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Post by bossrock on Sept 27, 2017 16:33:15 GMT -5
Will is a rightfully polarizing wrestler. At his best, he's an extremely entertaining high-flier. At his worst, he's an over-indulgent indieriffic worker with no sense of structure or pacing. That being said, I think he's had a pretty good year. His match with Shibata was borderline great and he had one of the best runs in the BOSJ (the finals with KUSHIDA being one of my top 15-20 matches). Even the matches that features some of his more frustrating tendencies (Ricochet and Scurll in BOSJ) had some fun and entertaining sequences. Need to check out more of his indy stuff but Will has a fair shot of making at least the middle of my list.
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Post by armsofsleep on Oct 10, 2017 7:42:21 GMT -5
Probably had his best match of the year against KUSHIDA at Power Struggle. Really brilliant spotfest.
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Post by brockobama on Oct 10, 2017 11:13:38 GMT -5
Would love for one of his supporters to throw together a list of matches of his to check out. The more obvious standouts have been listed already and are readily apparent, but if there are some gems tucked away, especially in the BOSJ, I'd love to hear about them.
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Post by armsofsleep on Oct 10, 2017 11:22:53 GMT -5
Would love for one of his supporters to throw together a list of matches of his to check out. The more obvious standouts have been listed already and are readily apparent, but if there are some gems tucked away, especially in the BOSJ, I'd love to hear about them. The Ricochet match in the BOSJ was probably the best of that series, and I wasn't really a fan of the other ones. Really enjoyed the Jimmy Havoc match in PROGRESS too. Probably the most underrated plunder match of the year.
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Post by bossrock on Oct 10, 2017 11:38:49 GMT -5
Would love for one of his supporters to throw together a list of matches of his to check out. The more obvious standouts have been listed already and are readily apparent, but if there are some gems tucked away, especially in the BOSJ, I'd love to hear about them. Ospreay vs. Katsuyori Shibata: New Beginning in Osaka Ospreay vs. Ricochet: BOSJ Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi: BOSJ Ospreay vs. Ricochet: WCPW Wrestling World Cup Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA: WCPW Wrestling World Cup Finals Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA: King of Pro Wrestling Also had some solid matches with Dragon Lee and Liger in BOSJ. I think he's had a great year overall.
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Post by quentinmoody on Oct 10, 2017 16:08:43 GMT -5
The Jay White match from ROH and was his best match of the year for me until his bonkers runs in Australia and the WCPW World Cup. People should go back and watch it if they haven’t
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ed
Junior Member
Posts: 57
Pronoun: He/Him
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Post by ed on Oct 10, 2017 16:43:35 GMT -5
The bloom has fallen off of Will for me, the majority of his big matches just haven't landed and his heel work in WCPW early in the year and against Havoc in Progress was cringey af to me, but there are a couple of his matches this year I've really enjoyed like his awesome Shibata battle and his emotional match with his hero Mysterio.
I quite enjoyed his KOPW with Kushida, much preferred it to their BOSJ match. Will is not someone I care to see wrestling for nearly 30 minutes.
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Post by notoriousgib on Oct 11, 2017 3:08:53 GMT -5
He's a really frustrating guy because of his indieriffic tendencies, but damn he's ON when he's on. He'll probably end up decently high on my list just based on stuff like volume and having great peaks.
Definitely second that the Havoc match is underrated. It might be my favorite Ospreay match of the year though I've yet to see the new KUSHIDA match.
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Post by problematic on Oct 11, 2017 3:15:10 GMT -5
I actually liked the Rampage match from the World Cup quite a bit. Him v. Bailey from the World Cup is a match that you will probably love if you are into Will's house style, but might hate if you hate that style.
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Post by mlev76 on Oct 11, 2017 15:06:01 GMT -5
Alongside Keith Lee, Will has been the guy I've seen live this year that has impressed me the most. The match with Jay White was incredible live and helped make me a bigger fan of both. The BOSJ final is my MOTY as of right now and I've yet to see KOPW match yet. Haven't nearly enough of him this year but I expect to do a big catch up over the next few weeks/months.
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Post by quentinmoody on Nov 3, 2017 11:43:47 GMT -5
I’ve been championing 2017 as a year of significant growth for Ospreay as he’s toned downed his moveset a lot while still being breath taking and has improved his striking game to being one of the best in the business at it when it used to be his weakest area. I️ think he’s gotten a better grasp of pacing, has shown he can slow down and be the one working in control when in prior years all he did was work from underneath. The Robbie Eagles, Pete Dunne, Shibata, Adam Brooks, KUSHIDA, Jay White, Flip Gordon, Speedball, Ricochet, Jimmy Havoc, Mark Andrews, and Drew Galloway matches show just how diverse of a year he’s had and the different ways he’s grown. This isn’t to say he’s without flaw or that there isn’t stuff I️ could see people still taking issue with him as a performer, but I️ can’t imagine looking at his year and not seeing that this isn’t the same guy from 2016.
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gagnewest
New Member
Posts: 41
Pronoun: He/Him
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Post by gagnewest on Nov 3, 2017 13:40:58 GMT -5
Probably an oversimplification to say he's excellent in the UK and terrible in Japan, but that's basically been my experience. Thought his performance in the BoSJ final was, if not literally borderline business-exposing (the biz is plenty exposed already), at the least a major milestone on the road to making all moves meaningless except the last one or two. His work against Mark Andrews in Progress was the polar opposite of this -- very smartly worked (which is not something I thought I'd say about an Ospreay match until he his hit middle-age) while still having more than its share of spectacular spots. I'll probably split the difference and have him on my list, but quite low.
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Post by Dante, The Voc on Nov 3, 2017 14:38:20 GMT -5
Top heavy. His best matches (vs. Jimmy Havoc in PROGRESS 3/26, vs. KUSHIDA on 6/3) have been really good, but unless he's given the right amount of time and freedom to do all of his stuff, his matches suffer. He had an average BOSJ (Hiromu, Ricochet, Dragon Lee, Marty and Liger all had better in his own block) and his bad matches have been bad. If he didn't sacrifice matches for the sake of putting himself over (the KOPW match was the weakest of his KUSHIDA quartet because of this) he would be higher.
Somewhere in the 25-35 range for me.
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Michael
Full Member
Posts: 249
Pronoun: He/Him
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Post by Michael on Jan 15, 2018 11:24:42 GMT -5
Ospreay went from being a guy not even in my Top 100 to being a guy in my Top 25. As I'm going through and catching up on blind spots, he's one guy that I actively seek out at this point. Tons of super fun stuff.
Would suggest seeking out his recent ROH TV match against Jay Lethal. Was taped the night after Final Battle. Great stuff.
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Post by problematic on Jan 16, 2018 4:49:09 GMT -5
I liked a couple of his What Culture World Cup matches a lot, but what hurts him for me is that I'm basically the opposite of Mike in that if I see him on a random match I stumble upon it's a hard pass. I often find myself liking his matches if I can force myself to watch them, but I never actually want to rank them. It's really hard to give high marks to a guy like that.
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