Chris Hero vs. Timothy Thatcher, PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2015 Stage Two (8/29/2015)

This was a 1st Round match in the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles.

In a rarity, my favorite version of Chris Hero shows up in PWG. That’s not the big epic moves guy that we see a lot of in this “peak” of his in the middle of the decade, but one more focused on the smaller details and on character work and playing with the crowd, as he was in his actual peak. That’s not to say it is perfect, as there are still many of the same issues that plague his big 2015-2016 run (repetition), but for the most part, it’s better. It’s a more thoughtful and measured version of Hero than usual, with the story laid out on commentary that Hero was frustrated at never being able to knock Thatcher out in their two EVOLVE matches so far, let alone not being able to beat him just yet.

To think, all it took was some duct tape on the canvas for Hero to be reminded of IWA Mid South and to get his head straight once again.

A big difference between this and their EVOLVE matches is the way in which they go about the match for a PWG audience, while still clearly presenting a match that fits into the three match story so far.

EVOLVE being EVOLVE, there’s more of a focus on the more legitimate elements of the thing in those matches. Part of that is because of the roster EVOLVE has, but part of that is also because with the crowds EVOLVE draws and the environments in which they run their shows, doing a more traditional PWG match tends to fall short, despite some of Hero’s better efforts at it. So, a more stripped down and realistic approach often plays the best, because like pandemic era wrestling, it benefits the sort of matches that aren’t so reliant on a crowd in order to really work. That isn’t to say this abandons that sense of realism because it is, after all, a Timothy Thatcher match. On some level, every single Thatcher match feels tethered to reality in an unbreakable way simply because of how he wrestles and how he conducts himself as a character. This has a wholly different environment though, both in what the crowd is there for, and in the raw energy that a Reseda crowd brings to a match.

Specifically, this match echoes another famous IWA Mid South encounter, as there’s a minutes long dueling chant to begin with. Instead of going into it like they might in EVOLVE, Hero immediately differentiates the situation by stalling for a while and really playing into it in different ways, which only riles up the crowd more and more.

Beyond the elbow thing, the idea of the match is Hero trying to find some way to throw Thatcher off and not ever being able to, and winding up thrown off his game for a third consecutive time against The Gunslinger (another highlight of this match is the commentary, as Chuck Taylor dubs Thatcher “The Gunslinger” on commentary). It’s a clear continuation on from their previous matches, with Hero trying more of the same, and it never coming close to working long-term. It’s a fascinating new approach, as they come up with a handful of new ways to present this, with Hero repeatedly having inventive and perfect set ups for moments that feel like transition spots, but simply aren’t. Sometimes it’s because he celebrates too match and Thatcher can then pick his leg and drag him down to the mat to even it back up. Sometimes it’s because Thatcher fires back with a shot of his own. The point is the same each time though, which is that after two matches, Hero has been figured out by Timothy Thatcher.

Hero briefly finds himself able to gain control after a Piledriver, leading to the best bit of selling of the match and probably the entire weekend. Thatcher takes a cue from the Tomohiro Ishii playbook and instead of just selling the neck like anyone else does, he focuses on the left shoulder and arm to sell a stinger and get nerve damage effects over.

Despite that, Hero once again nearly costs himself.

Instead of attacking the neck specifically, Hero instead takes it as a cue to focus on the knock out again. The match risks falling off the rails here, but because of the foundation laid with Hero striving for a knockout specifically, there’s a weight to this segment of the match that other Hero matches have lacked recently. Thatcher’s selling of each shot also does a lot for the match, getting more and more worn down as he takes each shot. The shots themselves also get progressively bigger in a way that other Hero matches don’t always accomplish.

Thatcher still almost pulls it out in the end, with the exact same sudden Fujiwara Armbar out of a kick out that won for him last time in California, but Hero isn’t as surprised now. He can roll away from it this time, and while Thatcher is now expecting something else, Hero can pull an adjustment on him for once. With the fear of God put into him and seeing the black tape on tears in the mat, Hero goes back to the Hero’s Welcome of all things, and finally gets his win over Thatcher.

Hero still can’t knock out Thatcher, but he does finally beat him, and that’s that. Moral victories aren’t real, but it’s lovely that even in finally being defeated by Hero, Thatcher finds a way to deny him the end he wants most. It’s a beautiful story they tell in this match, and also across all three matches so far. Hero slowly losing confidence across three matches, before digging into a bag of tricks that he’s tried to ignore for years. Finally beating Thatcher, but forced to do it in a way that he’s not happy with, still eaving the victory just a little bit hollow.

Obviously, no match between Hero and Thatcher can be on the level of their first outing earlier in the year. Beyond being their first meeting, it’s impossible to achieve that kind of importance ever again. This is, however, maybe my outright favorite of the two for how different it was and for the way they presented the ending. Because it’s their third out of four in 2016 and because of the stacked card that it’s on here, it’s become an underappreciated match, but it really shouldn’t be.

***1/2