It's a Rotten World

Ian Rotten vs Cole Radrick, IWA Mid South 11/4/2016

As far as I can remember, Ian Rotten has been fat. Quite tubby in ECW, fat in the early 2000s, and growing ever fatter as the years progressed. Always quite nimble for a fat guy, but by 2016 his years of being Ian Rotten seem to have caught up. He’s way slower than I ever remember him being, and moves like he would struggle to get up if you knocked him on his back. Looking it up, it seems Ian Rotten and IWA Mid South as a whole have been gone from wrestling for a couple years now, which seems nearly impossible to believe considering what a consistent slimey presence Ian has had on the indies for well over 20 years like the mold that seems to be growing on the walls of this dim little dive called an arena that they held this match in. And this match is an excellent representation of what made Ians presence in wrestling so fun and unique, well if you discount all the scummy things he’s done, I think by the time of this match he must have been cancelled a dozen times. Last I remember I think he was manipulating people online into thinking he was some kind of woke darling, with a few people being genuinely shocked when it was revealed in another scandal that he wasn’t at all such a wholesome person. Well, I am not going to judge what he may or may not have done behind the scenes, all I can judge is what went down before the cameras. In this match, a fat, scummy Ian Rotten goes out to stretch and potatoe a young Cole Radrick in so many unique, fun and painful looking ways. This match is a relentless and uncompromising as the female fan who kept yelling ‘Common Cole!’ in the same monotone voice throughout the match no matter what was happening. Really makes me wonder what else Ian has done in these recent years, because there’s no reason he couldn’t do what he does here in half a dozen matches per year or so. The meth BattlARTs holds hold up as well as anything and the nasty palm strikes and headbutts are as sick as ever. I am not super familiar with Cole Radrick, he did slap his knee weirdly one time but aside from that he is perfectly good. Energetic, makes a good effort at getting out of Ians holds, is perfectly willing to get hit with stiff palm strikes and backhands and headbutts and a Lou Thesz elbow to the groin, has a nice shoot punch exchange, and headbutts Ian Rotten way harder than a normal person would headbutt someone who has Hep-C. This is not just a nostalgia trip for the few sickos who liked Ians meth shootstyle matches in 2002, it’s a genuinely great, compelling little match thanks to the serious fight Cole Radrick puts up, and they get a nice, genuine ovation from the small crowd of perhaps 30 people that gathered to watch this spectacle. If there was such a thing as a hall of fame for independent wrestling matches I would frame this and put it in it.

Ian Rotten vs Mitch Ryder, IWA Mid South 2/18/2017

A lot of independent wrestling kind of start to lose its identity, it’s unique flair. Not IWA Mid South though. Still running in some half empty hall on a bare floor, still the same seedy brawls, still Ian waddles out to bleed. I remember people saying he had gotten out of shape in like 2010. There are still obese fans sitting in the front row, one of them with a walking assistance and he wisely pulls his sweater over his ears when lighttubes break near him. This is a street fight so they jump each other. It’s deathmatch stuff with both guys breaking out light tubes but the way they work it is oddly adjacent to the old blue collar Mid South brawls of yore. And both these guys have good looking strikes. Ryder hits a really hard crossface, Ian palm strikes him in the jaw because Ian does things like that. Ian hits a headbutts with light tubes and then flops over to the floor to blade himself. Doesn’t Ian have Hep at this point? Who cares, Mitch Ryder sure doesn’t care. Ian Rotten flips over a trashcan and it’s a shoot trashcan and all kinds of grime and trash seeps out onto the floor, then he grabs a beer bottle from the grime and trash to carve Ryder up. Ian sodomizing a screaming and bleeding Mitch with the broken beer bottle on the floor is some real Americana. Mitch Ryder throws great punches. Ians are not on the same level but still good. They trade punch combos a bit which is good, Ian starts to work on Mitchs bad neck with chairs… Mitch goes to a big stash of deathmatch weapons. The commentators start talking about how he might come up with all manner of modern deathmatch weapons like barbedwire boards and such, but instead he comes up with a fucking old school fireball that burns Ians face. Ian sells the fuck out of it, screaming and crying for water. You don’t usually see big, tough, fat man crying in any media. It’s kind of a taboo, but Ian is not afraid to break taboos. Mitch Ryder punches a camera girl in the face and she bleeds too. Chairs are thrown and this is starting to hint at a Tracy Smothers type riot with Mitch being unhinged and punching everyone in the face, and then Mitch storms off. Thought this was getting really good and then they just ended the match there.

