EVOLVE 9: GARGANO VS. TAYLOR

July 26, 2011

Kevin Steen . . . cuts an amazing promo, and then puts on a decent performance in the ring.

Dave Finlay . . . kicks the tar out of Sami Callahan like Sami owes him money!

Johnny Gargano . . . tries to steal the show in the main event, but falls miserably short of that goal.

I suppose that Bobby Beverly vs. Eric Ryan is technically the first match, but, it’s really just a three-minute rendition of the stereotypes associated with indy and/or junior wrestling, meaning that it’s all spots, no story, and no selling. Kevin Steen runs in and lays them both out, and does an amazing borderline shoot promo, regarding “Ring of Horseshit” (where he’d just started the angle that led to his reinstatement with ROH). I have to wonder why Bobby Fish, of all people, was chosen to come out and try to rebut him. Fish in a war of words with just about anyone is the proverbial one-legged man in Jim Ross’ favorite figure of speech.

PLAYER UNO/PLAYER DOS vs. JASON GORY/FACADE

If the only thing that one wants to watch matches for are cool spots and double-team moves, then this is hard to steer clear of, but, there isn’t much else to see here. There’s no attempt by any of them to tell any sort of story to try to make the fans care about the actual outcome, there’s no sense that they’re actually working toward anything, or have a game plan for the match. Both teams just go out there and seemingly do whatever comes to mind, without any regard for what may or may not make sense to do. The only sign that they’re headed for the finish comes when P2 starts making Mortal Kombat references.

SILAS YOUNG vs. SUGAR DUNKERTON

The first match to really tell a story! It’s not the deepest story, but they make it work. Sugar wants to be taken seriously as a wrestler, while Silas only sees the basketball character, and doesn’t think Sugar is worth his time. They both do a good job playing their roles, and the match comes off well as a result, with Silas doing everything he can to show that he’s taking Sugar lightly, but, still being ready to stooge and sell like a madman when the chance arises, even something simple like a slap or a chop gets a great reaction from Silas. The only big drawback is that it never feels like Sugar has a legitimate chance of winning, the closest is the STO into the Koji clutch, and, it was so close to the ropes that it was clear that Silas wasn’t going to tap. Then again, the actual finish did see Sugar’s anger get the better of him, and wind up charging himself into the Finlay roll, which sets up the headstand moonsault, so, while Sugar certainly impressed in the right ways, he still wound up showing why he’s not on the same level as Silas quite yet.

PINKIE SANCHEZ vs. LINCE DORADO

If Lince wasn’t so hit-and-miss about his selling, then this would probably have been pretty good. It’s fun to watch Pinkie shark after Lince’s knee, with the idea of grounding the high-flyer. The sneer, and overall mean streak, never fades away. But, it’s not just the knee work that makes it fun, Pinkie counters Lince into a gutbuster, and then quickly follows up with a backbreaker and then a near fall from a moonsault (yes, he’s a Mutoh fan) to show how he’s able to think on his feet. But, Lince just doesn’t feel like playing along, aside from a slowed down charge, and a couple moments of hesitation, it never seems like the knee being worked over is really hampering him all that much, and even worse when the finish is Pinkie winning with a figure four. Lince whips out the SSP for a near fall for seemingly no reason, wiping out on the spot and selling his knee would have been a great way to hand the match back to Pinkie to go to the finish, and him hitting the move, and not being able to cover right away because of the knee would have been even better. Instead, Lince just does his stuff, instead of following Pinkie’s lead and having a good match.

CHEECH/CLOUDY vs. CALEB KONLEY/SCOTT REED

Well, this winds up being better than the previous tag match simply because they at least took a stab at structuring the match. Konley and Reed work over Cloudy and build up to Cheech getting the hot tag, but, Cloudy isn’t very sympathetic, and, Konley and Reed aren’t good enough to pick up the pieces, so, the tag to Cheech doesn’t garner much response. The one nice touch is that Konley and Reed are smart enough to try to prevent Cheech and Cloudy from doing their bigger tandem spots, rather than having to suck them up and blow them off. Cloudy gets pinned and then Cheech turns on him in almost the exact same way he did in 2CW the year before, and that gets a bigger crowd reaction than anything during the match.

Steen decides to spare everyone from having to sit through more than thirty seconds of Bobby Fish vs. Jon Davis by running in and hitting Fish to cause the match to get thrown out, and in turn we get a three-way street fight.

BOBBY FISH vs. JON DAVIS vs. KEVIN STEEN

You can’t say that Steen treated his one-off EVOLVE appearance like a day off, he had his flying shoes on for Davis, especially the tackle at the end, and he went above and beyond to put over Fish’s heel hook. But, this was your typical three-way match, with all of the usual structural and logical issues, starting with how this match could even happen, since the first thing that Davis did was hit the ref. There are a couple of smart touches, like Steen hitting Fish with the pop-up powerbomb and then going for the sharpshooter, and the finish sees Davis take advantage of Steen’s foul to Fish, and finish Bobby off himself, but, between the short length, and the usual three-way issues, it never got out of first gear.

JOHN SILVER vs. TONY NESE

It was nice to see that the live crowd was so into this, but, I can’t say that it did much for me. But, then again, the New York crowd was already familiar with them. The extended counter sequence goes on a bit too long, and winds up making them both look too incompetent to hit even something basic, rather than them appearing to be equally skilled. There are a few nice moments from Tony, like his Albright-style German suplex, and he adds a nice touch when he misses a quebrada, and then stuns Silver with a head kick before hitting second one for a near fall. The finish is fine, with Tony missing the 450, and falling prey to Silver’s finisher, but other than those few things, this looks more like them practicing in the gym, than it does something with a life of its own.

DAVE FINLAY vs. SAMI CALLAHAN

Aside from the goofy quasi-Hulk-up when it seemed like Sami was going pass out in the Indian Deathlock, only to spring to life to get the ropes, this is all good! This is easily the stiffest, and angriest, match that I’ve ever seen in EVOLVE. And, it’ s not just stiffness for the hell of it, their selling is top notch, and Finlay adds all kinds of smart touches, to show how much distance there really is between him and Sami. Sami tries to get the jump on Finlay at the bell, and runs right into a stiff forearm shot. It’s a very simple spot, but it sets the tone for how the match plays out, with Sami trying to get something going, and even having some success with some insane chops, but then Finlay is able to use something simple and turn the tide. Some may not care for the finish, but it works on its own level. It certainly doesn’t say much about the Celtic cross, when he plants Sami with two in a row, and Sami doesn’t stay down. But, Sami tells Finlay that he’s not staying down unless Finlay kills him, and Finlay obliges with his tombstone. This is a virtually perfect example of story over style, they don’t need crazy spots, or overly contrived sequences to make the match work, Finlay and Sami accomplish far more, by doing far less. ***1/2

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. CHUCK TAYLOR

This would be a poor main event all on its own, but, following Finlay/Sami only makes it look worse. This is yet another case of them being more concerned with spots than with telling a story, they both do a ton of things, but, very little of it seems to matter. The only spots that seem to get put over in an appropriate manner are Taylor’s hanging DDT to the floor, and even that winds up being ruined by Johnny suddenly springing back to life, and the Awful Waffle, which Taylor only needs one of to keep Johnny down, and when Johnny does it first, Taylor’s kickout is explained by the fact that Johnny didn’t get all of it. That’s two spots in a twenty minute match.

But, other than those couple of things, there’s no sense that they’re trying to tell any sort of story, or build up to anything. Johnny arm work goes nowhere, it vanishes after Taylor counters the Lawn dart into the reverse DDT, and, once he hits the DDT, Taylor stops selling. Neither Taylor’s single leg crab nor the Garga-no escape is treated any better. Johnny and Chuck do their stuff, and they steal each other’s stuff, and take things home when it’s time, and, they do so before they go crazy with the big spots, so it’s not like they’re clueless, but, comparing how much they do, with how much of what they do actually matters, and it’s all the more frightening that this got the main event slot over Finlay.

Conclusion: The two big reasons to get this are Finlay/Sami and the novelty of seeing Steen, but, the at-times surprisingly solid undercard is a bonus.