2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

19. Timothy Thatcher v. Marcus Lewis PREMIER IX 6/7

ER: Well this was awesome. I had high expectations for it and it totally lived up to them. Lewis has been doing this for just a couple years, is a really nice guy and is improving really fast. One of my favorite local guys that I get to see on a regular basis. Thatcher has had an incredible last year and is now known nationally (I have to imagine his WM weekend EVOLVE matches were star making, the building was in love with him during the Hero match). I've never seen these two match up and it's been one of my little Bay Area "dream matches". The mat stuff is as good as expected, and Lewis brings more than I anticipated. At one point he does a mean scrambly boot scrape to avoid a Thatcher ankle pick, and Thatcher naturally works tons of tight cravates (one of them ripping out one of Lewis' dreadlocks, which Thatcher graciously hangs over a turnbuckle for him), and I like how aggressive Lewis is at fighting out of Thatcher's holds. My favorite little sequence was Lewis hitting a couple nice stomps, then a tight short knee to Thatcher's chin followed by a sick double knee drop to his stomach. After kicking out Thatcher dumps Lewis with a big release German and immediately pounces with a rough half nelson while scraping Lewis face with his wrist and forearm. Thatcher is always great at taking spills and he really made a lot of Lewis' strikes look great, leaning into uppercuts and kicks and doing nice Kawada falls for them. Really I like everything they do in this. Lewis hit one of the best missile dropkicks of recent memory, Thatcher does his badass floatover chickenwing into the Fujiwara (which was a nice nearfall since I've seen that sub beat tons of guys), some nasty stomps and elbows, his impressive deadlift Karelin suplex, really it's kind of crazy how much great stuff they cram into 12 minutes without ever making it seem like overkill. They just matched up incredibly well. I was even buying the upset finish, with Lewis throwing all of his weight into strikes and a big time shoulderblock, but then missing his 450 and bouncing his head off the mat. Thatcher's finish is gross as he does a headlock takeover (between he and Busick, maybe my favorite move of 2015) locks Lewis' arm and then traps Lewis' neck between his knees!! Great finish.

PAS: This was really great, totally should have been a star making performance for Lewis, feels like that this would have gotten him into the WWE CWC if it had been in EVOLVE (although HHH may have a quota). I loved his second rope missile dropkick which really had a GAEA girls level force to it, and his fireman's carry lift from the mat is a nifty feat of strength, the bump he takes on that missed 450 was gross looking. Great Thatcher show as well. I haven't really seen him work pissy veteran before, but he was really contemptuous, scraping his forearm against Lewis's face, driving his sternum into the ring apron, ripping out a dreadlock. Really felt like the kind of bullying stuff Finlay would do, but he also sells huge for all of Lewis's big moves, really does a nice job of putting over the kid's upset potential. Great stuff, and PREMIER is the best, we are going to start writing up all of their new shows.

2015 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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PREMIER XI: Embrace the Grind Tourney 11/28/15

PAS: I reviewed the Tetsujin Shoot style tourney from England earlier this year and this is sort of the US version of it. A promotion in Northern California ran a three man round robin tourney focusing on grappling, the matches were in rounds and had three judges giving scores. I like all three guys and thought it would be worth checking out.

ER: Premier always has grappling based matches, but this was their first actual time addressing the style as such. It also has arguably the worst name ever for a wrestling show. PRIDE Man Fest might actually be dethroned. I didn't even want to risk googling Embrace the Grind. But the Premier show I went to last year in September (PREMIER X, sadly not online as it had a cracking Graves/Thatcher match that would certainly make the 2015 MOTY List) was one of the most fun shows I've been to in a couple years. I wish I could attend them more but their shows are *just* far enough away from me to make it inconvenient to attend. But I do love their product, and I love how into it the crowd gets when it's easily a style that a traditional pro wrestling crowd could turn on.

Joe Graves v. Jeff Cobb

PAS: This was really fun. Graves looked great his transition between leg locks are arm locks were really cool, at one point he put one a totally plausible looking shoot figure four leg lock. There was much more of an amateur wrestling base then a Jujitsu base in the grappling which makes sense as Cobb was an Olympic wrestler. Cobb is at his best as kind of an athletic freak suplex machine, sort of a lost Polynesian Steiner brother this kind of real mat based match tamps down what makes him special a bit. Last round was especially exciting with Cobb smacking Graves with his big headbutt he rushes him to finish Graves off and gets clipped in the knee, which Graves jumps on. Loved that Graves move, such a great out of nowhere transition. Match goes to the judges which I didn't like, it didn't really have a finish, and even though the mentioned a ten point must system, we never got scorecards. Don't think this tourney needed this gimmick, and if you are going to do it, you should at least have countdowns, time clocks and scorecards.

ER: Joe Graves is legit, and Cobb gets to show off some of his incredible amateur based throws. I think the rounds really hurt this one as almost every round ended moments after a neat twist had happened and some drama was starting to build, and the end of rounds killed it each time. First round ended with a hot kneebar reversal that looked to be going somewhere, and the third ended with an awesome battle of wills as Graves maneuvers somehow into a plausible shoot figure 4 (was excited to mention that right when it happened and saw it was the first thing Phil jumped on as well) while Cobb suffered through it but also lock on a heel hook. So you had two guys in an awesome Frye/Shamrock battle where one has a rough figure 4 on his hurt knee but it may get dropped due to the heel hook...but then the bell rings. With no countdowns or anything it was impossible to build to any natural excitement, they just always acted like an immediate match cooldown. Still both guys are awesome and the great spots were there. I love Cobb's pro wrestling suplexes, but his amateur takedowns and throws are even better. Watching Graves try to do a go behind and seeing Cobb just pop his hips into a mean belly to back takedown, or seeing Graves try to tie up and Cobb just grabs him in a head and arm butterfly suplex, really makes you appreciate Cobb's close range power. Graves is a guy I know little about, don't know who trained him, where he started, where he typically calls home. I first saw him in Premier against Thatcher and instantly dug him, later saw him pop up occasionally on that weird Paragon fed out of Vegas, but really haven't seen him a lot outside his work in Premier. He's strong and always seems to know exactly where he's headed during a mat scramble. All his work on Cobb's knee built nicely and it felt like that joint was just going to pop when he was bending Cobb's calf back against his thigh. It feels like only a matter of time before Graves is recruited by Evolve/WWE.

Jeff Cobb v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: These guys had a fun match against each other a couple of years ago, and a match I found from Utah, but otherwise they have been circling each other without matching up. They missed each other in the APW KOI last year, and unfortunately this is more of a tease then a great match. Cobb comes in limping from the previous match, and they have a first round of solid but unspectacular rolling, it was fine, but felt very much like a warm up. Early in the second round Thatcher gets a scissor take down and twists the leg for a tap out. Felt abrupt which is fine for this kind of match, but I still want to see Cobb and Thatcher really go at it.

ER: This really was a cruel tease. The first round rolling was really good, I liked little things like Cobb kneeling on Thatcher's arm, but yeah the second Thatcher targets Cobb's knee the match ends. I know these two have wrestled plenty of times, but only a couple have made tape which is just inexcusable in 2016.

Joe Graves v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: This was excellent stuff and well worthy of a final. The final went five rounds instead of three and they worked a nice pace right into the final round. Thatcher is so good at infighting, throwing kidney shots from the mat, cracking fingers, twisting ankles. Graves also looked very good he really does some interesting transitional things on the mat. I loved how the match got chippier with some shots thrown after the bell. Liked the finish too, with Graves countering an armbar, into a half nelson choke which Thatcher tried a bunch of different counters out of before finally tapping. Graves feels right on the level of Thatcher, Gulak ect. and really should get a shot at a bigger stage.

