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

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IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #4: CM Punk vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio 3/1/02

CM Punk vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio 3/1/02

ER: What a cool little slice of history, with three future WWE world champs all wrestling at a time when nobody but the most ardent fantasy bookers were ever expecting them to be WWE champions ("so then AJ Styles debuts as the mystery opponent for Shawn Michaels, and they main event WrestleMania, and then Eddie and Rey bring back the LWO to feud with the also returning ECW, and..."). This was quite the coup that IWA got Rey and Eddie to come in. Eddie was on his rehabilitation tour to show WWE he had changed, so he was wrestling with purpose, and clearly looked like the best wrestler in the world. I'd always been an Eddie fan, but 2002 Eddie jumped to another level. Every single one of his movements is gold, right down to how snug he holds cradles and small packages. Everybody busts butt in this match, but Eddie is God. Three ways stink as a rule, but I thought they managed to work through several spots nicely, and since everybody committed to being a bump freak the spots all worked. When Punk whips into the ring with a sunset flip that causes Eddie to fling Rey with a German, and Rey bumps wildly into the ropes on his shoulder? It works. 

Everybody works in their signature offense in natural ways, and it's cool to see the Rey and Eddie - already opponents for a decade at this point - mixed in with a reckless indy worker with something to prove. Also notable, is that out of all the times Eddie/Rey crossed paths, this was maybe the only time it happened outside of AAA/WCW/WWE. Somebody fact check that, it sounds right. Punk is pretty awesome here, working really fast, hitting the back of his head on a chair catching a Rey dive, hitting a bonkers blockbuster, knowing when to pounce and when to stay out of the way. At one point Rey practically scalps him with a 619. Eddie was such a bundle of dynamite, bumping big for Rey on armdrags and at one point taking a wild bump toward the ringpost and to the floor (through the bottom rope). The finish is a real killer, as Rey hits Punk with a big rana, then Eddie runs in and throws Rey to the floor (with Rey doing his stomach first Halloween bump that the camera mostly misses) before hitting a stiff frog splash to somehow win the IWA title. This could have been a mess. This could have been a couple names big timing a small indy and working shtick (which also would have ruled and now maybe I want that match more). Instead all parties went out and had probably the best match possible, a real fun treat.

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Mini Complete and Accurate: Scorpio in IWA-MS

The great 2 Cold Scorpio returned to US wrestling after his NOAH run and worked a dozen or so IWA Mid-South matches. It was this killer mini-run where he brought this stiff deliberate style from Japan and mixed it up with the current group of Indy stars. It was something I always loved when it happened and with so much IWA easily available through Highspots and IWTV I figured I would revisit it. 

2006

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Low-KI IWA-MS 8/11/06 - GREAT


2008

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Eddie Kingston IWA-MS 3/1/08 - EPIC

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 8/17/08 - EPIC

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Eddie Kingston at the Hot Stove, Jelly Jar, Baking Soda, Hot Water, Mask, Gloves Can't Stand the Odor

Eddie Kingston vs. Hotstuff Hernandez IWA-MS 5/12/07 - GREAT

PAS: This was peak swoll Hotstuff, he looks like a Mexican Mafia enforcer who has been in Pelican Bay for 18 months lifting weights. He manhandles Eddie for most of the early part of the match, and Eddie is great as a guy being manhandled. He sells every shot like it is breaking him down,  and really conveys the frustration of chopping away a granite block. Eddie is able to find some cracks in the second half of the match, landing some big backfists and getting some near falls. I really liked the spot where Hotstuff skinned the cat to the top rope only to get jump kicked in the temple. Eddie's rally fell short when Hotstuff hit him with a heavy border toss for the win. Hotstuff was a bit unyielding for this to be a true epic, but it was a hell of fight and Eddie fighting against the odds only to succumb is a great story line for him.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Ian Rotten Was Pushed With His Sorrow Well Rehearsed

JR: If you've enjoyed these Ian Rotten reviews, Phil and I have decided to collect them and print up zines. It will contain all we have written thus far plus I think three matches we haven't written up for the blog. Each match has art accompanying it and I think the overall idea of it all is going to come out pretty good. The layout is almost complete, so I have put up preorders on my itch page:



https://jrgoldb.itch.io/methlab-battlarts-the-pre-order

Ian Rotten vs. Tarek the Great 10/21/06 - EPIC

PAS: This is presented like a throwback to a legendary match of the past, Lawler vs. Dundee in SAW is great, but it isn’t Lawler vs. Dundee in Mid-South Coliseum, this however was actually better and nastier then their 2002 match. Tarek has filled out in the four years since their first match, he looks less like a junkie and more like a junkie who cleaned himself up and got a construction job. As one would expect from this series this is all about hitting people hard in places they shouldn’t be hit. Ian is merciless here, he throws these thudding palm strikes that land like he is aiming six inches past Tarek. He seems to be trying to strike through him and land on some guy behind him. At one point Ian takes the palm of his hand and drives in into the back of Tarek's head where his spine meets his skull, it felt like he was doing some Kung Fu movie strike which gives his enemy permanent paralysis. To his credit Tarek attacked like he was in the fight he was in, he kicks Ian right in the top of his skull and unloads with some big palm strikes of his own. Also, Tarek wasn’t putting on a ton of holds, but what he did put on was really tight, his choke sleeper popped Ian’s eyes out. I didn’t love the finish, they tried for the Hart vs. Piper sleeper roll up and it didn’t land, but everything else was incredible violent stuff.


JR: One of the things we have been so enamored with throughout this project has been Ian’s ability to work in ways and from angles that make wrestling seem like something just beyond comprehension. The movements and strikes seem to force an opponent “out of book”, creating a world in which to maintain the illusions that professional wrestling survives upon, a worker must react differently and organically.

While Hero almost certainly has the single most compelling match of the style, I am beginning to think that Tarek might be the opponent that gains the most from what Ian brings to a match like this. His selling is sympathetic and organic without making the match one sided. He struggles and feeds off of Rotten in ways that allow Ian to seek variations on themes and work them to natural conclusions.

Rotten is probably best remembered for truly gross headbutt spots in his matches, but the strikes he throws that feel the most sudden and violent are his palm strikes. He uses them so well to mark transitions and momentum shifts. Here, after a longer feeling out process, his first true strikes are open palms to the base of Tarek’s neck. It feels violent, it feels wrong. It feels like it could injure, rather than hurt. The palm strikes continue to be the theme, even as Ian works from underneath. The only thing he can hit is Tarek’s thigh, which he does repeatedly and with abandon.

There is a closeness to this match that makes it stand out. Against some other opponents (Joe comes to mind, but he’s far from the only one), Ian mines drama and tension from distance. There are moments in those matches that feel like two rams backing up slowly to collide until superiority is established. Here Tarek works like a boxer who knows he doesn’t have the length advantage. He must stay inside of Ian. He must take the punishment he knows is coming because the alternative is punishment that he can’t.

The finish, an obvious homage to Piper/Hart, falls flat and is poorly executed, which is shockingly almost a theme at this point. The finishes often seem so overbooked and “rasslin” that they feel jarring. Earlier, for the match against Claudio, I wrote about trusting the audience. Or lack thereof. The matches themselves establish a world in which both men must work outside normalcy to simply survive. The prior work is undermined by the tropes of wrestling.

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RIP Mitch Ryder

PAS: I used to buy XCW-Midwest DVDs from Mitch Ryder in the early days of Segunda Caida. We reviewed a ton of them and it sort of established SC as the kind of place that would review a dozen XCW-Midwest shows. Ryder was a breath of fresh air in the "do a bunch of stuff" era of indy wrestling and was always good for some bumping, bleeding, and brawling.


Mitch Ryder/Todd Morton/Tarek the Great/Bull Pain vs. Ian Rotten/Mark Wolf/Tracy Smothers/Sabu IWA-MS 10/20/01

PAS: Overbooked as it gets, but totally awesome. We probably didn't need a surprise partner (although Sabu is always great in that role), a Tarek the Great face turn AND a Tracy Smothers heel turn all in one match. The Tarek turn added nothing to the match and could have been scrapped. Still everything else was great, Pain cracking Ian in the jaw with a baseball bat, Todd Morton doing two crazy cage dives (including walking the side of the cage), Sabu taking a bump off the side of the cage to the floor, and tons of blood. Ryder was mostly on the outside of the cage running interference, throwing Wolf into chairs, brawling wildly with Smothers, punching Ian in his bloody head. Finish was some classic IWA White WorldStarism. Tracy puts on the ref shirt to count Bull down, only to jump Ian, then the Bad Motherfuckers beat Ian down while the fans throw things. Corporal Robinson tries to make the save by walking the rafters to the top of the cage, Ian's wife Patti tries to hit Tracy with a stick. Total Fentanyl clinic riot which is one of the best things about IWA.

