Most of EVOLVE 83 4/23/17

1. Tracy Williams vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: This was no good, real disappointing. These two looked half asleep out there, had no plan, did some stuff, much of it poorly applied. Half nelson suplex forgotten a moment later? Check. Obligatory apron fight? Check. Having an epic war elbow exchange? Check (with bonus "forehead resting on opponent's chin because we're dead on our feet from warring"). The build was non-existent, the light behind the eyes was turned off, their focus seemed elsewhere. Perhaps, they were accomplishing something deeper. Perhaps, both realized that Catch Point was nearing a conclusion. Perhaps this was two partners, nearing the end of their relationship. The good times had been great. Later, long after both of you had moved on - willingly or unwillingly - you'd find an old archived email, with the two of you expressing written, verbal, courtship-like impossible love and devotion the likes of which you didn't ever remember happening. The desire to make small-but-necessary changes to appease the other, those changes both important to the longterm standing of your love and maybe also early unacknowledged cracks in the foundation of your at-the-time genuine love. Those words you were now reading seemed to be from another lifetime. The feelings were too much, making your body temp rise that you actually moved someone to feel this way about YOU, while a pit formed reminding you of all the bad times that came after. The fights were sometimes easier to remember than the beautiful, shields-down adoration the two of you had for each other. Both painful to think too long about. This match, these two partners, having this by the books argument, the kind of argument we've all had, the perfect microcosm of a failed relationship. Two people so beyond saving that they can't even get it up for their arguments any longer. Their words are meant, but the teeth are removed. Nothing can hurt them now, because - perhaps without even realizing it and DEFINITELY not ready to admit it out loud - there are no longer any stakes, and they've both begun the process of moving on.  These two have done this before, and they've done it better, and they both know they've done it better. But the listless, failed relationship ennui that they captured was breathtaking. This, the gorgeous sadness of still caring enough about someone to just be willing to go through the fucking motions with them. If they didn't care, they just wouldn't do it. But both have been hurt, and both are still hurt by the idea of hurting the other, even as they're hurting the other. Love is rare. It shouldn't be a surprise that true love ever dies, but it does. And we should celebrate that love, no matter how brief. We should celebrate that we've ever had someone that loved us enough to go through the motions with us. 10 stars.

2. Keith Lee vs. David Starr

ER: YES! This was what I wanted. Lee acted cocky without really acting too cocky, and Starr went right at him like Lee wasn't 120 lb. bigger than him. There were nice little things by both guys, and I really liked how they accurately sold shots: If a shot was supposed to hit the face but landed shoulder,  each guy sold neck and shoulder. It brought an honesty to things that helped things as it escalated. Starr hits Lee hard, throwing nasty chops and elbows, dodging a couple Lee punches and then surprising the big guy with a slap. The two lariats that follow are brutal, crashing into the side of Lee's neck. That neck takes a major beating as Lee eats a backdrop into the buckles (crazy bump) and then gets planted in gross fashion with an apron DDT. It looked like his head disappeared into mat. And after that DDT Starr just runs through Lee with another lariat, finally taking him down. But Lee is mammoth and he does not quit, and before long he remembers his size advantage, running through another lariat attempt as if he was trying to rip Starr's arm off his body, pulling off an awesome/silly/surprising/probably ill-advised rana, and flat out crushing Starr with a couple of impressive slams. Starr impressed the hell out of me here, tons of guts, real fearless, and Lee is just a physical freak. Great stuff all around.

PAS: This was pretty nifty stuff, I think Starr is kind of a goof, but facing a guy this big keeps him from falling into too much indy move trading. I could live with out ever seeing his elbow smash/chop combo again though. Both apron moves were huge and nasty, Lee absolutely murders Starr with a powerbomb on the apron, which led to Lee in control for a long time, and the apron DDT by Starr gave him a plausible run on top as well. If you are going to do crazy stuff like that it should matter. Lee is really good at selling for such a big guy, and he really makes me buy a little guy like Starr could hurt him, if only briefly.

3. Fred Yehi vs. Kyle O'Reilly

ER: This was a good showing from both, with O'Reilly attacking Yehi's arm and Yehi going after O'Reilly's knee. The knee stuff was the most compelling work in the match, some of those early knots Yehi was tying were pretty sick, really looked like a guy with dozens of ways to take apart a knee. I don't love O'Reilly doing the Catch Point grappling, as there are always too many cracks, too many moments where Yehi has to hold still waiting for O'Reilly to get to where he's supposed to be. O'Reilly makes up for some grappling clunkiness by throwing some really nasty shots, raining down on Yehi from mount, and starts trying to yank that arm off. They lose me once they start going into some strike exchange stuff, the exchange came off a little too silly for what they were going for, and for how hard they were hitting each other. We hit bottom once we got to a Scooby Doo spot where both men backed into each other, startling each other, and turned to slap the other. The spots seemed really contrived. O''Reilly also isn't good at selling nuance. Working an early bum knee was probably a mistake. He does overall much better than I expected, but when he does something like trying to run and just faceplanting because "his knee gave out", it just comes off too ham. But they win me back with some pretty nasty shots, really liked O'Reilly stubbornly holding an armbar while Yehi is realigning his jaw with knees, dug O'Reilly choking him to his knees with a standing front choke, liked the finish with a brainbuster into some nasty arm twisting. Overall I liked the match, just wish they had dropped a couple things.

4. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Lio Rush

PAS: I really like 8/10ths of this, it was worked kind of like a 2010s version of Mysterio v. Malenko, with Sabre grounding and torturing Rush. Rush is really flexible and gets twisted into some nasty violence pretzels, he does some especially nasty things to Rush's ankles, violently wrenching them and stomping on them in weird nasty ways. Sabre was a real nasty prick in this match, which he is actually pretty good at, his contemptuous sneer is much better then his goofy babyface faces and torturing a tiny guy is a pretty mean thing to do. Finish run lost me a bit, no reason for this match to have a tough guy elbow exchange, I hate the fact that is in every indy match, and it is especially dumb here. Rush had some cool flying spots, but he could have been more explosive, I did like Sabre escaping with a roll up pin and cutting off Rush's big offensive run.

ER: I really loved Sabre in this. I didn't have a whole lot of use for Rush's offense, so I was a-ok watching Sabre bend him around in all sorts of evil ways. Rush was pretty great at getting 4 limbs pulled in different directions at once, and for that I thank him. Sabre breaks out some of his best stuff here, the octopus hold was ridiculous, the drop toe hold on left leg/ankle lock on right leg/crossface choke was sick, plenty of nasty wrist manipulation, always digging elbow points into tender muscles while locking in holds, all really great stuff. I thought the set ups for everything were really well played, a lot of stuff that could have flopped came off organic, like catching an ankle lock when Rush tried a Pele kick. I've never seen that spot (I'm sure it's happened somewhere), and it came off unexpectedly and well timed. The fighting spirit strike exchange was silly (even though I liked Sabre's shoulder shrug uppercuts) and felt just totally out of place, but the finish was killer with Sabre just locking on a tight roll up and holding the pin several seconds after the bell. Loved that.

5. I Quit: Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Quite a violent spectacle, that kinda comes undone in the final few minutes. I think the match would have greatly benefitted from being a No DQ or Texas Death Match, as Drew Galloway's strategy didn't make a whole lot of sense with the I Quit stipulation. He kept going for KO offense and then making the same shocked face when Riddle would just gurgle into the mic. At one point he hits three future shock DDTs and then a 4th on a chair, and then just lies there while Riddle gurgles. You'd think with Riddle selling being barely conscious that Galloway could have just kneeled on his balls or something to get the quick "I Quit". The violence is at least big up until that point, with both guys throwing super nasty shots all match, Drew taking a suplex on the floor, Riddle getting bounced off the mat with a gorgeous snap piledriver...but then we hit a kind of goofy patch. We have a too long "Drew tying Riddle to the ropes" moment, with Riddle apparently being so beaten down that he couldn't struggle, and then Drew delivers tons of great punches to a tied up Riddle (the headlock short punches were so great they would make people forget about Nolan Ryan/Robin Venture). But then...Drew for some reason sells more than Riddle, apparently tired from beating his fists against Riddle's skull. Riddle gets untied by the ref and goes on a rampage, despite being so beaten down that he couldn't struggle against getting tied up moments earlier, and took nothing but damage since then. Drew is tired from dishing a beating, and Riddle is moving with more energy than he has all match. It all felt very dumb. Galloway ramps up the dumb by pulling out a sledgehammer (We know what that means!!!), hits Riddle in the balls with the handle, but Riddle's balls recover and he makes Drew quit with the bromission. I dunno. The violence was real and I liked the first 75% of the match (despite, again, thinking things would have been so much better with a simple No DQ stip), but they lost me pretty good by the end.

