Donkey Kong VS Knuckles

Donkey Kong VS Knuckles is the 51st episode of Death Battle, featuring Donkey Kong from the Donkey Kong and Super Mario series and Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog series in a battle between muscle-headed treasure guardians.
==Interlude==
Wiz: Guardians of treasure, champions of justice.
Boomstick: And proof that if you've got enough brute strength, you don't need to be smart to kick some serious ass.
Wiz: Donkey Kong, defender of the world's largest banana hoard.
Boomstick: And Knuckles the Echidna, guardian of the all-powerful Master Emerald.
Wiz: We've already established that Mario and Sonic-related power-ups counter each other. For example, DK's Strong Kong could counter Hyper Knuckles, so for this fight, we'll be sticking to the bare essentials.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
==Donkey Kong==
Wiz: Now this is the law of the jungle. As old and as true as the sky, the ones that shall keep it may prosper...
Boomstick: But the ones who touch Donkey Kong's banana hoard must die! See, I know literature! Well, the parts about killing, anyway.
Wiz: Long ago, an illegal pet gorilla famously did battle with his abusive owner atop a construction site.
Boomstick: The ape's name was Donkey Kong, and the conflict didn't go so well for him.
Wiz: After escaping, he fled to a remote island with his son, also named Donkey Kong. His son would later bear a child destined to rule the island. This powerful ape was named... you guessed it, Donkey Kong...
Boomstick: Being a gorilla, Donkey Kong naturally LOVES bananas.
Wiz: No no no no no. Real gorillas primarily eat plants, like stems and bamboo shoots, and sometimes termites to fight diarrhea.
Boomstick: Too much info, Wiz. Well, this gorilla loves bananas so much that he's hoarded hundreds for himself. And if someone tries to take away any of his delicious golden treasures, may God help them.
----
We see Donkey Kong punch a Goomba off into the horizon.
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Wiz: And yet, his enemies have been bold enough to steal his entire stockpile several times. Right out from under his nose. That's what happens when you hog every banana on the island to yourself, just basic supply and demand.
Boomstick: Donkey Kong weighs 800 pounds and stands about eight feet tall. That's almost twice as big as a normal gorilla. He spends his afternoons as if he were a Florida native, by finding ways to kill crocodiles, such as crushing them with his sheer weight, chucking barrels at 'em like his old man, or just straight up punching them to death.
Wiz: The strength this ape wields is so tremendous, his very palms can shake the earth, and his trademark Giant Punch can send his victims flying beyond the horizon.
Boomstick: But just because he's strong, doesn't mean he's slow. He can unleash a flurry of blows so fast, he ignites the hydrogen in the air, creating explosions!
Wiz: This is similar to a meteor catching fire while falling through the atmosphere... at 25,000 miles per hour.
Boomstick: I'm telling you, Wiz. It's only a matter of time before the apes take over.
Wiz: While common gorillas have impressed the scientific community by using basic tools, Donkey Kong is a little beyond that.
Boomstick: Yeah! He's got a shotgun! Like, I know it looks like he's just carrying around a log, but no, seriously, it's a boomstick that Funky Kong somehow made out of a tree, that fires concussive homing coconuts!
Wiz: It can fire in spurts and if he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt. At least, that's what the DK Rap tells us. But, what it doesn't tell us is that the series of grunts you hear from the Kongs is actually them speaking their own language.
Boomstick: Really? I wonder what he's saying...
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Donkey Kong: BANANA SLAMMA! (x3)
Robo-DK: BANANA SLAMMA!
Donkey Kong: BANANA SLAMMA! (x2)
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Wiz: Mostly just that. Sometimes he sings, too.
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Donkey Kong: (singing) ♫From on top of the White Mountains, your glory rises high to the skyyyyyy...!♫
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Boomstick: What the hell?! Okay, I know I watched some of this show, but I do not remember there being any musical numbers, like, at all!
Wiz: Oh, there were two in every episode, 40 episodes in all. Your brain likely shut down while watching to protect your fragile consciousness.
