BRM Reviews Evolve 1

[Big Red Machine]

Evolve 1 (1/16/2010)- Rahway, NJ

A “DOCUMENTARY CREW” GOES AROUND FILMING THINGS- That was Gabe’s reasoning for establishing why the cameras were seeing things. The first thing we saw Team Ambition (Davey Richards, Kyle O’Reilly, & Tony Kozina) training. Davey told them to leave, first politely, and then when that didn’t work the first four times, via threats. Tony Kozina came out and politely asked them to leave and they did.
Then we saw Kota Ibushi and Michael Nakazawa talking in Japanese. Then we got a kind of nifty opening video, followed by a bunch of different wrestlers answering the question “why do you wrestle?” They were ally our stock kayfabe responses aside from Jimmy Jacobs who said “entertaining people,” with wrestling as his “art.” Silas Young told us “If I didn’t wrestle, I’d be dead.” That’s kind of scary.

BOBBY FISH vs. KYLE O’REILLY (w/Tony Kozina)- 6/10
This was relatively short compared to what you’d expected, but every bit of it was wonderful combat sports action (even the dive and the Tornado DDT felt like they fit). A perfect tone-setter for what we would see for the rest of the night.

SINGLES DIVISION QUALIFYING MATCH: Cheech vs. Chuck Taylor- 5.5/10
Apparently there was a gimmick (I assume it was gimmicked, but maybe not) where EVOLVE had a poll on their website for whether or not Chuck Taylor should be in the company. He received about 60% support from the fans, which was enough to earn him a spot on this show, but not a permanent spot in the singles division (yes, EVOLVE had strictly-enforced singles and tag divisions at this early point), so Chuck will face off against another notable tag team wrestler looking for a singles break to determine who will get that spot in the singles division.
Another short match (this one was a little shorter than the first; both have gone around 6:20). Taylor got the win by working over Cheech’s head and neck, but he had more trouble with Cheech than you would expect.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS CHUCK TAYLOR- good
Chuck is upset that guys like Kyle O’Reilly and Ricochet got invites to the singles division while he did not. He suspects that someone in the office doesn’t like him, so he is going to make that person miserable by winning every single match he is in to make sure that EVOLVE always has to book him.

RICOCHET vs. ARIK CANNON- 4.5/10
Seeing Bobby Fish without his trademark facial hair earlier was a surprise, but seeing Ricochet with hair on his head was a complete and total mindf*ck. This was another, even shorter match at just four minutes, but it might well be the best four minute match in the history of pro wrestling. And it wasn’t like they were going at an insanely fast pace or spamming finishers and flips, either. They told their story of Cannon working over the neck and Ricochet relying on his agility, had great emotion, executed everything well (Cannon’s stuff in particular looked AWESOME) and made the absolute most of their time.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Chuck Taylor came out and cut a very good promo challenging Ricochet to match at the next show and Ricochet accepted.

JIMMY JACOBS, SILAS YOUNG, & ADAM COLE BACKSTAGE- fine
Jimmy & Silas were telling some sort of story about a mutual friend that involved some sort of injury, but also maybe the guy having sex with his girlfriend? They were using slang I wasn’t familiar with, and were speaking a little too fast for me to understand them. Polite young-boy Adam Cole came in to let Jimmy know that his match was coming up soon so he might want to prepare. Jimmy felt Cole was being presumptuous and disrespectful by saying such a thing to a veteran. Initially I thought Jimmy came off like a dick (and he definitely was one), but after a minute or two, Cole’s comment did seem like he was either trying to suck up to Jimmy or being mommy-ish to a veteran, so maybe it was justified.
Speaking of mommies…

BRAD ALLEN WRITES ON HIS WRIST TAPE- He very somberly wrote “MOM” surrounded by crosses on his left wrist and “MAC” surrounded by crosses on the other. Some explanation would have been nice (more so because I had no idea who it was doing the writing or who this “Mac” person was and why he/she was so important to this wrestler- I found it was Brad Allen during this match when the announcers talked about him dedicating his career to his mom, but I still have no idea who “Mac” is), but this whole thing did come across as very emotional and very, very real.

DARK CITY FIGHT CLUB vs. AEROFORM- 5/10
This went a little under seven minutes, and in that entire time, no one ever tagged in or out. It was quite odd to watch because the wrestlers and referee seemed to be under the impression that this was a Tornado match, but it wasn’t introduced as such and the commentators never said anything. At one point a fan even shouted “so who’s the legal man?!” It was kind of confusing.
Otherwise, this was a decent match for the time it got. AeroForm were given some spots to shine, but this was really about getting DFCF over as the powerful, no-nonsense badasses they are, and that mission was thoroughly accomplished here.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. NIYA- squash
Mercedes is the WSU World Champion, so she was not the squashee.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS MERCEDES MARTINEZ- She has come here to prove that EVOLVE is for women, too.

SILAS YOUNG vs. BRAD ALLEN- 7/10
The big news here was that Brad Allen went for a moonsault press to the outside that turned into more of a flipping dropkick with Allen going down and landing right on his face… and HOLY SH*T his selling for the rest of this match was PHENOMENAL! This was one of the best babyface performances I have ever seen. Silas played his role well, too, and they had a wonderful little ten-minute match.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS BRAD ALLEN- Great!
He was a good white-meat babyface, told us he owes everything to his mother, then said that he heard that Chris Hero has been booked for the second show and says he wants to wrestle Hero.

JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- AWESOME!
He also got a HUGE pop when he came out, and is definitely the most over guy on the show so far. He verbally SAVAGED Ken Doane here.

KEN DOANE vs. JIMMY JACOBS- 5.5/10
The story here was the size difference between the two and the physical advantages that gave Doane. In a wonderfully subtle touch, Doane used a very simple, basic, “WWE” move-set that contrasted well with the scrappy, determined, and sometimes almost sneaky way Jacobs had to fight to have a chance against an opponent who was so much large than him… which played into Jimmy’s promo beautifully. Doane got the win via his WWE finisher diving leg drop because the referee didn’t see Jimmy’s foot on the ropes, which made the crowd very angry. Fortunately, Tommy Dreamer happened to be here to convince the referee that he screwed up so the referee restarted the match, and Jimmy quickly latched on the End Times for the submission victory. I didn’t like this finish very much because a referee reversing a call without any sort of visual or physical evidence really doesn’t fit in with the pure “real sports” atmosphere that the promotion is trying to convey.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Doane was angry at Dreamer for costing him the win, yelling at him before storming to the back. Dreamer then grabbed a mic and cut a promo about how much he loves wrestling and how much support the fans show for the wrestlers. Based on the timing, this might well have been his first post-WWE promo.
Jimmy Jacobs then cut a promo telling Dreamer that he doesn’t need any help. Jimmy made a subtle reference to the Age of the Fall, noting that he has purposely chosen to forsake his many followers and come here to EVOLVE alone, so he doesn’t want help. He is suspicious of Dreamer’s motives, positing that instead of just coming here to say thank you to the fans, Tommy really showed up tonight hoping to find some sort of situation he could use to force himself into the spotlight one more time.
He went on to bury Dreamer some more, so Dreamer hopped up onto the apron. Jimmy said that usually he would deal with someone like Tommy by kicking his ass right here, right now, resorting to any means necessary to do so, even going to far as eye-gouging, but “because this is EVOLVE, and we play by the rules” and Jimmy doesn’t want to wind up getting barred from EVOLVE after just one show, he isn’t going to do so.
Tommy took his jacket off and got in the ring, so Jimmy asked if he was going to elbow drop it, and started to compare Tommy to Hogan, Flair, Hall, etc., who had just shown up in TNA. Tommy tells Jimmy that he difference between him and those guys is that those guys are taking a lot of money to show up while he “came here for free because my friend was trying to start something.”
Jimmy started mockingly bowing to Dreamer, so Tommy noted that he is “not on the official roster. I’m just here to have some fun” and floored Jimmy with a punch in the face. Tommy picked Jimmy up and hooked him for the DDT but Jimmy hit Dreamer in the groin to escape it and started to put the boots to him. Dreamer made a comeback and hit Jimmy with an excellent Pumphandle Suplex before hitting the DDT.
This was a very well-executed segment, setting up several future matches, establishing character motivations and certain things about the nature of EVOLVE itself. The one thing that baffles me is why they went through all of this trouble to make Jimmy Jacobs such a babyface if he was just going to be a dick at the end, and why they went through so much trouble to point out that the crowd had become 50-50 even after Jimmy was clearly being a heel. Also, watching this in hindsight here almost nine years later was quite interesting, as it took several moments for it to click to me that the idea of seeing Tommy Dreamer at an indy show was relatively new to fans at this point, or that the “older guys” “taking a lot of money” from other promotions was not a general statement but a direct reference to the goings on at the time in TNA (and, now that I think about it, probably also Bret Hart’s return to WWE and Ric Flair’s appearances in ROH the previous year).

THE MAIN EVENTERS TRAIN- nothing actually important happened

KEN DOANE STORMS OUT OF THE BUILDING- With no shirt on. In JANUARY.
He’s angry about the finish of his match, claiming that every promotion he goes to screws him and won’t give him any respect. Others heckled him.

CHRIS DICKINSON vs. JOHNNY GARGANO- 4.75/10
Good for the short (SIX MINUTES) time it got.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- No names were used, but Gargano went over to say hello and hug Larry Dallas and someone who I’m pretty sure was f*cking Sean Davis of the Heartbreak Express! Did he follow me out of my most recent 2005 FIP review or something? What the hell is he doing in EVOLVE?!

MUNENORI SAWA vs. TJP- 6.25/10
This was Sawa’s debut in the United States, and for that reason alone I was disappointed that this didn’t go for a good long while. There was some good limb-work from both guys, but Sawa was the one who was able to pull out the win.

ADAM COLE PROMO- fine
This started out with us watching from a distance as Cole chatted with Dreamer, with Cole doing a voice-over about how he knows that he’s the lowest guy on the roster (so low he wasn’t even booked to wrestle on this show, apparently) and he knows he has to pay his dues, but he will do whatever it takes to prove that he belongs.

AKUMA’S ARMY (Gran Akuma, Brodie Lee, & Icarus) vs. TEAM FRIGHTNING (Mike Quackenbush, Frightmare, & Hallowicked)- 7.5/10
This is an official match in the tag team division, which apparently means it is contested using Lucha tag rules. This had all of the excellent action you’d expect.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS MIKE QUACKENBUSH- great babyface stuff from Quack. He proposes some sort of four-way elimination tag team match for this next match in EVOLVE.

A BLONDE WOMAN COMFORTS TJP AFTER HIS LOSS- We had seen her once before, telling the cameraman to go into the men’s bathroom to see what was up with Ken Doane, and when the cameraman saw her hanging out with TJP here she yelled at him “I thought I told you to find Silas!” so I guess she’s director? I also guess whatever relationship she either has or wants to have with TJP is something she wants kept out of the public eye.

KOTA IBUSHI (w/Michael Nakazawa) vs. DAVEY RICHARDS (w/Tony Kozina & Kyle O’Reilly)- 9.25/10

HOLY F*CK! This is definitely the sort of match you want to main event your very first show. This match was given all of the time it need for these two to go out there and kick ass. Davey worked the arm while Ibushi worked over Davey’s ribs and both men also put some substantial effort into trying to know the other out. This was NUTS. Fantastic, fast-paced action that just kept build and building and building and building.

BRAD ALLEN PROMO- Now we get the story about the whole “mom” thing. Basically, he signed a WWE contract, and then his mother died in a car accident the next day, and as a result his head was never where it needed to be to succeed in WWE. He then said that “tonight, it all came together.” I’m not really sure what one has to do with the other.

JIMMY JACOBS, JOHNNY GARGANO, SEAN DAVIS, & LARRY DALLAS WANT SILAS YOUNG TO COME OUT AND PARTY WITH THEM- Silas insists he doesn’t do that anymore, but they convince him to come anyway. Silas then gets a call from his wife, and we fade to black as Silas considers whether or not to answer it. Personally, I think it’s a little weird that his wife is in his phone as “wife” and not as whatever her name is.

This was a very different wrestling show from most others you’ll see. Until we got to the final two matches, everything was kept short and to the point, and there was an extremely strong emphasis on the “this is a sport” aspect of things. Even in the backstage segments, the wrestlers weren’t portrayed as larger-than-life characters, but as athletes dealing with all manner of athlete problems, from frustrations with management, with their own performances, or struggles in their personal lives. At the time it was a MAJOR step away from everything the business had been for the past thirty years, though I found some things (like everyone coming to the same generic entrance music) to be a bit excessive. The show was very enjoyable, although if there was one thing I would change it would be to give the matches more time. I understand that they’re trying to make it shootier and make moves mean more, but I’d much rather see fifteen minutes of grapplef*ck per match than seven minutes of American style wrestling moves leading to a finish.