WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Yehi v. TJP

Fred Yehi v. TJP EVOLVE 5/7

PAS: I really like that EVOLVE booked Catch Point explodes matches for these qualifiers, love all four guys and love when they wrestle each other. This felt a little like a TJP showcase which makes sense with him going over in the match. Yehi was awesome, but took a bit of a backseat so TJP could shine. TJP has a different feel to these kind of grappling heavy EVOLVE matches, he can hang with the guys on the mat, but throws in some more luchaish counters. Love his Santo headscissors and how he slips it in to counter a harder edged series of takedowns. Yehi really had his moments, I love his stomps on the cuniform bone, just vicious looking and he is great at using them to chain into other cool stuff, he also has some really explosive takedowns, I am really enjoy watching Yehi improve week after week

ER: I love Yehi, but was really not into TJP in this one. I'm officially tired of him shoehorning his "stuck in the ropes" feint into every match, because then everybody just has to charge at him. They always miss. What was their plan if he hadn't moved, to just do a running headbutt for the first time in your career? I've seen him insert it more organically into matches before, but here it was glaring and felt disconnected from the rest of the match. The worst part about TJ in this match was his constant spot calling during all of the mat stuff. It was first year John Cena bad. He was just making ultra casual conversation the whole match, sometimes leaning right into Yehi's ear, other times just leaning back in a hold and suggesting the next reversal to Yehi. And lo and behold, then a reversal would come. It was a level of not-giving-a-fuck that I haven't seen in some time, and something I haven't seen at all from any of the other Catch Point guys or Thatcher or others who use more grappling.  Yehi really can't do any wrong at the moment and I really liked him here. His body part specific stomps are great, I love how he just plants the foot, and I love how he uses stomps to distract a guy while he's about to lock something else on.  I dug his sub that got the (inadvertent) false finish, and the ring bell miscue actually added a little accidental drama for me as I avoided knowing who advanced. So once the bell accidentally rung in Yehi's favor I thought maybe the timekeeper knew Yehi was winning but wasn't sure when. But then I also thought it may have just been a mistake. But it made the finishing run a little more interesting. I also thought Phil made up "cuneiform bone". I thought Cuneiform was an experimental jazz record label.


WWE CRUISERWEIGHT CLASSIC GUIDE