Ian Rotten vs Mitch Ryder, IWA Mid South 3/4/2017

This is the last man standing match that is set up by the fireball angle. It’s a big blowoff brawl, again in the other seedy hall, in the pale green light. Ian Rotten is not a great brawler, at least not at this stage. A lot of slowly walking here and choking the other guy a little, and then slowly walking over there and choking the other guy a little, and occasionally a lazy lowblow and things like that to transition. There are still fun Ian-isms: him punching Ryder in the hamstring, a pretty gruesome double fishhook, a fucking gator roll into a choke on the floor. It’s a slow match but it’s worked well enough that the audience still breaks into “Ian” chants at times. Ryder works hard here with his facial expressions and good punches (I do miss those XCW Mid-West tapes). At one point he gives Ian a suplex on some stairs (with full on Christmas lighting) and because Ian can’t go over fully it kind of turns into a brainbuster. At one point Mitch gets slapped by the girl that he bloodied in the other match. There is some good tooth and nail fighting here, and they leather each other with a belt. It’s like there’s a great match here, but its kind of overdosed on Fentanyl. Eventually Rotten blows a fireball at Ryders face and Ryder sells it like crazy, flopping all the way to the floor and getting the 10 count while a boy with glasses and a pepsi throws popcorn at him, an end befitting to any legendary feud.

Indy BattlARTS

 

 

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.

2002 MOTY List

2002 MOTY List Update

 Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki (JAPW 6/7/2002)

Probably the greatest matwork in a US indy match ever. Both guys were incredibly vicious here: Danielson would crossface Low Ki really hard aswell as drop knees on the ground, not to mention just trying to pull Kis head off when working facelocks. Kis focus was basically to create openings using his knee strikes etc. Ki was pretty outmatched, but still came up with a few brilliant counters. While this was largely uncooperative, they came up with a few great holds such as Ki trying to split Danielsons legs. Bryans using the modified surfboard to set up the Cattle Mutilation is the greatest use of that move aswell. Then Ki is able to get out of that too. Ki picking up Danielson and ramming him into the buckles before collapsing was another great comeback. Danielson slapping Ki only to get clocked with a head kick was another all time moment. Danielson moving to the corner as seen as Ki kneed him was a smart use of ring positioning. Danielson crawling to the apron and just taking a bump to the floor when Ki hit him instead of doing some elaborate apron spot was a brief of fresh air compared to current day apron spot obsessed pro wrestling. The match lost a bit of it's greatness when they were fighting on the floor and I thought they could have done a better job with the finish. By all logic, the whole thing should have ended with the 2^nd Cattle Mutilation. I don't want to nitpick though, because this was a seriously great, inspiring match.

Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 2/24/2002)

Here's something I never thought I would see: a 40 minute long joshi match that I didn't hate. Initially I thought this was the match that Phil infamously picked apart, but apparently that one went 60 minutes. They seemed to have found a decent middle ground here. There were some problems and you could've shaved off 20 minutes and came out with an amazing match, but this is good in its own right. I'd say this was easily better than the 40 minute long garbage NJPW has been pumping out for years, and pretty much any Toyota sprint. You had the psycho violence of Maekawa kicking Nakanishi around the ring, including a crane kick that left Nakanishi spitting blood for the rest of the match, but also a surprisingly great understanding of the mechanics. For example, Nakanishi was initially avoiding the inevitable Boston Crab, which made Maekawa eventually being able to lock it in feel rewarding. It's a small detail but such things help keeping lengthy matches interesting and it shows they gave a shit about more than just hitting their big spots. Nakanishis gradual comeback from getting her back worked over was great as she was initially struggling to hit her spots. Here dives were smart. Nakanishi also showed a surprising amount of violence, aggressively elbowing Maekawa in the back of the head for example and hitting some nasty dropkicks and headbutts. Maekawa, of course, had a brilliant array of brutal kicks. I also loved her breaking out the green mist. All the control segments were well executed and there were few quite great hope spots/cut offs. There were a lot of nearfalls, but due to Nakanishis offense mostly being rollups I thought it never came into stupid overkill territory. Also, the Momoe Latch is a great spot and Maekawa had a few neat ways to counter it. Leg work was obviously filler, but well executed and didn't go long.

