JOSH BARNETT’S BLOODSPORT XIII

April 17, 2025

Charlie Dempsey . . . earns himself some major street cred by KOing a verifiable legend in the Japanese MMA scene.

Timothy Thatcher . . . learns that Pete Dunne’s ‘Bruiserweight’ nickname is a lot more than just a semi-clever play on words.

Gabe Kidd . . . shows that he’s “War Ready” enough to put an ass-stomping on the Warmaster!

This show gets on my good side right off the bat by starting with a classic UWF-style introduction ceremony with all the wrestlers on the card getting formally introduced and coming into the ring.

LEYLA HIRSCH vs. JORDAN BLADE

Despite its short length, there’s no shortage of intensity to be seen, especially from Blade. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t enough for her to win. Despite being a supposed ‘submission sniper’ her best success comes from using her size; she’s able to stop Leyla from taking her down and pelt her with crossfaces and then dump her with a big German. Jordan tries twice to get an armbar and Leyla easily escapes both times, and even counters Jordan into one of her own. Leyla can’t completely get hers locked in either, but she comes closer to it than Jordan managed to. Being so short, they don’t get much time to flesh out a meaningful story, or really even much of a theme. The closest is probably Jordan’s inexperience in this setting (it’s her debut), as shown with how Leyla baits her into charging into a pro-style powerslam and then finishes her with mounted strikes, the way that she kept trying to do to Leyla.

MAIKA vs. KARMEN PETROVIC

So now we’re 2-for-2 on matches being short on time but not on intensity. This one also shows a little more complexity in its structure. Typically, striker versus wrestler bouts don’t take long, because the striker is finished as soon as they’re off their feet (see the Kiyoshi Tamura 5/92 UWFI match as an example). But in this case, Petrovic manages to land quite a few nasty shots, and Karmen shows that she can take as good as she can give, when Maika hits a few throws. Maika manages to catch Karmen a couple of times and wrap her up in various holds, including a juji-gatame and sick counter into an ankle lock, but it takes her a few different attempts to finally submit her. This is one of those cases where only one of them wins but they’re both ‘put over’ to an extent. Karmen shows that she’s not just a one-dimensional fighter who can’t do anything except kick, and Maika’s win is just as much due to her toughness as her wrestling skills.

SHINYA AOKI vs. CHARLIE DEMPSEY

From a booking standpoint, this seems like the first questionable decision of the night, considering Aoki’s reputation. But the actual match is a fun ride to get there. If you enjoy carny looking matwork, then this isn’t something you’ll want to miss. It looks less like wrestling and more like abstract art. Other than the early figure four segment, which was even more odd with the other ways they try to submit each other, they literally try to tie each other and themselves in knots in order to win. It’s rare to think of a toehold as being especially dangerous but watch the way that their ankles start bending and the pained expression on Aoki’s face, and you know all you’ll need to know about its effectiveness. It certainly seems to stretch credibility that Dempsey can beat someone like Aoki, but they find a good way to get there; Dempsey hadn’t been able to use his size all that much, but Aoki unwittingly gives Dempsey the perfect opening for it. Aoki locks in a sleeper after a strike exchange and Dempsey escapes and smoothly segues into a Regal-plex for a TKO win. I’d definitely like to see more of Dempsey after this, although that’s not a surprise with him being part of the Regal bloodline, but I somehow doubt that NXT is the ideal setting for him to show off everything he can do.

KARRION KROSS vs. J.R. KRATOS

While this is fun, it’s a pro wrestling match through and through. They start off trying to work the mat, but the exchanges are noticeably slow, which is most likely a byproduct of them both being such big guys. Kratos takes advantage of Kross being a hometown guy and heels things up, like putting Kross’ gi over his head and throwing knees. Kross escapes and takes off the jacket, which is treated like the equivalent of Jerry Lawler pulling down the strap, and they start trading chops. Kratos hits a running lariat and then they dump each other with suplexes. Kross may win with a choke, but this is clearly worked like, and fully intended to be, a pro-style match.

TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. PETE DUNNE

If there’s anyone out there who doesn’t get the appeal of Thatcher, this is the match to show them to explain it. It’s structured like a cross between the Dempsey and Kross matches, with them both showing their technical skills and neither of them being shy about heeling things up. When it comes to being technically sound and doing things with the intent of making them as painful as possible, Dunne is easily an 8-out-of-10. Unfortunately for him, Thatcher is a 10-of-10 in that department, and that’s what the match puts on display. Dunne can do a good many things to make Thatcher uncomfortable, but Thatcher can do them just a little bit better and nastier, like holding Dunne in a hammerlock and slugging him with European uppercuts and blocking a Dragon screw and pasting him across the face. However, the one thing that closes the gap is that Thatcher is a gentleman who respects the rules, and Dunne is less so. So, when Thatcher gets him in a seemingly inescapable situation, Dunne has no qualms about going after his fingers (Bloodsport prohibits small joint manipulation) in order to free himself or create an opening for him to reverse course. That’s how he gets on the armbar that taps out Thatcher, but by winning in that way it buries the company, or at least the referees who are apparently powerless to enforce the rules. I suppose that it’s a sad reality check; as much fun as it is to watch this, only one of them can win in the end. And, while the finish does leave a bit of a bad taste, this is still two absurdly tough guys trying to beat and stretch each other into submission, so there’s a lot of good stuff to take away from it.

NATALYA NEIDHART vs. MIYU YAMASHITA

I could do with seeing this side of Nattie more often, although I suppose that Raw isn’t the ideal setting for her to show it. This is easily the most intense match of the show so far, with some quick and clean matwork as well as Nattie not being afraid to eat some particularly nasty kicks. Nattie’s selling is also a welcome sight to see, especially early on when Miyu pulls guard and then traps her in a body scissors and starts squeezing. The only real black mark on them is the pro-style stuff at the end. Not even the sharpshooter as the finish, which is an interesting choice, but Nattie’s ankle lock roll through where the ‘momentum’ nearly sends Miyu into the post (with a good three second delay from her). If nothing else, they make up for it with Miyu’s other ankle lock attempt where Nattie simply kicks her off in a much more believable way. Nattie doesn’t crank the sharpshooter all the way, like Bret did with Lawler in ’93 (wow, that’s two Jerry Lawler references), but she locks it in pretty deep for the finish. It’d be easy to look at the booking of the last few matches and get the impression that the WWE talent is going over just because they’re in WWE. That might be true, but between this and the Dunne match, they certainly aren’t being gifted the wins after doing nothing.

ROYCE ISAACS vs. TAVION HEIGHTS

Like most of the matches before it this doesn’t get much time to really develop, but it’s a fun sprint to watch. The finish gives the impression that Tavion makes a huge comeback to win, but the only time it felt like he was in genuine danger of losing was after the powerbomb, and even then he was quick to cover up when Royce started throwing punches and elbows. They spend the first half or so of the match on the mat, and the work is fine although it’s nothing mind blowing. The real highlights here are the suplexes they use, especially Tavion’s deadlift Capture suplex. Royce also hits a big German and transitions right into an armbar attempt. Royce countering a suplex into a hanging choke was one of the smartest things on the show thus far, and both of them falling to the floor to break it was another good touch. Once they both get to their feet, Tavion finally gets the opening to put his throwing to good use, and he suplexes Royce back into the ring and then quickly does a second one and Royce is so stunned that Tavion can do his own ground and pound for the ref to call it.

SHAYNA BASZLER vs. KONAMI

This is an easy pick for the weakest match of the show. Aside from a couple of nice moments, like Baszler escaping the sleeper by turning Konami’s ankle, this just never comes together all that well. Shayna sells her leg early on after a legbar, but Konami never goes back to it to try and win the match, and Shayna doesn’t do anything to make you wonder if her leg is going to hamper her efforts at all. They do the same goofy ankle lock rolling escape that Nattie and Miyu did, only timed a bit better. And when Shayna stops herself, Konami gives her an extra push into the post and follows up with a nasty head kick. So, naturally that’s when Shayna decides it’s the perfect time to counter an armbar and hit a big suplex and then stomp Konami until the ref stops the match. Other than the few nifty sequences, there’s nothing at all special about this.

ZACK SABRE Jr. vs. JONATHAN GRESHAM

If anyone was going to go out there and put on a masterclass in matwork, it was going to be these two. There are only a few other people on the show who could do anything close to this, and none of them were booked against one another. It also helps that these two actually get ample time to build this thing up. However, that sort of praise only goes so far because, at the end of the day, it’s the other parts of the match that tell the story rather than the matwork. Yes, these two are both amazing when working the mat. But, more often than not, their segments come off more like an exhibition than anything else. It’s easy to marvel at the ways that Zack can try to tie up Gresham in knots and how Gresham can pull off a slick escape that doesn’t seem possible, and to see Gresham doggedly keep Zack trapped in a hammerlock, despite Zack’s various attempts to escape and reverse it. However, in the long run, it’s really just eye candy rather than them trying to further the match. Without a UWF-style point system or any sort of rope break equivalent, there’s really no way to truly judge who ‘wins’ any given exchange outside of when one of them needs to resort to striking or doing something like shoving the other man off in order to get free.

That’s not to say they don’t tell much of a story. Zack’s heel charisma is obviously present, and he lets it out a few times, most notably to mock the substantial height difference between them. When they both fire up and forgo the mat game in favor of strikes, each of them does a respectable job of selling them and giving credence to the notion that neither of them necessarily needs to win the match on the mat. The only mark against them is the figure four spot when the time limit is ticking away. Zack rolling them both the floor to break it up was brilliant and had the ring announcer not been giving constant time limit updates it would have resulted in a great tease of a count out finish. But Zack seemed to be so intent on getting them to their spot that he forgot about selling the hold. It’s even more puzzling because Gresham had tried it earlier and Zack kicked him right off, so they’d already given the idea that it’s a potentially dangerous hold for Gresham. The OT period is pretty lackluster in comparison. They have an extended sequence of trading off chops and getting nowhere. I’d expect that out of Kross and Kratos, but these two are smarter than that. Zack’s attempt at a standing bulldog choke to get Gresham to let go of his leg (which doesn’t work) is nifty, and Zack’s KO finish is fine, although it’d have been better if his fake out and stunning Gresham with the punch allowed him to lock in a hold and either make him submit or pass out. Regardless of its issues, this is still miles ahead of everything before it, sans the Thatcher and Aoki matches, and serves as a great example of how this hybrid of both shootstyle and pro-style work can lead to good matches.

JOSH BARNETT vs. GABE KIDD

It takes them a little bit of time to get there, which is something that very few of the matches on this card have been afforded, but this winds up being a good main event. The first few minutes don’t seem to be going anywhere; almost like a feeling out portion of a typical wrestling match, but after Kidd shoves Barnett out of the ring and then dives out after him, both men get a little more fired up and decide that they want to win the match. The matwork itself doesn’t really change as far as the actual holds they use, but they become a lot more deliberate in their intent. A good example is Kidd’s head scissors. It’s not looked at as a threatening hold, but the way that Barnett wildly kicks his legs in order to leverage himself out shows exactly how much pressure Kidd must have been using. Barnett outsmarting Kidd by seemingly trying a German suplex and then taking him down into a legbar was another nice touch.

The piledriver being used for the finish may leave some with a bad taste, but they pull it off really well. Barnett gets spiked pretty good and sells like he’s out of it. It might be best known as a pro-style move, but it certainly has appropriate consequences in the realm of shootstyle; it’s honestly not that huge of a step away from the way a German suplex from Gary Albright would have been looked at. Kidd also gets to the piledriver in a clever manner. He’d shown a knack for being able to defend against Barnett taking him down, at one point he even managed to block the takedown and roll into a choke. This time he gets a sprawl and takes the opening to throw a few knees, and with Barnett in perfect position, he muscles him up and spikes him. So, yes, it may seem like an unconventional way to win, but the setup and payoff make it worthwhile.

Conclusion: The Sabre and Thatcher matches are the clear standouts of the card, but this is an overall fun show.