Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jonathan Gresham, ROH Final Battle 2018 (12/14/2018)

A famous trilogy becomes a quadrilogy.

(Quadskillogy? yeah, how do you like that one? you fuckers. fucking skillogy. get out of my god damned face.)

If you’ve seen the Beyond Wrestling trilogy from 2016, you’ve seen the best that Zack and Gresham have to offer. This is not giving that series a run for its money any time soon. That was this drawn out process, a successful attempt to truly elevate Jonathan Gresham over the course of three matches, along with an expert display of scientific grappling, with what felt like little to no restraint put upon those matches. Those matches were maybe not any of my favorite matches of the year (in a tremendous year, to be fair), but collected into one singular thing, it’s a genuine achievement.

This is merely a nice thing in the middle of the show, an introductory display to Zack Sabre Jr. (as if anyone is watching ROH at this point who doesn’t know who he is) for a run that does not ever wind up happening, and is, I think, very deliberately scaled down. Zack and Gresham deliver something in between a greatest hits parade and a more streamlined match for a less patient audience, and that’s that.

You could wince or squint here and find something approaching strategy, I suppose. Zack is successful at keeping Gresham away from his arm, immediately doing something that the champion of the company (Jay Lethal) was never able to do. Zack’s reach also prevents Gresham from getting in close more often than not and after the last year plus of Gresham being presented as ROH’s best technician, Zack hanging with him and besting him doesn’t feel like nothing. If you need that sort of thing to enjoy a match, put your mind to it, and you can fanwank the hell out of this thing.

Really though, it’s just a tremendous riff session.

Zack and Gresham spent ten to fifteen minutes floating in and out of a bunch of really cool and really mean holds on the ground, and the joy is in how great every little thing is. The match is full of a bunch of cool stuff, but every little transition also has something to take joy from. They get pettier and more hostile as the match goes on, holds get nastier and nastier, and if nothing else, the match is a stellar display of steady escalation in a match like this.

Gresham tries for one of his classic sequences ending in a roll up at the end, only for Zack to reverse that into his European Clutch to win.

More of a teaser than the real thing, an appetizer of a match from a pairing that previously only produced richly satisfying three course meals, but a hell of an appetizer. The appetizer platter of years later ROH adopted half-grapplefuck reunion tours.

***1/4

Timothy Thatcher vs. Josh Barnett, ESW/Every Time I Die ‘TID The Season 2017 (12/16/2017)

It’s a wonderful thing

Josh Barnett and Timothy Thatcher meet in a slightly gentrified looking flea market full of Christmas decorations in the middle of an otherwise real dreary looking spot show co-promoted by a metal band.

As if that in and of itself wasn’t fascinating enough, it’s another incredibly endearing display from Timothy Thatcher, being almost immediately meant with a “BORING” cry, and the crowd making very little noise otherwise, but steadfastly refusing to change a single God damned thing, with Barnett along with him in much the same respect. It’s one of my favorite bits in wrestling all decade, very few other things in professional wrestling bring me as much joy as Timothy Thatcher wrestling in front of a crowd that is ambivalent and/or displaying outright contempt for his style of wrestling, and simply refusing to budge. One might argue that a refusal to adapt to the audience may make him a lesser wrestler, cite his European work as being more active or whatever, but to that, I say that a performance like this actually makes him a better wrestler. It is unbelievably cool to me to go into an unfriendly space, go “no, you change”, and have a great match despite the bad taste of everybody else in the room.

Barnett and Thatcher is an outstanding match up for that sort of an idea too, as at least when it’s on Youtube and not in front of you live in person, this is one of those classic barrier to entry style match.

You know ahead of time, or at least you (you you you you) ought to know, if this is for you or not.

It it isn’t, what are you doing here? Turn around. Come back when you’re ready. If it is, these two masters give you the exact sort of match you wanted and that you’ll like, even if you maybe don’t love it like the bigger efforts of both men. The matwork is tight and feels real enough, always both cool and tough. Nothing feel easy. When they get off of the mat, it’s still a blast, with the drama of Thatcher trying to keep close since he can’t kick with Barnett, and then the thrill of Thatcher’s different versions of knocked loopy selling providing some real thrills.

This isn’t just some wonderful riffing around between these two though, as they tie it all together with a neat little narrative as well. Barnett can’t bully or push around Thatcher on the mat like he’d prefer to, and is forced into a stand up battle. Thatcher’s faster, but he’s not as good at as many different kinds of strikes as Barnett is, and that’s eventually what takes the toll and allows Josh to win.

Like the match itself, it’s not all that complex, but it’s sensible and it’s different, and I liked it a whole lot.

A delightful little oddity.

***

Timothy Thatcher vs. Doug Williams, PROGRESS Chapter 54 (8/27/2017)

This is a lovely little thing.

Above all, it exists as a true surprise.

Williams and Thatcher have a spritely match that happens almost entirely on the ground, that tells a clear and coherent story, and that does so without either needing or taking a lot of time to do so. These things are not as hard to find as others might lead you to believe, but to do all of those things inside of a British wrestling promotion and in front of British wrestling fans, that’s the truly impressive and truly surprising thing.

The match itself is about what you’d expect.

Doug and Tim grind it out on the ground for a while, outside of throwing a whole mess of European Uppercuts out there, and have the exact match that they ought to have, seeing Doug Williams turn back the clock. I don’t so much mean that this is some unbelievable performance from Dougie, but simply that the effort is there and he does what he always has in a situation like this. Williams, while Past It now and never really being an elite-level wrestler in his prime, once again is perfectly capable of hanging in there and contributing when one of the best wrestlers in the world wants to help him out, just like the early 2000s. Thatcher has a classical Thatcher style match, and Williams is there with him, fighting over holds, showing some cool counters and tricks of his own, and serving the match both as a showcase of this enormously cool sort of wrestling, while also continually telling a very simple story of young vs. old and the former slowly overpowering, outmaneuvering, and overwhelming the latter.

Thatcher gets his submission with the Fujiwara Armbar, but with one of the best wrestlers in the world against someone on the other side of their career, that was never really in doubt. Once again, this is a match about the journey to the obvious outcome, and once again, few wrestlers specialize in getting a great one out of a simple journey quite in the way that Timothy Thatcher does.

Given what Doug Williams has been up to since like 2010, an unbelievable accomplishment. Not entirely by Thatcher, Doug Williams showed up and it takes two to tango, but one leads and one follows and it is yet another outstanding performance from the former in this case.

***

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Timothy Thatcher, EVOLVE 88 (7/8/2017)

This was a No Holds Barred Match for Zack’s EVOLVE Title.

After losing the EVOLVE Title to Zack and doing the honors back in February in one of the year’s most memorable and important matches, if not one of its outright best, Timothy Thatcher has largely been out of place in EVOLVE. Not that he hasn’t still had good matches and not that he won’t go on to have even more great matches in EVOLVE before he wrestles here for a final time at some point in 2018, but there is something off. From the time Thatcher stepped foot in EVOLVE in 2014 through losing the title to Zack, EVOLVE was based around Timothy Thatcher, and after that, his appearances have the feeling of someone playing out the string. It’s a very offputting feeling, and ideally, he would have just never returned to EVOLVE at all. Commit to your decisions, you know?

The result of this very weird feeling, a wrestler clearly stick somewhere in limbo, is that there’s not a whole lot of mystery to this particular match. It’s easy to see plainly for what it is, a classic Gabe/EVOLVE move to run back an easy and proven match en lieu of anything else interesting as a main event on a smaller show, trying to go as long as possible without giving away what his horrible brain imagines to be the big money matches (shockingly an EVOLVE built around Zack Sabre Jr., Matt Riddle, and Keith Lee is a thousand times less interesting than 2014-2016 EVOLVE). Thatcher already passed the torch and the title, and while there’s no law against rematches, it is not one set up or built up especially well, or at least in any way that allows for any sort of mystery over what is going to happen, and it is not a match that ever seems all that interested in trying to create a whole lot of drama and mystery over that outcome once it begins either.

Ultimately though, it is still Timothy Thatcher vs. Zack Sabre Jr., and in a match that allows them to lean into the better elements of their wrestling rather than the lesser ones. Obvious result aside, not only does this pairing once again succeed wildly, but it’s probably just a hair better than their more celebrated and more “important” match earlier in the year.

By that, I specifically mean that the No Holds Barred rules and the structure these matches take in EVOLVE — free flowing scraps more based on a feeling of hostility and chaos than any more traditional pro wrestling stories — mean that Thatcher and, way more specifically, Zack Sabre Jr. only have to focus on the simple things.

This match is Zack and Thatcher boiled down to the pure and essential forms. For Thatcher, that process doesn’t take long at all, and it may not require a process at all. For Zack Sabre Jr. though, it is SUCH a thrill, and more than maybe any other match in 2017 so far, it’s the best example of not only what Zack Sabre Jr. still can be, but why for all the many frustrating moments he’s offered up to a viewer like me, I still give him all of the chances in the world. Because occasionally, you still get a match like this, in which his gifts for cruelty and real mean-spirited technical wrestling are applied properly so as to create a more ideal sort of professional wrestling.

I think maybe I’ve painted this picture that this is some pure mat contest that gets a little rougher sometimes, like their first (and best) match together nearly three years prior, but that’s not strictly the case here either. It’s a unique match for the. Some of this takes place on the floor or on the bar, or against chairs and couches in the venue. It’s a big sprawling mess, but it gets closer to being a real fight and closer to being a real feeling altercation, reaching a level beyond a simple competition (where most great Zack matches land), than most Zack matches ever. Somewhere in between grabbing armbars on a bar counters or rolling around on the ground through the crowd, it starts feeling — both through their actions and reactions to everything — like a match happening on the edge of a razor blade. Even when not confined at all, there’s such a perilous nature to everything, and the back half of this match winds up feeling like, if nothing else, the weightiest moments Zack and Thatcher have to offer up in any of these matches. Beyond just holds feeling more desperate, both men mix even more of the real high level stuff like kidney and stomach punches, and nasty and petty little attacks on the body, making the match feel like just that much more of a struggle.

This isn’t quite Thatcher/Biff, EVOLVE’s NHB gold standard both in story and brutality, but as with all Thatcher matches, something emerges even when the match doesn’t focus there quite so much.

Following Zack’s armbar on the bar, Thatcher’s left arm is hurt for the rest of the match. Not so much in a real debilitating sort of a way (and still, even when mostly fixed, not in a way that Zack Sabre Jr. is a smart enough wrestler to really zero in on), but always something Tim himself goes back to. It’s hard to know if it is just Thatcher recognizing that he should sell that long term and that it makes the match more interesting, or if it’s some fledgling political motion to give himself a slight little out given that his role in EVOLVE now is just to put lesser wrestlers over, but it works all the same. He can’t do all the things he wants to do, and more importantly, that he needs to do to win. Most notably, when he goes to end the match in a way he’s used before in a match like this, through a combination of Thatcher’s grip and Sabre Jr’s length, it just doesn’t work out like it did in the past.

Sabre Jr. survives the cross armbreaker in the ropes that beat Riddle in a match like this eleven months prior, fights up onto the apron, and with an Octopus Stretch tying Thatcher all up in the ropes while also pulling up on his free leg and yanking that hurt arm back around and over the top rope, Sabre Jr. keeps the title and beats Thatcher for the second time in a row.

After yet another phenomenal affair, Thatcher makes Zack for a second time this year. There’s a clear lesson in that, but if EVOLVE made decisions like that, it wouldn’t be EVOLVE. Between the style, the brutality, the inarguable quality of the thing, and the booking altogether, there aren’t many more perfect distillations of the full EVOLVE experience than this.

***1/4

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mike Quackenbush, CHIKARA Johnny Kidd Invitational (6/18/2017)

This was a 1st Round match in the Johnny Kidd Invitational.

Similar to their first match over WrestleMania Weekend, as well as the matches that both Zack and Quackenbush have had with Johnny Kidd himself in recent years, this is a match that once again has a way of choosing its own viewing audience. Not to do the entire thing again, you can read it in the reviews linked above, but for any number of reasons down to style or neither man being the best person, nobody is watching this who isn’t going to love this exact sort of a match, and it frees both Sabre Jr. and Quackenbush up to once again have a lovely sort of bullshit wrestling nerd ass grappling contest.

The first match between these two is still very much the superior match.

In that match, they told effectively the same story but with a little more depth (Quack doesn’t lose this time because of a desperate overreach, but simply because Zack catches him, which is hardly the worst thing in the world, but simply not as dynamic) and with a significant amount more time in eight more minutes, and in front of what felt like a livelier crowd with the Mania Weekend bunch compared to the Wrestle Factory faithful, which at this point, is maybe at least one-third of a government watchlist.

Still, this is a great match in its own right.

