Before he was “The Most Dangerous Man in AEW,” Swerve Strickland was tearing up the independent scene throughout the 2010s. He was routinely stealing the show at any DEFY Wrestling event in his home state of Washington, he was putting his pain threshold to the test in the Death Match world of CZW, and when he traveled to Boyle Heights, California to become a member of the Lucha Underground roster, he became known as Killshot.

Killshot was a military veteran who carried around the dog tags of the fallen comrades he lost on the battlefield, but one day he got a letter from someone he thought had died at war, Dante Fox (better known as AR Fox to most wrestling fans). The two men would feud all the way through season three of Lucha Underground, culminating in this, the “Hell of War” match, a match some fans know as “Three Stages of Hell,” Killshot and Dante Fox were going to go to war one more time to finally settle their personal score, and they were both more than willing to go to hell in order to prove their point.

To say this match is violent would be a dramatic understatement. It’s genuinely one of the most brutal wrestling matches to ever take place on national television, and not too far off what both men had gone through during their separate careers in CZW. This is a Death Match with the largest capital D possible, but it also happens to be one of the greatest matches in modern wrestling history. Is the match too bloody for some? Sure, but wrestling is a subjective artform and not everything is going to please everyone. Having said that, you really are missing out if you don’t watch this match at least once.

The first fall is a First Blood match, and Fox decides to make things very logical by trying to find something that will instantly draw blood, an enormous pane of glass which the first fall is built around. Whoever goes through it instantly loses the fall, and that happens to be Killshot. The second fall ramps up the chaos with a No Disqualification match, giving both guys the freedom to do whatever they want to each other and they do just that. Fox takes bumps on the broken glass and through a barbed wire board, leaving his back looking like an abstract painting and allowing Killshot to win the second fall.

Finally, a Medical Evac match, basically an Ambulance Match taken to the most extreme degree. You talk about people wanting their pound of flesh from people they hate, a literal piece of Fox’s back gets ripped off during this third fall, that’s how violent this match and it’s beautiful. Arguably the greatest match in Lucha Underground history, Killshot and Dante Fox went to hell and back in this one, and they were never the same after it.