Time for something different – a look at the main event of the debut Head Drop show last month, featuring Timothy Thatcher!
Head Drop was a show run by Britwres photographer Rob Brazier, held at London’s Resistance Gallery (because of course it was). Your MC for the evening was Slick Lombardo, who opened this segment by referencing the injury that Laura di Matteo picked up earlier in the show. Before the match, Bakewell cut a promo as he prepared for his match by wrestling with a radio mic that was losing signal…
Jerry Bakewell vs. Timothy Thatcher
We’re working under the old World of Sport rules here – best of three falls with the rounds system in effect.
Thatcher’s bemused by the crowd singing for him as the first round gets underway, but he gets going as he took Bakewell into the ropes early. A headlock’s next, but Bakewell reverses out and takes Thatcher to the mat, with a headscissor escape from Thatcher neatly leading into an armbar as he countered a counter.
From the restart, Bakewell trips Thatcher as he looked for a toe hold, but Thatcher picks a leg too and grabs a toe hold of his own, which he ended up turning into a bow and arrow hold, complete with a teased pull of a tuft of Bakewell’s hair. Thatcher releases the hold and gets shoved as Bakewell was unhappy at his combover being pulled… but Thatcher just trips him and locks in a single leg crab to ride out the first round.
The single camera means we miss the gory parts of Bakewell rinsing his mouth between rounds. Round two opened with the cameraman repositioning to catch Thatcher going for another leg trip and a leg lock, before he switched things up by landing an uppercut, a snapmare, and another uppercut to put Bakewell back to the mat. A chinlock’s next, but Bakewell fights free and takes Thatcher into the corner for some Andre the Giant-esque butt bumps. Another uppercut from Thatcher to the back of the head stops those, as Thatcher went back to Bakewell’s arm, torquing the joint before using a key lock to roll Bakewell back to the mat, where he uses an unorthodox neck and heel stretch, then a surfboard variation as Bakewell survived a second round by trading more uppercuts with Thatcher.
I swear Thatcher called Bakewell a “big sod” between rounds…
Round three opened with Thatcher charging into Bakewell with uppercuts and body blows, taking him into the corner where Jerry fought back with a headbutt. Thatcher misses a charge and earns himself a backbreaker as Bakewell was finally landing some offence, including a kneedrop to the head of Thatcher for a near-fall. Thatcher tries to rebound with a sleeperhold, but Bakewell gets to the ropes… and takes a Hardcore Holly-like kick to the stomach, as the referee gave him a public warning for it. A RINGKAMPF belly-to-belly quickly followed… and Jerry Bakewell is pinned as Thatcher went 1-0 up in the third round.
Round four begins in much the same way as the third, with Thatcher running into Bakewell with uppercuts as he was all about the strikes. With Bakewell literally on the ropes, Thatcher continues the barrage of body blows, eventually working his way into a back suplex… but Bakewell floats over in mid-air and almost equalises the match right there!
Bakewell tries for a slam, but Thatcher slips out and tries for his RINGKAMPF belly-to-belly… which is blocked as Bakewell instead lands a clothesline. That’s good for a near-fall as Bakewell keeps up the offence with more knee drops, before scoring a gutbuster to leave Thatcher down for a two-count. Taking a page out of Thatcher’s book, Bakewell starts to rip at Tim’s face, but as the round entered its final minute, he’s caught with another RINGKAMPF belly-to-belly before time ran out as they exchanged more uppercuts. Tellingly, Thatcher ended that round on his backside…
The fifth round opened like the fourth one ended: uppercuts! Except this time Thatcher edged ahead as he clocked Bakewell with an enziguiri for a near-fall. Bakewell’s picked up for another series of forearms to the head, before Bakewell shocked him with a Cobra twist in the middle of the ring. A hiptoss helps Thatcher escape, but Bakewell goes all lucha on us with a springboard armdrag/takedown as he shocked Thatcher with the equalising pin!
It’s next fall wins as we entered the sixth round, with Bakewell taking the fight to Thatcher with a series of armdrags before a vertical suplex finds its mark for a near-fall. Thatcher’s right back with a goozle and a slap, before he began to club away on Bakewell with forearms to the back. There’s an airplane spin, then a Finlay roll as Bakewell changed the momentum – and almost snatched the win – before a backslide saw Thatcher kick out at two and transition into a Fujiwara armbar for the submission.
This was really enjoyable stuff; although it’d be really easy to call the show “hipster fodder” given the set-up, the Admiral Mountevans/World of Sport rules didn’t feel as much of a gimmick as I feared. While the rounds did interfere with the flow and momentum of the match, Thatcher and Bakewell managed to keep a story going throughout, making this an entertaining story, rather than a stop-start exchange of moves. ***¼
- Watch the match on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtmrWhoIbo