Csonka Looks at The Fallout From Evolve 49 & 50

Welcome one and all, Larry back here to discuss some wrestling. I don’t always get the time to do so, but I wanted to talk some Evolve. For months now there have been rumors that WWNLive and WWE would be working together to some degree, and that seems to be coming true. From Triple H praising the promotion on his conference call to WWNLive performers getting signed and some just appearing on the NXT TV Tapings and then Sami Zayn appearing on the shows this past weekend; there was smoke to the fire. Back in June I took the time to write about WWNLive mainstay Johnny Gargano, discussing his importance to the promotion and why people should give him a look. Today I will look at the five big takeaways from the Evolve 49 and Evolve 50 iPPV events. I thought this would be a nice companion to the reviews, due to so many asking about Evolve and wanting to learn more about the promotion. I hope that you enjoy.

Connecting The WWNLive Universe

At Evolve 50, the promotion did something that I really appreciated. With the show looking to start late, something that often happens for these events, WWNlive opted to put on an extra match. They made the chpice not to run repeat videos of the Evolve top 10 or the video of the events from China I have seen approximately 97 times; they ran a match. The match featured Sonny Kiss, Rude Boy Riley and Alex Mason vs. Mike Orlando, J George and Ace Romero in what was billed a FIP Fallout preview match. FIP Fallout is a two-night trios tournament featuring talent from 15-different promotions, and these two teams were from Tier-1, and the winner was going to represent that promotion in the tournament. The match was fine, but the important thing was that this match was designed to promote the FIP Fallout Event. There have been times in the past where they have ran a SHINE feature match or an FIP Title match, but in my opinion they have not been done enough. A lot of the same talent appears on these shows, and it only makes sense to connect the universe as it is. A lot of people may follow Evolve and not care about SHINE or FIP; you need to give them a reason to do so. I think that when they run the Florida loop, you need to have one feature match on every show; so night one a SHINE feature and night two a FIP feature for an example. Even if these are more of a pre-show style match, it is better than running the same hype videos 15 times, and it only makes sense to strengthen the overall brand.

Matt Riddle Has Potential

Another point of interest over the weekend was the Evolve debut on former MMA fighter Matt Riddle. Riddle was building a solid career for himself, but was then busted two times for marijuana use. He was on a winning streak, four fights, and was cut from the UFC because two of those fights were changed to no contests because of the marijuana violations. In October of 2014, after some teases, Riddle went to the Monster Factory to train to become a pro wrestler. One year later, as he put it in a recent interview, “WWE got me a job with Evolve”. Riddle was set for both iPPVs, and for the first time he would be working outside of his comfort zone. Up to this point, he had reportedly only worked Monster Factory shows and with guys he trained with or was trained by at the Monster Factory. For his first weekend, while they were not blow away performances, Riddle did well for himself and showed that he had some potential. With the hair, he looks like one of the Von Erichs in MMA shorts; but had a great heel demeanor in the ring. Both matches were kept short (4:45 and 4:20) and were based a lot of around grappling, striking and working to Riddle’s athletic ability. The one thing I knew was when he was signed to work Evolve events, he would fit in due to the fact that Evolve really embraced grappling, catch wrestling, world of sport styles of work over the last 18-months. Evolve was in Riddle’s wheelhouse, and he didn’t appear to be out of place. Between his MMA background, his in ring person and what he showed on the first two events, I am optimistic about Riddle’s chances of making it to some degree as a pro wrestler. Following working with Jonathan Gresham and Chris Dickinson, he gets a step up in competition when he battles Tracey Williams and Drew Gulak next month in Florida. Riddle needs to be brought along slowly, and for his first weekend in he did well, the question is can he step up his game against Williams and Gulak? We shall see in November, but the good news is that I think they are off to a good start to bring him along at a pace that will not overwhelm him.

I’m Not Sure We Need Evolve Tag Team Titles

One of the themes for the weekend was special tag team matches, specifically using established teams (Roppongi Vice) and pairing them against a “super team” (Timothy Thatcher and TJ Perkins). It’s a different approach, but one that I felt refreshing. Roppongi Vice came in for Evolve 49 and 50, and have been having a great year working NJPW and ROH, and they delivered in their first weekend, including main eventing Evolve 50. The one thing that was made clear this weekend was that Roppongi Vice and The Premiere Athlete Brand want tag team gold, and stated that they want the Evolve tag team titles, which do not exist. Evolve was using the Open the United Gate titles, which were Dragon Gate USA belts. With the Dragon Gate relationship finished, the Open the United Gate titles were vacated (Swann and Gargano were the last champions). I was not a fan of how they dropped the titles, and I think that they should have done a Shane Douglas deal and proclaimed them the Evolve tag team titles and moved on. Instead they vacated them and left an unnecessary hole. But in my opinion, Evolve’s tag team division has never been its strength. From the sad days of trying to push The Scene, to trying to push the Bravados and their disappearance to trying to use the Bucks and them being booked everywhere else (NJPW vs. Dragon Gate issues) and so on and so forth, the Evolve tag title scene never had a chance to stabilize and gain any momentum. I love tag team wrestling, and I feel that established teams vs. super teams could be a fun concept, especially if you book a weekend of it and make it so that the winners earn a title shot, leading to the rare for Evolve triple threat title match. The bottom line is that I feel that Evolve is on a roll, and having the best year that they have had so far. They have been consistent, constantly improving, and quite honestly they do not need tag team titles at this time. They will eventually introduce them, and will do so in order to attack tag teams like Roppongi Vice, and that’s not a bad thing overall, I just do not think that they need them unless they have the teams dedicated to appear and they have the plan in place to make the division actually work. This may be where they can thrive in using new talents.