PAS: I agree that the stip hurt this match, way too much stuff with the ref holding microphones in peoples faces, it made it very hard for the match to have any pace or structure. There were some individually cool moves, I loved the snap piledriver, and the DDT's looked good, but all of it was followed by Riddle lying there while Galloway yells at the ref. The sledgehammer was too clever by half, although I really liked the final finish with the twister being so violent that it can force a submission from any point.

ER: Decent show with a couple standout matches. Lee/Starr and Sabre/Rush were good enough to land on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. I had higher hopes for Galloway/Riddle. The action was there, but the stip was a flop.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Lorcan v. McIntyre

13. Oney Lorcan v. Drew McIntyre WWE NXT 4/5 (Aired 4/12/17)

PAS: Great 4 minute sprint which reminded me of some of the great WCW syndie matches, kind of a new age version of Raven v. Kaz Hayashi or Finlay v. Villano V.  Just a boatload of great spots, McIntyre throws some insane overhead belly to belly suplexes which hurls Lorcan 3/4rs of the way across the ring, the spot where he catches the plancha in a gutwrench was a spot of the year contender. I really loved Lorcan in this, his tenacity is one of the things I loved about him on the indies, and he is constantly coming forward here, huge uppercuts, crazy slaps, he felt like a rabid dog trying to grab the last turkey leg.


ER: Yeah yeah yeah!! This is my kind of jam. I've been missing the hot 4-5 minute match. Best we've gotten this year has been Braun/Henry (and before that the unexpectedly great Curtis Axel/Bo Dallas 4 minutes from 10/24/16 Raw), but this match was the stuff! Lorcan was like a feral animal, like Sonny Boy let out of his cage. He flew into McIntyre with fast and forceful uppercuts and hit an out of control flip dive, then got caught on a plancha off the top because of course Drew is fucking ridiculous and slams Lorcan on the apron. Ye gods that whole sequence. But Lorcan can't be put down and keeps coming, really liked all the running spots in this, the constant movement, Lorcan evading Drew by somersaulting off the top, Lorcan about to grind Drew's knee up top before McIntyre tosses him off by the ears, Lorcan paying him back with some devastating cupped slaps, then a cool finish with Drew catching a big boot to trap Lorcan over his shoulders and whiplash him face first to his doom. Glorious classic syndie action. This was Renegade/Sick Boy good.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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EVOLVE 78 Road Report + EVOLVE 79 Live Blog

I went to EVOLVE in Joppa last night with Childs in the new weird thing where I had a baby and am now going to live wrestling a lot.

Matt Riddle v. Anthony Henry

I didn't really care for this. It had it's moments, Riddle is always going to do some cool stuff, I liked the early amateur takedowns, and the finish combo of fisherman's buster into tombstone into twister was very cool. Most of this though I didn't like, I thought Henry was pretty good in the Style Battle Yehi match, but he was working as a Dixie Davey Richards in this, lots of stiff kicks to the chest and grimacing. There wasn't much selling, a terrible looking New Japan forearm and stare exchange (which has infected the indies like Noro virus). Riddle is getting less interesting to me as he gets more experience, he has sanded away a bunch of the rough edges which made him interesting, and is working more like an indy workrate dude, I am concerned his is developing Kurt Angleitis.

Austin Theory v. Darby Allin

Crossfit has really ruined wrestling, now even your guy working a Kidman in the flock junky gimmick has super well developed abs. Allin's crazy face tattoo is a nice step, but he needs to stop with the wall jumps if he really wants to live the gimmick. This match was pretty great, Allin is a nutso bumper, but here he was mostly doing cool springboard rana's and armdrags, Allin basically works like a US version of Freelance or Dinamic Black. Theroy has a dumb name, and goofy gear (he has Unproven on his tights, works as a 19 year old, but he is going to have to buy new tights in a year or so, can't really push a guy who's tights say Unproven) but I really dug him as a base for Allin's fun flips. Theory also does a nutso top rope moonsault to the floor where he nukes his ribs on the guardrail, I was really worried because Allin seems like a guy unwilling to be outbumped but he kept it in his pants. Really liked the finish, with Allin flubbing a springboard briefly, but enough to get caught.

Ethan Page v. Jason Kincaid

Ethan Page matches are always a chore, but I minded this less then usual. Page is as his best as kind of a put upon stooge and he was amusing being flummoxed by Kincaid's goofus shtick. I like Kincaid 's spots but he doesn't always land his offense cleanly and there was things from both guys which didn't look good, especially when Page started taking more of the match. Still this was basically fine which is all I can hope for with a Page match.

Chris Dickinson/Jaka v. The Gatekeepers

It is odd that Jaka is working a tiny ethnic guy who yells things in a weird voice on the same show where Yehi is fighting for the title. B. Brian Blair wasn't cupping his ear and dropping a leg on MSG undercards. Match had its moments, Dickinson and Jaka really laid it in especially on the bigger of the Gatekeepers (who is legit big and muscular, he would have had a career in a different age).

ACH v. Tracey Williams

I had pretty low expectations for this coming in, but it ended up maybe my MOTN. Both guys really laced into each other, in a fed and a show where you have a lot of stiff workers this felt a step above. Williams especially was landing these really nasty elbows and chops to the sides of ACH's neck and his throat he also landed a really uncalled for lariat. ACH got in some of his trademark spots, but mostly went at Williams too. Not sure if this will come off on tape as good as it came off live, but live, it made us both wince multiple times.

Drew Galloway v. Jeff Cobb

You don't usually see this kind of heavyweight scrap on Indy shows. Cobb's strength stuff is alway impressive and it is even more impressive to watch him throw around a beast like Galloway. I also loved Galloway doing a slingshot beneath the ring, catching Cobb's neck on a metal poll, I remember Drew McIntyre doing a bunch of Finlayesque use of the ring spots during his WWE run, so I am glad he still has that arrow. Loved the finish with Cobb powering out of a backslide which I have never seen before, only to have Galloway flip over him and hit his DDT, really cool stuff. Still waiting for Cobb to have a real classic, but he is a pretty low floor guy, he is always at a minimum worth watching.

Keith Lee v. Zach Sabre Jr.

Lee is huge live, so crazy that out of these two the skinny british guy doing Johnny Saint spots was the one with a big WWE push. Worked exactly how it should have been with Lee throwing around ZSJ using his strength, and Sabre trying to catch him in submissions. Sabre also used Lee's size as an excuse to unload on him, his Penalty kick usually looks kind of shitty, but he booted the fuck out of Lee, I also liked that he used him as a jungle gym, climbing all around him and putting on weird abdominal stretch variations. Lee as a indy Mark Henry is great, surprising bursts of agility along with big throws and good shit talking.

Timothy Thatcher v. Fred Yehi

So am I the only guy who has noticed that Thatcher seems to be working a subtle Alt-Right gimmick? I made a joke to Childs about his new Richard Spenser haircut, but then I notice he has Ring Kampf written on his jacket and shorts, and the ring jacket is lined with plaid just like every Skinhead punk I punched in college. Also going to study in the Snake Pit with Billy Robinson and adhering to a technical European style of wrestling seems like exactly how a white nationalist indy wrestler would behave. I am not sure why Gabe put him with a Black manager, but it would be just like a Jew promoter to promote @White Genocide.

Although it was hard to unnotice that, the match itself was pretty damn great. At this point Thatcher isn't going to deviate from his style, he is going to work a Thatcher match even if that isn't what the crowd wants. I admire that, fuck pandering to the jerks who populate indy wrestling shows, do your thing. This was a really good example of a Thatcher match, Yehi is very capable of working that style and looking good doing it, and he will also deliver a lot of the flash needed. Thatcher's shots don't sound sharp but they thud, and they were thudding. I loved Yehi's ground and pound, and Thatchers choke throw is a hell of a finish. Could have maybe used one Yehi rope break at the end, but otherwise no complaints.

Overall a really good show that delivered four great matches to close out

EVOLVE 79 Live Blog

I am home with Baby Zach so I figured I would check this out

ACH v. Jason Kincaid

I enjoyed some of Kincaid's stuff again, especially his leaping off the stage to dropkick ACH in the ring, he definitely brings a different vibe to these shows. After loving the ACH match the night before, this was a little more generically juniorish. Fine stuff, enjoyed it fine, but relatively forgettable.