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Donkey Kong: (singing) ♫I'd shower you with coconut cream pies...♫
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Boomstick: Good one, brain. I owe you a beer.
Wiz: Donkey Kong has done some ridiculous things. With a clap of his hands, he can create a shockwave strong enough to shatter meteors. Also, I exaggerate nothing when I say he ate an entire plantation of bananas in a single afternoon.
Boomstick: He's agile enough to dodge arrows on a narrow ledge, and tough enough to survive point-blank explosions, multiple times!
Wiz: But most impressively, after surviving an explosion that launched him into orbit, he used a fully-charged Giant Punch to send the moon careening into the planet.
Boomstick: He apparently expands his power by using both his bananas, and... his body hair, like a monkey Burt Reynolds. If he gets a haircut, though, he loses his power, and looks really weird.
Wiz: Wow, I... wow... well, perhaps DK's cranial deformity is linked to his greatest weakness. You see, Donkey Kong is... kind of an idiot.
Boomstick: We're talking about an ape who didn't realize he was following his own treasure map, until after he found the bananas it led to.
Wiz: Or, while suffering from amnesia, a pirate crocodile was able to convince him that he was a crocodile, through song and dance. Donkey Kong joined in, singing about physical features he clearly does not possess.
Boomstick: He's also just as lazy as he is stupid. One time, he and Diddy were making a killing selling frozen coconuts and could've had all the bananas they ever wanted, but the simple task of just cracking coconuts open all day was too strenuous for the big ape, so he sold the business for a couple measly bananas.
Wiz: Bananas are the only motivator that seem to work on DK, but they're also the only one he needs to bring out the big guns.
Boomstick: If something separates him from his precious fruit stockpile, someone is going to die.
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King K. Rool: Nothing's stopping me this time!
Donkey Kong: Not a doin'. You're gonna stop because that's what you do when you're faced with an irresistible force!
He punches K. Rool, sending him flying.
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==Knuckles the Echidna==
Wiz: 4,000 years ago, the echidna race thrived due to their advanced technology and talent for warfare.
Boomstick: Now that's what I call a pet! I know what I'm picking up at the pet store on the way home!
Wiz: Just a heads up, the males have four heads on their penises.
Boomstick: What?! Awesome!
Wiz: Desperate for the power to command the world, the Knuckles tribe staged a raid to obtain the legendary power of the Master Emerald.
Boomstick: What they didn't know was that it was protected by a giant, murderous water dragon with tentacles named "Chaos," and it just killed the shit out of them.
Wiz: Miraculously, a young echidna girl survived, and managed to seal Chaos inside the Master Emerald. The resulting energy output ripped the echidnas' home into the sky to become Angel Island, perpetually floating so long as the Emerald remained in its shrine. Sonic lore, everybody...
Boomstick: Centuries later, one final descendant of the Knuckles Clan remained, and his name was... Knuckles.
Boomstick: So, not the most creative parenting in the world, but hey, Knuckles is the lone guardian of the Master Emerald, dedicating his entire life to protecting the family jewel. Ha! But, he spends most of his days sleeping and doing nothing, because really, who's gonna fly up all the way up to a tiny, floating island just to steal a rock?
Wiz: Why, the nefarious Doctor Eggman of course! As a ploy, Eggman convinced Knuckles that a certain blue hedgehog and a fox with two tails planned to steal the Master Emerald. Knuckles left to stop the thieves, and Eggman swiped the gem for himself.
Boomstick: Not the sharpest head on the dick, is he?
Wiz: Without its energy source, Angel Island plummeted out of the sky, until Sonic the Hedgehog literally beat the sense into Knuckles, and together, they saved the day, forming a tense bromance.
----
Rouge: Sounds like you've got an inferiority complex.
Knuckles: Huh? I have a what?
Rouge: Oh, nothing. Never mind, Knuckles...
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Boomstick: Since then, Knux has continued to try to guard the Emerald. However, most people who try to steal it... do. But luckily for ol' rad red, he can track the Master Emerald using his treasure-hunting skills.
