Stevenson’s Evolve 56 Thoughts: What the Hell Was up with That Thatcher vs. Riddle Match?

Evolve has always wanted to be different, and that is a noble aim. In 2015, they set themselves out from the pack in the best way possible- by putting on a string of really terrific shows that tended to run for a concise two hours and feature six diverse wrestling matches with some of the best and most original talents on the independent scene. No other promotion was doing that. Evolve were the best promotion I watched regularly last year. So far in 2016, Evolve has been responsible for a hugely respectable amount of really great wrestling. The Sabre/Callihan vs. Hero/Tommy End match at Evolve 53 will go down as one of the best matches of the whole year, and while nothing at Evolve 56 reached quite that level, there was still plenty of high quality action on display. For me, the best match on the show was Zack Sabre Jr.’s tussle with Johnny Gargano, a scorching hot, super slick 20 minutes of action that made me wonder whether the Best in the World Challenge Series isn’t just a catchy title- maybe Sabre Jr. can genuinely lay claim to that moniker. I can’t think of anyone whose mat work is as interesting as his, and he’s so smooth in the way he rattles off his moves, and great at pretty much everything else as well. Other viewers may prefer Chris Hero vs. Tracy Williams, which was an unrelenting slugfest with some thrilling near falls, or maybe even Drew Gulak vs. Fred Yehi, which saw some real technical excellence from the former (I say technical excellence, there was also a bit where he just kept jumping off the ropes and stamping on Yehi, and it was great), and another hugely promising display from the latter. Yehi was put through an outrageous process of pretzelization by Gulak but responded with some neat submissions of his own and looked a match for his opponent even in defeat.

The problem is, no one is going to say that the best match on the show was the main event, and that’s a real shame because on paper it looked terrific. Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle is a match that literally only Evolve could put on, and it pitted a magnificent and technically imperious champion against an MMA expert and a delightfully gleeful dickhead of a challenger. That main event, as it happened, lasted about eight minutes. And it was a likeable enough eight minutes, don’t get me wrong. There was some interesting grappling going on and it all seemed to be leading somewhere worthwhile. Unfortunately, just as it looked like we might be lucky enough to be graced with a ninth minute of action, Thatcher low blowed Riddle, flattened him with a headbutt, and picked up the win. That was that.

I get the feeling that Evolve think they’re being rather clever and original here. Maybe they even imagine themselves to be pioneers, trying to retrain independent wrestling fans to no longer expect lengthy, satisfying main events as a guarantee. I can’t think of any other motivation for booking an eight minute main event with a low blow finish. MMA viewers will accept headline fights that finish in under a minute, so why shouldn’t wrestling fans? Wouldn’t it be much more unpredictable if you genuinely believed that any match could end at any time, even if that match was top of the bill? The problem is, Evolve are at their worst when they overthink things. A lot of their problems from 2011-2014 came as a result of booking decisions that were ambitious but rubbish, and that’s what the ending to this show was. One of the reasons Matt Riddle is such a fun wrestler is because his matches tend to keep it short and sweet, and I like the idea on paper of trying out new ideas and messing with the conventions of a wrestling show, but it didn’t work here and led to a massively dissatisfying ending.

Still, it seems unfair to focus on a disappointing eight minutes over a terrific 127, so it should be reiterating that Evolve 56 was, on the whole, a very good show with three very good matches. On their own, Hero/Williams and Sabre/Gargano are worth the $14.99, and beyond that there was good stuff as well. Sami Callihan vs. TJ Perkins, for example, was a hugely enjoyable opener- Callihan is so great at smashing up and bullying smaller wrestlers, but Perkins wouldn’t be easily cowed and they ended up just kicking the shit out of each other. Even the quieter matches on the show, Jack Gallow vs. Ethan Page and Team Tremendous vs. The Premiere Athlete Brand, served as effective bridges between the bigger contests and were perfectly competent wrestling bouts in their own right. I just worry that, having followed a bloated and over-ambitious tag tournament with this Thatcher/Riddle controversy, Evolve are losing sight of what made them the best promotion in America in 2015- keeping it simple, keeping it compact, and letting the wrestlers tell the stories. The hands off approach to booking that made them so refreshing last year needs to be what the company is most proud of, because they’re never going to revolutionist the wrestling business in the way they want to. Even if they put on a bloody 30 second main event.

STAR RATINGS
Sami Callihan vs. TJ Perkins- *** ¼
Jack Gallow vs. Ethan Page- **
Fred Yehi vs. Drew Gulak- *** ¾
Chris Hero vs. Tracy Williams- *** ¾
Team Tremendous vs. The Premiere Athlete Brand- ** ¾
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Johnny Gargano- ****
Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle- * ½

FINAL SCORE: 8.0