BRM Reviews the OTT 4th Anniversary Show (OSPREAY VS. WALTER!)

[Big Red Machine]

OTT 4th Anniversary Show (10/13/2018)- Dublin, Ireland

OTT GENDER-NEUTRAL TITLE MATCH: LJ Cleary(c) vs. Gino Gambino vs. Paddy M vs. Raven Creed vs. Rocky Romero- 6.5/10
A good little eight-minute show-opening multi-person spotfest.

OTT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Kings of the North(c) vs. More Than Hype (Darren Kearney & Nathan Martin)- 6/10

HIROOKI GOTO & SEAN GUINNESS vs. MICHAEL MAY & SATOSHI KOJIMA- 7.25/10
The crowd was super into this match, but especially Kojima… and that crazy old man rewarded them by doing a picture-perfect diving elbow drop at age forty-eight. Everyone else was great, too. So was the match. I’d love to see a rematch at some point.

SCOTTY DAVIS vs. MARK DAVIS- 6.75/10
Scotty worked over Mark’s head while Mark tried to use his power to win. Scotty- just eighteen years old- got the win, and both the crowd and the announcers made him out to look like a huge star. Mark Davis attacked him from behind after the match, getting A TON of heat.

THE GYMNASTIES (Sammy D, Liam Royal, & Justy) vs. JIMMY HAVOC & THE ANGEL CRUZERS (Angel Cruz & B. Cool)- 6.75/10
They had a very good weapons match in what was not supposed to be a weapons match. Jimmy Havoc bled a lot. He turned on the Angel Cruzers after accidentally getting hit in the head with a Kendo Stick.

TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. KUSHIDA- 8.5/10
The basic story here was that KUSHIDA was a dick early on, so Ishii went into full fighting spirit mode and wouldn’t sell KUSHIDA’s attacks to the head, so KUSHIDA was like “okay. Be as defiant as you want, mother f*cker. It won’t help you when I break your arm!” so KUSHIDA worked Ishii’s arm over. Aside from them being on the on the outside forever with no count-out and Ishii no-selling that HUGE DDT after all of the build-up to get to it, this match was totally awesome.

SHANE STRICKLAND, BANDIDO, & FLAMITA vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetsuya Naito, Sanada, & EVIL)- 5.75/10
They were on the outside forever with no count-outs. They had a match. Stuff happened. LIJ won.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER- 6/10
I LOVED this when they were wrestling, but once the “take turns letting the other guy hit you” stuff started the match totally fell apart to me. Letting someone (especially Minoru Suzuki) hit you in the face doesn’t make you tough or brave: it makes you stupid. The stuff they did with the strikes and Thatcher’s selling and comeback felt too over the top to me (pun not intended), and then seeing Suzuki win after Thatcher’s big comeback and (supposed) display of toughness just made the whole thing feel like even more of a downer.

OTT WORLD TITLE MATCH: WALTER(c) vs. Will Ospreay- 9.75/10
This was your standard big-man vs. little man story with WALTER having the power advantage and Ospreay having to use his speed and quickness to gain advantages as he was trying to chop down the tree. Ospreay’s pre-match comments shown in the video package did a great job of setting up not just why fans should be solidly behind Ospreay even though he- like WALTER, and like Ospreay had said about Jordan Devlin before him- was really an agent of a bigger foreign company (Ospreay wanted to proudly wear the OTT World Title on all of New Japan’s big stages, as opposed to WALTER, who doesn’t do so in places like wXw, and Devlin, who wouldn’t be allowed to do so in WWE), and also helped to make the few spots that were very clearly New Japan references feel like part of a story rather than just spots they did because they knoewthose spots would get pops.
They also did their standard working on the head stuff, with Ospreay utilizing kicks and cutters while WALTER used stuff like lariats and piledrivers to set up for the Gojira Clutch. The execution on some of the stuff they did was truly spectacular. The timing involved WALTER countering a Shooting Star Press with boot to the face and to not only have it not feel forced but to have Ospreay’s bump and selling of it feel completely physically natural was insane, and there was a spot towards the end where I was legitimately convinced that Ospreay was, in fact, having trouble keeping his balance, rather than doing so to buy time for WALTER to finish selling, then lunge over and take his legs out.
There are three factors that contribute to me not being able to give this the full 10/10. First is my long-standing hatred of spots where the count-out rule is ignored so the wrestlers can do their cool stuff, and then suddenly reinstated when it’s time to tease a count-out. I also thought that WALTER should have been DQed for shoving the referee after that foot-on-the-ropes false finish. I understand why the referee didn’t, but it’s not like this was a situation where the referee reversed a decision after the bell was rung. WALTER should have known better than to get the belt and start celebrating, and his shove came after what felt to me like ample time for the referee’s explanation of what happened to sink in and the rational portion of his brain to take over again.
Third was the execution of said foot-on-the-ropes false finish. Most times when you see the spot where the referee’s hand hits the mat the third time but then he/she notices a foot on the ropes and orders the match to continue, it is pretty immediate. That’s because the idea is that the referee is noticing this as his/her hand is going down for three, but is past the point where he/she is able to stop it (think of it like the NHL rule that says that play stops when the referee intends to blow the whistle, rather than after he/she completes the physical mechanics of doing so). In this case, that did not happen, and the referee needed the fans to point out to him that Ospreay’s leg was on the ropes. Did this happen pretty fast? Yes. Was the crowd’s reaction (and my instinct watching at home) to urgently point this out to the referee so that there would not be a travesty of justice a wonderful thing to behold? Absolutely. But, in my opinion, enough time passed to the point where the referee would not be able to be certain that Ospreay’s foot hadn’t gotten there after he finished his count, and the fact that the fans had to point it out to him means that he did not notice it on his own as his hand was hitting the mat for the three-count.
But please don’t let any of that stop you from watching this utterly fantastic wrestling match. The work was exemplary, the passion was superb, and the crowd was one of the hottest I’ve seen for a match all year.

An excellent show from OTT. If OTT shows were more like this and less like the last OTT show I saw, I would start following the promotion in a heartbeat.