[2017-03-10-wXw-16 Carat Gold] WALTER vs David Starr

[Calvin]

Talk about it here.

[Jetlag]

I didn't really like Starr in this. He had all this dweeby offense that didn't look good at all against Walter, and he was far too reliant on Walter feeding into him in convoluted ways, like leap frogging over Walter and all that dumb shit. Also, his Davey Richards-like "intense" facial expressions where really annoying. You are supposed to sell that you are getting the shit beaten out of you first, and not how angry or badass you are. This needed more Walter stomping the shit out of Starr to be good and less Starr popping up to get his shit in against the bigger guy. For example, Starr would just absorb a big spot from Walter like that huge dropkick, and then the next minute just hit a brainbuster type move.

[Cap]

I finally got around to this tournament. A buddy of mine primed me with the fact that he was in the minority, but he preferred this to the final. I was skeptical, but I'll be damned if I don't kind of agree. I just rewatched them back to back and it is close. They are both different kinds of awesome, but this match has a crispness to it the other doesn't and even though I know who won I got sort of taken up in the drama. I do agree with Jetlag that I would have preferred Starr selling some of the big moves a bit more, letting everything breath. That keeps this from elite levels for me, but I still give it really high marks because it is filled with high octane offense, Starr was convincing in his if-I-rest-I-die attack strategy, Walter is such a top shelf guy right now, and I really loved the ending sequence. ****1/2