Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | September 25, 2025
I found an excuse to write about professional wrestling, and it's not because somebody died! What a great day! I freaking love pro wrestling, friends. I'll put on old events to lull me to sleep some nights. Last Saturday night, my whole family gathered around the TV to watch John Cena wrestle in one of his last matches as we all cheered and ate pizza. It was fantastic and fun, but pretty above board. However, there is a more... extreme side of wrestling.
While I have not been shy about introducing my kids to pro-wrestling, there is an aspect of it I'd like to keep them away from for a while: deathmatches. What is a deathmatch? It is one of the most violent kinds of matches you can wrestle in. Wrestlers are beaten and brutalized with 2x4s, barbed wire, glass, and everything in between. There is blood and carnage and, to put it mildly, it is not for the faint of heart.
I'd use that same terminology to describe Bring Her Back. The sophomore film from the Danny and Michael Philippou is about two foster kids who find that their new foster mom is harboring a dark secret. The movie is bloody, violent, and disturbing. There is bodily harm that is so visceral that it had me squirming in my seat in discomfort. It only makes sense that the two dudes who did that also have a taste for the deathmatch.
The brothers have been filming a documentary about deathmatch culture. But why just film it? Why not live it? I presume that was a question that Michael asked, because this weekend he took part in a GCW (Game Changer Wrestling) event in Mexico. The director didn't just make an appearance or hop on a microphone, though. He wrestled. In a deathmatch. And then he shared a clip (I'll post it below; it's not terrible, but don't watch it if you are particularly squeamish).
Seeing someone like this go to these lengths for a wrestling documentary is wild. Deathmatches are no joke! People who fight in them can end up literally scarred for life. Some of the people who participate in them the most are missing teeth and often look like their bodies are barely holding together. But they are also devoted and passionate. The big companies will do deathmatches sometimes, but they are often a bit more sanitized. The guys who do it often, the ones the Philipous are presumably documenting, aren't in it to get rich and famous. They do it cause they love it.
I don't watch a ton of deathmatches. I'm certainly not sitting my kids down to one anytime soon. But I respect the hell out of what the Philipous are doing. They are approaching this with love and respect as well. They are taking it seriously. I'm sure that was the case before one of them stepped into the ring, but if you want to show someone that you respect what they do, why not do it by getting slammed through barbed wire and glass?
