[2002-10-04-IWA-MS-Retro Night] Ian Rotten vs Tarek the Great

[Edwin]

This is worked at the old IWA Arena which was most likely some old barn somewhere in Indiana and there's around 45 people in the crowd and it's pretty awesome. This is Ian totally out of the hardcore environment we are used to seeing him as the match develops mostly on the mat and it features some pretty awesome work from both sides with some cool submission attempts and some pretty awesome selling to get these submissions ever. There's some pretty gruesome headbutt battle where you can clearly hear the thud of their heads colliding. The finishing stretch is awesome with Ian countering a pin with a gator roll and an anaconda choke and Tarek just knees him on the head from the bottom and Ian then locks on an anaconda vice. Great match.

[Jetlag]

Two pasty tubby methheads in black shirts work a quasi shootstyle match in front of 30 people. While this was a little clumsy and slow in parts this was probably better than any cafeteria shootstyle I've seen from the current generation of US indy wannabe shooters. And in fact they should study this one as it had a lot of stuff that is missing from their attempts: stiff blows while trading holds to create an opening, holding tight to your holds and pin attempts, trying to prevent the other guy from moving etc. There was a neat moment where Ian would apply an STF and headbutt Tarek in the back of his head. Tarek is really hilarious as his entire idea of selling is pretty much „scream really loudly“ so anytime Ian would do as much as squeeze him he would scream like a japanese female wrestler. All in the same tone mind you. He was okay though and Ian looked very good twisting up his leg etc. The headbutts in this were insane especially the falling headbutts that left the lady in the striped pullover wincing. Memorable finish. This is what indy wrestling should be.