Reader Request: Tristan Ramsey vs. Toby Farley, NWA Smoky Mountain

Tristan Ramsey vs. Toby Farley NWA Smoky Mountain 1/16


I love getting recommendations, and I'm especially interested in hearing about guys I've never seen before. I had never heard of either of these two, and it's kinda heartbreaking as there are probably 30+ different promotions who put weekly TV up on youtube, and it bugs me that it's all sitting out there and there's very likely some gems just sitting out there, waiting, lingering in a one hour episode of TV that I've never heard about. So I like people pointing stuff like this out to me. The match is fun, although I think they went for some things that they maybe didn't earn. They really really wanted this to be a war, to be one of those "what will it take!???!" kind of battles, and those were the moments that kept it from being just a tighter, more organically competitive match. Farley is a guy with a lot of throws and maybe a little bit of Hero worship (now what I did there was take a fairly common colloquialism that means excessive admiration, but by making Hero proper I also clearly imply that he seems like he lifts specific sequences from Chris Hero matches. Hero worship. I'm a hack), which hey, if you gotta lift something from somebody, lift cool Hero stuff like his awesome front kicks and his double stomp/senton. Ramsey was a guy who did a lot of stuff, really seemed like he had a deep offense toolbag, but also a guy who seemed like he would benefit from emptying a few things out of that bag. He had some surprising agility for a guy who looks a little squishy, and I was really impressed with some of his nice, fluid armdrags in the beginning, and also his willingness to take some mean bumps and also not have a problem getting his face kicked in. I loved that opening armdrag sequence, with Ramsey busting out fun unexpected flipping armdrags to confound Farley, and Farley getting pissed and just locking on a snug waistlock and launching him with a release German. A lot of the strike exchange stuff didn't do much for me. Both men had weak chops, and both did a lot of headbutts. The headbutts probably hurt like hell, but didn't look very good, which is a bad combo for a human hitting his head against something for dramatic effect. Farley had some real nice front kicks though, so peppering those into his brawling were a plus. He had tons of suplexes, and Ramsey impressively went up for all of them. I didn't care tons for Ramsey comeback strikes, as he doesn't have any sort of quick burst speed so came off real sluggish when he would charge with a strike, flat back bump by Farley, up to his feet, charge with another strike. The "charging" didn't come off well, and the strikes kind of suffered as well. The kneeling in front of each other headbutt spot didn't feel really earned, as they were having a nice match up to there, but really wasn't feeling like the war they thought it was. I did like the finish, with Farley rolling down his kneepad to set up his jumping knee, and Ramsey doing a double lindy bump off it. I love when wrestlers adjust some gear to set up a big move. Greg Valentine shifting his shin guard before locking on the figure 4 was one of the first wrestling matches I saw, and it always looked awesome. Things haven't changed.


So hey, this was a fun match. Things could have been tightened up, but both guys did plenty of things I liked and it felt like they'll continue getting better, and that makes for a fulfilling wrestling watching experience.