Ian Rotten vs. Josh Abercrombie, IWA Mid South 2/4/2005
Really good Ian Rotten methcook BattlARTS style match. I liked Josh Abercrombie quite a bit here, he went right for a leg ride on the ground and had a cool shoulder choke and pin attempts, so he clearly had some idea of what he was doing. He also hit these cool Regal-esque palm strikes on the ground, and wasn’t afraid of getting into a headbutt war with Ian. That said this was still largely the Ian show. Highlights include Ian locking in an awesome cobra twist on the ground, as well as almost dislocating Abercrombies shoulder with some unorthodox arm stretches. He also added some deathmatch fighter touches, such as kneeing Abercrombie in the balls or biting his way out of a choke. The match had several great Ian strikes, most outstanding being his big palm strike and the part where he just walked over and nailed Abercrombie with an Ikedaesque punt kick. Abercrombie taking a huge Orihara-esque bump into the chairs outside the ring and then eating a stiff lariat on the floor was great. The finish wasn’t as strong as the body of the match but Ian hitting a big fisherman buster like it’s a puro match was cool. It was also really cool how the crowd totally ate this match up and reacted to all the big strikes, 2005 was a magical time in indy wrestling.
Low Ki vs Homicide, USA Pro 2/16/2002
Another track from Low Kis amazing run of shoot-ish matches in 2002. Homicide works really well in this kind of match, like he is not a polished technical grappler, but he will put the pressure on you on the ground in ways that make it look like he's really dangerous to fight. Like Low Ki will try to pull guard and lock in an armbar and Homicide grabs his face and tries to push his forearm in his face. It makes for a convincing grappler vs street figher styles contrast, without Homicide coming across as incompetent. The little details such as Ki immediately going for the Dragon Sleeper and Homicide selling it as dangerous also add a lot. We get some fun character moments where Homicide challenges Ki to a macho standoff and rightfully gets his teeth kicked in. Second half had really cool neck crunching suplexes and scrappy tree of woe spots. Homicide does gangsta who busts out puro moves really well, although he may have over indulged a bit on the STF. There was one knee breaker spot that may have been improvized that was absolutely amazing. Goofy finish where they declare it a time limit draw at like 18 minutes caps it off nicely. Very good match in total.