Wiz: And his special bond with the gem, which allows him to detect its presence and harness some of its power, which he can focus through the ancient martial art passed down through the Knuckles Clan.
Boomstick: The ancient art of "punch the crap out of everything"! No, really. That's the answer to every single problem Knuckles has. Something in the way? Punch it! Need to climb a cliff? Punch it! Falling down a trap? Punch it! Punching not working for some reason? You f**king know he punches it more!
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Rouge drops through an air vent, while Knuckles punches through a wall.
Rouge: You're taking this breaking and entering business way too literally.
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Wiz: Speaking of which, Knuckles can throw punches so extreme, they create explosions by igniting hydrogen in the air.
Boomstick: Sounds familiar...
Wiz: Knuckles is fast, capable of running at least 100 miles per hour. He can also take to the sky and glide, reportedly by trapping air underneath his dreadlocks, although there's no logical way those locks are aerodynamic enough to keep him airborne.
Boomstick: Hey, it's better than a tanuki flying with its nutsack. Then again, he could just be twirling his di—
Wiz: And with the spikes on his fists, Knuckles can effortlessly dig through dirt and rock. Add on his attachable Shovel Claws, and he can even tunnel through solid metal.
Boomstick: With arms that stringy, it makes you wonder where all this strength comes from.
Wiz: Well, his connection with the Master Emerald is responsible for much of his more absurd attributes, like gliding and punching explosions.
Boomstick: Knux can shatter boulders, dodge machine guns, ride atop flying jets and missiles like skateboards, oh, and he can breathe in space.
Wiz: He's matched and even trumped Sonic in battle, runs fast enough to cut holes in the ground, is strong enough to uproot massive trees...
Boomstick: Hell, he's strong enough to throw this!
Wiz: With a single punch, he can trigger a volcanic eruption. Doing so requires displacing pressure in a volcano's magma chamber. At minimum, this can sit around 3,280 feet or one kilometer below the Earth's surface. Knuckles had to have punched the ground with at least 3.9 megatons of force, over three times more powerful than the highest yield bomb in the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
Boomstick: That's cute, how about the time he punched the Moon? One day, Eggman blew up half the Moon, and rebuilt it into a robot moon, because, well, he gets off on that shit.
Wiz: Via remote control, Eggman actually changed the Moon's orbit to create a never-ending eclipse.
Boomstick: But never fear, Knuckles just dove out into outer space and punched the remote control into dust, causing an explosion visible from Earth.
Wiz: And returning the Moon to its normal orbit.
Boomstick: But, having these abilities isn't enough to let him win every time, especially when his biggest obstacle is his own brain.
Wiz: Knuckles is illiterate, doesn't know left from right, and one time, didn't realize until too late that he was eating a napkin.
Boomstick: Hey, give credit where it's due, Wiz. When he did figure it out, he stuck to his guns and finished every bite of that damn napkin. It's dinner and clean up at the same time!
Wiz: He hardly ever strategizes before combat, preferring to run in swinging.
Boomstick: Hey, whatever works.
Wiz: It doesn't. Well, not all the time. And despite being mortal enemies, Doctor Eggman has duped Knuckles into allying with him on multiple occasions; it's happened so often by now, you have to wonder who's side he's really on.
Boomstick: Hey, his fists can blow the top off a volcano, so why waste precious time on things like "reasoning"?
----
Amy: What a dreamboat!
Both her and Sticks hug Knuckles.
Sonic: I wanna be just like you when I grow up.
Tails: Knuckles, you've been elected governor!
Knuckles: All in a day's work.
Knuckles flies into orbit heroically.
Sonic: (in reality) Hey, that's not how it—
Knuckles: Shh!
----
==Prelude==
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!
==Death Battle==
Knuckles is seen gliding around DK Island when his stomach starts growling. He sees Donkey Kong's banana hoard and flies down towards it. He picks up one of the bananas and starts eating it, but it turns out DK is right behind him watching. He notices DK's angry face but finishes it anyways. DK knocks out the rest of the banana hoard and angrily roars while pounding his chest.
