Ian Rotten

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Jingus]

Seriously? I can tell you from personal experience that Ian's a fun guy to just hang out and smoke with, but 90% of the time he's a downright terrible wrestler. Even as a deathmatch worker he's nothing special, guys like Jun Kasai run rings around him. Heck, I'd argue that Mickie Knuckles can do everything Ian does, and do it better.

[Grimmas]

Seriously? I can tell you from personal experience that Ian's a fun guy to just hang out and smoke with, but 90% of the time he's a downright terrible wrestler. Even as a deathmatch worker he's nothing special, guys like Jun Kasai run rings around him. Heck, I'd argue that Mickie Knuckles can do everything Ian does, and do it better.

On the other hand, Phil Schneider wrote in the nomination thread:

 

 

Ian rotten was probably a top 5 Indy worker in the 2000s. Reviews here

 

http://z11.invisionf...2440&st=0

[Jingus]

I've heard that before, and never understood it. Sloppy brawler, sloppier mat worker. Offense that switches between laughably light to borderline-dangerously stiff, with seemingly no middle ground. Selling that's often mediocre at best, especially anytime he's doing convoluted hardcore spots where soaking up legit pain is treated as being more important than conveying the effect of that pain to the fans. And GOD HELP YOU if you're a captive audience at one of his shows and he grabs a microphone, he's just as bad with endless dull talky segments as Triple H ever was.

 

Behind the scenes, he's arguably an active detriment to the industry. You've got his various shady promotional tactics, constant pushing of deathmatches (which is the primary cause behind the too-strict athletic commission which stifles the indy scene in Kentucky to this day), burning out crowds with hot-shot booking techniques and shows that drag on for four or five hours, his fondness for airing personal grievances in public, so forth and so on. I know all that stuff isn't strictly relevant to a Best Performer poll, but it certainly doesn't make me want to upvote him.

[Jetlag]

I've seen very little of him but when he has his working boots on, I think he's a legit great worker when he's doing those weird BattlARTsian mat brawls. He understands exactly what he's doing and created a style that works perfect for him, that he can slot many different workers into. There's a match vs. Chris Hero where he sells dislocated shoulder (or was it knee, can't remember) and it's seriously some of the best stuff I've seen, including a great post match where they pop it back in. As for his deathmatches again I haven't seen much but from what I can tell he is a smart worker who can tell a story even when he's literally just swinging garbage and get watchable matches out of skinny and morbidly obese near backyarders. There is a match vs a morbidly obese guy called Dixieland Destroyer which is a herculean carryjob from Ian. Watch that and check out how Ian is selling getting choked out and tell me he's not great.

[Phil Schneider]

Here is an Meth-lab BattlArts match with Chris Hero which is a great example of what I love about Ian Rotten

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1zpyogaicY

[elliott]

Total number of times I've seen these guys combined could probably be counted on 2 hands with fingers left over. But there is no way I could resist a match described as "meth-lab battlarts." This was really really really good. Thanks for sharing. Please recommend more (ALL!) stuff in this style.

[joeg]

Here's the thing about Ian Rotten to me at least. I've seen a few of his hyped Mid South "trailer trash RINGS" "methlab BattlArts" matches and in all of them at some point there a moment that is business exposing. He is so clumsy, so awkward, so lacking in actual shoot ability required for shoot style matches, that anything beyond punch kick stuff is business exposing. Yeah in the Hero match both guys sell the knee like it was shot, and the shoot headbutts are cool, beyond that everything is so clumsy and is such obvious cooperation that it is borderline unwatchable. He isn't even the best Rotten.

[Timbo Slice]

That match was fantastic in a lot of ways. First was the fact that there were as many guys in the stands as there were in the ring. Second was that they actually played up the damage right away and made it count. Third was me actually cringing at the headbutts on the outside. Fujiwara wouldn't have taken some of those headbutts. Finish actually worked with Hero basically finding any hole he could and exploiting it. Really great stuff from Rotten, who had some awesome fat guy matwork,

[Phil Schneider]

Hadn't see in it years and it was as great as I remembered, loved all of the little things Ian did here driving his knuckles into Hero's ribs, that headbutt to the back of the head, all of the knee work was great too, and I loved the finish. I wish more of this Ian stuff was online, but I am not sure any of his best stuff outside of this is online.

[soup23]

I am very excited to get to the Hero vs. Ian series from August 2002 and see if anything reaches the level of this match.

[soup23]

Watched Ian vs. Peter B. Beautiful last night from KOTDM 2001. One thing I struggle with Ian is when his unprofessionalism gets in the way and how to judge that for the whole process. It is blatant in this match vs. Peter but it also is something I am thinking about when it comes to someone like say Kawada who I do think dogged it pretty badly vs. Hase in the 99 Dome match. Ian really beats the crap out of this guy including giving him some of the worst chair shots I have ever seen that made me cringe. One of those weird things where I still can't justify why something like that bothers me but something else like Benoit ranking doesn't for me. Perhaps it is that I associate this project as being judged solely inside the ring but it does feel hypocritical typing all of this out.