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Pat Roach


Grimmas

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Roach not being talked up much is a bit of a mystery to me. A badass giant with a black belt in judo, who wasn't afraid to rip guys heads off with forearms or just dump them hard in the middle of the ring. And it's surprising how well he works as a TV star in restrained british style bouts when you expect this guy to show up in NJPW and battle Hashimoto. I find it really amazing that I watch his matches to see him eventually knock the shit out of people, but then end up staying for the more technical stuff. I really love his graceful throws and surprisingly agile movements when locking in holds. Due to him being Roach, every match becomes interesting simply because he has it all over his opponent's in size and skills. Being quite a household name, he also has many taped matches including some brawls in germany (which I enjoyed more than OJ), so unlike some other british guys footage is not an issue with him.

 

Also, I have soft spot for the guy because watching him as an unstoppable machine in Never say Never again is one of my earliest childhood memories.

 

Recommended matches:

 

Pete Roberts vs. Pat Roach (2/13/80)

Pat Roach vs. Gil Singh (4/21/80)

Pat Roach vs. Tom Tyrone (10/11/83)

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Roach is one of the best big men ever. How many other big men could work the judo throws he could, take it to the mat, and look so good in forearm smash contests? A lot of the footage we have of him is from when he was older, and he slows down as the years go by, but even his early 90s stuff is fun, and I don't think there's ever been a better "bear with an angry head" in wrestling than Pat. I wish we had more of his 70s heel work, but he's one of the better heavyweights of the period we do have footage from.

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"Bear with an angry head" is a perfect way to describe Roach. There's a match I love on a Reslo comp I bought where he's fighting Skull Murphy, and Murphy spends the opening section constantly scraping Roach in the eyes with his wristguard. Every time Roach tries to muster some offence, Murphy is back scraping the eyes again. This goes on and on until the referee has had enough and forces Murphy to take the wristguard off, leaving him with a big bear of a man who's thoroughly pissed off with him, and proceeds to batter him for the victory.

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I agree with all of the sentiments expressed on Roach above, but I'm trying to write on these Brit candidates at length, so I'll go a bit deeper.

 

One thing about Roach that I don't think is fully articulated in others comments is that he was a giant, but as a character he seemed to work against this until he reached a breaking point. In Roach matches you'll often see him work the mat in a very sporting manner early. He's this giant guy, working dudes that literally look half his size in some cases, and he's doing rolling neck bridge outs on the mat that would inspire "holy shit" chants from most crowds today. It's not an exaggeration to say he was a very god mat worker, and the way he carried himself it was almost like he had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to win that way. But if you pressed him...

 

Well if you pressed Pat Roach he would fuck you up. And I really mean that. There are very few guys in wrestling history who are better at getting across the ferocity of a forearm flurry - especially when presented as a counterattack of sorts - than Pat Roach. I absolutely love the rare occasions when he would bust out the big boot or diving headbutt off an Irish Whip too, as they came across as especially hearty fuck you's to a challenger who had either frustrated him, annoyed him, or worst of all pissed him off.

 

I like him as a heel, and his size obviously works best in that role in theory. He has a great look too, and I can imagine him having been a super fun wrestler in the U.S. if life had ever led him there. That said I also really enjoy him as the guy who snaps when heels like Skull Murphy piss him off. I'm not a huge fan of his backbreaker, though he delivers it with conviction, but the rare cases when he would drop a guy on his face from a Gorilla Press position ruled.

 

To me Roach actually deserves credit for doing a lot of things that made him stand out. On top of the obvious look/size thing which enhanced the impact of his flashier grappling spots, the aforementioned strikes of which he showed a great variety, and the delayed way he would take certain bumps that seems to maximize the visual impact, he would also do completely unique shit that I can't recall seeing out of anyone from that era. For example, last night I saw him work a match v. Tiger Dalibar Singh, where he actually dropped into a his fucking guard to work a submission. In 1980.

 

I'd love to see his German brawls if they are up somewhere I don't know about. He's kind of a bubble guy for me, in that I want to include him, but his resume feels a little thin to secure a definitive spot. I really love him as an opponent for guys like Singh, Ray Steele and Pete Roberts, but in an ideal world I'd like to find one or two more truly great matches before I commit to rating him in a top 100.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Watched a few Pat Roach matches today thanks to Dylan's post and REALLY enjoyed them. He does a lot of cool judo throws but also has some nasty looking forearm smashes and an awesome big boot. He feels like a really good "gateway" into WoS for people who have had trouble getting into the style.

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  • 6 years later...

I’ve been dipping into less celebrated WoS guys recently and Roach comes across as an excellent big man. I just finished watching a match of his against Johnny Kincaid (also awesome), and Roach’s selling of pain was amazing.

Edit - also in the 88 match with Caswell Martin, his selling of being stuck in a painful submission was great. Just this pained 'no, no, no-no-no-no-no'. Really helped along the narrative of the match.

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