Main Line wrestler gained scars, cuts and respect at Combat Zone Wrestling's Tournament of Death

Kyle Francis went into Combat Zone Wrestling's Tournament of Death with a lot of hopes and expectations.

Tournament of Death marked the first time Francis would partake in a deathmatch. Because of this, Francis expected to suffer a great deal of pain.

But Francis hoped that the pain he would endure would turn into respect and adulation from the fans that questioned whether Francis' character in the ring, "The Main Line Main Eventer" Kit Osbourne — was tough enough to hang in such a brutal environment.

When the long day was over, Francis felt pain like he had never felt before. Surprisingly, he expected more.

When it came to the respect, however, Francis garnered way more than he had anticipated, and it helped make Tournament of Death 16 an event that he will not soon forget.

"Tournament of Death as a whole is one of the greatest memories and moments I've ever had in my entire wrestling career," he said during an interview with philly.com.

Francis' day began at around 9 a.m. when he arrived to where Tournament of Death was taking place, which was in a field somewhere in Townsend, Del.

It was hot and muggy day in Delaware, which meant the wrestlers were not going to be lying down in the ring for very long, as the sun was beaming down upon it.

Francis didn't need to sun to give him any energy, as he had plenty of it building up inside of him throughout the day. Once he watched the first match on the card, the reality had finally set in — he was going to get hurt that day.

Then, it was time. It was time for Francis to finally step into what was for him uncharted territory. It was time for his first deathmatch.

Francis competed in a non-tournament match against Dan O'Hare, George Gatton and Jimmy Loyd.

"The second my music hit it was all real to me," Francis said. "I got out there and I got the exact reception I was expecting … tons of people calling me Shawn [Michaels] or [Dolph] Ziggler."

"The second I engaged with them and I'm looking at them and I just kind of give them this little smirk, they immediately wished I was dead," he added while laughing.

The smirk Francis flashed did not stay on his face for very long, as it was time to get down to business. The first order of business for Francis was to get hit with light tubes. He was the first one in the match to suffer such a fate.

"It's something I've never experienced before," Francis said. "It's definitely a lot different from stepping on a Christmas ball. I took it and then the feeling sets in, and it was bad, but it was like, 'I'm ready for more.'"

"I didn't know what to feel," he added. "I was so absent-minded at that moment. I get out of the ring and I feel my back and I'm thinking it is sweat. I touch it with the back of my hand and I come back over and look and my hand is just covered in blood and I'm like, 'That's mine! That's my blood!'"

Francis' brutal baptism into the world of deathmatches was not complete, as he had yet to feel what it was like for barbed wire to tear through his flesh.

That came courtesy of someone hitting him with a tombstone from the second rope onto a board covered in — you guessed it — barbed wire.

"That's scary, but now it's a whole other feeling," Francis said. "Now I'm going through barbed wire. I've never done this before. Not only is my head on it, but my back is on it and this person is on me pinning me, so like pushing me into the barbed wire."

"Right there, a whole other feeling of pain that's completely different from light tubes," he added. "Somebody cuts it off and I'm starting to get up and it's stuck to my back and it's stuck to my hair. Luckily the ref was able to get it out."

Francis' body was suddenly littered in cuts and scars, which alone hurt, but stung even more when they were exposed to the blazing hot sun.

But Francis got to dish out some punishment, too. He hit someone in the head with a steel chair and according to him, he had never swung something so hard in his life.

Francis then grabbed a baseball bat that was wrapped in barbed wire and set it on fire. He attempted to hit O'Hare with it, but O'Hare countered by power slamming Francis through a door (yes, a door) that was also engulfed in flames.

The slam through the door cost Francis the match, but it was actually a vision he came up with inside of his own head. It was the brutal crescendo Francis felt like he not only wanted but he needed.

"I wanted to take the finish no matter what," he said. "I don't need the win, but I need that."

Since he went through a burning door, Francis was the last one to leave the ring, which was when he received a gratifying round of applause from the fans.

As far as Francis was concerned, he had accomplished his goal. He not only survived his first deathmatch without suffering any irreparable damage, but he gained the respect from the hardened fan base that watches deathmatches on a regular basis.

However, Francis' day was not over just yet.

Later in the show there was a tag team scaffold match where Danny Havoc and Alex Colon squared off against Drew Blood and Devin Moore, collectively known as Notorious Inc.

About halfway through the match, Moore jumped off the scaffold, but landed feet first and suffered what looked like to be a serious injury. The injury was serious enough to prevent Moore from continuing in the match.

Since Moore was out, CZW desperately put out an open casting call of sorts to see who wanted to replace him. Literally anyone could have run to the ring to replace Moore, but Francis was the one that jumped at the opportunity.

"I still have my gear on, but I was actually at the moment where I was starting to take it off," Francis recalled. "Both boots were on, but the laces were out of one of them."

"I didn't even hesitate to do it," he added. "I just saw another opportunity to go out there and I was like, 'I want to do that. I want to go out there.'"

Francis was quickly caught up on what was going on in the match and rushed to the ring to help continue the festivities.

"I go inside the ring and Danny Havoc is like, 'What the hell are you doing here?' and I go, 'I'm Drew's partner now, so do whatever you were going to do to Devin do to me,'" Francis recalled.

Moore was apparently supposed to go through a board covered in barbed wire because that is exactly what happened to Francis for the second time that day.

Francis' body was wracked in pain yet again. Although the amount of damage he suffered increased, so did the amount of respect he earned in the eyes of the fans and his wrestling peers.

When he arrived backstage, Francis received another round of applause. He never felt more appreciated in his career.

"I didn't realize the real importance of what I did because I just kind of in the moment and saw that somebody needed me and I was just like, 'Yes, I'll do it. I want it. I got it. I'm ready. Just whatever. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it,'" Francis said.

"The last thing I would ever want is a match to not work out and somebody getting hurt for nothing," he added. "I went out there and did everything I could to at least make it a complete match so that fans are happy and the people that are involved feel like they accomplished something. How often does something like this happen?"

The word of Francis' courage spread throughout social media and has kept his phone quite busy since Tournament of Death.

Now that Tournament of Death has come and gone, the question now is whether Francis would consider doing another deathmatch in the future.

It depends.

"It will depend on the story," Francis said. "If all of the stars aligned and it made sense for me to do it again then I would. I wouldn't do it for anything, you know. It would have to make sense. I don't see that being very difficult."

Regardless of whether another deathmatch is in Francis' future or not, the fact remains that despite all of the scars and wounds he suffered during Tournament of Death, participating in the event turned out to be a net positive that has seemingly helped his career.

It may have taken some light tubes, some barbed wire and even a burning door for it to happen, but that was what Francis was willing to sacrifice to advance his career.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.