Chris Dickinson v. Fred Yehi v. Austin Theory v. Anthony Henry

This was pretty good when the catch point boys were involved a little less so with the pretty boys. Dickinson especially was fired up, throwing big kicks and throws. Kept moving at a nice pace, and I liked the finish with Dickinson stealing the win by getting a pin before Fred could get the tap out. I think the Catch Point explodes tag will be really good.

Jaka v. Jeff Cobb

I was excited to see these guys face off last night, and this was a great little scrap. A pair of Islanders pounding on each other (Jaka is Samoan? Puerto Rican? Dominican? I am guessing he is from some island). There was one German suplex no sell section which I didn't love, but everything else was awesome. Jaka was throwing shots, and Cobb was snatching him out of the air with some huge throws including the best tour of the islands I have seen. Wouldn't mind seeing them run this back.

Ethan Page v. Darby Allin

Great match, easily the best I have seen from either guy. Allin is truly insane, he gets presslamed from the stage into a post, and then gets his hands handcuffed behind and takes multiple bumps on his handcuffed wrists. Page has been trying to do Franchise Shane Douglas and this is the first time I though he got there (not that I love Shane Douglas, but Shane was way more effective at his stuff then Page has been so far), he came off as such as a hatable prick and laid in the kind of beating you need to get this match over. Allin's comeback was insane, he is hitting rana's and dropkicks with his hands cuffed one of the craziest wrestling moments I can remember, like something out of a Jackie Chan movie.

Keith Lee v. Tracy Williams

Another good Keith Lee match, unlike Sabre last night, Williams tried to stand toe to toe with Lee hitting him with hard shots, but standing in front of a bigger puncher is never a good idea, and he gets smashed. Williams really bounced on Lee powermoves, huge powerbomb and got smashed with the firemans carry jackhammer. Lee is not working as a heavyweight with highspots in EVOLVE, he is working as a smashing machine and that works better.

Matt Riddle v. Drew Galloway

I thought this had some good ideas, but never really got out of second gear, the blows were solid, but I felt it was a bit repetitive, and needed to be more violent. I liked the finish, although a ref stop on body blows is a little weird, Galloway should have at least sold broken ribs or something

Timothy Thatcher v. Zach Sabre Jr.

Really great match with Sabre trying to finally be the guy to solve Thatcher, and a rabid crowd wanting Thatcher to go down. Really great early grappling leading to a super hot finish, with Thatcher pulling out counters to counters, before finally falling to a crazy abdominal stretch version. The announcer mentioned Thatcher watching Johnny Valentine, and I see his title reign almost like Johnny Valentine as he trained the crowd to respect and loathe his style, Thatcher had more real heel heat then anyone I can remember seeing in EVOLVE, and he did it all with a sneer and an armbar. Really exiting match, that I especially loved watching live not knowing about the title change.

(Thatcher Pepe watch: Lenny Leanord mentions that he is spending all of his free time in Germany, and makes a weird sarcastic reference about him partying with Jill Scott, also post match ZSJ gives a speech about accepting all people as equal, and loving everyone which I am reading as a subtweet)

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki v. Galloway

47. Low-Ki v. Drew Galloway HOG 8/19

PAS: Ki debuted his 2016, world greatest Luchadore Sopressa gimmick here in House of Glory replacing Chris Dickinson (I liked Dickinson, but that is a huuuge upgrade) coming out in the Hitman suit and having a corker of a match with Galloway. Galloway is really great at using the ring and ringside and Ki takes some nasty bumps including getting flung ribs first into the ringpost. Match was fun with Ki sticking and moving and Galloway catching him with big throws. I especially liked Drew countering the Warriors Way by grabbing Ki by the suit lapels and overhead throwing him off the top. Loved the finish as Ki hogties Galloway with his tie and kicks him in the face and double stomps him in the small of the back. Really fun stiff battle, and I imagine how much fun it would have been to be in the crowd.

ER: Ki shows up so sparsely these days that it's always a treat when he does, and these two have styles that clash and mesh nicely. Galloway had probably the most notable match against Ki during the latter's Kaval run, and it's cool they keep matching up and adding twists to their stuff. Galloway thinks of some neat counters for Ki classics, and Ki flies around dangerously for some cool throws. Galloway works like a total monster here and Ki always lays out great on slams, especially loved the snap sit out powerbomb. The Warriors Way spot was especially cool, my favorite of the match, as Ki always makes sure to do little things so his opponent isn't just hanging out to dry like a nincompoop. The twist I like here is Ki is holding Drew down, and stomps right on his patella, but that causes Drew to lurch upwards in pain, and while up there he flings Ki ass over crown by the suit lapels. It was such a smart spot, and ended like someone getting their gi used against them in MMA. The hogtie spot also could have come across very cooperative, but Ki smartly grabs an arm in a sub while also burying a knee into Drew's back; any struggle from Galloway would have gotten his arm yanked more. The last bit of Galloway fighting with no hands was inspired, throwing headbutts but inevitably eating kicks to put him down for the most vicious double stomp.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from EVOLVE 59 4/2/16

1. Drew Galloway/Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak/Tracy Williams

ER: This started out more mundane than I was hoping for, but the second half was killer. Williams at this point seems like a guy with some high peak performances, whose floor usually falls somewhere in the bland territory. I did enjoy some of his rolling with Gargano, even if a lot of it looked a little too smooth and floaty. Galloway takes a nice post bump to the floor, but the first half of this really did drag. BUT the first half does set up some neat stuff that gets cashed in during the second half. Reversals, payoffs, longer term stuff. So you can't say the first half was a waste, at all. Gargano's hot tag run was fun, and when he hit the superman spear I was already thinking it seemed like something that shouldn't work. So when Williams caught it late in the match and planted him with a brainbuster, I was a satisfied customer. I also really liked Gulak and Gargano's strike exchange, Gulak especially. It started out with normal open strikes and then Gulak ramped up faster and suddenly he was blocked and going to the body and it looked awesome. Made it seem so much more special than a typical exchange. Gulak and Williams had some fun double teams, especially loved when Gargano was trying to lock the chickenwing onto Gulak, and Gulak made a blind tag and whipped Gargano off him and right into a nasty Williams lariat. Timing was impeccable on it. We get a nice run of well timed "I hit this guy, someone hits me, someone hits him" offense that can come off like something they rehearsed in slo mo in the back, but here came off much more like familiarity with opponents. Probably went too long, but also possible the first half made it seem longer than it really was. Still a quality tag.

2. Chris Hero vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: Really great bully performance by Hero he is totally contemptuous of Yehi making fun of his height, smacking him around really being an asshole. Yehi fights back with his nasty offense including stomping on his instep and ankle. Hero gets more and more frustrated and more and more violent. Hero is just unloading on Yehi landing some disgusting shots to the back of Fred's head. Meanwhile Yehi is doing an awesome job of dying on his shield. Overmatched but game youngster versus vicious veteran is a classic wrestling trope and both guys do it great. Wouldn't think that superman shirt IWA-MS Chris Hero would turn into Tenryu, but he is a great Tenryu.

ER: Phil knows how much I love the overmatched youngster against cranky veteran, so I was pretty amped for this one, and I gotta say it delivered. Dismissive Hero is a wonderful thing and while dismissive Hero never really gets total comeuppance, it's always a treat to see guys try. Yehi has a bunch of great little things to annoy opponents with, stomps to annoying places, strikes you don't expect, and annoyed Hero is fun for the viewer and rarely fun for the opponent. The mat stuff was cool and weirdly unexpected, as Yehi matches tend to be sub 10 and I didn't expect them to run with a bunch of cool reversals to start. But they work several cool things around arms, and my favorite early moment was when Yehi was up on the middle buckle and Hero was antagonizing him, and Yehi jumped off at him to grab a headlock in mid air. It looked like when one housecat is sitting on the back of the couch, and the other housecat is being an asshole and not letting him jump down, so he just wiggles his butt and jumps right down onto that asshole cat. And Hero was being a real asshole bully housecat here. Hero would do some signature offense, but in more aggravating ways, namely when he roughly grabbed his cravate. There was no finesse to it, he just kind of grabbed Yehi's head in his hands and wrestled them into cravate position and kind of yanked him down to the mat. It felt like he really wanted to show Yehi how domineering he was. Loved when Yehi did a Flair roll up the buckles and Hero was way ahead of him and met him with a pump kick, sending Yehi off the apron. They got crossed up during a couple strike exchanges, but it kind of made it look like both guys trying to fake the other out, trying to get the other to take the bait. All the shots to the back of Yehi's head looked pretty gross, and you assumed Yehi didn't have a chance, but both men are so damn good at their roles that they just take you along.

3. Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: Very cool clash of mat styles, I really loved the way Riddle would counter out of a wacky Sabre british hold with an armbar or ankle lock, and Sabre would flip out of a choke into a goofy wrist lock. It reminded me a bit of the early UWF matches when some one like Marty Jones would come in and work Maeda or Kido. Both guys are little rougher around the edges then true masters of their style, but I appreciate ambition in mat wrestling, and there was ambition in spades. Some of the stand up was a bit wonky, ZSJ needs to take that crappy looking penalty kick and bury it deep in the ground, and Riddle will still pull some stuff a bit when he should just lay out, still you watch this match for the grappling and that was a blast. Always loved the Twister in MMA, and it is a nifty move to bring into pro-wrestling.

ER: I also liked this, and Phil's "Marty Jones coming to UWF" was an apt comparison. This had plenty of cool escapes and subs which was exactly what I was hoping for. Sabre twists Riddle up a bunch, and does a bunch of neat little things like grabbing the opposite leg on a drop toe hold or all the ways he would try bending Riddle's arm. Riddle grabbing the Muto lock was probably my favorite moment, as Sabre was making faces as if he were actually being choked. It looked painful as hell, and Sabre grabbing Riddle's hand and bending it back to get him to break was worked as more of a desperation escape than normal. Usually the hand bending is more sadistic or show-offy, so I liked it as a last gasp. Riddle's throws were really impressive and Sabre always folds in fun ways when tossed. 10 minutes was the perfect length as we didn't devolve into silly strike exchanges and instead mostly went from mat stuff to throws to finish.

ER: I skimmed or skipped over the rest of the show, cherry picking the stuff that really interested me. And my instincts were pretty good as Yehi/Hero and Riddle/Sabre both landed on our 2016 ONGOING MOTY MASTER LIST, and that's always a good thing.

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EVOLVE 63 6/11/16

1. Cedric Alexander vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Some good stuff here although with some almost expected cracks. Cedric is not a guy who does a lot of the fast Catch Point stuff, but does his own brand of fast indy work, so the speed gels well but the styles don't always. There were some moments of one guy arriving at his mark slightly ahead of the other. Cedric in his matches - every one of them so far - always finds a way to pleasantly surprise me, and another way to kind of make me curl my lip in mild annoyance. But I love Yehi as the underdog who gives every guy he faces their toughest win. If there is another CWC I have to imagine Yehi is a lock for the final 4. Some of the build to his stomps came off a little silly, and I'd rather he keep the limb stomps to a brutal part of his game. Here he missed several stops that then signaled a stop to the match, while he grinned at Cedric. It came off almost like Kamala slapping his belly. Although now thinking about it, Yehi in a racist savage gimmick with crazed stomps would probably be something that I love. Yehi going for the Koji clutch always leads to wonderful twisty moments, and here it lead to an early bit of fun slippery mat exchanges, and later Cedric using his strength to lift out of the clutch into a backcracker. Both guys land elbows with a thud, all strikes in general looked good, and Yehi matches always seem to end at the right point. Nice start to the evening.

2. Jason Cade & Darby Allin vs. The Bravado Brothers

ER: This probably would have been more effective as an extended squash for the Bravados, but it's nice they gave the local boys some time. Bravados have certainly improved some since their goofy early ROH days, they've beefed up a bit and hit harder, but still have some pacing issues. Cade and Allin looked impressive at times and too light other times. Allin broke out a pretty nice headbutt a couple times, but then had real light dropkicks. Cade's stuff was hit and miss but the hits were fun, most notably his insane leap from the ring apron to a basketball hoop into a rana on Harlem. Evolve filmed it really well, so you could really see that it wasn't just a simple hop from the apron to the hoop, it was a real leap. Awesome spot. Bravados need to stick to more simple elbows and beatdown offense, more ring cut off less feeding cute spots. But still this as a whole wasn't bad.

3. Trevor Lee vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Really fun Riddle match which was built around him taking big bumps. Lee is at his best when he is super aggressive and he is constantly coming forward in this match. Riddle eats a couple of rail rides really nastily on his ribs and goes really high and lands really hard on a beal throw. Lee also grabs and snaps Riddle's toes which is a really nasty variation of the finger break spot which we are seeing a bunch of. Riddle working from the bottom isn't something he has done a ton of, and it really makes for an interesting contrast to his other stuff. I really loved the nasty stomp which Lee uses to take over on offense, just brutal looking as was his signature double stomp. Finish was great with Lee fighting his way into a Twister in a really cool way. Great match, and a great performance by both guys. Lee is a bit of a conundrum, I have seen some stuff I have loved, and other stuff which left me flat, feels like a guy I need to dig into a bit.

ER: I loved this, might actually be my favorite performance from each guy, which is exciting. There was really only one moment that I disliked, which was Lee having to run all the way across the apron just to get kicked/kneed by Riddle. Seemed a little silly compared to the rest of the stuff they broke out, but my god the rest of the stuff. Riddle was like a spider monkey in there, just pouncing and hanging on to Lee, and Lee was great tossing him around and beating him down. Riddle is an insane bumper (and wearing no shoes makes it even more insane, keep waiting for a toe to get caught or an ankle to roll), just insane. He gets launched practically out of the ring on a beal, takes out half the guardrails in the building in some of the most brutal rail rides I've seen, leans hard into all of Lee's kicks and punches, and is so great at return spots. I love the way Riddle sells, love the way he staggers after being walloped, love his best ever Pele kick, and loved the way he kept feeding into Lee. Both guys looked so great here. I loved that beal throw so much, and when Lee went for another one and Riddle turned it into a  backpack choke? I flipped out. Such a great spot. I actually would have loved the match had it ended right there, thought the ending would have been perfect. But I also love that we got gifted another 5 minutes of awesome.

4. Tracy Williams vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: This was odd as the ring work was excellent, but the layout and build was lacking and disjointed. It's a tough kind of criticism, where both guys look great doing the stuff they do, and you wonder why you're not quite digging it as much as the work makes you think you should. God that was a mouthful. I just thought the build was sometimes nonexistent and it felt like it went too long. Evolve has manufactured its own brand of overkill by having so many effective 10 minute matches. They've kind of perfected the full story 8-10 minute match in the last year especially. So now two guys going out and having the same match, but for 17 minutes, almost feels ridiculous. We've seen all of these guys be put away by all of the same things, in 10 minutes, but now we're supposed to think they can each take an additional 7 minutes of it? It's a psychology that hinges on flipping a "toughness" switch for "big" matches. Turning it on for a "big" match. But the problem is they treat EVERY match like a big match. They're almost TOO good at bringing up each wrestler's history. So even a non-title match is "an important match, both men are coming off losses and each desperately needs a win to get back into contention". A non-title match with men fighting for relevance is treated as much of a worthy endeavor as a man actually fighting for the title. So since they're ALL big matches you start wondering WHY they're now suddenly able to somehow withstand twice as much punishment.

So I thought both guys looked awesome, especially Thatcher. Thatcher has been a long favorite of mine and broke out huge in 2015. For some reason he feels like almost a back step in 2016. The matches just haven't been there. His work in this one felt like a strong mini-return. Him kicking away at Williams' arm was brutal, his rolling Karelin lifts were amazing, and all the grappling and sub stuff looked killer. I really loved the first 3 minutes of grappling especially. It was a little choppy, a little uneven, lock ups weren't square, it put off a dangerous vibe from the bell. That's the disappointing finality of the match, though. Everything looked great. The order and memory was off, but everything looked great. There was just a lot of it, and the whole match kind of felt lost in itself. It's a very tough match to rank. I could see my opinion shifting on it with every viewing. So it feels polarizing, but still feels good. I think I'm thumbs up...for now.

PAS: I enjoyed this, I admit we are getting a little filled up from this kind of match. I would have freaked out if this match had happened in 2014, but it got a little lost in the shuffle in 2016. I loved Williams in this, he had some very cool counters to counters. Thatcher would try an escape and Williams was really cool at blocking his first attempt. That is a sign of a really nifty mat wrestler. This did feel like it should have been Williams' match, it built to a big win for him, so it was a bit deflating to have Thatcher go over. Still I really dug this.

