MID-Tier Match Reviews: Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher – IWA Mid-South Something To Prove

So for this review I figured I’d venture outside of my usual wheelhouse and look at a company that I’ve never seen before: IWA Mid-South. With many of today’s wrestlers having started their careers on the American independent scene it’s interesting to see what many of them went through before becoming stars, champions, and in some cases, legends. Samoa Joe is one such a wrestler. He had an amazing year back in 2005, having taken part in three of the best matches you will ever see in a four-month time span. Digging deeper into his career I came across this match which a lot of people liked back then and still like now. So I watched it and…time hasn’t been all that kind to it.

The Story

Though I’d read about Necro Butcher in the past this is my first time actually seeing him wrestle. From what I’ve gathered the guy wanted to make as big of a name for himself as possible on the independent circuit and attempted to do so by becoming a deathmatch guy. Apparently deathmatch wrestling was in high demand outside of WWE and to an extent ROH and TNA for certain groups of people looking to get the same fix for ultraviolence that ECW used to provide. As for this particular match, Necro had attacked several of Joe’s students in ROH and he was out for revenge. A simple enough premise that would lead to one of the most violent sub-ten-minute matches you will ever see.

The Match

This took place on June 11, 2005.

They go nose-to-nose and take turns shoving the referee aside. The ref goes flying out of the ring and then both guys get into a long elbow bat exchange. Necro bounces off the ropes but Joe hits him with an enzuigiri followed by a suicide dive to the floor. Necro ends up seated in the stands and Joe unloads on him with kicks, elbows, and head-butts. Necro, now busted open, fights back with punches. He throws a bunch of chairs at Joe’s head and throws him back over the barricade. Necro gets a running start but Joe catches him in a scoop powerslam attempt. I say attempt because Joe gets like no rotation on that slam and basically dumps Necro on the floor on his head. Necro’s head smashes onto the floor with a sickening thud not unlike what happened to Shane McMahon at KOTR 2001. Joe responds to this by copying Necro and throwing a chair at Necro’s head.

Joe continues targeting Necro’s head with kicks, knees, and forearms. In the ring Necro fights back with head-butts and a running bit boot. Necro throws Joe into one piece of barricade and brings another piece into the ring. Necro launches this other piece at Joe and lands a senton onto him. They continue brawling onto the apron and then Joe lands an Exploder to the floor…that once again sees Necro land on his head.

Joe is unfazed by any of this and cracks Necro with a chair-shot to the head. Back in the ring, Joe sets up the barricade against the middle ropes to create a platform and then powerbombs Necro onto it, also head-and-neck-first. Yet somehow Necro kicks out at two. Joe opens another chair and despite Necro’s initial resistance, manages to land a German Suplex onto it, sending Necro crashing shoulder-first for another two-count. Necro attempts one more comeback with punches but Joe shuts him down with slaps so hard they send blood flying off Necro’s face and some brutal knees to the head. Necro goes down. The ref begins counting. Necro stirs and almost gets to his feet. But then he collapses. The ref orders for the bell. Joe wins!

Winner due to knock-out/referee’s decision after 9:18: Samoa Joe

You can watch the full match here, but note that this one’s restricted on YouTube…for good reason.

Review

This was a mixed bag of a match. On one hand it fit the story of Joe wanting violent revenge on what Necro did to his cherished trainees. If you could live vicariously through Joe or if you enjoy seeing revenge served up then this is certainly an exciting and satisfying match. On the other hand, this match was downright crippled by Necro’s lack of athleticism and both guys’ inability to work together as fluidly as they could. Those two botches were straight-up sickening. It’s hard to say who was at fault for both of them going wrong: Joe had little room to rotate on the powerslam and Necro seemingly didn’t take the time to flip to his back to take the Exploder better.

Regardless, Necro took two unnecessarily brutal bumps that, by rights, could’ve killed him. And while he didn’t, I’m amazed he didn’t suffer immediate brain damage. I’m sure the audience watching was all excited based on their immediate reactions, but in retrospect it’s hard to enjoy something like this knowing what we now know about CTE. Granted, there are many matches that have this same critical problem but they still retain their original quality over time. This one doesn’t because, well, it was sloppy. It started off hot, then settled into a token brawl, then picked up again with the sudden and somewhat anticlimactic finish. None of the match’s key moments were given time to breathe and the finish fell flat considering that Necro was up on his way to the back moments after. It just didn’t have the drama or the storytelling oomph needed to really hit those high notes as both a spectacle and a story.

Final Rating: ***

I’ll give them credit where it’s due: this is an incredible piece of wrestling violence that makes Samoa Joe look and feel like a killer and it sells the idea that he’s going out of his comfort zone to get revenge. But in execution of that story parts of the match were overshadowed by clear botches that take the viewer out of the match. Both Eddie Kingston and CM Punk on commentary didn’t sound all too thrilled with certain parts of it. Even Necro bleeding all over the place it didn’t do all that much to add to the drama.

What we’re left with is a short little sprint that came off as much an angle or setup for something greater than an actual standalone match. It didn’t have that sense of closure since they’d face off months later to end the feud. So if you like lots of blood and enjoy seeing wrestlers hurt themselves unnecessarily, you’ll find something to like here.

Thanks for reading.