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Stevenson’s Evolve 64 Thoughts

July 17, 2016 | Posted by Jack Stevenson
Matt Riddle Evolve EVOLVE 93
8.5
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Stevenson’s Evolve 64 Thoughts  

Evolve 64 was a fine way to begin an exciting weekend of independent pro wrestling iPPV fun! With a string of excellent matches and some significant angle development, it proved to be yet another Evolve show from this year that it’s difficult to justify skipping.

Johnny Gargano and Cedric Alexander set the tone for the show with an electric opening match. I was sceptical about the idea of running Cruiserweight Classic showcases all summer, feeling it might water down the distinctive identity Evolve has carved out for itself over the last couple of years, and make the backbone of these shows feel like diet NXT. I still think I have a point, but if the matches continue to be this good, it’s not an especially important one. Gargano and Alexander hurled big moves at each other for a concise ten minutes, and the crowd ate it up. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but as far as indy spotfests go, you won’t find the style done much better than here. Gargano eventually snared the victory with Garga-No Escape, but his celebration was short lived as arch enemy and WWE hater Drew Galloway attacked him post match. Ethan Page came out and sacrificed himself, covering Gargano’s prone body and eating a slew of chair shots for his trouble, before Drew Gulak arrived for a more effective save. But then! Chuck Taylor appeared from the crowd and dropped Gulak with a DDT! Taylor, embittered that he was left behind when so many others were handed NXT contracts, has joined Galloway in his misguided crusade to preserve the spirit of independent wrestling, and now wishes to be known simply as ‘Dustin.’ He and Drew had to be chased off by Catch Point, with the notable exception of Matt Riddle, and this development led to a change in the card, with the Drew Galloway-Drew Gulak grudge match being turned into a tag title defence; Gulak and Tracy Williams defending their belts in the main event against Galloway and Dustin!

 photo Dustin Chucky T_zpsrhs5lfil.png

Before that though, lots more wrestling! A four corner survival pitting Chris Dickinson, Tony Nese, Fred Yehi and Darby Allin against each other could have been dispensable, were it not for the latter’s sparking performance. Allin’s approach to getting over in Evolve seems to involve taking absolutely insane bumps in meaningless undercard matches, which is an attitude I admire. The very first spot saw Dickinson hurl him over the top rope with a back body drop, Allin plunging and plunging before his legs clattered against the barricade and he crashed to the floor in a heap. Later on, he returned to wipe out the rest of the competitors with a jaw dropping, terrifying Nestea Plunge to the outside. The rest of the match wasn’t especially memorable, but Allin’s utter disregard for his own safety livens up everything he’s in. I do wish he’d change his look, with the blonde strip of hair and skull facepaint looking pretty backyard, but considering how inexperienced he is it’s remarkable how much his presence enhances the Evolve undercard.

Exciting as he may be, however, Darby Allin is not the premier rookie sensation on the Evolve roster. The simply prodigious Matt Riddle added to his litany of terrific matches in 2016 with a gripping slugfest against the returning Roderick Strong. Riddle has honed a nice, adaptable formula for his matches this year, starting out with some competitive, MMA influenced grappling on the ground, slowly escalating to a frenzy of bomb throwing. Here, Strong pulverised Riddle as he slumped agsinst the ropes with a barrage of running forearms, and came inches away from tapping him out with an ultra dramatic Stronghold, but your Bro and mine weathered the storm and went back to his octagon roots to secure a convincing submission victory of his own. Post match, Riddle upped his mind games with Timothy Thatcher by rubbing the Evolve Championship against his genitals with this look of utter childish glee on his face. This led to Thatcher coming out to confront him, and Stokely Hathaway attempting to stir up trouble, asking where Riddle was during Catch Point’s earlier skirmish with Galloway and Dustin. Riddle didn’t offer a clear answer, and Hathaway’s trip to the ring turned into a total disaster when Timothy Thatcher grabbed him by the hand and casually broke his finger!