Ouch! pic.twitter.com/WM8OItwUUk

— casey michael (@badboicasey) October 19, 2015

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Peter Kassa and Andrew Everett Put The Roster on Notice

Going into the weekend I was interested in a few matches, but two of the performers that I had high hopes for were Peter Kassa and Andrew Everett. While Evolve has certainly embraced the grappling, catch wrestling, world of sport styles of work over the last 18-months, variety is the spice of life and you cannot just put on the same old in every match. You have to mix things up. So while the grappling guys are a lot of fun and have given Evolve an identity, the regular wrestlers and high fliers are important to mix up the card and balance things out. Kassa and Everett were part of a very fun opening match at Evolve 49, it was a four-way fray match, and also featured Anthony Nese and Matt Cage. The match was fun, one of the better on the show; it had a good pace and energy, they had the crowd involved and it was exactly what it needed to be. But Kassa and Everett were the standout performers of that match. They then met the following night at Evolve 50, and once again they were part of one of the best matches of the night. Everett is a highly praised flyer from the south, getting a look from everyone, even working Bound for Glory this year. Kassa looks like a alternate universe Chris Sabin, who has the speed and agility to keep up with high fliers, but he also has a good power game, which will allow the matches to be more than just flying exhibitions. Both men looked impressive in their matches; they looked like they wanted to send a message and like they wanted to impress. They not only impressed, but they sent a message to the rest of the Evolve roster that they are here to stay. I can’t wait to see their next appearances, during a time when the roster is changing and some old faces are leaving, they are welcomed additions.

How was your weekend? photo credit: @bryanxvx pic.twitter.com/p8dNLLLDQw

— Johnny Gargano (@JohnnyGargano) October 19, 2015

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Johny Gargano’s Win Keeps Him In WWNLive and Possibly Ruins Ethan Page’s Mindset

The main event of Evolve 49 was set to be the culmination of the Johnny Gargano vs. Ethan Page feud. The story between the two, in the WWNlive Universe, goes back to WrestleMania weekend, where Gargano “endorsed” Page to be brought in to WWNLive. Page would turn on him, they would feud, Page would also turn Rich Swann against Gargano adding more insult to the entire situation. Both guys have had good matches during the feud but as a featured feud I had felt that they under delivered. Several people I know that have witnessed their matches in other companies stated that they have had tremendous matches, including one shortly before this one. I was excited to se what they could do, but the thing I loved was the mystery involved. If Gargano lost, he was gone from WWNlive. There had been a ton of speculation over Gargano’s status after he worked several NXT dates, but with no official announcement of a deal, there was only speculation. The good news was that with no deal announced, it allowed the match to play out and the drama to build properly. In my opinion, they had their best match of the feud here. They threw everything at each other, Page’s pre-match Triple H entrance was a spectacular troll job, and at the end of the day they worked themselves into a very good match. They started at one, and effectively built the match through great intensity, added to the violence, added more mayhem and it all worked well together and peaked at the end as they wanted it too.

With Gargano winning, he remains Mr. WWNlive, and that was a point of Evolve 50 when they used the Sami Zayn live segment (not aired on iPPV) to set up Thatcher vs. Gargano next month in Florida, for the Evolve Title. The story was that Thatcher felt disrespected because Zayn said Gargano was the face of WWNLive. Zayn told him that he may be champion, but he’d have to defeat Gargano to become the face of the company. Can Gargano return to the top, or will Thatcher finally become the face of the promotion?

But along with Gargano’s triumph was the colossal failure of Ethan Page. Page’s mission has been to ruin Gargano and drive him out of WWNLive, and at the end of the day he failed that mission. And that played into Page’s Evolve 50 match. The follow up was not a success for Page, who while wrestling aggressively, came off unfocused. Page had things under control, but got distracted by what he felt was a slow count and rowdy fans, and Matt Cage picked up the surprise victory. The loss to Gargano, in story, looks to have made Page dangerous but unfocused; it will be interesting to see where they go with him next.

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The Best Matches of the Weekend: Johnny Gargano vs. Ethan Page at Evolve 49 [****], Timothy Thatcher vs. Trevor Lee from Evolve 50 [****] and Roppongi Vice vs. The Premiere Athlete Brand from Evolve 50 [****].

The Worst Match of the Weekend: Willie Mack vs. Earl Cooter (*½)

Final Thoughts: Evolve 49 (7.4) and Evolve 50 (8.0) were both good and entertaining shows, providing another strong weekend for the promotion. Over the course of the weekend Matt Riddle made his debut, TJ Perkins turned heel and could be headed towards an eventual title shot, they ended the Gargano vs. Page feud, did another tease of Evolve tag titles, and also set Riddle vs. Gulak, Riddle vs. Williams and Gargano vs. Thatcher for the November shows. They shows were enjoyable, built to the future and overall I felt they delivered. Evolve is easily having their best and more importantly, most consistent year so far. I look forward to the November events.

– You can order Evolve on iPPV and VOD at this link.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”