We’re returning to Beyond’s back catalogue, and another match between Timothy Thatcher and Biff Busick.
At time of writing, this is the last “regular” singles match between these two, not counting their Ambition scrap in October 2019. We’ll probably fill in the blanks from WWN and PWG some day…
Anyway, this match came as a part of Beyond’s Greatest Rivals Round Robin tournament in September 2015, in what was Biff Busick’s farewell to the indies before he became Oney Lorcan in WWE. The format is pretty self explanatory: Busick was in a round robin tournament against some pretty big names on the indies, with Drew Gulak and Eddie Edwards also taking part. For now though, we’ll laser our focus onto just the one match. Commentary from the Fete Music Hall in Providence, Rhode Island comes from Denver Colorado and Emil Jay.
Quick Result:
Biff Busick beats Timothy Thatcher in 16:00 (****)
Timothy Thatcher vs. Biff Busick
Thatcher’s now billed from Sacramento, but he keeps his very British units of measuring weight…
We get going with Busick looking for a lock-up, but Thatcher escapes… before Biff returned the favour. Emil on commentary notes how Thatcher tapped out pretty easily earlier in the night as he tried to save himself for later matches. Like this one. We keep having skirmishes as neither man could maintain grip on a lock-up. Thatcher charges in and ends up going to ground as Busick looked for a hole, but Thatcher slips free as Biff kept hold of Thatcher’s leg. A chinlock breaks that, but it’s countered out as again we reset. Finally they lock-up with a Greco-Roman knuckle lock, which Thatcher turned into a Test of Strength, bringing Busick to his knees… and after several attempts to power out, Thatcher just takes out Biff’s knee and took him to the mat.
That knuckle lock gets Thatcher some two-counts, forcing Biff to bridge up as he once again looked to escape… and he finally goes so, rolling out to reverse the knuckle lock! Thatcher tries to counter with a wristlock, torquing back Biff’s wrist before the pair ended up in the ropes. Back on the mat, Thatcher again looks for Busick’s arm, rolling him over for a pinning attempt when he couldn’t get it, before Busick rolled free and teased a half-and-half suplex… only for Thatcher to dive for the ropes to force the break. Another tie-up from Busick sees him go back for the half-nelson suplex, but Thatcher resists, only to get snapmared into a surfboard stretch.
Busick keeps the hold on as Thatcher powered up, but Thatcher eventually manages to reverse things on the way to a back suplex. It’s blocked as Busick flips free, returning with a side headlock, only for Thatcher to go to ground with Fujiwara armbar, albeit right by the ropes as we got an instant break. Undeterred, Thatcher goes back to the arm, stomping it into the mat, before Busick came back with chops and elbows to take Timo into the corner.
A retaliatory elbow knocks Busick loopy, as Thatcher goes back to the left arm with some more wrist torquing. There’s a finger snap too, before he looked to snap back the arm… instead rolling down Busick into a pin. After breaking it at two, Thatcher went up to an armbar, but Busick rolls free, throwing some kicks to help, before Thatcher went right back to the arm with a kick of his own. Busick retaliates, taking Thatcher down… but Timo spams the Fujiwara armbar, taking Biff down again as he tried to squeeze out the submission. Busick got to the rope after a fan helped push it towards hin, but the damage has been done, and Thatcher just exacerbates it by throwing Biff’s arm into the edge of the ring.
Biff finally lands his half-and-half suplex as the Hail Mary landed, before a brief slugfest ended with Thatcher decking Biff with a headbutt. Thatcher’s back with uppercuts, but Busick comes back with forearms as they continue to slug it out, before Thatcher took down Busick in search of another Fujiwara armbar. Busick escapes, and uses the same Bully choke takedown… keeping the hold on, and that’s all folks! Thatcher taps out – and goes two-down in the Round Robin series!
Another very-technical outing here, with the early going perhaps being a little too slow for some people’s tastes. That being said, I thoroughly loved every second of this, even without having seen the earlier Round Robin matches. If you’ve got an IWTV subscription, get on this! ****