All Time MOTY List Head to Head: Futen tag V. Necro v. Minowaman

Necro Butcher v. Minowaman IGF 2/22/10

ER: What a ridiculous and wonderful clash of styles. Minowa comes out looking like every peak shape Japanese MMA guy you've seen (and coming off of giant killer wins over Bob Sapp and Choi Hong Man), and Necro Butcher comes out looking like a man who clearly lives out of his car. Minowa treats Necro with no respect, Necro makes great OOOOF sounds when Minowa kicks him in the stomach, and when Minowa tries to test Necro's fight ability by throwing blows it ends with Necro headbutting him. This is Minowa's debut for IGF and I have to wonder at this point if he had any clue who he was facing or what was going to happen. This is an important thing about some of these weird Japan-only matches: How much information was given to each of the combatants? I would love to ask that question to so many different wrestlers. How much did Greg Valentine know about BattlArts? How much did Backlund know about UWFi? At this point I believe Necro had worked exclusively for Big Japan and maybe a couple spot shows for death match-y feds. So we have a man with a lot of stuff in his car, enough stuff that he probably has to take turns carefully, versus an MMA guy who is kind of a weirdo within the realm of MMA. And before long Necro spills to the floor and looks for weapons, grabs a ring bell, and Minowa still doesn't look like he totally knows who the hell he is fighting. Soon Necro is busted wide open and not long after that Minowa has more of Necro's blood on him than Necro does. Minowa makes the mistake of trying to phone booth fight him and that not only leaves Necro the opening to punch him a bunch and bleed all over him. This match is a glorious, sloppy style clash, Necro lands a bunch of killer shots and absorbs some gross shots from Minowa, and eventually Minowa gets sick of getting shoot punched in the head and taps him with a kneebar.

PAS: Totally fun clusterfuck, with both guys doing what they do best. Necro was perfectly willing to be hit extremely hard, and hit back extremely hard, and I loved how this felt like a bar fight between an MMA fighter and a methed out hillbilly. Minowa gut shotting Necro, only to get countered by an eye rake was awesome. Necro has some of the best eye rakes in wrestling history, he really digs his filthy nails into the mucus membranes and you can see the infections forming. I loved the the Frye v. Takayama section with Minowa landing precise open hand shots and Necro flinging wild winging punching, really violent and exciting. Would have liked to see Necro get a real nearfall or two, but that wasn't what this match was really about. Totally fun, and it makes me wish Necro had a RINGS run, feels like Necro v. Tamura or Necro v. Han would have been awesome.


FUTEN Tag Review


Verdict: 

ER: I love this match, and love that it exists. Style clashes are some of my favorite wrestling out there, and they don't typically get as weird as this. But this doesn't have the drama or the pent up intensity of that FUTEN tag. Champ retains.

PAS: This is a really fun match, but more of an awesome curiosity then a real MOTY contender, glad I watched it again, but this is a pretty easy retain by the FUTEN tag.