EVOLVE 48

August 16, 2015

Trent Baretta . . . proves that he was the weak link of his old stable, with a loss to a former stablemate, and an overall poor performance.

Chris Hero . . . shows that he can actually put on good matches, without going elbow-crazy.

Timothy Thatcher . . . takes everything that Biff Busick throws at him, and still taps him out with relative ease.

ANTHONY NESE vs. ETHAN PAGE

It’s fun to watch Nese do his stuff, and, Ethan isn’t useless, but, this never comes together enough to be more than fun. Nese’s cartwheel on the apron to avoid Ethan’s lariat is the first mind-blowing spot of the night, and that’s not even the best thing he does in the match. Aside from the flying cutter from Ethan, most of the good spots are from Nese. They have a good finish, with Nese finding a more clever block to Ethan’s superplex than the usual sandbag and punching, and the impact of Nese’s 450 sounds like it totally knocks the wind out of Ethan, even without him selling it after the match.

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. RICH SWANN

Like Gargano/Page from the night before, this is more about the angle than the actual match. The idea at first is that Gargano doesn’t want to hit his former friend, so he tries to simply wrestle him, but, when he gets the chance to really let him have it, he isn’t able to go through with it. Swann takes advantage of this for a bit, until he overplays his hand, and then Johnny is ready to fight! The intensity that Johnny shows here is exactly what was missing from his match the night before. They pull off a couple of nice sequences, especially Johnny blocking the handspring stunner and trapping Swann in the Gargano Escape. Swann’s superkick to block the slingshot spear was another nice touch. The finish is right off of Monday Night RAW, but, it keeps the angle going, with the ref bump, Ethan Page interference, and Swann using the belt to beat Gargano.

TRENT BARETTA vs. CALEB KONLEY

There were times when Konley was showing flashes of Arn Anderson. He seems to be lacking the brutal edge when working over a body part, but, his overdone stooging and selling, and his ability to keep the match moving along, was reminiscent of Double-A. Trent wasn’t good for much more than throwing out spots. He took a huge bump to the floor to give Konley the opening to work the midsection, but his selling wasn’t anything special, and he forgot about when it was convenient, even though Konley hadn’t forgot. Trent shows the influence from his Japanese tours in the wrong ways, like blowing off the German just to hit a lariat, and later on when he takes the Takaiwa-style powerbomb followed by a buckle bomb and then counters into his finisher like it’s nothing. Konley hits his finisher for a near fall, and then does it off the top and gets the pin, and it also continues the story of his working over the midsection, so, overall, this is a nice example of good Konley can be, even with an opponent who didn’t feel like performing up to the same level.

DREW GULAK/TRACY WILLIAMS vs. MIKE BAILEY/REY HORUS

Add Gulak and Williams to the list of people I’d like to see as part of the Zangiev comeback tour. It’s fun to watch them work over Bailey and Horus on the mat, and it’s nice to see Bailey and Horus pull off some counters and work a hold or two themselves, to show that they aren’t useless on the mat. But, all the matwork is really good for is eating up time. Neither Bailey, nor Horus, shows any weariness from being stretched, Williams’ inverted Dragon screw to Bailey is the nastiest spot of the match, but, it doesn’t have any long term effects. Sure, the finish sees Bailey miss the shooting star knee and get planted by a piledriver from Williams and pinned by Gulak, but, they could have worked the exact same sequence without touching his legs.

CHRIS HERO vs. ZACK SABRE, Jr.

Why doesn’t Hero work like this more often, where the elbow nonsense is kept to a minimum (the operative word being “nonsense”)? Hero and Sabre work some fun mat exchanges, just to show that Hero can be adept on the mat, and the bit with Sabre escaping the full nelson, only for Hero to get it right back on, was amusing. Once Hero starts targeting Sabre’s neck, the match picks up nicely. Hero’s elbow strike actually looks meaningful for once, and he doesn’t ruin things by overdoing them. Then, later on, when Sabre counters an elbow into a juji-gatame, and starts trying to take apart Hero’s arm, it both makes sense in the vein of Sabre trying to get the tap out, as well as trying to take away the power of Hero’s main weapon. The only area that seems to be lacking here is the selling. Hero’s reactions to Sabre’s attempted amputation is fine, but, we don’t see that from Hero when he’s the one in control. Even a single elbow strike with Hero clutching the arm, or dropping to his knees would have worked. They had the perfect opening with Hero’s near fall from the regular elbow, but, Hero just picks up Sabre and clocks him with the rolling elbow and gets the pin. Sabre wasn’t a whole lot better in that department either, although he did remember to occasionally sell the neck.

TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. BIFF BUSICK

My initial impression of this was that it seemed very lopsided in Biff’s favor. But, a second viewing shows that Thatcher gets in quite a bit of offense, it’s just that very little of it actually matters. Thatcher’s most memorable spot is the suplex sequence, and, while Biff isn’t exactly a monster like Albright or Dr. Death, it’s still impressive to see Thatcher hoist him up like that. It’s not bad that Biff controls the bulk of the match, after all, he’s the one who feels like he has something to prove. Biff’s big failing in the match is that he doesn’t always make the most of the openings that he’s given. His best moment of the match is when he drops Thatcher with a half nelson suplex and then clobbers Thatcher with a running European uppercut when he gets to his feet. But, more often than not, especially towards the end, Biff doesn’t take advantage as well. Early on in the match, Biff tries to wear down Thatcher with a couple of holds, including an STF, but, once Thatcher’s ear (previously injured by Biff) becomes the target, Biff is content to just strike it even though a simple headlock would put Thatcher in agony, and would have been a very good submission tease.

The finish looks like it comes out of nowhere, but, a second viewing shows that Thatcher was clearly planning it from the beginning. Whenever he got the chance, Thatcher would try to target Biff’s previously injured hand, but, with Biff controlling so much of the match, Thatcher doesn’t have much success. Thatcher finally gets the opening he needs and jerks on the thumb, and a simple Fujiwara armbar gets a lighting-quick submission. Thatcher knew exactly how he could beat Biff, he just needed to weather the storm, and wait for the right time to strike.

Conclusion: Overall, this doesn’t hit the same high that the show the night before did, but, it was still a rock-solid show with mostly good performances.