5. Anthony Nese vs. TJ Perkins vs. Lince Dorado vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was kind of a mess. All of the faults of four and five ways, lots of cutesy double teams and goofy I hit you so you suplex him spots. Not sure if anyone came out of this looking good. Lince Dorado had some nice dives but outside of that, not sure if there is anything to recommend. Neese qualified for the CWC tournament by winning this, but I didn't want to see more of him. He had some especially bad punches, and his long singles section with TJP was a PWG wankathon at its worst.

ER: I think Phil is being a little harsh on this, even if it wasn't overall that good. For example I only counted one "cutesy double team" spot, and it wasn't until 12 minutes into an 18 minute match (there were 2 if you count Dorado's armdrag/headscissor combo, but that's a pretty common lucha spot). Phil IS right about nobody coming out of this looking very good though. We're used to seeing these guys in actual matches, so it always rings hollow when 4 guys get separately eliminated over 18 minutes. Serious question: Is the "Johnny Wrestling" chant meant to mock Gargano? Is the wink implied? Because it would always start immediately after he would do something really terrible. We know fans chant "you can't wrestle" at Roman Reigns because they're ashamed of their penises, but why do they chant "Johnny Wrestling" after Gargano raises his hand hiiiiiiigh about his head to bring it down into a thigh slap (you've never seen thigh slaps with less misdirection), or after he overshoots and whiffs on a somersault senton? What joke am I not a part of? I thought individual guys looked good in individual moments of this, depending on their dance partner. Dorado doesn't do much for me with his imitation lucha spots, TJP easily gets a bit too vacant in the eyes thinking about what spot to do next in matches like these, Gulak is one of my 3 favorite guys in the world but I actually really dislike him in these multi man matches. I'd just rather see him in a singles. Gargano had a terrible showing. He's not a favorite of mine but he usually looks better than this. And Nese, the man meant to be featured, had some really nice left hands, great chops, great short left forearms, but would get too in the "strike combo" zone where guys would have to stand still while he went through his rehearsed strike dance. 1-2-knee 3-4 legsweep 5-6 soccer kick. The final 6 minutes where Gulak and TJP essentially had to work a handicap match, setting up a Nese offense exhibition? Brutal. The layout of this match blew. But I actually enjoyed most of it up until the EC3 interruption/restart. I thought Gulak worked around Gargano's signature offense nicely, thought TJP came up with some nice offense teases to set up others' offense, thought Nese looked fine until he became the featured "fighting for his dream" worker of the match. But yeah, you've seen all these guys in better stuff - WAY better in some cases - than this.

6. Anything Goes: Ethan Page vs. Drew Galloway

ER: Another Evolve show, another long ass Ethan Page match. And this was okay, even if I thought there were way too many "why'd the girl run upstairs!?" horror movie spots. Page would climb a ladder to get powerbombed off it, he'd climb up stairs to tease getting thrown down them, he'd sprint headlong at Drew to get alleyooped into an Exit sign. There was wandering, but bumps on a gym floor are hard as hell and both guys took their share, so no doubt there was pain involved. We get some pretty rough chair spots, with Galloway taking a Russian leg sweep with one held under his chin, Page getting tossed throw one after a blocked cutter, Drew taking a backdrop across set up chairs, and some fun teases around Galloway piledriving him through a set up chair. So, overall it was good enough. It had moments.

7. Last Man Standing: ECIII vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: This was another one of those Gargano matches that seemed like it may have worked for the live crowd, but didn't interest me a whole lot. EC3 heels it up by going for a bunch of WWE spots, hits an Angle Slam, goes for a Pedigree (even though those are moves also done by indy favorites at one point, so....) and they try to do these weird comedy type spots while also trying to work a violent last man standing match. Gargano makes a Brother Nero joke but then also takes a pretty violent bump through a guardrail. But even the violent stuff didn't add up right. Gargano hits Carter with a bunch of chairshots but not until the ref is down, even though it's a Last Man Standing match and that shouldn't matter. And Carter doesn't ever bother to sell the chairshots anyway, so who knows. We get a series of run ins, a referee hits a stunner, so yeah. This is the way they wanted to work it, the fans seemed into it, nothing for me to see here.

Kind of a low end Evolve show based on all of the ones I've watched, but at the same time one that I didn't walk away bummed out from watching. Riddle/Lee was pretty classic, and nothing was flat out bad, so I overall had a good time. Riddle/Lee ended up landing at #16 on our 2016 MOTY List, linked below.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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Is TNA Not Entirely Terrible Now? A Small Sample Curiosity.

So last night (6/7) for reasons I cannot entirely explain, I watched an episode of TNA Impact. Maybe it was because we're in a TV programming lull, maybe it's because Rachel was working on something downstairs so I couldn't watch anything that we typically watch together, maybe I somehow haven't learned my lesson after 14 years (btw, TNA has existed for FOURTEEN YEARS!! When TNA started I couldn't vote. What the fuck, Time??). Probably some combination of all of those things, plus I saw on the episode guide that Matt Hardy was going to face Drew Galloway on the show, and based on my cursory knowledge of who is actually on their current roster, these two are really two of the only guys I would care to see in a TNA match. So I DVR'd it, and...


I ended up enjoying the entire show. Now, to be clear, by "entire show" I mean "I fast forwarded through any and all talking segments and paid attention to three of the matches while casually paying attention to the other three matches". So there was a lot of fast forwarding, but not nearly as much as there could have been. For a promotion who never has gotten the detail work right, this was a surprisingly well paced show (even fast forwarding through 75% of your average Impact episode would tell you whether or not the pacing was good) with a more professional look than I'm used to after 14 years of blunders and bush league presentation (I should remind you again that TNA has been around for FOURTEEN YEARS! When TNA started, Kanye West was known as "Producer of The Blueprint", or "Kanye West: Man with Fully Functioning Jaw"). I enjoyed the announce crew of Josh Matthews and Pope. For a totally insufferable human being, Matthews plays nicely off Pope, who in turn does color commentary like the best parts of Tazz and Booker T. They complement each other nicely, which I don't think I've been able to say about any TNA commentary crew ever.


The matches were surprisingly enjoyable as well. Even when TNA has had workers I enjoy, the company style always felt detrimental to match quality, and it always felt like it had that early MLW or 2000s Guadalajara (and possibly current Guadalajara?) vibe where wrestlers I like go to have matches I dislike. There was a TNA stink on even their best workers and matches, and last night I didn't smell any sort of TNA stink. The short and inoffensive matches were short and inoffensive, and the matches given time to be something more delivered.


I really enjoyed Eddie Edwards/Trevor Lee as an interference clustered cruiser match, with Lee really throwing himself into Edwards' offense, a big Lee bump where Edwards caught the apron punt and swept Lee's leg to make him faceplant on the apron, a big Edwards dive, nice Lee suplex, good nearfall based on interference, just a fun match. More noteworthy was a 10 man tag that was probably just 8 minutes, but really good. TNA throughout its history has been hilariously inept at large multiman matches. This in theory should be one of the easiest matches to lay out, as with 10 guys even the worst wrestlers should have one or two cool tricks they can do so nobody has to be exposed, and you can keep action moving with constant saves and tag ins. Yet somehow TNA multimans (specifically the always laugh out loud bad multiman cage matches where you'd end up with 80% of the guys lying around the ring breathing heavily after just a few minutes) always flopped, always turned into an awful mess, never felt like they had enough action. So here were 10 men - 5 of whom I had at least heard of before, 3 of whom I could at least pick out of a lineup - 10 men of varying abilities working a tight 7 minutes with no filler, some smart, simple spots, and a satisfying finish. Jessie Godderz had a couple nice press slams, there were a couple stocky little guys in striped tights who came in gunning low with elbows and nice aggression, Crazzy Steve seems like he might be good, even Abyss had a cool moment where he made a save by just grabbing a guy by the throat.


The main event of Matt Hardy vs. Drew Galloway was really good and with an actual conclusive finish I was already prepared to nominate it for our MOTY list. Hardy looks insane right now, like a methier and/or draggier Toecutter, which...well would actually work pretty well as a wrestling character. But these guys beat the hell out of each other, constantly lobbing nice punches and elbows, Hardy takes a backbreaker on the ring apron, Galloway takes a side effect on the ring steps, Galloway threw a big belly to belly, they found a nice way to set up some tree of woe stuff with a blocked superplex leading to some Hardy headbutts, and then when Hardy was taking too long to set something up I thought it was going to look silly when Drew took a move after hanging out for so long, but instead Drew was just playing possum and sprang up to launch Hardy across the ring. More big chops, more great Hardy punches, more great Galloway elbows to Hardy's weird head. Yeah we got a run in finish but this was a fine match, exactly what I was hoping for out of these guys.