JR: When I was in college I had to take an acting class as a general requirement. I was not a strong actor but I remember I did one scene with a partner and our thought process was “if we just cause chaos the entire time, it will cover up our distinct lack of talent”. It worked well enough.

I thought about that while watching this. As a wrestling writer, I’m someone who is constantly trying to identify narrative. I legitimately can’t do that here. There is a story and it’s established well, but I think to mention it or try and define it would in some ways take away from the sheer spectacle that unfolds. Every single person in this is insane. Sabu shows up early and spends almost all of his time bumping from the cage to the floor. Tarek turns face, the sniveling henchman finally growing a spine and standing up to the abusive Bull Pain and paying the price. Pain holds court, despicable and massive from the first moment, at once the center of everything and completely separate from it all.

Almost everyone is wonderful here. Smothers gets to work his greatest hits throughout, working as a fiery babyface and then turning mid match and working as a heat magnet for the rest, trying to start a riot every step of the way. Every single person takes a bump that they absolutely regretted moments after it happened. Todd Morton did two cage dives!

Of course, we watched this in tribute to Mitch Ryder. I wouldn’t exactly call this a showcase for Ryder, but his makes the most of his moments. In some ways, it’s a good microcosm of his career as a whole: while others will certainly have more words devoted to them, more camera time thrust upon them, in the moments that Ryder was the focal point, he stood out. The door of the cage was slammed on his back and he stooged and pranced like Rick Rude after an atomic drop. In the chaos on the outside, he flung himself around. Chairs and tables and fans scattered around him. He talked trash into the camera, filling the frame with his insane, sweaty face. In short, he was a wrestler. He did everything he was supposed to do and he did it well.

ER: When somebody seeks out an "IWA Mid-South" match, this is the kind of match they have in mind. This was undistilled IWA, the kind of grimy bloody violence you want to see, and the kind of match that's impossible to pick a favorite performance. Mitch Ryder's team come out to Eruption like they are zit faced teenagers, and jump Ian's team the second they come out from the back. And from there we got a perfectly messy terror of stiff punches, crazy bumps, and high emotion. Todd Morton was a real loon, doing TWO cage dives, and it's actually amazing how quickly and easily the shortest guy in the match can scramble up to the top of a cage. Morton hits a pinpoint accurate elbowdrop off the rafters ABOVE the cage, and later hits a frog splash on Ian off the top of the cage while fully protecting Ian. Sabu runs into the chaos and every time he pops into frame he is taking a way too dangerous bump, like falling out the cage door onto his head or getting kicked off nearly the top of the cage all the way to the floor. Tracy Smothers was a big Tasmanian Devil, and two different times I had to check and make sure the tape wasn't on 2x speed. tracy was throwing impossible to block punches, the kind of punches that look much more like the punches someone would throw in a parking lot fight. He was beating people around ringside, throwing Ryder meanly into a table and big cooler, and on his way out he clearly hit a fan. Ian bled about 5 seconds into this and didn't stop, then took constant offense from 4-5 guys for the duration of the match. Ryder was the real heel personality throughout this, taking stooging bumps, yelling at the camera, getting tossed into the crowd, running interference to kick guys off the cage as they were trying to get in, orchestrating Ian getting his arm slammed in the door, and that's all important. He wasn't doing the flashy stuff in the match, but he was constantly the guy doing the important stuff to bridge the violence, to kill time with charisma until a big spot from Morton or Sabu. Glue guys are underrated and important parts of big bloody cage matches, and they don't come more underrated than Ryder.


Mitch Ryder vs. Ian Rotten IWA-MS 11/22/01

PAS: This was an old fashioned walking tall babyface match with Ian putting up half of IWA-MS against Mitch Ryder's hair. It was a fans lumberjack match and Ian is seconded by Sherri Martel. Ian Bill Watts himself all over Ryder who bumps and bleeds the way you need to in this match. Ian adds disgusting headbutts to the big punches you would normally see in this type of match, and both guys get soaked by the end. Ryder is great at finding little moments to take over control while mostly giving the fans what they want to see by bumping around. The finish felt kind of blown by the ref, which is my only beef. Finish has the BMFs and CM Punk stop the haircutting, beat up Sherri and shave Ian's head. Keeping this feud going, I am not sure about bailing on stips like this, but the BMF's are always great to watch beat people down.

JR: So the stipulation here is that if Ian loses, Ryder gets 50% of IWA-MS. Does that mean they would then book by a two person committee? I’m really interested in how this would’ve worked.

Am I alone in thinking there is something about Mitch Ryder’s face, especially when it is masked by blood, that is similar in some way to James Van Der Beek? I’m not saying Ryder looks like him per say, I’m just saying that a drunken Ryder probably at one point claimed he looked like him. Anyway, it adds to the whole effect of scumbag heartbreaker.

This match is ludicrous. Ian selects fans to be the lumberjacks, four of whom were obviously pre selected and one was a spur of the moment call because Fanin and Prazak thought it would be funny and yelled loud enough for Ian to hear them. They essentially serve no purpose after some initial lip service that Ryder is trying desperately to escape. In some ways, the early portion of this is similar to what Phil and I wrote about with Methlab BattlArts, but with Ian cast in the role of conquering babyface. Ryder is good at helping Ian project that same sense of foreboding and dread, as though a match with Rotten is always moments away from slipping completely out of control.

Ryder does well enough while on top. A match can go far on simple things when the participants know how to work the margins. Ian is great at bleeding. That may sound silly but it always looks both grotesque and sympathetic. Ryder understands where he needs to be at all times, working the cut, using the sleeper enough times where a finish would be credible but the predictable escape is warranted. While the finish here is obviously a mistake, the work before is hearty enough to still be enjoyable.

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head 2007: Rotten vs. Dukes VS. Hero vs. Kingston

Ian Rotten vs. Jason Dukes IWA-MS 10/13/07

PAS: Incredible stuff, the kind of violent unprofessional brawl that Ian Rotten does so well. Ian isn't afraid to both deliver and receive a nasty beating, and Dukes comes forward and meets Ian's aggression with some of his own. We get two crazy bumps by Dukes: a missed tope which landed him into a bunch of chairs, and a crazy Psicosis corner shoulder bump. Ian lands some sick forearms to the jaw, and killer looking jabs, everything he did looked like it hurt so bad. I love some unprofessional crowbarring and Ian always delivers, and Dukes hit back with appropriate force. There was a killer moment where Duke pulls off Ian's boot and does some Eddie Marlin boot punching and some sick looking knee drops right on Ian's exposed ankle, just gross. Finish kind of sucks as we have a ref bump, and a Joey Ryan and Karl Anderson run in. Still, this was super high level violence. IWA-MS ran so much, it is clearly a real vein of untapped gems.

ER: Dukes comes out to Handel's Hallelujah Chorus looking like an Ian Rotten who hasn't yet experienced horrific body scarring, and before Dukes can make it into the ring Ian jumps him, future meets past. Ian has his whole head wrapped in a bandage, busted open on a show earlier in the day, and the announcers do a great job pointing out that Ian has been bleeding for basically 6 hours. Dukes opens up that cut immediately, Ian's face eventually dripping with a deep crimson mask, thick blood rivulets streaking down his neck. Ian swells up Dukes' face with the hardest punches and meanest jabs, taunting Dukes to throw harder by no selling punches directly to the jaw. Dukes is really great at spilling through chairs and grabbing onto fans while staggering through he crowd (made up nearly entirely of clones of the same man). Dukes' two big bumps were placed really well in the match: the first time he even steps foot in the ring he goes for a dive and Ian just slowly walks out of the way, crashing Dukes disgustingly shoulder first into the floor and a chair; later he flies (other) shoulder first into the ringpost on his way to another ugly trip to the floor. It's smart to give Ian a couple of good rally/recovery moments in front of his crowd, bleeding everywhere while going back in hungry after his injured prey. The leg work from both looked really ugly, like they both wanted to do permanent damage, both guys stomping and dropping knees on ankles and the inside of knees, and I'm always going to be into an 80s style brawl with a loose boot. We don't get loose boot spots anymore (which might be for the best as nobody wants to see Gargano emoting while untying laces) but these moments looked like something you'd see in a smoky arena 25 years prior. The run in finish was at least quick and paid off immediately, but it's still not the way you want something this bloody and raw to end.

Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston Review


Verdict:

PAS: Really close, and I think a better finish might have pushed it over the top, but we got the finish we got, so I am going with Kingston vs. Hero.

ER: This was a real classic grimy brawl that had been entirely off my radar until the last week. The big tope bump from Dukes may have been a higher peak than Hero/Kingston, but Hero/Kingston came in with a higher floor and felt like even more of a complete brawl. That's why it's the champ. But Ian/Dukes is a real hidden gorefest, more violent than most death matches while not being a death match.

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IWTV Worth Watching: Tank! Drew Dillinger! Lincoln Moseley! Brad Cash!

Drew Dillinger vs. Lincoln Moseley IWA-MS 1/4/20

ER: This was raw around the edges and could have used a little editing, but I liked a lot of their ideas and I liked the raw but effective execution. Things especially caught my eye when Moseley started working over Dillinger's leg with real mean stomps to the ball of the ankle and the inner meat of the thigh and knee. Dillinger sold it effectively and was good about making callbacks to his knee, stumbling in a realistic way once and spotted multiple times rubbing some goodwill back into it. Moseley's legwork was mean enough and Dillinger's selling committed enough that I got into the story, and I loved the progression of Dillinger getting so pissed having his leg worked over, that at first opportunity he starts grinding Moseley's knee into the mat. I got a lot of satisfaction seeing Dillinger drop elbows onto Moseley's leg, then work a cool Indian deathlock cravate, and it all builds to Dillinger powering up to hit a great fat guy dropkick. I didn't love all of the strike exchanges, but a lot of the strikes in this were inventive and hit hard (I especially dug Dillinger's back elbows), and I liked the direction they took most of this.


Tank vs. Brad Cash Pro Wrestling Georgia 2/1/20

ER: This was the finals of a small scale Georgia death match tournament, and as a self-described "half in the bag" Jeff G. Bailey says "These carpet strips have tons of little nails sticking out of them, so you're gonna have a good time". This was my favorite of all the death matches on the show, as it had built in wear and tear (both guys had already worked twice that night) and had far and away the most actual striking of all the matches. I like death matches that are based around the striking rather than the weapons, with strikes used to soften up guys to make them susceptible to the weapons. And this was filled with big chops, headbutts, and shots to the dome from both. The carpet strips come into play in fun ways, like Tank getting the front of his body pressed into them or Tank grabbing one to jam into Cash's head, pressing in with his thumbs. Tank cannonballs Cash through a board left there from a prior match, and hits a running crossbody to a seated Cash, completely crushing the chair Cash was seated in. Tank mentions in his post-match promo how he's already Terry Funk'd his retirement, and now he hopes Cash's fiancé isn't mad at him for messing up Cash's face two weeks before his wedding. Brad Cash worked a death match tournament two weeks before his wedding day. You can't end a wrestling show with a more amusing note than that.

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Ian Rotten Dropped His Last Dime Down a Wishing Well

Ian Rotten vs. Samoa Joe IWA-MS 4/8/05 -EPIC

JR:Have you ever seen Death Wish IV? The opening sequence, if I’m thinking of the right movie, is of a criminal doing heinous and criminal things, and then all of a sudden Charles Bronson shows up and fucking annihilates him. The criminal runs and hides and shoots desperately at him but Bronson just keeps coming, walking between the shadows in a dimly lit parking lot.

I think about this scene often, well, perhaps not often, but probably more often than anyone else. In it, Bronson, the ostensible hero, is filmed almost exactly like an 80s movie monster, this unstoppable and silent killing machine that we have been trained to fear. He is a grey haired Jason Vorhees. But we are rooting for him, because the actions of his victims are so awful.

There is something about Ian that reminds me of this. Not that his opponents are awful people or doing particularly dastardly things, but because he is positioned throughout these matches as a conquering hero, a dominant force, and yet the way he wrestles and works positions him as something other, something monstrous. He comes across as manically violent and almost inhuman in his disregard for safety, and yet there is something charming about him, with his tuft of blond hair and almost cherubic face, albeit one that is scarred heavily.

This match is somewhat uncharted territory thus far in this project, as this is the first time we are seeing a match in which the narrative is that Ian is essentially outmatched. The Hero match was in 2002 and before many of the matches that would make him well known nationally. The Tarek match was against Tarek. Here, we have Ian vs Samoa Joe in 2005, against a man at the height of his powers. It’s subtle, but the differences are noteworthy. Very early in the match, Ian opts for a slick counter into an arm drag, followed closely with a headstand escape. Perhaps I am projecting a bit too much upon the work itself, but I find these early earnest attempts almost heartwarming; for the first time, we see some effort from Ian to leave a positive impression upon his opponent. It’s as if he wants Joe to see him do things that most would think him incapable of. It’s an interesting choice narratively, as so much of Joe’s mystique is based in a practiced unflappability, but there is enough negative space after the sequence to make sure the crowd also notices the importance of it.

The early narrative is one of increasing desperation from Rotten, although he does it in such a way to come across as canny rather than outgunned. His earlier attempts at impressing Joe with his agility and creativity slowly and assuredly give way to things on the borderline of legality; dropkicks to a knee, a clear choke, a fishhook to break a hold. Each brings Ian a slight material advantage and a more than slight moral victory, as Joe is reduced to grabbing ropes for breaks, motioning for the referee to break the hold, and taking his time to shake out a limb or catch his breath. In some ways, Ian’s plan has worked: he knew what he was in for, while Joe did not.

We have talked at length about Ian’s matwork throughout this series, but I don’t think we have devoted as much space to his strikes, which are sublime. I’m going to work under the assumption that they look good because he is actually just hitting his opponent very hard, but holy lord everything lands perfectly. There is a matter of factness to them all, this immensely understated violence, as though by not commenting on the stiffness of the forearm, by not giving it room to breathe, it somehow becomes more pronounced.

The match ends with this extended exchange of strikes, as it pours over to the outside and both men are counted out. As the bell rings and they announce a double count out, Joe I still putting his hands up. Ian takes off his shirt, hands at his sides. There is probably ten feet between them and it may be the most violent image I’ve ever seen.

PAS: This was more Methlab Futen, then Methlab BattlArts, but man alive did they deliver what you want out of this match up. The match didn't have a ton of matwork, but the matwork it did have a bunch of small moments of innovation which are traditional in these Ian matches. Joe tries to roll over with an Indian Deathlock, and Ian blocks it twice, by pushing at Joe's knee. When Joe finally rolls it over, Ian grabs a neck crank so Joe can't really rip at the knee. It is those kind of little reactions which is missing from all but the best mat wrestling.

Most of this match was on the feet and they were really pasting each other. The headbutt battle was both really stupid and really awesome. Joe cracks Ian with a headbutt, and Ian fires back, does a bit of a glassy "I shouldn't have headbutted a Samoan" sell, and says fuck it and just starts ramming him until they both fall down.

I am two ways on the count out, it is sort of silly to have a double count out in a fed like IWA-MS which basically has no rules, and it was clearly not what the crowd wanted to see. Still if you are going to do a double count out, this kind of Godzilla vs. King Kong rumble is the way a count out should be done. I loved Joe cutting off the traditional Ian post match "Introducing a Shriner's luncheon speaker" speech and threateningly demanding a rematch. It was a real minor tragedy we never got that rematch, it was set up great and would have been epic, it is up there with some of the all time great teased but never delivered matches.

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Ian Rotten Perverted Me

Ian Rotten vs. Tarek the Great IWA-MS 10/4/02 - GREAT

JR: Maybe about ten years ago someone wrote an article on boxing for Triple Canopy that I believe is now lost to time. It tried to use Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse as a metaphor for something I can’t really remember, but one of the more cogent points that was made throughout was that while individual fighters are generally compelling because of their greatness, fights themselves are often more compelling between two fighters who have distinct and obvious weaknesses. At some level in boxing, everyone is good enough to exploit an opening, repeatedly and with profound cruelty, but only a very select few are able to do so without having a similarly glaring weakness themselves. So while watching two tremendous fighters play a game of mental chess, cautiously circling, pressing incremental advantages, and having wondrous and lightning quick footwork is perhaps beautiful, the fights that drive the popularity of boxing as a whole, and the fights that we think of when we picture a quote-unquote prize fight, are the ones that are more about flaws, and the inability to mask those flaws.

I thought of that article and its potential application to pro wrestling while watching this match between Ian Rotten and Tarek the Great. Often, extended mat sequences, and even the amorphous and general idea of “strong style” can come across as overly cooperative when in the hands of talented performers. They work with a speed and fluidity that can only be accomplished in a universe that is fictionalized, and their work serves to highlight the idea that the universe is fictionalized, that what they are doing is agreed upon on some level. A back and forth strike competition, even if the performers are “actually hitting each other”, one where no one gives an inch, one where the speed increases in such a way as to bring applause to a fever pitch, is a design. It is a choice. And after the moment is gone, the viewer is left with the knowledge that it is a choice that was made to play upon their emotions, to play upon the general want to participate and to acknowledge performance.

So really, there is something refreshing about this, about watching two performers who have that same general agreement, that they will pound upon one another for the theoretical enjoyment and engagement of the crowd, but have to do so in fits and starts, without the polish and veneer that others have. Their attempts to lock in holds are slow and clumsy. Strikes are wild and deadly looking affairs, looping and wide swats that look all the more dangerous due to their unexpected nature.

I speak a lot about what I call “dynamics” when I discuss wrestling critically; for me, matches are compelling when there are moments of work that shift gears, that change speeds, that make a narrative experience beyond escalation. Ian is tremendously naturally gifted as a dynamic performer, and the matwork here is a solid example. Throughout the match thus far, the work has been cautious and guarded, the work of two men who are consciously trying to defend themselves, aware of their own shortcomings in some way. And then! Out of nowhere, Ian reserves something with speed and grace and power, and it creates such a meaningful narrative transition out of what could have easily been a moment done for polite applause, a moment for the crowd to follow the bouncing ball. Instead, he changes speed and forces the audience to pay attention, as the work has gone against the natural rhythm of what we expect from these matches.

Tarek, for his part, is a capable and understanding performer, and is able to work in a way that shows off the size difference between the two. On things like pinning combinations out of counters he shows clear struggle at having to leverage someone who probably has 40 pounds on him. Whereas the Hero match we did last week looked uncooperative in its desperation and cruelty, this match finds ways to create the same energy while establishing a clear hierarchy. We aren’t supposed to buy Tarek on the level of Hero, and we don’t. He looks game but overmatched, with enough skill and shine to push Ian, albeit not to the same point of no return that Hero brought out. While Tarek may be lacking as a credible opponent, he does have skills that serve to bolster Rotten’s work; namely his inherent stillness. Rather than always flailing and grasping for ropes and escapes, Tarek is comfortable not moving while Ian has things locked in. It again reinforces the size difference, and creates a stark contrast to when they do finally get off the mat towards the end, and Tarek’s brief flurry looks like it truly shocks and surprises Ian. It’s not enough, but it creates contrast, both to the earlier segments in the match and to Ian as a performer.

There are moments toward the end that are a bit cute, a bit more cooperative than anything we see in the early stretches here or in better matches like the Hero one. But those aren’t enough to undermine what is otherwise compelling work. I am pleasantly surprised by the tonal differences that Ian is capable of within the same style, and his natural affinity for transition. As Phil pointed out last time, he is capable of enveloping the whole of his match in this extremely sinister aura, but here he proves he doesn’t have to rely on it to create good work. He has tools beyond what someone would expect.

PAS: I thought this was excellent, compelling, violent wrestling. It was clearly worked in the same style as Hero vs. Ian, but while that was something truly separate from pro-wrestling, this felt more like an interesting stylistic outlier, but within recognizable boundaries. Part of it may have been that Hero vs. Ian was without commentary, all you could hear was the cursing and shrieking in pain, while this had Jim Fannin and Dave Prazak just dribbling out inane nonsense. This also had a bit more of a wrestling ending, Ian sugar holding Tarek asleep was pretty cool, but it wasn't as visceral as Ian quickly tapping as his knee tendons shredded like coleslaw. 

It is hard not compare the two matches, but this had a lot in it to love. I thought the bear hug from the bottom by Ian was especially nasty, you could really see him digging his knuckles into Tarek's spine. There was some really slick counter wrestling here, Tarek is able to reverse a leglock from the bottom. Not to be outdone Ian reverses a Tarek leg lock, by grabbing and pulling Tarek's head to Ian's chest and rolling into a small package, totally cool almost Solaresque counter work. We had our bits of violence too, Ian and Tarek exchanging CTEbutts and Ian landing a sick open cuff to the ear.  The first match we reviewed felt like a pinnacle of a style, this feels like more of a great representative example, you may learn more from a representative then from a peak.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE METH LAB BATTLARTS

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Ian Rotten Came Knocking At The Door, I Let Him In for A While

Ian Rotten vs. Chris Hero IWA-MS 5/4/02 -EPIC

JR: Late last year, Phil Schneider approached me about working together to write up all the Ian Rotten matwork matches, known colloquially as “methlab battlearts”. I jumped at the opportunity, for Phil remains an inspiration of mine. My wrestling writing, and truthfully, the entire way I watch wrestling, would be very different without him. It was a task that got pushed back, as we both have our own things, and life sometimes gets in the way. But tonight it starts! This is the first write up in what will surely be a long project, spanning many, many matches. I have no idea when it will end. Off the top of my head, I can think of about 6 or 7 matches I would safely categorize as MLBA, I’m sure there are more, but that will require us both sifting through a few years worth of Ian Rotten matches. I don’t really look forward to this. That’s a lie. I do look forward to it, just not to the time it will take.

But that is a problem for future JR. And future Phil S. Tonight, our problem is watching Ian Rotten fight Chris Hero in 2002 in Dayton, OH.

There are 37 people at this match. I know this because I watched a match from a few months later that had 24 people in the audience and they commented on the crowd size of the two shows. The matches starts with a clean break and some solid tie up work. Hero is game, and this is before he became obsessed with World of Sport, or at the very least before he let that obsession work its way into his matches. But at the very least, Hero is someone who has a pretty innate understanding of leverage and is someone who doesn’t shy away from contact, which makes him a great opponent here.

I have no idea if Rotten has ever watched WoS, but more so than any BattleArts wrestler, his performance in the early portion of this match reminds me of Jim Breaks. Not in the world necessarily, but in how vocal he is. Ian has an understanding of his audience, what their expectations are and how well they can follow a narrative. By having a match that is so out of the ordinary for both participants, he knows and understands that he has to guide them a bit more, and he does this but yelling and whining and cursing and hollering any time there is a level change or a moment of resolution in the work. It creates clear rhythm that the audience can follow and enjoy, like how the audience knows and understands when a jazz solo ends.

The other major strength of Ian’s work in this match is the sheer weight of everything he does. Not in a metaphorical sense, I mean that every hold that he has Hero in he makes look as though he is truly pressing upon him. There is a wariness to participating in constant contact with someone, and Ian understands that. He may move slower than some others, or have to visibly think through the steps to do something in a way that other, more technically adept wrestlers do not, but he makes an effort to always be touching and pressing and falling and laying on Hero. He forces the issue in ways that other performers do not. Often, technical wrestling can almost come across as no different than a high flying match in structure; fast paced reversals followed by a break as the two competitors circle around and pace, waiting for their polite applause. Here, Ian and Hero are always forcing the other to confront them and their actual, physical forms.

All of that is a somewhat overly confusing way of saying that this match just features Rotten and Hero hitting each other very hard. They exchange headbutts that knock the every present bandage from Rotten’s forehead. Ian hits an uppercut and later a crossface that both land with a thud that is harrowing, like watching someone on a bike collide with a mailbox. Hero’s strikes are equally hard, but are almost all in retaliation. There is a natural quality to them, kicking and screaming and flailing while on his back, desperate to avoid Ian grabbing his knee and ankle and just mangling them over and over.

