Csonka’s Evolve 50 iPPV Review 10.18.15

Evolve 50 iPPV 10.18.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Fallout Preview Sonny Kiss, Rude Boy Riley and Alex Mason defeated Mike Orlando, J George and Ace Romero @ 7:52 via pin and will represent Tier-1 at the Fallout 2015 Tournament [**]
– Tracy Williams defeated TJ Perkins @ 14:57 via submission [***]
– Matt Cage defeated Ethan Page @ 10:12 via pin [**½]
– Peter Kassa defeated Andrew Everett @ 11:44 via pin [***½]
– Matt Riddle defeated Chris Dickinson @ 4:20 via pin [**]
– Drew Gulak defeated Willie Mack @ 16:15 via pin [***]
– Evolve Championship Match: Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Trevor Lee @ 15:50 via submission [****]
– Roppongi Vice defeated The Premiere Athlete Brand @ 21:30 via pin [****]

– You can order Evolve on iPPV on VOD here.

Ace Romero, Mike Orlando & JGeorge vs. Rudeboy Riley, Sonny Kiss & Alex Mason : This is a preview for the FIP Fallout 2015 tournament, which is a two day trios tournament featuring talent from 15 different companies. These two teams are battling to see who will represent Tier-1 Wrestling. I actually appreciate this match, because it is exactly what the WWNLive family should be doing. Toss on an extra preview match here and there to sell an event scheduled for the next weekend. Sonny Kiss, Rude Boy Riley and Alex Mason pick up the win and will represent Tier-1 at the Fallout 2015 Tournament. This was a solid opening match with a nice mix of personalities, but it lacked a bit down the stretch when they tried to get fast and furious, attempting to do a rapid fire sequence, but it ended with guys just standing around a bit too long. Once they got past that they were fine.

TJ Perkins vs. Tracy Williams: For those unfamiliar, Perkins was one of the guys they originally wanted to build Evolve around, due to his hybrid (grappling and high flying) style. Williams is one of the new age grappling guys, a style Evolve has really focused on over the last 12-18 months. Both guys have been doing well with Evolve, and used a nice mix of BJJ and catch wrestling early in their back and forth grappling battle. From there they mixed in some good and stiff strikes, along with some pro wrestling basics. Williams tried to lock in his crossface neck crank, but Perkins had been working the arm and was able to counter out. The entire story of the match was that Perkins worked the left arm, kept countering Williams’ moves by using the injured left arm as a way out, and Williams was selling well. And then, Williams grabs the neck crank with the LEFT ARM and cranks away like nothing is wrong, and wins the match. From an execution standpoint, it was a very good and clean match, but like I said last night you cannot dedicate a large part of a match to something and just completely ignore it down the stretch. When you do that, you teach fans that limb work is simply busy work, and in the iPPV opener, you’re telling everyone to ignore it in the coming matches. You can’t ignore the basic fundamentals, especially when you establish them and spend so much time on it.

* Gulak appeared, and told Williams he was sorry for their issues at Evolve 49, and said he was proud of Williams for defeating Perkins, who he put over big. He then told him if he has issues with Thatcher that they should talk.

Ethan Page vs. Matt Cage: Page appeared more subdued tonight, following the loss to Gargano last night. He then attacked Cage prior to the bell. Cage quickly fought back, hit a dive and they brawled on the floor. Page got the heat off a back breaker on the apron, and worked a solid heat on Cage, but it was missing something. Page didn’t have the intensity there that I expected. He was a complete asshole at times, teasing a people’s elbow and doing the Ole kick. They had some fun back and forth down the stretch, including a spot where they traded kicks back and forth leading to a double down. They fought up top late and Page just pressed Cage off the top. He’d hit a cutter and then a powerbomb, but Cage kicked out at 2. That really felt like the end there, but then Page got distracted arguing with the fans, and Cage won with a backslide. Page snapped post match and laid out Cage with a Rock bottom and argued with the referee. Solid match to give Cage the surprising victory. They look to be setting up that the Gargano loss, and failed chance for Page to get rid of him, is messing with his head, leading to a lack of focus. It was fine.

* We get to see Ricochet vs. Gargano from the China tour, because Sami Zayn is about to appear live before the crowd. This was a good main event to end the tour of China they ran. This is where Gargano won the Open the Freedom Gate Championship for the second time. It was a nice addition instead of just airing a video on repeat.

* They used the Zayn live segment 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. This pissed off Trevor lee, because he had a title match scheduled for tonight and felt overlooked.

Andrew Everett vs. Peter Kassa: Everett is a great young high fleecier, seemingly working everywhere these days. He even got a shot to work Bound for Glory for TNA 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. They did the high-octane counter sequence early in the match, which came off rough and not nearly as smooth as you’d expect. Not bad by any means, just not smooth. No one really got what I’d call a traditional heat segment, as they opted for a more back and forth formula. Kassa missed a 630 late, but then Everett missed a shooting star press. Both misses looked like they sucked badly. Kassa then planted Everett with a sick single armed powerbomb for the win. This was a good match from both, the early portion was a bit off at times, but they collected themselves and delivered a very fun and overall exciting match. I think that if they clean it up a bit (not that it was bad) that they could easily have a very great match. Both guys looked good, and I look forward to seeing more of both in Evolve.

Matt Riddle vs. Chris Dickinson: After trading leg kicks, they immediately went into a grappling bout. Dickinson eventually took control with a head kick and told Riddle, “welcome to pro wrestling, bitch”. Riddle would fight back and get a heel hook, which he won with last night, but Dickinson escaped. Riddle got no reaction for the hold, which I thought he would since he did win with it. Dickinson used a lot of kicks here, controlling well, but then Riddle caught him with a leaping knee and that was all. The crowd shit all over Riddle’s win. They were smart again in how they structured the match, keeping it short and working to Riddle’s strengths. Riddle plays the persona well, but Dickinson did a great job laying the match out. Team Gulak hit the ring post match, and Gulak put over Riddle for his UFC run. He then said that they could learn a lot from each other, and set up matches with Riddle for the November 6th and 7th shows. I guess we’ll see how he progresses, and if he gets longer matches on those shows. Riddle appears to have potential both in work and persona; I am willing to give him a chance. The next two matches will likely show us a lot.

Willie Mack vs. Drew Gulak: Gulak tried to ground Mack early and play his game, but Mack quickly came back, using his speed, strikes and landing suplexes. After some back and forth, Gulak worked a hanging dragon sleeper in the ropes and then hit a top rope lariat to take control. Gulak broke away from the grapplefuck game from there, working a more traditional pro wrestling style. When they battled on the ropes, Mack was able to counter into a spinning suplex off the second rope and then started to work the strikes. This led to them slapping and chopping the hell out of each other, and then Gulak had enough of that and locked in the ankle lock. Mack then literally ran wild, not selling the hold one bit. Mack worked a cattle mutilation, but Gulak escaped and worked one of his own. Mack worked some Danielson style elbows, and then connected with the corkscrew senton for a near fall. Mack then missed a frog splash, and Gulak scored with the ankle lock and Mack tapped. This was another match that was technically good, but felt a bit long and was just missing something. I dug a lot of the choices they made, and it got to a certain level several times and every time I thought it would amp up and go to the next level and keep growing, it never did.

Evolve Championship Match: Champion Timothy Thatcher defends vs. Trevor Lee: I’m not all that hot on the title match being the co-main event. It’s not like the Roppongi Vice vs. The Premier Athlete Brand is some super dream match that should get top billing, in my opinion. Unless they have some sort of huge angle planned, so we’ll see. Lee did some good heel stuff here, some stalling, striking on the break, his reactions and a lot of little heel things that were really appreciated here. To me it came off as Lee trying to frustrate Thatcher, who is usually very stoic and in control at all times. Lee eventually took control, even slapping Thatcher in the ear to play off of a previous injury he suffered legit at the hands of Biff Busick. Lee kept the pace moving, and worked kicks and forearms to the right side of Thatcher’s head, again playing to that previous ear injury. Lee was able to avoid the grapplefuck game of Thatcher by doing this, and I appreciated the story because it played into something that everyone that follows the product knows. Also commentary made sure to mention the injury the first time Lee struck the ear. Lee made the mistake of calling Thatcher a bitch one time too many, that led to Thatcher firing off with some stiff forearms and suplexes. They then started to go back and forth, and Lee got a good near fall off of a uranage and then hitting a superkick to the right ear. Lee would hit another superkick and then a German, but when Thatcher kicked out, he rolled right into the arm bar and Lee tapped right away. That was a really enjoyable match, with Lee smartly working the one weakness that everyone knows that Thatcher has. Thatcher scoring the arm bar counter at the end and the immediate tap was an out of nowhere, but refreshing finish to the usual over struggle forever finishes we usually get.

* Gulak and Williams are out now, and Gulak reminded Thatcher that he has never beaten him. Gulak told him to get out of his ring, and it got heated to TJ Perkins came out. This led to him turning on Thatcher, playing off last night’s match, and Perkins joining team Gulak to no heat, and lots of crowd heckling.

Roppongi Vice (Trent Baretta & Rocky Romero) vs. The Premier Athlete Brand (Anthony Nese & Caleb Konley) w/ So Cal Val: Baretta’s mom as in the crowd, and got chants. Nese then attacked and worked over Baretta, asking his mom “How do you like that?” to some good heat. Play to your audience. Vice then got a quick shine, but then got the heat on Baretta. Nese held Baretta and that allowed Val to slap Baretta in front of his mother. Momma Baretta was NOT happy, and she got a “fuck em up Mamma, fuck em up” chant. This led to a spot later where Baretta grabbed Nese, took him over to Mamma Baretta and she got to slap the shit out of him. Play to your crowd, it didn’t take away and the live crowd loved it. Also Nese yelling, “but you made me pasta once” to Baretta’s mom was also fun. As for he in ring, we had a comeback during that time, but the PAB then got the second heat on Romero. Solid heat by the PAB, Baretta got a good hot tag and got to run wild and play to the home crowd. Val has gotten good at ringside, toning back on the amount of what she says and saying things at the right time. All four got involved as it broke down, with Vice then hitting a double team double stomp for a near fall. Vice would maintain control for a bit, scoring with double teams and getting some good near falls. Konley saved Nese from strong zero, leading to the PAB taking over. Nese hit a cool coast to coat dropkick on Romero as he was trapped in the tree of woe, as they kept escalating the action as the match went on. It largely broke from traditional tag formula at this point, as many main event tag style matches do, but the fact that they were able to slowly, and consistency up the action through out was good and I didn’t mind it. The PAB looked to take out Baretta in front of his mother, but Romero made the save, but Nese then murdered him n the corner with the Gotch lift into the buckle bomb. Vice scored with strong zero and that was that. That was a really good main event overall, on par with, but a completely different match than the previous one. I felt as if they had a struggle at times with the crowd, but they continually built and built to the finish in a good way, and I felt got them into things well. I am still not sure why this was the main event, the mom stuff was a nice moment, but I still would have headlined with the title match.

* Mamma Baretta celebrated with Vice post match. Baretta promised that his mom was sweet and wouldn’t turn on him. He thanked her for her support, and then said that Evolve tag titles were missing from this picture. They want the titles.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”