So there I was, enjoying TNA, actually thinking about watching TNA one week from now, which is a thought I don't think I've ever had. Watching TNA has always been more of an accident, or something to throw on for a laugh when people are over and you remember it's on. I don't know if I've ever actively planned to watch TNA a week in advance. But this show won me over. There were still some silly moments, my favorite being their apparent heist of the WWE never-going-to-get-over name generator, - used here for Pepper Parks - who is now known as "Braxton Sutter". I recognize that it's entirely possible I just tuned in on the one competent week of programming they've had since joining Pop! I know I tuned in a couple of times when they were on Destination America and it was dreadful. So this could have been luck, or they may finally be onto something, 10 years too late.

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PWG Lemmy 1/2/16 Review

1. Brian Cage vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: Fun match with some absurd overkill, and some big power guys working cruiser spots. One sentence can kind of sum up this match: "A burning hammer gets a 2 count in the first match of the show". That's kind of what you need to know. Once you know that, and get that in your brain, you can enjoy or hate the rest of this. These are two power guys, and the power spots all looked good. I liked the running story of Cage trying to go for bigger and bigger power spots, that would allow Dickinson to slip out and do damage. One time Cage went for a powerslam off the top and Dickinson slipped out and eventually hit a huge rana, and another time he slipped out, kicked Cage's leg out and hit a big back suplex. Cage is a complete psycho taking burning hammers and dragon suplexes and doing big flip dives with all of his mass. One match in the future is going to see every single muscle in his body simultaneously tear. I really liked Dickinson in this. He appears to have more actual strength than Cage which lead to some pretty wild stuff, like a deadlift powerbomb and deadlift wheelbarrow suplex, and then he'll break out a crazy accurate spin kick. I also liked his little detail moments like stomping on Cage's foot to get out of a go behind, and standing on Cage's wrist while Cage is on the mat and Dickinson is transitioning to a new position, and the inverted Boston crab looked really great. Cage is just a weird worker as he's very agile, while also being slowed down by his bulk. So he does fast indy sequences but doesn't have the flexibility of the guys who typically do these spots, so they look strange. I wish he'd dial things back a bit but also understand these show off tendencies on cards like this. Match was ridiculous and structure was kind of out the window, but as a collection of big spots it was fun.

2. Drew Gulak vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: How weird, these two guys having a match I enjoyed! This was all built around each guy trying to rip the other's arm off, with some painful and convincing selling from both. Both break out cool arm stuff I haven't seen much, with Thatcher Irish whipping Gulak a few times but then yanking him down by the arm. Thatcher's curb stomp to the wrist is always a gross spot, and here he ups the ante by grabbing a kimura on Gulak and then lifting him up in the air by his damn arm! Gulak punishes Thatcher with annoying painful stuff like yanking on his thumb while grabbing a wrist, throwing open palm strikes to Thatcher's ear, throwing fast and low dropkicks to Thatcher's shoulder, snapping off a quick piledriver, wanting to compress Thatcher's neck in the same way Thatcher tried to do with his earlier north/south knees. I loved the ebb and flow of the arm stuff as each guy would push the other a little further, but there was an undercurrent of respect where neither wanted to go too far over the line...but then they'd keep pushing. Both guys sell the arm really nicely, doing some nice dead arms, not wanting to bend them, rubbing them out. There was one point where both were on the mat recovering, and both were independently holding their arms kind of straight off the mat, not putting weight on it. They still manage to snap off some throws and immediately regret them, with Thatcher pulling off a big gut wrench, and there's cool moments like Thatcher bridging out of a pin with his neck while keeping his arm motionless. The finish was so damn good with Gulak finally lacing in with slaps to Thatcher's ear and side and then starts with nasty elbows, and Thatcher just DROPPING him with his thrust headbutt as Gulak is whirling around with a rolling elbow. Gulak crumples better than maybe anybody, and that headbutt sent him into a nasty fold. It gets a surprise kickout but Thatcher locks on the kimura right after for the win. Awesome stuff. Not a shock.

PAS: This was a really great version of this match. They sped it up a bit for a PWG audience and I enjoyed the sprinty style of this a ton, it was almost like the Wrestlemania 3 version of Steamboat and Savage, all of the hits in less the time. That Kimura lift by Thatcher was honestly one of my spots of the year, just an unbelievably violent piece of business. Awesome performance by Gulak who maybe my 2016 Wrestler of the year, I loved his wide hip counter into this weird regal-plex where he through Thatcher by his chin, he also made Thatcher short headbutt look devestating, that is a really hit and miss spot, and Gulak sold it like he had been hit by Gennady Golovkin.

3. Sami Callihan vs. Trevor Lee

ER: This was below what I was expecting, but I'm also starting to realize that one of the first Trevor Lee matches I saw (vs. Mike Bailey) is still clearly the best match I have seen him in. And so every Lee match I watch I still think of him at that level, and that may not be fair. I need to recalibrate my` Lee expectations. They don't really have much of a gameplan here so the first half of the match is pretty unfocused. The spit right in each other's face which is freaking disgusting. I mean Sami especially can muster up a LOT of spit and he just projectiles it right into Lee's beard. It's fucking gross, guys. The match picks up when Sami catches Lee's apron punt on the ground, and back in the ring starts his brutal face wash kicks, throws a couple bicycle stomps and kicks, gets Lee tied up in the ropes and kicks him some more. Once they commenced with the kicking it got good. But overall it fell short.

4. Drew Galloway vs. Jack Evans

ER: Well this was really fun! Evans comes out running everybody down with a promo and then doing some show off breakdancing, and Galloway dropkicks him while Evans is doing a handstand. And then we go on a wild run of Evans taking ridiculous bumps off of Galloway kicks, lariats, punches and more. At one point Galloway no sells two dropsaults and when Evans goes for a third he plasters him with a lariat. Later as they brawl on the floor Galloway catches a crossbody off the apron and chucks Evans into the ringpost. Good god. Evans gets a couple nearfalls on flash roll ups but this was mostly him getting tossed by Galloway, and Evans is really good at getting tossed by Galloway.

5. Adam Cole vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: Really good match, and amusing in the ways it factored the shittier parts of Adam Cole (moves with ridiculous set ups, cringe taunts) into a match story. Every time Cole would take time to taunt (like the embarrassing "Suck My Dick!") Bailey would meet him with a kick. Cole sets up his stupid bunny hop rolling piledriver, and it's Bailey suckering him in with a roll up. Bailey, that barefoot psychopath, looked really great and really crafted a great little match around Cole. Not a shocker that Bailey had some great kicks here. I especially love his Karate Kid crane kicks and his multiple rotation roundhouse kicks. And to Cole's credits he leaned right into them, and took a bunch of other nasty stuff like Bailey's moonsault knee drop right to the lower abdomen. Yuck. We don't get any overkill and things end when they should, and there was a nice nearfall with Cole grabbing the ref's arm. Really good stuff overall.

6. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Akira Tozawa

ER: Well, a lot of this ate shit. I'm not a big fan of "comedy striking" or "comedy grappling", and this match had an abundance of both. A problem with Tozawa is that a lot of his normal strikes already looked shitty in this match, so when he throws purposely shitty strikes it doesn't really land as comedy, it just lands as him looking slightly worse than normal. Sabre does some cool submission stuff, but also spends way too much time looking for yuks. Locking in a sub, making a face at the crowd, breaking the hold, repeat. We get some bad strike exchange moments, then some bad "this is supposed to be bad" strike exchange moments. We get suplex tradeoffs. It ticked a lot of the "this is bad" boxes. Sabre had some nice kicks, loved him kicking Tozawa's leg out while climbing the ropes, and at least the penalty kick finished the match, but I was bored and loathing this one pretty early when it was clear what they would be doing.

7. Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong

ER: This was a long, boring match between two guys I like. It just didn't work. We got bumped refs, we had weak title belt shots, it was poorly paced, and it was a waste of two guys stiffing each other. They had an interminable section with Hero sitting on the top rope and Strong fighting to suplex him off. Hero looked tired really early and had zero steam by the end. There were spots where he was supposed to be tired and beaten down, and other spots where he just looked flat out gassed: not kicking high enough on kicks, elbows thrown noticeably slower. Roddy pulls the ref into the path of Hero offense a couple times, and I get it, he's a heel champ. But he does stupid nonsensical things related to the ref bumps. He pulls the ref into the way of a Hero elbow, and the ref goes down like a shot and rolls out of he ring. Right after, Roddy hits a brutal tiger driver.....and then pins Hero. HE was the one that purposely got the ref KO'd! He SAW the ref roll out of the ring! WHY would he cover?? Ohhhhhhh, because a second ref was running down to count a nearfall. Roddy didn't see this second ref, but he pinned Hero, because why? Too much of that garbage in this one. Way too long, horribly laid out, majorly disappointing for these two.

