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Kevin’s Evolve 67 Review

September 10, 2016 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
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Kevin’s Evolve 67 Review  

Evolve 67
August 20th, 2016 | Saint Finbar Catholic Church Gymnasium in Brooklyn, New York

After ordering and watching Evolve 66 live, I’m finally getting around to checking out Evolve 67. The show starts with Lenny Leonard in the ring. He hypes the show and then brings out a special guest commentator in Joey Styles. Side note, the main events all get a good pop when mentioned except for the Evolve Title match.

Ethan Page def. Kobe Durst in 2:53
I’ve actually seen Kobe Durst over in Ethan Page’s Alpha-1 Wrestling promotion. Page has kind of been playing the gatekeeper for Evolve as he’s been facing new guys trying to cut their teeth here. I figured Page would win in quick fashion but I thought Durst would get in a bit more offense considering their friendship. Page dominated and won with a Package Piledriver. NR

After the match, Page got on the microphone and talked about Johnny Gargano’s final indy match coming up when they return to Brooklyn. He promised to do whatever it takes to get Gargano to forgive him.

Tony Nese def. Peter Kaasa in 12:28
The sound quality for the intro music was pretty horrible. These two look and work pretty similar. I feel like Nese is pretty bland from a character standpoint since the Premiere Athlete Brand split. They played off of them being evenly matched for the most part. Something must have happened in the crowd because they went nuts looking in a direction that wasn’t towards the ring. Both men displayed impressive power and athleticism as they one upped each other. The highlight was Nese busting out a pumphandle Michinoku Driver. Nese missed a 450, Kaasa then missed a Shooting Star Press and then Nese won with a successful 450. It dragged on at points and never really had a flow to me. **¼

Matt Riddle def. Tommy End in 12:29
This very well could be Tommy End’s final Evolve event. This was not your typical wrestling match. It felt like more of an MMA fight. Riddle laid in the strikes and End could barely get to his feet within a few minutes. Each time End seems to gain an advantage, Riddle used his expertise to stop him. End went after the arm, while Riddle attacked the leg. They just started hammering each other with some vicious strikes and kicks. End hit some stiff kicks until the crowd chanted “Bro” and Riddle demanded more. Riddle hit a spinning tombstone for two before they traded holds and Riddle won with the Bromission. Really good hard hitting match that got the right amount of time. ***¾

WWE Cruiserweight Classic Spotlight Match: Zack Sabre Jr. def. Cedric Alexander in 15:43
At the time of this review, Sabre is still alive in the Cruiserweight Classic, but Alexander made a bigger impact in his loss to Kota Ibushi in a phenomenal second round match. They started off with a lengthy exchange that saw Alexander do well to keep up with Sabre on the mat, while Sabre did his best to combat Cedric’s speed. His quickness won out to give him the first sustained advantage, though that didn’t last too long. The arrogance that Sabre exudes when in control led to the Brooklyn crowd loudly booing him at times. Sabre took time to twist, bend and stretch Cedric in ways that looked brutal. Alexander started to come back and the match kicked into the next gear. He countered a running European uppercut into a backslide, which was awesome. The final exchange was great and saw Alexander get a close near fall on a brainbuster. Sabre slapped on an octopus hold that ended the match. Sabre was his usual great self but with the added smug bonus here. Alexander continued his breakout year. Just an excellent bout. ****

Post-match, Zack Sabre Jr. grabbed a microphone. He cut a heel promo and even told the fans to shut up in the most politely smug British way possible. It was perfect. He doesn’t care who the champion is after tonight, because he’s coming for it and will be champion, whether the fans like it or not.

