Deathmatch/Hardcore Logic/Skills

I don't do a huge amount of hardcore stuff so I'm certainly no expert on the matter, but for the few guys I made in the style I ended up putting their attack parameters fairly lower than I normally would (like nothing but 1s and 2s) and their defenses a tad higher (all 8s, 9s, and 10s). I figure deathmatches should be long, knockdown drag-out affairs around 45 minutes in duration, so all my hardcore guys are damage sponges. I like pretty high showmanship so they work the corner boards a good bit, while making whips into the barbed wire ropes a bit rarer and more momentous, and tosses out to the barbed wire on the floor happen good and late in the match.

Aside from that, I like really cranking up the Performance percentages so there's a lot of taunting when the opponent is down, to kinda slow down the pace. I load the movesets up with a lot of little things like eye rakes and wrist punches that make it look like a wrestler is really working the wounds when his opponent's face is bloodied. Also, I like high ukemi early and low ukemi late for almost everyone so they all crawl back from the brink of death. I like my deathmatches to start off blistering and progressively slow down until the guys are so gassed they can hardly hit more than a move a minute for a while, and then (hopefully) end on a furious rally.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and skills-wise I usually go with Guts, if anything, since they really shouldn't do a lot of tapping, what with their high thresholds for pain. Initially Hardcore and Blood seemed like natural choices, but I felt like they were actually making my deathmatches end sooner than I wanted.

Higher the percentage, the quicker they get back into the ring.

I'll preface it with the idea that Carl's mod suite changes a lot for this.

I think a big deal is move selection and how those moves are used. Most deathmatch wrestlers use the turnbuckles for top rope moves of all sorts and that's not possible in the core game. With the mod suite you can do grapple moves, but not dives, even though you can technically do the running-up-the-ropes moves off of the boards in the default game. The CPU just don't do them otherwise. Then there's also the fact that the exploding rope matches mean you can'd do springboards, running or running vs. moves. 

My biggest qualms with Fire Pro deathmatches were always these things. I hate the idea of limiting what a character can or can't do. 

That being said, know your wrestler and what they should be doing. 

With high weapon logic they're gonna grab weapons and you're gonna get a lot of pick up, hit, pick up, hit, etc. The fact that the CPU can't pin afterwards is... inane. Somewhere around 25 - 40%, depending on the character, is probably a pretty safe bet. 

I don't think you have to worry about the personality settings all that much, because it should be similar to any other kind of wrestler. You want the high entertainment because they'll try to toss their opponent out of the ring more, or into the corner boards. You probably want a solid amount on irish whips because that'll help in both kinds of deathmatches. 

Move-wise, I feel like a focus on standard grapple moves and downed moves is always the smart way to go. 

Try to be dynamic in your approach for assigning skills and attributes. Not everyone should get a spirit boost from bleeding and only the most depraved get a buff from bleeding or their opponent bleeding. 

There needs to be more info on how the parameters and skills are impacted by the match types or if at all.

As a big deathmatch wrestling fan I find the Deathmatch match types in FPWW themselves tend to be quite shallow and restrictive. So my work around has been to make a normal match with the DQ count off (so they wont be forced to drop weapons upon entering the ring) and really cranking up how often my deathmatch/hardcore edits get weapons from under the ring though never above 75%.

You want moves that force wrestlers outside, like a jumping brainbuster as a way of ensuring a wrestler tumbles outside and then everyone goes wild with the weapons and then seem more likely to start dragging them back into the matches. Also logic that makes it that when your opponent is outside the ring that your edit will always leave also. The whole idea of "do nothing" being set to anything higher than 0% is redundant.

Also give your edits moves, don't just settle on punches and basic stuff. Treat weapons are a bonus not an edits only damage output. FMW, Big Japan & FREEDOMS was/is about wrestling and using weapons, Jun Kasai is a deathmatch god but does way more than just hit people with weapons. Get in your big fire thunder powerbombs, double underhook piledrivers and top rope splashes be creative.