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EVOLVE 79

February 25, 2017

Jeff Cobb . . . shows that being a big guy doesn’t automatically equate with being devoid of any wrestling talent.

Keith Lee . . . shows Tracy Williams that the ‘David versus Goliath’ story doesn’t always have a happy ending.

Timothy Thatcher . . . ends his first reign as EVOLVE Champion on just about as high a note as possible.

ACH vs. JASON KINCAID

Kincaid looks like he belongs in the Wyatt Family, but, his work is actually quite good, and he has no trouble keeping up with ACH. The match isn’t much more than a spot exhibition, but, their spots and their timing are both very good, so the fans wind up getting a good show, even if the work isn’t very deep.

FRED YEHI vs. CHRIS DICKINSON vs. AUSTIN THEORY vs. ANTHONY HENRY

This is pretty much your typical four-way match, structured in the usual manner with two wrestlers conveniently out of the way so that the other two can work their segment, until one of them reappears at the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) time to interrupt and change things up. I expected Yehi, as a member of Catch Point, to show me some freaky mat skills, but, instead I just saw a guy in blue sneakers that liked to stomp. Dickinson was the standout, by looking like an absolute beast. At least the finish was clever, with Yehi trying to get Henry to submit to a Koji clutch (which would have been the best moment of the match, if Yehi hadn’t just been selling like he got knocked loopy), but Dickinson gets the pin by powerbombing Theory, and doesn’t even bother trying to break the hold first, which evidentially shows how much Dickinson respects Yehi’s submission skills.

JEFF COBB vs. JAKA

Both of them did some impressive looking things, but, it’s too bad that they didn’t feel like making them matter. Cobb’s delayed superplex was probably the first mind-blowing spot of the night, but, all that came out of it was Cobb showing off his agility by pulling off a standing moonsault that barely connected, and then a standing SSP that didn’t connect, so that Jaka can take over the match. The announcer tries to put over Jaka’s running knee as a potential KO strike, but it certainly doesn’t get treated like one. The fact that they’re capable of throwing each other around, and pasting each other with such horrific shots is nice, but, when they don’t put anything over, it’s a wasted effort. The German suplex spot looks right out of NOAH. There’s no sense of any story, or that they’re trying to build up to anything, and the finish doesn’t have any deeper meaning than Cobb catching Jaka with his powerslam at the right time. Cobb looks like he’d be fun in a Gary Albright sort of role, using his power and wrestling skills to punish you on the mat or to suplex you into oblivion, but, this sure isn’t the setting to show that.

TRACY WILLIAMS vs. KEITH LEE

This winds up being a nice example of size versus technique. Tracy knows he can’t match Lee’s power, so he uses his speed and superior skills to keep himself out of trouble, the hanging armbar in the corner is one of his better ideas. It’s only when he tries to get too ambitious, like trading strikes with Lee, or trying to suplex him, that Williams gets himself into trouble. For his part, Lee is serviceable, he moves well for his size, and shows off his power with the ways that he can bump around Tracy. Aside, from the finish, where he counters the armbar into his Ground Zero finisher, he doesn’t show much actual wrestling, but, he doesn’t need to. Lee lets the better wrestler do the wrestling, and sticks to what he’s best at, and the result is just fine.

ETHAN PAGE vs. DARBY ALLIN

I probably would have really enjoyed this ten years ago, but, it was a bit uneasy watching the bumps that Darby was taking. The perpendicular shot into the post was bad enough, but, after he gets cuffed it gets even worse, the back body drop looked like it could have ended with two broken wrists, and he was lucky he didn’t spike himself on his head doing that jumping rana without his arms free to protect himself. Luckily, Page keeps him relatively safe with things like the powerslam, and using a powerbomb finish, rather than a package piledriver. The match itself isn’t exactly deep, but it doesn’t need to be. The idea seemed to be for Page to close the book on this part of his career (according to his promo afterwards) and move onto bigger things, and this more than makes that point.

DREW GALLOWAY vs. MATTHEW RIDDLE

This isn’t bad or anything, but it’s a bit self-contained, they don’t seem to be trying to build to anything. Of course, this is supposed to be a grudge match, so it would make sense that they’re thinking in the moment, and not planning ahead. There are some cool moments here, especially from Galloway, like the tilt-a-whirl slam on the stage, and pulling Riddle’s shoulder into the ring apron, and stomping on his ankles, but, they’re gone as soon as they’re there and they don’t lead to anything. Any of those spots could have allowed for Drew to work an extended control segment working over the body part he’d just weakened. The finish is virtually flawless, with Riddle countering the tombstone and falling back on his MMA background to tie Galloway up and pelt him with strikes until the ref calls it. It’s the perfect finish for this sort of match, it’s just too bad the body of the match couldn’t match up.

As far as overall work goes, this isn’t quite up to the level of their first title match, but, it comes closer to it than any other EVOLVE matches that I’ve seen since. Their work is a bit more pro-style than their previous match, between their strikes exchanges, Thatcher’s heel character, and a couple of the spots like Thatcher’s vertical and butterfly suplexes. But, even some of their weaker moments, like the gutwrench into the Fujiwara armbar are still miles ahead of what anyone else on the card was doing. At its best the match is a complete mat clinic, with Thatcher and Sabre showing exactly how far ahead of the rest of the roster they appear to be, with both of them showing all kinds of counters and escapes.

While the pro-style tendencies tend to keep this from hitting the same highs as their last match, it makes up for it by giving some personality to the match, especially moments like Thatcher’s frustration getting the better of him, causing him to start yelling at the crowd. Even when it looks like Sabre is in trouble, he knows he can only be an instant away from winning if he can catch Thatcher with the right hold at the right time, an early showing of this is when Sabre is down in the corner after an onslaught from Thatcher, but Sabre takes the first opening he can to grab Thatcher’s hand and bend it backwards to give himself an opening to do more damage. That’s what the match ultimately comes down to, both of them had been trapped in the other’s primary submission and found it in them to counter or escape, it was a question of whom would find the right situation at the right time, which was Sabre getting a second Octopus hold on Thatcher, and then stomping his head to finally make him submit. The post-match angle with Page attacking Sabre is just about the perfect way to cap things off, and leave one looking forward to the next event, and it does so without taking anything away from the great match that just ended.

Conclusion: A solid undercard, capped off by a great main event, you can’t go wrong here.