LogFAQs > #944362057

I'm going to be a bit unorthodox and start with Steiner's pick since I've been meaning to see what Tim Thatcher can do when he's not boring me to tears wrestling a rando from Catch Point in the middle of EVOLVE shows.

Steiner posted...

Steiner's Match Recommendation (Week 1)

WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher
Progress, Chapter 62 - January 28th, 2018
Link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av19282140/

I know in your write-up you said this match helps show why Tim has gotten over in Europe but, to me, the star of this match was 100% WALTER. Not going to lie, when this opened with a grapple sequence, I immediately started getting flashbacks to Thatcher's reign in EVOLVE. Sequences of technically proficient mat wrestling with slick transitions but very little of what makes professional wrestling what it is. Tim's at least got more than one face now but he still ends up working most of this match with a blank expression. It's so difficult for me to get into him because he does so little to get me engaged outside of the aforementioned great grappling and slugging the guy with some nice forearms.

WALTER, however, was the man. What Thatcher lacked in terms of projecting a personality, WALTER had in spades. You could see a story being told from his body language, his expressions of frustration and pain, and his selling in particular for his hand was incredible. Thatcher was hitting just as hard with his strikes as WALTER, but it's WALTER's mannerisms that really help put his stuff over the top. I feel like, if anything, this match shows why one man has been built as the guy wherever he's gone and the other is usually only talked about purely as a good technician. You can be the most gifted ring technician in the world but it only gets you so much. You have have to offer more and Thatcher still seems to struggle at doing that.

To sum up this post of just my immediate thoughts, this didn't really change my opinions on Thatcher as a performer. He's still about where I've always seen him. But this performance from WALTER is another piece of evidence for why he might be the best wrestler in Europe. Very good match.