Evolve 57 Thoughts: Let’s All Join the Matt Riddle Bandwagon

Evolve 57 was an uneven but still hugely likeable show that delivered two great matches and corrected the main mistake that Evolve 56 made the previous night. That show’s main event of Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle saw a questionable booking decision impose itself on the ability of the two wrestlers, curtailing their match at just eight minutes in length. Evolve’s success in 2015 was based largely on putting faith in the wrestlers to make the shows rewarding without the need for anything more than minimal storyline development, and happily Evolve 57 returned to that formula, with each match receiving a generous helping of time to get its point across with any angle advancement being kept simple and largely effective.

That’s not to say that the matches themselves were perfect. Timothy Thatcher capped off a disappointing weekend with a dreary title defence against Caleb Konley, although much like the previous night he wasn’t particularly to blame for the match’s problems. WWN have shown real belief in Konley over the years, but the quality of Evolve’s roster has improved so exponentially since its reboot in 2014 that he now ranks as one of the weakest wrestlers they have. Here, he tried to wrestle up to Thatcher’s level and keep up with him on the mat, but never really convinced. It would have been far better if Thatcher had wrestled down to Konley’s ability and they had rattled through a more typical, North American indy style match; instead, they rambled on for 25 minutes trying to make something work that was already fatally flawed, and it was a real drag on the show. Sami Callihan vs. Tracy Williams was less of an irredeemable failure, but still disappointed. Callihan is usually great at having fun matches with smaller wrestlers, bullying and swatting them around, but this one felt oddly bland and directionless. There were some flashes of nice mat work and some exciting, noisy strike exchanges, but other matches on the show did both styles much better, and as such this felt like it had little new to offer. Much like Thatcher vs. Konley, it also rather outstayed its welcome, clocking it at a long 20 minutes. The concise, tight nature of Evolve shows is what makes them so fun, and this show would have been all the better for having a good few minutes shaved off those two matches.

Far better was the clash between Tommaso Ciampa and TJ Perkins, which was a rock solid encounter. NXT regular Ciampa wrestled the early stages of the match like he was on WWE TV, slowing the pace down and grounding Perkins with simple, effective manoeuvres. It made Perkins’ comeback really satisfying, and they strung together some good near falls towards the end. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Drew Gulak, which was the main event of the evening in all but name, also delivered some quality wrestling. The match went almost exactly how you’d expect it to- they hit the mat at the beginning, and hadn’t really left it nearly half an hour later. In between were a series of elaborate, dazzling holds, counter holds, and counter counter holds that made the time go by much quicker than you’d expect. The one issue I did have with the match, and with the almost entirely mat based style as a whole, is that it’s hard to build to a proper crescendo. The pace was more or less the same throughout, and it kind of felt like the contest could conceivably end at any point, which I don’t think was really a good thing in this context. Still, they were able to come up with a great, nasty submission hold to end the match, and sequences like Gulak’s five or six consecutive body slams into the ropes broke the long stretches of submissions up nicely. This was a great, ambitious bout on the whole, the sort of match that Evolve is justly proud to promote.

For me, however, match of the night (and indeed match of the weekend) honours went to the magnificent battle between Chris Hero and Matt Riddle. This was as good a 15 minutes of wrestling as you’re likely to see this year, with not a wasted second in the whole thing. Riddle, ordinarily so effective as a brash, obnoxious heel, turned into a sympathetic babyface on this occasion, and played the part with extraordinary assurance. It’s remarkable how good he is at wrestling considering his inexperience. The crowd seemed determined to remain behind Hero no matter what, but watching at home I was sucked into Riddle’s corner as the Knockout Artist pummelled him around the ring. Hero even had the audacity to tear and claw at Riddle’s bare feet, which was a really nice, unique section of the match which I hope doesn’t convince Riddle to put some shoes on. As the match drew towards its conclusion, Hero unleashed a Gotch Piledriver which Riddle sold superbly, bouncing nastily off the mat before burying his face in the canvas, seemingly barely conscious. Yet Riddle still had a trick up his sleeve, spinning through another piledriver attempt and seamlessly clamping on a painful armbar. Was it enough for the upset victory? Watch the match! It’s such a good one!

The first defence of the Evolve Tag Team Championships had to follow all of that, as Drew Galloway’s flight was delayed and even with his match pushed back to the main event barely made it on time. Happily, he and Johnny Gargano were ultimately able to put their titles on the line against Team Tremendous, although Ethan Page would perhaps have been an adequate stand in (he polished off Fred Yehi in a decent opener) given his promise the previous night to always have Gargano’s back even when Drew isn’t around. Anyway, the match went ahead and, while full of effort and exciting moves, suffered from not really being the intended headliner, with the outcome of the bout never being in much doubt. Still, at least we got a fully formed main event this time out, rather than the truncated disappointment of Thatcher vs. Riddle from the previous night.

Despite its inconsistencies, I thought Evolve 57 was definitely worth the $14.99. I really enjoyed watching it, and am super excited for WWN’s series of shows at Wrestlemania weekend in two weeks. Added to those over the weekend was a rematch between Thatcher and Riddle, which will hopefully reach the heights that their match at Evolve 56 was denied. The end of March can’t come soon enough!

STAR RATINGS
Fred Yehi vs. Ethan Page- **
Tommaso Ciampa vs. TJ Perkins- *** ¼
Chris Hero vs. Matt Riddle- **** ½
Timothy Thatcher vs. Caleb Konley- *
Tracy Williams vs. Sami Callihan- ** ½
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Drew Gulak- *** ¾
Johnny Gargano & Drew Galloway vs. Team Tremendous- *** ¼

Overall Rating- 8.0