EVOLVE 2: HERO VS. HIDAKA

March 13, 2010

EVOLVE continues to - well - evolve. Davey Richards is gone, after seemingly being the focal point of the fed, and Kyle O’Reilly vows to make him proud. The win/loss records continue to take shape and we see the various ways that they affect the wrestlers.

Chuck Taylor . . . makes good on his word of staying undefeated, and does so at the expense of his longtime rival.

Mercedes Martinez . . . also keeps her unbeaten record intact, but doesn’t have it quite as easy this time around.

Chris Hero winds up with some egg on his face by losing in the main event, after declaring that Brad Allen wasn’t in his league.

CHRIS DICKINSON vs. BRAD ALLEN

Like far too many of the undercard matches on the previous show, this is too short to accomplish a whole lot in the ring. They both have their nice spots, such as Dickinson’s Falcon Arrow to armbar, although he could do to at least pretend like he’s got the hold on tight. The best moment of the match comes when Dickinson dumps Allen on his head and then hesitates before deciding not to try for the pin, but instead he does an absurdly long distance springboard elbow. Allen is able to kick out and Dickinson’s reaction is priceless. Allen recovers and puts away Dickinson with his hanging neckbreaker and spinning Flatliner to continue the inspirational tour en route to wrestling Chris Hero. Although this wasn’t much for wrestling, it looked to be good as far as character development goes, Allen continues his little babyface push, and by grabbing the ref in anger, Dickinson looks like the EVOLVE equivalent of early ROH Christopher Daniels.

GRAN AKUMA vs. BRODIE LEE

So far EVOLVE 2 is two for two. Two matches in and two matches that are too short to amount to much. Believe it or not, there’s nothing wrong with this being so back and fourth. Brodie is good enough at selling and bumping that it’s believable that Akuma’s strikes are that deadly. At the same time, it’s believable that Brodie keeps on fighting because he’s such a big guy and he’ll look more like a Minivan than a Big Rig by going down without much of a fight. But, this is so back and fourth that they’re not able to build up any real momentum, just when it seems like they’re going to slow down, the pendulum swings back the other way. Brodie catches Akuma with a wheelbarrow suplex and then dumps him with a half nelson suplex, but Akuma counters Brodie’s powerbomb and goes back to throwing strikes like nothing happened. Akuma spiking Brodie with a DVD was a great way to get over Akuma’s deceptive strength and Brodie’s quick tap out to Akuma’s crossface variation gives the idea that Akuma’s chops and body kicks served a purpose beyond showing his stiffness.

CHEECH/CLOUDY vs. LOUIS LYNDON/FLIP KENDRICK

If these two teams had ten minutes to work with, they could probably put on a decent tag match, but they don’t even get half that amount of time. There are a few good ideas to be found here, but nothing that gets any time to develop as well as it should. It’s smart of Cheech to try to take out Kendrick’s leg and ground him, but that lasts all of one hold. It’s also nice to see them trying to build to a hot tag to Lyndon, but the lucha tag rules, and the ref’s general lack of forcing the illegal men to stay out of the ring put a damper on that. Probably the biggest compliment to this is that it puts over Up in Smoke’s two big double teams as much as possible, Kendrick looked finished after Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Cheech, let alone the Death by Knee. But, other than that, EVOLVE would have done just as well to use this time for a Davis and Chavis squash.

KENN DOANE vs. CALEB KONLEY

Although this is also short, it’s not rushed at all, Doane and Konley manage to do their thing and it comes off rather nicely. Konley starts out fired up with typical spunky babyface offense (dropkicks, armdrags, cradles), and Doane outsmarts him and trips him up to take over. Like last time, Doane tries to anger the fans by using a sleeper, but where he winds up going wrong is that he’s entertaining while doing so. It’s clear he’s having fun trying to get under the fans’ skin, and the have several moments where Konley seems to escape but walks right into another sleeper. Finally, Konley escapes for good and he starts unloading on Doane, but he tries for too much with the Axe kick and gets hit with a spinebuster and Doane hits his legdrop and gets the win, without any reason at all for a restart. Like the other matches, it could have benefitted from having more time, but this isn’t a case where the short length was detrimental.

HALLOWICKED vs. KYLE O’REILLY

This is so much better than O’Reilly’s previous match, it helps that ‘Wicked is usually good and Kyle doesn’t do any of the stupid things he did against Fish. With ‘Wicked pulling double duty tonight, it makes sense that this is also short and that it’s mostly the O’Reilly show. The early portion is highlighted by the spots that illustrate Kyle’s issues with executing his holds, ‘Wicked escapes an armbar because Kyle didn’t bring his leg over to hold him down, he tries a rear naked choke and doesn’t do the body scissors, which allows Hallowicked to break the hold by cannon balling them into the corner.

In addition to Kyle’s noticeable improvement, ‘Wicked also looks good, just the fact that he sold something from Kyle is enough to make this match look better than O’Reilly vs. Fish. He’s good at making the most of his openings to get in offense, and also giving them to Kyle. After he breaks the choke, he hits a charging kick and gets a near fall from his Rydeen bomb. A second Rydeen bomb attempt allows Kyle to get another armbar and this time he makes sure to get the leg over. ‘Wicked also give Kyle a nice opening with his attempt at Go 2 Sleepy Hollow, which Kyle counters and goes back on offense. The only spot where ‘Wicked is even a little sketchy is when he blocks the brainbuster after having his brain scrambled by both a kick and the DDT. It’s not a huge issue, he just shifts his weight and try to push him away, nothing like Fish getting spiked wit the brainbuster, and then countering like it was nothing. O’Reilly just does a superkick to stun him and then hits his brainbuster to win, so it didn’t even detract from the match a great deal. It just seemed a little weird to see him do that, when the brainbuster was the finish anyway.

CHUCK TAYLOR vs. RICOCHET

Even though these two are very familiar with each other, and they get more than enough time to work, this doesn’t wind up being much more than good. The big reason is that it doesn’t seem like they’re really telling a story or taking the match in a real direction. Rather, they’re simply working spots and exchanges that they’re used to from working together before. Having worked together so many times before, their exchanges look much more fluid and smooth than those of the rest of the matches. But that should be a given, and it should also be a given that they put on a match exponentially better than the rest of the card, especially with them getting so much more time, and that doesn’t happen.

There’s still plenty to like here, especially from Sexy Chucky T. He doesn’t fly nearly as much as his opponent, but his few aerial spots are impressive and it shows why he was the first ever Chikara Rey de Voladores, and his personality shines though when he’s getting chopped and he finally screams at Ricochet to stop. There’s also some of that simple and effective work that was present in Taylor’s match with Cheech, Taylor surprises Ricochet with a half crab and then a bit later he takes over on offense with a kick to the leg. That’s also true of the finish, with Ricochet wiping out on a Phoenix splash which gives Taylor the chance to feed him the Sole Food, and then finish him off with the Awful Waffle. Really, the only mark against it was the general lacking of a real story to be found, its still the best match of the show up to this point, but given the time and their history of working together, it should have been so by a much larger margin.

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. BOBBY FISH

So Fish has apparently won an MMA fight and now wants to bring that experience to EVOLVE and become a more formidable opponent. This new and improved Bobby Fish isn’t that much improved at all. He’s still taking big bombs, in this case the Torture Rack Airplane Spin, and kicking out at one (this is after he’d had his back singled out and worked over), and while he acts like Claudio is killing him while he’s working over the back, Fish forgets about it as soon as he’s on offense. There are at least three cases when Fish could have hit a spot and sold his back a bit to explain Claudio kicking out. Fish’s MMA influence shows up in the form of a mediocre Minoru Special, grounded knees to the head (which gets him his only good near fall) and a KENTA-like strike flurry of slaps, leg kicks, and body kicks, which are supposed to be KO worthy, when Fish throwing knees into Claudio’s head weren’t able to do so.

Thankfully, Claudio is in control for the bulk of the match, so this is mostly watchable. He singles out Fish’s back early and is fun at working it over, he forgoes his usual Giant Swing to stop after only a few rotations and go into a Boston crab, he lets his Kings of Wrestling/Embassy/BDK mean streak out a bit when he starts slamming Fish into the corner, and he impresses with a dead left German suplex. There’s also a nice spot where he surprises Fish with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and then knocks Fish’s block off with some Swiss Chin Music. Like the Hallowicked match, the finish comes off a little bit odd, with Fish having had his back worked over the Ricola Bomb seemed like the obvious finish, but instead they go with several of Claudio European Uppercuts, culminating in a diving one for the win. Yes, Claudio’s uppercuts are KO strikes, but ending the match that way makes Claudio’s back work seem like filler, and it’s almost a slap in the face to Fish who (theoretically) brought his MMA influence to the match and wound up getting KO’d by the mere pro wrestler.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ © vs. SUMIE SAKAI (WSU Women’s Title)

This is another quick night’s work for the Latina Sensation, although not the cakewalk she has last time. She tries to guzzle Sakai early, but Sakai is able to keep her at bay. Sakai scores with an armbar and Martinez sells her arm for the rest of the match, even while she’s covering for the win. Sakai follows up the armbar with two missile dropkicks that clearly connect with the shoulder. Mercedes gets an opening with a big German suplex but goes for the fisherman’s buster too early and Sakai gets another armbar, then a triangle choke, and then a Fujiwara armbar. These aren’t Kyle O’Reilly or Bobby Fish level holds either, these bad boys are cinched right in. Mercedes stuns Sakai with a big kick to the noggin and then hits her fisherman’s buster (selling her arm the whole time) to retain the title. Some might take issue with Martinez winning after getting all of four or five spots in, but her fisherman’s buster is already established as a kiss of death and it’s smart of her to hit it at the first opportunity. Like a lot of the undercard, this could have used more time, but this is another case where the short length wasn’t a big problem, because they used their time wisely.

JIMMY JACOBS vs. JOHNNY GARGANO

The idea, at first, is that Gargano isn’t taking the match seriously and just wants to clown around since he’s fighting his buddy. Jacobs, on the other hand, knows how much the win/loss record means in EVOLVE and takes the match just as seriously as any other. But, if anything, Gargano’s clowning around seems to be a front, because when it’s time for Gargano to bring it, does Gargano ever bring it. They work in several nice surprise counters, Gargano’s slingshot spear is probably his best overall spot, he also nicely counters the first attempt at the End Time by picking up Jacobs and chucking him into the corner. Jacobs brings his own nice stuff with his counter of Gargano’s second spear into the End Time and adds some innovation of his own with the springboard reverse ace crusher.

Their finish wasn’t bad, but it was a bit exposing. There wasn’t any reason for Gargano to try a Hertz Donut off the top. He didn’t catch Jacobs sleeping up there and it wasn’t like he’d totally burned through his big stuff and needed something big. It’s a dead giveaway that Jacobs would counter into the Contra Code, especially since his initial attempt was already blocked by Gargano. Gargano was obviously stunned from the move and Jacobs quickly locks in the End Time and this time Gargano has to tap out. Like the women’s match, they made smart use of their time for the most part, but I’m wondering why these two were established as buddies on the first show and then wrestled on the second show. It seems more logical to have them both rack up a few wins and then wrestle each other to see which of them keeps the perfect record.

FIRE ANT/GREEN ANT vs. HALLOWICKED/FRIGHTMARE vs. AMASIS/OPHIDIAN vs. MIKE QUACKENBUSH/JIGSAW

Like Taylor/Ricochet, this extremely well-executed, virtually everything is very smooth and fluid. Also, like Taylor/Ricochet, there’s no real attempt to tell any discernable story. It’s a bit more forgivable here though, since there are so many guys running around. From the beginning until the Colony’s elimination this is insane, with everybody running around and hitting their spots. It’s at least somewhat organized, which is both good and bad. While it means nobody has to outright blow off anything, it makes the match feel a bit scripted and choreographed. The weak link is Green Ant, which is strictly based on the fact that he made the only real mistakes during their four-team portion. The first is during the big diving sequence with everyone diving to the floor, when it was his turn he spent so much time stomping and trying to heat up the crowd that he gave Hallowicked the chance to cut him off and put an abrupt end to the sequence. The second mistake causes the Colony to be eliminated, when, again, everyone is diving off the top, and he dives right into a Go 2 Sleepy Hollow.

With the Colony out, it turns into more of a regular tag between Incoherence and the Osirian Portal, but it’s not really any better, it still comes off like they’re just out there working the same sequences and spots they practiced in the Wrestle Factory. It’s not as forgivable now, with the Colony out and QuackSaw taking a breather. The work itself is still rather well done, but there’s no reason to make much of an emotional investment in it, unless you bet money on one of these two teams winning. There’s no weak link this time to expose and eliminate, Jigsaw and Quack just pick their spot to return to the match after ‘Wicked fails to pin Ophidian with the Rydeen bomb. ‘Mare tries to help and impressively escapes the Jig ‘n’ Tonic, but walks into a double superkick to eliminate him and ‘Wicked.

Things pick up when it’s down to two, because both teams see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, so their offense becomes a bit more focus and dangerous. The Osirian Portal work over Quack’s back area a little bit, although it’s not as effective as it would have had it been done back in January. Quack and Jigsaw try pulling out more bombs, Quack with the QD III and a huge lariat, and Jigsaw tries the Jig ‘n’ Tonic, but Ophidian blocks, so Jig muscles him back up and does a Torture Rock bomb. The end comes down to right place right time, with Quack and Jigsaw charging and Amasis, and Quack getting back dropped out and Jigsaw missing as well. Amasis plants Jigsaw with a Tiger suplex and the finishes with the 450 with Quack unable to save. It looks a bit tacked on, but not quite, there’s a little sequence about four minute earlier with Quack getting tossed and Ophidian trying the death grip to tap out Jigsaw. It shows that the Osirian Portal knew that the key to winning was going to be beating Jigsaw with Quack out of the picture. As usual, the Chikara boys were able to impress when they had the chance, but while this is certainly fun, and unlike anything else on the show, it’s hard to give it huge praise when the match didn’t really come together until it was down to the final two teams.

CHRIS HERO vs. IKUTO HIDAKA

If one is a fan of working on the mat, then this will be right up your alley. The first half of this is almost entirely on the mat, with Hero and Hidaka trading holds and counters back and fourth, with Hero focusing on Hidaka’s arm and Hidaka working over Hero’s leg area. While the matwork is fun to watch and gives the match a very fresh look to it, the work itself is basically a BattlArts version of a spotfest. They had several nice nods to it later on, such as Hidaka’s great selling of his arm throughout, and Hero’s flipping bump when Hidaka hit a shotgun dropkick to the knee. But, at the end of the day, the mat and limb work didn’t factor into the finish at all. Hidaka goes over with a kick to the head, despite his having worked over Hero’s leg and having a leg submission finisher (Shawn Capture). Hero’s selling isn’t quite up to par, but Hidaka makes up for that with things like using leg kicks to take over control.

The biggest mark against this match isn’t that the mat work doesn’t factor into the finish, give me an hour and I could probably at least one hundred matches that have that issue, and at least this has unique holds used and their attempts later on to reference that Hero had a bad wheel and Hidaka has a banged up arm. No, the real issue with this is that Hero’s elbow is all but killed off as a deadly KO strike. Hero hits Hidaka with a good half-dozen (if not more) of them, and not once do they have any sort of real impact. Hell, with Hero’s bad wheel they could have easily done a spot where Hero hits the elbow and can’t cover right away because of his leg, which would let Hidaka at least put it over as though he could be KO’d. But, they don’t, and Hero’s elbow strike is no different from any other number of strikes that they might have used.

Other than better protecting Hero’s elbow strike and maybe a different finish, there’s not much else they could have done that would make this exceptionally better. Hero’s selling wasn’t that special, but other than his over the top reactions to the Chikara Special, he’s never been known as a great seller. It’s not even so much that the finish is a head kick, Hidaka’s kicks look like they can knock your block off, but there’s no real build to anticipation for it. Hidaka gets a near fall with a kick, hits Hero with a series of chops and slaps and then hits another kick and pins him. Then again, I may be expecting too much, not just from the match or the wrestlers, but EVOLVE in general. This is supposed to be thought of as legit competition, I wouldn’t think less of a UFC fight if it ended on a high kick KO when the winner tried to win via a tap out. For all its various faults, one cannot overlook the smartness of the booking, Chris Hero claimed that Brad Allen wasn’t in his league, but Allen has a 2-0 record compared to Hero’s 0-1.

Conclusion: Although this lacks the presence of the strong in-ring performances of the first EVOLVE show, EVOLVE 2 makes up for it with some consistency. Most of the matches on this show are solid with potential to good with more time. This isn’t anything to rush out and get your hands on ASAP, but its certainly not bad either.