite match of that show was Dimitri against JB Anderson. This was such a fun yet violent match. I would love to see JB on a lot more shows.

The second night was almost perfect. A couple wrestlers did not make it and a match ended a little short, but that is deathmatch wrestling. Even with that, every match was great. My favorite matches were Angel vs Vixsin, which exceeded any expectation on a violence level, and the main event, which gave you everything that you would want from a main event on a big show. We don’t know when the next NHB show will happen, but I am happy that there will be a NHB 98.