Post by Sam Fain on Sept 25, 2017 10:30:00 GMT -5
I attended EVOLVE 93 this past Saturday evening at the Summit Park District in Summit, IL. Overall, it was a fantastic evening and EVOLVE put on one hell of an event.
Doors opened at 7:30 and I walked around scoping out the merch booths. Got to have a really nice chat with ref Brandon Tolle about the schedule and travel and some tidbits about Mania weekend. Snagged a few PWG blurays which were discounted with my merch credit (I was sitting front row and they give you a credit to use. Thing is, you can use it on multiple purchases which is cool).
I was sitting opposite the hard cam, so I missed a couple little things here and there, but also got to witness some of the coolest moves of the night right in front of me.
The show opened with a special match for the live crowd:
1) Cedric Alexander over Fred Yehi with the lumbar check in about 13 min.
-Great match. Alexander was over huge and Yehi played a dirty heel. They went back and forth and exchanged holds and did some nice chain work in the early moments and the crowd was hot for it. Yehi kept going for the stomp and they told a really nice story that Cedric was too agile, but as Yehi started wearing him down, he was able to hit some brutal stomps. He mimicked the Orton stomp bit, only better and Cedirc sold each body part really well. Eventually Cedric came back and was able to hit the lumbar check for a solid win. They shook hands after. More than solid opening. With a little more time, this could've been a co-main event and was better than a lot of stuff on the card and that's saying something.
2)Yehi squashed a jobber with the liu kang kicks in less than 3 min.
-Yehi said he wanted his next match and he wanted it right now. Jobber with big hair came out and Yehi put him away easily.
3)Jason Kincaid over Henry with Compassionate Release after a double stomp from the ringpost in about 10 min
-Man... This was great. Henry played the heel which was weird because later in the night he was a babyface, but I'll get to that. Kincaid is great. They took some chances early and Kincaid took a sick apron bump on the back of his head and neck, but seemed fine. Henry busted his nose open, but Kincaid gave him a receipt with a stiff punch to the face. I was shocked Henry's nose didn't break, legit. Kincaid had some awesome neckbreaker variations and there was a great springboard side effect that popped the crowd. Just a damned good match. Kincaid has a great character and is really good in the ring. He's got a great overall package and very different look. Go watch it.
4)Austin Theory over James Drake with a TKO in about 8 min
- Theory looks like a million bucks and Priscilla Kelly accompanied him to the ring. She looks a lot like Paige. A lot. And acts a bit like her too. I'm not saying she's copying the gimmick because she certainly owns it, but it's hard to see her as her own character and not Paige Jr. Regardless, solid match. Drake is a good big man brawler in the Kevin Owens vein, but certainly has his own style (tho he does do the corner cannonball). They worked outside a lot, but Priscilla stayed out of it. Drake's tag partner, Anthony Henry, was out to keep her from interfering. The finish saw Drake go for the moonsault, but Kelly finally got involved and gave Theory time to recover. She then his a flip dive off the apron onto Henry while Drake missed the moonsault. Theory hit the TKO for the win. Solid match, but not quite up to the level of the opener or previous match.
5)Freelance 4-way Title Match: Stevie Fierce over Bryce Benjamin, Matt Knicks, and GPA via unprettier on Bryce in about 6 min.
- A good sprint. Rough around the edges and Knicks nearly killed himself twice, but Fierce and Benjamin both maximized their minutes with a great showing. There was a great suplex to the outside when Stevie superplexed Knicks onto GPA and Benjamin on the outside! Finish came shortly after when Stevie reversed a move and planted Bryce to retain the title. Stevie worked his gimmick well and had a great spot with his mirror, checking himself out only to have Bryce come up behind him and Stevie got scared looking in the mirror.
