2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Thatcher v. WALTER

7. Timothy Thatcher vs. WALTER PROGRESS Wrestling 1/28

PAS: These two had a fun Ambition style mat wrestling match last year, this however was these two doing their variation on Wahoo v. Johnny Valentine, and it was pretty great. WALTER just laces Thatcher with chops early, turning his chest all kind of different colors, there is a real thud to WALTERS chops, they don't just make a snap sound, it is like a high hat and a bass drum.  Thatcher gets an advantage when it spills to the floor and WALTER really smashes his hand on the ringpost with a missed chop, and the Thatcher hurls the hand back into the ringpost a second time, which was even nastier, and then he is able to hit some big uppercuts. It pretty much just evens up the playing field and allows you to buy Thatcher standing and trading with WALTER. Like most worldwide main event wrestling, this probably went five minutes too long, but if you have a couple of big guys work their way through a war like this, I am always going to enjoy it.

ER: We got a nice appetizer with their Ambition match last year, but this was a full on overstuffed main course, their first big time singles match, and a chance to see them go full Ikeda/Ishikawa. It peaked weird, and I wish it had ended sooner than it did, but these two savages wrecked each other so badly that after awhile I was in awe that they were able to keep getting back up. It doesn't take too long for WALTER to slap Thatcher before smothering him with a headlock, and the zoom on Thatcher's confused face is perfect. WALTER unleashes quite a beating, throwing those baseball bat chops and really making me wonder how Thatcher was going to get back into this thing...and while I was wondering that, WALTER whiffs a chop and pings his hand right off the ringpost, and in case he wasn't positive that it was a ringpost he hit, Thatcher makes sure to grab that same hand and throw it right back into the ringpost. I love a good chop-the-ringpost spot, and this was a great one, a real match turning moment. It doesn't really stop the beating from WALTER, but it gets his foot in the door. And the rest of the match is an exercise in punishment. Both men show bruising at this point, but Thatcher takes the worst of it. WALTER clubs him with huge chops, big kicks, and in an inspired bit he shifts weight on a Thatcher belly to belly attempt and just deadweight splats right onto Thatcher, coming down with such force that he almost spikes himself. Thatcher gets some hope spots - he's no softie - and is still somehow able to chuck WALTER with some low angle heavy Germans, and maybe it's me projecting due to seeing so many Fujiwara and Ishikawa matches, but I kept waiting for him to pull an ace out of a bruised sleeve (it also could have been the nice job of WALTER selling the wrist/hand, making me buy into that being what ends him). But WALTER is a machine, and there are only so many head-whipped-into-mat powerbombs that one man should take. Epic war, and while I do think it went too long, I think it more than deserved to go for epic war status.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST