[2016-11-27-PROGRESS-Chapter 39: The Graps of Wrath] Matt Riddle vs Will Ospreay

[GOTNW]

Decided to check this out since I heard it was 8 minutes long and relatively one sided but was disappointed to find out it was nowhere near as good as it was hyped to be. Ok, so you have Riddle blindsight Ospreay with an amazing knee strike before the bell rings. That ruled. Then he starts slamming him around-and the throws he does look great, the Fisherman Buster in particular looked like he decapitated Ospreay. What he does inbetween the slams isn't very good-his chops are eye rolling and for most of his strikes he still hasn't managed to figure out how to make it look good without hitting full force. I find the overreacting incredibly annoying-good for the crowd and the commentator for enjoying themselves, but screaming at every single spot they do every two seconds is a bit much, especially if you've watched, ahem, any Riddle and Ospreay match before, ever. Ospreay was surprisingly tolerable here-his flippy nonsense is much better as a means of a comeback. If they worked it like that instead of just having Ospreay do on a moves spray maybe the match could've been good. But between the ridiculous New Japan cosplay no selling strike exchanges, sound effect kicks and the overreliance on constant pop-ups and countering in the finishing stretch this one felt like a missed opportunity more than anything. **1/2