6)Darby Allin over DJZ with Last Supper in about 10 min
- Wow... This was the match of the first half and that's saying something because there were already two damned good matches. They went back and forth and did some great athletic lucha style wrestling. Some of the best and crispest stuff I've seen live. Lots of crazy apron spots and two insane dives. First one came right in front of me as Darby draped DJZ on the guardrail and then suicide dived right into his back. It was a sick looking spot, and Darby undoubtedly crunched his neck up. The other came shortly after when they set up a chair and battled over who would sit in it. Darby got the upper hand went in and hit a ridiculously insane swanton from the ringpost to the seated DJZ! Back in they battled back and forth with some more high spots until Darby got the win. So damned good. Standing O from the crowd. Darby is special. He has an incredible look and presence and is ridiculously athletic. Easily in the same tier with Rey Fenix. Might be the match of the night for me.
Jarek came out and did a spot offering Allin money for his performance, but then "magically" changed the hundreds to 1s, saying that was all he was worth. Good heat moment that had audience members throwing in money for Allin after his performance.
Intermission was up next and I got to talk to Fred Yehi for a bit. Incredibly nice and humble guy. Considering the way he played the dirty heel earlier, it was complete 180. He's definitely got a high ceiling. Jason Kincaid, still bloody from his match was also very cool. You get the sense that his gimmick is very true to who he is as a person. Snagged a t-shirt and photo with him.
7) Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) over Troll Boyz (ACH & Ethan Page) with Death Trap in about 18 min.
-Page & ACH have so much damned charisma, but they may have played the goofy guys a little too long in this one. It worked early, but they never seemed to get serious, which may have been the point at Jaka and Dickinson did and took the titles in a shocking win. No one expected it after the title change the previous night and some of us were left scratching our heads. Especially since the former champs (Lethal Enforcers [Henry & Drake]) came out to immediately challenge Doom Patrol. Not sure if Page or ACH are hurt or headed up, but it was odd booking. The match was good and fun, but not great. In spite of the effort from all four and the fact they told a good story, it probably ranks towards the bottom of the card overall. Of course, there was a lot of damned good stuff on this card.
Post match saw the challenge mentioned earlier and Stokely Hathaway told Henry & Drake they couldn't just lay out a challenge like that and to contact his offices, then Dominic Garrini attacked them form behind and hit a knockout knee on Drake (it wasn't a very good knee and missed Drake by a good 6", but whatever) and then locked in a kimura on Henry to leave them both laying.
8)Zack Sabre Jr retains the EVOLVE Championship over Keith Lee with a pinning predicament reversing ground zero in about 17 min
- Incredible match. Perfect David v Goliath dynamic. Of course, when David is ZSJ, you know you're getting some smart, inventive moves to take Goliath off his feet. You also know he's going to rag doll to Lee's moves and sell like the gifted performer he is. As good as you can imagine this match being, it was probably a little better. That said, I feel like there just might be a higher gear for both these guys that they never kicked into. Of course, they didn't need to. Crowd was hot the whole way. Dueling chants, big pops, lots of rise to your feet moments. Go watch it.
9) Matthew Riddle retains the WWN Championship over Tracy Williams in an Anything Goes Match with the tombstone Gotch piledriver followed by the Bromission in 22 min.
-Well, this was one of my favorite live matches I've ever seen. They worked their asses off and threw caution to the wind. Hard-hitting, smart, logical match with a ton of emotion. Lots of brawling and work on the outside. Chair spots in and out of the ring. A huge guardrail bit that was teased multiple times before Riddle hit a senton onto the laid out Williams. There was a Tombstone on an open chair and an avalanche Bloody Sunday by Williams. The crowd was hot the whole way and they really did tell a great story. Riddle just keeps getting better and adding more an more to his arsenal and I'm not talking moveset. The emotion, the selling, the transitions, everything about him is worth noting at this point. He's a complete performer and this short into his career can hang with anyone, any style. Even the "Bro" character has grown and he's refined it as he's gone along. His mic work is more solid and his presence and charisma are top of the card worthy.
After the match he called out the rest of the locker room and put over everyone talking about this being wrestling and these are some of the best in the world (hard to argue that). Keith Lee then got in his face (they've been teasing a match between the two for a little while and they had a breakdown as a tag team the night before). Then we got a huge pull apart brawl that was very well done and didn't overstay it's welcome like a lot of similar moments that WWE has done. The pull apart by the locker room eventually led to Riddle grabbing his title and heading out. Riddle singled me out in the crowd on his way out for a hi five (I was wearing one of his shirts) and then went to the back.
After the show I got the chat with Riddle again (I met him at AAW last month) and then Zack Sabre Jr. Both awesome. Had a longer chat with Darby Allin and found out a couple of things that made his match all the more incredible: he was working on a duct taped together sprained ankle and recently moved into his car and he's driving to the towns giving it all he's got to make it. There's no fall back plan. He jacked up his neck a little as suspected. He didn't have any merch out, unfortunately, but I'll be buying some the next chance I get. I told him to take care of himself and heal up. Truth be told, he doesn't need to do the insane stuff to have a great match. That was evident in the match he had with DJZ. Spoke with DJZ briefly too. Super-nice and clearly in better shape than when I last saw him (he had food poisoning at the AAW show). Tracy Williams was banged up, but also nice in the brief moment I interacted with him.
EVOLVE 93 was probably one of their better shows of the past year and that's saying something. I wouldn't say it had the best matches EVOLVE has had in the past two years, but the overall makeup of the show and three matches that were probably 4 stars + is enough to put it at the top of most shows of the year excepting PWG and NJPW. I can't wait until they're back in the Chicago area.
Next up for me is AAW's Jim Lynman Memorial Tournament and ROH Global Wars. I've checked off quite a few of my must-see live workers lately (Riddle, Zack Sabre Jr, to name a couple) and with this next round I'll get Elgin and Omega. After that RISE/SHIMMER weekend in November. Might see what else is shaking in Chicago between now and then, but those are the big ones on the calendar.
Thanks for reading! If you watched the stream or were there, let me know what you thought!
Doors opened at 7:30 and I walked around scoping out the merch booths. Got to have a really nice chat with ref Brandon Tolle about the schedule and travel and some tidbits about Mania weekend. Snagged a few PWG blurays which were discounted with my merch credit (I was sitting front row and they give you a credit to use. Thing is, you can use it on multiple purchases which is cool).
I was sitting opposite the hard cam, so I missed a couple little things here and there, but also got to witness some of the coolest moves of the night right in front of me.
The show opened with a special match for the live crowd:
1) Cedric Alexander over Fred Yehi with the lumbar check in about 13 min.
-Great match. Alexander was over huge and Yehi played a dirty heel. They went back and forth and exchanged holds and did some nice chain work in the early moments and the crowd was hot for it. Yehi kept going for the stomp and they told a really nice story that Cedric was too agile, but as Yehi started wearing him down, he was able to hit some brutal stomps. He mimicked the Orton stomp bit, only better and Cedirc sold each body part really well. Eventually Cedric came back and was able to hit the lumbar check for a solid win. They shook hands after. More than solid opening. With a little more time, this could've been a co-main event and was better than a lot of stuff on the card and that's saying something.
2)Yehi squashed a jobber with the liu kang kicks in less than 3 min.
-Yehi said he wanted his next match and he wanted it right now. Jobber with big hair came out and Yehi put him away easily.
3)Jason Kincaid over Henry with Compassionate Release after a double stomp from the ringpost in about 10 min
-Man... This was great. Henry played the heel which was weird because later in the night he was a babyface, but I'll get to that. Kincaid is great. They took some chances early and Kincaid took a sick apron bump on the back of his head and neck, but seemed fine. Henry busted his nose open, but Kincaid gave him a receipt with a stiff punch to the face. I was shocked Henry's nose didn't break, legit. Kincaid had some awesome neckbreaker variations and there was a great springboard side effect that popped the crowd. Just a damned good match. Kincaid has a great character and is really good in the ring. He's got a great overall package and very different look. Go watch it.
4)Austin Theory over James Drake with a TKO in about 8 min
- Theory looks like a million bucks and Priscilla Kelly accompanied him to the ring. She looks a lot like Paige. A lot. And acts a bit like her too. I'm not saying she's copying the gimmick because she certainly owns it, but it's hard to see her as her own character and not Paige Jr. Regardless, solid match. Drake is a good big man brawler in the Kevin Owens vein, but certainly has his own style (tho he does do the corner cannonball). They worked outside a lot, but Priscilla stayed out of it. Drake's tag partner, Anthony Henry, was out to keep her from interfering. The finish saw Drake go for the moonsault, but Kelly finally got involved and gave Theory time to recover. She then his a flip dive off the apron onto Henry while Drake missed the moonsault. Theory hit the TKO for the win. Solid match, but not quite up to the level of the opener or previous match.
5)Freelance 4-way Title Match: Stevie Fierce over Bryce Benjamin, Matt Knicks, and GPA via unprettier on Bryce in about 6 min.
- A good sprint. Rough around the edges and Knicks nearly killed himself twice, but Fierce and Benjamin both maximized their minutes with a great showing. There was a great suplex to the outside when Stevie superplexed Knicks onto GPA and Benjamin on the outside! Finish came shortly after when Stevie reversed a move and planted Bryce to retain the title. Stevie worked his gimmick well and had a great spot with his mirror, checking himself out only to have Bryce come up behind him and Stevie got scared looking in the mirror.
6)Darby Allin over DJZ with Last Supper in about 10 min
- Wow... This was the match of the first half and that's saying something because there were already two damned good matches. They went back and forth and did some great athletic lucha style wrestling. Some of the best and crispest stuff I've seen live. Lots of crazy apron spots and two insane dives. First one came right in front of me as Darby draped DJZ on the guardrail and then suicide dived right into his back. It was a sick looking spot, and Darby undoubtedly crunched his neck up. The other came shortly after when they set up a chair and battled over who would sit in it. Darby got the upper hand went in and hit a ridiculously insane swanton from the ringpost to the seated DJZ! Back in they battled back and forth with some more high spots until Darby got the win. So damned good. Standing O from the crowd. Darby is special. He has an incredible look and presence and is ridiculously athletic. Easily in the same tier with Rey Fenix. Might be the match of the night for me.
Jarek came out and did a spot offering Allin money for his performance, but then "magically" changed the hundreds to 1s, saying that was all he was worth. Good heat moment that had audience members throwing in money for Allin after his performance.
Intermission was up next and I got to talk to Fred Yehi for a bit. Incredibly nice and humble guy. Considering the way he played the dirty heel earlier, it was complete 180. He's definitely got a high ceiling. Jason Kincaid, still bloody from his match was also very cool. You get the sense that his gimmick is very true to who he is as a person. Snagged a t-shirt and photo with him.
7) Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) over Troll Boyz (ACH & Ethan Page) with Death Trap in about 18 min.
-Page & ACH have so much damned charisma, but they may have played the goofy guys a little too long in this one. It worked early, but they never seemed to get serious, which may have been the point at Jaka and Dickinson did and took the titles in a shocking win. No one expected it after the title change the previous night and some of us were left scratching our heads. Especially since the former champs (Lethal Enforcers [Henry & Drake]) came out to immediately challenge Doom Patrol. Not sure if Page or ACH are hurt or headed up, but it was odd booking. The match was good and fun, but not great. In spite of the effort from all four and the fact they told a good story, it probably ranks towards the bottom of the card overall. Of course, there was a lot of damned good stuff on this card.
Post match saw the challenge mentioned earlier and Stokely Hathaway told Henry & Drake they couldn't just lay out a challenge like that and to contact his offices, then Dominic Garrini attacked them form behind and hit a knockout knee on Drake (it wasn't a very good knee and missed Drake by a good 6", but whatever) and then locked in a kimura on Henry to leave them both laying.
8)Zack Sabre Jr retains the EVOLVE Championship over Keith Lee with a pinning predicament reversing ground zero in about 17 min
- Incredible match. Perfect David v Goliath dynamic. Of course, when David is ZSJ, you know you're getting some smart, inventive moves to take Goliath off his feet. You also know he's going to rag doll to Lee's moves and sell like the gifted performer he is. As good as you can imagine this match being, it was probably a little better. That said, I feel like there just might be a higher gear for both these guys that they never kicked into. Of course, they didn't need to. Crowd was hot the whole way. Dueling chants, big pops, lots of rise to your feet moments. Go watch it.
9) Matthew Riddle retains the WWN Championship over Tracy Williams in an Anything Goes Match with the tombstone Gotch piledriver followed by the Bromission in 22 min.
-Well, this was one of my favorite live matches I've ever seen. They worked their asses off and threw caution to the wind. Hard-hitting, smart, logical match with a ton of emotion. Lots of brawling and work on the outside. Chair spots in and out of the ring. A huge guardrail bit that was teased multiple times before Riddle hit a senton onto the laid out Williams. There was a Tombstone on an open chair and an avalanche Bloody Sunday by Williams. The crowd was hot the whole way and they really did tell a great story. Riddle just keeps getting better and adding more an more to his arsenal and I'm not talking moveset. The emotion, the selling, the transitions, everything about him is worth noting at this point. He's a complete performer and this short into his career can hang with anyone, any style. Even the "Bro" character has grown and he's refined it as he's gone along. His mic work is more solid and his presence and charisma are top of the card worthy.
After the match he called out the rest of the locker room and put over everyone talking about this being wrestling and these are some of the best in the world (hard to argue that). Keith Lee then got in his face (they've been teasing a match between the two for a little while and they had a breakdown as a tag team the night before). Then we got a huge pull apart brawl that was very well done and didn't overstay it's welcome like a lot of similar moments that WWE has done. The pull apart by the locker room eventually led to Riddle grabbing his title and heading out. Riddle singled me out in the crowd on his way out for a hi five (I was wearing one of his shirts) and then went to the back.
After the show I got the chat with Riddle again (I met him at AAW last month) and then Zack Sabre Jr. Both awesome. Had a longer chat with Darby Allin and found out a couple of things that made his match all the more incredible: he was working on a duct taped together sprained ankle and recently moved into his car and he's driving to the towns giving it all he's got to make it. There's no fall back plan. He jacked up his neck a little as suspected. He didn't have any merch out, unfortunately, but I'll be buying some the next chance I get. I told him to take care of himself and heal up. Truth be told, he doesn't need to do the insane stuff to have a great match. That was evident in the match he had with DJZ. Spoke with DJZ briefly too. Super-nice and clearly in better shape than when I last saw him (he had food poisoning at the AAW show). Tracy Williams was banged up, but also nice in the brief moment I interacted with him.
EVOLVE 93 was probably one of their better shows of the past year and that's saying something. I wouldn't say it had the best matches EVOLVE has had in the past two years, but the overall makeup of the show and three matches that were probably 4 stars + is enough to put it at the top of most shows of the year excepting PWG and NJPW. I can't wait until they're back in the Chicago area.
Next up for me is AAW's Jim Lynman Memorial Tournament and ROH Global Wars. I've checked off quite a few of my must-see live workers lately (Riddle, Zack Sabre Jr, to name a couple) and with this next round I'll get Elgin and Omega. After that RISE/SHIMMER weekend in November. Might see what else is shaking in Chicago between now and then, but those are the big ones on the calendar.
Thanks for reading! If you watched the stream or were there, let me know what you thought!
