2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ringkampf vs. Irie/YUKI ISHIKAWA BABY!!

2. Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher/WALTER) vs. Shigehiro Irie/Yuki Ishikawa WXW 3/7

PAS: I have been beating the drum for someone to bring in Ishikawa and have him work this new generation of mat guys, ever since he moved to Canada. For some reason the first fed to do it is all the way over in Germany, still here he is, and it is marvelous. Thatcher is clearly a guy who grew up on BattlArts and he fits right in like a glove, every time he and Ishikawa match up they never stop adjusting and countering and moving, there are some really dope counters in this match, at one point Ishikawa suckers Thatcher into an omaplata by initially attacking his arm and it was the kind of cool mat wrestling even the best of the new generation can't pull off. There is a section near the end, where Ishikawa tries four different arm attacks, each countered until he finally locks on a seated Fujiwara which WALTER has to break up.  WALTER and Irie are your big thumping meatheads, they have some big slugfest sections with each other, and some nifty exchanges with Thatcher and Ishikawa as well. I loved Ishikawa liver shotting WALTER from the mount, only to get swatted King Kong style from the ground by WALTER's catchers mitt. Finish run focused on Thatcher vs. Irie, which was good stuff and left plenty of Thatcher vs. Ishikawa meat on the bone for their singles match. Ishikawa's body looks a little older, but he doesn't seem to have lost a step in the ring. I loved that this happened, and loved how it turned out.

ER: In one weekend Jun Akiyama wrestles in the US for the first time in his 27 year career, and Yuki Ishikawa wrestles in Germany for the first time in his 27 year career. I have no idea why now, for either of them, but I'm overjoyed I got to see the former in person, and the latter at all (with presumably a couple more matches on the way including the dream singles match vs. Thatcher). This tag was a ton of fun, I love seeing WALTER up against a pair of guys sturdy enough that they won't make me eyeroll when they come back against that beast. We've all wanted to see Thatcher/Ishikawa match up ever since that became a possibility (jeez Thatcher's trip to Canada was probably over two years ago at this point) and these two absolutely delivered against each other. I was live for every exchange between the two, especially when Thatcher came right out and hit Ishikawa harder than Ishikawa was throwing. Ishikawa with both hands gripped behind Thatcher's neck, forcing his shinbone into Thatcher's throat was not something I expected to see today, but I'm happy I did. Irie is a big meaty son, like a less snacky Yutaka Yoshie, and Thatcher was a cruel cruel man going after Irie's joints, twisting hard at his ankle, and I dug all Irie's stuff opposite WALTER. From the first moment those two slammed into each other and didn't budge on a shoulderblock, they had me. I mean good lord WALTER yanking Irie's leg around before dragging it into a disgusting single crab, and we even got a couple big time belly to belly suplexes. Some of my favorite stuff in this was based around moves that never ended up happening, and the struggle around them, like WALTER trying to powerbomb Irie but Irie holding that back of WALTER's legs with all his might to prevent it. And I dug that Irie got to pay back all of Thatcher's joint manipulation by absolutely throwing down some Vader style swinging arms. You could really see Thatcher's head get rocked a couple times, then  goes down to the body and it all looks great. Irie really could have been the odd man out in this but he slotted nicely with three varying degrees of legend, and this delivered what anybody could have possibly wanted.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST