Timothy Thatcher vs. Marcus Lewis from PREMIER Wrestling 2015

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Thoughts from Bill Thompson:

Stumbled across this match thanks to someone alerting me to PREMIER Wrestling live streaming their event. There was no sound, and the feed skipped what appeared to be a minute or so of this match. That, however, is not something I’m going to complain about. The live feed was a last minute test for PREMIER and if it means they are going to make a concerted effort to live stream their shows in the future then I’m a happy camper. Plus, it gave me the chance to see this match and that also made me happy.

I was not familiar with Marcus Lewis coming into this match. A few like minded wrestling folk told me he was a decent talent, but that was the extent of my knowledge concerning the dreadlocked gentleman. Of course he’s wrestling Timothy Thatcher, who at this point is capable of having anywhere from fun to great matches with anyone. Lo and behold, turns out that Lewis is quite the fun and talented wrestler himself. He’s definitely a California indie guy who I will be keeping on my radar moving forward.

The entire match is laid out where the grappler in Thatcher is attempting to deal with the athlete in Lewis. That’s not to say that Lewis is presented as just an athlete. Rather, Lewis uses his speed and athleticism to hang with Thatcher admirably on the mat. Thatcher keeps cutting off Lewis with his grappling acumen and that fuels the interesting dynamic of the match. There comes a point though when Lewis’ speed becomes too much for Thatcher and thus he stops trading grappling and starts throwing bombs.

I really love when Thatcher busts out the Suplexes. In this match it’s a Deadlift Gutwrench Suplex and a German Suplex. Because Thatcher doesn’t use his high impact moves that often they come across as absolutely killer when he does use them. When Thatcher takes the match to the outside and uses his stiff as heck European Uppercuts to a Lewis who is draped over the apron, well, I was quite giddy.

The end run is really well laid out. Lewis mounts his comeback and his speed appears to be winning the day. Everything is put into place for him to his his finisher, the 450 Splash. Except Thatcher moves out of the way and manages to synch up a funky looking submission. A fitting end to the cat and mouse game the two men had been playing all match long.

Not a great match, but a really good match that is emblematic of the general quality of PREMIER Wrestling. Thatcher and Lewis worked an interesting match that was just as much a showcase for Lewis as it was further proof of the greatness of Thatcher. Like I said earlier, hopefully PREMIER does more of this live streaming events because wrestling fans everywhere need to be privy to the good stuff coming out of PREMIER, like this match.

Cheers,
Bill Thompson