ER: Really good final that was longer and added more striking and heel dynamics than the previous matches. Graves comes off strong and does little things like neutralize guys in a sort of hogtied fetal position before pouncing into his next wear down hold. Both guys' grappling is on point and the struggle through some of this has to be exhausting. We get both trying to work the other's arm, and Thatcher starts to lean towards dickish by kneeling on certain parts of Graves while trying to work a hold. We see him kneel on his arm, even kneel on Graves face to maneuver into a go behind into a crossface. Graves starts taking apart the arm and Thatcher gets pissed, kicking Graves well after the bell. Things get more heated after that and we get some grounded knees to the chest, a standing exchange where Thatcher suckers Graves into a single leg, and both guys getting their arms bent behind them at angles that terrify my tennis elbow. Both guys move through reversals and counters so naturally, no guy has to dangle a limb out there for the other to pick up on a signal, felt like a gym sparring session that turned into something more serious, like Oliver Reed and Alan Bates' fight in "Women in Love" (but with much less penis). I think I preferred their fight at PREMIER X, as even though much shorter (about 11 minutes if memory serves) it had proper build and was go go go. But it's tough as I was there live which often can kick a match up several notches. Hopefully we get that one hitting YouTube eventually.

***Graves/Thatcher was good stuff, and an easy choice for our 2015 Ongoing MOTY List. Check out the tourney, and check out some other Premier stuff (they have a lot of their shows uploaded). ***

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

24. Timothy Thatcher v. Joe Graves PREMIER 11/29

PAS: Really great end to a stellar year from Thatcher. I hadn't seen or heard of Graves before, but he slotted right into the Thatcher style match great. He had some power moves including a great delayed Karelin throw, and it made it feel a little like a amateur wrestler versus a submission guy. Graves did a lot of controlling the back and getting hooks in too. Thatcher was nasty as usual, snapping fingers, uppercutting to the back of the neck, and even breaking out an Olympic hell, which made the Honda fanboy in me smile. Only real downside was the time limit draw, which kind of came out of nowhere without any real drama.

ER: I thought I had already watched this match, and the joke's on me for not diving onto this right away. This was killer and as I've gotten more familiar with local-ish fed Premier (they typically run 2 hours away from me) I've come to expect some pretty big things for them. They certainly have their own style, much more grappling and strike based than most feds, like Foxcatcher but if it were run by just some guy instead of a billionaire with mommy issues. And what's always exciting when I watch their stuff is how into it the crowd gets. I've been to a 2015 show that also had a Thatcher/Graves match (eventually to be written up for our 2015 MOTY list) and the crowd reacts to stuff like a real fight. There was even a guy behind us yelling out amateur wrestling advice throughout, and I mean actual wrestling coach, shouted advice. "Roll the shoulder! Duck under! Keep your hips in!" It was absurd, and also completely awesome and appropriate. Because these two are so convincing and so legit, my eyes are always glued to every single thing they're doing, and I find myself wanting to yell the same kind of things (no, there's not going to be a twist revealing that the weird guy yelling advice was actually me). The detail work is so damn impressive, the work seems to physically exhausting, and there's constant fear (from me) of ligaments getting torn, shoulders being dislocated, anything. That's how convincing they are. Thatcher fights over the arm like few, and I loved the various twists and horribly cramped positions he would get Graves into. Graves has some impressive strength, but really both men do. The struggle was real as they would fight over throws. At one point Graves reverses out of a hold by walking his feet up the ring ropes and pushing off a turnbuckle. At another point Thatcher locks in a brutal indian deathlock and starts holding down one of Graves' arms with a leg, and then starts bending the other back at an impossible angle. You can practically hear Stu Hart's creepy "heh heh heh" laugh while these two stretch each other. I loved every second of this, genuinely don't believe there was a single misstep in the whole thing. So what is TRAGIC, I mean just absolutely tragic, is the time limit draw. Before that this was well on its way to being a top 5 MOTY for me. But right in the middle of this struggle, right in the middle of seeing which one of these world class guys would break first, the ring bell just rings and some guy plainly says "Time!" Gutted. There was no build to a time limit, not guys scrambling to try and get the win, no mention that I noticed of a time limit (it's very possible it was mentioned in the opening intros, but I didn't notice it). With almost any sort of finish, really anything to actually give us a definitive ending, I think this lands in the top 10. As it is it feels like a friend made you a comp tape and this match was the last match on the tape, and the tape just runs out before the end. So you're just watching this awesome struggle,  and suddenly the tape automatically stops and begins rewinding. That would have been preferable. It is worse to know. As it stands, the work is excellent, and you couldn't even call the finish disgustingly bad. It's not like there was a goofy run-in or belt shot or something. This is more of a passively cruel finish. But, thank goodness it exists at all.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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PREMIER IX 6/7/15 Review

