IWA Mid-South Spring Heat, Midlothian, IL
I was NOT at this show. In fact I’ve never watched this match. I have long gone, “I should watch that match,” and then didn’t. But we’re in a global pandemic baybeeeee!
There was a period of time in the mid-2000s where a lot of the very online adult dorks of the time would go to the ends of Earth itself to defend Ian Rotten as a Great Worker. It’s not that I disagreed with the fact that Ian was good and even pretty goddamn great in a certain style, and his best style wasn’t even death matches, it was straight, hard-hitting brawls in sort of the old Dusty Rhodes style, and he could look OK mixing in some Chain Wrestling of the time, too. It’s just that, as wrestling dorks did then and continue to do now, they could not make the case without having to grossly overstate it and then make the underrated thing overrated. (Death matches, by the way, might have actually been what Ian was worst at as a wrestler. I mean he never tried lucha that I know of, but you get what I mean.)
And since Ian has become acclaimed for his great, great technical wrestling skills, we start with some grapplefuckin’. And, again, Ian was good at this stuff. And we see some here, he armdrags Joe over after maneuvering around, he kicks free of arm work via a headstand, etc. Ian outwrestles Joe to the point Joe goes out to take a quick breather, then comes back and goes for a cross armbreaker, which Ian rolls awkwardly with, making it look exceptionally vicious. But he gets the ropes, and then it’s Rotten taking the breather, trying to get his arm shaken out.
Back in and now it’s gonna heat up, with Ian targeting Joe’s leg, and Joe going back to Ian’s arm, with a shoulder that has been bothering him for a long time before this match. Still grappling for position, they start throwing weirdly positioned shots at one another’s heads, but then it calms back down.
And then it really heats up. The forearms are nasty, but Ian was known for disgusting headbutts. So he throws one, forgetting that Joe is Samoan. Joe throws a series back. Ian, refusing to be outdone in typical mid-southerner stubbornness, throws his own series back. And then they both go down. Once up, Ian throws a couple more shots and Joe kicks him in the back of the head. Joe is bleeding from the forehead a bit, and then destroys Ian with a kick to the chest.
Alright, these two are just lighting each other the FUCK UP now, trading bombs. The fight spills to the floor, and they’re a-fightin’ out there, and Ian does more headbutts, and Joe knees Ian in the fucking skull. The 20-count is on, but these guys don’t care. They’re just killing each other. This has gotten intense if not personal now. Both try to get back in, but the other guy stops him, and they get double counted out fighting. After the announcement, they’re both still ready to square up, but referee Bryce Remsburg puts the kibosh on that.
Ian grabs the mic and puts Joe over before saying it’s not over. Joe says he’ll do it again. They never did it again.
This isn’t Joe-Necro or even close — not many things are — but if you’re like me and regard that as maybe possibly the greatest indie wrestling match of all time, or at least just loved or even really liked it, then this is well worth a 15 minute watch with intros on Highspots Wrestling Network. I heard a lot about it over the years while not watching it for whatever reason, and it did not disappoint. I don’t get hung up on non-finishes or whatever, but yes this would’ve been better with a finish of some sort.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
You must be logged in to post a comment.