Coming just days after the second ever Fight Pit match, the Discord chose the original as this week's match of the week. As WWE was still wrestling with how to handle pandemic era shows, Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher gave what I would consider to be the highlight match of this time period.
Right off the bat it's worth pointing out some things. The first is that this is an aforementioned covid-era match, which I've found to be difficult to evaluate because there's some inherent parts of wrestling that are different from most matches ever (for example playing off the crowd). It also makes the audible part of wrestling from the competitors far more important. Some wrestlers took to that, others did not.
Secondly, it's weird to hear Mauro Ranallo on commentary again. It feels like that's a whole different era of wrestling, not just two years ago.
Kurt Angle is the special referee for this match, which is fitting because one of the matches this reminds me of is Angle vs Samoa Joe from TNA Lockdown 2008. Not just because of the cage match setting, but in terms of what they were going for. The Lockdown match is much more divisive than this one, but I've always been a fan of it. When I first watched the Fight Pit match, I was extremely impressed and I'm happy to say that it has held up remarkably well. Especially given its era, where I have often been reluctant to go back to rewatch matches.
What becomes apparent quickly is how they went out of their way to make this feel special and different. In pro wrestling, coming up with new stipulations is usually a difficult task. Most of them suck. My main critique of Rollins vs Riddle from Saturday would be that they felt like they had just a standard cage match so it didn't feel worth the stipulation. Whereas this felt worth it because it was a different style of match you'd typically see from WWE. They weren't just having a regular match but with an alternate coat of paint - they used the stipulation to present something special.
While they were clearly leaning into an MMA influenced match, make no mistake this is an excellently worked pro wrestling match with all the typical ebbs and flows you'd expect to see. Right from the get go there's an emphasis of aggressive grappling, hold exchanges, and strikes. Almost immediately they establish how the cage is a factor, including the most memorable spot of the whole match where Thatcher loses a couple teeth and gets his mouth bloodied following a kick from Riddle. I thought the visual of Thatcher with blood in his mouth and Angle holding his (fake) teeth was remarkably well done considering these things are usually hockey. Also on the subject of the cage, Riddle's use of it is phenomenal in this match. Not only when he's on offence, but he constantly used it as an out of Thatcher's submission holds. The stuff on top of the cage is nice as well - it's a well designed structure in that the platform is big enough to move on, and it's the perfect height to where you believe someone could fall off at any time.
I think this match is a great example of how even mat wrestling can portray hatred and violence when presented in the correct way. While I've often shared my frustration at wrestlers chain wrestling at the start of a match when the match is presented as a personal feud, this is a far cry from that. These two clearly wanted not only to brutalise the other, but prove they're the better man. There's a certain grittiness to the match. It feels grounded and intimate, making it feel more personal as a fight. Even aesthetically, the dark, empty NXT arena worked superbly here as opposed to the sometimes over-indulgent 2022 WWE presentation.
This is one of the best matches of covid-era WWE. I touched earlier on how important the audible side of wrestling was at this time, and these two deliver huge in that regard. Obviously the strikes look and sound incredible all the way through. Not only that, but the struggle you can hear between the submissions and grappling. I also want to point out something they didn't do because a lot of these covid-era WWE matches, particularly the big main event style matches, loved to make melodramatic stories complete with bad acting and dialogue. There's none of that here, and I'm happy to do the odd thing and praise them for not doing something.
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