BRM Reviews Evolve 10: A Tribute to The Arena

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews Evolve 10: A Tribute to The Arena

Post by Big Red Machine » Oct 26th, '21, 16:40

Evolve 10: A Tribute to The Arena (1/14/2012)- Philadelphia, PA


WE GET AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT DGUSA AND EVOLVE HAVE NOW FORMED A “UNION”- We are assured that each brand will maintain its own unique presentation, but what happens in one promotion will now affect the other. There was probably a slightly more kayfabe way that they could have said this, but nothing Lenny Leonard said here outright broke kayfabe. It just felt a little too much like an announcement about a change to continuity for my taste.

LOW KI(0-0) vs. AHTU(0-0) (w/Larry Dallas)- no rating
Lenny Leonard told us that “union” between DGUSA and EVOLVE has allowed Larry Dallas to return to managing in EVOLVE. It’s a nice try, but it’s not enough for me to be okay with them going back on a stipulation. It’s not like Larry Dallas owns DGUSA or something where DGUSA would care enough to negotiate that sort of thing into the deal.
Low Ki was a surprise here, and I was SOOOO disappointed in the fans that they didn’t recognize his music. They were quite happy to see him when he came out, though.
Low Ki charged in with a Koppo Kick and knocked Ahtu out. If I remember correctly, there was speculation at the time that this might have been a shoot. Ahtu was given some time to recover, then got hit with an Enzugiri and a Ghetto Stomp/Warrior’s Way/whatever it was called on the indies at this point for the finish.

LOW KI PROMO- good
Pro wrestling has become weak and soft and complacent, so he is here to be a “catalyst for change” and put everyone on notice and so forth. He says “I want my profession back!” He announced that he would be at future shows in Toronto and Miami (presumably Miami meant for DGUSA WrestleMania weekend; Toronto was the next EVOLVE show) and might make some surprise appearances elsewhere. Also, he did Taz’s catchphrase… because tonight’s show is a A Tribute to The Arena, I guess?

CHEECH HERNANDEZ(0-0) VS. CLOUDY(0-0)- 6.75/10
Lenny Leonard was sure to explain to us- as was speculated on when it happened on the previous show- that Cheech attacking his tag team partner after a match was a loophole in the official rules so management really wasn’t sure what to do with him/if they could punish him, so they asked Cloudy, who, of course, insisted on Cheech’s punishment being having to face him in a match.
Cloudy came up way short on a dive and landed face-first on the floor, eliciting a “YOU F*CKED UP!” chant from the crowd. Another tribute to The Arena. Other than that very embarrassing and painful moment for the babyface, this was a very good “big moves” match. It’s rare to be able to pull that off and make it work as the second match on the card, but these guys did so, not going too fast or going too, crazy, but just making sure that they made everything they did matter. Cheech having the match won but pulling Cloudy up, until to win about a minute later seemed a little odd to me, but I guess the idea was that Cloudy’s big nearfall in the middle made Cheech take him more seriously.

JOHN SILVER & ALEX REYNOLDS(0-0) vs. THE SCENE(1-0) (w/Larry Dallas & Samantha)- 6.5/10
Silver was very annoying, shouting “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” repeatedly on his way to the ring and making goofy faces. Thankfully, he and his partner were defeated by The Scene in a solid match.

A.R. FOX(2-0) vs. JIGSAW(0-0)- 7.5/10
Jigsaw cut a quick promo before the match thanking the fans for CHIKARA’s success in The Arena.
There was the expected great athletic stuff, building to a TREMENDOUS finish that I’m not going to spoil, but it’s one of those finishes where you see it and you’re like “yeah… that’s the finish.”

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- decent
A.R. Fox cut a promo telling us that on the last DGUSA show, Sami Callihan broke a beer bottle over his head. Sami came out, clanking some beer bottles together and daring Fox to hit him, but the referee held Fox back and warned him that he would have to suspend him if he did. This did a good job of simultaneously catching EVOLVE fans up on a DGUSA story while also establishing that- as promised in the announcement at the beginning- the EVOLVE presentation would not change, despite it now working with a promotion with a very different ethos.

PINKIE SANCHEZ(1-0) vs. UHAA NATION(0-0) (w/Ricochet)- 4/10
The fans were very into Pinkie Sanchez, which I just don’t understand. Nation won a relatively short match cleanly.

UHAA NATION & RICOCHET INTERVIEW- Uhaa was passable, Ricochet… needed work.
Ronin came out and insulted them, but they just left because it’s EVOLVE and you can’t fight after the matches. Chuck Taylor then called out the Super Smash Brothers. I don’t know if this was Gabe’s way of trying to get his own “tribute to The Arena” with one of the famous ECW “one segment runs into another” bits, but if so, the EVOLVE format at this time really didn’t allow for that to work well.

SUPER SMASH BROTHERS(1-1) vs. RICH SWANN & CHUCK TAYLOR(0-0)- 8/10
The crowd LOVED this action-packed match. I also thought it was awesome (as is reflected in the rating), but I did have one big concern, which was how much time they spent just ignoring the all-important tag rules of tag team wrestling. Lenny Leonard called attention to the laxness on commentary, justifying it as a tribute to ECW’s famous lack of rules, and saying it was what the fans wanted to see. I HATED both of these explanations. I don’t care if ECW used to do this stuff and this is a “tribute to The Arena.” It’s an EVOLVE show, and EVOLVE is based around rules. Referees can’t just decide to ignore rules because they think it fits the show’s theme or because the fans want to see the rules ignored. On this particular show, it was even worse, though, as we had been promised that EVOLVE would retain its own style of presentation, separate from the one DGUSA is known for… and this match and its just plain ignoring the idea of “one in, one out” was a lot more DGUSA than it was EVOLVE.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS RONIN- fine
Chuck Taylor says they want a shot at the DGUSA Open The United Gate Titles. Rich Swann said “RONIN, BABY!”

KYLE MATTHEWS(0-0) vs. JON DAVIS (0-1)- meh squash
This was pretty much an extended squash for Davis, and given how the idea seems to have been that he was on something of a journey to get his first sanctioned win (he won the three-way with Bobby Fish and Kevin Steen on the previous show), this was a rather underwhelming way to get there.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS JON DAVIS- good
He’s upset with the way Fit Finlay lectured him at the previous show, so he challenges Finlay to a match the next time Finlay is in EVOLVE.

SAMI CALLIHAN(3-2) vs. BOBBY FISH(1-4) (w/A.R. Fox)- 6.75/10
Before the match, A.R. Fox assured Sami that he was just there to corner Bobby Fish and definitely wouldn’t get involved in the match.
Lenny told us that Bobby Fish really needed to pick up a victory or else he would be in danger of getting dropped from the roster.
Both guys worked the legs. There was a spot where they got WAY too cute, with Fox slapping Fish to get more adrenaline flowing so he could power out of a submission or whatever, which I absolutely hated. That is touching a competitor during a match, with the goal of affecting the outcome in some way. It should have been a DQ, and in EVOLVE, also at least a fine if not a suspension. Fox would later spit at Sami, distracting him, which allowed Fish to lock in a heel hook for the win. That, to me, should also a be a suspension.
The babyface/heel dynamics in this match were also quite confusing. Between his hot start with the dives, Lenny Leonard’s framing, and the earlier segment with Fox and Callihan, it felt like Fish was the babyface, but everything Fox did at ringside made it feel like Callihan was the babyface. I think Fish is a babyface, but now I’m not certain about Fox and Callihan. They both seem like heels to me now.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- hated it
Fox one-upped Callihan’s previous taunting by getting in his face and handcuffing his own hands behind his back to make it more tempting. Pinkie Sanchez came out and gave Sami a beer bottle, because I guess he wants his ally to get suspended. Sami refused to give in and hit Fox. Again, I am completely baffled as to who is the babyface and who is the heel here. What Fox was doing was a complete and total heel move. The babyface should want to get his revenge in the ring. Heels are the ones who try to do things to get the other person suspended, so that they don’t have to face justice in the ring.

DGUSA OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH: Johnny Gargano(c) (w/Ronin) vs. Ricochet (w/Uhaa Nation)- 8.5/10
Not only is this match under DGUSA rules (which makes sense because their title is on the line), but it also won’t count towards your EVOLVE record. If you want the records to be important, you can’t keep having matches where you come up with a way to avoid it counting on people’s records. This is now the third show in a row where that has been the case.
At the beginning of the match, Lenny Leonard declared that these two were evidence that wrestlers EVOLVE had once touted as the future of the business were now the present of the business, and these two did their best to prove him right. This was just plain excellent wrestling, mixing several different styles into one hell of a match. Gargano was injured, and had to be helped to the back.

TRIBUTE TO THE ARENA- On commentary, Lenny Leonard played it up as if the Open the Freedom Gate Title match was the real main event, and this whole thing was going on last only because it was a more proper “send-off” to The Arena.
Bob Artise was brought in as the special guest ring announcer, and Lenny ran down some statistics about the buildings. Artise then brought Joey Styles out, and Joey brought out Gary Wolfe, JT Smith, and Tod Gordon. DJ Hyde and some CZW students interrupted them. DJ pointed out that CZW ran more shows than ECW in The Arena, and thus argued that they should close the show, not ECW. He sent a student to attack the ECW old-timers, and the student ate a clothesline from Tod. The CZW crew surrounded the old-timers, but Balls Mahoney came in with a chair to make the save. The CZW guys ganged up on him, but then New Jack came out. He took his sweet time getting to the ring to make the save. New Jack beat the CZW guys up, just like Balls had moments earlier.
Justin Credible came out and attacked New Jack because we needed someone to be heel for when Sabu came out. Sabu didn’t actually try to make a save. He just walked around the ring and posed, and a referee showed up and just kind of rang the bell because there were only two people in the ring at this point.
This was all very orchestrated, and thus really wasn’t in any way compelling to me watching this so many years later, especially when ECW reunions had been done to death, even back in early 2012 when this show took place, never mind late 2021 when I’m finally getting around to watching it.
Anyway, we got a…

HARDCORE MATCH: Sabu vs. Justin Credible- 4.75/10
These guys tried hard, but Sabu in particular looked pretty bad. The crowd, of course, chanted “WE WANT FIRE!” about three minutes in. They liked the blood and the chairshots and liked Sabu stabbing Justin with something, but this just plain wasn’t fun to watch.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Joey came into the ring to wrap things up, but Sabu said that he wanted to speak. I thought that would have been a really nice way to pay tribute to the building and the fans, but Sami Callihan came out and attacked Sabu from behind. He broke a beer bottle over his head and sliced him open, and Sabu bled a lot.
Sami said that ECW was dead and we should stop it with these damn reunions. He’s not wrong. He said their era was dead and that this was now his building. He dared anyone to try to stop him. A.R. Fox came out and attacked Sami, but Pinkie Sanchez came out and dealt with Fox. I guess this brawling doesn’t count because the EVOLVE part of the show is over now?
Sami declared the building dead and demanded that they hit the lights. I was half-expecting them to come back on and Sabu to be recovered and pop back up, but nope. That was just the end of the show.
Well… at least something paid off and they managed to work some DGUSA/EVOLVE into this.


This was a decent show from EVOLVE in the ring (though definitely propped up by the main event), but as someone who has enjoyed the very different product EVOLVE had been putting on for the first nine shows, it felt a little worrying. The ECW tie-in was quite awkward for EVOLVE. It felt like an attempt to draw former ECW fans into the EVOLVE product… which isn’t a bad idea in theory, but the products are so different that it felt doomed to fail. Between that and the DGUSA union and the way the DGUSA stories dominated the show, it felt like some other show with an EVOLVE name tacked onto it. Looking at how long it had been since EVOLVE had had a show and how much the talent had been changing even without the big gap in shows, that makes a fair amount of sense, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a little disappointing. I don’t know what the financial situation was at the time, but it wouldn’t shock me if EVOLVE was already in deep trouble at this point.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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