As Hathaway cowered to the back, he was replaced by Marty Scurll, leading to the first of two Evolve championship matches for the evening. I have conflicted opinions on Scurll- as an integral part of the recent British invasion of the U.S. Scene I really want him to do well and represent our country in the best possible way, and I think in small doses his villainous schtick, the finger snapping and the fake superkick and the chicken wing, is really entertaining. After a while though it does get repetitive, and otherwise Scurll is a more limited wrestler than the likes of Sabre or Ospreay or the soon to be massive Jack Gallagher. Happily, the New York crowd haven’t been overexposed to him and have taken him to their hearts, 95% of them vocally behind him in his title challenge. Timothy Thatcher has had an immensely disappointing 2016, booked as an impotent champion on the brink of a physical and mental breakdown, incapable of rescuing his stolen title belt from the clutches of Catch Point, and his in ring performances haven’t been much to write home about either. However, a strong performance against Chris Hero two shows ago gave reason to be hopeful, and while not quite at that level, his defence against Scurll was still a very good one. Scurll toned down his gimmick for the occasion and seemed a very credible threat, and when he cinched in the Chicken Wing late in the match the crowd were thrilled by the prospect of an impending title change. Thatcher toughed it out though, and then out of nowhere grabbed a sleeper hold to lull Marty into unconsciousness and retain the belt. It wasn’t a perfect match, with Thatcher only selling an injured arm in patches, but it was well constructed and satisfying- Scurll put in an excellent performance, but was simply beaten by the better, tougher man on the night.

Zack Sabre Jr. was scheduled to wrestle TJP in another Cruiserweight Classic showcase, but Perkins’ manager Stokely Hathaway cancelled the bout, citing his client’s need to rest up ahead of his title match against Thatcher the following night. The best explanation I’ve heard for this angle is that WWE are planning on running that match later in the Cruiserweight Classic, and didn’t want Evolve to beat them to it- otherwise I have no idea why Evolve would advertise the match and then cop out of it at the last minute. As it happened, it didn’t really matter, because Chikara alumni Jigsaw stepped into the breach and ended up putting in a fabulous performance. At first I considered Jigsaw a real step down from TJP, but I was wrong, because he matched Sabre Jr. hold for hold on the mat (perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, considering how much time he must have spent around Mike Quackenbush), and then played up to his cruiserweight credentials for a great finishing stretch in which the masked man took to the skies as often as possible whilst Sabre tried desperately to tangle him up in submissions. It felt like a proper style battle and was really good to watch. Sabre secured the win with the Penalty Kick, as expected, but Jigsaw’s performance should surely earn him some future Evolve bookings.

The main event, pitting Catch Point against Galloway and Dustin with the tag team championships on the line, was in the difficult position of following a string of top quality matches with nothing put in place to allow the fans to cool down. Maybe the competent but bland Ethan Page-Wheeler Yuma match from earlier in the show could have been sandwiched in between Thatcher-Scurll and the tag championship match; as it was, I felt a bit worn out as the main event got underway. Catch Point defences also seem to have strange flows to them where they do the tag formula, but not before a long stretch of aimless back and forth which never establishes a rhythm. I like Gulak and Williams a lot as individuals but don’t think any of their title defences have been much more than ‘good, solid,’ which is what this match was- technically sound, a good finishing stretch, but not even close to the best thing on the show. Perhaps it’s a good thing then that they lost the tag belts, with Dustin crushing Tracy with a nasty Awful Waffle to put the straps around the waists of sworn enemies of the promotion!

STAR RATINGS
Johnny Gargano vs. Cedric Alexander- *** ½
Chris Dickinson vs. Tony Nese vs. Darby Allin vs. Fred Yehi- ** ¾
Ethan Page vs. Wheeler Yuma- * ½
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jigsaw- ****
Roderick Strong vs. Matt Riddle- **** ¼
Timothy Thatcher vs. Marty Scurll- *** ½
Catch Point vs. Drew Galloway & Dustin- ***

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
While not quite among the promotion's best shows, Evolve 64 was still a super two and a half hours of pro wrestling, with two matches exceeding four stars and another coming close- says a lot about the company's high standards, doesn't it? And still to come, we've got possibly the best indy company the whole US of A making their iPPV debut, as Beyond Wrestling presents 'Flesh,' and then 'Evolve 65' after that! What a marvelous weekend! Stay indoors! The outside world has become infested with potentially dangerous Pokemon! Watch pro wrestling instead!
legend

article topics :

EVOLVE, Evolve 64, Jack Stevenson