NJPW has announced the full lineup for Saturday’s New Japan Showdown episode of Strong.
In the main event, Minoru Suzuki will take on Fred Yehi in the first singles meeting between the two.
In the second match of the night, Jordan Cruz and Adrian Quest will tag against Team Filthy’s JR Kratos and Danny Limelight.
In Saturday’s opener, Kenny King will take on Che Cabrera. This will be King’s first appearance on an NJPW card since the G1 Supercard event at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2019.
Strong’s New Japan Showdown series was taped on October 16 at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles.
Here is the full lineup for Saturday:
NJPW Strong: New Japan Showdown, Saturday, November 12, 8 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World —
Minoru Suzuki vs. Fred Yehi
Adrian Quest & Jordan Cruz vs. Team Filthy (Danny Limelight & JR Kratos)
Fred Yehi will be a part of the NJPW Strong: Rivals taping in Los Angeles next month.
Yehi, Keita Murray and The DKC will face Bateman, Misterioso and Barrett Brown in a trios match announced today.
Yehi’s last appearance for NJPW came at the NJPW Strong: Showdown taping in Philadelphia in October 2021.
In another new match, Impact Wrestling’s Chris Bey, also a member of Bullet Club, will take on Blake Christian.
Additionally, NJPW Strong Openweight Champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, Danny Limelight, JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs will face Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, Adrian Quest & Taylor Rust in a 10-man tag.
Also added to Rivals, TJP will face Brogan Finlay in a singles match.
Rivals will be taped at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, February 17. Tickets for the show are on sale now. The lineup:
US of Jay open challenge: Jay White vs. TBA
Christopher Daniels vs. Gabriel Kidd
Buddy Matthews vs. Ren Narita
Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs vs. Fred Rosser, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, Adrian Quest & Taylor Rust
Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. JONAH & Bad Dude Tito
Daniel Garcia vs. Yuya Uemura
Rocky Romero vs. Black Tiger
Ariya Daivari vs. Kevin Blackwood
Kevin Knight vs. Hikuleo
Chris Bey vs. Blake Christian
TJP vs. Brogan Finlay
Bateman, Barrett Brown & Misterioso vs. Fred Yehi, Keita Murray & The DKC
Location: Baltimore, Maryland and Sandy Fork, Delaware
The Big Takeaway —
Jonathan Gresham continued his domination of the Pure division by retaining his title against Fred Yehi. In the main event, the Briscoe brothers fought out their differences on their family farm.
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Quinn McKay welcomed us to the broadcast and ran down the card. Tonight’s episode features Jonathan Gresham defending his ROH Pure Championship against Fred Yehi. Also, The Briscoe brothers will face off in the “Fight on the Farm.”
McKay recapped last week’s episode and officially announced that Bandido will challenge for Rush’s ROH World Championship at Sunday’s Best in the World pay-per-view.
McKay also announced that Mike Bennett will challenge for the Pure Championship at the PPV. But Jonathan Gresham and Fred Yehi will first have to battle it out for the title on tonight’s episode.
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ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham defeated Fred Yehi to retain his title (12:16)
Mike Bennett was on commentary for this match.
Yehi seemed to overwhelm Gresham in the beginning with his aggressiveness. Both men had an arm drag contest that spilled to the outside and continued on the arena floor, but it led to a stalemate. This led into a commercial break.
Back from the break and Yehi continued to frustrate Gresham with his aggressiveness. The match got really grimy at this point, with Yehi rubbing his wristband in Gresham’s face. The bout also picked up some speed, with multiple moves being countered and both guys duking it out at high speed.
Yehi’s frustration began to get the best of him, allowing Gresham to capitalize on his mistakes. Yehi missed a few key stomps, which allowed Gresham to pick his ankle and roll him into a schoolboy pin for a three count.
Gresham held the Pure title in Yehi’s face after the match, teasing a bit of a more heel-like side.
Gresham’s post-match interview featured him telling Yehi to go back to wrestling school, and telling Mike Bennett that he doesn’t have a lick of respect for him.
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Fight on the Farm: Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe
Both brothers started out in a ring that stands in a warehouse on their farm. Papa Briscoe seemed to be the referee for this fight.
Mark went for a dive onto Jay on the outside but was clocked with a frying pan instead. Jay then swung a shovel at Mark, but Mark moved out of the way. Papa informed them to get back in the ring, to which they did.
Mark went to the top rope and was looking for a frog splash, but Jay shoved him off the top and he went crashing into a table.
The fight took itself out of the warehouse at this point, with both guys kicking and punching each other while walking. Jay smacked Mark with a giant metal water bowl and then set up a plank of wood on the bed of his truck. Jay was looking to put Mark through this, but Mark low blowed Jay and put him through it instead.
The brothers then climbed to the top of a RV. They traded a few forearms before Jay threw Mark off the RV onto a tarped structure. Jay climbed down and tossed Mark in the bed of his truck and commanded that the cameraman ride with him.
Jay had some pop music playing in the truck, which only added to the humor. Jay drove to the other side of the farm where he said he was going to compost his brother.
Mark attacked Jay the second he got out of the truck, then clocked him with a real estate sign. Mark then set Jay on a table beneath a roofed structure before climbing the structure and hitting a splash onto his brother through the table.
Papa Briscoe helped both brothers up and walked them back to the ring. Both Briscoes eventually made it back to their feet and started slugging it out, all while Papa repeatedly screamed “You good yet?” multiple times. This was really stiff and hard hitting.
Eventually, Mark clotheslined Jay and it sent both brothers crashing to the mat. Papa Briscoe asked them one more time if they were “good yet,” to which both brothers replied yes.
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Final Thoughts —
This was a very fun episode of ROH TV leading into the Best in the World PPV, which is taking place this Sunday.
Jonathan Gresham and Fred Yehi had a fun match that I think the company will revisit in the future. While being a good match, I think they definitely left some stuff out for a potential bigger rematch down the line. I hope Yehi is a mainstay in the Pure division — he’s really entertaining.
The Fight on the Farm was just a load of fun. I know that cinematic matches are quite controversial in the wrestling world, but I personally enjoy the hell out of them. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Matt Taven/Vincent cinematic match back at the 19th Anniversary PPV, this was really fun and had some great spots involved. Adding Papa Briscoe to the equation only made for a more enjoyable time.
In recent weeks I’ve introduced a scale in order to let you know if the current week of TV is worth your while. The scale is as follows:
Must-Watch TV
Go Out Of Your Way
Recommended Viewing
Watch YouTube Clips
Avoid At All Costs
This week’s episode of ROH TV is: Go Out Of Your Way
ROH has set the date for Jonathan Gresham’s next Pure Championship defense.
On the latest edition of ROH Week By Week, it was announced that Gresham will defend his Pure Championship against Fred Yehi on the ROH TV episode that premieres the weekend of Saturday, July 3. ROH had announced earlier this month that Yehi would be getting a Pure title shot.
Yehi has won three straight matches in ROH. He won a Pure Rules gauntlet match in March and has since defeated Rocky Romero and The World Famous CB (Cheeseburger) in Pure Rules matches.
Gresham won a tournament last year to become the first ROH Pure Champion since 2006. The title had been unified with the ROH World Championship in 2006 before being brought back last year.
Gresham’s most recent Pure title defense was against his The Foundation stablemate Jay Lethal on the 500th episode of ROH TV this April.
Coughlin greeted Hikuleo with an icy stare as the giant stepped into the ring. After a bit of grappling on the feet, Hikuleo overpowered Coughlin and put him down with a big bodyslam and vertical suplex. Hikuleo bullied Coughlin a bit more but Shibata’s Young Lion would mount a comeback and eventually put Hikuleo down with a jumping shoulder block before he’d lock him into a single-leg crab. It wasn’t enough to put the much larger Hikuleo away, though. Hikuleo was back to his feet soon after, then he planted Coughlin with a snap powerslam and sit-out Death Valley Bomb for the win.
Good showing from both here. Coughlin is exploding with charisma and athleticism, and Hikuleo really feels like the resident power-house of the show these days.
Lio Rush and Rocky Romero defeated the DKC and Clark Connors
“White Rhino” Clark Connors blasted Rush with a spear to the lower back midway through the match.
Rush was able to tag out to Romero after getting pummeled for a few minutes. Romero cleaned house and landed a nice tijeras on DKC and a standing Sliced Bread on the Connors for two. The White Rhino responded by launching Romero into the air with a Pounce.
The DKC’s background is in karate, and has been able to incorporate a few fancy karate-esque kicks and chops into his moveset. If anyone here is familiar with Chris Champion/Yoshi Kwan from WCW, that’s what the DKC reminds me of, a bit.
It’s a shame that Rush announced he’d be retiring this week, because he looked pretty great inside the ring with both Connors and DKC tonight, the latter whom he pinned after a bottom-rope springboard stunner.
Connors and Romero brawled outside the ring after the bell. In their post-match interview, Romero mentioned that despite Connors recently graduating from Young Lion to “White Rhino,” his new-found confidence wouldn’t matter, and that he’d eat up any one of Connors’ crew.
Fred Yehi and Wheeler Yuta defeated Misterioso and Jordan Clearwater
Wheeler Yuta has made a few appearances on Strong this year, but tonight was his partner Fred Yehi’s debut on the show. The two have teamed in the past on the indie circuit, and Yehi has appeared for companies like MLW, EVOLVE and ROH in the past, among others. He’s an excellent wrestler and is a perfect fit for both this show or for NJPW’s main roster.
Yehi and Misterioso looked good on the mat against each other. The match with Connors/DKC vs. Romero/Rush had more of an intense high-impact feel from the get-go, where this was clearly a bout centered on smooth, high-level technique.
When Yehi was in the ring with Karl Anderson-trainee Jordan Clearwater, he used fancy World-of-Sport-styled counter-wrestling and footwork. Both he and partner Yuta spent the middle part of this working over the taller Clearwater’s leg and knee, tenderizing in an attempt to keep him off his feet for more of the match.
Clearwater was eventually able to tag out to “Big Papi Pump” Misterioso, who landed a powerslam, then springboard moonsault onto Yuta upon re-entry. All four men were in the ring at this point, and Yehi used the opportunity to again go after Clearwater’s long legs, clipping one of them.
The finish saw Misterioso go for a dive to the floor but no one was there, though Misterioso landed safely. Just a second after he caught himself on the ground, Wheeler Yuta came through the middle rope and landed on top of him with a tope suicida to the floor. With Yuta holding Misterioso at bay, Yehi took the opportunity to put Clearwater away in the ring, earning the W for his team after locking Clearwater into a modified crucifix hold/Koji clutch while he laid in as many fists as he could.
Final thoughts:
Tonight’s episode of Strong was solid. The main event was most-impressive, though everything on tonight’s show was very good. Yuta and Yehi are a great tag team who look like they’ve been at this wrestling thing for a while, and they fit perfectly with the current crop on the show. I look forward to seeing more of them in the future.
On next week’s episode of NJPW Strong, we’ll see Satoshi Kojima vs. Team Filthy’s JR Kratos in a singles main event, while “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Karl Fredericks for the Strong Openweight title will headline the show at the end of the month, on June 26.
NJPW has revealed the full lineup for this week’s Road to Ignition episode of Strong.
Fred Yehi will make his NJPW Strong debut, teaming with Wheeler Yuta in the main event. Yehi and Yuta will face Strong regulars Misterioso and Jordan Clearwater. Yehi is the number one contender for the ROH Pure Championship.
In the second match, Rocky Romero and Lio Rush will tag against Clark Connors and The DKC.
In Friday’s opener, Alex Coughlin will take on Hikuleo in singles competition. Hikuleo will be making his first appearance on Strong since losing a no DQ match to Fred Rosser on the May 21 episode.
Strong airs Fridays at 10 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World and is available on demand shortly after airing.
Here is Friday’s full lineup:
Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta vs. Misterioso & Jordan Clearwater
Rocky Romero & Lio Rush vs. Clark Connors & The DKC
Ring of Honor has made two more announcements for Final Battle 2020.
In the first-ever Pure Rules tag match, The Foundation’s Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus will face Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta at Final Battle. The match has the following rules:
The Code of Honor is required.
A legal tag requires the wrestler on the apron to reach over the top rope and tag his partner hand-to-hand while holding the tag rope with his other hand.
Each wrestler has five seconds to exit the ring after a tag is made.
Each team has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfall attempts. After a team exhausts their rope breaks, submission and pin attempts on or under the ropes by the opponent are considered legal.
Each time a team breaks up a pinfall or submission, that team will lose a rope break. Breaking up a pinfall or submission when a team is out of rope breaks will result in a disqualification.
Closed-fist punches to the face are not permitted — only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body are permitted excluding low blows. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning. The second will be a disqualification.
Interference from any wrestler will result in automatic termination from the roster for the wrestler that interferes.
Matches that reach the time limit will go to a judges’ decision.
There’s a 20-second count on the floor.
The Foundation’s Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham will be in action as they defend their ROH Tag Team titles against Mark Briscoe & PCO at Final Battle. With every ROH title on the line at the pay-per-view, Gresham is pulling double duty at the show and also defending his Pure Championship against Flip Gordon.
Danhausen also announced that he’ll be facing Brian Johnson at Final Battle. Danhausen is currently involved in a storyline where he’s been offered an ROH contract but has to win a match in 2020 to make the deal official.
Final Battle is airing on PPV and HonorClub on Friday, December 18. Here’s the updated card for the show
ROH World Champion Rush defends his title against Brody King
ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham defends his title against Flip Gordon
ROH Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defend their titles against Mark Briscoe & PCO
Matt Taven & Mike Bennett vs. Vincent Marseglia & Bateman
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defend their titles against Shane Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery (Moses & Kaun)
Tony Deppen vs. Dak Draper vs. LSG vs. Josh Woods (winner will challenge Dragon Lee for the ROH Television Championship later in the night)
Jay Briscoe vs. EC3
Pure Rules tag match: Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus vs. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta
Week three of the Ring of Honor Pure Title tournament rolled on this week with two more first round matches, one featuring a promotional debut and the other featuring a judges’ decision.
The Big Takeaways:
Fred Yehi made an impact in his ROH debut with a very fun victory over Silas Young while Josh Woods scored a slight upset over Kenny King in a judges decision as a King error worked against him.
Show Recap:
Quinn McKay set up tonight’s show before we got a recap of last week’s action with the winner (David Finlay and Matt Sydal) getting some promo time. Finlay noted that his left shoulder was hurting but would be alright with some rest — something to note if they play it up in his second round match.
As always, Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman were on commentary. As the show went, I thought how this tourney would be ideal to have Kurt Angle in the booth given his background. A boy can dream.
First Round: Fred Yehi defeated Silas Young
The pre-match promos they have been doing are ridiculously good. After two minutes, you know the wrestler’s backstory, their finisher, and why they want to win this tournament. Young even pointed out he was in the last Pure rules match before this tourney was announced when Jonathan Gresham “cheated” to beat him. It’s really those little things that help the viewer understand, or remember, what is going on.
This marked Yehi’s ROH debut and he couldn’t have looked better and could be the favorite after tonight. His style, and this match in general, is perfect for this tournament and ruleset. If he was to win, he would fit perfectly on the roster. Honestly, he would fit even if he doesn’t win.
The match featured plenty of chain wrestling and holds but featured plenty of impressive spots by both guys. In one sequence, Yehi landed a back hand and transitioned into his Koji clutch finisher but Young escaped and hit a tornado DDT after two big boots.
The end came when Young went for the Pee Gee Waja Plunge and missed. Yehi stomped Young’s foot, hit a sliding attack, and then snared Young in an inside cradle for the pin in thirteen minutes.
Yehi moves on to face the winner of next week’s Tracy Williams vs. Rust Taylor first round match. This was excellent.
First Round: Josh Woods defeated Kenny King by split decision
Woods is a former MMA fighter, amateur wrestler, and the 2017 Top Prospect Tourney winner. He is mentored by Young who is his tag team partner. In the run-up, we learned this is a rematch from 2017 and that Woods wanted to earn King’s respect after he said King questioned who Woods could be teaching at a wrestling school.
King put over his Los Ingobernables squad and said he’s been preparing for Woods by training BJJ at a Gracie school and boxing with Jeff Mayweather.
In a funny spot, King had Woods in a headlock and said to the ref, “You better ask him!” to which Woods replied, “You don’t have anything!” At times, this felt very MMA inspired, especially with the groundwork.
King disputed his first rope break and later used a closed fist, getting a warning that if he did it again, it was a DQ. This played into the story of the match that while Woods lacked the experience of King, it was King who had to find his way out of situations due to his inexperience with grappling.
King hit the Royal Flush, but Woods’ arm was under the bottom rope, earning him a rope break even though he didn’t realize it. After recovering and hitting a nice looking twisting inside neckbreaker on King, things picked up a bit with a good exchange of near falls.
However, when the match got to the last minute, there didn’t seem to be too much of a sense of urgency to win which also felt like an MMA fight at tines. Both seemed to be content to let it go to the judges although King did have a single leg crab ensnared as time ran out.
Will Ferrara and Sumie Sakai gave the match to Woods while Juster scored it for King. We were told Sakai’s rationale was that King used the closed fist. The judges were never shown. King was furious and didn’t shake Woods’ hand as we closed the show.
Woods will face the winner of next week’s Tony Deppen vs. PJ Black match.
Next week:
The debuting Rust Taylor vs. Tracy Williams and the debuting Tony Deppen vs. PJ Black.
Final Thoughts:
I haven’t been a regular watcher of the tourney as I’m filling in for regular Skylar Russell, but this was right up my alley. The lack of a crowd still hurts any televised wrestling product, but the talent is making it work. I think Yehi is a standout and I hope he gets his chance to shine in the weeks to come. Woods has a good look, but I didn’t have that same feeling coming out of his win.
I watched this on Honor Club and thought it was strange they included TV ads. Isn’t that the point of paying to see the show?
While I love stats as much as the next sports nerd, I would recommend ROH production not make us think too hard in reading them. Two verbatim examples from tonight: “(11-6 vs. all opponents in this tournament, in singles matches, in ROH since 8-20-17 (65% wins)” and “8-1 record in Baltimore, MD, in one fall matches, since 4-7-12”.
The full lineup of entrants for Ring of Honor’s Pure Championship tournament has now been revealed.
The final three participants for the tournament were announced on today’s episode of ROH Week By Week. They are: Fred Yehi, Delirious, and Silas Young.
Yehi, who formerly wrestled for EVOLVE, is making his ROH debut in the tournament. He was supposed to debut for ROH in the tournament when it was originally scheduled to begin in April. The tournament was delayed when ROH paused running events in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, Matt Sydal, David Finlay, Tracy Williams, Josh Woods, Wheeler Yuta, Rocky Romero, PJ Black, Tony Deppen, Kenny King, Dalton Castle, Rust Taylor, Yehi, Delirious, and Young are the full list of entrants for the tournament. ROH has noted that “”there will be alternate competitors in each of the tournament’s two blocks in case any of the participants are unable to compete.”
The full bracket for the tournament will be revealed on ROH Week By Week next Monday. It was announced today that Sydal vs. Delirious will be one of the first round matches.
The tournament will begin airing on ROH television the weekend of September 12 and will play out over eight weeks of TV. ROH returned to TV production this month with the Pure title tournament as the focus of the tapings. The tapings were done with only essential personnel in attendance.
The following rules have been announced for the tournament and Pure matches:
Every match begins and ends with the Code of Honor handshake.
Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts on or under the ropes by his opponent are legal.
Closed-fist punches to the face are not permitted; only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body are permitted, excluding low blows. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning; the second will be a disqualification.
As in standard ROH matches, there will be a 20-count when a wrestler is on the floor.
Outside interference will result in automatic termination from the roster for the wrestler that interferes.
There will be two blocks, single-elimination format.
Round 1 matches have a 15-minute time limit.
Block semifinals have a 20-minute time limit.
Block finals have a 30-minute time limit.
The tournament final has a one-hour time limit.
There will be three judges for each match, and time-limit draws will go to a judges’ decision.
The Pure title was originally introduced in 2004 but was unified with the ROH World Championship in 2006
Timothy Thatcher has been EVOLVE Champion since July 10th, 2015, and that reign will continue for at least one more day after another successful defense on Friday night.
Thatcher submitted Fred Yehi to retain his title at EVOLVE 78. It wasn’t the best defense of his underwhelming reign, though it was likely in the upper half. The match was actually the main event, which is far from a guarantee for Thatcher defenses, and Yehi came off well in one of the biggest spots of his career thus far even though he lost the match.
He had the Koji clutch locked on at one point, which was presented well as a false finish even if it was hard to buy that the title would change hands here, but Thatcher was able to stretch out enough to get a rope break. He threw Yehi over and got the quick submission shortly after.
Whether Thatcher will hold the EVOLVE Championship heading into WrestleMania weekend will be determined tomorrow night as he puts his title on the line against Zack Sabre Jr. And though his opponent got a huge victory over Chris Hero in Hero’s last EVOLVE appearance, Sabre came up short in his match on Friday.
Keith Lee picked up a surprising win over Sabre as their styles meshed better than would be anticipated. Lee used his power to get the best of ZSJ, though there were plenty of points where Sabre had the upper hand as well. He bridged up on Lee to the delight of the crowd early in the match to set the tone and fought back as it went along, but he was eventually put away with a gigantic powerslam after Lee countered his submission attempts.
The decision to have Lee go over probably shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. He was a significant addition to the EVOLVE roster and likely needed a big win after dropping his debut against Hero.
Whether Sabre wins the title from Thatcher or not, Lee is someone that should be one of the top contenders to take the championship soon. And ZSJ losing here and setting up a potential challenger may make it even more likely that he takes the title from Thatcher.
It was a mixed night for Catch Point in addition to Yehi’s loss in the main event of a show that was advertised as consisting of all fresh matchups.
“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams was defeated by ACH earlier in the night in one of the better matches on the show. ACH came alive at the end of the match to hit a sequence of big lariats before getting the pin with a brainbuster. He was hyped up as another challenger for Thatcher’s championship, and he’ll be due a title shot if he gets past Jason Kincaid at EVOLVE 79.
Matt Riddle and Chris Dickinson & Jaka were able to redeem the night for Catch Point. Riddle opened the show with a win against Anthony Henry by connecting with a fisherman buster, a jumping tombstone, and finally locking on the Bromission. It was a solid match despite its few timing issues, and Riddle got on the mic after to state his desire to capture the EVOLVE, FIP, and WWN titles, as well as to call out Drew Galloway. He didn’t get what he wanted then, but he didn’t have to wait too long to clash with Galloway.
Galloway got on the mic to respond to Riddle following his match with Jeff Cobb. Both men were impressive, with Cobb able to throw Galloway around despite his opponent towering over him. Galloway worked over Cobb’s arm in an attempt to keep him from hitting the Tour of the Islands, and was later able to connect with a Future Shock DDT to get the pin.
After that was over, Riddle came out to the ring as Galloway said that they didn’t have to wait for their grudge match tomorrow. That led to Galloway pushing Riddle into Cobb, who took offense to it and laid out Riddle with the Tour of the Islands. Catch Point backed up Riddle as Jaka wanted to go at it with Cobb, but he was called off by his partners.
Jaka & Dickinson continued their unbeaten run as a tag team in EVOLVE with a victory over The Gatekeepers by utilizing their Doomsday Device double chokeslam. It was made clear that they would soon challenge for Williams & Yehi’s tag titles, including Larry Dallas again trying to create dysfunction within Catch Point as he interviewed the group.
Also on the show, Ethan Page went over Kincaid by hitting the RKEgo in what was billed as something of a prelude to him facing a similar rival in Darby Allin tomorrow. Allin wasn’t as successful, however, as he lost to Austin Theory.
Theory whiffed on an Asai moonsault to the outside at one point and crashed into the barricade hard. Allin’s FIP stablemate Priscilla Kelly was also at ringside.
Final Thoughts —
While an enjoyable time, this will hopefully be in the bottom half of EVOLVE shows this year. There were some good matches, but nothing stood out as being something that must be watched. With EVOLVE running monthly double-shots, the first show of the weekend often feels like it’s mostly setting up what’s to come the next night.
EVOLVE 79 looks to be a more interesting show on paper. Thatcher will defend the title against Sabre, Riddle and Galloway will finally face off, and the undercard looks pretty promising.
EVOLVE 78 results —
EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Fred Yehi to retain his title
