[2007-04-22-IWA-MS/ACW] Necro Butcher vs Masada

[Jetlag]

Only 24 hours after his war with the Briscoes in FIP, Necro has another brutal match featuring one of the biggest bumps of 2007. This was an IWA-MS joint show so Necro comes in to take on the toughest craziest dude in the fed. The first half of this is really good, it's a brawl with chairs and ladders etc. but it starts with solid body slams and both guys understood how to work their control segments (by punishing the other guy with awkwardly thrown ladders, chairs etc), tease spots etc. Masada is one of the better outcomes of tape watching indy wrestlers, he is a metalhead looking dude with a shirt and shorts who does exploders big boots and enzuigiris, which in combination with the garbage brawling I like better than hairless kickpadded dudes doing that. Plenty of fun, there is one truely savage punch exchange, suicide dive against the stone bar, aswell as a beer bottle coming into play and Necro defending himself by pulling guard and using a wrist snap etc. I thought they got a little too into the plunder spots in the 2^nd half while neglecting the substance, altough both guys just take one massive nasty bump after another.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Watched this recently and it's a load of fun by itself but also showcases Necro's amazing selling as he's thrown in with the native promotion guy on his own turf with a crowd chanting his name right from the get-go, and he slowly gets over with them as Masada just beats the dude down to the dirt with lots of colour, but also well-timed comeback spots. Necro stumbling around throwing big meaty punches, getting messed up with knees to the head and then shadowboxing when he's knocked on his ass and completely out of it was a really good spot in general and it didn't even require any insane brutality or flips.

Of course you get the nasty stuff here alongside just the horrific back-breaking bumps (the side slam into the chairs and Death Valley onto the floor being obvious bits) but I feel like they balance the books well and get over Necro just having to survive from spot to spot as Masada keeps raising the stakes to try to put him down for good. In a way, it makes the plunder set-up a little bit more logical as Necro just won't stay down and Masada keeps getting snake-bit whenever there's breathing room. Finishes via roll-ups are always a bit cheap but it works here given Necro had nothing to give outside of the limpest attempts possible, and his talent at building fatigue and showcasing that are good enough that you buy him stooping to that level to survive. Masada puts in good work on offence with some surprisingly clean wrestling but I felt like this was ultimately the Necro show: proven by the insane pop he gets after kicking out of the apron Death Valley: which was arguably louder than the reaction to the spot itself. Good stuff.