Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk – IWA Kawasaki Dream 1995 | WON Flashback

August 20 1995 was the date of the IWA Kawasaki Dream event, which featured the King Of The Death Match tournament. The final of said tournament saw Cactus Jack take on Terry Funk in a no ropes, exploding barbed wire, exploding ring time-bomb match.

You can find our own Dave Meltzer’s writing on IWA Kawasaki Dream in the Aug. 28, 1995 Wrestling Observer Newsletter (which you can read in full with a subscription).

Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk

Here is some of what Dave had to say about Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk in the King of the Death Match final:

“Terry Funk relinquished to Cactus Jack the honorary title of King of the Death matches in the finals of a tournament for the IWA in Japan on 8/20 before 28,757 fans at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium.

“Jack pinned Funk in 13:21 of a no rope barbed wire explosive time bomb death match, the last match of an eight-man one-night tournament. The match was said to have been exceedingly brutal, with Jack taking a bump off a ladder into barbed wire that nearly ripped his other ear off, and Funk winding up with serious burns when his arm caught on fire from one of the explosions. They nearly had a similar situation to the IWA six-man match at the 4/2 Tokyo Dome show which involved both where the finish was dead because the fans could see plans were screwed up when a board Jack tried to light failed to go up in flames and everyone started taking every crazy bump imaginable.

“This match was scheduled for the ring to blow up at 10:00 with an explosion billed as being more powerful than anything Onita had ever done, with Jack outside the ring so he didn’t blow up, and Funk in the ring. However, unlike the explosions when the guys hit the barbed wire, which were impressive, this explosion, supposed to be the climax of the show, was a dud and caused heavy booing. The two started taking insane bumps and were able to get the crowd back for the finish. It was the first job Funk had done in Japan since his famous 1993 match with Atsushi Onita in the same stadium, so should elevate Jack’s reputation in Japan to a great degree.

“The tour was Funk’s first since pulling out of all wrestling commitments in June due to a severe back injury. After the tour Funk said that his back held up during the tour but he would be resting it for a while. While some thought that putting Jack over could have been his swan-song, Funk expected to tour Japan three times for IWA over the next one year period.”