One thing I did love here was that, through sheer circumstance or some deeper planning, the cordial nature of the first match — or at least the masks both of these sociopaths put on for the world at the start — is far less present. That’s not to say it is totally gone, the conceit of both wrestlers lies with those masks and that false cordiality, but it seems like the level of patience is so so so much lower on the second go around. I loved that. Absolutely ate that shit up. It especially makes sense given that that’s mostly down to Zack’s reactions here, as he is the meaner of the two by far (Quack has always been presented more as an aloof weirdo who gets mad when pushed or challenged as a technician, whereas Zack has repeatedly shown to be kind of innately mean spirited and bitter no matter what) and has already done this, and seems increasingly annoyed when (a) Quack keeps the bit up like they didn’t end the last match pissed at each other & (b) when he already beat Quackenbush.

Besides that neat little wrinkle though, it’s nothing all that new with these two.

A faster and lighter version of the first match, down to way everything kind of unfolds. Quackenbush has Zack’s measure on the ground, so he picks up the pace and relies on his speed to take Quackenbush down. He can’t get him on a cradle this time, so he reels off a snap Half Nelson Suplex with a bridge and gets Quackenbush that way.

More of an encore or a reimagining of the original than a direct sequel, but with these two, it’s just so nice to see them do this sort of thing again that it’s hard to get too bent out of shape about that. Any time the masters get back to work at a thing like this, it’s one more match like this in the world than there was before the bell, in a scene that badly needs changes of pace like these matches provide.

***

 

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Negro Navarro, Lucha Memes Chairo 10 (4/28/2017)

Wonderful.

A real fun time and a dazzling little experience.

Zack gets dragged back into the sort of match he’s best off in, pure science and grappling, and it’s once again such a thrill to see him reined in like this, and in a situation where for one reason or another, he is not doing a lot of his weird bumps or any catch spots or all of the things his horrible brain (English) constantly seems to prod him into doing that always undercut how great the rest of his matches are.

In this match, save for like thirty seconds of standing up and briefly trading (during which Negro Navarro hauls off and punches Zack in the throat) it is just the grappling, and he has a stellar partner for a match like that.

Virtually every hold is very cool, every transition is something you might never have thought of, and at all times, there is activity. Not in the frustrating way Zack matches often can be, where I wish he would just hold something or commit or even just god damned sit still for two seconds, but in a way that I think benefits the match. In large part, that’s because this match is a top-this show of neat holds and counter holds rather than anything with a serious focus one way or the other, but also because they’re so good at making the most of all of this activity. Without really even trying, there is a clear story of Zack’s elusivity and slippery nature against Navarro’s grappling alchemy, Zack digging in the crates for old escapes and tricks, while the old man makes stuff up out of thin air. A real SORCERER’S APPRENTICE vibe here, outside of that I’m not sure they’d ever met before this and also that I’m not sure Negro Navarro knows who Zack Sabre Jr. is. But, generally speaking, playing around with things he doesn’t understand quite as well and making a big ol’ mess because of it.

Negro Navarro isn’t exactly anchoring Zack to any one thing in the way a Dick Togo or Quackenbush might, but he does the fun thing he does against all the weird U.S. indie guys that Lucha Memes books him against from time to time, where he sort of just forces them to adapt and adjust to things on the fly. It leads to some awkward moments when people aren’t so used to it, but it mostly lends an air of increased legitimacy to the proceedings that I appreciate a whole lot.

After a lot of wonderful riffing, the match reaches the most satisfying possible conclusion, as Zack’s fancy work doesn’t hold up under the microscope and the old man twists him into ten thousand knots and then one perfect knot at the end. With simplicity and straightforward logic long established as two of Zack’s greatest foes, he can’t untangle the Gordian Knot that Navarro’s wrapped him up in, and gives up.

Great wrestling with an even better message about style against substance.

That all being said, I’d love to also see the Black Terry vs. Rush match on this show in full at some point rather than the different few minute chunks that exists on Youtube, as that sounds even better.

***

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mike Quackenbush, CHIKARA Bad Wolf (4/1/2017)

WrestleMania Weekend 2017 gets its grapplefuck classic and the best match of the weekend, and surprisingly, it comes out of CHIKARA, meaning that not only is it an impressive match for this weekend, but the best match this company has put forth in nearly four years.

