[2016-04-01-EVOLVE 58] Matthew Riddle vs Timothy Thatcher

Timothy Thatcher may not exactly be my favourite wrestler but he's far from being the dirt worst like Tracy Williams or Gulak. He's been in some good matches before. He looked REALLY good against Chris Masters and actually carried himself like a real pro wrestler there. He's trained with Yuki Ishikawa. So I think he isn't a great wrestler more due to the same reason he can't cut a promo to save his life than due to a lack of grappling abity or something like that. Thatcher's facial expression just before he came back into the ring after the injury angle was embarrassingly bad as was his selling of the angle itself but at least I like the idea of booking fuckfinishes in 2016 so props to Gabe. Thatcher made a solid sparring partner for Riddle, this is nothing mindblowing if you've seen some Battlarts but it's the closest I've seen an Evolve match come to looking similar to one and that comparison has been made plenty so far. Some solid grappling that would've been much better if Thatcher was a more charismatic performer and there was more peril attached to the holds, the contrast between Riddle's awesome Fujiwara armbar where it looked like he was hyperextending Thatcher's arm and Thatcher's was staggering. I'll also give them props for striking their opponent on the ground to remain in control or obtain control, we got some nice slaps out of it even if in general a lot of it ended up looking pretty mediocre, and a lack of striking/kicking ability is definitely something that is probably lacking amongst Evolve guys today to come close to the heights of the faux-shootiness (if they even wish to prosper in that style). ***1/4