The Most BRUTAL Wrestling Match You've Never Seen Before

Samoa Joe entered the match as the preeminent demigod of the cult, rave-reviewed North American 2000s independent scene. His aura was so incandescent, at this stage of his career, that he was four months away from wrestling the legendary, omni-acclaimed Kenta Kobashi and being received as a peer, an equal, of one of the most imposing, stiff and mythical wrestlers of all-time. Nobody was a match for Joe in that era. CM Punk's ability to put him in a headlock was considered a strong fictional achievement.

Necro Butcher, meanwhile, was something else. If Joe was the hardest component of a new, underground scene that had filtered through the wider consciousness, there's always something harder. Necro was Xibalba, or some aural horrific monstrosity of gore noise, the fans of which would deem mere "extreme metal" too soft. Necro was the sort of artist so extreme in an anti-mainstream niche that you should never have heard of them - but he found himself interloping in the scene for a few unforgettable years, like a nightmarish hallucination almost. How hard was Joe, really, when Necro Butcher existed?

Ian Rotten, for once in his life, had a capital idea. He asked that question.

CONT'd...