Talk about it here.

A referee in a kilt! Awesome. This just feels like the first five minutes of a long match, only stretched out to a 20 minute match that never goes beyond first gear. No sense of danger, nothing consequential and not even wrestling exchanges or moves that were all that special. It's an interesting glimpse of what two guys who were off the radar in some ways were doing at this point in time, but beyond that, this just didn't do anything for me.

There was a lot of good wrestling in this, highlighting the contrast between Owen's athletic style and Finlay's rough-and-tumble brawling. But that made it all the more frustrating that it never went anywhere as a match. No build, no highlight moments, no real conclusion, nothing.

I don't agree that there was no build. There were little payback spots sprinkled throughout and Owen finally getting Finlay's elbow pad that had been used against him the whole match and giving Finlay everything back in return was built to as a pivotal moment of the match. If you're expecting an epic rise to the finish this will be a disappointment, but this was more about little peaks and valleys than about gradual build. The match just kind of peters out to an unsatisfying draw finish. This is no classic but it's a match I enjoyed and the best Owen match of the yearbook.

Didn't like this very much either. It has a cool setting but again Owen fails to grab me around this time as why I should be drawn into his matches beyond the highspots. I thought we were on to something about halfway through with him throwing uppercuts and Finlay tumbling to the outside but it was broken up by the round ending. Disappointing.

Referee is wearing a kilt. Finlay doing a lot of pleading to the referee. The referees are so involved in these type of matches. Though he hasn’t had to make a single pinfall attempt yet. Finlay pulls Owen’s hair but positions him to where the ref can’t see it. Interesting how the ref counts the the pinfall attempt. He goes down to one knee but doesn’t hit the mat. I think the removes some of the drama. Time limit ran out? Can’t tell if they picked a winner or left it as a draw.

This felt like an exhibition match, to be honest. Neither man was aggressive enough for my taste considering the round system. It seems that that would encourage constant offense in an attempt to win the match before the round runs out, but it sure didn't in this match. I think I counted two near-falls in the whole thing, and I have no idea what the finish was. I also didn't see the part where Owen stole Finlay's elbow pad and used it on him, and I wasn't only watching the match, but doing private commentary on it.

 

I'd like to see what these two could do in a continuous bout where the action can build naturally, instead of the fits and starts we get due to the round system.

 

As an aside, I didn't know that the ref could card wrestlers like soccer players; at least that's what it looked like the ref was doing to Finlay at one point. An interesting wrinkle that I've never seen before anywhere else.

Man, this was rough for me. Owen is 0 for the year so far for me. Like the last one, the handheld hurts the match a bit, but really, this just didn't feel like a match at all. It felt like a feats of strength, but no strength. Just two men kind of feeling each other out for a very long time. I don't know how long this thing was, it felt like a half an hour at least.

This match was so drab it was hard to really get into it. They never really got into anything overly interesting outside of the whole elbow pad thing. And that never made it past the round it happened in.