On this second TEW, we’re in Thatcher’s second Style Battle match. This time he faces off against Biff Busick, who more fans will know as Oney Lorcan in NXT. One of the big talking points from Lenny Leonard and his commentary sidekick in this match was that three of the Style Battle guys had pretty similar styles, and the three were Thatcher, Gulak, and Busick. I don’t really think that’s true.
Calling Biff Busick a poser is not really fair, but I’m doing it now because it will make you pay attention. He’s not a poser. He’s not actually trying to do a style like Thatcher and Gulak, but he’s a victim of categorization. Most wrestlers in 2014 (and in 2019) are focusing on a more high-impact, eye-catching style. Busick, Thatcher, and Gulak are not. It’s not that they aren’t eye-catching but that’s not their major driving idea. Because of that, people put them in the “technical” category and call it a day, and that really shows in a match like this one.
I have to believe that the instruction from someone was “go out there and have a technical match” because that’s what they attempted to do. The problem with doing that is that Thatcher easily outclassed Busick in that regard, and the problem with that is that they clearly wanted these two guys to be on the same level. There were plenty of times when Thatcher had Busick dead to rights but Busick was allowed to get free because that’s not where the match was supposed to end. Okay, it’s fake, you might say. But the difference is that there were never those kinds of moments in the Gulak match, and that’s because Gulak did know how to actually escape, and so those escapes felt natural. Busick didn’t, so his didn’t.
Does that make Busick bad? No, not at all. But it really shows that each person’s style needs to be considered individually. Busick is not a technical wrestler, he is a hard-nosed and back-to-basics wrestler. He’s really tough, really intense, and he hits hard. Those are his skills. I feel like if this match had opened up more and taken that more into account it would have been a lot better. Instead, it focused on the mat work, and that really showed that it’s not Busick’s strength.
Down the stretch, this match was more about movez, ramping up the action, but I never really felt it clicking. Busick tried to get the rear naked choke that he’d been using all match but Thatcher escaped, got his sakitoshi but swung over to an armbar and finished. Hopefully sometime down the line these guys got another match and did something more smash-mouth.
Technique C
Intensity B
Drama D
Excitement C
Okay Match