Like other matches like this — both in terms of the people involved and the style it’s wrestled in — there is sort of a self-selection to who watches it, and so I will rephrase and say this once again. The people who watch this are almost guaranteed to at least like it, and like me, most of you will probably love it. If you are some sort of boring water-brained weirdo who doesn’t like this sort of wrestling, this is not for you (and that includes this site too, probably). If you are going to disqualify a match because Quack is a big ol’ geek or because he’s a shithead in real life, or because CHIKARA hosts some real eye-rolling stuff at this point at other points on a show, you know, you were probably never going to watch this to begin with. Why hell, you’re probably not even reading this review to begin with!

I love that.

I love that for you, but way more importantly, I love that for me.

This is one just for us fellas.

Mechanically, it is a god damned DELIGHT.

Zack and Quackenbush are incredible at this, and this is a match that thankfully sticks entirely within their wheelhouses. That’s not so much a worry with Quack, who has aged into knowing exactly what he’s great at and primarily only doing that, but for Zack who has been all over the place in his matches this weekend (the previously reviewed ACH match, one of the worst EVOLVE title matches ever against Big Mike on 3/31, will have a good match against Mark Haskins later in the day), it’s a refreshing show of control, whether or not that decision comes from him or not. The match sticks almost entirely to grappling and it is so cool. Brand new holds, sick counters and transitions, fighting on just about everything, and a real struggle at all times. Not only over each hold individually, but a struggle to really establish anything, and to really have any sort of prolonged control over any direction this winds up going.

That struggle isn’t just something expressed mechanically, but it becomes part of the story of the thing too, two wrestlers with a lot in common not only trying to outdo each other, but having to reckon with these horrible funhouse mirror versions of themselves.

Both of these guys are kind of the same in a lot of aspects. They know a thousand different holds and counters, they were likely heroes to different generations of fans who liked a lot of the same stuff before accusations or total radio silence about accusations made that feel weird in retrospect, and primarily, they’re both skinny grapplers who are just sort of unlikeable and hiding extraordinarily petty dark sides within whenever anyone outdoes them. Zack moreso than Quackenbush (not entirely for xenophobic reasons but when comparing different sorts of aloof nerds who are actually extraordinarily petty just barely below the surface, a union jack does help make that decision clearer, plus Quackenbush is able to sell panic and frustration and other emotions in a more sympathetic way than Zack is often times), but it’s a quality that comes pouring out of both men.

The joy of this match is that it is wrestling as a conversation.

Part of being wildly similar sort of psychotic freaks is that both Zack and Quack start with a smile and some talk, but absolutely none of it seems sincere at all. They joke around with each other talking about their holds and counters, one-upping each other, and it’s all done with a smile, but it so phony in the best possible way. They always look unbelievably pissed off when they’re not looking at each other or stuck in holds that give them more trouble than they’d have against anyone else, before putting those bullshit grins back on their face when they look at each other again, and it is genuinely so interesting. Usually, the play with one of these wrestlers is to have one of them slowly revealed as false against another wrestler like this, like the Gresham/Sabre Jr. trilogy, or any number of 2010s Quackenbush matches, but pairing two wrestlers like this against each other is such a novel concept. Type against type doesn’t often work like you’d think, except in a circumstance like this when it absolutely does, and nothing is like it.

It takes almost nothing for the veneer to slip, and when it does, it’s beautiful.

There’s not some single point when a switch flips here. It’s not Zack’s first uppercut of Quack’s hard slap in response, it’s not a surprise German Suplex from Quackenbush late in the match, or anything so obvious. The holds get meaner and tighter and more complex as the top this mentality leads them to less friendly places, the counters come harder, strikes become a little more plentiful, and at some point in that process, the phony niceness is simply gone.

Something else about this that rules is that absolutely nothing is solved.

Nobody really outwrestles the other here, at least not in the ways that they clearly want to. Zack Sabre Jr. learns absolutely nothing when Quack schools him here and there. Quack is never really outdone by the younger grappler either. Things get more intense, and all that really comes out of this are minor differences that aren’t inherently advantages. Zack Sabre Jr. is better at getting into his stock holds than Quackenbush is, but Quackenbush is much better at improvising, performing grappling alchemy and pulling new things out of thin air. Neither is shown to be a more important or stronger skill, so much as it’s just a difference in the games of the two.

In the end, Zack Sabre Jr. wins not because he ever outdid the old man or because of his ability to get to His Stuff easier, but simply because Quackenbush made a mistake that he didn’t. In turning the heat up, Quackenbush overreaches and takes a risk he’s not quite so adept at. He falls off of a springboard, barely recovers, and hits an angry back senton followed by a lift for a big bomb that feels like an attempt to end the match quick now that he’s finally thrown off. Zack Sabre Jr. reads the response entirely correctly, slips out, and grabs a quick European Clutch for the win.

Neither man throws the other off, as they spent so much of the match trying to do, and instead it’s Quackenbush’s own annoyance at his totally minor mistake that costs him, which feels absolutely perfect.

The way it happens is very much unplanned, but it fits the match so much better than anything they could ever dream up. In a largely even contest, it’ a lack of recent ring time that costs Quackenbush, both in his minor slip and his overreaction to it. Zack Sabre Jr. is maybe not quite as skilled, but in a match like this, sometimes it’s just about who avoids that unforced error. It’s not the happiest ending, but it does feel like the most true to life one, which for a Zack Sabre Jr. match, may be the most stunning thing of all.

On a weekend full of otherwise largely disappointing Zack Sabre Jr. matches, a much better wrestler manages to reach in and pulls out one of the best Zack Sabre Jr. matches of his entire peak. Something close to the ideal version of a thing, and even if it feels like they maybe have an even better match in them, you don’t want to chance

***1/2

Jeff Cobb vs. Timothy Thatcher, WXW AMBITION 8 (3/11/2017)

This was a semi-final match in the AMBITION 8 tournament.

It’s an easy thing to do to make fun of the psuedo shoot style independent tournaments. I love doing it. I’m going to keep doing it. However, watching these mid to late 2010s WXW AMBITION tournaments really does reveal the difference between something like these, which occasionally have some weird stuff that doesn’t work (shoot spanish fly hello), and things like the U.S. independent versions of this, or the British-centric ones. The latter isn’t worth going into for the millionth time, it should suffice to say that those typically feature younger wrestlers whose hearts are in the right place, but either aren’t smart enough to totally get it or don’t have the experience in these kinds of matches that is required.

The former of the two though leads to matches like these, in which we have not only people like Jeff Cobb, with real actual legitimate experience, but also a guy like Timothy Thatcher, who joins Cobb in another way in having put in his figurative 10,000 hours in a style like this.

What results from that is not only yet another terrific Thatcher/Cobb match, but actually my favorite match between the two.

Being in AMBITION solves the only two problems these matches (and arguably Cobb’s matches as a whole) ever really had in the first place, which is length and content.

Firstly, this being the semi-final of a one show eight man tournament means they not only do not have to go long, but they are encouraged to keep it nice and short. As a result, Thatcher and Cobb cut out everything that doesn’t matter, it’s no longer than it has to be, and it’s not only their tightest and most efficient match, but one of the tightest and more efficient matches that Jeff Cobb’s ever had, and certainly real high up there as being one of my favorite versions of Cobb that we’ve ever seen. Working at a shot length doesn’t always equate to best, nothing is ever quite so absolute, but next to the New Japan heel version of Cobb that won’t present itself for another few years, it’s pretty easily my favorite version of Jeff Cobb that’s existed up until this point.

Secondly, and maybe most importantly, is the content of the match.

The best part of every Thatcher/Cobb match has always been the mat stuff. It’s the fun stuff Cobb doesn’t do a whole lot of anymore at this point in a bid for broader appeal that has totally paid off. In this match, they are not hamstrung by such a thing. Being on a show like AMBITION does the work for them in so far as being a near perfect barrier to entry for the sort of fan who would ever call this boring, and so these two are finally free to have a match again that is just for the absolute sickos out there.

Another reason for the success of shows like this compared to all other imitations, as seen in this match, is that the wrestlers in this match and on this show do a lot more with the match — both in terms of content and narrative — than a lot of wrestlers newer to this style do. Everything that happens in this match is based around Thatcher’s struggle to grab and hang onto a hold, and Cobb trying to overpower and smother him. All of it. Cobb scrambles out whenever Tim grabs the arm, and Thatcher is constantly stifled whenever Cobb gets on top. There are two clear strategies at play, and because the every motion of each man in the match is devoted to the pursuit of and fight against these strategies, just about every motion in this match is one with value and substance.

Being that Thatcher’s plan involved him having to hunt and catch and really do something, whereas Cobb’s largely just requires him to exist, it seems like a matter of time. He has to fight off Thatcher of course, but having the tools to do that, it feels like all Cobb really has to do is to simply be patient.

Wonderfully, it’s the loss of that patience that results in the loss of the match. Cobb thinks he’s got him and goes for a bomb with a deadlift German Suplex, only for that to finally give Thatcher the air he hadn’t had for a few moments. Thatcher takes the impact, but he wraps his arms around Cobb’s as he comes down and when Jeff Cobb lets go like he thinks he’s going to try for a TKO off the drop, Thatcher instead finds his way into a Reverse Fujiwara Armbar, and that’s that.

A beautiful little finish, not only paying off the story of the match, but making Thatcher seem all the tougher and cooler for fighting the pain off for just a second to get the win. It’s a victory for brains and grit and in a match like this (and in general, come on), that’s the best kind of a win there is.

Thatcher and Cobb deliver the goods once again, and in the process, reveal just exactly what it is about shows like this that makes them so much fun when they’re done right.

***

 

Shankar Thapa vs Deva Thapa, Himalayan Sports??? (4/29/2022)

A commission here, again from friend of the program and enemy of the masses, Parm. You too can be like him and pay me to review basically anything that could even super liberally called a wrestling match, so long as you due your due diligence and make sure I haven’t already written about it. Head on over to www.ko-fi.com/elhijodelsimon if you want to do that. Market price is $5 per match, and if you have a desire that can’t be figured out simply by multiplying a number by five, hit the DMs, and I’m sure we can work something out. 

A few days before writing this, young Parmothy came into the oft mentioned Slack chat and dropped this link. A day or so later, he paid me to watch and write about it.

I don’t know what this is.

It feels like my bullshit Western eyes shouldn’t be watching this.

We have what appears to be an amateur rules match, although at different points, each man seems to think they’ve won when nobody’s shoulders were on the ground, so it is hard to really know for sure.

There’s no promotion outside of a Youtube channel simply named Himalayan Sports which does not Google Translate all that well, meaning I can’t hunt down a single thing about any of this. I don’t even know what country it was in (we can assume one of the Himalayan ones, I think I would find the idea of Bhutanese wrestling the most entertaining). I can’t even find out their actual names, and I am trusting Parm entirely in that regard. Much like French Catch footage, it is very hard for me to differentiate who is who as a result of no graphics or introductions. There isn’t even commentary here, which is what I usually use in a situation like that, and what would work well here given that the two men have very different bodies.

In this match, two men in black trunks and kneepads grapple in a section of dirt at the bottom of a hill. Future participants in what I can assume are later contests walk around the hill behind them, amongst people sitting on blankets to watch the competition. A gang of drummers walks around the barrier of the “ring” at all times, banging on the drums. There are at least two or three people in regular clothes who wander in the middle of this who I would assume were referees if not for the fact that one of them also has a sword, which seems like something a referee would have here.

For as little as I understand about this — and that is very close to zero — wrestling is a universal language, and there is a whole lot of pro wrestling to this.

The grappling is artful and feels legitimate, and some of the evasions from the smaller of the two take some real skill and athleticism. There’s a clear story being told as well, with the bigger guy trying to use power to do what he can’t achieve through science, and the little guy running around him and trying to aggravate him with little slaps and what not. There’s even a repetition of offense and themes, with the big guy trying to simply force his opponent down and lie on him when the little guy flips or rolls out of every other takedown. In the end, when he finally does get him down, Our Little Hero again digs in deep and adds some grit to the athleticism, managing to bridge over on top for the pin. It seems to be an honor system thing, as there is no count, but both men and the sword referee seem to agree that the contest is over.

I am at a loss for how to really grade this or rate this or what to say about it in any sort of critical sense. It’s not really like anything else I’ve ever seen. I certainly respect it more than, like, every British match I’ve ever seen, as it is at least different and cool and feels genuine. I don’t know if it’s real or not, which is pretty sick and like, the goal of all pro wrestling ever, so it’s hard to say it isn’t a success.

Both of these men need to find a way to get to 2016 EVOLVE and join Catch Point.

A fascinating watch, and between the time (under ten minutes) and the sheer novelty of the thing, one I’d recommend too.

Potentially the 2022 Hoot of the Year.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Drew Gulak, EVOLVE 73 (11/13/2016)

Before Gulak’s departure from the independents in December, they manage to hit this one last time and deliver a long awaited follow up both to their standout from March, but also one in the Cruiserweight Classic.

Once more, these two are remarkable together.

To their immense credit, this is their third match together in 2016, and each one of the three feels unique in some way.

In March, they had a match based around Gulak frustrating Zack and making him work the neck and not the arm like he prefers to, before trying to go to the leg, only finding his winning attack too late. In their Cruiserweight Classic match, it was something more fit for wrestling television, and I mean that as one of the highest possible complements. That was more focused on Gulak being overly aggressive to try and take some of Zack’s hype away, only to lose as a result of losing his typical cool in something that, accident or not, seems to connect perfectly to their match earlier in the year. Admittedly, it’s a little different than something like Hero and Thatcher continuing their EVOLVE story in PWG, everyone watching this 100% also saw the Cruiserweight Classic, but given how easy it would have been to ignore that, it’s a really endearing choice that they made. The ultimate credit to these two is not only that these matches from different places fit together so incredibly well, but that this third and final match stands out as a sequel not only to the EVOLVE match eight months prior, but to the match in between those.

Like any match effectively utilizing these sorts of devices, the third match is the payoff. It’s about what came before, but ultimately, it’s about the transitions and the changes. What changes, how and why, and to what effect it matters at all.

This time, Zack is coming in with a minor left arm injury from a match the day before, and Gulak goes to it. He’s calmer in his attack than he was in August, but more immediately focused on that than he was in March., and eventually makes more and more headway with it until it’s a serious issue A lesson’s clearly been learned about (a) wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. defensively, but also (b) about being careful with the guy. Zack spends the match where Gulak was the first time, trying to stall the attack and direct Gulak other places, but he’s unable to really do anything with it. It’s a real wonderful story told in Gulak’s actions over the three match, again managing to stop Zack Sabre Jr. from ever really focusing in on anything, and slowly fine tuning his strategy here until something worked out.

Beyond the exceptional story paid off, it’s also a mechanical thrill and probably their best match together in a raw technical kind of sense.

Gulak and Sabre offer up all of the gorgeous transitions and neat holds in the world, but at its root, this is a real snarling sort of an affair. Lots and lots of gritting teeth and finding a way through. Gulak again brings the best out of Sabre Jr. in a match like this, maybe even more than Thatcher or whomever else, by not only directing his energy into a match with more focus, but by getting him to wrestle at a slower pace and with so much more intensity to his work. It’s not to say Zack ever lacked a mean spirit or pettiness, but this works in a different way, really enhancing the sense of struggle in a way that many Zack matches don’t often seem interested in doing.

Being totally fair, this is also maybe the best Zack Sabre Jr. performance of the year, as he genuinely 100% commits to selling the arm all match. He struggles with it from the time that Gulak first goes to it, but there’s layer and nuance to it. His arm selling at that moment is not his arm selling in the end. Gulak never really gets to focus on it for a long period of time in succession, but it’s this sort of thing that they kind of just chip away at and that gradually becomes worse and worse. He struggles to use it in any real way, although he can use his hands here and there. It’s more about pressure on the elbow and shoulder, and the result is that while he knows enough to hang around for a while and he has enough natural grit and spirit to stop what Gulak is trying to do, he does not have a way to win the match, and it’s one of the more likeable Zack Sabre Jr. matches as a result.

Gulak eventually gets him into the Gulock, but it’s when he instead yanks back on Zack’s elbow and forearm while holding the body scissors that he finally gets the submission he’s been after all year. It’s not the expected trick that does it, but Gulak finally adjusting and mixing it up a little that allows him to beat Zack Sabre Jr. It’s a lot different than the sole Sabre Jr./Busick match we ever got, but the feeling is similar, a real uplifting hard fought victory by one of the EVOLVE grapplefuck originals over Zack Sabre Jr., a win for someone who it feels good to watch succeed.

The fitting and ultra satisfying conclusion to one of the year and decade’s most underrated little series, and gun to my head, Zack’s actual best trilogy of the year.

One last time, a story driven grapplefuck classic in EVOLVE from Gulak, while also getting the best out of a super mercurial opponent in Zack Sabre Jr. As clear a statement as you’ll find of just how much Gulak really brought to the table in this company, and how badly he’ll be missed in the years to come.

***1/2