It’s interesting to see how Ian’s understanding of the layout and rhythm of deathmatches infers how he works here, specifically in regards to the use of props, for lack of a better term. While there are no weapons or elaborate death match machine set ups or anything of the like, Ian manages to get huge amounts of mileage out of small and simple things that act almost as act breaks. The end of the first portion of the match is symbolized by Ian's forehead bandage coming off, whereas the finishing stretch is marked by Hero having to tape his knee while a tired and desperate Ian lunges for it over and over, eventually leaving himself open for a counter attack. One could watch this and see these transitions and moments being instead barbed wire bats or panes of glass, and the match makes roughly the same amount of sense. While I tend to think this word is meaningless, there is a universality to the structure here that allows Ian to consistently remain in control and never find himself out of book in any meaningful way.

This match is wonderful. One of my favorite matches ever is the Satanico/Sangre Chicana match from 89, and the work in the second half of this almost is a matwork equivalent, where everything looks desperate and wild and subsequently more real. Watching this match is watching two people struggle in the mud, concussed and angry, hoping that by some stroke of luck the next thing they try will land true.

PAS: This project is going to be a challenge for me, because JR is such a talented, thorough writer, I am going to get his reviews, and struggle try to find something interesting to say which isn’t just going over points that he made better.

JR talked a lot about the vocalization in this match, and it is really powerful and makes the whole thing almost uncomfortable to watch. There are 37 people in the audience, so you aren’t going to hear traditional crowd reactions, instead you hear people just expressing shock, “Fucking Christ”, “Shit”. It really adds to force of headbutt or forearm when some guy in the audience seems disgusted by the whole thing. This is a death match promotion, Ian Rotten is normally going through panes of glass, but the crowd seems way more appalled by a hammer fist to a knee then anything with barbed wire or lightubes (and it is a great fucking Hammer fist, these guys were throwing heaters).

Both wrestlers were really vocal too, cursing at each other, shrieking in pain, mumbling under their breath. There is a lot of over the top vocal selling in wrestling these days, but in a performative way, nothing felt performative here. At one-point Hero’s shriek gets really high pitched, it is the kind of shriek I made when I dislocated my kneecap playing Rugby, or you will hear on the pickup court when someone shreds an Achilles, it didn’t feel like selling, it felt like two guys taking it much too far. I loved how fast Ian tapped out too, it felt like both guys tendons were slowly ripping througout the entire match, if you tore a tendon in your knee, you wouldn’t gut it out and make tough guy faces, you would scream, tap and go to the hospital. The lack of traditional wrestling selling in this match really made it special, it unnerved me, it isn’t the way a wrestling match is supposed to work, it isn’t how wrestlers are supposed to react to holds and it makes the whole thing seem wrong. It has been a while since I watched any of this stuff, and even with grappling being a much more prevalent thing in independent wrestling these days (They weren’t running Bloodsport and Ambition shows in 2002), this felt wholly alien, a completely separate bit of horror.

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Eddie Kingtson In Some Sick Hills, Bagging Up Fishscales

Eddie Kingston vs. Ian Rotten IWA-MS 7/8/05 - EPIC

PAS: This was just a grimy sick fight, an I Quit cage match without any 21st century fanciness, just two guys in close quarters trying to maul each other. The whole thing was filmed with one super close camera angle, and it could pick up the sick smack of every crossface and headbutt. It is pretty hard to do any close magic with the camera right in your face like that, nothing seemed pulled, everything was raising bruises and welts. Kingston and Rotten were cursing at each other and threatening to beat each other to death. Rotten comes in with a cast on his arm, which he uses as a weapon, but Kingston also rips it off so he can beat on the injured arm. Rotten also tries to mangle Eddie's arm with a chair and some armbars. There are some thumbtacks which get pushed into temples and foreheads, and the finish is Ian trying to take Kingston's eye out with a fork. This doesn't have the Jackass style entertainment of some death match stunt shows, this is hard to watch violent stuff, really not a match for everyone, but an achievement nonetheless.

ER: This was a real sick, grisly fight, something that horrified parents would have had to shield their kid's eyes from minutes in as they left in horror. But at no point does it feel like a geek show, this isn't guys rolling around in light tube glass needing attention, this was a fight that started with chairs and strikes, and devolved into strikes and gouging and threats. There isn't a whole lot of "wrestling" (Ian has a couple armbar attempts and a neat kneebar reversal, and he even does a koppo kick to Kingston's arm that had to come as a surprise), there's a lot of knuckles into face and gross headbutts. Ian gets bloody real quick, to no big shock. Ian is one of wrestling's great bleeders, able to get that deep crimson red covering his whole face, that color of red that would cause any normal man to panic and realize their situation is BAD. And Kingston is certifiable because no sane man would let Ian clonk his deep red bloody head into his own head many times. Kingston may be certifiable, but he's also a savage, going after Ian's hand and bending at his fingers, prying at his cast, and Ian does some amazing selling with his pained howls. Ian breaks out that high pitch howl a couple times, and it really is the sound of a man being tortured, totally chilling to see a dude covered in blood screaming like that. These two are just nasty to each other, and Kingston's selling is top level as usual. When he was holding his arm and telling the ref under his breath "It's broken, fuck, it's broken," and begging Ian to just not hit him with a chair for a moment, it's all too real and not much of a stretch to think he could be hurt. This whole thing was grim and violent. Most of my peers and loved ones probably already think I'm a weirdo for watching pro wrestling, but if they found out that this was what I was watching they'd probably think I was keeping somebody in my basement.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Kingston With the Gravy Mercedes Add the Cranberry Sauce

Eddie Kingston vs. 2 Cold Scorpio IWA-MS 3/1/08 - EPIC

PAS: Eddie Kingston recently announced that this would be the last year of his career, and while I hope that isn't true, I am going to really bang the Eddie Kingston C+A this year and celebrate that awesome career. IWA-MS is a fed that is best known for excess, crazy spotfests, bloody death matches, but around 2008 2 Cold came in and ran a bunch of these awesome minimalist matches built around hard shots, selling and grinding matwork. He had an awesome one with Low-Ki and this banger with Kingston. If you are going to something based on selling and hard shots, Eddie Kingston is one of the hardest hitters around, and one of the all time great sellers. I loved Kingston holding hard onto the headlock early, including absorbing two suplexes to keep it locked in. Both guys laid in with a bunch of different kinds of great looking strikes, Scorp landed a spin kick to the chin, Kingston hit palm strikes to Scorpio's kidneys, and crossfaces. In lesser matches, every shot would be an elbow smash, here they found different ways to make it hurt. All of Scorpio's flying in this match was to hurt not to dazzle, the moonsault was gorgeous, but he landed like a bad of cement tossed out of a pickup truck. Finish was class, with Scorpio hesitating a bit before heading back to the top and getting caught and dropped right on his head with a backdrop driver for the pin. Great stuff, and a credit to the absolute world class greatness of both guys.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON 

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 20: Ki vs. Scorpio

Low-Ki vs. 2 Cold Scorpio IWA-MS 8/11/06 - GREAT

PAS: Ki comes in with the X division title and Scorp comes in with the GHC Hardcore belt, so you know you aren't getting a clean finish. My only complaint about this match is that was worked like a draw, it never felt like it went for a finish run until the five minute overtime period. Despite that there was a lot to love here. There was some really gritty grappling in this match, lots of hard takedowns, body vices, legscissors, both guys seemed to be using the matwork to sap their opponents wind, not really going for submissions, just grinding to punish. As one might expect this was really stiff too, Ki through some big chops and kicks, but Scorpio was up to the task, with big thick elbow smashes and a front kick which bloodied up Ki's mouth. At one point Ki dimmed Scorpio's running lights with a kappo kick right to the bridge of the nose. The first time limit call felt sort of out of nowhere, although they did build to a big finish in the 5 more minutes. Including Scorpio hitting a gorgeous moonsault and Ki crushing him with a double stomp (complete with Scorpio's bug eyed Pigmeat Markham sell.) It felt like they left a lot on the table for a rematch which never happened, but this was undoubtably a heck of a contest.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 17: Ki vs. Necro KO or Submission

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 12/16/06 - EPIC

PAS: This was flat out incredible. Probably Necro's career match, and he is a guy with a great fucking career. This was the perfect mix of Ki's sadism and Necro's masochism. This was a KO or submission match and both guys were at their apexes. Necro takes an all time shellacking, and has some incredible moments of selling which really gets over the brutality of Ki. He gets kicked in the temple and falls on his back and starts pawing in the air like a kitten with a ball of string. He ends up getting double stomped with his chest on the back lip of the chair, and sells like he is going to puke blood, and he gets a 1970s Wahoo level chop right to the dick and sells like he got chopped right in the dick. Necro has great looking offense in this match too, he throws these Juan Manuel Marquez style hooks to the body with full force, and you can really see him move Ki's organs around with them. He also has some great headbutt's nice powerbombs and various awkward hurls of chairs. Real testament to the greatness of both guys, and it is pretty amazing that Ki can have mat classics like the Danielson matches, bonkers spotfests like the Red matches, and horrifically violent spectacles like this, what a versatile maestro he is.

ER: My god the violence! This match gets a *lot* of time, and the fact these guys kept up the level of beating for the entirety of the match was just an absurd level of violence. You can count over a hundred strikes in this match, but you can't count a single thigh slap. Ki throws so many kicks at Necro's legs, chest, and head, and all of them land great. There were a few moments where Necro would lumber toward Ki and Ki would fire off a 3 pronged attack one step ahead of Necro's reactions;  take out his leg, kick his chest, kick his face, and not many people get kicked in the body and face better than The Necro Butcher. The whole match Necro is taking these shots and responding with relatable moans and OOFs. Ki kicks him right in the stomach and Necro just goes "Ooooooooooooooo" like he was a cartoon fox getting hit in the stomach with a cannonball. Necro filled the match with a ton of great doddering sells, struck stupid faces, and Terry Funk like punch drunkenness. Necro's whole body was a shade of pink or red by the end of this. But while we've gotten kind of used to seeing Ki eat guys for lunch, he doesn't come anywhere close to escaping this unbruised. This is probably the biggest beating I've seen Ki take, and Necro's shots landed with an impossible thud the whole match. Both guys had these King Kong chops, Necro was throwing big knee lifts, shifting Ki's ribs with nasty blows, and always ready with a punch to the jaw when he needed it (loved him using all his strength to lift himself up out of the tree of woe and punch Ki before the Warrior's Way). The big moves looked dangerous and suitably crazy: Necro drops Ki on some chairs with a backbreaker, body slams him while holding a chair to his back, whips him violently into the mat with a Tiger Driver (the snap on that thing made it one of the greatest tiger drivers I've seen), and even went so far as to do an insanely not recommended tiger driver off the top. Someone could have died on that one. We had headbutts and kicks behind the ear and Necro's big awesome barefoot boots to the face; we had Ki throwing Kawada kicks to Necro's trapped head; we had Low Ki double stomping Necro's stomach from the apron to the floor. And the spot of the match sees Low Ki throw a freaking knife edge chop right to Necro's balls. Necro sold it so great that I assume he fully got hit in the balls, and I am shocked that he didn't puke. We've seen Necro puke in matches before, this would have been just as appropriate a place. I was disappointed by the finish, with Ki locking on a sort of sloppy triangle. I can see a submission being the only way to actually finish a guy who can seemingly take blows to the head as well as Homer Simpson, but we had spent 20+ minutes on two guys trying to knock each other out that it felt we had all collectively moved on from submission being a part of it. But it's a light blip on a genuine all time war. After the match Ki gets on the mic and groans "...god that hurt." No kidding, it was like we were watching Daisuke Ikeda vs. Daisuke Ikeda in a Chicago suburb.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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For the Record it's Super Dragon For the Street it's Villian

Super Dragon vs. Eddie Kingston IWA-MS 10/22/04 - EPIC

This was from the IWA Strong Style tourney, and is exactly what you want from this match up, 8 minutes of these guys hurling unprofessional potatoes. Kingston hits his Tenryu jab/chop combo even harder then normal, throws gruesome slaps to the face and does some awesome dazed selling. Dragon has probably the most violent violence party I have seen, he looks like he is trying to remove Kingston's contact lenses with his feet. Finish is totally gross, post violence party Dragon goes to the top and double stomps Kingston right on the back of his neck and head, I am shocked that Kingston's head didn't smush like a pumpkin. Not nearly the length of most high end Dragon matches, but there is nothing wrong with going full bore for a short bit of horror.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES IWA MID-SOUTH!! A Shot of Southern Comfort 5/29/04, Part 1

ER: IWA Mid-South is probably my favorite indy ever, and I have spindles filled with dvds of it. It seems crazy to not occasionally indulge in this product, which once ran so improbably frequently that there are tons of gaps in my viewing. Let's watch some of the best of the carniest. AND, I think - as always - the best way to watch, is by closing my eyes and pulling a dvd randomly out of the stack. That brings us to this show, which had some deliciously classic early-mid 2000s indy bloat: 13 matches over the course of the night, utilizing  32 DIFFERENT WRESTLERS!! 32!!! WWE barely uses more than 32 guys during the Royal Rumble PPV, but here's IWA bringing 32 different guys to some random Saturday night card in a smallish Indiana town. It's the best.

1. Danny Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards

ER: Oh jeez, Edwards has giant silver pants and his hair done in short braids, looking like the worst ever version of Roger from Sister, Sister. Go home, Eddie. But really this wasn't a bad opener. It was kept to 5 minutes and Edwards wasn't having 2.9 kickout wars at this point in his career. He hit a nice spinkick and took a nasty cross arm German suplex, Daniels stuck him with a nice piledriver that did not get kicked out of, surprising me. We did get a standing elbow exchange, how far we've come in 13 years.

2. Rain vs. Sumie Sakai

ER: This built to a pretty nice finish. Rain wasn't really that good here, but Sakai was a pro and kept the floor somewhat higher than it would have been. Rain was really poor at obviously getting into position for the next move, really making everything looked rehearsed, running into position early and just standing there motionless waiting to be attacked. Sakai takes a big sprawling bump through all the chairs, packs a huge wallop with two missile dropkicks, drops Rain with a nice hotshot,  hits one of those fast low-arcing moonsaults, throws fast suplexes, all nice stuff. It's awesome that she's still working the states.

3. Southern Comfort (Chris Hamrick/Tracy Smothers) vs. The Wild Cards (Eddie Kingston/Jack Marciano)

ER: Kingston and Marciano look like they're in a weird religious cult, their heads are shaved bald and they're wearing matching big baggy white pants, white boots and white sleeveless shirts. They look like the Yonkers chapter of the Guilty Remnant. The match was a pretty quick sprint, just 7 minutes, and really a showcase for Southern Comfort. Kingston wasn't really an established guy and was really young at this point,  and Marciano never really got established before getting retired. So we get a showcase for SC's offense, and that's a fun thing. Smothers is a great bully, and he breaks out all his leaping kicks, big chops and overhand rights, gets fired up and does a couple spears, makes great faces when Kingston spits in his face, stuff you'd expect from Smothers. Hamrick is a huge favorite of mine, I love his style, love his dangerous bumps and offense, love that he looks like the most violent Johnny Winter ever. Hamrick gets crazy height on offense and on bumps. At one point he does a missile dropkick that seems like he dropped in from the ceiling, and the end of the match is him hitting a Carolina jam onto Marciano...OFF of Kingston's shoulders (who was seated on the top rope). It was a gorgeous legdrop, dropping insanely in from 10 feet. In between all that he hits a couple big kicks, and takes a flying bump through the ropes to the floor FAR more dangerously/painfully than most people would have taken it. I would have liked current Kingston in there against 2004 Southern Comfort, but this was fun.

