Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher - IWA-Mid South - Something to Prove

Longtime visitors of WC will know of this match even without having ever seen it. King Steventon had an image from the match as his sig for seemingly years. There was a time when this match, along with the Low-Ki fight, was used to show fans that Necro could do more than just garbage wrestling. This happens to be one of the very few IWA-MS matches I’ve seen previously some years ago, but I don’t recall being too impressed with it. In fact, I gave it a measly ** 1/2 rating. Looking back, I think my hang-up is that it’s not really a wrestling match nor does it have a typical wrestling finish. However, there’s a lot to appreciate about this match that I understand now. For an indie match, it has a serious big match feel to it. The crowd is going crazy throughout and color commentators, CM Punk and Eddie Kingston, are practically marking out for the entire duration. You know something is great when even Punk and Kingston are in agreement! It was treated as a brutal fight with Necro initially shoving referee, Bryce Remsberg, away when Remsburg tried to keep the pair from colliding before he could ring the bell. When Remsberg tried delaying the start again, Samoa Joe tossed him out of the ring. With that, the fight was ON. The fight didn’t even last ten minutes, but you don’t feel cheated by the short length. Every shot, kick, slam, and weapon use just looked brutal. Whether it’s because Necro is a bit heavier than Joe is used to tossing around or that Joe knew he could be extra rough, Joe just seemed to enjoy hurting Necro by botching spots. There’s a power slam spot that sees Joe failing to complete the rotation causing Necro to land directly on his forehead. Later, Joe attempted an exploder off the apron onto the floor, but again there isn’t any sort of rotation and Necro lands directly on his forehead. That second spot causes an already busted open Necro to begin to bleed buckets. Both spots are so sick, yet entertaining. Necro wasn’t against throwing out some hellacious punches directed at Joe, but the story here was Joe absolutely killing Necro only for Necro to keep getting up. Near the end of the match, Joe is even looking at his blood stained body, all of the blood solely from Necro, in disbelief that the match could still be going on. HOW DO YOU BEAT NECRO BUTCHER?! Joe then unleashes a series of brutal knees to Necro’s head, causing the Choose Death god to fall to the mat, but Necro gets up again! Finally, Joe stands back and fires off a kick to the side of Necro’s temple, dropping Necro for good. Necro Butcher tries to get up, but is unable to answer the ten count to give Joe the victory. This was an insane match and another reason why Samoa Joe was quite possibly the Wrestler of the Year. In a year where Joe had a hard hitting five star classic with Kenta Kobashi in ROH, a storytelling five star classic with AJ Styles in TNA, working a big trilogy with Super Dragon in PWG, he was also having an entirely different sort of fight with Necro in IWA-MS. This was meant to come across as a major special attraction and it succeeded. I badly miss Samoa Joe from this time period. Meanwhile, call Necro a garbage wrestler all you want, but he can tell a fantastic story through getting his ass kicked. Let this match be a lesson to always be open minded enough to give matches a second chance. You may be missing out on something great. ****