IGF BUTCHER: Necro Butcher vs. Inoki-Ism Deep Dive

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Introduction

How do you go crazier than deathmatches and gory blood? You join up with Inoki and fight a bunch of green Japanese MMA dudes! This will chronicle all of Necro's matches in IGF (minus one house show that was never filmed...ignore that through) and we'll see if they're anything worth watching.

 

Vs The Predator (IGF Genome5 06.23.2008)

Predator/Terkay is doing his Brody impression against a debuting Necro, so of course these two just work it as a brawl. He's throwing big kicks to the torso, Necro's just throwing punches and everything to survive against this giant dude, including some of the best gut punches I've seen in a long while. He blades after the two go to the outside, bumping his head off the turnbuckle pole. This leads to Pred getting out the chain and doing the usual spots with it, including a cool bit where he hangs Necro off the apron. They brawl in the crowd as Necro sells for this dude for what seems like forever until they get back in the ring. Necro finally springs to life after dodging a dodgy rope leg drop and does a mini Hogan-homage as he gestures to the crowd and gets a surprisingly good pop as he smacks Pred's back with the chair before scoop slamming him while still holding on to said chair for more damage in a fun little spot. Necro does a solid job getting over his desperation to get this over and done as he rakes the eyes to keep Pred steady for a powerbomb; still fails though. Predator is shaken and pulls from the GOAT Tadao Yasuda with a standing forearm choke that he leans off the ropes for before just blasting the dude with some stiff double chops. He focuses on the head until missing a lariat and letting Necro grab him and throw the dude on the ropes groin first, always a classic.

More brawling outside; this had a pretty great bit where Necro just dragged a bunch of chair-rows onto Predator's prone body and tried to bury him in them: which goes well, mind you, but then Necro makes the mistake of hurling a individual chair at Predator and he just goes ape-shit, no sells and double stomps him on top of a chair that had next to no give lol. Third half kinda deflated as not a whole lot happens, Necro gets his Tenryu punch/chops, inevitably can't get much going as Predator overpowers him with suplexes and a cool modified STF. The two have a enjoyable hick fight as the pair throw wild punches, but Predator's knees win out and he finishes up with a leaping Brody knee drop for the win. I mean listen Necro matches are always messes, I'd say for this the appeal comes from this just being a freakshow match; Terkay's this giant MMA dude, Necro is basically just all-round crazy. The quality comes from Necro being a great seller and making Predator look great while also structuring this out to hide his more obvious shortcomings. It's surprisingly brutal in places and manages to maintain a chaotic feel despite the crowd being quite dead in places. Maybe cut this down a few minutes (especially near the end where the match starts to dull a bit) and I'd say this could've been a perfectly acceptable match for these sort of cards. Not great and certainly not one of Necro's must-watch from the time, but if you want something that's just easy viewing then this is a easy suggestion.

 

Vs Kendo Kashin vs. Rob Van Dam (IGF Genome6 08.15.2008)

This is probably Necro's best known match as it's just a complete mess of a triple threat. I can at least say the lads tried (read: tried) to make this enjoyable. This plays off more-so as a comedy bout than anything else, with everyone scrambling to steal pins and forgoing the natural awkwardness of a triple man match by having the odd guy leave the ring or team up. Necro and RVD have some fun comedy bits with him stomping Necro's bare feet for a advantage, or getting Necro to set up a Poetry in Motion to seemingly land it on Kashin before just dropkicking him in the face instead. Kashin does his usual nonsense but does have decent chemistry with RVD, albeit nothing special. Necro blades after a belt shot to the face, giving RVD the excuse to hit a big dumb dive to the outside while the other two are brawling. RVD also takes a suplex on the ramp, which sounded painful as anything. We also get Kashin bashing Necro with fake plants (like actual plants? It's pretty dumb) but he gets taken down after Necro uses the barricade to counter the...plants. RVD lands a actually awesome crossbody to them from the stage, which was fairly high up and got a good pop. This is shortly followed up by a nice spinning kick from the apron after Kashin was dumped there by Necro. Last few minutes have them do a tower of doom spot after Kashin interrupts a superplex attempt by RVD, which was also decent enough if a bit contrived.

