Walter

I seriously considered the Thatcher match for my list. At one point it was #98. It didn't quite make it though. The Darby match is maybe my favorite match of his as it is just cathartic to watch the beating and the comeback. I love the Ospreay match, but I think the first Devlin match is the better OTT match. All the Riddle matches in Progress are great. I love the NYC one and was in the building for that .

For me, and I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I think the best Walter matches in my eyes don't match the consensus on him. Even one of my good friends who I often share a great deal in terms of tastes with is just not as hyped about the matches I see as Walter's best. The big examples for me are the Sabre title match I mentioned in the first post, the Fenix match from 16 Carat, and the recent Ilja title match in Progress. All of which I thought were amazing matches that exceeded some of his more hyped matches (which I also love). I am going to hold off on too much detail because I want to rewatch them back and really look for why I like them so much and then nominate them accordingly. The long and the short of it is I think they represent three of the best instances of Walter peaking in this ass kicker run but also blending with that this new selfishness that makes him a little more vulnerable and a little more dangerous all at once. I think in MOST cases there have been growing pains in Walter's shifting character and his acclimation to the WWE style, but in those matches things clicked beautifully to where he didn't look like a coward and didn't feel less like Walter. The Fenix match is a little bit of an outlier because the overall match wasn't quite on the level of the other two to me, but you had the amazing spots where Walter powerbombs Fenix's damn mask off and then Fenix gets a mask from the fans so he can keep wrestling, which to me was the coolest moment of the year in wrestling. Like I said, I will talk in more detail about these matches later when I nominate them, probably after I finish the forum work.

Literally never seen him wrestle. Give me a top 10 to watch.

Here's a guide I once wrote for his 2018:

The best independent wrestler in the world just debuted on NXT UK, so for those of you unfamiliar with WALTER I've put together a collection of tremendous work this beast of a man has been doing the past year.

01/28/18 - Walter vs. Timothy Thatcher - Progress Chapter 62. My rating - 4.5 Stars.

Coming off a series of brutal matches with Matt Riddle in 2017 you'd be forgiven for thinking Walter had peaked in Progress, but oh no... just getting started. This match is incredibly violent, and it's all done with very basic wrestling moves. Almost shoot-style. Thatcher attempts to disable Walter's fearsome chops by destroying his hand, doesn't stop him getting chopped so hard his chest bleeds. Brutal fight.

02/23/18 - Walter vs. David Starr - Fight Club Pro. My rating - 4.5 Stars.

Similar to last night, this was a surprise match as Walter's appearance wasn't advertised. Indie wrestling fans might be familiar with David Starr's quest to finally defeat Walter. They've fought across Europe and North America for years but he's never been able to beat him... until tonight perhaps. This is the best match of their series imo. Starr's selling is very good. I felt really sorry for him because beating Walter obviously means so much to him, he has to put himself through horrendous torment to try. Check out the shockingly vicious lariat from Walter in this.

03/10/18 - Walter vs. John Klinger vs. - WXW 16 Carat Gold. My rating - 4.25 Stars.

Well I've spoiled this a bit but can't really help that... Walter won the right to challenge John Klinger for the WXW Unified Title AND he won the right to choose the stipulation of the match. Klinger is a total asshole and has a stable/army of goons called RISE who constantly interfere in his matches. Walter names his chosen stipulation. It's going to be a Triple Threat match, and the third man is none other than THE RETURNING.... You'll have to watch it for yourself. The match itself is non-stop fireworks, best triple threat of 2018.

04/06/18 - Walter vs. PCO - Joey Janela's Spring Break. My rating - 4.25 Stars.

The most 'WTF!?' match of the year. Couldn't possibly list every moment of insanity in this match, but why would I want to. Pierre Carl Ouellet is in his 50s, and Walter comes down to the ring and tells him look dude I respect what you've done for this business, but it's time to step aside and asks him to forfeit the match. PCO responds by unleashing a full frontal assault with stuff chops + every flippy lucha move there is, and Walter barely even knows what's happening. Amazing.

06/23/18 - Walter vs. Darby Allin - Evolve 106. My rating - 4.5 Stars.

Darby Allin's a cute little wrestler. He looks like a little gender-queer punk who wrestles when he's not getting into street fights with white supremacists. So I love that he wrestles exactly like that too. Crafty little underdog who knows he's gonna get the shit kicked out of him but is always ready to pounce on an opening to get a quick pin. Needless to say, Walter chops the hell out of him here and chucks his little body all over the place like a toy.

08/18/18 - Walter vs. Jordan Devlin - OTT Wrestlerama. My Rating - 4.75 Stars.

This is my #3 Match Of The Year behind Almas vs. Gargano and Ishii vs. Omega. Firstly I'm so impressed by the quality of OTT's pre-match videos, whoever's doing them is really talented they're as good as WWE's. This match is really special as there's a red hot crowd solidly behind Devlin, who's the long-running Ace Champion of OTT and was undefeated for 22 months before being pinned by Walter in a tag match, so here he is redeeming the blemish on his record and defending the title and his whole promotion against this heartless invader.

09/30/18 - Tyler Bate vs. Walter - Progress Chapter 76. My rating - 4.5 Stars

Walter is now the Progress World Champion and is defending on the biggest British indie wrestling show in 30 years. Tyler Bate has his BSS strong style buddies cheering him on at ringside. It's remarkable how a match mostly consisting of moves that wouldn't look out of place in the 1970s is getting the biggest reactions of the show and feels like a real big match showdown. Mostly revolving around tests of strength between Walter and his smaller but very strong opponent! Can't think of a prolonged headlock/sleeper spot in wrestling that got a bigger reaction in 2018.

10/13/18 - Walter vs. Will Ospreay - OTT 4th Anniversary. My rating - 4 Stars.

Once again OTT kills it with their pre-match video. This is a much better version of their match on Defiant earlier this year where they seemed to have some awkward miscommunications. The contrast in styles sells itself and Ospreay does a commendable job in coming across as a competitive in such a heavyweight contest, even if it inevitably keeps ending in Walter swatting him out of the air. There's a bit of silly over-booking in this though that drags it down a bit for me so I've rated this lower than a lot of people (Meltzer had it at 4.75).

10/28/18 - Walter vs. Zack Sabre Junior - Progress 77. My rating - 4.25 Stars.

These two are such fantastic and contrasting examples of the European indie style that's developed over the last decade. I'm sure their matches are going to be looked back on in years to come as historically important to the style. They've had so many great matches it's hard to pick just one so I'll go with the latest. They make it feel like such a rough fight in everything they do. You see Zack constantly trying to keep Walter as close as possible so he can't throw strikes, making everything really claustrophobic as they grapple trying to find openings for a submission or to pound their opponent as hard as they can.

This is fantastic, guys. Thank you! Looking forward to checking him out. Literally I know two things: His name is Walter and he's a bigger guy. So going in pretty much blind.

Yeah, Pete working 50-50 with him as well as the length kinda hindered it for me.

I'm sort of in the same boat with the Dragunov 16 Carat match as well. Great match, but definitely not in my top 5 for his best matches of 2017. I did like the Sabre PWG match a lot, but yeah definitely not best indie match ever or even PWG match. I didn't have him with any real MOTYC's in 2017 but he had 3 or so for me in 2018.