Tag: evolve recap

EVOLVE 83 results: Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle

Posted on by Joseph Currier

EVOLVE closed out its two-show weekend in New York with EVOLVE 83 taking place in Brooklyn on Sunday night. Here are the results:

– Ethan Page defeated Austin Theory with the Spinning Dwayne.

Page hit his finisher out of nowhere to get the pin, but this was a decisive victory for him. He only came out with one Gatekeeper (Blaster McMassive) after the other one (Flex Rumblecrunch) was written off on Saturday and posted that he’s leaving pro wrestling due to injuries taking their toll.

Theory has aided Darby Allin in his feud against Page, including getting involved in their last man standing match at EVOLVE 82. Allin is out of action for a while after a shovel shot fractured his elbow in that match. Priscilla Kelly once again came out to ringside here, though her intentions weren’t made any more clear.

– Stokely Hathaway and Tracy Williams made their way to the ring for a special announcement. Williams said that Catch Point always spends more time talking and bickering than fighting, and that management wasn’t his strong suit. Hathaway then announced that, as of today, he will be representing Catch Point.

That brought out Fred Yehi, Chris Dickinson, and Jaka. Yehi said this wasn’t what he signed up for and quit the stable, while Dickinson and Jaka agreed to stay on. Dickinson mentioned that he was still with the group as long as it remained about competition. Williams said that it was as the two agreed to face off.

– Tracy Williams defeated Chris Dickinson by making him submit to the crossface.

Dickinson had the advantage following a striking sequence near the finish. He connected with an enzuigiri and went for a springboard until Williams caught him in a crossface and submitted him. They did the Catch Point handshake after it was over, while Jaka called out ACH for the next match.

– Jaka defeated ACH after hitting a tiger bomb.

ACH taking the loss here was surprising, though it was probably the right call. It wouldn’t have made much sense for both Jaka and Dickinson to lose after winning the EVOLVE tag titles on Saturday. They had a good back and forth match as neither was able to stay on top for long. ACH seemed to be going for a brainbuster, but Jaka was able to get out of it and hit the tiger bomb for the win.

– Keith Lee defeated David Starr with a powerslam.

While these two definitely have a better match in them, this connected with the crowd as much as anything else on the show and was really good. Lee controlled most of the match and got a needed win. Starr did well the few times he was on offense, with the crowd giving him a good ovation and chanting “Please come back.”

– Kyle O’Reilly defeated Fred Yehi by submission as he locked in an armbar.

They were clearly trying to have a great match and mostly delivered. It may have come off even better with a crowd that was more responsive. They predictably utilized a lot of striking and mat wrestling, with Yehi being presented as nearly equal to O’Reilly. He evaded O’Reilly’s armbar attempts until getting hit with a brainbuster and being unable to fight it off any longer.

– EVOLVE Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Lio Rush to retain his title after trapping Rush in a pin.

Rush was able to wrestle with Sabre early until the champion took over. Rush was finally able to make a comeback and get some momentum towards the end. He got a big near fall off of a standing Spanish fly and a frog splash, then mostly stayed on offense until Sabre trapped him in a pin to retain in a really good match.

Page and the remaining Gatekeeper walked out to the stage after the match was over. Page mentioned Sabre ending the other Gatekeeper’s career at EVOLVE 82. He said that he could have brought him out with a sling, but fired him instead. A new Gatekeeper then debuted and tried to attack Sabre. Both Gatekeepers ended up laying out Sabre as Page said that he was going to take his title next month.

– WWN Champion Matt Riddle defeated Drew Galloway in an I Quit match to retain his title after Galloway gave up while Riddle had the Bromission applied.

The stipulation predictably didn’t help here. Riddle took a lot of damage, including a short piledriver, three Future Shock DDTs in succession, and a Future Shock DDT on a chair but wouldn’t give up. Galloway grabbed a rope from under the ring, tied Riddle’s arms behind his back in the ring ropes, and started punching him.

Riddle refused to give up, with Galloway turning his attention to the referee to continue the storyline that he believed there was a conspiracy against him. Riddle kicked Galloway and the referee untied him. Galloway later got a sledgehammer from under the ring and low blowed Riddle when he tried to stop him from using it. Galloway again turned his attention to the referee, then Riddle locked in the Bromission to win.

Williams, Dickinson, Jaka, and Hathaway had watched most of the match from the stage. They entered the ring when it was over to ask if Riddle was with them. He laughed at Hathaway and said that he wasn’t before being attacked from behind by Galloway. Hathaway told Riddle that he was getting what he deserved as the members of Catch Point left. Galloway once again got the sledgehammer, but Keith Lee made the save.