Necro lands a great Tiger Driver, Kashin lands a German suplex to interrupt his pin before rolling Necro into a successful pin attempt after getting his feet on the ropes. RVD basically squashes Kashin despite him interrupting a Five Star by kicking the ref into the ropes, but his successful top rope cross armbreaker is foiled as someone (I think it's Simon Inoki?) distracts the ref from seeing the tap out, leading RVD to nail a really lazy Van Daminator (like seriously, this was just zero effort, probably the worst one he's landed ever) misses the Five Star. Kashin does his usual cool headscissors choke into roll up and his opponent manages to kick out. RVD hits a really bad kick counter to Kashin after he catches the other one and hits a stiff back-first Rolling Thunder for the win. Decent work, pretty messy overall. RVD is the best in these kind of disorganised matches given he can just not worry about psychology and hit cool moves, which he does anyway, this is just a excuse to not care even moreso than usual: I'm not complaining because RVD never needed psychology to be good in the first place. Necro and Kashin do their usual business and it's fine, but I wouldn't say they were particularly great anywhere. Fine as a messy brawl with some decent spots, hollow as anything at the end of the day. I really would've wanted to see Necro/Van Dam as a singles given they'd both find excuses to do crazy stuff to each other and at the end of the day that's what you want to see, right? I guess Kashin is Inoki's kid so he wanted in here as well.

 

Vs The Predator II (IGF Genome7 11.24.2008)

This is similar to their last match, but also quite different in some marked ways. It follows the same formula of Necro against someone way more athletic and powerful, but is a lot more condensed to in-ring interactions and doesn't have any blood this time bar a tiny bit from a hardway Necro headbutt. Terkay's sloppiness does appear a few times here as well (early on he does this weird flapjack variation that ends with Necro falling right on his face with no protection, that's no fun) mainly with a corner splash where he goes over the top rope....and most of his body is squished on Necro's head during the spot, which is rough. Necro throws a nice stiff headbutt into a sloppy dropkick, but his apron move is countered as Pred just picks him up and squishes him on the floor with a fireman's carry drop. Apart from that we get more control spots where Necro's taking damage, selling dramatically (good selling mind you, but still) and fighting the knockdown counts as he tries to drag himself up for another scrap. Pred gets a bit too comfortable in control however as Necro escapes a second fireman's carry and then manages to bash Pred's arm off the turnbuckle pole after he gets thrown into it. This allows the guy to go into full on Methhead South as Necro starts working the arm with fancy kneedrops and just wrapping that shit tight around the ropes. This leads to a attempted powerbomb spot which like the last time ends with Necro getting slammed around more. The two go flying out of the ring after a cool over the rope lariat from Predator and then a back suplex, which honestly looked like it hurt the person doing it more than the guy who's actually supposed to be hurt lol. They milk a potential count-out for Necro before he gets in obviously. Predator randomly does this super slow scoop slam into suplex/sit-out Michinoku Driver thing that looks like a Create A Finisher from WWE 2K13. I dig it, I just don't get why he did it for no pop? The thrill? Who knows. Necro does a fantastic crumple-sell for a punch to the head. Predator loses patience and starts just doing lots of dirty stuff to Necro's face; this leads to a second rope leg drop tease like last time, but Necro is ready!

He throws his punches and hits a tremendously crappy Frankensteiner, following up with a super slow top rope crossbody for a near fall. He decides that this is IGF, so snaps on a cross armbreaker. Amazingly the two actually know how to do a spot like this properly, with Predator keeping his arms together to stop the move being fully applied, leading to a neat little struggle until he can hit the ropes. Necro throws punches and headbutts, doing this great bit where he's just so fatigued that punching Predator is not only not doing a whole lot, he's actively just hurting his hand in the process because there's no real force to his shots anymore, so he kinda has this moment where he's like "shit this ain't workin" and has to go for big lariats instead. Two land, the third is countered with a boot and belly to belly suplex. Predator finishes the match with a amazing Carl Greco-lite rolling front Grovit to get the tapout win. So this is probably better than the last match? Less walk and brawl, more action. Terkay is still quite sloppy, but he's that good kind of sloppy that matches well with Necro's more wacky and unconventional style despite some slipups, he's more of a crowbar with the occasional great move or bit that suggests he could've been a lot better. Necro's so great here for all of those little moments where he's conveying pain or desperation or both, it's such a treat to see him work this big man/little man dynamic in ways that others usually can't, namely in his continuous attempts to struggle, his little comebacks that always get him a bit closer to winning, all great stuff. This is the kind of work that made Necro a must-watch during the time, dude could make gold out of anything. 