https://youtu.be/s20uk0Fnflk?t=1h24m24s

These guys run a couple hours away from me, but I've never checked them out live. I saw they put up a live stream of their most recent show so figured I would check out the goods.

1. Dom "The Bomb" Vitalli vs. Will Cuevas

Had never seen Vitalli before and mostly liked what I saw. I've also never been too impressed by Cuevas, but he had some nice stuff here, including some tight knees to the ribs and some mean right hands. He does get kind of lost when doing any sort of 360. That seems to be a Bay Area wrestling thing, doing some tornado Misawa elbow and getting lost halfway through your spin. Jeckles always does the same damn thing. Vitalli was really impressive about misses, really committed to a big missed elbow off the top and some charges. I like that kind of detail. Things kinda fall apart at the end with too many moves requiring one guy shoving another guy into ropes, but I'm game to see more of these two.

2. Buddy Royal vs. Joe Graves

Feed must have cut off during this one as most of the match is completely skipped over. Too bad, I was excited to see more Graves. Loved his quick cartwheel to avoid a low Royal dropkick, but that was sadly all I saw of the match :(

3. Gabriel Gallo vs. Sledge

Man I really dug this. I had seen Sledge once before, but he was more used as Cobb fodder. I had never seen Gallo and left really impressed. Both threw some nice bombs (Sledge had better punches, but the rest of Gallo's game seemed stronger) and worked stiff throughout. I loved Gallo's half camel clutch variations, wrenching back on one of Sledge's arms while he forearmed his jaw, pulled back on his nose and neck, really locked in. Both guys went hard on standing clotheslines (including Gallo's brutal match finishing one to the back of Sledge's neck) and Gallo keeps doing things I love like hard kneedrops to the chest. I want to see more of both of these guys, but especially Gallo.

4. Timothy Thatcher vs. Marcus Lewis

Well this was awesome. I had high expectations for it and it totally lived up to them. Lewis has been doing this for just a couple years, is a really nice guy and is improving really fast. One of my favorite local guys that I get to see on a regular basis. Thatcher has had an incredible last year and is now known nationally (I have to imagine his WM weekend EVOLVE matches were star making, the building was in love with him during the Hero match). I've never seen these two match up and it's been one of my little Bay Area "dream matches". The mat stuff is as good as expected, and Lewis brings more than I anticipated. At one point he does a mean scrambly boot scrape to avoid a Thatcher ankle pick, and Thatcher naturally works tons of tight cravates (one of them ripping out one of Lewis' dreadlocks, which Thatcher graciously hangs over a turnbuckle for him), and I like how aggressive Lewis is at fighting out of Thatcher's holds. My favorite little sequence was Lewis hitting a couple nice stomps, then a tight short knee to Thatcher's chin followed by a sick double knee drop to his stomach. After kicking out Thatcher dumps Lewis with a big release German and immediately pounces with a rough half nelson while scraping Lewis face with his wrist and forearm. Thatcher is always great at taking spills and he really made a lot of Lewis' strikes look great, leaning into uppercuts and kicks and doing nice Kawada falls for them. Really I like everything they do in this. Lewis hit one of the best missile dropkicks of recent memory, Thatcher does his badass floatover chickenwing into the Fujiwara (which was a nice nearfall since I've seen that sub beat tons of guys), some nasty stomps and elbows, his impressive deadlift Karelin suplex, really it's kind of crazy how much great stuff they cram into 12 minutes without ever making it seem like overkill. They just matched up incredibly well. I was even buying the upset finish, with Lewis throwing all of his weight into strikes and a big time shoulderblock, but then missing his 450 and bouncing his head off the mat. Thatcher's finish is gross as he does a headlock takeover (between he and Busick, maybe my favorite move of 2015) locks Lewis' arm and then traps Lewis' neck between his knees!! Great finish.

5. "Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb vs. Kaimana

When I first became aware of Cobb he was working a lot of dominant matches, working like young Lesnar or Scott Steiner; a hyper athletic guy with freakish strength who just steamrolled people. But the last several times I've seen him he's mostly worked from the bottom, with his opponent getting an early advantage and him making more of a late fast break. This match was similar, but Cobb's comeback was much longer than in other recent matches. I had never seen Kaimana before and my luck was really great with this show as every single guy I hadn't seen before, made me want to see them more. I don't remember a time where that has ever happened. Northern CA went through a dry patch in the mid 2000s but certainly seems like it's heating right back up. Kaimana is a stocky Hawaiian guy, Cobb is a stocky Guamanian (is that right? I wanted to not say "guy from Guam". Guamanian? That has to be it), we got a battle of the islands! I love it. Kaimana has some solid kicks that Cobb takes to his back and chest, including one brutal dropkick to a seated Cobb that noticeably scoots Cobb a few feet across the mat. Cobb's comeback is as impressive as you would want, with him doing several cool throws from positions he just happens to catch Kaimana in. I loved the tease to the Tour of the Islands and when he hits it it's epic. Such a freakish physical move. We also had a brutal callback spot where Cobb had hit his impressive standing shooting star, and went to hit it later in the match and Kaimana got his knee up right into Cobb's jaw. It looked like Sabu moonsaulting into a table leg. Cobb's head snaps back and my god it's just a sick spot. Finishing run is great as Kaimana starts decking Cobb with hard elbows (including a sick back elbow) but Cobb catches him with the Tour of the Islands. Awesome match.

6. JR Kratos vs. Dylan Drake

I wasn't looking forward to a 20 minute Dylan Drake match, but damn did this end up delivering. This was probably the best match I've seen from both guys, especially impressed by Kratos and his dedication to putting over Drake's legwork. Kratos starts things off with an awesome headlock takeover, and it's official, I'm declaring the headlock takeover the HIGHSPOT OF 2015! Luckily I'm a notary, nobody can ever question this declaration. I've never really seen Kratos go on the mat, and I really liked what I saw. I've also never seen Drake this interesting on the mat, really going right after Kratos' leg. It's usually dangerous to work over a limb so early in a match as that puts tons of pressure on somebody to sell the rest of the way, but Kratos did so with gusto. The guy looked like he had a believable quad injury here, and it set up some fun spots like Kratos missing his trademark running kick due to being too slow. Drake still takes too long to set up some things, and can be kinda clunky, and moves like a powerbomb onto his own knee just seem too indy, but the rest of his game was tighter than I've ever seen before. His elbows and kicks were great (really loved a yakuza kick to a seated Kratos), he also bumps big for all of Kratos' throws (including a big one that rolls him off his head) and leans into some rough strikes (loved Kratos' jumping knee from a clinch). His attacks to the knee were on point, the legwork looked painful, and Kratos finishing with mounted elbows worked as the elbows looked nasty. Really good match, different than I've seen Kratos work before and the best I've seen Drake.

PREMIER seems to be the (ahem) premier northern CA fed from the stuff I've seen. Everybody seems to really work up to the atmosphere as the really good guys continue to look really good, and the lesser guys really kick things up a notch. I was legitimately impressed by everybody on this show, and I can't remember a time where I've ever said that before. Looks like I gotta start making the trek to Gilroy whenever they run next. (NOTE** the above linked feed has no sound, and sometimes matches have abrupt cuts, but I would highly recommend watching the show. Really good stuff)

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