Timothy Thatcher

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[soup23]

Way too soon for me and I don't have him as the best wrestler of 2014 like some do. I do have him as one of the best wrestlers so far this year and another strong 2015 will help his case but to me the longevity isn't there unless something miraculous happens.

[concrete1992]

Great wrestler but not at all sure how one could put him as a Top 100 worker EVER.

[Tim Cooke]

He's treading in being in the top 10 for 2014. Not even close to top 100 of all time.

[BillThompson]

Not yet. I could see a case for bottom 100 if he keeps up his work over the next 1.5 years. If he keeps up the same level of work for the next five years then he'll probably end up being a top 10-20 guy next time we do this list.

[Dylan Waco]

Not saying id vote for him, but it's worth looking at what is there of his back catalogue

[concrete1992]

I'm going to go ahead and say I've gotta prioritize and Timothy Thatcher trying to drag Adam Thornstowe and El Chupacrabra for a few years probably won't convince me that he is a Top 100 guy all-time right now. Though Dylan creates hours in the day so if he says he has a couple of case beefers from earlier in his career I'll give them a look.

[Quentin]

So nearly 7 years later, I feel pretty safe in saying that Thatcher is a total lock for me, with a really high ceiling on where he could end up

[Makai Club #1]

I first watched Timothy Thatcher right after his EVOLVE title reign ended and all the EVOLVE fans hated him and thought he was very boring and basic as a wrestler, and as soon as I watched him, I knew that wasn't the case and he's gone on to prove that since, getting those fans back on his side with his work in wXw, Progress, OTT, etc. 

In WCW, Dean Malenko's Iceman gimmick made Malenko's no personality gimmick into a gimmick in of itself. Thatcher is similar. On the surface, he's a no-nonsense wrestler with a plain look, but there is something very unique in the way he wrestlers and acts. It's hard to describe. It's just something that should be watched and then you'd get what I'm talking about. 

[Ed.]

A lock because of how great he's been in the last 5 or so years, but I really would like to take a look again at the EVOLVE title run because I really didn't appreciate it at the time.  It took until wXw Tag League in 2017 for the penny to drop with me how great he is.

[SegundaCuerda]

A lock for me, his record of great matches is extensive, I loved his EVOLVE run and the wXw matches specially, I like that he keep his style practically unchanged in NXT. For me, the magic of Thatcher is to see how the opponent will work a Thatcher match. He always do a similar match but it feels different to what everybody is doing in the places he has been, so when someone is going to wrestle Thatcher, I'm very interested in how he'll look in a Thatcher match, with Ciampa being the last example of that.

[DylanZero]

Love him. Always loved him. Certainly has a case because he is one of the best in the modern era. How will these next 5 years go though? 

[Clayton Jones]

Thatcher is an interesting case to me. I really enjoy his approach to pro wrestling, he's one of the few of his generation that always has a complete vision of who he is before, during, and after a match. He wrestles with a clear intent to win and rarely breaks my suspension of disbelief. On the flip side I can sometimes get frustrated at how unselfish he is, which is a quality I normally value, but in his case sometimes undermines his grizzly, aggressive persona. I also think he's rarely booked to his full potential, possibly due to his giving nature, or more likely because he's such a square peg in a modern landscape of round holes. Even runs like his EVOLVE Championship which should be a big plus, he was often portrayed as boring or unsatisfying, sometimes to the detriment of his work. Regardless, the five matches I watched of his on my first round of GWE viewing left me feeling optimistic about his chances of making my list.

2019/03/07 Yuki Ishikawa/Shigehiro Irie VS WALTER/Timothy Thatcher - wXw

Builds to the Ishikawa singles match beautifully. I'd also strongly recommend that match which I watched a while back. Everyone in this plays their part perfectly but the focus is on Ishikawa and Thatcher and neither disappoints at all. A very substantial tag match with some length that never drags. The work is logical and everything builds with a very deliberate and engaging pace. Thatcher is underrated as a tag wrestler and whenever I see him in a big match like this teaming with Ringkampf I get excited.

2020/12/06 Timothy Thatcher VS Tommaso Ciampa - NXT

The fact this match was this good in the pandemic era against an opponent like Ciampa is remarkable. I like Ciampa well enough but he has tendencies I don't love and isn't a must watch for me by any means. That said, as SegundaCeurda mentioned, this was a great example of an opponent in a big match situation adapting nicely to Thatcher instead of the other way around. This felt spontaneous and intuitive in a way that WWE produced wrestling rarely does. One of the best pandemic matches I've watched.

2017/03/19 Timothy Thatcher VS Tom Dawkins - IPW:UK
2017/01/20 Timothy Thatcher VS Joe Graves - PCW ULTRA

On the topic of Thatcher being unselfish, these were matches I watched to see how he works a few different "make the local guy" kind of situations, without any knowledge of the results coming in. They were two very good examples as such, with Graves bringing a good bit more to the table, while Dawkins was an exercise in making the best of being dealt a bad hand. I don't believe I've ever seen these two wrestle otherwise and I could be way off base from just one match to judge them. But "Blackbelt" Tom brought decent selling, weak strikes, and one or two big spots but not much else, while Graves worked a more interesting hold for hold, gritty sort of match that complimented Thatcher nicely. Dawkins got eaten up a bit as a result while Graves felt like he really accomplished something in his match (which was the third in a trilogy and of course the rubber match). I did like how Timothy basically built everything for Dawkins around his two big spots and gave him very little otherwise, while he had much more of a give and take with Graves. Neither of these matches were great but I thought they were everything Thatcher could do and then some given the circumstances.

2018/12/31 Timothy Thatcher VS Simon Grimm - Beyond

I was hoping this would be a bit of a Thatcher showcase and it delivered. Grimm came at him headfirst, kind of like Ciampa did, but in a much more condensed package of a match. This was really compelling and even though it had similarities to the other three Thatcher singles matches I watched it still felt very fresh and different. I'd like to see more from these two.

This was a pretty focused period of Thatcher's career, not intentionally, and I know there's a lot more to explore. Still it was interesting to dig into material that was all post GWE16 where I'd agree his case was pretty much nonexistent. Since then I'm of the opinion he's built on his resume tremendously and deserves a much closer look this time around.

[Ma Stump Puller]

I've really enjoyed his NOAH run for what it's worth: his grumpy antics alongside his pretty engaging wrestling is a great match for the house-style of the company and he's gotten some real fun outings despite being a fairly new act for the company. I'm really shocked that they pushed him as hard as they did with a tag title run AND a GHC shot in the last two months or so, but he's totally deserving of it given how consistently strong he comes off in his matches. Definitely seek out that stuff if you're interested in what he's been doing post-WWE. I don't think it's enough to swing tons of votes but it's more evidence of how well put-together of a act he is.