Hawke’s Evolve 79 Review

Reviews from Evolve 78:
Timothy Thatcher vs. Fred Yehi
Matt Riddle vs. Anthony Henry
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Keith Lee
Darby Allin vs. Austin Theory

 

February 25, 2017
Queens, New York

Commentator: Lenny “Lenny Leonard” Leonard

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ACH vs. Jason Kincaid

This was a charming undercard battle. It was a 50/50, short contest that was all about charm, charisma, and cool-looking things. ACH eventually put him away with the brainbuster. We need more sub-10 minute matches from ACH in Evolve going forward. (***)

 

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

This was an absolute blast of a match. Four-ways with a bunch of hungry wrestlers almost always end up working out so well. It was just non-stop action from bell to bell, and everyone came off well throughout.

Despite the short length, they probably could have shaved a minute or two off of it, but it was not a major issue with the match.

The finish also effectively continued the Yehi/Henry issue. Yehi had Henry in the Koji Clutch, that allowed Dickinson to finish off Theory for the win via a Pazuzu Bomb.

GOOD match. (***1/2)

 

Jaka vs. Jeff Cobb

This was a solid hoss battle. “Solid” for Cobb is basically as good as we can hope for from him though so that was more than enough from this one.

There was a lot of good energy here. There were cool “Big Boys” spots. The crowd got into it. It did not go too long. It peaked in the final minute or two. Clean finish. This is what midcard matches from Evolve should be. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. (***)

 

Keith Lee vs. Tracy Williams

This was really good as expected. Keith Lee is going to be a lock for a good match on every show if they keep effectively emphasizing his size and strength advantage that he has over every other wrestler in the company.

Here, Hot Sauce tried to take to him early. Lee fended it off and got control. Lee was too cocky in this one though.

He should have been able to put Hot Sauce away much earlier and easier, but he kept basking in his own greatness to much. That gave Hot Sauce a small opening. It was not enough, and Lee put him away with Ground Zero.

The action was fun. The story was more than sound. Lee continued his dominance from the night before. He should be the champion within two months. (***1/2)

 

Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page (w/Blaster McMassive & Flex Rumblecrunch)

This was so fucking good. They were so smart about how they worked the match. They had about nine minutes, and they managed to make every moment matter.

Darby started the match with a coffin drop to the floor on Ego and The Gatekeepers. Ego responded by toss Darby from the stage into a ringpost.

Ego thought it was all over he decided to handcuff Darby’s hands behind his back to really do some damage. All hope appeared to be lost, but Darby then made a wild NO HANDS comeback. This was one of the coolest comebacks you’ll ever see.

Ego needed an avalanche powerslam, an RKO, and a powerbomb to the still-handcuffed Darby to put him away. It was a classic case of both guys coming off well. Yes, Ego won “cleanly,” but look what it took to actually win “cleanly.”

This was just fucking fantastic and will likely be one of the best and most memorable matches of the year in all of wrestling. What the fuck. (****1/4)

 

Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle

This was a really solid brawl. They made a miscalculation in the structure of the match though. Galloway took about 80-90% of this short-ish brawl, and that clearly did not make the pop quite as much as you would have thought. They either needed to pick up the pace or just have Galloway get really violent with Matt. The match was still compelling though and a breeze to watch. Riddle won via referee stoppage. (***)

 

Timothy Thatcher (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

This was for Thatcher’s Evolve Championship.

This was absolutely fantastic and felt like a proper blowoff to one of the most polarizing and inconsistent world title reigns in recent memory.

In his nearly 600-day Evolve title reign, Thatcher proved time and time again that he could do solid b-defenses, the spectacle match, and the epic. He could work either role in a match in a compelling manner like working on top as he did in this one against Zack or work very underneath against “The WWN Icon.”

That is not to say that Thatcher was in any way a perfect performer. Far from it in fact. Thatcher really struggled to ever change up his game especially when he was thrown a curveball in the ring. If someone could not work his style well, he rarely adjusted what he did to account for that. That is a flaw of his that he needs to correct 100%.

At some point during his reign, you began to see (anecdotal evidence alert, of course) a lot more criticism of Thatcher’s work and Evolve’s decision to keep him as their champion sprout up. Eventually, it just became the narrative that Thatcher was not performing well in 2016 and was a poor choice to be the champion of Evolve.

While the pros and cons of Thatcher being a long term champion for Evolve are certainly worthy of discussion, the notion that Thatcher got worse (or was no good in the first place) was absurd.

Obviously, once a wrestler gets pushed to a high level on almost every show (as almost any champion would be), they become subjected to more intense scrutiny. That is of course fair in it of itself, but that does not necessarily mean the criticism itself is as well-thought out as it should be.

To get to the point, Thatcher was really good when he was put into a position to succeed. When he was put into a position to fail, as he was over and over again, he failed.

When Evolve insisted on doing two bullshit finishes with Matt Riddle, he failed. When he and Riddle were just allowed to do a match, he succeeded.

When the main long-term program that Thatcher got was with someone whom he had little chemistry with, he failed. (A program that somehow involved him not carrying around the belt for some ungodly reason.) When he got to do big matches with people he had great chemistry with, he succeeded.

When he was forced to do c-defenses with talent who were not over as challengers, he failed. When he got to do b-defenses with wrestlers who were actually over, he succeeded.

This was not all said to say that Thatcher had a great reign or that he is one of the best wrestlers in the world necessarily. It needs to be stated though that Thatcher succeeded quite a bit as champion and there were very clear reasons why he failed beyond his own stubbornness regarding working the wrong matches with the wrong wrestlers time and time again.

 

With all that out of the way, we have this match. The end of Timothy Thatcher’s Evolve Championship reign. Regardless of how you feel about The Thatch Man’s reign in general, it would be hard to claim that he did not at least go out with a bang.

Thatch and Zack had struggled in 2016 to not pick up the pace of their matches when the context clearly dictated that they needed to do so. They thankfully corrected that here.

Thatcher was actually the one to try to speed things up right away. That backfired, as Zack immediately fended him off and threatened to put Thatch away early.

Thatch managed to endure that initial onslaught and took control of the match. While the pace did slow down after the initial flurry, the intensity thankfully never let up.

The second half of the match was about Thatcher attempting to put Zack down while Zack was forced to desperately cling to life while he himself kept looking for an opening.

The drama down the stretch was off the charts. Thatcher had won so many matches where it seemed likely he would lose that you genuinely could see a scenario where he left here with the belt once again.

Zack seemingly tried every submission he knew, but Thatcher always managed to find an opening. What was Zack to do? Apply like twenty submissions simultaneously so that Thatcher had no choice but to verbally submit.

This was amazing and a clear MOTYC. Seek. It. Out. (****1/2)

 

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The final score: review Virtually Perfect

The 411

This was everything that I want from a wrestling show. Everyone copy this format, please.