EVOLVE 60 Live Thoughts

I somehow convinced my pregnant wife to come with me to beautiful Joppa MD to watch an EVOLVE show.

Lio Rush v. Caleb Konley

Rush was the hometown boy and the crowd was super into him. Konley did a really nice job as the shithead redneck heel, at one point even calling Rush "Boy" which seemed to really piss off the crowd. Rush is a bunch of fun, he reminds of early 2000s Red, nice pop on his kicks and punches, great bumping and nifty highspots. Really good opener, and the match Chelsea liked the most.

Devastation Corporation v. Bravado Brothers

Didn't do a ton for me, Bravado's are pretty generic indy brother tag team, I don't remember if they did superkicks, but they felt like they did superkicks. Blaster McMassive was impressive, he had a really nice missed clothesline, that isn't something easy to do, he really looked like he was going to behead whatever Bravado. He also had a crazy over the ring post dive which was nutso considering how big he is. I would like to see what he could do outside of a comedy Chikara team.

Matt Riddle v. Anthony Neese

I really love Riddle, Neese is a generic indy flipper, kind of Jersey Davey Richards, not my kind of dude, but it was interesting to see how Riddle adjusted to that. One big thing I noticed about him is his crazy strength, all the other suplexes on this show you could see how the guy taking it would jump into the move, while Riddle is just hurling folks over with pure rawbone muscle. Not a great match, but Riddle is magnetic.

Marty Scrull v. Johnny Gargano

Chelsea on this match "I don't like this dancy stuff, it looks like they are dancing". This was indy wrestling as fuck, lots of applause break standoffs, leg slap kicks, long section of dramatic two counts. Chelsea hadn't seen any good heels before so she was amused by Scrull's act, although I thought it was super try hard. I did like Gargano grabbing his leg to block a superplex and Scrulls finger break spot (although doing it in every match lowers the effect a bunch) otherwise I wanted no part of this and what is represents.

Ethan Page v. Drew Galloway

This was preceded and succeeded by a bunch of nonsense with Galloway and Gargano arguing about the DIY ethics of the WWE deal. This is supposed to lead to some big angle tonight, but so far I deeply lack any fucks. Page is doing an emo fight for redemption which is totally hambone. At one point he yells "Johnny's my friend" and does this dramatic walkoff post match using a chair as a crutch (despite not taking much of a beating). Page needs to redeem how bad his kick to the stomach looked.

TJP/Fred Yehi v. Tracy Williams/Drew Gulak

I really dug this, Gulak and Williams are great at constant tags keeping up pressure. Yehi is a beast I loved all of throws and stomps, he did this takedown where he stomped on Williams heel before grabbing a single leg. TJP does different stuff then the other guys in this match lots of very cool takedowns and headscissors, it really reminds me of the stuff Alexander Otsuka would bring to BattlArts tags. Finished seemed a bit hinky live, although on tape it looked deliberate, less of a blown spot and more of partners not on the same page. Love Catch Point.

Chris Hero v. Zach Sabre Jr.

Hero comes out in a Duke jersey and Duke themed trunks which is an amazing douchebag troll move in Maryland. Sabre and Hero have a really great match structure, with Sabre trying to make small tears in Hero's joints and Hero trying to give Sabre CTE. This wasn't a completely douchey crowd, but Hero did a nice job engaging them, begging them to start new chants when he was beating Sabre's ass. This felt a bit long live (Chelsea was nodding) although might be paced better on tape. Still very good stuff in a match up which is consistently delivering. Surprised Hero got the win again, but man those piledrivers deserved a victory.

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MLJ: Atsushi Onita, Mil Mascaras & El Hijo del Santo vs. Tarzan Goto, Negro Casas & Giant Warrior

Atsushi Onita, Mil Mascaras & El Hijo del Santo vs. Tarzan Goto, Negro Casas & Giant Warrior
05/15/92 Tijuana, B.C. El Parenke

This was one night before the CA show, just with Goto on the other side and Nitron and Mascaras (there's a toss up) in the match instead. It's well worth watching as well, though, because while there were similarities, enough was different.

Similarities first. There was no reason in the world for Casas and Santo to not do the same exact opening exchange the next night. The crowd would almost certainly be mostly different. And lo and behold, it's move for move the same. That's okay though, because they hit it so quickly and so smoothly and so beautifully that it's actually a joy that we get it from a different camera angle.

That's really the only thing that's the same here. Mascaras' presence and Goto being paired against Onita changes everything. Mascaras is amusingly annoying. He'll sell for Giant Warrior but won't give Casas a single thing. At times, it gets hilarious as he just eats him up. Obviously, if Mascaras is going to be crushing someone, you want it to be someone who can make it entertaining and Casas can do that. It's still fairly bemusing though. Worth watching but bemusing.

Goto and Onita do their thing, and that's a lot of fun in this setting too. Goto is such a force, flying about with headbutts, and the sheer shining babyface charisma out of Santo and Onita paired together works better here because the match never really spirals around the arena like the one in CA did. It felt more contained with more interaction between the competitors.

I wish there were another ten of these matches from this tour because the two that we have are just a blast.

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