Featured image by New Photography Studios
With the news that Robbie Eagles is booked to challenge Chris Panzer for the PWR Championship next month, I thought it’d be fitting that I dip my toes into Eagles’ work. I’m not too familiar with his stuff outside of some of the Birds of Prey tags from 2019 so this will be a nice little primer on the Sniper of the Skies before he comes to Manila. Don’t expect any kind of in depth retrospective or character breakdowns here. I’m just checking out some of his matches and jotting down my thoughts.
This championship match from 2017 is one that really put Eagles and the Australian independent scene on the map. Ospreay’s already attained international notoriety from his New Japan bookings, the legendary match with Ricochet, and all his contributions to the British indie scene so he definitely has the feel of a major star coming to a much smaller promotion like PWA.
The title match itself is all right. It didn’t really grip me outside of a few tense moments and sequences but that’s also because I don’t have any real emotional connection to either of these guys. This is clearly a major moment for the Australian independent scene and the two guys work the match to reflect this. Structurally and in execution, Eagles and Ospreay go for what most might imagine to be a junior heavyweight epic. A lot of move counters, decent striking, and speedy high flying offense. For a match in that style, it’s pretty good. Impressive enough to keep you going even when you’re lacking some of the emotional stakes here.
A few things do catch me off guard in this match however. For example, it’s pretty clear both at the start of the match as well as in the metanarrative of things that Ospreay is well above Eagles. This is true for all the reasons I mentioned at the top of the review. And yet, at one point towards the end of the match, something shifts and Eagles suddenly becomes the domineering champion and Ospreay the fiery babyface chasing the gold. I understand that the idea is to elevate Eagles and even put him over Ospreay in defeat but I don’t think I caught anything in the match that really signaled that shift or justified it.
My other qualms about this match are mostly about Ospreay’s performance here. Ospreay going for the Rainmaker is never not lame for me. That spot always reminds me of a young boy putting on his father’s shoes. The move is ill fitting for Ospreay, far too iconic and mythologized to be done well by anyone outside of Okada (yes, even Havoc and Seven are poor imitations sadly). That and his general demeanor don’t really translate his relative importance to this scene. I am speaking with 2020 hindsight here though as I think Ospreay now is far more suited to portraying a top level import but that part of his character just didn’t gel here.
Eagles, for his part, does well in this match. His moves are clean, he moves at a crazy pace, and he’s incredibly motivated to showcase his talents in a match that he knows will garner a lot of international attention. It’s fascinating to see him make the most of this chance by essentially throwing everything at the wall here. The match acts almost like an audition tape to interested parties internationally and good on him for making the most of that platform. What’s even more fascinating about it is that once Eagles arrives in Manila, the roles will be reversed. Against Chris Panzer, Eagles will be the high profile import standing across a champion well-respected in their territory. Eagles’ history in this match gives me hope that he pays forward the generosity and energy that Ospreay gave him here (and multiple times thereafter) to another budding independent scene ready to leave a mark on the global stage.
5 Comments