BRM Reviews Evolve 40

[Big Red Machine]

Evolve 40 (3/27/2015)- San Jose, CA

DREW GALLOWAY vs. UHAA NATION- 5.5/10
Underwhelming opener. Uhaa was on his way to WWE, so Drew put him over on the mic after the match. Drew then cut a promo to hype the fans up for tonight’s show and to build up his Title vs. Title match tomorrow night with Johnny Gargano.

TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. TOMMY END (w/Chris Hero)- 7/10
There was a lot of grappling early on, which I liked, but once they transitioned more to the strikes I became horribly bored simply because the pace was so damn slow. There was a lot of “hit one kick, let the other guy sell it for a while you do nothing,” and the whole time I screaming “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! FOLLOW UP!” When they finally picked up the pace towards the end it was great, but that was very short-lived.
Hero and Thatcher did a little angle after the match, so I guess that’s the match they’re building to.

DREW GULAK vs. TJ PERKINS- 6.75/10
A lot of great mat wrestling, but the finish felt a bit out of nowhere.

AR FOX vs. ETHAN PAGE- 4.75/10
They did stuff, but despite having a bunch of flippy moves and big stuff, the match felt very slow. Making matters worse was the fact that all of this downtime really called attention to AR Fox’s poor selling.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Ethan Page cut a promo saying he wants to be just like Johnny Gargano and apologizes to Johnny for letting him down by losing two nights in a row (Johnny had apparently endorsed Ethan to get Ethan booked). Gargano came out and put Page over, saying that his efforts this weekend have proved that he belongs in Evolve. Then Gargano cut a great promo to build up his Title vs. Title match tomorrow night with Drew Galloway.

BIFF BUSICK vs. CHRIS HERO- 6.5/10
The story here was that Busick was trying to choke Hero out while Hero was trying to knock Busick out. This felt like the first ten minutes of an awesome forty minute match… except when I checked the time at the finish, they had gone about twenty already.

RONIN (Rich Swann & Johnny Gargano) vs. PREMIER ATHLETE BRAND (Brian Cage & Caleb Konley) (w/SoCal Val & Andrea)- 6.75/10
Swann actually sang his own entrance theme, which was both cool and a fun little reference that it’s WrestleMania weekend. SoCal Val was SOOOO GREAT on the outside with her managerial and cheerleading antics. She’s got the bubbly innocence of ECW Dawn Marie, except you know that it’s just an act and she’s really a Larry Sweeney-level irritant/heel mastermind, and she transitions back and forth between the two so smoothly it’s amazing. It absolutely baffles me that TNA had her under contract for SEVEN YEARS and for the overwhelming majority of that time, they used her only as a decoration. And it’s not like they didn’t know she could do it, either, because she’d been doing it in FIP (among other places) before she signed with TNA. Here’s an idea: how about letting Val manage Awesome Kong and let Cheerleader Melissa actually wrestle? Dear Lord that company is frustrating.
They did some good stuff here, with Gargano carrying the match because Swann had gotten hurt in what appeared to be a legit injury just because of how long he was down and because Gabe came out to check on him, and the match ended soon afterwards, but the finish they did was a Dusty Finish that seemed to play into the injury so well that I’m leaning towards a work. So either they got me or Gabe did an awesome job thinking of an interesting and (hopefully) productive finish on his feet.
There was also an interesting interaction between Val and Andrea which the camera didn’t quite catch all of, but it was one of those moments that tells you that at some point down the line- likely quite a while, but it WILL happen- that Andrea will get sick of Val’s sh*t and turn babyface and murderize her.

RICOCHET PROMO- Swann apparently hurt his ribs (assuming it’s not a work), but Ricochet doesn’t us to that get us down and tell us that we should cheer in the main event. This is the second or third time this show they have cut a promo basically beginning for cheers. It comes off as REALLY low rent.

PJ BLACK vs. RICOCHET- 7.75/10
Lenny Leonard went on the standard Gabe-promotion rant how PJ Black would now “be able to wrestle without restrictions” and “without people telling him what to do” and would be allowed to be himself in the ring now that he has left WWE… all of which of course makes absolutely zero sense in kayfabe.
Speaking of bad commentary, AR Fox joined Lenny Leonard on commentary, and while Lenny had been having an off night (doing his best impression of Joey Styles calling a show by himself, except that unlike Joey, he barely called any of the moves), AR Fox was F*CKING TERRIBLE! His commentary was bad, his voice was annoying, he kept using insider terms, and ended every other phrase by saying “man.” I was sick of him well before the five minute mark.
If you can ignore the commentary, this match was pretty darn great. PJ definitely proved that he can hang with today’s indy scene. Every company would be insane not to book him. Both guys cut promos after the match.



A pretty good show from Evolve. Possibly enough to get me to check out the WWN Mercury Rising show the next night.