Jeff Cobb vs. Timothy Thatcher
I watched this match a few days ago, but not as closely as I will today. I enjoyed it immensely at the time, especially after watching the "Beat the Streets" wrestling competition before checking this out. Cobb and Thatcher look like legitimate athletes: muscular and lean but not overly chiseled. Thatcher has a similar build to Cesaro while "Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb is more squat, built like a keg.
They lock up straight away. Not your typical collar-and-elbow fair, but each has an underhook on the other as they jockey for position. Cobb drives Thatcher back into the ropes and breaks clean. Thatcher gets Cobb in a waistlock on the next lock up. Cobb escapes to grab one of his own, then hoists Thatcher into the air and brings him down to the mat. Thatcher counters on the ground to get behind Cobb. Both repeatedly go for waistlocks from behind when they can.
Thatcher gets Cobb in a hammerlock as they rise up. Cobb reverses into a hammerlock of his own, down to a waistlock, trips Thatcher, moves across him, and puts in a chinlock. Thatcher reverses into another hammerlock. Both men try quick pins, both get two counts.
They rise to their feet and tie up. Thatcher takes Cobb down and wrenches on Cobb's arm. Cobb grabs Thatcher's ankle and trips him. Thatcher picks Cobb's ankle from the bottom and pulls him into an ankle lock, forcing Cobb to grab the bottom rope. They lock up again, this time in a greco-roman knucklelock. Thatcher slips his leg behind Cobb, getting the mechanical advantage. He forces Cobb down to the mat and into a pin. Cobb bridges out before the three, rises up, and forces Thatcher down this time. Cobb shoves Thatcher's leg out from under him, putting Thatcher in a pin, but Thatcher gets out at two.
The two clutch onto each other in that Greco-Roman lock. Thatcher manages to break the hold on one hand with a kick to Cobb's arm, then yanks Cobb in and delivers a hard kick to Cobb's shoulder. Thatcher pulls Cobb to the mat again, this time working in a double wristlock. Cobb escapes and drops Thatcher with a fireman's carry. Now Cobb works Thatcher's arms, turning the wrist over, making Thatcher front flip to avoid a broken wrist. Cobb elbows Thatcher in the jaw when they rise up, the first strike of the match by my count. He shoots Thatcher into the ropes and dropkicks him. Two count. Thatcher gets back up. Cobb hoists him in the air for a delayed vertical suplex, marching around the ring before finally dropping the guy. Thatcher kicks out of a pin; Cobb grabs a headlock.
Thatcher pushes himself up into a headstand to escape. He rolls over Cobb, grabs a headlock of his own, gets a headlock take down, then pulls Cobb into a cross armbreaker. Thatcher has to roll back to escape it. Cobb rolls across Thacher, escaping his grip, then gets a headlock on. Cobb takes Thatcher to the mat. Thatcher somehow twists Cobb into a crossface. Cobb has to use the ropes to escape again.
Now Thatcher has control. He butterfly suplexes Cobb then goes for a cross armbreaker. He's pulling back with all his might, but Cobb flips himself over and pushes Thatcher back into a pin. Thatcher kicks out at two but doesn't break his hold on Cobb's arm. Cobb clubs Thatcher in the back, finally breaking the hold. Thatcher hits a European uppercut, his first streak of the match. He attempts a pin but only gets two. Thatcher smashes Cobb across the back with a clubbing blow of his own, then drops Cobb with a big European uppercut. Cobb's reeling now. Successive uppercuts make him wobble. Cobb finally dodges one, gets behind Thatcher, and twisting back drops him. Thatcher kicks out of the pin. Cobb grabs a waistlock, deadlifts Thatcher up, and drops him with a German.
Thatcher kicks out and grabs another arm lock as he does so. He twists around Cobb, grabs underhooks on both arms from behind, and rolls Cobb over. Cobb's stuck in the pin, the ref counts to three. Thatcher gets the win in a great show of mat wrestling.
Match Rating: ****? Tough to score, but I loved this. Obvious flaws of the star system and putting a square peg in a round hole and etc. etc. aside, this was great. They didn't work this like anything else I've watched lately except for amateur wrestling. Not that this was an amateur wrestling shoot-style pro wrestling match. It is clearly reminiscent of catch wrestling though. The first strike occurs about two-thirds of the way into the match. Thatcher doesn't strike Cobb until the last few minutes. They make the few blows that they work in seem ultra effective because of their rarity. There isn't a big finisher or high spot to end this either. It's not even a sudden roll up. It's a hard fought, scraping roll up. Thatcher gets Cobb in a bad place, a dominant position. He rolls him over and sticks his shoulders to the mat in a way that he can't get out of for three seconds. It wasn't a fight, it was a wrestling match. I almost feel bad giving this "just" four stars. It's excellent, but my biggest knock is that I never quite popped the way I do for matches that I rate more highly. That could be my own fault for being unfamiliar with the style, but four stars is nothing to scoff at.
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