EVOLVE 25 on January 10th, 2014 in Ybor City, Florida
Opening Match: FIP World Heavyweight Title: Trent Baretta © vs. Anthony Nese
Neither man can gain any advantage on the mat. They battle over a knucklelock and Baretta snaps off a hurricanrana. Nese responds with a hurricanrana of his own. Baretta lays in a few stiff chops. Nese yanks him off the middle rope and he hits the back of his head on the turnbuckle. Nese takes control until Baretta hits a desperation suplex to the floor. Nese rams Baretta back-first into a pole and regains control in the ring. Baretta blocks a dive attempt with a dropkick. Su Yung jumps onto the apron to provide a distraction. Nese scolds her for getting involved. Baretta connects with an enzuigiri and hits a german suplex. Nese shrugs off a tornado DDT and connects with a spin kick. Baretta answers with a double stomp out of the corner. They battle up top. Nese catches the champion with a muscle buster variant. Baretta hits a guillotine leg drop that sends Nese to the floor. The champion follows out with a dive. In the ring, Baretta hits a tornado DDT. Nese creates some space with an enzuigiri. The action goes to the apron where they trade kicks. Nese hits a death valley driver onto the apron! Back in, Nese hits a dead-lift german suplex for a nearfall. They exchange strikes. Nese connects with a superkick and hits a one-armed bucklebomb. He follows with a pumphandle powerbomb for a two count. Baretta catches him up top with a huge german suplex. Baretta connects with a flying knee strike for a nearfall. Nese finds life with a superkick and both men are down. Nese misses a 450 splash and Baretta tries a quick rollup for a nearfall. Nese counters the Dudebuster with a reverse hurricanrana for a two count. Baretta escapes a sunset flip and quickly rolls up Nese to retain his title at 23:24. First of all, I cannot tell you how happy I am that Nese is moving away from relying on cheating. Do you know how many times he cheated in this match? Zero! That is exciting. What’s more exciting right now is that this was a tremendous opener and quite the way to set the pace for 2014. Baretta has quickly gone from someone who I was indifferent about seeing to someone whose match I look forward to seeing on every show. These two seemed to know each other very well and had great chemistry as a result. Although the rollup finish wasn’t ideal, that’s a small nitpick in a match that delivered a lot of positive points. ***¾
Match #2: FRAY!: Jon Davis vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Uhaa Nation vs. Caleb Konley vs. Lince Dorado
The winner will receive an Open the Freedom Gate Title match at EVOLVE 27. Chuck Taylor and Lince Dorado begin the match. Dorado starts biting Taylor and snaps off a hurricanrana. Dorado teases a dive to the floor. Jon Davis enters next. He shows immediately that he’s not willing to play along with Dorado’s antics. Davis hits a bucklebomb on Dorado and connects with a leg-liner on Taylor. He follows with a delayed vertical suplex on Dorado as Caleb Konley comes out. Konley lands a dive to the floor onto Taylor. Davis inadvertently helps Dorado land a moonsault to the floor. In the ring, Davis hits a spinebuster on Dorado for a nearfall. Uhaa Nation is the final entrant. Davis flings Dorado to the outside onto Nation, but Nation just catches him. Everyone gangs up on Davis and triple-pin him for the elimination. Dorado connects with a knockout kick on Konley and hits a reverse hurricanrana. Taylor catches Dorado with the Awful Waffle to eliminate him. Konley connects with an enzuigiri on Taylor and hits a tornado DDT. Nation hits a samoan drop on Konley and lands the Uhaa Combination to eliminate him. We’re down to Taylor and Nation. Taylor hits a uranagi but gets caught by a series of powerbombs. Nation picks up the win at 11:26. Historically, the biggest problem with Frays is length. Some try to be a little too epic and last too long while others feel rushed and the eliminations are jammed together. This Fray found a happy medium. Everyone received a chance to stand out and the eliminations were smartly spaced out. I certainly wouldn’t have minded if Taylor won, but Nation is obviously a fresh challenger for Johnny Gargano. This match served its purpose following the hot opener. **¾
Match #3: Chris Hero vs. Ricochet
They begin with some chain wrestling. Ricochet starts using his agility to find some advantages. Ricochet kips up from a few shoulder tackles and shows some cockiness. Hero returns the favor by kipping up out of a headscissors. Hero ends the fun with a punch to the face. They take turns teasing dives to the floor. Hero kicks Ricochet in the face and takes control with more strikes. The match turns into Hero trying to ground Ricochet with Ricochet attempting to fend off Hero with quick kicks. Ricochet connects with an axe kick. He goes for a leapfrog but Hero just kicks him in the midsection. Hero starts taunting Ricochet and they exchange strikes. Ricochet ducks a roaring elbow and connects with an enzuigiri. Both men are down. Ricochet connects with a springboard forearm smash. Hero counters a standing shooting star press with a cravate suplex. Ricochet goes up top but Hero pushes him off the top rope and into a pole. In the ring, Hero connects with a sliding dropkick. Ricochet lands a dive to the floor but eats the Deathblow back in the ring. Ricochet reverses a second Deathblow attempt into a backslide for a two count. Hero counters a reverse hurricanrana into a Deathblow for another nearfall. Ricochet hits rolling suplexes and lands a springboard 450 splash. Ricochet follows with a shooting star press and a 630 splash for the victory at 22:49. There were some great moments in this match but on the whole I think they have a better match in them. Both men played their roles extremely well, making every interaction enjoyable to some extent. However, this contest didn’t have the crazy finishing stretch with the vocal crowd reactions that I was expecting. The best part of this match for me was how strong it made Ricochet look. As soon as Ricochet abandoned the gameplan of trying to wrestle Hero’s style of match, he was able to defeat Hero with a series of high-flying offense. It would certainly be worthwhile to check out this contest but I thought some factors were missing. ***½
After the match, Ricochet announces that he’s cashing in his Open the Freedom Gate Title match at WrestleMania Weekend. Hero tells Ricochet that he will beat Johnny Gargano if he wrestles the way he did tonight. Trent Baretta interrupts and wonders why Hero didn’t acknowledge him during his speech.
Match #4: Johnny Gargano, Harlem Bravado, and Lance Bravado vs. Rich Swann, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson
Gargano refuses to start the match with his “best friend” Rich Swann. Swann catches Harlem with a dropkick but Gargano attacks him from behind. The match breaks down with everyone brawling around ringside. Swann and the Young Bucks land stereo dives to the floor. In the ring, Harlem sends Nick into Matt with an exploder. Gargano and the Bravados isolate Matt until he hits a spear on Gargano and makes the tag. Swann cleans house with a springboard dropkick. He snaps off a hurricanrana on Gargano and lands a dive to the floor onto the Bravados. Nick follows out with a springboard swantan. In the ring, Gargano blocks a flying crossbody from Swann with knees. Swann is now worked over. Gargano makes sure to mock Roderick Strong’s neck injury throughout this match as well. Swann hits a double ace crusher on the Bravados and tags out. Nick cleans house with a series of corner clotheslines. He hits a slingshot facebuster on Harlem and dropkicks Lance off the apron. The Young Bucks hit an assisted sliced bread on Harlem for a nearfall. Gargano plants Swann with a slingshot implant DDT. He lawn darts Swann into the turnbuckles for a nearfall. The Young Bucks come roaring back with superkicks. Swann hurricanranas Lance off the middle rope and follows with a standing 450 for a two count. Everyone connects with strikes and all six men are down. The Young Bucks and Swann connect with stereo superkicks on Gargano and Harlem. Swann hits a canadian destroyer on Harlem. The Young Bucks hit More Bang for Your Buck on Lance for the win at 19:59. This match played out exactly how you’d expect, which isn’t a bad thing. I liked how the match broke down in the opening minutes as it gave some perspective on the feuds interwoven in this match. The finishing stretch was excellent, which is also no surprise. While the action was very good, nothing too interesting happened storyline-wise. Everyone expected the faces to win, they did, and the Bravados once again get pinned. Hopefully the Bravados can start picking up some wins and that can start with the next two shows this weekend. This was on par with the opener in regards to energy and excitement. ***¾
A post-match brawl erupts and Roderick Strong intervenes. Uhaa Nation backs Gargano into a corner, where Strong chops him a couple of times. Strong asks for a title shot at the next set of DGUSA shows.
Match #5: EVOLVE Title: AR Fox © vs. Davey Richards
Richards starts off aggressively with a series of kicks. Fox connects with corner punches and lands a split-legged moonsault. He hits a wheelbarrow bulldog and lands Lo Mein Rain to the floor. Fox’s back bounced off the hardwood floor. In the ring, Richards counters a springboard maneuver with an exploder. He punts Fox from the apron after avoiding the kick-flip moonsault. Richards takes control until Fox counters the Alarm Clock with a flatliner out of the corner. Richards responds with a leg hook in the ropes. Fox connects with a springboard dropkick and hits a springboard codebreaker. He follows with a springboard ace crusher for a two count. Richards blocks a swantan with knees and punts him in the chest. Fox starts hulking up. Fox blocks another punt and they trade strikes. Richards connects with a knockout kick and hits a german suplex. They battle up top and Richards gets knocked down to the canvas. He catches Fox with the Alarm Clock. Fox matrixes to avoid a lariat and fights off a cloverleaf. Richards comes roaring back with a lariat but Fox answers with a twisting brainbuster. Both men are down. They trade punches. Richards reverses a second wheelbarrow bulldog into a tombstone for a nearfall. He misses a flying double stomp. Fox misses his big guillotine leg drop and Richards punts him in the chest. Richards connects with a flying double stomp on the apron and follows with another one in the ring for a nearfall. He transitions into an ankle lock but Fox counters into a rollup for a two count. Fox flips out of a top-rope german suplex and connects with an enzuigiri. Fox dodges a lariat from Richards and connects with one of his own. He lands a 450 splash for a nearfall. Fox follows with Lo Mein Pain to retain his title at 19:22. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this was your typical Davey Richards match with some added interest due to this being his return to EVOLVE. Fox wasn’t really willing to sell much of the leg work done to him, so any chance of a story with some depth did not occur. There were certainly some solid exchanges highlighted by Fox’s lack of regard for his physical well-being but much like Hero/Ricochet, I think there were some factors missing here and they could have done more with Richards’ attitude towards EVOLVE (which we’ll get to in a few seconds). Still, this was a fine way to end the show. ***½
After the match, Richards fakes a heartfelt speech and spits on the EVOLVE Title. Richards claims that he’s bigger and better than EVOLVE and runs to the back.
Overall: I’m less impressed by EVOLVE 25 as an individual show and more impressed by what this show says about EVOLVE as a promotion moving forward. There were zero booking annoyances (Nese didn’t cheat!) and some interesting angles were started (Nese moving away from the Premiere Athlete Brand, the start of a Hero/Baretta feud, and Ricochet’s road to his title shot). Some may not like the five-match card but everything received the right amount of time and four of the matches were very good. Perhaps most importantly was that the iPPV stream was said to be flawless and the HD cameras looked great. I may be in the minority by saying you don’t have to rush out and order this show immediately, but you certainly won’t be disappointed. Hopefully EVOLVE can capitalize on this momentum during the rest of the weekend and in 2014.