ER: Overall a mixed bag of a show. It was definitely front-loaded, but the last two matches were not only the longest of the night, but easily the worst of the night, so it's hard to not end the show feeling like it was worse than it was (especially when I watched the first half several days before the second half). Still, a great match, two very good matches, and some fun stuff in between....it's hard not to like that. But man those last two matches blew.

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EVOLVE 58 4/1/16 Review

1. Drew Galloway & Johnny Gargano vs. Caleb Konley & Anthony Nese

ER: This is one of those tags where guys run in random directions for the sole purpose of setting up somebody's offense. After awhile you find yourself asking for the 10th time, "what was Konley's plan if Gargano hadn't been there to cut him off with a kick?" Galloway is wasted in stuff like this, which is a shame. Nese takes a nice bump to the floor and I love how he takes a DDT. But this match was victim to some poor move set up, with again, guys going where they shouldn't go just to take offense. On top of that the promotion appears to have totally lost their ring bell. I noticed it at the beginning when the ref called for the bell multiple times, and when it didn't come Gargano just started the match. Well the big finish comes and Konley taps and the Premier Athlete Brand is forced to break up...except there's no ring bell, and half the wrestlers don't know what's going on, and the crowd doesn't know what's going on. Galloway is confused, gets in and immediately repeats the finish and now he makes Konley tap. And the ref says the match is already over. But there's no ring bell. And the fans, being shitheads, all chant "This ref sucks" even though somehow a major promotion started a show with no ring bell. Really embarrassing stuff all around. Post-match Galloway does a decent job saving things by doing a reenactment of what the dramatic climactic finish was supposed to be like, calling in some bearded goober who's trying to ape the legendary style of Dylan Hales. Match wasn't good, but Galloway at least got the fans to stop being assholes.

2. Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: Awesome stuff from these two, which shouldn't be too surprising. There are some moments where you see a couple seams in their style with split seconds of waiting for one another, but I'm stunned that type of thing doesn't happen more with these guys. Thatcher dominated most of this and was really mean, throwing big strikes to Riddle's ribs and neck and ear, tossing him with gut wrenches, making his ankle bend at a disgusting angle with an ankle lock, locking on a brutal sub where he yanks Riddle's leg back while pushing into his knee with his boot. Damn that should be a finisher. Riddle doesn't overdo the selling, but he doesn't no sell either. Watch him lift his ankle after nailing Thatcher with a fisherman's buster. I'm sure many will hate the finish, which I get, but I liked Riddle hyperextending the arm after Thatcher thinks the ref broke the hold. It's a nice Gerard Gordeau dick move that adds another wrinkle to the Thatcher/Catch Point feud.

PAS: I really loved all of the infighting in this match, both guys laid in some vicious shot to the ribs and stomach and I am shocked that none of the shots to the ear popped an eardrum. Both guys come off as naturally tough dudes and parts of this felt like they took it a bit far. I thought the multiple arm bar reversals at the end might have been a bit much, although I did love how each guy found a different way to reverse and counter. Finish was pretty cool, although I think both the ref and Riddle needed to be a bit more demonstrative. I can totally see how it would have come off confusing to the crowd, Riddle need to wait a beat before torquing the arm, so it was obvious he wasn't breaking clean, and the ref really need to over emphasize that he needed to break the hold.

3. Fred Yehi vs. Marty Scurll

ER: Another awesome Yehi performance. Truly one of the must see workers today. This match had plenty of his weird, quick grappling and odd movements that you don't see from others. He finds cool ways to do spots we might not think much about. The way he slides into an ankle pick while Scurll is running, or grabs a single leg off a go behind, it's unexpected and almost foreign and so awesome. I loved all of Yehi's stomps here, loved him stomping hands Finlay style. And I love how him stomping Scurll's hands eventually leads to Scurll finally being villainous and going after Yehi's fingers. Yehi has shown he's a great salesman, and he puts over a finger break really excellently. And then Scurll finds amusing ways to work that hand and finger, even throwing in a thigh slap off a finger break, and then wedging Yehi's finger in between his boots before kicking. I love the trend in Yehi matches of limb work or body work not leading to the finish you expect, but instead leading to someone's focus being drawn away so that they don't see the real finish coming. Yehi is dealing with his hand injury which allows Scurll to leap on him for a nasty falcon arrow into chickenwing submission. Really cool stuff, really awesome finish.

PAS: I thought the beginning of this match was a bit formless. Scurll has never done much for me, his Villain stuff always felt like a big put on, more Chikara then Regal. Yehi is always going to be worth watching, and his weird stomps are some of my favorite things in wrestling. The last couple of minutes were truly excellent though, I loved all of the hand break spots and though Yehi's selling was awesome. I want to second Eric's observation about the coolness of the finish, loved how it came out of nowhere. Yehi really can do no wrong.

4. Ethan Page vs. Sami Callihan

ER: Not bad but below your standard Callihan match. Page isn't really defined enough as an opponent. He does a lot of big moves but tends to be better when he plays up his frat charisma more. This was odd as they seemed to skip several steps to get to the "we're in a war" moments, but they ran really hollow and undeserved once they got there. Callihan screams "QUITTTTT!" at Page, when up to that point it had been a very even match, and the announcers tried putting over the "what is it going to take to put him away!?" when really it was just 8 minutes into the match. I liked Callihan's powerbomb with him already grabbing Page's ankle to set up the stretch muffler, and thought Page's selling of the muffler was impressive. It was just strange and felt like 6 minutes had been clipped out of the middle, suddenly Callihan is lying on the mat begging off Page, one minute after screaming at him to quit. They kept jumping around like that, and everything up to that had essentially been move trading. This felt more like a thigh slap faux epic, even if parts were good.

5. TJ Perkins vs. Ricochet

ER: Sometimes guys like this do so much stuff that it's easy for me to get lost. I prefer Evolve to PWG as they have no problem having matches go 10 minutes. I think an excellent match can happen in 10 minutes. In many cases I think you're asking for trouble if you go too far past 10 for a singles match, as I don't think most workers are capable of filling that much time without things getting at least somewhat problematic. Ricochet is a super talented guy and I'm sure I'm in the minority when I say I don't care about the extraneous goofing around and mugging he does in his matches. It's always the reason I prefer him as Puma to just being himself. Just being himself always adds too much bullshit to matches, matches that I think would be tighter without the bullshit. And that's why I eventually liked this, because Ricochet did his bullshit, and TJP got pissed at the bullshit and wanted to kick his ass. He didn't play along and have a comedy circle jerk (though I guess with two guys it would just be a straight line jerk), he took offense at the jerking around and took it out on Ricochet. These guys both do super fast sequences effortlessly, impossible to keep up with as a viewer. But I loved how TJ kept going after that leg. And how it kept paying off. His grapevined heel hook is a really nasty sub and Ricochet set it up great by doing a show off missed moonsault, landing on his feet, and having that worked over knee buckle. It's a simple formula, take the legs out of the flier, but usually indy guys aren't good enough to pull it off, because they still want to get their shit in. But the match structure was tight enough that it allowed both guys to get their shit in, and still be truthful to the story they were telling. And I appreciate that. I appreciate your wrestling, TJP and Ricochet.

PAS: This was pretty solid, it got a little dancy at times, which is to be expected with these two guys. These are two of the most polished, athletic wrestlers in the world so if we have to watch a dance this is a pretty good dance. Ricochet has one of my favorite kip ups in wrestling, he flies up so fast it ends up looking barely human, like CGI or something. I enjoyed the knee work by TJP it did give the match some structure, although Ricochet really only sold it at the end.

6. Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: I went into this one expecting to not like it much, assuming that each man would bring out the worst in the other. BUT it actually turned out to be an awesome match (that went on a couple minutes too long). To me this felt like a cool modern twist on classic World of Sport, with both guys (especially Sabre) pulling from a bottomless bag of tricks with fast exchanges and updated WoS transitions. I loved all the slippery headlocks, with one going for a headlock and it seamlessly getting reversed into a wristlock and back into a headlock. We also had reversals based out of snapmares which is something directly lifted from WoS. They would often do a snapmare with a guy handspringing forward onto his feet, here we get Ospreay turning a snapmare into his own handspring elbow, and it was done quick enough that it looked great. Sabre was killer here, dropping Ospreay with a couple of rough suplexes, including a wheelbarrow roll through turned into a tiger suplex. Then he would come up with all sorts of ways to work over Ospreay's neck, legs, arms, whatever. Ospreay worked a lot of flying moves to counter and Sabre was often there to catch him with something. This was incredibly fun, incredibly quick counter based wrestling. It's something that doesn't work but damn did they make it work here. Where I wish it would have ended was when Sabre caught a triangle choke while Ospreay was going for a standing shooting star. Right before that Ospreay had kipped out of a tornado DDT which I think is an exceptionally stupid spot that athletic wrestlers do. All it does is show how a DDT is just rolling through at the right time. "See? My neck wasn't impacted at all! I was able to just hop out of it!" It's needless. But it would have been great if he had done that, tried his SSP and immediately met his doom in a triangle. Buuuuut we get a 80s WWF hulk up as his arm doesn't drop (since when does Evolve even do that spot? Don't they just call submissions as if they were MMA?), and we have to see some Ospreay tropes like trapping Sabre's head against the turnbuckle. The finishing sub by Sabre is absolutely vicious and almost made the match continuing worth it, as Sabre ends up sitting down on Ospreay's head and neck while yanking both of his arms up and behind his back. It's something Negro Navarro would be jealous of. Even with the extra pointless final two minutes, match was still awesome and a great representation of this style.

PAS: I was also not expecting to like this very much, and was looking forward to shitting on Eric for digging it, but I confess it won me over. A match like this is all about doing cool stuff and not wearing out your welcome, and they did a bunch of cool stuff and kept from dragging on. I loved Ospreys shooting star press, it a spot I haven't seen in a while and he added a cool tuck in the middle of it, I also liked a bunch of the quick counter which is something can bug me. Finishing submission was truly awesome, as was the Liger bomb that set it up. I am still not sold on Osprey, some of his stuff is still pretty stupid looking but I think I need to give up the ghost and embrace Sabre.

7. Chris Hero & Tommy End vs. Drew Gulak & Tracy Williams

ER: Great tag between two teams who complement each other wonderfully. Hero at this point is like the big fat king of the indy scene. He worked hard to get to the top, and some that want to dethrone him point to his cosmetic laziness, and so he gamely gets off the throne to demonstrate why it's still good to be the king. And Hero absolutely is king at this point. He and End are a great team and Hero especially makes it his point to pick on Williams as the weak link, as if he were the Kikuchi of Team Catch Point. And damn do they murderize him. I love End/Hero's spin kick/elbow smash double team, and after that at one point Hero is just toying with him; kicks, chops, elbows, and always capped off with his killer roundhouse pump kick. I loved little moments like Williams finally catching a Hero kick, only for Hero to laugh before dropping back and kicking Williams with his other leg. But Williams would keep coming back and fighting and it was awesome. The match was long and because of that they were allowed to stretch out and do some fun stuff. The opening lucha armdrag stuff with Hero and Gulak was a trip. Hero does a sweet 360 armdrag off the top and Gulak follows with a beautiful tilt-a-whirl variation. We get a couple nice cut off the ring sections with both teams, plenty of cool double teams on Williams (loved when Hero kicked him off the apron onto End's shoulders, and then kicked him again), and great apron performances from both Hero and Gulak. Hero was great rooting on End, Gulak was great pleading for Williams and sneaking in for saves when needed. Hero is cocky but he's smart with his cockiness, and it never came across like Catch Point was only making comebacks due to his own cockiness. Catch Point looked strong by making their own comebacks, on their own merit. And that's important. There was plenty here that you could trim and make it a tighter, better match. But you could trim out a good portion of the White Album, too. Part of the fun is in its bloat. And I'm glad we got the extra minutes of bloat.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as Eric, I love Hero and Catch Point, but I thought the bloat was a bit too much. The long section of Hero and End using Gulak and Williams against each other was a bit SATish. End is a guy who looks cool and has awesome looking strikes until they land, if he could hit his stuff cleanly more I would love him, but a lot of his shots look violent as hell on their way and gentle when they get there. I thought Gulak was awesome as usual, his lucha armdrag challenge against Hero was nifty, and I love his out of nowhere dragon sleeper. Still this lost me by then end, which kept it from being great.

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2

Marty Scrull v. Rich Swann

This was fine indy juniors wrestling. Scrull had a lot of shtick which I began to tire of, I liked the finger breaking spots, but it didn’t really lead anywhere. Still this was short enough and didn’t have a ton of things I hated. Would get the full Worldwide point

Angelico v. Jack Evans

Well if you are going to do a goofy indy comedy match, I much prefer this kind of thing to stupid shit like slow motion or hypnotizing. Jack Evans is talking shit to the audience and goes to grab a beer, he drinks it and breaks out Drunken Kung Fu, which he was totally awesome at, so much fun to watch him and Angelico do Jackie Chan spots. The rest of the match was fine, but they probably should have made that the apex of the match.

Chris Hero v. Timothy Thatcher.

This was really great, and the kind of change of pace night one really needed. Less grappling then EVOLVE Thatcher matches, as this was more of a FUTENish slugfest. Hero was absolutely blitzing Thatcher with kicks and elbows, which Thatcher would do a great stunned sell of. Thatcher meanwhile would fire back with uppercuts and grabbing ankle picks, including one in the ropes which looked like it might shred Hero’s achilles. Lots of great violence here, including a Hero short snap piledriver which Thatcher sold like it paralyzed his arm, and a headbutt counter by Thatcher which looked like it dislocated Hero’s jaw. I didn’t love the finish, which had Hero hit a sick tombstone, and have Thatcher grab a Fujiwara  but get countered to a Hero’s welcome for the pin. Hero’s welcome is a real Novaish finisher to end a slugfest like this, should have just had Hero get the pin after the tombstone. Still this was a blast.

Fenix/Aeorstar v Drago/Pentagon Jr.

Hyped up version of a Nitro Lucha tag. None of these guys are prime Juventud Guerrera, but this was a blast. Fenix especially looked good, hitting a really insane dive really fast. I thought Aerostar was a bit botchy, but outside of him everything was hit cleanly and Pentagon continues to look like a total badass.

Drew Gulak v. Tommy End

I enjoyed this, it was worked as sort of a bankrupt man’s Ikeda v. Ishikawa. Gulak would control with takedowns and grappling, while End would spring out and land a big punch or kick.  I liked End’s spin kick a lot, which is a great looking strike which Gulak sold great. There was a silly spot with End selling a knee by falling down hokeyly and getting clotheslined, and I thought the finish was a good idea that wasn’t executed properly. Still this was mostly pretty good, and I like how this show is mixing up the styles of matches, much better then night one which was very samey.

Speedball Mike Bailey v. Drew Galloway

Bailey has gotten to be a master at this kind of workrate indy match. Galloway is just a monster compared to most indy wrestlers and this was almost Rey v. Big Show.  Really liked how nasty all of Galloway’s simple stuff looked, he had really nasty stomps including some right on Bailey’s insteps. Galloway set up some very realistic near falls, and made Bailey look overmatched but credible. Felt this went a little long, and would have been better if they cut a near fall or two.

Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet

Pretty entertaining stuff, with Ricochet looking perfectly comfortable working Sabre’s WOS tribute act stuff. Ricochet even breaks out the Cerebro special which will endear me to you. Sabre has a bunch of fun ways to snatch someone out of midair. This seemed like it was raring up to go long, but I actually liked the point it ended at. Good stuff.

Mt.. Rushmore 2.0 (Super Dragon/Young Bucks) v. Andrew Everett/Trevor Lee/Biff Busick

Super Dragon returns after a four year absence, which was preceded by a three year absence, so it has been seven years or so since he has been a regular active wrestler and he comes in killing people like he hasn’t missed a beat. He takes an Alabama Slam on a ladder, does a flip dive and takes a bunch of chair shots to the head. Busick and he just rip into each other all match. Busick feels like a guy who grew up watching Super Dragon and was super amped to have a chance to have one of these crazy brawls. Bucks are fine in this kind of nutjob brawl (my favorite Bucks match ever is their Guerrila warfare match against Dragon and Steen), they aren’t afraid to take big bumps and they make you want to see them suffer.  Everett has had a great tourney so far, his big fake out dive was one of my spots of the year, and his lunatic springboard shooting  press was incredible. Did care about the stuff with the ref, and the thumbtack shoes were cooler in theory then in execution, but this was the most lunatic match of the year, and I loved it.

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