7 Violent Brawls Better Than WWE Raw's Ambulance Match

3. Samoa Joe Vs. Necro Butcher - IWA Mid-South (USA) - 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMU5S9VHhJM This may actually be Samoa Joe's finest brawl of a wrestling career that has seen him brawl with Japanese legends like Kenta Kobashi and legendary American performers like Kurt Angle, too. No, it didn't take place in front of 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. Instead, it happened in front of 250 people on a Sunday afternoon at Philadelphia's ECW Arena. IWA-Mid South in Philadelphia? Yes, that's where we were at in 2005 in independent wrestling. Eight days prior to debuting for TNA at Slammiversary 2005, then-midwestern indy powerhouse promotion IWA Mid-South Wrestling promoted a show in Philadelphia because they were just that on fire. Why and how? Well, consider that from 2000-2005, names like Chris "Kassius Ohno" Hero and CM Punk (and scads more) had built their pro wrestling credibility by literally wrestling in barns for the man best known for wrestling Axl Rotten in ECW's famed Taipei Glass Death Match, Ian Rotten. However, the most intriguing draw of IWA Mid-South was Texas-born grappler Dylan Summers, aka Necro Butcher. A hardcore wrestler by popularity, in tape-trading's dying days he was the last of the "Mick Foley" style of performer whose appearance on a promotion's tape or DVD meant instantaneous sales and growth of renown for the company. Butcher wrestling Samoa Joe, the Samoan, globally-traveled "pure wrestler" from Ring of Honor being a seeming tactical mismatch that instead blended bizarrely into an intriguing (and intentional) clash of styles. There aren't enough words to describe the levels of brutality in this match. So, click play and let CM Punk and former Chikara Grand Champion Eddie Kingston tell you a few. Yeah, CM Punk. Calling a Samoa Joe match. Where he wrestles the dude not named Mickey Rourke who got famous from being in The Wrestler. Amazing.