 Ian Rotten vs. Tarek the Great (IWA MS 10/4/2002) 

Two pasty tubby methheads in black shirts work a quasi shootstyle match in front of 30 people. While this was a little clumsy and slow in parts this was probably better than any cafeteria shootstyle I've seen from the current generation of US indy wannabe shooters. And in fact they should study this one as it had a lot of stuff that is missing from their attempts: stiff blows while trading holds to create an opening, holding tight to your holds and pin attempts, trying to prevent the other guy from moving etc. There was a neat moment where Ian would apply an STF and headbutt Tarek in the back of his head. Tarek is really hilarious as his entire idea of selling is pretty much „scream really loudly“ so anytime Ian would do as much as squeeze him he would scream like a japanese female wrestler. All in the same tone mind you. He was okay though and Ian looked very good twisting up his leg etc. The headbutts in this were insane especially the falling headbutts that left the lady in the striped pullover wincing. Memorable finish. This is what indy wrestling should be.

Low Ki vs. Amazing Red (PWF 11/10/2002)

Borderline great match well worth powering through the absolutely awful commentary. They worked a slightly more intricate version of their usual match here, adding some especially cool counters and cut offs to the mix. The main reason the work between these two guys ages well is that instead of building to thigh slapping flying knee strikes or Go 2 Sleep variations they add stiff kicks to the chest and nasty turnbuckle bumps to the mix. Note how violent something like Kis hair pulling toss felt not to mention the headbutts. Could've gone longer but I guess that's a good thing.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

2002 MOTY List Update #2 - Online US Indy Wrestling Edition

 Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance (APW 10/25/2002)

This was a serious contender for the greatest US indy match I've ever seen. Virtually flawlessly worked 30 minute junior epic which had everything – matwork, storytelling, selling, devastating moves and guys slapping eachother in the mouth. We start with 10 minutes of nearly uninterrupted matwork which was ultra tightly worked, smooth stuff. Quance is someone nobody really talks about anymore, but he was a great talent and just mindlbowingly good for a dude in his 2^nd year of wrestling. The matwork they did here was much better than the wristlocky WoS imitation stuff you usually get in US indies and closer to lucha matwork with a bit of japanese influence sprinkled in. Quance would shoot for double leg takedowns and judo legtrips, while Dragon just pounces on him like a snake, in between working ultra tight pin attempts and slapping eachother. Quances tiger feint rana may be the single coolest move a skinny US junior has ever invented. This is 2/3 falls and both the first 2 falls have really smart finishes that pay off in the long run of the match. Dragon was incredibly vicious here, modifying his signature offense to work Quances arm, but he also did a great job selling a big head kick. Quances arm selling was pretty much flawless as he was struggling to hit his offense for the rest of the match and he looked quite sympathetic trying to take down his bigger, more vicious opponent. There were also numerous great counters from Super Dragon, ranging from Fujiwara armbars to turning a DDT into a powerbomb mid-air. He also had this amazing flying armbar. Match also had all the usual brutal offense, neck-compressing suplexes, huge double stomps and lariats etc. The finish is fucking infuriating, but please don't let that detract from the amazing work these two did here.  

Ian Rotten vs. Chris Hero (IWA MS 5/4/2002)

More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.  

Super Dragon vs. Bryan Danielson (EPIC WAR 6/16/2002)

INDY KINGS ROAD! It's almost needless to say this was very good, stiff pro wrestling between arguably 2 of 3 most talented US dudes in 2002. Match had good build and Super Dragons arm selling was excellent, textbook stuff. He was struggling to hit his signature move, even intentionally fucking up a springboard dive and whiplashing into the ropes. Outside interference was a little goofy but lead to a huge double stomp from Dragon. Danielson in this early stage was a pretty fun wrestler of his own, busting out a lot of things that will come unexpected if you are used to the later WWE or RoH version.

Steve Corino vs. Barry Windham (2/19/2002)

Damn, 2002 Barry Windham was pretty good still. He could still throw a great punch and bump around, and he knew exactly what to do. Then, he even decided to blade. The highlight of this was Corino viciously attacking Windhams cut and if it had more of that this would've been really great.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST