Featured image by The Ringside Perspective
This was Timothy Thatcher’s farewell match to the independent scene before he moves on to a promotion that likely will refuse to understand his talents and appeal. As far as farewells go though, the participants of this match couldn’t be much better for Thatcher. He gets to team with a personal hero who he wrestled in a dream match last year. Across from him, longtime tag team partner and noted Coward WALTER and another shoot style legend in Daisuke Ikeda.
Much like the Ikeda & Ishikawa tag from Inner Circle, I still do feel a bit out of my depth writing about this. But the presence of WALTER and Thatcher do a lot to ground me in something a little more familiar that I can sink my teeth into. WALTER shows up here instead of being NXT meme machine Coward which is nice and Thatcher is excellent in everything he does as always. All possible pairings between these two teams get a decent amount of time to play out so much so that Thatcher doesn’t even feel like the direct focus of his own farewell match.
This very much felt like just a chance for each guy to tie up with their opponents to showcase some fun interactions which is what we got. That it ends with a Christmastime ending of Thatcher and Ishikawa grabbing stereo Fujiwara armbars on their opponents is just a nice little bow on top of this match.
The post-match is really where the match shines here. One of Thatcher’s greatest strengths as a worker has been understatement and subtlety in an environment where spectacle and bombast take precedence. The same happens here as Thatcher refuses the opportunity to make a farewell speech, instead bowing in gratitude to his adoring audience. When the locker room empties onto the ramp to greet him on his exit to the locker room, Thatcher redirects and leaves through the crowd instead. A fitting end for his time on the independents–subtle, generous, and moving.
