2016 Ongoing MOTY List

84. Will Ospreay vs. Matt Riddle PROGRESS Wrestling 11/27

PAS: After seeing their awesome match at the WWN Supershow, I wanted to check out their early matchup. This was worked as a total sprint, with Riddle jumping Osprey at the bell with a big jumping knee, it pretty much stays on 10 for the whole 8 minutes, and really builds to an exciting finish. Riddle is really good at Hearns vs. Hagler style all out matches, and while this had some goofy Osprey stuff it moves at such a pace that it is easy to gloss over. Loved the out of nowhere wall flip by Osprey and the intense ground and pound leading to the twister was awesome by Riddle. Weird pair of guys to have such good chemistry, but they really do.

ER: It’s really fun seeing two hyper-athletic guys match up and go as hard as they can for 10 minutes. There are a few of these super athletes that I love watching in short bursts, and usually end up hating their matches that go 15+. Give me something like Low-Ki vs. John Morrison and all their weird landings and crazy body control for 10 minutes, all day. Give me a 20 minute John Morrison match? I’ma pass. Riddle and Ospreay are amazing athletes, who don’t always work a match structure that I’m going to enjoy. But I liked their bonkers WM weekend kickout-fest, and this was even shorter and sprintier. I couldn’t be more happy with the beginning of this match, as Riddle is introduced and opts to skip past much of Ospreay’s introduction, sprinting to center ring and pasting Ospreay with a leaping knee and dumps him with a deadlift German. I’m in. Riddle on the attack with Ospreay reeling is really fun, Ospreay is a very capable seller and can put over a beating, and Riddle is someone who is going to lace in the elbow shots and kicks. I thought Ospreay working his way back into the match was done well, especially liked him getting a drop toehold that sent Riddle flying face first into the turnbuckle. I was watching this match at the Phoenix airport and some stranger sneaking glances thought Riddle had just tripped and landed face first into the buckle. I tried to explain to him and show him that Ospreay tripped him, but the person was convinced that Riddle messed something up. I'm never getting that time back. But hats off to these two for convincing this man that the thing that was supposed to happen (Riddle hitting the buckles with his face), actually happened. These two did not save me from this man then sitting behind me on the plane and having a 2 hour one-way conversation with another man, who said perhaps 40 words the entire flight in response. Sample conversation from this casual observer: "I don't typically like Corona, and I never buy them. They're a little too...I don't know...cliche? I typically go for Bud Light with Lime. You try it and it's like beer with lemonade and you're going 'okay I can get used to this'." Fuck this guy so hard. At the end of the flight the victim of this one-way conversation got off the plane with only a paperback in his hand. I bet he was looking forward to getting two solid hours of reading time on his knew book, and Mr. "I once knew a girl from Boston. Never been there though. Always been curious, just haven't been" went and ruined that for him. Anyway, Ospreay gets a big flying comeback, runs up a freaking wall out of nowhere, big Space Flying Tiger Drop, and they do some stupid stuff that I don't care about: Riddle can kind of zombie in place waiting for moves to hit sometimes, the sequence ending with the Pele kick was too dance-y and ended with Riddle selling as much as Ospreay for some reason, and the strike exchange on the knees was horseshit. But a 10 minute sprint with guys like this (and there really aren't many "guys like this") should always tear, and this one tore.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST