Early Bird Gets The Worm

Will Ospreay VS Roderick Strong - Southside Wrestling 7/18/2015

CJD: I don't think this match would make a top 10 for either guy. But man I'm just digging some straight forward, fundamentally sound wrestling right now, and this hits all the right notes. I'm a Rod Strong mark and I still think I underrate the guy when I see under the radar goodness like this that I know his career is chock full of. From the moment he went into the crowd to stir shit up you could feel that he was going to take the wheel and make young Will's job real simple. This is the kind of match that if you never saw either guy, even if you were only the most casual of fans, the work they did would communicate everything you needed. In some ways it reminds me of matches we dug into in our early days here at PIF, which is fitting because Roddy was one of the earliest MDTSOCWWKD Champions!

JJZ: Baby boy of a wrestler. Billy Ospreay looking like he skipped 7th period to make it to the show on time. Watching the rawness of him in this match knowing that he reached his potential makes it even more entertaining to me. Shitty little boots Roderick Strong is hands down my favorite version. Now this match really embodies both the guys strengths at the time of this match. Strong is just mean bringing some serious heel heat while Will counters with his explosive high flying wildness. Just a really good match overall. Loved loved loved the fuck you power bomb Rod gave Will. Loved the finish. Lotta goodness in this one.

This Is Heavy

Will Ospreay VS KUSHIDA - WCPW World Cup Finals 8/26/2017

JJZ: So before watching this match I watched the quarterfinals match between Kushida and ZSJ. I was so excited for that and thought it would be a lock for me to Play Forward. As soon as I saw it I was like "YES." Then I watched it and was like "naw." It really underdelivered in my opinion. So, I saw this and you know how much I love Ospreay, and I couldn't recall really seeing a big time Ospreay vs Kushida match before. This was the finals of the same tournament and I really enjoyed this one. These two complimented each other nicely. This was a pretty textbook build of a match. Nice technical work in the beginning. Back and forth middle and an exciting home stretch. Loved the finish. I've seen a few matches from this tournament now and really think it would be something to invest time in.

CJD: I have seen one of the big time Ospreay/KUSHIDA matches in NJPW and it was very good. And this was on a similar level! These guys do have nice chemistry. This particular match felt like more of Ospreay's brainchild and as such there were a few moments I thought he was trying to get a bit more melodramatic than it needed. BUT, at the same time, this crowd felt like they'd been through a lot, and maybe they needed a lot to hook them back in. They were definitely fully invested by the finish and what a finish it was. And for any criticisms I might have, they never lost me in the slightest, and this was a highly satisfying match beginning to end. 64 man tournament! God damn. One of the fantasy wrestling feds I used to be a part of back in the *Prodigy days did one of those but we kayfabed a bunch of early rounds like it was the IC Title in Rio de Janeiro. I have to assume WCPW actually held every one of these matches, and my hat's off to them and the talent for that.

Gonna Fly Now

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hibjq

Will Ospreay (c) VS Marty Scurll - NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 4/1/2018

JJZ: This was a no brainer for me. In my top three matches of the year. Ospreay is one of the best in the wrestling world right now, he has evolved into a complete wrestler that tells you a story that you never want to end. Now Marty, I'm 50/50 on the Villain. He can be great or he overstays his welcome. But that isn't the case in this match at all. This match is a present for you Chris. I hope you enjoy it.

CJD: I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. There's a lot about this match I loved. But as was the case with previous Ospreay/Scurll matches I've seen, I think they took things too far. This match told a complete story, reached a logical conclusion. Then it kept going for a few more minutes and it made so much of what they worked so hard to build feel less important. Make no mistake that for almost a half hour these are the best babyface Will Ospreay and maestro Marty Scrull performances I've ever seen. I feel similarly on the Villain, I often think he's a great entrance and cool character on paper who doesn't translate in the ring. That wasn't the case here, he was methodical, nasty, everything he did in the ring had purpose. Ospreay's selling and sometimes inadvertent continuous punishment to his neck was reminiscent of an action movie like Die Hard or Shoot 'Em Up. It just kept getting more ridiculous but it worked. But by the end I wanted a little less. I know you don't feel the same, but that's my honest opinion.

JJZ: I knew the only way I could get you to watch this match was to force it on you. I couldn't disagree with you more about the end stretch. I think they nailed it with this match. These two always went too far. Sometimes so far I didn't even want to watch the finish. But when the finish happened in this match I was like "Yes! They got it perfect this time."

CJD: In order to continue this conversation I'm going to have to touch on some vague spoilers, so if our readers don't want to know how this match ends, then proceed no further until you WATCH THE MATCH...

Stiff Shot Of Scotch

Drew Galloway (c) VS Will Ospreay - WCPW World Title 6/3/2017

CJD: Alright Alright! I'll see your Drew Galloway against smaller GIF machine indy star in a suit and raise you a Drew Galloway VS smaller GIF machine indy star in (half) a suit! Normally I think we both try to bring variety with the same wrestler week to week but this time the matches are fairly similar, right down to some silliness that I could do without in both. But once again when this one is good, it's damn good. Dare I say great. Between another stop along the way of Galloway's monster indy run and the story of Ospreay maturing and starting to become the complete package in the past two years, I think this one is well worth getting as many eyes on as possible.

JJZ: Third time I've watched this match and I'm really happy to watch it again. I always liked Ospreay but when I watched this match for the first time last year it made me go YES! That's what I'm talking about! His heel work is excellent and his placement of his highspots are spot on. They really showcase the size and strength difference well in this match. Drew comes out looking like a monster and Will comes across like a little shit you'd love to slap. The crowd was pretty good but I remembered them being hotter for some reason. The finishing stretch was done really well, I bit and thought both guys had the match won on several falsies. Well done Chris.