APW TV Workrate Report: 4/23/11

Looks like we got Timothy Thatcher vs. Dylan Drake tonight, and I'm excited to see what Thatcher can do in a long main event. He has real good presence and a great slimy British scumbag vibe.

OK, looks like the only match on this whole episode is Thatcher vs. Drake, which seems like a lot of time for the match. I know I just requested a longer Thatcher match to see what he's made of...but I'm already getting nervous.

Drake starts with a bunch of dropkicks, some hit and some don't. Thatcher slows him down with some matwork, and he's a guy who seems like he can work the mat. He does some cool hammerlocks and is good at making it look like he's really trying to inch a guy's arm farther up his back, slowly and painfully. He never goes into autopilot during the matwork, always letting his smugness shine through. Drake takes over with leg work in a real cool, simple way: Thatcher stands up with a kimura, gets cocky and stands on Drake's arm, poses, and Drake just takes him down with a single leg. Drake's arm work isn't as interesting as Thatcher's leg work, but Thatcher is really good at selling the leg.

Drake goes up top for a crossbody, and Thatcher European uppercuts him out of the sky, then lifts up Drake's arm just to stomp it back to the mat in a real nasty way. Ouch. Thatcher misses a corner charge and Drake tries to lock on the "Bay to Breaker" (basically the sharpshooter), and Thatcher is really great in blocking it, holding onto Drake's leg so he can't turn it, then punching from his back to break it. Thatcher goes up top and gets dragon screwed off. Thatcher comes up with another cool way to block the Bay to Breaker, this time holding Drake's leg and palm striking Drake's knee over and over until he breaks the hold. I'm not sure why more guys don't try to break submissions by just hitting the guy putting the submission on. It seems like instinct, but it doesn't happen often. Fritz Von Erich locked The Claw on a ring announcer and the guy grabbed Fritz's balls and squeezed. Somebody puts me in a sharpshooter, his knee is the closest thing for me to attack. Makes tons of sense to me.

What doesn't make much sense to me is when Drake tries a diving headbutt to Thatcher's knee. It misses, but even if it hit...does that move make sense to anybody else? When the BEST case scenario is throwing your OWN head into somebody's knee, is it really a move you should be doing? I mean, he is actually kind of lucky that the move missed. I would rather do a diving headbutt to the floor than to somebody's pointy, boney knee. Why not just stomp it? You're standing right next to the knee...just jump all over that thing. I just don't get it.

At this point it's pretty clear this match is going to a time limit draw, horrible commentator Matthew Theall is really bad telegraphing it 10 minutes out. "Thatcher has the Thatcher Stretch locked on, it should definitely finish the match this time. This definitely won't be a time limit draw!" "Time is ticking down, but somebody will win before the time limit is up!" This guy is really fucking horrible.

They exchange some big moves, Thatcher takes a real nice release German, they trade holds for awhile, Theall takes all the wind out of my sails by completely foreshadowing the time limit draw, and it ends in a time limit draw. Man this guy is awful on the mic. He does not have a good voice for this, and he constantly stumbles all over himself. Awful.

Match was going fine and was hurt by commentary. Drake looked real inconsistent here, selling the arm when convenient and pacing things out really awkwardly. Thatcher looked good though, with solid matwork, nice leg selling, and he really made Drake's offense look nice.