Hathaway was in Lee’s face when Lee pushed him into a Bro to Sleep from Riddle. Lee and Riddle fist-bumped to end the show after Lee placed the WWN title on Riddle’s shoulder to make it known that he had his sights set on the championship.

EVOLVE 82 results: Kyle O’Reilly makes his return

Posted on by JJ Williams

– WWN Champion Matt Riddle defeated Timothy Thatcher (w/ Stokely Hathaway) to retain his title

The crowd was taunting “Trashy Tim” much more than usual tonight. Ground work and holds by Thatcher kept the explosive Riddle controlled early on. After some ground work of his own, Riddle was able to score a victory over the former EVOLVE Champion with the Bromission to the dismay of Hathaway.

– ACH defeated Austin Theory

This was an Impressive showing by the teenager Austin Theory against ACH, who is consistently at a top level. ACH won with a brainbuster.

– Drew Galloway vs. EVOLVE Champion Zack Sabre Jr. did not officially happen

Galloway was worried that referee DA Brewer would cost him this match like Galloway claimed happened the last time he was in La Boom, so he destroyed Brewer with a headbutt. Sabre ran out to confront Galloway and the fight was on until Ethan Page and The Gatekeepers got involved.

Page was holding Sabre as Galloway made his way to the back to retrieve a sledgehammer, which Galloway wanted to use on the EVOLVE Championship. Keith Lee made the save by plowing through both Gatekeepers and running off Galloway. Page and one Gatekeeper escaped, yet Sabre was able to catch the other one and proceeded to attack his arm with a vicious hold.

– Kyle O’Reilly defeated Keith Lee

The people love Keith Lee in EVOLVE, which set the tone for this match. The referee stopped this at one point due to a low blow on Lee, but the big man asked for the match to be restarted. After the two battled some more, O’Reilly hit a brainbuster and scored the pinfall victory. The crowd was not happy with Lee losing here.

– Chris Dickinson & Jaka defeated Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi to win the EVOLVE Tag Team Championship

Both teams were representing Catch Point and had an excellent match. It took everything Jaka and Dickinson had to put away the former champions. At one point Jaka cleared the guard rail and ended up in the front row on a dive. A huge release powerbomb by Dickinson finished it off and we had new champions.

The two teams shook hands in a show of respect before Larry Dallas appeared to stir the pot, insinuating that Williams was negotiating with Stokely Hathaway to represent Catch Point. Fred Yehi had enough, and snapped and destroyed Dallas with a series of German suplexes. Dallas stayed down in the ring so long that the ring crew rolled him up in the canvas they were changing to prepare for our last man standing main event and simply carried him away.

– Ethan Page defeated Darby Allin in a last man standing match

They had a brutal last man standing match. They fought all over ringside, including Allin doing a stage dive. There were chairs, a shovel, a body bag, and thumbtacks all used in this one.

A Gatekeeper, Austin Theory, and Priscilla Kelly were all caught in the crossfire during the match. Page was busted open and it only made him more vicious. Allin took an incredible amount of punishment, including a package piledriver, a powerbomb while trapped inside a thumbtack-filled body bag, a shovel shot, and multiple chair shots before Page was declared the winner.

EVOLVE 77 recap: Chris Hero bids farewell to independent wrestling

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Image: @JJWilliamsWON

Chris Hero’s last moments in an independent wrestling ring were spent telling the audience not to underestimate how far a little support can go.

It was a timely message given where Hero stands in his career. He had what he hopes to be his final independent match ever against Zack Sabre Jr. on Saturday afternoon at EVOLVE 77. The match itself was as predictably great as you would expect. It was indie wrestling’s standard-bearer facing off against the person who may now be the best unsigned talent in the world.

Hero passed the torch to Sabre at the end of their excellent main event. The match was great, but the finish brought it up to another level and made it an early contender for EVOLVE’s Match of the Year. Sabre withstood a barrage of offense before he finally got the win.

He survived a massive tombstone piledriver, kicked out of a Pedigree at one, and transitioned a Gotch piledriver into a submission after Hero had already dropped him on his head twice.

The animosity between the two ended after the match as they both put each other over. Speeches like the one Hero gave have become commonplace with WWE signing so many indie wrestlers, but either because it felt so genuinely sincere or because Hero returning to NXT seemed so in doubt after he had already been released by the company previously, this felt like something special.

Before mentioning the need for support in both wrestling and life, Hero brought up that he’s only getting this opportunity to return to WWE because of what’s happened in his time away from the company. He claimed that it’s not only because of the matches he’s had, but because of how the fans have supported him and the wrestlers he’s gotten a chance to work with.

An angle to set up the next challenger for the EVOLVE Championship was done in the middle of the speech, with Sabre and ACH both wanting a shot at Timothy Thatcher’s title. Thatcher’s manager Stokely Hathaway tried to deny them both a shot, but Thatcher came to the ring and pointed at Sabre to indicate his next challenger. Sabre told ACH that he would give him the first shot once he wins.

Sabre’s win in the main event was his second of the night, as he also opened the show by picking up the victory for his team in a six-man tag. An angle with Ethan Page and The Gatekeepers played off of their continuing feud with Darby Allin, and what was originally supposed to be a singles match between Allin and Barrett Brown saw them team up against Page and his Gatekeepers in a handicap match.

But the odds were evened pretty quickly. Sabre joined the match to thank Allin for his help in fending off The Gatekeepers last night. The match was incredibly fun, with Sabre showing off his aggressive side that would continue in the main event and Allin defying death as usual.

At one point in the match, Allin even hit a Coffin Drop off of a pillar onto a pile of bodies. Sabre got his first submission victory of the night when he tapped out one of the Gatekeepers (Blaster McMassive).

The night’s other best match was a wild brawl between Matt Riddle and DUSTIN. They fought their way through the crowd and expertly utilized weapons to enhance the no disqualification match. DUSTIN suplexed Riddle onto the merch table without it breaking, so he followed up by hitting a dive through a table later.

DUSTIN tried to cover Riddle in the ring, but he kicked out at one. Following a DDT onto a chair by DUSTIN, Riddle came back with a suplex of his own through a massive pile of chairs before finally covering DUSTIN after hitting a flurry of strikes.

Thatcher was able to find a new challenger in the main event segment only after defeating Jeff Cobb to retain his title. The two had a solid match with good arm work in the end that resulted in Thatcher trapping Cobb in a pin for the win.

But their match had the difficulty of following Riddle vs. DUSTIN, while also continuing the trend of Thatcher working his usual style in a title match when the crowd wanted to see something different. They were clearly into Cobb and would’ve liked to see him on offense for more of the match, giving him a good ovation after.

ACH also got another nice reception in his home state for his second EVOLVE match. After losing against Riddle last night, ACH was able to get his first win for the company after beating Fred Yehi with a brainbuster.

Yehi’s loss was the only one that Catch Point suffered on the night. After Laredo Kid got a bit of shine early in their match, Tracy Williams quickly submitted him with the crossface after leveling him with a forearm.

Chris Dickinson & Jaka were also victorious against Jason Kincaid & Sammy Guevara, before Larry Dallas again tried to stir up trouble after the match by asking if Dickinson & Jaka should get a shot at Williams & Yehi’s titles. The segment ended with a strange promo from Kincaid that left Catch Point having to stop Dickinson from attacking him.

Final Thoughts —

This was an excellent show. Hero’s farewell would be must-see regardless of what else happened, but the rest of the card delivered as well. Riddle vs. DUSTIN and the six-man tag opener were the other standouts on the show.

Hero’s exit leaves a hole on EVOLVE shows going forward that will be impossible to fill. The company has still been able to maintain its quality with the loss of so many other wrestlers, but EVOLVE is definitely still entering a new era without Hero, Drew Gulak, Johnny Gargano, and others.

The wrestlers they’ve added recently are talented, but it remains to be seen if they can consistently put on the level of matches that those guys did.

EVOLVE 77 results —

  • Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Chris Hero
  • EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Jeff Cobb to retain his title
  • Matt Riddle defeated DUSTIN in a no DQ match
  • ACH defeated Fred Yehi
  • Chris Dickinson & Jaka defeated Jason Kincaid & Sammy Guevara
  • Tracy Williams defeated Laredo Kid
  • Darby Allin, Barrett Brown & Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Ethan Page & The Gatekeepers

EVOLVE 76 recap: Chris Hero’s farewell weekend begins

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Image: @JJWilliamsWON

Friday night was both the beginning of Royal Rumble weekend and EVOLVE’s two-day farewell to Chris Hero in San Antonio. Unfortunately for Hero, things didn’t quite go as planned.

Hero’s main event against Keith Lee was affected by the ropes breaking two different times. The top rope broke just after they had their feeling out process to begin the match, with Hero unharmed after being sent into it. The middle rope survived a bit longer, but succumbed under the pressure of Lee as he fell onto Hero. It was the second time that particular rope had issues after also breaking earlier in the night due to what seemed to be shoddy ring conditions.

It was likely the best match you’ll ever see with two different rope mishaps. Hero again proved how smart he is as a worker by getting the most out of a situation that would’ve totally ruined the match for most other wrestlers.

There was a great improvisational spot where Hero got the ref to make it a no countout match after the ropes broke, then had him start counting after he had laid out Lee on the outside. After Lee got a massive near fall off of a powerbomb, Hero hit some of his trademark elbow strikes and won the match with the Gotch piledriver.

Hero didn’t wait until tomorrow to start passing his EVOLVE torch. He put over Lee in his post-match promo, saying that no one will stop him once he develops the killer instinct that Hero has found over the last three years. They shook hands, hugged, and posed on what was still left of the ropes to close the show — but that was after Zack Sabre Jr. made his way to the ring.

Sabre told Hero that his send-off doesn’t end until Sabre beats him in EVOLVE. He said that Kassius Ohno could head off to Florida after that. The two will meet tomorrow in what is Hero’s final independent wrestling match before going back to WWE.

Earlier in the night, Sabre showed an aggressive side of him that’s rarely seen against Ethan Page. Sabre took out Page and his Gatekeepers before the match even began. The storyline between the two was that Page had beaten Sabre in their match last November.

They had a good match here with their styles meshing better than they did last time. Sabre appeared to have won after countering Page’s spinning Dwayne into a triangle choke. Page tapped out, but Sabre wouldn’t release the hold. Darby Allin hit the ring to stop The Gatekeepers from breaking it up, which led to the referee reversing the decision and giving Page the win by disqualification due to Sabre not breaking the submission.

Despite Hero’s exit, EVOLVE’s weekend might ultimately be close to as remembered for its debuts. Lee got over well in his first EVOLVE match. Being able to work around the ring problems likely endeared him to the crowd even more than his match against Hero otherwise would have. It was also the debut of another former Ring of Honor wrestler, with ACH standing out in what was likely the best match of the night against Matt Riddle.

ACH got a very good reaction in his home state before falling to Riddle. A great striking sequence led to Riddle hitting the Bro to Sleep and fisherman buster to get the win. Both Lee and ACH are excellent additions to a roster that is continuing to add talent after so many EVOLVE regulars were signed by WWE in 2016.

After losing by submission against Jason Kincaid earlier in the night, DUSTIN attacked Riddle after his win to build to their no DQ match tomorrow. DUSTIN laid him out with a DDT onto a steel chair and mentioned doing it for Drew Galloway, who will make his return to EVOLVE next month and likely pick up where he left off with his crusade against the company.

Before the ring finally gave way in the main event, the Catch Point team of Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi successfully defended their EVOLVE tag team titles against Timothy Thatcher & Jeff Cobb. The challengers were thrown together in advance of Thatcher defending his EVOLVE title against Cobb on tomorrow’s show.

The finish to what was a strong tag match saw Thatcher submit to Yehi’s Koji clutch. Larry Dallas came to the ring to stir up trouble after the match by interviewing Thatcher’s manager Stokely Hathaway, who blamed the loss on Cobb and claimed that Cobb had given up on the team. Cobb referenced coming up together in wrestling with Thatcher and training with him in California before vowing to take his title tomorrow.

EVOLVE 76 was bookended by issues with the ring, as the middle rope broke for the first time in the night’s opener. Jaka defeated Peter Kaasa in a rushed finish after Kaasa’s moonsault attempt broke the middle rope in a scary moment, though Gabe Sapolsky tweeted that Kaasa is doing okay. Jaka hit a sit-out powerbomb to get the win.

Jaka’s partner (and the other most recent addition to Catch Point) wasn’t victorious in his match. Darby Allin got a win over Chris Dickinson after seemingly defying death all match as he avoided Dickinson’s offense. Allin fought off Dickinson attempting to throw him across the ring and transitioned it into a pin to pick up the victory. Catch Point had to stop Dickinson from attacking Allin after the match.

Final Thoughts —

Despite the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the main event, this felt like the typical EVOLVE show. The undercard was good and had solid matches that were easy to watch. The last few matches all delivered to some extent, though Hero vs. Lee wasn’t at the level of what the two could produce without the problems with the ring.

Tomorrow afternoon’s show should be noteworthy with Hero having his final indie match against Sabre, as well as an EVOLVE Championship match between Thatcher and Cobb.

EVOLVE 76 results —

  • Chris Hero defeated Keith Lee
  • EVOLVE Tag Team Champions Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi defeated EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher & Jeff Cobb to retain their titles
  • Matt Riddle defeated ACH
  • Ethan Page defeated Zack Sabre Jr. by DQ
  • Jason Kincaid defeated DUSTIN
  • Darby Allin defeated Chris Dickinson
  • Jaka defeated Peter Kaasa