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Independent wrestling will never forget 11 June 2005. There, on a humble IWA Mid-South card called 'Something To Prove', hardcore crazy man Necro Butcher had a chip on his shoulder the size of Madison Square Garden. He'd craved a match against rising ROH star Samoa Joe, and now he had it. Things were about to go off the rails rather swiftly.
AEW's Eddie Kingston perhaps summed it up best by telling VICE: “It’s a time capsule, man. If people want to know how the independents were from like 2000-2010, that was it. They made a moment”. His words expertly encapsulate the feeling and atmosphere inside the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia 20+ years ago.
At heart, this episode of 'Dark Side Of The Ring' was a soft biography on Dylan Summers AKA Necro Butcher. VICE pulled some harrowing childhood tales from the man, and those turned what could've been an hour-long look at an iconic match into a psychologist's dream. There's unresolved trauma aplenty for this remarkably well-spoken but definitely unhinged human being.
Necro has survived cancer and still wrestles today, and he wants to thank Joe for an afternoon he'll never forget. Likewise, Joe has fond memories of a match he didn't think would become as cherished as it is. Unpicking every piece with bloody fingernails was VICE's task. As usual, they absolutely smashed it (although not as hard as some forearms smashed Butcher's jaw mid-bout).
Here's everything learned from a doc obsessed with a match you didn't know you needed to see until now.