 

Vs Atsushi Sawada (IGF Genome8 03.15.2009)

Necro's run in IGF continues with a pretty decent showing. He really carries the (mostly) useless Sawada to something decent with a starting brawl outside (including a real nasty scoop slam onto the concrete) and even does the courtesy of blading him to get blood given the lad doesn't probably know how to do it bar doing headbutts. Sawada is a big geek, but he can hit hard and even manages some of his really dumb CTE-inducing headbutts where he just throws his whole face into you and calls it a day. Necro works his usual gross offence that is super safe but looks, well, gross. He rips at the cut, bites it, spits out blood, all the good stuff. Sawada in response can only do a wonky dropkick and judo throw. The commentary name-drops Tenryu as Necro steals his chops and punches shtick. Oh yeah, that throw/dropkick combo is ALL Sawada can do outside of strikes lol. They work well with it though, Necro gets the interest of the crowd with blood-work with the consistent biting and stiff shots to drag out the heat. Sawada plays a decent enough babyface: can't really wrestle mind you,  gets the crowd on his side fairly easily given his rep and sympathetic stance here with Necro beating him up. Finish is simple as Necro throws all of his usual bombs (including a sick backdrop) before Sawada slips out of the powerbomb and wins off a German suplex and a weird leg-hook side suplex. Necro puts over Sawada post-match with a handshake and Triple H point. This was fine for a regular card but for IGF, you might as well say this was good to solid. Necro carries a green Inoki-Ism lad to something resembling a match, it rules for that standard. Sawada is fun and a easy babyface to root for, even if he's super limited. 

 

Vs Taka Kunou (IGF Genome9 08.09.2009)

Much like all of Butcher's IGF showings, this isn't much of a actual house-style match, but leaning to Necro being well, not a shoot-style guy lol. Kunou is mostly known for being a failed MMA guy who transitioned to shoot-style: he's nothing particularly special yet is one of the more entertaining Inoki-subjects due to his willingness to commit to wrestling proper. Necro does a lot of cheating with closed fists and biting to escape being taken down by Kunou. In all fairness, he's fairly decent on the mat and does at times show off that he can actually wrestle (like Kunou takes him down for a Fujiwara-lite armbar and he intuitively rolls on his front to escape before it is even applied, as well as escaping a cross armbreaker clean) but this is mostly him working like he can't: using a lot of dirty antics combined with brawling. The fight goes outside and Kunou gets thrown around, even getting hit with a extra set of ring steps lol. This is Kunou's cue to blade, with him getting worked over for a bit. Necro goes omega nasty with him licking and getting his face right in his cut, even blowing his nose on one of the cameras. Kunou recovers after he tries for a top rope move and gets countered, the guy can't really brawl and instead goes for a armbar transition into cross armbreaker, which gets a rope break. He hits some dodgy headbutts before hitting a stand-up transition to a second armbreaker, Necro just manages to wiggle to the ropes again. Necro hits some Abdullah-lite throat thrusts before hitting a big powerbomb and a bunch of okish signature moves to build up his comeback despite some shaky moments.

Necro tries for a second powerbomb but Kunou then rolls him up for the three randomly. Not a bad match, amazingly! Necro works around Kunou like a professional, doing a lot of stuff that looks nasty but really isn't: he's light on offence and uses a mix of his hair hiding said offence combined with his exaggerated motions to make it look worse than it actually is, being a consistent professional in that regard. He builds well to Kunou's comebacks, which aren't really sold as exhausting last dish methods to win like they should, however all things considered they still look impressive. The crowd weren't initially that bothered with this but did actually get drawn in over time, leading to a big underdog win that they were actually surprised by, giving the finish a huge pop in response. It's a match that for viewers also does take a bit to settle in proper. Once it does it's a quite good outing that has Necro really get the investment proper with just how mean and gross he is here, garnering all of the heat and paving the way for Kunou to do his thing. For what it's worth, Kunou could at least work his spots in mostly organically, and as said he's one of the better Inoki guys here given he's actually trying to wrestle and sell. Once again we get a solid Necro carry-match all things considered.