Donkey Kong attacks first by launching his fist to Knuckles, but Knuckles steps to the side, avoiding Donkey Kong's first attack. DK tries to squish Knuckles by slamming his palm on top of Knuckles, but ends up missing as Knuckles avoids again. Donkey Kong gets furious, repeatedly and rapidly slamming his palms to the ground, but Knuckles avoids every swing.
Donkey Kong then leaps forward, trying to pounce on Knuckles and strangle him. However, Knuckles safely gets out of DK's attacks unharmed, as Donkey Kong still tries to attack in his current area. Donkey Kong then gets dizzy after his attack, leaving him vulnerable.
Knuckles uses his advantage by punching Donkey Kong's stomach, next doing an uppercut to lose Donkey Kong's balance, slamming both fists on Donkey Kong's head, and finally doing a blow on Donkey Kong's torso, knocking DK backwards onto a coconut tree.
Due to Knuckles' tremendous force, a coconut hits DK's head once he was slammed into the coconut tree. Donkey Kong gets an idea about his next plan of attack. As Knuckles laughs at Donkey Kong, he also gets hit by a coconut.
Knuckles: Oh no!
Knuckles notices that DK is swinging on a vine, shooting homing coconuts with his Coconut Shooter. Several coconuts are flying at Knuckles' head, but Knuckles dodges them all in slow-motion, Matrix-style. As he notices more coconuts are coming, Knuckles quickly reacts, evading all the coconuts shot by Donkey Kong. After Knuckles dodges all of his coconuts, he does a quick celebration.
Knuckles: All right!
All of the homing coconuts turn back once Knuckles evaded them. One of them hit him in the back of his head...
Knuckles: Oh no!
...before he turns around to see dozens more approaching him. Before he can react, Donkey Kong charges back in and launches Knuckles into the air with an uppercut, inadvertently helping him dodge the coconuts. As he falls back down, he hammers his fists onto DK's head, dizzying him, before delivering a series of blows to his torso. Donkey Kong recovers and attempts to slam down on him with his hand, but Knuckles evades it. The homing coconuts come back around once more, with one hitting Knuckles in the head.
Knuckles: Oh no!
This stuns him, giving Donkey Kong the opportunity to kick Knuckles backward, allowing him to be hit by six successive coconuts, prompting to exclaim his infamous line each time.
Knuckles: Oh no! Oh no! Oh n— Oh n— Oh no! Oh no!
However, Knuckles is able to grab the next coconut, before spinning around in place to charge up a throw while grabbing a few more then throwing them at Donkey Kong, successfully hitting him in the head, though one bounces back and hits him yet again.
Knuckles: (French accent) Oh no!
He throws a powerful punch at the next coconut, knocking it back into another, and another, and another, sending them all flying away into the air as Donkey Kong narroly dodges them. Knuckles runs away, briefly checking behind him to see if DK is on the chase. He turns back around, when suddenly, Donkey Kong emerges out of a bush and head-butts Knuckles, planting him headfirst into the ground. This makes him get hit by two more homing coconuts.
Knuckles: Oh no! Oh no!
Fed up with the coconuts, Knuckles starts shaking with rage, while Donkey Kong charges up his Giant Punch before slamming down on Knuckles, with the impact of the blow shaking the entire forest. DK raises his fist, only to see that Knuckles is gone, with a crater in his place. Donkey Kong kneels down to peek into the hole, scratching his head as he wonders where his foe went. As he gets back up, Knuckles bursts out from underground behind DK and punches him in the back, knocking Donkey Kong to the ground, before digging back underground.
As Donkey Kong recovers from the surprise attack, Knuckles then continues digging and popping out of the ground for multiple surprise attacks. Donkey Kong then starts slamming the ground with his Hand Slap, which disrupts and destroys Knuckles' paths. Knuckles then digs back to the surface and runs around Donkey Kong, making DK notice him. The ground collapses under DK, making him fall down to the pit.
