This review was commissioned by Zeke over on my Ko-fi account.
After Necro Butcher nearly died at the hands of Samoa Joe in 2005–to the delight of fans of the time and still to this day–promoters got wise to the idea that Necro wasn’t shackled to deathmatches as a genre. With Necro Butcher, “Choose Death” was a matter of aura and spirit more than any specific stipulation. It’s no surprise than that there were multiple attempts to recapture the superfight magic of Joe/Necro, not the least of which would be this clash against another ROH major ROH stalwart, Low Ki.
Once again hosted in Ian Rotten’s very own IWA:MS, Ki vs. Necro on paper holds a similar mystique to the 05 masterpiece, but still brings a unique flavor of its own to the table. Low Ki is no Samoa Joe, after all, sporting a lot less raw power and functioning more with precision strikes that take advantage of his smaller stature. It’s less about Necro against this overwhelming force of nature and more seeing him against a finely tuned assassin who’s already begun leaving a trail of bodies in his wake here in IWA:MS.
It’s also not a head on clash of egos and bravado. Ki takes the coward’s way into this match, coming out from the crowd instead of the entrance to sneak attack Necro from behind. The visual of the black and yellow streamers raining down upon both men as they brawl in the ring remains wonderful though, the kind of thing that captures a particular era of indie wrestling with its helplessly devoted fans and maniacally motivated workers.
The match succeeds most as a real marvel of striking and viciousness. Both men deliver in spades on this front. Ki’s arguably a little more versatile on this front. While his main weapon of choice are those lovely kicks of his, he’s also able to bring in his dropkicks, stomps, and chops to the table, and they all land beautifully. A meaty, solid thud on each of them, nary a thigh slap to be found in all of it. While occasionally repetitive, there’s a still great variety here with those thudding shots to the chest and gut mixed in with smaller and nastier punts right to the face and head. For Necro, it’s all about that punch. My god, what a punch that man has. Necro’s transitions get built around just how well he can throw a fist. When he’s caught up in a tangle with Low Ki, it’s body blows he tries to use to get his way free, or when Ki’s leaping off the ropes, Necro can catch him with a wild swing that translates pretty much into a clothesline to the face.
It’s that specific dynamic of the precision striker against the wild brawler that makes so much of this work. It’s in how Ki sells Necro’s punches like death, even having to roll out of the ring on one shot to escape further damage. But it’s also in the scrappiness that put behind smaller moments, like Ki catching Necro in an octopus by the ropes, and the way they really struggle for it in a tangle on the ropes to very organically set up a double stomp to Necro’s exposed back.
While this isn’t a bloodletting from Necro, he still puts in a fantastic selling performance here. A large stretch of the match in the middle plays out as a Low Ki heat segment, and Necro reliably turns up his expressiveness to gain our sympathy. With all his writhing on the mat, it reads like one of his most Funk-esque performances, and I mean that as the highest compliment imaginable. Not exactly “realistic” wrestling here, but far more importantly, real-feeling.
Where the match does suffer though is that it gives off the impression of trying to live up to something. The bout has an epic structure, even if it is one condensed into only 20 minutes. One can feel the intensity start to leak out of this thing after the big rush of the opening. Things start to diffuse during Low Ki’s big control, a little too long for the level of viciousness he’s working at. There’s also a greater sense of set up and contrivance here than usual. Something like the table in the ring really stands out given how direct so much of the other action is here, and while it does pay off beautifully with a genuinely shocking kick out from the double stomp through the table, there’s just enough dead air in there to keep this away from true classic status.
What’s left is still a great scrap that many could aspire to. With Necro Butcher, it’s the willingness to suffer and to honest to god fight in that ring that makes so many of his matches work. That’s on full display here, peeking through even despite the pressure to attain a grandeur that this fails to reach.
Rating: ****¼
