BRM Reviews Evolve 11: Finlay vs. Callihan (great, but...)

[Big Red Machine]

Evolve 11: Finlay vs. Callihan (4/13/2012)- Toronto, ON


OPENING SEGMENT- meh
Lenny Leonard gets the crowd hyped up, but lets them know that due to issues at the border, there have had to be some changes to the card. SSB came out and Lenny interviewed them. They said that they wanted to get a million points, and to start with that, they needed some opponents. The Gentleman’s Club came out, and Chuck Taylor said that he wasn’t going to act the way he was “supposed to” anymore and would be himself more.

Arda Ocal joined Lenny Leonard on commentary for this match.

SUPER SMASH BROTHERS(1-2) vs. GENTLEMAN’S CLUB (Drew Gulak & Jake Manning)(0-0) (w/Chuck Taylor)- 7/10
The crowd was really into SSB and went nuts for all of their stuff. This was a good action opener with relatively short heat, but the crowd loved it and it definitely peaked at the finish. SSB got the clean win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good… I think?
Player Uno said they were the top team in EVOLVE, and were coming to DGUSA as well. Chuck Taylor hopped up onto the apron and stared angrily at them. As they were leaving, he jumped into the ring, went over to the mic, and said that the Gentleman’s Club doesn’t care if they win. The fans laughed at this. I’m not sure if this is the desired reaction or not. If the idea here was just to show a clear change in Chuck Taylor, it succeeded at that. Whether this change will be good or not, I’m not sure.

JOSH ALEXANDER(0-0) vs. MK MCKINNAN(0-0)- 1.5/10
This was short, and was not helped by McKinnan botching two spots on the ropes in quick succession. Alexander won clean.

SAMI CALLIHAN PROMO- great
He’s sitting on the floor banging his head against the wall, muttering “A.R. Fox” and “Sabu” to himself. Then he shakes himself of it and starts to cut a promo on Finlay. He says that he if doesn’t win tonight, he’ll fall into a dark place that he has been before and thought of going back to it scares him, so he will do whatever it takes to win tonight “respect’s out the window!”

MIKE ROLLINS(0-0) vs. ASHLEY SIXX(0-0)- 5.5/10
A competent match between two people I just couldn’t get into. Sixx was bland and Rollins was doing a slight “I’M CRAZY!” gimmick that didn’t manifest itself in any sort of interesting way.

DAVE FINLAY PROMO- good
He says that Sami Callihan will never beat him if he can’t get his head in the game.

JOHN SILVER(1-0) vs. ALEX REYNOLDS(0-0)- 7.5/10
Other than one or two spots that looked funky, this was a great match between two guys who knew each other’s moves well. Silver lost after some sort of overly-complicated move was countered in a way that looked kind of fake, allowing Reynolds to then hit his finisher.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS JOHN SILVER- fine
He notes that he and Silver lost as a team, but both won as singles wrestlers. He says it sucks that he had to beat his friend, but he is here to make his mark in EVOLVE.

LARRY DALLAS, CALEB KONLEY, AND A CHICK BACKSTAGE- fine
Larry said that he didn’t know who Caleb’s opponent for tonight was and didn’t care. They make plans to party later. Said chick was indy wrestler Leah Vaughan/Leah Van Dutch, but I assume we’re not really supposed to think of that. They were all good at the characters.

JOHNNY GARGANO INSERTS HIMSELF INTO THE NEXT MATCH- great
It was supposed to be a singles match between Chuck and Samuray, but Johnny Gargano came out and caught everyone up to speed on the happenings of the previous DGUSA weekend when Chuck Taylor turned on Johnny Gargano and broke up Ronin. He said that he had stuck up for Chuck when EVOLVE/DGUSA management wanted to get rid of him, so now he wants revenge and wants to be inserted into this match to get it. Johnny did a good job of deflecting some fans in the crowd who were trying to get themselves over.

THREE-WAY ELIMINATION MATCH: Johnny Gargano(6-3) vs. Chuck Taylor(6-3) vs. Samuray Del Sol(0-0)- 7.5/10
Lenny Leonard drew a connection between this three-way elimination match and today being the fifteenth anniversary of ECW Barely Legal because the Three-Way Dance was an ECW specialty.

Per Lenny Leonard, only the loser of the final fall will get a loss on his record. How does that make any sense?! It’s an elimination match. They guy who gets pinned second does better than the guy who got pinned first, but only that guy gets marked with a loss? I figured that the whole reason this was a three-way was because it was EVOLVE and we needed to have things count in the records and it wouldn’t make as much sense for the person who doesn’t get pinned to get the loss.
Taylor tried his best to stay away from Gargano. Taylor eventually stole a pin Gargano had on Del Sol for the first elimination. Gargano got a bit of shine, but Tayor cut him off and worked over his back, which he had also worked on last month. Once Gargano got some sustained offense in, Taylor tried to walk out of the match, but Gargano brought him back to the ring. They traded big stuff from that point on, with Gargano eventually passing out in a half crab. I’m a big advocate of strong heels who can win cleanly, but the booking here just seemed off to me. I guess we’ll see where it’s going.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS CHUCK TAYLOR- fine
Lenny notes that Chuck is now alone atop the leaderboard with seven wins. Chuck says that the Gentleman’s Club loves to win.

ADAM PAGE(0-0) vs. CALEB KONLEY(0-1) (w/Larry Dallas & “Leah”)- 6/10
Lenny Leonard tacitly acknowledged Leah (he mentioned her first name, though with the caveat “I’m sure that’s a stage name”). They also had a plant in the first row who opened her top so that Caleb could put something in it (obviously they had to shoot around this, so we couldn’t see exactly what it was).
Caleb won cleanly. The match was solid for the time it got.

JOHNNY GARGANO PROMO- great
He wants another match with Chuck Taylor get revenge for last month’s attacks in DGUSA, and also to reclaim the spot as the Wins Leader in EVOLVE.

LOW KI(1-0) vs. EL GENERICO(0-0)- 8/10
This was an awesome back-and-forth match. Low Ki won clean… and then grabbed a mic and told Generico “you’re not as good as you think you are.” Seems like we’ll be building to a rematch.

DAVE FINLAY(1-0) vs. SAMI CALLIHAN(3-3)- 8.75/10
This was similar to their first match (with the same story of the young tough guy vs. the veteran tough guy), though not as unique and interesting. It had that same “less is more, simplicity with stiffness” formula to it, but you didn’t have the stuff that blew my mind like Finlay’s brutal drop toe-hold (yes, you read that right). This one was a stiff slugfest, with Finlay working the head and Sami working the knee.
Finlay won cleanly, so I guess Sami will be heading to that dark place he mentioned.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Lenny Leonard put over both men, then gave Finlay the mic. Finlay told Sami that he needed to “get your head straight” and work on his wrestling abilities and ignore people like Sabu, he has the potential to be a big star. Lenny offered Sami the chance to speak, but Sami said “I don’t have anything to say. I just lost!” and stormed off.

FINLAY VS. JON DAVIS VIDEO PACKAGE- awesome!
They’re wrestling at the next show, and Davis says it’s time for him to win. Davis was tremendous here.

BONUS MATCH: Dave Finlay vs. Sami Callihan (from wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament 2012: Night 1, 3/2/2012)-8/10
The usual stiffness. Finlay won clean.


This was a great show from EVOLVE, albeit with minimal storyline development. I’m sure that having four guys stopped at the border played a role in that, but that doesn’t change the fact that that’s what happened. If you’re just looking for some great wrestling, this show is worth watching, but if you’ve got a limited budget and you’re really into the storylines, this has been the most skippable EVOLVE show yet from that standpoint.