Knuckles: Hmph, not as strong as you thought you were!
As Knuckles prepares to walk away, he gets hit with a final homing coconut, knocking him into the pit as well.
Knuckles: Oh no!
DK lands on a minecart safely, but the minecart tilts, then ends up riding along the rails. Knuckles glides along the cavern, preparing to strike. Knuckles charges in, preparing to punch DK's face, but Donkey Kong punches Knuckles' fist, blocking the attack. Donkey Kong tries to punch him next, but the minecart is constantly switching railings.
Knuckles gets in Donkey Kong's minecart and attempts to strangle him, both now in a tight struggle. As the two continue their fight, they notice the railing is incomplete, leading to nowhere. As soon as they realize it, they both hug each other, screaming in fear. After the minecart falls out of the railing, Knuckles clutches onto the cavern wall, with Donkey Kong clutching onto Knuckles' waist.
Knuckles tries punching his fists in to stay on the wall, but due to Donkey Kong's huge weight, it starts to pull Knuckles down. DK tries slapping the wall to keep onto the wall, but Knuckles ignites the hydrogen in the air, creating an explosion on his fist. Knuckles continuously punches the wall in order to stay in, but his solution failed, as both fall down from the wall and creating a rockslide inside the cavern.
Donkey Kong lets go of Knuckles' waist, freeing his hands as he prepares to clap Knuckles between them, who can only utter one final...
Knuckles: Oh no!
...before being squashed like a bug between DK's hands. The cavern collapses, creating a massive crater in the island. On a nearby mountain, Knuckles' arms dig out of the ground, only for it to turn out to be DK wielding his severed arms for digging. As he emerges from the ground, he tosses the arms away before pounding his chest and roaring in victory.
DK starts rebuilding his banana hoard, while Knuckles' severed arms are hit with another coconut.
==Results==
Wiz: Knuckles may have had the edge in speed and agility, but his stubborn strategy of rushing in only played into Donkey Kong's favor by keeping close and in range.
Boomstick: Both were tough enough to survive atmospheric re-entry and the vacuum of space, but only Donkey Kong has also survived an explosion strong enough to launch him into orbit in the first place.
Wiz: Knuckles and DK may have punched moons, but both feats are not precisely what they seem. The moon Donkey Kong punched belongs to the Mario universe, and is clearly smaller than our own Moon. By comparing its size to that of Donkey Kong Island, we found this moon is approximately 2,775 feet in diameter and weighs 9.9 quadrillion tons. Knocking it out of orbit means DK punched it with a strike of over 3,000 megatons of force.
Boomstick: So, not quite as impressive as punching our real Moon, but hey, still way better than what Knuckles can do; Knuckles only destroyed a receiver controlling the Moon's flight path.
Wiz: And although the Moon's orbit changed afterwards, it's unreasonable to say Knuckles is responsible. He has no other feats supporting this outlier, and the Moon was previously established to move itself due to being... part robot now... Sonic lore.
Boomstick: Knuckles' speed wasn't enough when DK was just that much stronger and tough enough to take anything thrown at him. DK just wasn't "echidna-ing" around.
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is Donkey Kong.
==Trivia==
===Production===
*The core connections between Donkey Kong and Knuckles are that they are both video game heroes who are dumb but powerful fistfighting enemies turned rivals/allies of their series' main protagonists (Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, respectively) and usually spend their time protecting a precious treasure on an island (a banana hoard on DK Island and the Master Emerald on Angel Island, respectively) which has an extensive history being stolen by their series' main antagonists (King K. Rool and Doctor Eggman, respectively). In addition:
**Both have feats of punching the Moon and causing it to move (Donkey Kong hit the Moon so hard it fell down to the Earth, and Knuckles destroyed a remote control preventing the Moon from orbiting around the Earth, allowing it to return it into orbit).
**Both have powered up forms allowing them to become invincible for a period of time (Strong Kong and both Super and Hyper Knuckles, respectively).
**Both have the ability to punch so fast that they ignite the hydrogen in the air around them, creating explosions.
**Both appear in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Smash Bros. series. In the latter, Donkey Kong is a playable character while Knuckles appears as an Assist Trophy and a Mii Costume for the Mii Brawler.
*According to one of the Road to 100 Blogs by Ben Singer, he and the rest of the ScrewAttack crew originally thought that Knuckles would be the victor, but it was ultimately changed to Donkey Kong at the last minute for two reasons:User blog:CrossoverKing96/Road to 100 Archive: Vader vs Doom, Donkey vs Knuckles
**They decided against using Knuckles' powers and feats from Archie Comics's Sonic the Hedgehog series because they considered the Archie Comics version of Knuckles to be too far removed from his video game counterpart, with Ben mentioning how Archie Knuckles would go on to attain a whole new level of godly power that, according to Ben, "essentially makes him an entirely different character from the Knuckles of the Sonic games." This would ultimately play a part in shaping Death Battle's fourth rule into what it is today.
**Ben re-examined Knuckles' moon punching feat from Sonic X and ultimately concluded that Knuckles didn't actually return the Moon to its normal orbit by punching it, due to how it was established that the Moon was able to move itself after Eggman planted a device to control its flight path.
**Both of their rivals previously fought each other in Season 1 and would battle once again in Season 5.
*Knuckles was originally planned to fight against Wario in Season 1 as part of the .User blog:CrossoverKing96/Road to 100 (Archive) Haggar vs Zangief
*Despite being a part of the research team since Beast VS Goliath, this is the first episode to include Liam Swan and Hero's Shade in the credits of the show.
*This was the last episode to feature a "Weaknesses" slide for a combatant until it returned for Superman's analysis in Goku VS Superman (2023).
===Easter Eggs=== 
*At the beginning of Donkey Kong's analysis, Wiz partially quotes The Law of the Jungle from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
*Almost every time Knuckles gets hit in the battle, he says "Oh no." This is actually a sound file taken directly from Sonic Adventure, the only file that plays when Knuckles is hit. It has achieved memetic status among the internet due to the Knuckles boss fight in that game and how easy it was to hurt Knuckles, making the sound file play frequently in the short battle.
**The last "Oh no!" in the initial string of "Oh no's" is a pitch-altered Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
**Knuckles says "Oh no!" 14 times over the course of the entire fight.
===Other=== 
*This is the third Nintendo VS Sega-themed episode, after Mario VS Sonic (2011) and Luigi VS Tails, and with the next three being Mewtwo VS Shadow, Mario VS Sonic (2018), and Bowser VS Eggman.
**This is the first time that the Nintendo character wins, with the next three being Mewtwo VS Shadow, Mario VS Sonic (2018), and Bowser VS Eggman.
**This is the third Super Mario VS Sonic the Hedgehog-themed episode, after Mario VS Sonic (2011) and Luigi VS Tails, and with the next two being Mario VS Sonic (2018) and Bowser VS Eggman.
***This is the first time Super Mario wins, with the next two being Mario VS Sonic (2018) and Bowser VS Eggman.
*This is the third episode in which Wiz comments on the results of the fight before Boomstick, after Fox McCloud VS Bucky O'Hare and Boba Fett VS Samus Aran (2015), and with the next seven being Flash VS Sonic, Excalibur VS Raiden, Ant-Man VS Atom, Killua VS Misaka, Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog, Galactus VS Unicron, and Bowser VS Eggman.
==References==
Category:Death Battles
Category:Season 2 episodes
Category:Mario episodes
Category:Sonic episodes
Category:Animated Sprite battles
Category:Fights animated by Zack
Category:'Mario VS Sonic' themed Death Battles
Category:'Nintendo VS Sega' themed Death Battles
Category:'Video Games' themed Death Battles
Category:'East VS West' themed Death Battles
Category:'Animals' themed Death Battles
Category:'Heroes' themed Death Battles
Category:'Protagonists' themed Death Battles
Category:'David VS Goliath' themed Death Battles
Category:'1990s' themed Death Battles