10 Wrestling Moments That Literally Made You Jump

1. Samoa Joe Kills Necro Butcher

OMEGA GIF
IWA Mid-South

This infamous match is so wild in such an ill-advised way that it effectively makes you reverberate, much less jump, in a sickened, ghoulish delight.

It is undeniably captivating. An inspired dynamic promoted at the perfect time, it pitted the most legitimate-feeling and convincing wrestler in the world against the most unhinged masochist at the crest of their underground buzz.

The match is shockingly, gratuitously violent. The art of strong style, or something like the WALTER Vs. Ilja Dragunov series, is to leather the opponent almost as hard as possible in relatively safe places using dulled points of impact. Chops to the chest, forearms to the flesh of the cheek, padded shins to the broad surface area of the back: the secret is using the sickening nature of sound to accompany and almost disguise the visual.

Samoa Joe legitimately hurt Necro Butcher in the least safe places. As demonstrated by the above GIF, if you can bear to look at it, Necro allowed Joe to drop him crown-first on concrete with a suplex that the Four Pillars of All Japan would not take. The resulting blood splatter looks like an ink blot picture a child would make at nursery.

It's perhaps the most wrong-feeling ever wrestling match ever worked, not that it was really "worked".

And apologies, but it f*cking ruled.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!