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This is Ryan Rozanski and I will be doing live coverage of EVOLVE 22 tonight starting at 8:00 pm EST. Of course, the live coverage is dependent upon nothing going completely wrong with WWN live.

Opening Match: Caleb Konley vs. Chuck Taylor

I’m not getting audio to start the iPPV. They trade control on the mat and exchange pin attempts to no avail. I now have audio but the stream froze. Okay, back on track. Konley snaps off an armdrag and connects with a dropkick. Taylor blocks a charge and hits an overhead suplex. Konley sweeps out his legs and hits a senton. Taylor blocks a charge with a knee strike and covers for a two count. He grounds Konley and takes control. Konley headscissors Taylor to the floor and follows out with a dive. In the ring, Konley connects with a missile dropkick and hits a tornado DDT. Taylor responds with a uranagi and kicks Konley in the chest. Taylor connects with a superkick but runs into a bicycle kick. He recovers with a neckbreaker in the ropes. Konley avoids a moonsault, connects with a roaring elbow, and hits a spinebuster. He lays in a knockout kick and hits a michinoku driver for a nearfall. The crowd gets behind Taylor. Taylor crotches Konley on the top rope but can’t hit the Awful Waffle. Konley applies a new submission (a boston crab while holding Taylor’s arms) to pick up the win at 10:21. These two needed a breakout match here, as Konley tries to recover from being stuck in the Scene forever and Taylor recovers from doing absolutely nothing in the EVOLVE Title Tournament. Instead, we got a decent opener and nothing more. **½

Larry Dallas comes out with some women. He tries to compliment Konley. Konley just wishes Dallas luck and walks away.


Match #2: Ivelisse vs. Mia Yim

This is a SHINE showcase match. They exchange forearms and rollups and find themselves at a stalemate. Ivelisse blocks a few kicks from Yim and eggs her on. Yim connects with a headbutt and snaps off a hurricanrana. Ivelisse catches her in the ropes with a kick and takes control with a northern lights suplex. Both women connect with a mafia kick at the same time and fall to the canvas. Yim connects with a nasty shotgun dropkick and hits a corner cannonball. Ivelisse ducks a kick but Yim immediately comes back with a kick to the back of the head. Yim hits a saito suplex for a nearfall. Ivelisse traps her in an ankle lock but Yim reaches the bottom rope. Yim lays in a series of strikes. Ivelisse counters a german suplex attempt into a victory roll for the win at 9:09. There were a lot of moments of miscommunication throughout and the match was at its best when Yim got on a roll with her offense. I don’t watch any SHINE, but Ivelisse was not very impressive here. *½

The Young Bucks come out after the match. Matt talks about EVOLVE’s various rules but says that the Young Bucks are untouchable. They threaten to superkick Yim and Ivelisse, but AR Fox runs out. The Young Bucks promptly flee the ring. Could Ivelisse and Yim be more of an afterthought?


Match #3: Anthony Nese vs. Tommy Taylor

Nese’s manager, Mr. A, is on important business this weekend. For continuity reasons, everyone keep tabs on whether we ever get an explanation as to where exactly he went. They start the match pretty tentative with each other on the mat. Taylor comes off the middle rope with double knees and connects with a running knee strike. Nese connects with a spin kick after a nice combination. Taylor slingshots into the ring and monkey flips Nese. Taylor connects with a springboard knee drop and slows things down on the mat. Nese blocks another monkey flip attempt and crotches Taylor on the top rope. He springboard dropkicks him to the floor. Nese takes over until he goes up top and Taylor catches him with a dropkick. Nese escapes the Tower of London but runs into a series of strikes. Taylor hits a tilt-a-whirl slam and a butterfly suplex. He adds an electric chair slam but Nese won’t stay down. Nese hits a pumphandle powerbomb out of nowhere for a nearfall. They trade strikes and Taylor sort of locks in an armbar. Nese tries to dead-lift him for a powerbomb to no avail. Nese has been in this armbar for a LONG time. He bucklebombs Taylor on his second attempt. Nese lands a 450 splash for the victory at 15:30. I would have liked to see Nese defeat Taylor with a submission, to show that as the Premier Athlete he can beat anyone at their own game. Still, this match accomplished its goal of making Nese look good and the action was solid enough. It would have been nice for Taylor to pick up at least one win this weekend, as I’m really not sure what his position is in EVOLVE. ***


Match #4: The Bravados and Andrew Everett vs. Los Ben Dejos and Shane Strickland

Everett and Strickland start the match. You can imagine how that exchange went. Harlem blind tags into the match to ruin the fun as the crowd chants “you can’t flip” at him. Rios snaps off a headscissors on Harlem and Los Ben Dejos follow with some tandem offense. Lance elevates Rios into an ace crusher from Harlem. That allows the heels to isolate Rios. He flips out of a back drop and makes the tag. Cruz cleans house and lands a frog splash onto Harlem. Strickland headscissors Everett and dropkicks him to the floor. Strickland follows out with a dive. The Bravados think about diving but settle for stereo baseball slides. Los Ben Dejos finish with dives. Wait…Everett has to do something crazy and he does just that with a springboard shooting star press. In the ring, the faces unload offense on Everett, ending with a springboard swantan from Strickland. The Bravados hit the Gentleman’s Approach on Cruz for a nearfall. Harlem hits a nice neckbreaker on Rios and Everett follows with a corkscrew splash for a two count. Strickland superkicks Harlem but runs into a huge lariat. Everyone starts hitting moves. Strickland hits a tombstone gutbuster on Everett and all six men are down. Strickland hits a top-rope falcon arrow on Everett for a nearfall. Strickland adds the Swerve Stomp for the win at 12:48. I liked this a bit more than the last match just due to the energy of everyone involved. For the first time tonight, I felt as though the crowd generally cared about the action. Everyone needed to impress here and I think EVOLVE has a great inflow of talent with these six men. Good stuff. ***


Match #5: AR Fox vs. Lince Dorado

Dorado snaps off a handspring hurricanrana and cartwheels out of an armdrag. They dodge each other’s kicks and reach a stalemate. Fox grabs the microphone and decides to put the EVOLVE Title on the line! The crowd didn’t really pop for that, but I like the general idea. Fox connects with a slingshot double stomp and lands a dive to the floor. Dorado immediately responds with a dive of his own. Dueling dives! Fox hits a senton from the stage onto Dorado, who was sitting on the apron. Insane. In the ring, Dorado blocks a swantan with knees and lands a dive back to the outside. He takes a drink at the bar but Fox superkicks the alcohol out of his mouth. I support that. Fox takes a drink as well. I don’t support that. Fox hits a senton on the bar. Why wouldn’t he? They battle into the crowd. Dorado climbs onto a mini balcony and lands a crossbody onto Fox. Both men slowly make their way back into the ring. They exchange strikes and Fox hits a rolling facebuster out of the corner. Dorado spikes him with a blockbuster for a nearfall. Dorado misses a shooting star press. Fox connects with an enzuigiri and hits an air raid crash. They trade control of a tombstone and Dorado finally hits it. Both men are down. They battle on the apron. Both men attempt springboard moves and Fox hits Lo Mein Pain in mid-air to retain his title at 17:02. That was as awesome as I expected it to be. It’s clear that Dorado has improved greatly and Fox was the perfect opponent for him. I don’t want to say this felt like Reseda but the atmosphere came pretty close. If anything, I think the match may have went a bit long. Still, this was an excellent showcase worth checking out and I almost want to go higher for the insane finish. ***½

The Young Bucks come out and dare Fox to break the rules and attack them. When Fox refuses, the Young Bucks superkick him.

Intermission

Lenny Leonard starts the second half in the ring. He introduces Derek Ryze, who has impressed at a seminar recently. Ryze immediately issues an opening challenge. Larry Dallas comes out with Brian Cage…

Match #6: Derek Ryze vs. Brian Cage
Ryze connects with a few kicks. Cage connects with a discus lariat and hits two powerbombs. Cage hits Weapon X for the win in 30 seconds. Cool.

Match #7: Brian Cage vs. Jon Davis
Chuck Taylor joins commentary for this match. Neither man budges on a shoulder block battle. Davis picks up some steam and eventually knocks Cage down. Cage quickly returns the favor and hits a snap powerslam. Davis responds with a spinebuster. He takes control until Cage comes back with an olympic slam. Davis hits a powerslam but falls victim to a neckbreaker. He blocks a discus lariat, shrugs off a german suplex, and hits a bucklebomb. Cage fires out of the corner with a discus lariat. Both men are down. They trade strikes and Davis connects with a lariat for the win at 7:58. What an odd match. The first four minutes was them just mindlessly trading power moves. Then, they had an awesome exchange that completely woke the crowd up. Then the match just…ended. We’re over two hours into the show and still have both main events, so maybe this got lost in the shuffle. **


Match #8: Open the Freedom Gate Title: Johnny Gargano © vs. Samuray Del Sol

The red flags should be rising because this is not the main event. The crowd is solidly behind Del Sol. They dodge each other’s kicks and stare each other down. Del Sol armdrags Gargano to the floor and teases a dive. Gargano misses his spear through the ropes and gets taken down by a headscissors. Del Sol lands a dive to the floor and lays in a series of kicks. In the ring, Del Sol goes for his headstand headscissors but Gargano cuts him off with a basement dropkick. The champion takes control until Del Sol fights back with a standing sliced bread. Del Sol follows with a twisting brainbuster. Gargano enzuigiris him off the apron but misses a plancha. Del Sol superkicks Gargano on the floor and comes off the stage with a corkscrew armdrag. Del Sol reenters the ring with a slingshot splash. Gargano catches him with a kick to the side of the head and blocks a hurricanrana with a powerbomb. They exchange strikes. Gargano blocks Rising Sun with a german suplex. Del Sol shoots back with a spin kick and both men are down. They battle on the apron and Del Sol hits a rolling death valley driver. He follows with Rising Sun for a nearfall. Gargano recovers with a top-rope gutbuster and a lawn dart. He applies the Gargano Escape. Del Sol is able to reach the bottom rope. Del Sol armdrags out of Hurts Donut but eats a knockout kick. Del Sol hits Rising Sun out of nowhere for a two count. Gargano resorts to an eye rake and hits Hurts Donut for a nearfall. He locks in the Gargano Escape but Del Sol once again reaches the bottom rope. Del Sol hits his wheelbarrow facebuster off the top rope for a nearfall. Gargano avoids Rising Sun and takes off Del Sol’s mask! Gargano applies the Gargano Escape and Del Sol quickly taps out at 22:19. Gargano retains his title. Gargano puts on Del Sol’s mask and struts around the ring. Since this was not the main event, I wasn’t expecting a clean finish, but this was much more tolerable and came off much better than I expected. Gargano has his character down pat. The match itself was excellent and they kept things back and forth for the majority of it, slowing building Del Sol’s nearfalls. Any frustrations with the finish in regards to match quality should be quickly negated by how well it was executed in my opinion. ****


Match #9: Open the United Gate Titles: Matt and Nick Jackson © vs. EITA and Tomahawk T.T.

The Young Bucks attack before the opening bell. EITA and Tomahawk recover with some chops. EITA uses Tomahawk for leverage to snap off a headscissors on Matt. EITA and Tomahawk land stereo dives to the floor. EITA lands a moonsault off the bar and follows with his moonsault off the top rope. In the ring, Nick blindsides EITA with a gamengiri and the champions isolate him. Tomahawk tries to intervene at one point but gets dropkicked to the floor. EITA takes advantage of some miscommunication and makes the tag. Tomahawk suplexes Matt onto Nick. He blocks a superkick from Matt and hits a michinoku driver variant. Nick catches Tomahawk with a running knee strike and Matt hits an assisted sliced bread for a nearfall. Nick superkicks both of his opponents and hits a slingshot facebuster on Tomahawk. The Young Bucks hit a spike tombstone on Tomahawk onto the floor. EITA appears on a high balcony and lands a moonsault onto the Young Bucks! Everyone takes a moment to reset. Both teams trade strikes. The Young Bucks connect with stereo superkicks after an awesome exchange. Matt bucklebombs Tomahawk into an enzuigiri from Nick. EITA interrupts More Bang for Your Buck. Matt falls victim to a doomsday lungblower for a nearfall. Nick lands a 450 splash onto EITA for a two count. Tomahawk blocks a tandem tombstone but gets caught by a tornado DDT onto the floor. The Young Bucks hit More Bang for Your Buck on EITA to retain their titles at 18:47. This match suffered a bit from following a lot of wrestling and a lengthy intermission. Still, EITA and Tomahawk brought some highly innovative offense to the table and I cannot think of a better tag team right now than the Young Bucks. In hindsight, this was most likely the right main event and ended the weekend with enjoyable action and a clean finish, despite the heels winning. ***¾

Overall
: EVOLVE 22 earns an easy recommendation due to three solid undercard matches and two main events that met expectations. I think you could fairly ask some questions about whether all three shows this weekend told a cohesive story or how much steam the storylines in the WWN universe have right now aside from Gargano’s awesome characterization. But looking at this show in isolation, I felt as though it was money well spent and you can’t help but recognize that almost every match on this card received more than enough time to develop into something substantial. Gargano, Fox, and the Young Bucks make for quite the lineup of champions and I foresee them doing a lot to make people interested in EVOLVE especially moving forward. As for tonight, I would recommend checking out EVOLVE 22.

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