Necro Butcher

Dylan Keith Summers (born July 13, 1973), better known by the ring name Necro Butcher, is an American professional wrestler.

Throughout the years he has worked for various promotions, including Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro, IWA Mid-South, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, and Combat Zone Wrestling.

Dylan Keith Summers was born in Pine Grove, West Virginia, on July 13, 1973.

On January 2, 1998, Summers made his professional wrestling debut after teaming with Aaron White to take on Victor Pain and Canyon.

Summers, enlisted in the 20th Special Forces Group, continued to work small independent shows across Texas as "Michael Van Slyck", later changed to Sanders.

On March 16, 1999, as Necro Butcher, he won his first professional wrestling championship, after defeating Damon Richards to become IHW Hardcore champion.

Butcher's popularity continued to dominate Texas wrestling, and at his debut in TCW, he defeated rival Jay Diego to become the company's Hardcore champion.

His success in TCW came to a halt after a dispute with its promoter.

He lost the Hardcore title to Hellhammer before leaving the company.

Butcher continued to build up his reputation as the most violent Death Match wrestler in Texas.

On October 10, 1999, Butcher faced "Mad" Man Pondo for the first time.

Throughout 2001, Butcher had worked IWA Mid-South in an attempt to make a name for himself in the top independent leagues.

Becoming a regular across the NWA promotions, Butcher gained widespread visibility in 2002.

In July 2002, competing in IWA Mid-South, he defeated Mark Wolf, Mitch Page, 2 Tuff Tony, and finally Spyder Nate Webb to become the 2002 King of the Deathmatch.

One particularly infamous match Necro had was a 200 Light Tubes deathmatch against Mad Man Pondo - a match they had seen done recently in Japan that turned out to be one of the bloodiest, goriest and most violently gruesome matches in wrestling history at IWA-MS: No Blood, No Guts, No Glory.

After 10 minutes of multiple botched spots, landings on broken glass and smashing of fluorescent light tubes over each other, Necro and Pondo both ended up horrifically multilated by the mercury and carcinogen-laden light tube glass, and Necro received a deep flesh wound 2 inches wide in his left arm.

Unlike the Japanese matches, the glass was not cleaned out of the ring by attendants during the match and the ring was smaller than a standard wrestling ring.

For Combat Zone Wrestling, Butcher worked a program with Wifebeater, losing to him in the first Tournament of Death in 2002.

Butcher returned the following year and was eliminated in round two by Ian Rotten.

He reached the final at the 3rd annual Tournament of Death before finally winning Tournament of Death 4 by defeating John Zandig and Nick Gage.

This victory made him the first person ever to win both the King of the Deathmatch and Tournament of Death.

Necro would go to the finals in the 2005 Strong Style Tournament, defeating Eddie Kingston and B. J. Whitmer, but losing to Chris Hero.

In 2005 and 2006, Necro had two high-profile matches against both Samoa Joe and Low Ki.

He lost to Joe in their first match, the main event of IWA's debut in the ECW Arena.

At Cage of Death VII on December 10, 2005, Necro, along with Toby Klein and Joker, took on Nick Gage, Justice Pain and John Zandig.

During the match, Pain was to perform a Pain Thriller on Necro, but Necro sandbagged the move.

After a second attempt, Pain threw Necro over the top rope and onto the floor.

Necro got back up and returned to the ring only to have a real conflict, known as Legit heat, with Pain.

Necro began throwing punches and kicks landing multiple shots to the shock of officials who were watching and taking care of the other wrestlers in the cage.

Both had no hard feelings after the match and the situation never continued after.

He then went on to lose in January 2006 again to Joe.

Three months later, in Low-Ki's second match in the promotion, he took out Necro.

The two met in a rematch in December, where the stipulation was a tap out/knock out finish.

Although Necro lost all four matches, his star remained high after taking a lot of abuse from both Joe and Ki.

In mid-2007, at IWA MS Point Proven in Philadelphia, Necro and his frequent tag team partner Toby Klein (aka The Tough Crazy Bastards) battled and were defeated by Low-Ki and Homicide.

The TCB were accompanied to the ring by Halfbreed Billy Gram.

Necro eventually won his first IWA gold, the Death Match title, on September 9, 2007, in Sellersburg, Indiana in a three-way dance against Corporal Robinson and Tank.

He is known for his willingness to participate in a dangerous mix of deathmatch wrestling styles, as well as his appearance in the 2008 film The Wrestler.

He would lose the title on March 1, 2008, to Danny Havoc.

His success in IWA-MS lead him to become a name attraction for hardcore oriented indy promotions in North America.