EVOLVE 27 review

EVOLVE 27 was the closing show of a three day weekend for the EVOLVE promotion (read about the first to here and here). As I noted when writing about EVOLVE 26 Gabe Sapolsky (the man in charge of putting these events together) prefers to build up to his bigger matches in these sorts of situations. In theory that should have meant EVOLVE 27 was the best of the three Florida events. Was it? Let’s find out.

Caleb Konley kicked the evening off with a promo. Instead of being a good employee and participating in his scheduled match (which he said was a six-way freestyle match) he demanded a one-on-one rematch from the previous evening with Lince Dorado.

This is a good point at which to acknowledge Lince's gimmick. He acts like a cat and wears gear with a distinctly feline feel to it. It's not as unique as it may sound: British wrestler Lion Kid does essentially the same thing. Dorado's better at it though, and the US fans give him more to work with. Balls of wool being thrown in place of streamers for example.

As an opener it was great. It was fun, fast, and split the offence between both men. Konley win with a roll up. If was pushed as a big moment for him. I don’t think it was but the thought was there at least.

Match two saw Maxwell Chicago team with Johnny Vandal to take on Dos Ben Dejos, Cruz and Rios. It was a mix of comedy stemming from Chicago's basic wrestling skills and ropey teamwork with Vandal and actual, impressive wrestling from Dos Ben Dejoes. It was enjoyable. The regular combo of Rios and Cruz won after a springboard 450 splash to Vandal.

Gabe Sapolsky favourite Jon Davis versus Rich Swann followed that. They started with a bit of power versus speed shtick. Davis got the better of that. The story of the match was that Davis could easily overpower his smaller foe but that Swann’s resilience kept him in the fight. This included the unsportsmanlike acts of rope-choking and wall-smashign. His more traditional offence included an impressive leaping pump kick to a mid-air Swann, a stiff lariat on the apron, a backpack neck breaker, and an elevated power bomb into a German suplex. Swann made numerous comebacks during the match, all but the last being cut off. That saw him leap off the top rope and immediately hit a Canadian Destroyer.

Swann should be praised for his selling. Too few wrestlers are capable of selling convincingly for an extended. That Swann did so made his various comeback attempts all the more compelling. His vulnerability was the story of the match, his win coming from increasing desperation and luck as opposed to a belief shattering super-comeback.

Match four saw Lance Bravado take on Nick Jackson as part of the brothers versus brothers feud. It didn't really last very long: within minutes Harlem Bravado was at ringside interfering. The referee called for the bell before Matt Jackson showed up at ringside and the two teams had a lengthy brawl all around the arena. This involved plenty of rail dives, not-at-all devastating use of stages and steel walls and, of course, chairs. Around the ten minute mark there was a brief and half-hearted "This is awesome!" chant. It wasn't, but it was an effective way to highlight the intense dislike the two teams have for each other.

The shenanigans ended when the Bucks performed a springboard spike Tombstone piledriver to Lance. That was a step too far: the move would have killed or paralysed Lance had it been real. It was complete excess. Showing no compassion for a man he may have just helped paralyse Matt grabbed a microphone and shouted that the Bucks would be taking back the belts in April. The segment started out as a logical bit of feud progression but ended up as overkill.

After intermission ("Fans we're going to take intermission, feel free to check out the merchandise stand," plugged Lenny Leonard as Lance was being attended to by medical staff at ringside) we were treated to one of the highlights of the weekend: Chris Hero v Chuck Taylor. This match showed why both men are so highly regarded. It was one of the best matches of the night and the three show weekend as a whole. 'The Knockout Artist' won with a cravat camel clutch.

AR Fox joined Hero in the ring afterwards, telling him he wanted to defend the EVOLVE championship against him. He suggest the February 23^rd Dragon Gate USA show in Brooklyn. Before Hero could accept Trent Baretta rocked up to continue his campaign against his fellow former NXT regular. He said he'd pinned Fox and so deserved a title shot ahead of Hero.

Anthony Nese and Su Yung strolled out as Hero left (he didn’t provide an answer but Lenny Leonard helpfully confirmed that Hero v Baretta would happen). 'The Premier PA' announced that 'Trentylocks' had officially joined The Premier Athlete Brand. Ricochet was the final man to enter for the scheduled tag bout. After some early dives to the outside the Brand boys got the advantage and isolated Fox in the ring. Nese and Baretta showed promise as a pair rule breakers during this stretch of the bout. They could be a nice addition to the Dragon Gate and EVOLVE tag division.

The pace picked up once Ricochet was tagged in as he and Fox took the initiative. The PAB regained the advantage minutes before things broke down and all four men were wrestling at the same time. The bad guys eventually got the win after Nese blocked a Lo Mein Pain and Baretta wiped out Fox with a running knee before Nese performed a 450 splash for the victory.

Chris Hero returned and congratulated The Premier Athlete Brand, specifically Trent, on the win then challenged him (or them, it wasn't clear) to deal with their issues in New Orleans. Baretta's response was to pose with his new tag partner. He didn't officially accept the challenge either. There will be matches involving Hero and Baretta either on February’s New York shows or April’s New Orleans shows but it’s not clear which.

The main event was originally meant to be Roderick Strong against Johnny Gargano. That had to be changed when Strong was injured at the January 4^th ROH TV taping. The solution was to award the winner of the EVOLVE 25 Fray! match the title opportunity. It was a good decision, giving Uhaa Nation something meaningful to do and creating a story to be followed across the three shows.

Uhaa was out first to his wonderfully seventies theme music. Gargano's music couldn't compete with that. Mostly because Uhaa's is awesome, but also because Gargano’s is a little bit nineties. Ain't nobody got time for that. The audience was split during the introductions. Both guys received more boos than cheers, which didn't bode well. Thankfully the crowd backed Nation once the bell rung.

The story of the first few minutes was that Uhaa was more powerful than Gargano. 'The Whole Shebang' spent his time bouncing around, taking time outs at ringside and making fruitless attempts to hurt his foe. He managed to turn the tide at the six minute mark when he apron bombed Uhaa off the stage (but not before the pair had botched a subset flip). Uhaa mounted a comeback of his own with a stream of clothesline and a trio of German suplexes. The top rope splash he followed up with gave him the first two count of the match.

Gargano hit his slingshot DDT. Uhaa came back with a lung blower, a DVD and a moonsault. Gargano got a top rope hurricanrana. Uhaa countered a spear into a series of power bombs. None of it was enough for either man to get a victory. Gargano avoided an Uhaa Combination, lawn darting the challenger into a ring post and slapping on the Gargano Escape. 'The One Man Nation' again nabbed the advantage when he gave Gargano a Death Valley Driver on the apron.

An errant boot from Uhaa sent the ref sprawling, freeing Gargano up to bring the ring bell into the match. Uhaa avoided the weapon and scored a Tomstone piledriver (maybe the most overused move of the weekend) for a two count. Moments later the Gargano Escape was applied again after the champ had slipped out of a military press. Uhaa survived for a few moments but ultimately had to tap out. Gargano remained the Open the Freedom Gate championship.

Post-match Gargano told the fans he loved them... except for a section that had been booing him. He said he'd bash their brains in. He also said by defeating the unstoppable Uhaa Nation he'd become the unstoppable Johnny Gargano. Ricochet interrupted him, natch. He asked the champ to sign a contract that would give him a title match with the winner of Gargano v Strong. Johnny refused and tried to leave but got stopped by Rich Swann (who is a human as opposed to a wealthy swan). He called Johnny a champion without heart (what a diss!) before Jon Davis waddled down to the ring.

Davis revealed that because he was making less money than the likes of 'chet and Swann he'd been taking extra money from Gargano to try and injure people (which he did to feed his family, natch). Gargano said he was lying. Davis said Gargano was on his own. With the odds against him Gargano was forced to sign. Swann laid him out with a super kick after he tried to stab Ricochet with the pen. Ricochet then promised to win the title in New Orleans to send everyone home happy.

One thing that leapt out at me about the three shows was how heavy on promos they were. I appreciate that this was because they existed in part to set up the far more important WrestleMania weekend shows but it did feel like too much at points. And they did at least achieve the goal of setting up matches for later. Hero versus Baretta, the Bucks versus the Bravados, and Ricochet versus Gargano all got attention here, which will make the relevant matches mean more when they roll around.

But that’s a minor complaint. EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA shows succeed or fail on the strength of the matches they offer, and the matches offered by EVOLVES 25, 26 and 27 was of a very high quality. Fittingly the best was saved until last. Uhaa Nation versus Johnny Gargano was the best match across all three shows. Hero v Taylor and The Premier Athlete Brand v AR Fox and Ricochet were both enjoyable too.

The three shows were a success. Everyone at EVOLVE should be proud.

EVOLVE 26 review

Back in his Ring of Honor days Gabe Sapolsky booked a lot of two or three date weekends. They tended to feature the smaller matches on the earlier shows with the bigger ones saved for the second or third night. It was an approach that worked then and it’s one that still works now. EVOLVE 25 on Friday January 10^th was a good show (read about it here), but it clearly adhered to the smaller match approach. The only major meeting to occur was Davey Richards v AR Fox for the EVOLVE championship, and that only happened on that show because Richards was only making one appearance across the weekend.

EVOLVE 26 would be the middle ground card of EVOLVE’s January triple pack, bigger than EVOLVE 25 but still not featuring the weekend’s biggest matches. The show opened with a SHINE showcase match. I will go on record as saying that SHINE has a lovely logo. It’s very nicely designed. The match was Su Yung, accompanied by Antony Nese, facing Mia Yim. She was alone. Imagine the reaction she'd have had if Prince Nama had been with her. But those days are, sadly, gone.

The match was good, a more traditional opener than the twenty-plus minute encounter that had kicked off the previous evening. The match, which included a piledriver (something only rarely seen in wrestling these days and thus noteworthy), and was won by Yim when she rolled Yung up with a crucifix. Yung was able to attack Yim afterwards thanks to a distraction from Mr Nese. Some tasty cheap heat was obtained when he posed over the fallen Yim.

Up next were Caleb Konley and Lince Dorado. It was a fast match that saw both men chuck themselves about to elicit crowd noise. The focus was almost as much on Trina Michaels taking a phone call at ringside as it was the action. That's fine. This was a low card featuring low card guys. It was mostly happening to create a platform for the Konley-Michaels story. Lince won after rolling through a back body drop and getting a roll up. Trina shouted that she was disappointed in him after his loss.

Maxwell Chicago was out next. I was unfamiliar with him. It was obvious within about three seconds that he's a comedy performer. The vogueing and tux gave it away. His opponent was Chuck Taylor. The match started with a strong sense of fun as Chicago announced he knew a whole five moves and then nearly won by KO with a side headlock. It got sillier from there as the two danced, Taylor wore himself running the ropes and Chicago was talked through applying the figure four by Taylor. Good stuff.

Taylor won after performing the Awful Waffle. Rich Swann then sauntered to the ring. He talked about his shared past with Chucky T and Johnny Gargano as Ronin and then asked if Chuck, like him, wanted to prove that they and not Gargano were what made the group work. He suggested they team up in the main event against The Young Bucks. 'The Kentucky Gentleman' agreed.

Match four was an Open the United Gate match, Dos Ben Dejos challenging Lance and Harlem Bravado. This was, we were told, one of the top tag feuds in Full Impact Pro, brought to EVOLVE cards because they were being held in FIP's neck of the woods. It was a good match but there was nothing that made me think I'd like to see lots more from the four. The Bravados retained their titles after a double team elevated neck breaker.

After a twenty minute intermission (described as brief by the ring announcer before it took place) it was time for Ricochet v Trent Baretta. The FIP champ displayed a slight mean streak during the match, playing off his snarky comments to Chris Hero the previous evening and furthering one of the weekend’s leading plots.

It was a slow starter but it was very good once it got going. There were flurries of excitement throughout the middle portion of the match before a typically pacey finishing sequence. Those flurries mostly involved Ricochet doing multiple back flips or Baretta hitting a leaping kick of some sort. There was also a dead lift Regalplex from Ricochet. It was impressive but didn't gel with his 'Future of Flight' nickname. Or physique.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. By showing that he can deadlift a foe Ricochet wasn’t necessarily showing how powerful he was, it could just as easily be taken as showing that it’s not that tough to heave another human being off their feet. That then makes the feats of strength from guys like Uhaa Nation and Jon Davis seem less impressive.

For the second night in a row Ricochet took a hard tumble to the outside. Shoved off the top rope and landing on his head his lolled around at ringside until the nineteen count, at which point he leapt up and scooted back into the ring. Which brings me to my second complaint about Ricochet. Would it really have been too much to ask for him to pace his recover a little better so that he beat the twenty count in a more convincing fashion?

Back in the ring he was met with a top rope double stomp, something he just kicked out of. Trent slapped him about a bit which led to an exchange of punches. Ricochet got the better of that and attempted a shooting star press. Baretta avoided it and got a two count from a running knee. 'Chet blocked the Dude Buster and performed a float over Northern lights suplex for two. Moments later Ricochet hit a top rope hurricanrana followed by a running shooting star press for another near fall. The 630 splash he hit after that proved too much for Baretta and Ricochet finally got the win.

After the match Ricochet said it won't matter whether it’s Roderick Strong, Uhaa Nation or Johnny Gargano who holds the Open the Freedom Gate championship in New Orleans because he's going to leave the town as champion. For the record I think Johnny Gargano will survive the challenges of Nation and Strong and be the man to defend against Ricochet in NO. Whether he'll make it past ‘The Future of Flight’ or not is another matter entirely. I could see him losing but I could also see him cheating to win, setting up a rematch.

Speaking of Gargano he was involved in the next match. He teamed with Jon Davis to face Uhaa Nation and AR Fox. As you'd expect a lot of the commentary focused on the respective title reigns of Fox and Gargano. This stretched to Uhaa having a shot at the Open the Freedom Gate title the following night. In the ring the match was solid but not spectacular. An early high point was probably a choke slam from Davis to Fox, something which led to the EVOLVE champ being isolated form his corner for a good few minutes. Once he’d made the tag to Uhaa tags were quietly abandoned for the second half and all four men took it in turns to hit stunts and high impact moves. It was a welcome approach.

The faces won after Fox wiped out Gargano with a Lo Mein Pain and a 450 on Davis before Nation gave him an Uhaa Combination. Afterwards Gargano gave Davis a tongue-lashing for not managing to take out Nation. Then he left. Before the bigger man could get to his feet, obvs.

Before Anthony Nese v Chris Hero started Trent Baretta sauntered out to the ring, prompting chants of "You got beat!" He stayed at ringside to watch the show. Perk of the job, innit. The match was about what you'd expect. A blend of standard indy thrills and spills and vaguely sports entertainmentesque sequences. For the record the sports entertainment stuff came from both men. Nese seems cut out for that style anyway and Hero's clearly picked it up in NXT over the last couple of years. It's not bad, it just stands out on a non-WWE show.

In the closing moments Nese survived two rolling elbows and a rolling boot but was forced to tap out to a cravat STF. Yes, Hero has gone back to using the cravat a lot. Deal with it.

Trent Baretta told Hero that he's "not that guy" any more. What he meant was that Hero is no longer a big deal to non-WWE wrestling. He added that while Hero's been learning from Bill DeMott he's been "killing it" (as with the previous show's review I hope he's speaking metaphorically) all over the world. Hero told Baretta not to be crybaby and reminded him that he'd won while Baretta had lost. That's what 'Trentylocks' had gone out of his way to say to Hero at EVOLVE 25. Tit foir tat. I there any greater approach to modern wrestling booking?

The Young Bucks defeated Rich Swann and Chuck Taylor in the main event, putting down Swann with a springboard Tombstone piledriver. It started quick and stayed that way all the way through. That's always going to get me on side. I love a quick match. The pace also lent itself to the Jackson brothers' approach to selling (or lack of it). It was the match of the night.

The show ended on a promo. Johnny Gargano returned to the ring to put down his former Ronin teammates. He referred to them as lackeys and singled Swann out as a "mascot". That provoked a brawl between Swann and Gargano which created a distraction that allowed the Bravados to sneak attack the Bucks. Taylor tried to talk them out of continuing their nefarious actions but he got dropped too. The broadcast ended with Lance and Harlem posing their way backstage and Nick, Matt and Chucky T getting a round of applause for standing up. Yep, genuinely for standing up.

As noted at the start the show was very good and a step up on the enjoyable EVOLVE 25. The function of show 26 was to provide good matches and continue the promotion’s various storylines. It achieved the former with the main event, Ricochet v Baretta, and Gargano and Davis v Fox and Nation. It achieved the latter with the various post-match promos. Nobody could have expected more from this card.