All Time MOTY List Head to Head 2005: Necro vs. Joe VS. Ikeda vs. Ishikawa

First, if folks haven't listened yet, Phil did a podcast with the aforementioned Necro Butcher on this match here:

WAY OF THE BLADE POD

Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 6/11/05

ER: This is arguably the most legendarily violent match of the last 20 years, the kind of match that embodies everything about that era of super indy wrestling, while taking it to such extreme lengths that everyone reading this likely remembers the first time they ever saw it. It runs just under 10 minutes and has as many memorable moments in those 10 minutes as any match you've seen. This is a fight that never really threatens to turn into a match. The strikes get more unprofessional the longer we go, and it's not surprising that after a few jaw rattling elbows they spill to the floor (where much of the match is spent). Joe levels Necro with a huge elbow suicida, they brawl into the crowd, and Necro gets immediately opened up once they start trading headbutts (unclear if it's one of the couple Joe threw, or one of the many Necro threw, but things get very bloody very quick). Necro and Joe really had it out for Necro's face in this match, and we get the first unholy meeting of Necro's face with concrete when Joe powerslams Necro forehead first on the floor. The match plays better than almost any other crowd brawl, as we aren't walking while hair holding at any point, it's always just these two throwing punches, chops, and elbows. Necro drags a guardrail into the ring and used it on Joe, hitting a senton with Joe underneath, and Joe follows Necro's lead in using metal painfully by hitting a German suplex through a set up chair. They fight to the apron and Necro punches Joe straight across the face...before Joe hits the most famous exploder suplex within our circle of wrestling fandom, chucking Necro onto his head/neck/face.

This is the line for many people. You know for certain that you side with the sickos if you stick around after that suplex, as Necro leaves a visible blood puddle on the ground from where his face made first contact, and then his head starts spraying plasma. And it wasn't a deep red color, it was that red paint plasma that you see in movies like The Harder They Come, leaving at first drops and then puddles on the floor of the New Alhambra. I loved Necro's comeback, this bloody limp corpse suddenly firing punches to Joe's face and body, actually backing him up and making Necro come off like some sick freak Terminator. And of course that's when Joe decides he needs to start throwing his most brutal strikes of the match, especially his knee strikes which just bounce right off the side of Necro's head. The KO finish was the way this should have ended, Necro choosing death rather than ever getting pinned by conventional weapons. It's pretty amazing that he even stayed standing as long as he did, as I can't imagine the average man getting up from a fraction of the punishment Necro took. But, Necro was never merely an average man.

PAS: One of the great big fight auras in wrestling history. The entire crowd was rabid, the announce team was rabid and both wrestlers were foaming. The match opens with possible the last good forearm exchange in wrestling, there was no tough guy faces and your turn my turn forearming, just two lunatics in the pocket throwing as hard as they can. Joe sends Necro to the floor and wastes him with an elbow suicida. Necro unsurprisingly starts spraying blood after a Samoa Joe headbutt (he had wrestled in Japan the night before and cut himself especially deep to make a point to the Big Japan management, wrestling is fucking strange). The match is pretty one sided from this point, but in an awesomely one sided way. Necro takes some monstrously violent head trauma, including taking a powerslam with his forehead landing on concrete and a sheer drop exploder suplex off the ring apron onto the floor onto the crown of his skull. Necro timed his moments of offense perfectly, just when he seemed overwhelmed he would stun Joe with a couple of body shots or a straight right hand. Joe eventually snaps when he can’t put Necro away and obliterates him with knee lifts, with the blood flying off Necro’s head like activator juice in a Rick James video. Wild fight which felt like a combination of Marvin Hagler vs. Tommy Hearns and that viral video where that one teen girl hits the other teen girl in the head with a shovel. 

Verdict: Really a battle of two of the most violent matches in wrestling history. I think the crowd heat pushes this over the top. There is nothing like a wild insane crowd to add to the mania. It's close, but we got a new champ.

ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST