One of the most exciting things about WrestleMania weekend (particularly this year!) is the buffet of non-WWE offerings taking place all weekend long. Here on the Dr. Keith Presents show, we certainly love our indy wrestling and Alan is joined this week by two indy wrestling experts in Mike Falcone and a returning guest from our early years: Travis McNeill (T-MACK to some!!!).
In a show that flies by, the lads run the gamete of everything going down in Dallas during Wrestlemania week from Lio Rush’s big title match opportunity in ROH to the Ryder Cup-esque goings on in EVOLVE at EDDIE DEEN’S RANCH, and of course, the amazing hodge podge card at WrestleCon.
The collection of talent on display over the three days is off the charts, the best in the world are converging on Dallas! All the big matches, all the storyline possibilities, it’s all covered this week on a MASSIVE 2-hour DKP!!! CHECK IT!!!!
During the match, Page would offer to shake Yehi’s hand, yet would end up being chopped. Ethan Page wins with the Package Piledriver, Page and Yehi do end up shaking hands post match before Anthony Nese comes out and attacks Page from behind with a chair.Nese says fat guys like Page don’t belong in a wrestling ring. Caleb Konley joins Nese in the ring while Page is carried out by the refs. Konley says he’s wrestling Thatcher tonight finally after a year.
TJ Perkins beat Tommaso Ciampa
“F TNA” chants to start the match as Perkins laughs. Ciampa hits the Project Ciampa, but TJP kicks out at two, Ciampa goes for a second one yet TJP escapes to put Ciampa in his Figure Four Deathlock to get the win.
Matt Riddle beat Chris Hero
Hero hit a spike piledriver, pulls off his elbow pad and strikes Riddle right in the temple yet Riddle kicks out. Hero goes for another piledriver yet Riddle counters with a triangle submission forcing Hero to tap.
– EVOLVE tag title match is supposed to be up next but Gargano comes out and tells the crowd that Galloway’s flight from Orlando has been delayed and ask for more time. Caleb Konley attacks Gargano from behind and demands for Thatcher to come out so they can have their match right now. Thatcher is on his way out but Sami Callihan cheap shots him from behind.
EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher beat Caleb Konley for The Evolve Championship
A lot of interference from Andrea during this match before Thatcher got her out of the way. The finish saw Thatcher putting Konley in a armbar to retain the title.
– Matt Riddle is out to tell Thatcher at least he didn’t have to cheat tonight. He calls Thatcher trash and wants a rematch for the title April 1st in Dallas. Thatcher agrees and Riddle says he’s not gonna cheap shot Thatcher, instead he hits him with a jumping knee and knocks Thatcher out.
Sami Callihan beat Tracy Williams
Callihan wins with the Cinderblock Forearm to the back of the neck.
Zack Sabre Jr. beat Drew Gulak
Sabre’s boot came undone so he just took it off, Gulak capitalized by body slamming Sabres ankle into the ropes 5 times. Sabre and Gulak exchange roll-ups, Sabre counters the wins with a unique submission.
– Chris Hero is out to say when he hears Best In The World he doesn’t think about Zack Sabre Jr. He thinks about Bryan Danielson, who he’s beat. He thinks about CM Punk, who he’s beat. Hero says Sabre can’t claim to be the best unless he has beaten him, which he hasn’t. Sabre says he’ll see him in Dallas. Gulak wants the mic and tells Hero that he shouldn’t be worried about Sabre he should be worried about Catchpoint.
Evolve Tag Team Champions Drew Galloway and Johnny Gargano beat Team Tremendous
Some great action here as expected, and the finish saw Galloway hitting the Future Shock DDT on Dan Berry to retain the titles in their first defense.
Gabe Sapolsky announcd Tuesday that Kota Ibushi will be part of the three WWN-related “supershows” over WrestleMania weekend in Dallas, TX.
Ibushi, a former DDT and New Japan star, will return after a neck injury in two weeks. The current free agent has talked about starting his own group in Japan, and there has been rumors he would appear on the WrestleMania weekend shows for the past week.
On Twitter, Sapolsky announced he would be at all three shows: Evolve on 4/1 and 4/2, and the WWN Super Show on 4/2.
Ibushi has already made it clear he’s interested in appearing in WWE’s summer cruiserweight tournament. Evolve, WWN, and WWE has a relationship with WWE talent doing autograph signings on Evolve shows and William Regal has already been announced as being part of two upcoming March New York shows doing interaction with talent.
Ibushi is one of the world’s most spectacular performers and had the 2015 match of the year award winner at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4 against Shinsuke Nakamura.
On Monday, the relationship between WWE, WWN, and Evolve Wrestling continued to develop as WWN announced that NXT General Manager William Regal will appear at Evolve’s next two shows in New York.
He will be available for pictures and autographs at both the March 19th event in Queens, NY, and the following night in Brooklyn. Regal will have an undisclosed role at both shows as well.
Regal first made an appearance at the Evolve 54 show in Orlando, held the same weekend as the Royal Rumble, where he helped set up the Evolve title match between Timothy Thatcher and former UFC fighter Matt Riddle, who WWE is said to be interested in. It’s fair to assume that Regal would be looking at talent for the Global Cruiserweight series scheduled to take place on the WWE Network this summer.
EVOLVE Wrestling held the second event of the weekend on their way to crowning their first Tag Team Champions. WWE COO Triple H was in attendance as William Regal was set to make an announcement along with NXT tag team Jason Jordan and Chad Gable signed autographs. Regal made an appearance during intermission which included EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher and Matt Riddle where Riddle appeared to have challenged the champion to a future match.
– 2nd Chance Tag Team Tournament First Round Match: Team Tremendous (Dan Barry & Bill Carr) defeat The Premier Athlete Brand (Anthony Nese & Caleb Konley w/So Cal Val & Andrea), pinning Nese with “Book em, Danno!” The Premier Athlete Brand attack Tremendous after the match. Konley however leaves, stating he only cares about the EVOLVE championship. Peter Kaasa chases Anthony Nese away.
– Style Battle 2016 Round Robin Tournament Match: Matt Riddle submits Yehi to an inveted heel hook. Riddle is now 2-0 and Yehi is 0-2.
– Tommaso Ciampa pins Ethan Page with a running knee strike to the face. This was Ciampa’s EVOLVE debut.
– 2nd Chance Tag Team Tournament First Round Match: Catch Point (Drew Gulak & TJ Perkins w/”Hot Sauce” Tracy Willams & Matt Riddle) defeat Zack Sabre Jr. and Sami Callihan when Perkins submits Callihan in a cross armbreaker after a Detonation Kick. Frustrated by the loss, Callihan shoves Sabre Jr. and challenged him to a singles match tomorrow. Sabre Jr. accepted.
– Style Battle 2016 Round Robin Tournament Match: “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams w/Drew Gulak submits Peter Kaasa to a crossface. Williams is now 2-0 and Kaasa is now 0-2. Tomorrow night, the winner of Williams vs. Riddle wins the Style Battle tournament.
– EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Final Round Match: Johnny Gargano & Drew Galloway defeat the Bravado Bros. (Harlem & Lancelot Bravado) when Gargano submitted Harlem to the Garga-No Escape.
– EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Final Round Match: Heroes Eventually Die (Chris Hero & Tommy End) defeat Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta) with a Death Blow/knee strike combo to Romero.
The EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament finals take place Sunday in the same building with Gargano & Galloway take on Heroes Eventually Die for the Evolve tag team titles.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including tons of phone calls on WWE, Sheamus, Raw and more! Then, Gabe Sapolsky joins us to talk the EVOLVE year-end sale, what’s going on with EVOLVE and WWE, the departure of Solomon Crowe and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
When I was granted the opportunity to review some Evolve shows from the last year or so, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m always looking to review wrestling from all promotions around the world, especially from ones I haven’t seen. While I have usually read the results from each Evolve show, I haven’t actually seen one live. What I do know about the promotion is that it’s been the stomping ground for many wrestlers that have made their way to other promotions, most notably WWE, as you’ll see in these results. These shows that I’ll be reviewing for the next few weeks are far enough in the past that it’ll be interesting to see who competed on these shows and where they are now.
Some notes on the blu ray itself before I start on the show. I can say that the blu ray I was given for review was very well produced. The disc and art cover looks great, and the show looked excellent in high definition. I wish the audio was a bit better, but it wasn’t bad. Very well produced blu ray in terms of presentation and production.
This is Evolve 34, which took place on September 13, 2014 in Elmhurst, New York.
Johnny Gargano comes out to start Evolve 34. Apparently, Caleb Konley beat him and told him that he wasn’t that man that he used to be. He also mentioned that he doesn’t like Rich Swann due to their past, but when Konley and Nese jumped Swann he knew that he had to prove to himself that he was still the man around here, so he wanted to wrestle tonight in order to prove to himself that he’s the Johnny Gargano of old. He finishes off by saying the road to the Evolve title begins now.
Johnny Gargano vs. Anthony Nese
Su Yung, Trent Baretta and Mr. A accompanied Nese, as they’re all a part ofa group along with Caleb Konley called the Premiere Athlete Brand. Mr. A looks like a bigger Big Bubba, if you can imagine that. At one point Nese had Gargano on the ropes and Baretta took the opportunity to take a selfie for all his Snapchat buddies. This is a very 2015 show here. These two had good chemistry, with some great back and forth towards the end. Nese dodged a swipe off the apron by doing a cartwheel. That’s new! Nese went for a one arm powerbomb but Gargano countered with a roll up for the win. Good opener.
Mr. A laid out Gargano after the match, but Rich Swann ran in and laid him out with a lariat. He also took out Beretta, who was injured with his knee in a cast, and then went for Su Yung but Nese recovered and laid him out, posting him. Gargano took care of the heels with a suicide dive off the top rope, but the damage was done. This would play into Swann’s title match against Drew Galloway later in the night.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Timothy Thatcher
This is my first time seeing Zack Sabre Jr. after hearing a ton of good things about him. These two had a really cool technical style match. Just a ton of mat work throughout, including working on body parts, which was really well done by both men. Bending the fingers always gets a pop out of me as well. Wonder if they saw the AJ/Suzuki match from a few months before this. Thatcher eventually got tired of mat work and laid out Sabre with a trio of gutwrench suplexes. Sabre countered back, applied an armbar/hammerlock combo and started stomping on his head for the submission. Very good, unique match and the best of the entire show.
Uhaa Nation vs. Roderick Strong
The future Apollo Crews really stands out as a very unique wrestler. He is not only physically opposing, but the finesse he has in the ring is extraordinary given his frame. Guys his size could probably do what he does, but he makes it look effortless which isn’t always easy to pull off. Uhaa got the control until Roderick Strong used the referee to push him out to the floor. Strong tied for his boston crab submission after Uhaa tried for his gorilla press/standing shooting star press combo but Uhaa escaped then hit the combo for the win. A good, solid match.
Ricochet vs. Caleb Konley
Ricochet’s Open the Freedom Gate title was not on the line here. In fact, Ricochet made sure to have the announcer repeat this before the match started, which Konley did not like at all. Konley has a weird highlight pattern in his hair. It’s distracting, but hey, he’s a heel. Ricochet is so beyond the talent level of anyone on the indy scene it’s really amazing WWE passed on him. It’s not only he does high flying stuff, he has the charisma to boot and has an amazing confidence level not many people in the industry have. Again, he’s such a special talent. Konley looked good here, even hitting a Regalplex at one point. Ricochet was going for a springboard hurricanrana, but Konley cut him off and countered with a falcon arrow off the top rope for the surprise win. Hey, after all that talk about a non title match, maybe he’s in line for one now! Good stuff here as well. Konley looked good and I’ve already said my thing on Ricochet.
AR Fox comes out for an interview. He says he wants an Open the Freedom Gate title match. This brings out the Bravado Brothers, whose gimmick is that they are Grandma’s boys while wearing nice sweaters. They say they take offense to him saying that he and Cima were the greatest tag team in the company, because they are. Fox disagrees, saying that they’re the most boring. They don’t like that, saying that they have a surprise for Fox, and it’s none other than Moose.
AR Fox vs. Moose
I liked this match. It wasn’t a great back and forth match like others on this show, but it told a good, solid story. AR Fox used his high flying abilities to take out Moose, but when Moose countered he’d use nothing but big power moves. Fox went for a senton at one point but Moose grabbed him and powerbombed him into the ropes. Ouch! Fox also hit what I think was a springboard inverted moonsault. I’d never really seen a move like that before, but it worked. All of this was good stuff until the Bravado Brothers ran in for the DQ. This protects both guys, but the finish was still kinda lame.
The Colony, consisting of Fire Ant and Silver Ant, ran in, leading to the next match…
Open the United Gate tag champions The Bravado Brothers vs. The Colony
This was ok. Nothing wrong with it, but never really got going. They worked on Fire Ant for the heat. Silver Ant got the hot tag, and from there it devolved into a four way. Silver Ant had Harlem Bravado in the Chikara Special, but Harlem grabbed his mask. Lance came in and grabbed it as well, distracting Silver Ant long enough for Harlem to low blow him and pin him.
Evolve Champion Drew Galloway vs. Rich Swann
The injured Swann, who came out here not in the best condition due to the attack early in the show, jumped Galloway at the bell. Galloway countered, and they ended up having a fine back and forth match. Not awesome, but very competent and both guys looked good. Galloway tried for the Future Shock DDT at one point but as they fell Swann countered into a pin for a nearfall. That was cool. The Premiere Athlete Brand all came out again to interfere, but Galloway wiped them out with a senton. Swann went for a springboard off the ropes but Galloway grabbed him and put him in a sleeper choke. Swann tried valiantly to escape, but Drew got him to the floor and Swann submitted. Nice match that told a good story.
Drew grabs a mic after the bout and gave Swann props, saying that he fought like a man and he’ll get his rematch. He put over Evolve, saying that he’ll defend the title anywhere, anytime. He won’t lead you, but he asks to walk by his side for this revolution.
Final Thoughts:
Not a knockdown, drag out awesome show, but a good show highlighted by some great athleticism and good storytelling. I like the concept of having two shows per weekend as you use one show to build to the other, and that’s what this was here while also having some good wrestling on the card as well. This was my first Evolve show, and I’m looking forward to watching more, as I’ll review Evolve 35 in the near future. Stay tuned!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns tonight with tons of news to talk about — Raw from Monday, Seth Rollins’ losing streak, all the matches and angles, original Mistico update, EVOLVE and Sami Zayn and WWE, New Japan results, latest MMA news and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
WWE has agreed to send Sami Zayn to the Evolve live shows on Saturday and Sunday night in Queens, NY, and Deer Park, NY, for non-wrestling appearances.
Zayn, currently out of action due to shoulder surgery, will be doing an autograph signing and posing for pictures with fans both nights. He will also be doing something in the ring but it will only be for the live audience as they are not allowing him to appear on the iPPV portion of the show it is believed.
WWE is working with Evolve as a place for talent WWE is interested in to work before they go to WWE, as WWE doesn’t want to sign talent if at all possible that has been on national cable or can be merchandised in some form based on prior agreements.
Seth Rollins is scheduled to appear on ESPN Sports Center at 9 p.m. tomorrow night . Jonathan Coachman, who will be on with Rollins, has teased a major announcement regarding WWE and ESPN within the next 48 hours.