 

Vs Minowaman (IGF Genome11 02.22.2010)

Probably the best Necro match out of this entire set of matches he did. Minowaman wants to shoot, Necro wants to brawl. The result is a pretty messy affair that has Necro quickly lose patience with Minowa's fancy offence and resorts to headbutts and biting, eventually dragging the guy outside and blading early after getting hit on the ring post. Minowa dominates with some sprawling and solid strikes before Necro gets control with some low blows and hits a nasty headbutt that covers Minowa in blood and ups the intensity immediately. He hits a airplane spin of all things but loses control like a goof and gets wrapped up in a leg vice, barely able to reach the ropes. Minowa hits some basic wrestling offence along with some punches and slaps before Necro hits another stiff ass headbutt and capitalises with a big lariat and some huge chops in the corner. Both men just end up throwing hands until Minowa takes advantage with a elbow shot and grabs on a kneebar for the tap out. This isn't a masterpiece or anything but as a short match, this turned out WAY better than expected, especially with the clash of styles. Minowa is still fairly green (this was his first year of wrestling, after all) yet he shows some good spirit and Necro is a great sport here, really getting over how tough this guy is and selling a ton in what felt like the closest to Necro doing a Batibati-style match in terms of physicality and it rules so much more once that's realised. Not a big workrate match but as a gritty throwback to the Mixed Rules Matches of old? Yeah sure, I can get behind that. Really a must-watch all things considered.

 

Vs Bob Sapp (IGF Genome12 05.09.2010)

"If IGF is the home of the freakshow " this was a thing? " matchups, then this has to be the peak of that given these two and their infamy. Sapp works this like a regular Sapp match, lots of screaming, weird athletic spots that wiff plenty, and his opponent selling a ton. Necro oversells for a bearhug so much that the crowd starts laughing in response, so you get a good idea of what this is going to be like before it even gets properly started. Necro escapes by biting Sapp's head and throwing knees to get him to the outside for a crappy apron cannonball. He tries to slam Sapp, he responds with probably the slowest powerslam in history as he spends like 15 seconds picking the guy up and slowly ramming him into the turnbuckle post. Necro blades, though given his forehead was already cut up from a BJW show a few days ago it didn't really seem like a whole lot of effort was needed. Sapp continues with some more awkward stuff, including the worst ground and pound I've ever seen. Sapp's always been terrible at throwing strikes (probably because the dude is so freakishly strong yet has zero technique in the first place, so asking him to pull his already crappy strikes while making it convincing is a step too far for that lad) but this was especially bad. Necro lands a lariat and works the throat with a rope lean and chop off the apron. Necro getting a plastic bag and trying to legit choke the shit out of Sapp with it was a surprisingly brutal spot for a fairly pedestrian showing. Necro being Necro follows that up with a generic lucha roll-up, rakes to the face, then invokes the spirit of Giant Baba with a Russian Leg Sweep, but nothing puts the big man down.

Necro then invokes the spirit of Stone Cold with a crappy kick into cutter, but Sapp is so powerful that even this doesn't work. Finish was really poor as Sapp just wins off throwing Necro from the top rope and then doing a limp powerslam for the three count. I'm a Bob Sapp apologist for the most part; I think he was a amazing draw in his prime, his wrestling honestly wasn't that bad for the most part (I will get to that at some point, it's really unfair how maligned he gets for knowing psychology a lot more than even some current guys) and he gets how to play a monster pretty reliably. This is, however, definitely not one of his bright spots. I have to blame that on him being a lot older and less explosive; this was around about the time he started doing dives in all of his MMA matches proper; so he wasn't really as motivated now as he was then and I imagine this translated into his wrestling work. Necro's a lot of fun in these anyway but there wasn't really a whole lot he could do with Sapp given he doesn't exactly have the atheticism or the pacing to really get much out of the guy. Sapp's best matches are with people who can bounce around him and get the most out of his offence, and that's just a tall order for him here. All in all, the weakest Necro IGF match by a fair degree and probably the only one not worth watching.

 

Conclusion

In calling Necro a potential GWE case, most of it does come with more acclaimed, more spectacular showings around about the same time. For me, however, I see Necro's case far stronger with runs like these; wrestling a series of quirky matches with guys next to no one has watched in any sort of dedicated detail and actually having really solid matches in the process is one of the strongest qualities you can have as a wrestler in the form of strong consistency. IGF's a goofy mess, but it at least shows who has the adaptation to crawl out of the mess of weird Inoki-Ism matchups and look good in the process. There are probably better runs (Otsuka's stuff looked real fun from what little I watched, might need to check that out) I've yet to see them though. 

 

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