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EVOLVE 16 iPPV ROUNDTABLE REVIEWS: Radican & Eaton rate & review show featuring DGUSA Title match

Jul 7, 2012 - 2:53:48 PM
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Evolve 16 iPPV Roundtable Reviews
June 29, 2012
On-Demand replay at WWNLive.com

evolvelogo_7.jpg

Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist (7.0)

The stream for the live airing wasn’t very good. It didn’t freeze on me once the EVOVLE portion of the show began, but it was choppy. I was surprised they didn’t do more to polish the venue they ran in, as it looked very low-rent. EVOLVE usually has a good looking entrance and a video screen, but they didn’t use that tonight. Also, they didn’t change the ring to EVOLVE colors and stayed with the FUW apron, which was an eye sore.

As EVOLVE continues to run in new markets, they’re not drawing big crowds and it seems like the venues they’re running in are too big to make the crowd that they do draw seem hot. It was especially noticeable during the main event that there weren’t many people there. The fans that were in attendance, included a lot of children were hot for a lot of the action, but it seemed like the crowd audio dropped in and out when Leonard talked on commentary.

Some matches seemed to get less time than they would have ordinarily, as the FUW portion of the show went to intermission and ran really long. The good news here is that there were a lot of good matches on the show that make it worth checking out if you didn’t see it live, especially given that the VOD version is likely to look much better than the live version did.

The show started out with a couple of matches that the crowd didn’t take to. A.R. Fox and Jon Davis then had a very good Style Battle tournament match. They had a hard time getting the crowd into it, but the fans were definitely cheering as the match went on and were into everything by the end of the match. Davis continues to impress me working with a variety of different opponents in recent months and I like his “win or go home storyline.”

Del Sol-Generico stole the show plain and simple with an amazing match that got the crowd really into the match. I could see the people standing and cheering as the match went back and forth down the stretch. I’d love to see the third chapter of this feud at some point in the near future in front of a larger crowd.

Gargano-Taylor had a good match. I was surprised to see all of the ref bumps and heck, even the time keeper got bumped. This is a match that would have played out better in one of the usual DGUSA/EVOVLE markets. The crowd was into it, but this is the match DGUSA/EVOLVE has been building to for months. Taylor has been a real thorn in Gargano’s side and he got some heel heat, but having Swamp Monster with him makes his heel act come off as mid-card material.

Gargano went for broke here from the start and sold his back injury that he suffered last night thanks to Tony Nese. He showed a lot of guts beating Taylor in spite of all of the shenanigans that went on during the match. I was surprised Gargano was so laid back with his post-match promo given that Taylor turned on him and has beaten him multiple times in recent months, but when the match was over, Gargano was cracking jokes and even said Taylor sucked at one point as he went backstage.

I give this show a solid recommendation to check out on replay. There are several matches on the card worth checking out and what happened on this show flowed nicely into tomorrow night where Bobby Fish will take on Jon Davis in the finals of the Style Battle tournament and Gargano and Nese will have their first encounter in their new feud. I also think the VOD version of this show will look better than the live feed.

Jimmy Eaton, PWTorch specialist (7.0)

This was a very solid show. Heck, it was downright good. From the main event with Taylor vs. Gargano to the great re-match from the night before between Samuray Del Sol and El Generico, it was a fun show across the board. Unfortunately, the FUW pre-show left MUCH to be desired (leading to poor presentation), but that's a whole other ordeal. Those matches weren't awful, but weren't good, either, and, unfortunately, the setting took away from the usual slick look of Evolve. Nevertheless, I'll definitely be looking at just the Evolve portion of the iPPV.

Tony Nese and Mike Cruz showed some great offense and had a slick, but short match. Nese was booked to be an up-and-coming star, but cut an average promo post-match. Regardless of this being the opening match or not, it definitely was a good start and I think could have gone on a bit later in the show with more allotted time. Nese was very impressive and Cruz sold well.

Bobby Fish and Tommy Taylor was a bit on the dull side of a Style Battle Tournament match for me, but it was a a nice technical display between two guys I don't know much about. While I've seen Bobby Fish a few times in the past, I don't know much about Taylor. Not a bad style match, just on the slow side for me and both styles almost blended too together where I couldn't tell the difference.