Chris Hero def. Cody Rhodes in 20:14
Cody Rhodes’ first indy match the night before against Zack Sabre Jr. was good but never quite reached great level. Cody requested a handshake at the opening bell but Hero instead chose to slap him. Cody retaliated with a dropkick and brought some early fire, though he did stop to have fun with the fans first. They surprisingly fought through the crowd and even onto the bar. Once back to the ring, Hero took over. He beat up Cody and shouted “WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE” at him. Despite eating violent elbows, Rhodes kept coming right at Hero. In the cheap heat moment of the night, Hero took a cutout of Dusty Rhodes’ head from the crowd and hit Cody with it. Cody took it back and kissed it before nailing a superplex. Hero countered Cody’s gorgeous moonsault into a cutter and kicked out of Cody’s best shots. The last few minutes saw Hero kick out of Cross Rhodes and block the American Nightmare. Drew Galloway showed up and whacked Cody with a cowbell behind the official’s back. Four roaring elbows later and Hero got the 1-2-3. Another good match from Cody. He’s doing fine but still needs time to fully adapt considering he’s always been a WWE guy. This was going very well until the lame finish. ***½

Chris Hero spoke afterwards, saying that “unless it’s about the greatest of all time, don’t put my name on any silly ass list.” Galloway called Cody a fool and berated him until Drew Gulak made the save.

Evolve Championship: Timothy Thatcher (c) def. Drew Gulak in 21:13
Strange placement for this. Gulak entered at 4-0 against Thatcher in Evolve. This entire feud between Thatcher and Catch Point has been awful. Thatcher has been champion for 407 days and almost every one of them in 2016 has been dull. I say that as a guy who was way behind Thatcher last year. They lost the crowd quickly with their mat grappling. You could see fans talking to each other or looking at their phones, rather than watch this. Neither guy adapted to this and were stubborn enough to want to wrestle their match, their way. They just did their typical stuff while Thatcher looked at Gulak menacingly to sell his anger. The crowd popped for Gulak’s dragon sleeper but I think it was more of “at least it isn’t Thatcher” than “yay, it’s Gulak”. Thatcher did the “kick out at one” spot and won in anticlimactic fashion after three headbutts. The worst match I’ve ever seen in Evolve. None of this worked and the fans have given up on Thatcher for a long time now. Gulak wasn’t the answer either. His title reign drags on and they absolutely should have pulled the trigger on Riddle at Evolve 66. Pure garbage. Don’t ever watch this. DUD

Drew Gulak tried to be a man of his word and hand the Evolve Title to Timothy Thatcher. Thatcher responded by saying he promised to hurt whoever touched his title and kicked Gulak before putting him in a sleeper. Tracy Williams made the save until EC3, DUSTIN and Drew Galloway came out and attacked his leg. Thatcher stood by and watched before leaving. Galloway took the microphone and called Joey Styles to the ring. They offer him a spot as their mouthpiece, which they don’t need since Galloway and EC3 can cut good promos. Fred Yehi and TJ Perkins ran out to beat them up. Galloway screamed for Joey to answer him but he wanted time to think. Yehi wanted a three on two, no DQ match against them. The bell sounded and it was official.

Evolve Tag Team Championship: Dew Galloway and DUSTIN (c) and Ethan Carter III def. Ethan Page, Fred Yehi and TJ Perkins w/ Stokely Hathaway in 10:07
This began with everyone brawling in around the ring. Like the last match, this had little to no heat. There wasn’t even much of a reaction to Ethan Page showing up to even the odds and join the match. I don’t even know where to start with this match. All six men just brawled to zero heat. The crowd died in the last match and these guys did nothing to wake them up, which saddens me because I really like most of the people involved. Perkins and Yehi were highlights at times but Perkins got hit with the Awful Waffle. DUSTIN covered and they seemed to botch the three count. To make up for it, DUSTIN hit him with a Piledriver to end it. A nonsensical brawl. The last two matches felt like something out of a bad ECW show. A dreadful way to end a show.

Cody Rhodes rushed out and cleaned house of the winning team. Joey Styles declined their offer and ran down TNA before somehow getting matchmaking permissions. He changed Rhodes vs. Gargano on 9/11 to Rhodes and Gargano against Galloway and Hero. Rhodes ended everything with a promo about being born a wrestler and that he will die a wrestler.

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
If you just watch the middle three matches, you’d have a great show. Riddle/End was a fun hard hitting match, Alexander/Sabre stole the show and Rhodes/Hero proved to be good despite a bad finish. The first match is a squash and the second is kind of just there. The last two are just so bad that it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Things fell way off of a cliff and hopefully, Evolve recovers with their next set of shows.
legend

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EVOLVE, Evolve 67, Kevin Pantoja