[2002-05-04-IWA-MS] Ian Rotten vs Chris Hero

[Jetlag]

More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.

[Makai Club #1]

This was too raw for me. Seriously. The stiff strikes. The scarily realistic screams of agony. This is wrestling! The fact that there isn't much people at the shows makes this even better as you can hear each individual cheer and talk about the match. Hero's work on the knee was so nasty and violent. The horrible (as in good) ankle picks were a nice touch to add onto the knee work, as well. Totally blew me away. ****3/4

[ohtani's jacket]

This was the first time I've seen Ian Rotten. I loved how hard fought this was. It was rough around the edges and a little bit amateur at times, but you couldn't fault the intensity. Both guys put a huge emphasis on the pain being inflicted and there was some great selling both vocally and in applying the holds. This is the kind of stuff I like to see from the indy backwaters.