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| Oliver Thatcher at a KRW event in 2017. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oliver J. Thatcher (born June 2nd, 1966) is an English professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer in Japan.
Thatcher is a co-founder of both the Olympus Fighting Summit promotion and the Catch Sports Pro-Wrestling Academy training school.
Early Life:[]
Like many others got into wrestling, Oliver J. Thatcher started watching and idolizing wrestling as a child. He enjoyed the Greco-Roman wrestling style of the 1900's, most notably the work of multiple time European Greco-Roman Wrestling champion, Jack Billings. Despite being born into an upper-class family, by the age of 16 Oliver aspired to make a living of his own and would move away from his family to chase his dream of becoming a world-class wrestler. He would attend high school and college in London, excelling in Freestyle Wrestling on both scholastic and collegiate levels. Upon graduating, Thatcher looked to seek out his idol Jack Billings, who he'd find in Hull, Yorkshire, asking him to personally train him in Greco-Roman. Seeing his passion for it, Billings would accept Thatcher's request and would train him.
Wrestling Career:[]
By 1987, through connections with professional wrestler and promoter for the Art Of Wrestling promotion, Malcolm Vanderbilt, Jack Billings would reach a deal for Oliver to wrestle for AOW under Vanderbilts watch.
Thatcher would quickly become a legitimate main attraction for the promotion within his first year with the promotion due to his impressive physique and his wrestling style, becoming the AOW All-Star Heavyweight Champion in 1988. Thatchers ego would begin to rear its ugly head when Thatcher would begin chastising wrestlers with the gimmick wrestlers that began to develop at the time for being "clowns pretending to be athletes", an opinion that would make him quickly unpopular with the fans and wrestlers. Malcolm Vanderbilt however saw potential in it, making Thatchers hatred for gimmick wrestlers his own gimmick, allowing him to work stiff against the gimmick wrestlers in an attempt to make him the biggest villain in wrestling.
A great idea in theory, Vanderbilt would slowly come to regret the decision when a wrestler by the name of Hans Van Gerwen would suffer defeat at the hands of Thatcher, who debuted his new finishing maneuver, the Cradle Piledriver, a move that would shift Van Gerwans spine, almost killing him in the process, paralyzing him from the waist down and ultimately ending his career. As a result, Thatcher would lose the championship to Stuart Delivine before being taken off television to train under Vanderbilt to do the moves more safely, realizing Thatcher wasn't properly trained in professional wrestling.
He'd return in 1991, where he'd immediately win the AOW All-Star Heavyweight Championship again from soon-to-be best friend and tag team partner, Frank Schultz, in a match that was considered the match of the year.
Travelling the world as England's stiffest wrestler, having successful tours of the United States and Japan, Thatcher would infamously turn down an offer to partake in a tour in Mexico, claiming "Lucha Libre isn't wrestling, it's a [censored] carnival circus acts. It's a disgrace to the sport".
In 1999, Oliver would leave AOW, sighting payment issues as his reason for his departure. He would go on to form the Pro-Wrestling: UNITED with Don Faulkner, the first card seeing Thatcher vs Faulkner for the very first time in the main event, a match that had been anticipated 5 years prior. The friendly rivals would go on to have a 45-minute match, seeing Thatcher pick up the victory. The match would receive the Match of the Year award from the International Wrestling Newsletter. Due to some financial issues, Pro-Wrestling: UNITED (bringing together the best of the United States and United Kingdom) would hold its last card 3 years later, main evented with Faulkner vs Thatcher II, which Thatcher would win again, winning another Match of the Year award. Thatcher would go into semi-retirement following the closure.
During his time away from the ring, Thatcher would hate what wrestling was turning into. Deathmatch, Lucha Libre, High-flying and gimmick wrestling styles getting more and more popular, so much so Thatcher would come out of retirement, returning to AOW in 2004, working aggressively with the rookies and luchadors to the point many refused to work with him. He'd pull strings using his friendship with Vanderbilt to become the AOW All-Star Heavyweight Champion again, despite many protests from the other wrestlers, leading to a mass exodus of the roster. Those who stayed loyal to Vanderbilt; Thatcher, Schultz, Delivine, Johnny Rivers and Grand Lion would struggle to keep the promotion alive from 2005 to 2008, however they couldn't truly recover from the exodus, show cancellations, lack of wrestlers willing to wrestle for the promotion and overall attendance and buy rates began to drive the promotion closer and closer to its bankruptcy.
Oliver would unintentionally drive the final nail into the coffin for AOW, when he attacked a staff member of a film team hired to create a documentary on British wrestling of the 1980s and 90s, who asked Oliver Thatcher, who willingly offered his assistance in the documentary, if "Wrestling is fake". Thatcher would respond to the question by threatening the reporter with violence, to which the staff member started to laugh at, thinking it was an act for the camera. Thatcher would then respond to the laughter by asking if "this feels fake", before attacking the staff member with a vicious European Uppercut, dislocating the mans jaw. The documentary was cancelled and Thatcher would be taken to court and charged with assault. Thatcher pleaded guilty, claiming he took great offence to the question being asked on a documentary in an attempt to expose the business and would accept the charges. He did, however, say he would not apologize for the attack. "You try to insult a mans line of work, his life choices and passion in life, and you expect him to not retaliate, you're a fool. I'd proudly do it again." The charges would ultimately drive AOW to bankruptcy and would fold in 2008, with it Thatcher decided to once again retire from wrestling.
Despite newer generations of wrestling fans chastising Oliver's past actions and attacks, older generations of wrestlers and wrestling fans applauded them, dubbing Thatcher "The Gatekeeper" of the sport of wrestling.
Oliver Thatcher in 2016.
Personal Life:[]
In 1995, Thatcher would marry female wrestler Matilda Glover and would have their first son, Dylan Thatcher in 1996 and their first daughter, Alexis Thatcher in 1998.
In-Wrestling:[]
- Finishing Moves:
- Cradle Piledriver -- 1990 - present
- Cradle Tombstone Piledriver -- 2014 - present; used on rare occasion
- Crown of Thorns (Diving European Uppercut) -- 1988 - present
- Execution (Catapult European Uppercut) -- 2000 - present; used on rare occasion
- Greco-Roman Bomb (Gutwrench Powerbomb) -- 1988 - 1995; used as a signature thereafter
- Signature Moves:
- Abdominal stretch
- Bearhug
- Clothesline
Oliver Thatcher delivering a clothesline.
- Double axe handle
- Full nelson slam
- Headbutt
- Indian deathlock
- Jumping stomp to the opponent's face
- Knee drop
- Knife-edge chop
- Pendulum backbreaker
- Multiple European Uppercut variations
- Running, often to a cornered opponent
- Springboard; used rarely
- Standing, sometimes as a counter to a diving opponent
- Multiple suplex variations
- Belly-to-belly
- Exploder
- Inverted slam
- Release German
- Delayed gutwrench
- Running leg drop
- Running powerslam
- Shoulder block
- Spinning spinebuster
- Nicknames:
- Mr. Catch Wrestling
- The Gatekeeper
Championships & Other Accomplishments:[]
- Art of Wrestling Promotions:
- AOW All-Star Heavyweight Championship (6 times)
- AOW Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Frank Schultz (2 times) & Don Faulkner (1 time)