Jon Davis and A.R. Fox was the definition of a Style Battle Tournament match with a superb mesh of styles. It was fun to watch with Davis looking very strong and Fox looking competitive and more than just a high-flyer. There were some excellent sequences off the top rope and very good nearfalls. Selling needs to be emphasized a bit more, though. The finish was impressive with a nice promo from Davis calling out Bobby Fish to hype the Style Battle finals.

Lince Dorado, Caleb Konley, Scott Reed, Jake Manning, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds in the six-way freestyle match was a fun, albeit sloppy match at times. It had some amusing moments including the finger-poke of doom by The Scene. Manscout was one of the highlights of the match with his comedy, and there was a very nice corkscrew press from Lince Dorado (he was the highlight of the match). I was a bit disappointed with the usually-great Lenny Leonard, though, with his puns towards the Scenes's lady-friend. It came off as cheap and tasteless for me.

Colt Cabana and Cheech Hernandez, like any Cabana match, was a blast to watch and the fans absolutely loved him. I think WWE seemed to have missed the boat on absolute money with this guy, especially with how their product is now. One of the biggest pops of the night was his entrance by a mile. Fun, technical match with Cheech, and it was nice to see Cabana in Evolve, but the match was a bit short for me in order to really build to be much more than just a fun filler match with a unique finish (Cabana's gut-buster drop onto the top rope).

Samuray Del Sol and El Generico had the match of the night by far, with some of the spots I can't even describe due to the insanity. And, on top of that, they had the crowd in the palm of their hands during the second half of the match. Good length, great story from the night before (making it seem important), and overall the definition of what wrestling truly is. Rising Sun is one of the greatest moves I've ever seen since the Canadian Destroyer. Unbelievable match. Nearfalls got close to being too much, but not enough to take me out of the moment. Generico sold well after defeat in a match that easily stole the show.

Johnny Gargano and Chuck Taylor also had a great match. I love watching these two in the ring. The chemistry they have is phenomenal, yet this match due to the length seemed to fall a bit below what it could've been. I also liked how they played the Ronin storyline and past history between both men that made the match seem more important, not to mention how it didn't affect the Evolve scoring (which doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but I'll take an explanation in this case). The timekeeper spot was well done too to play off Gargano being a face and keeping some "unpredictablilty" throughout the match. This includes Taylor almost chasing a little girl. Hilarious. While Chuck Taylor is a great heel, he was borderline too silly to be taken seriously. Still, the match was a blast to watch and they told a great story, especially Gargano selling his back most of the match. Nice post-promo as well afterwards putting over Tony Nese and Arika Tozawa for upcoming shows.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable show that suffered greatly from the atmosphere that felt very, very minor league. Apart from that and only one or two duller matches, the wrestling itself and basic storytelling (which I think Evolve does best) was very, very good and I'd give this show a recommendation. This is definitely for the final two matches, as well as some solid matches throughout. Gargano has done a heck of a job holding that DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Title despite his serious prior injury. He's someone fans can easily root for and, at this point, is a perfect guy to have on top of Evolve/DGUSA.

Also, Del Sol is someone I'll be keeping my eye on for sure in future shows. I can't wait for another show featuring who I should expect can be the future long-term champion for both Evolve and DGUSA, Akira Tozawa. Excellent job again despite some of the few hiccups in the presentation. Also, Chuck Taylor's music was amazingly awful. Just had to put that out there.

Ratings Rewind:

Tony Nese vs. Mike Cruz - **1/2
Bobby Fish vs. Tommy Taylor - **
Jon Davis vs. A.R. Fox - ***
Lince Dorado vs. Caleb Konley vs. Scott Reed vs. Jake Manning vs. John Silver vs. Alex Reynolds - **1/4
Colt Cabana vs. Cheech Hernandez - **1/4
Samuray Del Sol vs. El Generico - ****1/4
Johnny Gargano defeated Chuck Taylor - ***1/2

Agree? Disagree? Follow @TheCommonFan to continue the discussion!


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