When you think of your favorite matches, you might think of the blow off to a long, storied feud. You may think back to a very physical match with lots of athleticism on display. You might even think of a matchup with an over the top stipulation to up the ante. Personally, one of my personal favorite matches of all time, one that went down exactly eighteen years ago today, includes none of these elements.
In one corner, you have “The Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe. He was just days away from making his presence felt in his long tenure with TNA Wrestling. Up to this point, he already had a fantastic trilogy of matches against CM Punk, as well as matches against the likes of William Regal, Masato Tanaka and Shinjiro Otani. Opposite Joe, you have a man that proudly wore the phrase “Choose Death” on his chest: Necro Butcher. Necro himself was acclaimed as one of the toughest Deathmatch Wrestlers on the scene. Coming into this match, Necro had already etched his name as the 2002 King of the Deathmatches, and had carved himself a spot in Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Despite this being their first one-on-one encounter, there were some external factors at play. Samoa Joe carried animosity towards Necro Butcher, as Necro had physically laid into two of Joe’s ROH Dojo students during their match at Chikara’s Tag World Grand Prix the year before. Cross an angered Joe with Necro, who was locked in after a night of drinking and a return flight from wrestling Mad Man Pondo in Japan just hours before. Whether or not IWA Midsouth billed the match as No Disqualification or not was irrelevant. Joe and Necro came ready for a fight.
Even though this match consisted of mostly strikes, you can see the vast difference in styles between Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher. Whether he’s throwing elbows, knees, chops, or headbutts, Samoa Joe measures to throw precise strikes. Being the “wrestler” of the two, you can see Joe try and keep things around the ring and ringside area. And of the five moves (by my count) that I could quantify as “Wrestling Moves” in this match, Joe hits four; all of which being a variation of a slam.
Now compare to Necro Butcher. When striking it out with Joe, Necro is more concerned with throwing heavy hands. When punching in particular, he bends his arms and throws wild haymakers with all the accuracy and grace of a barroom brawler. His Hardcore stylings are on full display in this match; leading the brawl to the crowd to pelt Joe with chairs and slow him down. Hell, Necro even introduces a guardrail into the match to inflict more damage onto Joe; throwing it onto Joe and hitting a Senton Splash (which most likely hurt him just as much, if not more).
Technicality aside, you can’t talk about this match without bringing up just how much plasma Necro Butcher sheds and how much damage he eats. Seeing a snapshot of the start and finish of the match, you might assume Joe used Barbed Wire or Glass to cut Necro so deeply. As a matter of fact, it’s a series of Headbutts that cuts Necro open early on. But this initial head wound would seem like a fickle paper cut in comparison to what would soon happen. After a Running Powerslam gone horribly wrong, Necro Butcher would slam head first off of the cement floor, and the blood flow would intensify. In what might be the most iconic moment of the match, Samoa Joe would attempt an Exploder Suplex from the apron to the floor on Necro Butcher. And again, the move would go horribly wrong. Necro’s head would bounce off of the cement floor once again; the blood rushing from his skull onto the ground like a geyser. With the serious level of blood loss from Necro, Samoa Joe would be practically painted in his gore by the end of the matchup. A Powerbomb onto a guardrail and a German Suplex would not be enough to put Necro down. Joe would have to physically bludgeon Necro Butcher, finishing him with a swift kick to the head for a Knockout victory; a fairly rare finish to a match.
This is a matchup I truly recommend to any fan of professional wrestling. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of Indie Wrestling, TV Wrestling, Pure Wrestling, or Hardcore/Deathmatch Wrestling, its a match that every wrestling fan should watch at least once. The honesty of the violence in this match is something that not many other matches have come close to replicating in my opinion. And best of all, it is free and available right now to watch on YouTube. So by all means, take a few minutes out of the day and celebrate the anniversary of this fantastic bloodfest.
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