4. Nigel McGuiness/Chad Collyer vs. The Second City Saints (CM Punk/Colt Cabana)

ER: A good enough match, though nothing much of note happened. We get a lot of comedy matwork from Nigel and Colt, but it's not bad. I am not completely stone, so I can laugh at Colt rolling through back and forth to try to shake a wristlock. Nigel's Johnny Saint spots come off pretty clunky, but the stuff with them working a wristlock was engaging. Collyer had some fun stuff, had a nice combo with a knee drop followed by a quick elbow drop followed by a quick somersault senton. Late in the match he hits a cool dragon screw on Cabana. Best part of the match was Nigel rushing across the ring and just leveling Punk with an elbow to break up interference, and Punk went flying through the ropes to the floor (taking an even better floor bump than Hamrick the match before!). Punk whiffs on a shining wizard to end the match.

5. Havana Pitbulls (TJ Perkins/Ricky Reyes) vs. Brad Bradley/Ryan Boz

ER: This was pretty easily the best match of the card so far, to my surprise. Both Pitbulls looked good here, especially TJ (and has anyone dropped their 2017 stock more than Perkins? Still, 2004 Perkins is a welcome Rocky Romero replacement). I really liked the Boz/Perkins segments as Boz was kind of blocking Perkins' mat stuff which made all of it look more painful. Perkins grabbed him in a cravate and tried a snapmare, but Boz went straight down on his face. Perkins kept it locked on, eventually got the snapmare, all of it looked nasty. I also thought Perkins was throwing nice strikes against Bradley, but soon we move into Boz and Bradley cutting off the ring to work over TJ. It's all really satisfying, Boz comes off as a god sleaze and Bradley was kind of a green lummox at this point, a good combo. Reyes gets a quick pin as TJ planchas to the floor, and this certainly exceeded any expectations.

6. M-Dogg 20/Josh Prohibition vs. Homicide/B-Boy

ER: Hey, this was mostly really good, because Homicide and B-Boy were really great in 2004. And most of the match is an awesome mugging of M-Dogg who played an admirable FIP. We start with some flash from Prohibition and M-Dogg, including a pretty crazy springboard somersault senton from 20 that he almost lawndarts himself on (yet the late rotation seemed planned). The spot portion was fine but once we settled into the FIP portion it got real good. Homicide and B-Boy were lean and mean in 2004, no signs of those bellies that would pop up later, and they laced into 20. At one point the two of them were taking turns just running and striking him, Homicide would run in with an elbow, get out of the way, B-Boy would run in with a knee, get out of the way, Homicide runs in with a yakuza kick, etc. He gets facewashed, he gets beaten down, it's awesome. When Prohibition tags in we get a crazy train crash run with everyone hitting increasingly bigger spots (the move escalation was handled really nicely). We also learn that Prohibition was flat out terrible at getting into position for moves. He would stand there swaying and jerking around like Johnny Cage waiting to get his spine ripped out by Sub-Zero. He would rush into place early...and then stand there and sway while waiting for the move. We get a couple nasty headdrops at the very end, finishing on Prohibition getting planted vertically with the Cop Killa. Absolutely gross landing. I think he got legit knocked out, as even B-Boy was in the ring checking on him after, and his selling was...well, it was too good to be actual selling by Josh Prohibition. Homicide briefly checks on him, laughs and says "You're fine" and makes gang signs to the back.

7. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Petey Williams vs. Delirious vs. Nate Webb vs. Jimmy Jacobs

ER: This is an elimination match, and if you look at that list of 7 names and picked the guy you would want to see least...you know that was the guy who advanced the whole way through. Yep, we get alllll of the Petey Williams and he clearly looked like the worst guy in the match. I had completely blocked out just how much IWA Mid-South used Petey Williams in 2004, and how strongly pushed he was. It's like they used him before he was in TNA, so once he was on TNA they just pushed him as the top guy in the company. It looks completely absurd now, even moreso than it probably looked then. Because it sure doesn't look great now. And the thing is, everybody else in this match looked decent-to-great, with Petey looking outright bad. So let's not even waste time on Petey's stomach kicks that don't even attempt to look like a man kicking a stomach, or him needing to be lifted up two different times by the guy who was supposed to be taking a move from him, or his really bad athletic bumping that just makes it look like bumps don't hurt at all. No, no need to waste time on THAT. Let's focus on the good, because there was plenty of good here, namely Roderick Strong. This was a big time spotfest that Petey Williams occasionally slowed down, but there was way too much good for him to ruin all of it. Delirious takes the nastiest facebuster ever to get eliminated, we get a wild divetrain that peaks with Strong press slamming Jacobs from the ring and throwing him into everybody like Bigelow throwing Spike. Strong looks is all babyface and babyfat, but he's the most vicious guy in the match and looks great. Jacobs was super tiny and wasn't quite the crazy brawler he'd become, still doing some of the Brody shtick, and doing more indy goofus "I DDT this guy while bulldogging that guy!" stuff. But he bumps big and leans into stuff, and we all know how good he got not long after this. Aries flew into everything and came across like a big deal, and goth goofball Nate Webb works like Aerostar, if Aerostar had just taken a couple of mystery pills he found in his old vinyl pants. That's a good thing. This whole thing was mostly fun, would have made a great 6 way.


8. Petey Williams vs. BJ Whitmer


ER: There must be someone special out there, lookin' out for me. The winner of that 7 way got an immediate title shot against BJ Whitmer, and my dvd stuttered and labored and sputtered and skipped and sadly, right before Petey won the prior match, it just couldn't take any more, and jumped back to the menu screen. I tried - actually tried! - to get back to where I left off, but the dvd wouldn't even make it past the intros to the 7 way. It just wouldn't let me. I actually went back to see a Petey Williams match, and my dvd was all "Look man, just gimme your keys, alright? Look, I know, you're fine, just gimme your keys. Buddy, I know. No, I know. *wrests keys away, dvd forcibly rejects itself* I was going to watch Petey Williams win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight title, but fate intervened. A regret understood by no one.

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2007 Match of the Year

Eddie Kingston v. Chris Hero IWA-MS 9/29/07

PAS: This is one of my all time favorite wrestling feuds, they ran it in multiple federations, with big violent gimmick matches, CZW, ROH, IWA-MS. This wasn't building on any big feud in IWA-MS, they were just booked on the same card, so they decided to try to kill each other. This might be the apex of indy wrestling weapons brawls. It had all of the huge violent spots you want to watch in slow motion along with an almost Funk v. Lawler or Magnum v. Tully level of close fight brawling. Both guys kept ripping at each others eyes, not an a wrestling eye rake way, but in a blind a guy in a barfight way. Both guys recklessly chuck weapons at each other, not really concerned with how they land, Hero just hurls a chair from the floor into the ring and it hits Eddie right in the back of the head. At some point Kingston gets his nose broken awkwardly and is leaking blood, not a clean break either, but the kind of break which will disturb his sleep for life. There is just a total disregard for the guy they are in the ring with, the constant cursing and shit talking makes this seem like a fight to the death, Kingston is yelling "You better kill me motherfucker", while Hero is calling Kingston a punk bitch and piece of shit. I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, Kingston is one of the great brawling sellers in wrestling history, you really feel like he is guy in an alley trying to escape with his life, and he can get up after huge spots because of how good he is at conveying their effect on him. After fighting through some really hellacious blows, Kingston is able to hit a backfist and wastes Hero with three backdrop drivers, including on the guard rail, for a match with some huge and violent spots, this felt like a finish. Great stuff, career match for Kingston and possibly Hero's best as well.

ER: These two are crazy. Crazy in that "the payoff certainly couldn't have been worth THIS" kind of way. The punishment they each go through seems like they'll be dealing with nagging injuries for life.  It's a rainy day and Kingston's hand is locking up, "Oh yeah, Hero pounded the shit out of this hand a decade ago." Hero looks over his shoulder while merging lanes, a lightning bolt shoots down his neck, "Oh yeah, Kingston dropped me on a guardrail a decade ago." There's no introductions, they literally brawl out from the back and don't let up for 20+ minutes. The shots ramp up as the match goes on, but they're never nice. Phil is right about the recklessness of some weapon shots, things like Kingston getting a table violently shoved into his balls or getting his fingers jammed by a flying guardrail. You'd think the most violent stuff would happen outside the ring, on concrete, but the in-ring is just brutal. The strikes are sick, some of Kingston's best backfists, and one of the most brutal moments I can recall, with Hero holding Kingston in a cravate while rapidly kneeing him; Hero threw 10-15 super fast knees while wrenching Kingston's neck, just looked disgusting. Kingston's selling was supreme throughout. I really can't think of many in wrestling history who are better at pulling themselves to their feet after a beating, and that kind of thing is paramount in a Last Man Standing match. We get some great spots, I was really amused and impressed by Hero locking a cloverleaf on while also grabbing a chair and sitting on the chair, on Kingston, without Kingston ever looking like he was just waiting around for Hero to complete the spot. The cravate suplex off the top while Kingston was wearing a chair necktie is a gif I could see someone having as a message board signature, and I would get hung up watching it repeat a dozen times every time I would scroll past their posts. None of this ever felt overkill to me, due to the aura of both men; the more stuff they would do, the tougher they would seem. Two crazy guys, and I couldn't be happier that they're still going at it.


ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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Merry Christmas! Enjoy Shoot Punches and Barbed Wire and Terrible Pants!

Necro Butcher/Toby Klein vs. Deranged/Brain Damage (IWA-MS 12/16/05)

ER: Merry Christmas! Here's some guys bleeding out of their bodies in gross ways. It's tough to rank the violence in this Christmas time gem, just as it's tough to rank the terrible pants. But lets be honest and true with ourselves on Jesus and Rusev's birthday, Necro brought the most violence and Brain Damage brought the very worst pants, impossibly wide legged and impossibly parking lot rave dealer. He deserved thee holy violence wrought upon him. Match has one goofy moment with all 4 men sitting in chairs facing each other and punching each other in the face; that reminded me too much of an old roommate who would get drunk with a buddy out on our balcony, and then take turns seeing who could punch the other's arm harder. The rest is Necro punching fools, Klein taking sick bumps on concrete, Brain Damage falling and leaning all his weight into barbed wire in sick ways, and Deranged doing all of the above. Early on Brain Damage tries to box toe to toe with Necro and that ends hilariously and quickly for Mr. Damage. Klein takes some wild bumps in the match to the concrete floor, taking a big hip toss, a nasty posting, and some other falls that shouldn't be happening in front of 30 paying customers. Deranged throws a bunch of really impressive knees and takes some great fat guy spills. Brain Damage gets beat on a LOT and as I mentioned has all these moments of falling into the wire and really showing the crowd how tightly the wire is tied. He'd be leaning full into the wire while Klein would be yanking him even more into the wire from the floor. You could really see the wire being forced into him. It was pretty disgusting, but got over the expert craftsmanship of the ring crew. You could tell these were professionals who knew how to properly rig up some wire ropes. Towards the end he takes a freaking HOTSHOT face first into the wire and Eddie Kingston flips out on commentary about Brain Damage losing an eye. This is overall a really great brawl, with another legendary Necro performance and some great supporting performances, all in front of literally 30 people. I can assume there was a terrible blizzard and these men still went out there and spread Christmas cheer and probably HPV (again, I assume). Merry Christmas!

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2004 Match of the Year

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klein IWA-MS 6/25/04

ER: Necro Butcher is an all time favorite of mine, and this may be my favorite performance of his. I can't really think of a Necro performance I dislike, but this is a match with just preposterous levels of violence. It's a Fans Bring the Weapons match from the 2004 IWA King of the Death Matches (and really the only criticism of the match is that they essentially worked a finals match in the 1st round, but that's more on the fed for booking these two against each other in the 1st round). Practically everything you see in this match, every spot, is one of the most violent occurrences of that spot you've seen. This is probably my favorite "through the crowd" brawl of all time, with neither guy feeling like they're just wandering around the building to kill time like a lot of those type of matches, but instead feeling like each guy was actually just punching each other around the building. It never felt like they were actively thinking about getting to a specific part of the building, they just fought with zero regard for where their fight would wind up, instead just focusing on hitting each other with everything not bolted down.

We start with one of many high points, as Necro throws a large, boxy, heavy computer monitor that hits Klein in the neck and shoulder, and from there we get some of my absolute favorite brawling. Necro has always been a great puncher and here he throws more unique combos than in any other match of his: straight rights, short uppercuts, right hooks, punches while kneeling, punches to catch a charging Klein. Necro came off like Finlay throughout this, not wanting there to be any down time or any time where both men were caught resting on their laurels, so if Klein took too long to set something up, he was getting punched somewhere. Necro throws tons of chairs at Klein and it's impossible to decide which shot is more nasty: a folded one hits Klein in the shoulder blade, an unfolded one bounces off his face, the edge of another gets bounced off his ribs, all of them looked mean. Both guys just lace into each other with punches. Necro has some of the all time greatest punches in wrestling, and Klein throws some impressive worked punches. You can tell he's holding back a little bit, but it's evened out when he doesn't hold back in the least with weapons shots later. The crowd brawling is so great, with both men spectacularly sprawling through chairs while shoving their way through fans wearing shitty clothing that doesn't fit them. Shit gets the realest when Klein powerbombs Necro off the bleachers onto the gym floor. Just a sick over the shoulder powerbomb with no good landing possible.

Once we get into the fan made weapons it's both insanely violent and almost cute. Violent, because Necro and Klein made sure to make all the weapon shots count, no matter what they were; and cute, because you can picture these deviants in attendance sitting at home carefully crafting these weapons, because some of them looked very carefully crafted. There was a rolling pin that had thumbtacks glued to it, and the thumbtacks were in such orderly rows. I am endlessly tickled by some sicko sitting at home carefully gluing these orderly tacks to a rolling pin. And a rolling pin just brings to mind - and it's easy to make the joke about fans in attendance living with their parents - but a rolling pin covered in thumbtacks just HAS to mean that a mom somewhere chewed the hell out of her asshole son for taking her rolling pin without permission. There's ZERO chance any guy in this crowd makes homemade pie crusts. Somebody stole a rolling pin from their mom and spent a LOT of time carefully gluing tacks to it. And then Klein rubbed that pin in a nasty way across Necro's scalp.

We get weird weapons like an empty 5 gal. water jug taped to a broomstick, which sounds silly, but then you see Klein just bashing the fuck out of Necro with this Alhambra (Sparklets? Sierra Springs?) jug and you know it hurts. I delivered water for a stretch after college, got in the best physical shape of my life lugging 40 lb. bottles of water around all day, and those empties are SOLID. Getting hit with one of those would be brutal, as they weight nothing so you can swing one really fast, and yet they hit like concrete. We also get a bunch of barbed wire wiffle bats which is smart (I mean, it's dumb, it's all dumb) because Klein and Necro can now just throw full force bat shots. No need to hold back like with a real bat, so just swing away Merrill! You also get cute moments of fans sliding their weapons in the workers' general direction. "Please use my barbed wire board Toby!" These guys roll through glass, hit each other HARD with tons of weapons, Necro does a wild somersault dive off the top and crashes hard to the gym floor, Necro takes a death valley driver through a set up chair, they work in a clever ref bump (and the ref himself is a lunatic out there wearing no gloves and taking bumps in light tube remnants) that leads us to a great school boy near fall. Them having the presence of mind to throw in a cute roll up as a convincing near fall is one of those things that set them apart from the typical geek show guys. And yeah, this is maybe the flat out most violent match I've ever seen. Their 2003 sprint seems to get talked about more, but this has the best through the crowd brawling of any match ever, more violent shots, and is twice as crazy. I hate that I love this, but I lovvvvve this.

PAS: One of the issues I always had with US tourney death match wrestling, is it often came across as too genial. These shows didn't have Magnum TA trying to poke out Tully's eye, or Greg Valentine pummeling Piper's ear, they were weird hobbyists enjoying their weird hobby, it sometimes feels more like LARPing or Ren Faire jousting then a nasty fight. Necro Butcher will have none of your respect knuckles and grins, he goes after Klein like Klein shot his dog and slapped his sister, and Klein is ready and willing to give as good as he gets. Eric covered a lot of the things about this which are great: Necro throwing punches from odd angles with unexpected force, crazy hurling of objects, the powerbomb off the bleachers, etc. I also loved the fight over the asiatic spike, such a cool finisher for a nut like Necro, and Klein smashing him with tubes to make him break the hold was awesome. I don't give a fuck about light tubes, normally, and some of the fan made weapon stuff got a little stunty. Also CM Punk and Prazak were awful on commentary, these two are out there killing each other and those two are doing shitty MST3K comedy, really detracted from the match.


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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