IWA Mid-South Wrestling: King of the Death Matches 2005 Review!
IWA Mid-South are a tough marmite sort of company for even the Death Match wrestling crowd. Back in the day they were raw and brutal, no messing around, no shaved down barbed wire spikes, everything was painfully real compared to the big-league companies putting on Hardcore matches now and then. Same with Combat Zone Wrestling, from which many workers jumped back and forth over the years. This promotion was run for a long time by a bloke called Ian Rotten (not his real name). This guy wasn’t amazing at wrestling. He had a decent move set, but he could take a hell of a lot of punishment, plus unleash muchio pain upon his opponents. Like IWA Deep South, from which I reviewed a tournament before (see review here), these are the true image of mud show garbage small town companies, using highly skilled trained legends and workers in the genre, then mixing in a few over weight or broken down ex/failed wrestlers that could walk around bleeding.
As much as I do enjoy what many call ‘real’ wrestling companies, I adore this low down and dirty gritty saw dust ‘n’ spit on the floor kind of thing. There’s a comradeship that is unrivalled anywhere else in wrestling (well, back in the territory days it existed, but huge money has taken away so much of the love). Death Match Wrestling isn’t a money-orientated field, I mean, Ian Rotten is famous for not paying anyone (among more nastier stories), unlike the Insane Clown Posse with their promotion, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, are reliable with the cash. This is about pride, the love of the work, and thrilling the small crowds.
The early to mid-2000s were a wonderful era where the almost indestructible icons had their wicked ways and mixed in with the next league of up and comers in the business. Nowadays there’s an amazing choice of new places and a healthy set up combining high flying wrestlers, technical grapplers, and basically lumbering monsters all competing in GCW, ICW, H20, etcetera.
I traditionally explain my genesis into this variation of rasslin’ most of the times when reviewing, but I won’t go into details again, all I’ll say is a huge thanks to Abdullah the Butcher, the Sheepherders (I refuse to speak their tamed down WWF moniker), and the late, great Bruiser Brody, for gluing a child to the TV back in the early ‘80s.
So, ladies and gentlemen, let’s venture once again into the world of rednecks, beer swilling beasts and hillbillies in a squared circle. The King of the Death Match events operate like the CZW Tournament of Death‘s, wherein, you win a match, you progress to greater stages against other winners until two or three of you meet up in the grand finale to almost slaughter one another. 2005 (and the years circling around) was a brilliant year to check the pain making places, for you’d find Necro Butcher (more on him soon), Brain Damage (RIP), up and coming Danny Havoc (RIP), Zandig, JC Bailey (RIP), and Mad Man Pondo at their peaks. Or promising beginnings against a few forgotten white trash creatures.
King of the Death Match 2005 has Nick Gage, Mean Mitch Page, Corporal Robinson, and the solid Bull Pain to add to many of those above names, all entering to win by any way possible. In IWA you see the barbed wire and glass cutting deep, blood flows instantly without any cut away or ‘blading’. The human body hits chairs, tables, bricks, fuck, lots of crazy shit brought along by the fans to be used and abused. Serious injuries do happen. Over the years I’ve seen Nick Gage and Sexxxy Eddie nearly bleed to death due to glass piercing arteries. I’ve seen a man nearly crippled by falling onto a TV, as in GCW: Zandig’s Tournament of Survival (see review here), in fact there’s so many but they’re the main ones. Deep inside KOTDM 2005, there’s an injury that made me sit up and say, “Holy shit!”
My Partner in Gore, Willow, joins me for all the Death Match viewings these days, she loves blood. Whatever wrestling we see, she expects blood, the flowing crimson is never far away. This starts with three non-tournament matches, which for the purpose of the review, as this is a Death Match subject at hand. I won’t comment upon, aside from the ladies fight between Hailey Hatred and the unbelievable Mickie Knuckles. In this realm, some ladies enter the usually all male dominated Death Matches. Christina Von Eerie, LuFisto, Sage Sin, and Mickie Knuckles have battled on a regular over the years. Mickie took on her mentor, the above-mentioned Ian Rotten at one stage in a shockingly graphic round. The women can dish out the pain and take it all back.
Stage one starts with a steel cage match, accompanied by thumbtacks plus other bits and pieces. I’m not a fan of cages unless the camera is done right. Some places stick the lenses through readymade holes in the cage to film, or if there’s a bigger cage involved, you can get cameras inside with the combatants. Something like this, the grid is between the camera and the action so it’s a bit distracting. The winner happens to be two of the three involved and the loss is taken by Josh Abercrombie who suffered greatly throughout the whole ten minutes or so.
Next, out lumbers Mean Mitch Page, who hadn’t been in a match for a while, so had gained a fair bit of weight. This guy has heart and passion, but he’s slow. However, he can take a beating. I’ve seen him have a multitude of light tubes crashed over him before by Necro Butcher (remember, more on him soon). The fans kind of like him now and then. It depends on who’s carrying him in a match. Then we have another Southern monster, Tank, followed by the sorely missed, late Brain Damage. This young man was one of the best up and coming artists in this game, good image, fun, inventive, bloody, and for a big guy could move. His death in 2012 robbed many of us such a wonderful personality. Sadly, the match this trio of terrors are in totally sucks. Staple guns hurt, but there’s not much you can really do (Corporal Robinson had his tongue stapled to a turn buckle in the early CZW days though). Brain Damage takes a lot of the violence, he really does his best in this one.
The rest of these opening round matches throws folks like Necro Butcher, Mad Man Pondo (who wrote an incredible autobiography some years back… see review here), Corporal Robinson, Nick Gage, and Bull Pain into the next round. Bull Pain, he’s a wall of muscle and attitude. He carries a baseball bat to smack the shit out of people, and his insults are amazing. He’s practically unstoppable. Lots of people fear him. Nick Gage, who is in his classic heel with a bit of cowardice stage of his career, tries to beg his way out of his next match when discovering it’s against Bull Pain. Suffice to say, they do go head-to-head and Bull Pain tears him to bits.
Maybe due to budget purposes, or lack of imagination, night two progresses with the next stages of torment, as fans bring weapons, and it all remains in the ring throughout. In CZW, those days, every single set up a different torture for whoever dare enter. It doesn’t take away the sheer volume of violence and bloodshed, however, which brings me to Deranged. Bless this big bald lad. It is he who has the injury which made me and Willow gawp in sheer disbelief. Whilst fighting Mad Man Pondo, his forehead strikes a cinder block, splitting the flesh wide open to gush and squirt endlessly. At one point he lays on his back, getting his breath, you see the blood bubbling out. As he turns, the ocean of gore is unbelievable. The crowd jump back. “Oh shit!” yells a few people. A chant of, “Please don’t die! Please don’t die!” begins. Many wrestlers, realizing they have a good chance of falling unconscious due to blood loss would call it in, have the match ended quickly at least. Nope, not Deranged. This young man at the time was five years into his career so decided to prove himself. He beat Mad Man Pondo in a totally insane table spot, then had a towel over his head (which became red and drenched fast) knowing very well that a short time later he’d be facing somebody else.
Necro Butcher has been there since the year dot it seems. He’s a legend; a made man in the game. Having a small role in the Mickey Rourke flick, The Wrestler certainly helped him as well as a veterans length CV of madness since the late 1990s. At one point he retired due to cancer, received treatment, couldn’t walk, then gained some health back (aside from the feelings in his feet which are near on numb), and got himself a job in an old people’s home. One day on Facebook he announced that he was sick of leading what many call a ‘normal’ life and he’d tried so hard. He was going back to where he belonged. Since 2022 he’s one of the best wrestling comeback subjects in recent memory. Taking his fists to a lot of new faces, and those who were coming up before he retired, he has wins and losses, but keeps on going. Necro Butcher finds there’s only one way to beat man mountains when faced by one after the other in this KOTDM event, and that’s choke ’em out after they’ve beating the living shit out of him. He makes it to the finale, getting a severe injury in the process, but again it’s Deranged who gets the lingering imprint on the fan’s memories once again. His next match against Mr. Insanity. Toby Klein comes along, and the back of his head is also split open. At one point there’s sprays coming from both sides of his cranium. Afterwards, he squirts “KOTDM” on the floor with his artery spray whilst laughing. Wow.
IWA is the gutter of Death Match companies, and all the better for it. There’s a warm feeling throughout. Crowds are small, but those in attendance get their dollars’ worth and are very loud. The atmosphere is fantastic. My only gripe is the commentary, just keep certain wrestlers off the mic!
Danny Havoc, who passed away in 2020, was in the fledgling rookie stage of his amazing career, and, like Brain Damage and Deranged, he wanted to show the people what he could do — a combination of pure moves, technical and hardcore. I haven’t seen many wrestlers take the abuse he did at the hands of so many beasts. The fans were beginning to take notice of him in 2005, they weren’t disappointed by his rise in the ranks until his death.
IWA Mid-South Wrestling: King of the Death Matches 2005 isn’t for everyone. It’s always compared to backyard products, but that’s incorrect. There’s more to it than that. If you’ve never walked these roads, IWA isn’t the first place to start, all you’ll see is the blood and glass. Try more recent affairs from ICW or GCW, read reviews elsewhere and see for yourself. Sooner or later, you’ll find your way into the archives, probably beginning with older Combat Zone Wrestling DVDs, then IWA. A lot of wresters speak ill of Ian Rotten for numerous reasons, but he knew how to knock a big event together from a pile of nuts, bolts, and rubbish. He gave the fans what they wanted, at least in the early and mid-years of his company. Worth noting, if you research, you’ll discover that a lot, and I mean a lot, of big league names were given a chance with Ian in their early years, as were grapplers whose careers had faded, he helped them be seen again.
Directed by: Smart Mark Video
Produced by: Ian Rotten
Editing by: Smart Mark Video
Music by: Various
Cast: Necro Butcher, Nick Gage, Danny Havoc, Tank, Brain Damage, Mad Man Pondo, Ian Rotten, Mickie Knuckles, JC Bailey, The Hellaware Assassin
Year: 2005
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 5h
Studio: IWA Mid-South
