On The Indies: Why Timothy Thatcher could be the Iron Man of WrestleMania week

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Submitted By John LaRocca

Wrestlemania weekend is the biggest weekend for pro wrestling of the year.  Not only is the WWE in town for Wrestlemania and all their events, but various top independent promotions run shows to capitalize on all the pro wrestling fans from around the world that will be in the area.   For the independent workers themselves, this is a weekend for them to make a name for themselves with the exposure that Wrestlemania weekend brings.

One independent wrestler I want to focus on is Timothy Thatcher.   Thatcher will be competing in a minimum of five matches this weekend and depending on how far he is going in the King Of The Indies tournament, he could wrestle up to seven matches in a three day period.  

Timothy Thatcher started out on the Northern California wrestling scene in 2005.  As the booker for All Pro Wrestling out of Hayward from 2008 to 2012, I started booking Thatcher in summer of 2008.  Right away you could see that he was a special worker.  Not only was he top notch inside the squared circle, but outside the ring he is a pleasure to work with.  No drama, just goes out there and gives you 100%.  He is a booker and promoters dream.  

Thatcher’s in ring style is a throwback to the days of UWF or UWFI shoot style promotions in Japan.  If you are into technical wrestling matches, Thatcher’s wrestling style is the one for you.  A lost art of ring work today is the facial expressions.  Nobody is better on the indy level then him.   Shoot style wrestling for people is acquired taste, but I have seen whether it was in front of a hardcore pro wrestling crowd or a casual audience supporting a local fundraiser, Thatcher’s performances brings the people to their feet in applause.  Good and believable wrestling gets over with any crowd and Thatcher always proves that.

For those unfamiliar with Timothy Thatcher, here is a match with Joe Graves (a young worker many will want to take notice of in the very near future) at my promotion PREMIER (www.premierwrestle.com) in Gilroy, CA last November.   Here is the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgRga25NECg

This weekend, Timothy Thatcher will be working EVOLVE 39 on Thursday night in San Jose, EVOLVE 40 Friday afternoon, King Of The Indies Tournament Night 1 Friday night,  WWN Super Show on Saturday evening and King Of The Indies Night 2 later that night.  All these events will take place at the fairgrounds in San Jose, CA.  

Thursday Night at EVOLVE 39, Thatcher will be working Drew Gulak who is another top notch worker at the shoot style.  These two have competed against each other many of times on the west and east coast and they always put on a technical wrestling clinic.   With all eyes on pro wrestling this weekend, I am sure these two great athletes will step up their game even more. 

Friday afternoon at  EVOLVE 40, Thatcher will be workingTommy End, a popular international indy star.  I expect this match to be more of the UWFI style with more focus on strikes and grappling.  If you are into the hard hitting style, this is a match you don’t want to miss.

Friday evening at King Of The Indies Night 1, Thatcher will be working “The Golden Boy” Dylan Drake from San Francisco, CA.  I booked these two in a match in All Pro Wrestling in March of 2011 going to a thirty minute broadway.  It was one of my favorite matches that I have ever booked.  Thatcher brings out the best in Dylan Drake and I expect them to have another stellar match at KOI at night one.  Here is the match between these two in PREMIER in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsGrby3JY4 from September of 2013.

Saturday late afternoon at the WWN SuperShow,  Thatcher will be working Chris Hero.  In my opinion this has the potential to be one of the very best matches during the entire Wrestlemania weekend.  Both Hero and Thatcher’s styles are a perfect mix to have a great match. 

Saturday night at King Of Indies Night 2. Though I don’t know the booking of the tournament, the opening round match winners are pretty predictable however.  So with that, I see Timothy Thatcher meeting Vinny Massaro in the quaterfinals.  Massaro has been a long time Northern California indy worker since 1997 and will mix great with Thatcher’s style.  I expect the match to be hard hitting with a lot of grappling as well.   I do see Thatcher going over on Vinny and going into the semifinals.  There is a strong chance that he will win his semifinal match and go on to the finals of the tournament.  If that is case, then Timothy Thatcher would have worked seven times in a span of three days. 

What makes this amazing is that Thatcher has a high level work rate and all the matches he works this Wrestlemania weekend have the potential to be the best of the weekend.   Over the last couple of years Thatcher has broken out of Northern California and is booked regularly for Evolve and overseas in the UK.  His reputation is growing.  By the end of this Wrestlemania weekend, everyone will know the name of Timothy Thatcher.   If you have never seen him work in person, I highly recommend you buying a ticket to see him do his thing.  Trust me, his matches are worth the price of admission alone.