2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Thatcher 3

27. Daniel Makabe vs. Timothy Thatcher 3-2-1 Battle! 7/12

PAS: One of the best series in this decade has been happening at punk club in Seattle. This is their third match, and is as good as the previous two. The first match had Makabe working underdog babyface pulling off an upset, the second match had Makabe as a heel, arrogant about the win, but still at a level below, here Makabe has worked Mania weekend and traveled the country and works it more as an equal. The matwork in these matches is always slick, but I really loved the striking, Makabe was always going back to the body in between all of his head shots, and I especially dug the straight punch to the kidney. Thatcher also threw some huge uppercuts, forearms from the top and sick slaps.  They played nicely off the finish of the first two matches, with Thatcher getting a rope break on Makabe's cattle mutilation variation, and Makabe reversing the Fujiwara. Loved how Makabe just demolished Thatcher's neck and back of the head to loosen him up for the final Mutilation. Great match, Makabe is a treat to watch, and I love that Thatcher is still doing his thing.

ER: This was unsurprisingly really good, and I can't decide if I like the matwork more or the strike game more, it's too tough to choose! I loved the dueling leg attacks, every single thing done to a leg felt uncalled for. Thatcher had some of the best ankle locks I'm seen, a move killed for years by Angle's boring/reversed every time application, here looked like something that will have Makabe's achilles aching as the weather gets colder. Makabe off his back was always trying to hook Thatcher's standing leg, always kicking at his patella, and in the closing moments he flat out stomped down on top of Thatcher's extended leg. Thatcher's natural reaction to it made it look immediately hyperextended, just a super nasty spot with a stomp going against the natural bend of the leg. The striking was great too, Makabe throwing in various body shots over the duration. He never looked to finish with anything body related, but he was so damn good at using body shots to set up other attacks. Early on he was mashing the heel of his hand right into Thatcher's ribs, hooking Thatcher's arm while pushing hard downward with that heel, and late in the match he landed a strike to almost the exact same spot. Thatcher rocked him a couple times with uppercuts, and they both had great intuition about selling strikes, selling each one how it actually landed, not treating them all equal. So many individual moments to like, heavy suplexes thrown by both, hard knees, a nasty half crab from Thatcher, Makabe's enziguiri counter to set up a German, and the finish is just fantastic. I really liked Thatcher getting to the ropes immediately for the first Cattle Mutilation, and the body wrecking cruelty that Makabe unleashes onto Thatcher (including that stomp right to the top of the leg) to tie up his legs and THEN lock in the Mutilation dead center? Hell yeah. Keep giving me more of this.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST