Detailed Evolve 1 DVD Review

Backstage Segment:
Davey Richards/Kota Ibushi Training for Match

I don’t think there is a whole lot to be said about these segments. Davey Richards is certainly no actor, but that’s not what people pay to see him do. If you buy this DVD for the quality of the acting instead of the wrestling, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Match 1:
Kyle O’Riley vs. Bobby Fish

Bobby Fish has a good amount of experience in both the United States indy circuit and Japan, including in ring of Honor, Chikara, and NOAH. In fact, his nickname is “big in Japan”. While he has not yet held any titles, his in-ring work is solid and his style incorporates a good mix of Japanese Puroresu and Lucha Libre Styles, as well as Catch as Catch Can.

While Kyle O’Riley is stilla fair newcomer to the wrestling business, Davey Richards had a pretty big hand in his training, and anybody trained by Davey has got to have something to offer the business.

O’Riley vs. Fish was a solid match. It certainly seemed to get the crowd’s juices flowing and prepare them for a night of awesome indy action. Both men showed off an impressive array of maneuvers from stiff strong-style forearms and kicks, to springboards. Despite Bobby’s best efforts, O’Riley was able to connect with a combination rope assisted tornado DDT into a brainbuster for the win. It was a very impressive finishing spot, and was executed well.
Match 2:
Cheech vs. Chuck Taylor

Cheech has wrestled in the indys for several years now, having one of his most notable matches with his friend and tag team partner Cloudy at the CZW Cage of Death 7 show a few years back. The team of Cheech and Cloudy—sometimes referred to as Up in Smoke—has wrestled recently in Ring of Honor against the Dark City Fight club (also featured on this show) The Young bucks, and the House of Truth. While Cheech is not the largest of athletes, he is very impressive at times.

Chuck Taylor has been around since about 2003. He has held several titles, all in IWA Mid South )the promotion owned and runned by former ECW wrestler Ian rotten). Taylor has beaten “Mr. Insanity” toby Klein to win the IWA-MS Heavyweight title, Mickie Nuckles (who was scheduled to wrestle in the second season of the short lived Wrestling society X promotion on MTV) to win the IWA-MS Women’s Title, and Brandon Thomaselli to win the IWA-MS Junior Heavyweight Title. His finishers include the Awful Waffle and the Omega Driver.

Minus one sloppy spot from Cheech, this was a good match. It was nothing spectacular, but entertaining enough. It seemed that the crowds had a mixed reaction to chuck Taylor. Some liked him and some hated him, but Cheech didn’t get a whole lot of attention one way or the other. Chuck Taylor reversed Cheech into an awful Waffle for the win.

Afterwards Chuck Taylor cut a short promo about how he was not formally invited to participate in Evolve’s singles division and about how somebody in the Evolve office must not like him very much. It was most likely to set up a future angle between Chuck and whoever Gabe Sapolski picks for chuck to compete with—which will most likely be Ricochet.

Match 3:
Ricochet vs. “the Anarchist” Arik Cannon

Ricochet—known as the “Future of Flight”--made his professional wrestling debut in 2004. His small size makes it possible for him to perform a range of high-flying maneuvers, including his well-known double rotation moonsault. His most notable fued has been a long-time one with Chuck Taylor in IWA-MS, as well as other promotions. He has also wrestled under the name Helios in Chikara, and won the 5th Young Lions Cup under that moniker.

“the Anarchist” Arik Cannon has been in wrestling since approximately 2004. He has wrestled for and held titles in numerous independent wrestling promotions including chikara and IWA-MS, as well as being part of the short-lived Wrestling Society X as the tag team partner of “viscious” vic Grimes. He has also been part of the Kings of Wrestling faction in Chikara with Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, which led him to win the 2006 Chikara Tag Grand Prix with Claudio as his partner. He also won the Chikara 4th Young Lions Cup and held the IWA-MS Heavyweight title. Recently, he has been wrestling some shows for Ring of Honor.

This match showed a great contrast of styles. Ricochet is an extremely impressive high flyer, while Cannon has a great submission and ground game. Cannon hit many of his signature spots in the match, including the swinging neckbreaker, Exploder suplex (into the turnbuckle), and even the Total Anarchy, but ricochet was able to pick up the win with a 630 splash from the top rope.

After the match Chuck Taylor, long-time rival of Ricochet, came out to challenge Ricochet to “one more match”. Ricochet accepted with no hesitation.

Match 4:
The Dark City Fight Club (John Davis and Corey Chavis) vs. Aeroform (Louis Lindon and Flip Kendrick)

The Dark City Fight Club is a fairly recently formed tag team consisting of John Davis, who has wrestled in indy promotions including USACW and ROH, and Corey Chavis. Chavis has most recently teamed with Davis in Ring of Honor, but has also wrestled some job matches and dark matches in TNA a few years back as well.

Aeroform is also a recently formed tag team. They do not have much of a list of accomplishments up to this point. They have wrestled in both Chikara and CZW. Flip Kendrick has wrestled some singles matches in Jersey All Pro Wrestling as well. I was unable to find any further information about Louis Lindon.

This was a match much like the one that came before it. There was a great contrast not only of styles, but of sizes between DCFC and Aeroform. This was my first time seeing either Kendrick or Lindon wrestle. They were impressive and I will certainly be looking for more footage of them. DCFC worked as a finely-tuned machine in this match, much as I have seen them work in Ring of Honor. There could be a bright future for these two if tag team wrestling ever again becomes a priority of corporate wrestling. For most of the match, DCFC had control, tossing around Kendrick and Lindon like rag dolls. The boys from Aeroform were able to get in some pretty impressive spots. The match did a lot to reinforce the dominance of DCFC, while introducing the fans to Aeroform and putting them over as underdogs. DCFC came out with the win after they hit their double team Project Mayhem finisher.

Match 5:
Mercedes Martinez vs. Mya

Mya is a newcomer to the professional wrestling world, and I was unable to find any information about her.

Mercedes Martinez was train by former ECW star Jason Knight. She broke into the business in the New England area. She has held numerous independent titles including the WXW Women’sTitle, WXW Cruiserweight Title, and the GMW Women’s title. She was also the first NECW Women’s Champion and first ever NECW North American Women’s Champion. She is the current WSU (Women Superstars Uncensored( World Champion.

This match was a planned squash, designed to showcase the skills and dominance of Martinez. Hopefully they will bring in some more formidable female (or even male) talent to face her in the future. She has previously had fueds with Sumie Sakai, Nikki Roxx (Roxie LaVeaux), and Sara Del Ray. It would be great to see Gabe bring in any of those women to face her in the future. I think Mickie Knuckles or MsChif would also be a good choice of competitors to put Martinez in the ring with.

Mercedes Martinez dominated this match, slinging Mya around like she was nothing. She picked up the easy win with her Fisherman Buster finisher.

Afterward, Martinez cut a promo saying that Evolve was not just a mens’ promotion and that she was there to evolve. She isn’t that good on the mic, but her in-ring work is really all I care about, and that makes up for her lack of mic skills. After all, this isn’t WWE.

Match 6:
Brad Allen vs. Silas Young

Brad Allen hails from North Carolina. He was trained Both in the CWF and FCW promotions. FCW is now the WWE’s developmental federation and Allen was once under developmental contract with WWE. I have a fuzzy recollection of him being released from such a contract a while back. He has also been known as Brad Attitude and “Campus Legend” Brad Allen (in FCW). Allen has held the FCW Tag Titles with Nick nemith as wellas the FIP (Full Impact Pro) Florida Heritage Title. He has also wrestled a couple matches in Ring of Honor, including one against Austin Aries.

Silas Young hails from Milwaukee (the same area as Austin Aries). He has previously held the NWA Wisconsin Heavyweight Title. He has wrestled throughout the Midwest, pitting himself against stars like Jerry Lynn, Jimmy Jacobs, and Ace Steel. Most recently Young has wrestled in Ring of Honor. He is known for his impressive Finlay Roll into Headstand Moonsault finisher.

This match was one of my favorite on the DVD. Silas Young reminds me very much of Austin Aries in his brash in-ring attitude. I have seen some of his previous work, including some of his matches on the Ring of Honor television program, but this was my favorite of all those matches. While I had never before seen Brad Allen wrestle (this was his first outing in the Northeast) and am skeptical of WWE developmental talents that have not had an extensive indy background, he impressed me very much. Brad Allen is not a small man, but shows a great deal of agility and skill in high-flying maneuvers. He hit a very impressive corkscrew crossbody maneuver off the top rope during this match. He also showed that he can hit hard. While he has apparently had no Japanese experience, he and Young incorporated some Japanese style into this match as well. Young was impressive as always. Allen picked up the win with his Attitude Adjustment finisher (not to be confused with the finisher of John Cena that bares the same name). It speaks a lot about Gabe Sapolski’s opinion of Allen that he was booked to beat Silas Young not only in his first match in Evolve, but his first match ever in the Northeast region.

Post-match, Brad Allen expressed his gratitude to Gabe and the fans for giving him the opportunity to come and wrestle in the Northeast. He also challenged Chris Hero to a match at the next event, stating that he wanted to be one of the big guys in Evolve, and that he knew he would have to beat a big name to do so.

Match 7:
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Ken Doan

Jimmy Jacobs is truly an independent wrestling superstar, thanks mainly to his work in Ring of Honor. He has also wrestled with former tag partner Tyler Black both in WSX—as the emo team of DIFH (Doing It For Her)--and ROH—in the Age of the Fall faction with Necro butcher, Delirious, and later Brody Lee. He has had notable fueds with both Colt Cabana (one that culminated in a brutal Street Fight) and with his former tag partner Tyler Black, as well as Austin Aries. He has held numerous titles throughout the independent wrestling world, most notably the PWG and ROH Tag Team Titles.

Ken Doan may be known better as Kenny Dykstra, fromer member of WWE’s Spirit Squad. He is the son of referee Jack Doan. Doan has been favorably compared to Triple H. This makes sense, since both men were trained by the legendary Killer Kawalski. He has held only two titles in his career but one of those was the WWE Tag Team Titles (in tandum with the other members of the Spirit Squad) and the other is the OVW Television title. Doan’s size and skill make him a great talent for any promotion to have on their roster.

I liked this match very much, though the fans did not seem all that impressed. I was very impressed with Doan’s heel work here. He wrestled a very slow-paced, technical style of match. The fans heckled him mercilessly for it, but instead of kicking it up, he played heel hard and just kept wrestling that way. Jimmy Jacobs got all of the pop in this match, hitting many of his signature maneuvers, including his rope assisted double stomp/legdrop spot. The match ended controversially. Doan hit a gigantic legdrop off the top but then cheated to get the pin. Tommy Dreamer (who I was not surprised to see, as he is a personal friend of Evolve and Dragon Gate USA booker Gabe Sapolski)came out from the backstage and made the referee aware of what Doan had done. The ref ordered the match restarted and Jacobs was able to slap on his End Time (guillotine choke) finisher to make Doan tap out.

Afterward Tommy cut a prime face promo and got a great pop. Jacobs interrupted him and tore into him verbally, saying that Dreamer had embarrassed himself by crying on national television (of course referring to his farewell address on the final ECW broadcast) and also calling Dreamer a washed-up has-been. The un kindest cut came when Jacobs compared Dreamer to guys like Hogan and flair. Tommy took unkindly to Jacobs remarks and lit his ass up. The short brawl ended in Dreamer hitting his patented DDT and the crowd loving every second of it.

Match 8:
Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Dickenson

Johnny Gargano has competed in several indy federations over the last few years. The list includes CZW as well as Josh Prohibition’s Pro Wrestling Ohio promotion.

Chris Dickenson has wrestled in Jersey All Pro Wrestling

This match was primarily striking based. The two wrestlers traded some wicked shots, including a kick to Gargano’s face that made me cringe. The match also featured some well-placed technical and high-flying spots, including a huge springboard elbowdrop by Dickenson and a Lawndart into the second turnbuckle by Gargano. The match ended when Gargano hit a full nelson into a Flatliner, a move that he calls the Hurts Donit.

Match 9:
TJP vs. Minenori Sawa

T.J. Perkins is still young but he is a veteran of the wrestling business. He began wrestling at age 15 and was later picked up by the New Japan Los Angeles dojo with his friends Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero, as well as Bryan Danielson. While in Japan, he adopted the moniker of Puma, which he used later in TNA. Since his debut, Perkins has wrestled in numerous federations including EWF (Empire Wrestling Federation), NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling), MLW (Major League Wrestling), WSX (Wrestling Society X), PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerilla), ROH (Ring of Honor), and TNA (as Puma). He has held titles including the EWF Tag Titles, NWA Heritage Championship, and the UWA Canadian championship. Pro Wrestling Illustrated also ranked him #179 in their Topp 500 best singles wrestlers of the year in 2005.

I found it difficult to find information about Minenori Sawa. I do know that he has wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance in the United States, and obviously in Japan as well.

While T.J. Perkins’ style is based more around ground and submission wrestling, he slugged it out pretty well in this match against Sawa. There were two particular spots that stood out to me in this match. One was a T.J. Perkins Northern Lights Suplex into a Cross Armbreaker. The other was a wicked punch by Sawa, followed up bya kick to Sawa’s face by Perkins, which led to both men falling on their faces. It was one of those spots that you see and just can’t help but love. My only criticism of this match is that the ending was a bit anticlimactic. Sawa made Perkins tap out to an octopus hold, but it just didn’t seem to be set up properly.

Match 10:
Team Frightning (“Lightning” Mike Quackenbush, Hallowicked, and Frightmare) vs. Akuma’s Army )Gran Akuma, Brody Lee, And Icarus)

“Lightning” Mike Quackenbush is a seasoned veteran of the pro wrestling game. Mike has held numerous titles including the IWA-MS Heavyweight Title, the PWE (Pro Wrestling Entertainment) Heavyweight title, NWA Junior Heavyweight Title (defeating Tiger Mask), CZW Junior Heavyweight Title, and others. He is the owner of Chikara.

Hallowicked is in the eighth year of his career as a professional wrestler, but has held only one title to date, the NAWF (North American Wrestling Federation) Tag Titles. He has also been winner of the Chikara Young Lions Cup and Tag Grand Prix tournaments. He was trained by some great names in Mike Quackenbush, Wreckless Youth, and Chris Hero. He also has a variety of impressive moves including a moonsault double stomp and his Graveyard Smash finisher, which is a Fisherman Lift into a Sitout Spinebuster.

Frightmare has just over one year of pro experience. He has competed in both CZW and Chikara in that year. His list of innovative maneuvers includes a Standing Moonsault into a Double Kneedrop.

Gran Akuma is one of the top heels in Chikara. He was trained by Mike Quackenbush and premiered in 2002. Since then he has captured the PWE and Chikara Tag Titles with his partner Icarus.

Icarus is the long-time tag partner of Gran Akuma. Like his partner, he was also trained at the Chikara camp.

“Big Rig” Brody lee is a 6’5, 280 pound monster. He has been NWA Empire Heavyweight Champion, NWA Upstate Heavyweight Champion, and NWA Upstate Tag Champion. He has been part of the Age of the Fall faction in Ring of Honor, as well as part of the faction CloudLee (with Cloudy) and The Miracle Ultraviolence Connection in CZW.

Chikara always does a great job of showcasing a great cross of Puroresu and Lucha Libre styles in their matches. This match was no exception to that rule. Each man was able to hit one or more of their signature spots, including a Black Tornado Slam by Quackenbush, a Standing Moonsault/Double Knee Combo
By Frightmare, and a Venus Palm Strike by Quackenbush. There was plenty of flying in this match as well. Quackenbush did a great job in his first match back after yet another back surgery. He did not hold back, executing both a top rope Swanton bomb and a Tope Con Hilo over the ropes to the floor. Hallowicked was able to pick up the victory with his Graveyard Smash finisher.

My only complaint here is that I would like to see any one of these guys do some wrestling outside of the Chikara ranks. I think that Quackenbush is an excellent singles wrestler in addition to his perfection of the tag team wrestling craft, and that he should be going up against some big name guys like Austin Aries or Chris hero.

Match 11:
Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi

Davey Richards was the most talked about independent wrestler of the year 2009, and for damn good reason. Davey was trained by Tony Cozina and premiered in 2004. He has wrestled extensively in Japan and in the United States, with promotions like PWG and ROH. Davey is the three time PWG Tag Champion, 2 time ROH Tag Champion (once with Rocky Romero and once with Eddie Edwards), and winner of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2006 tournament. In the last year Davey has had a series of incredible matches with Kota Ibushi in Japan, not to mention his great tag work with Eddie Edwards in ROH. He has established himself as a true top competitor in the independent circuit, and undoubtedly a future star.

Kota Ibushi is a top contender in the Japanese DDT promotion. He has also wrestled for Big Japan Wrestling and more recently gained mainstream exposure by wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH. He has also toured the United States wrestling for ROH and Chikara. Ibushi also wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 2009 super Juniors tournament, losing to Prince Devitt (who went on to win the tournament). Ibushi has tagged with the likes of Naomichi Marifuji and Austin Aries. Ibushi’s finishers include the golden Star Bomb and the amazing Golden Star Press (a spiral 630 degree senton off the top rope).He also employs the golden Star Press ’07 (a springboard into a spiral 450 degree splash). Ibushi won the 2009 Rey de Voladores tournament in Chikara. He has been the DDT Openweight Champion, a DDT Tag Champion with Kenny Omega (using the double 450 splash maneuver they termed the Golden Shower to get the win), the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion, Independent Junior Heavyweight Champion, and IMGP (International Muscle Grand Prix) Heavyweight Champion.

I cannot say enough about this match. It is undoubtedly the best singles wrestling match I have seen in a very long time. There are reasons people in the United States and Japan are talking about Davey Richards and Kota Ibushi. This match is one of those reasons. The match featured an amazing mix of flying, submission, technical wrestling, and striking. Both wrestlers hit many of their signature spots: Richards with the Alarm Clock and DR Driver, and Ibushi with his Bridging Evasion Kick and Somersault Moonsault Kick. Davey hit an amazing German Suplex off the top rope as well. I could go on listing spots all night if I wanted to. The bottom line is that these two men put on a better match in front of 400 people than many high paid professional wrestlers put on in front of 40,000.

Final Thoughts:

While the asthetics of this show were lacking, I thought it was a solid first outing for Evolve. The lighting was poor, the entrance music was generic, and the mic kept cutting out during people’s promos, but the work done in the ring made up for things like that. I was not looking for a glitzy WWE style show anyway. What I was expecting was hard-hitting indy action, and that’s what I got. Gabe Sapolski has done a great job of putting together a roster of young and talented Professional wrestlers )not sports entertainers).

Unfortunately he lost Davey Richards when Davey was offered and signed an exclusive contract with ROH. I wonder if the backstage bigshots in ROH (the former employers of Gabe Sapolski) offered Davey the contract just to spite Gabe. It wouldn’t surprise me. The fact is though, Davey Richards is the most talked about indy talen of the last year and it was smart business for ROH to lock him down. It was also smart business for Davey to take the contract.

I am definitely going to be keeping up with Evolve’s DVD releases in the future. Evolve 2: Hero vs. Hidaka wil definitely be joining my DVD collection sometime soon.

References

Arik Cannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arik_Cannon

Brody Lee
http://indywrestling.wikia.com/wiki/Brodie_Lee

Kota Ibushi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kota_Ibushi

Ricochet
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ricochet_(wrestler)

T.J. Perkins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.J._Perkins

All Other Wrestlers
http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com