BRM Reviews Evolve 15: Generico vs. del Sol II

[Big Red Machine]

Evolve 15: Generico vs. del Sol II (6/29/2012)- St. Petersburg, FL


I normally don’t say things like this, but my first thought when they showed the crowd and the building was “this show looks REALLY indy.” They don’t even have the EVOLVE ring-skirt *they’re using FUW’s, and it looks like it’s falling off. The early shows also took place in rec-center gyms, and those looked a lot less indy than this does. The dichotomy between the look of the building and camera set-up and ring on one hand and the very professional-looking EVOLVE graphics on the other than (and the audio equipment, and Lenny Leonard being just plain great) is pretty crazy.

TONY NESE(1-3) vs. MIKE CRUZ (0-3)- 5.75/10
This was a solid opener while clearly being more of a showcase for Nese. I’m a big fan of his, and also of the Spider Suplex, so seeing Nese do the Spider Suplex made me quite happy.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS TONY NESE- okay
He is tired of waiting for his opportunity, so now he is going to “take” it. He says that this is why last night he challenged Johnny Gargano to a match for Evolve 16. He doesn’t care if Gargano has a big match tonight or not; he vows to get an answer to that challenge by the end of the night.

STYLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT MATCH: Bobby Fish(4-4) vs. Tommy Taylor (0-1)- 6.5/10
Fish comes into this match with two points in the tournament. Taylor has negative one. Fish won a solid wrestling match that ended just when it appeared to be kicking into the next gear.

LENNY LEONARD INTERVIEWS BOBBY FISH- good
Lenny noted that this has been a long time coming for Fish, but he is finally above .500 here in EVOLVE. And not only that, but he has also secured himself a place in the tournament finals with this win. Fish was emotional and declined to speak.

ALEX REYNOLDS & JOHN SILVER BACKSTAGE- meh
They engaged in some not-quite-arguing. They both irritated me, but especially Silver with his goofy face. They agreed to let the best man win in the six-way they are both involved in tonight.

STYLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT MATCH: A.R. Fox(4-2) vs. Jon Davis (2-3)- 7.75/10
This was a great match that told a power vs. speed and agility story along with the related story of the plucky underdog taking on the hulking goliath. The storyline that Davis will retire if he doesn’t win the tournament didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment here because Davis could conceivably lose this match and still win the tournament by beating Fish tomorrow and having Fox lose to Taylor.
We were told that Davis had now also secured a spot in the “finals.” It was only at this point that I realized that that verbiage doesn’t make sense, because it’s a round-robin with just one block. Their match tomorrow night functions in the traditional role of a tournament finals, yes, but that wasn’t known until Davis secured the win here, so them using it earlier about Fish made no sense.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Lenny Leonard’s interview with Jon Davis was interrupted by Bobby Fish coming out. Lenny reminded them that there could be absolutely no physical confrontation between them. Both men cut good promos.

We were shown a bunch of people holding plagues and were told that these “Florida legends were honored earlier today in the Legends of the Bayfront Ceremony.” I saw Mike Graham and Kevin Sullivan. I’m sure there were others who I would have recognized if I wanted to put the brainpower into it.

SIX-WAY FREESTYLE: Alex Reynolds(3-1) vs. John Silver(2-1) vs. Lincé Dorado(0-1) vs. “Manscout” Jake Manning(1-2) vs. Scott Reed(0-1) (w/an Unnamed Female Friend) vs. Caleb Konley(2-1) (w/the same Unnamed Female Friend)- 6.75/10
I really hated the idea of Reed supposedly lying down for Konley. That should be a firing offense for both guys in EVOLVE. Other than that, this was a lot of good, spotty action. They got over the idea that the Beaver Boys were willing to fight each other while the Scene were not.

CHEECH HERNANDEZ(1-1) vs. COLT CABANA(0-1)- 5/10
This was a really fun match with Cabana doing his Cabana stuff, but in a way that totally works in EVOLVE. Cabana won clean with the Chicago Skyline, and was swarmed by happy children on his way to the back.

EL GENERICO(2-2) vs. SAMURAY DEL SOL(0-3)- 9/10
This was even better than last night! The story was that Samuray del Sol had learned from last night’s match and had counters ready for all of Generico’s stuff. They told that story while building thing SOOOOOO well, ending in one of those spots that you see and immediately know “that’s the finish.” Samuray picked up the big win here, and it really felt like a moment that catapulted him into the upper echelon of the company.

DGUSA OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Johnny Gargano(c) vs. Chuck Taylor (w/the Gentleman’s Club)- 8.75/10
We got a good video package before this match, although it was probably a little too long. This match doesn’t affect the EVOLVE win-loss records because it’s for a DGUSA championship and thus sanctioned by DGUSA.
There was lots of great action here, plus the babyface overcoming the odds and the overbooking to get the win.

JOHNNY GARGANO PROMO- meh
He did the show-closing babyface promo, built up his title defense against Akira Tozawa next month, and accepted Tony Nese’s challenge for a match tomorrow night. Gargano did not come off well here, in my opinion. With Tozawa he was fine, and his meanness towards Taylor was understandable, but with Nese he came off like an arrogant heel. This might have been on purpose, given the fact that Nese called it out in his promo, but if it wasn’t, that’s not good.

TONY NESE PROMO- good
This was a fine response to Gargano, but as I alluded to above, Nese almost felt like the babyface here, responding to the arrogant heel.

This was a great show from EVOLVE, although really it was a mediocre first half followed two top matches that were awesome. Other than those two matches, the show definitely felt like filler, but at least the Style Battle tournament matches and the Nese win felt like necessary filler rather than just random matches. Tomorrow night we get Fish vs. Davis and what feels like it should be a big moment for Tony Nese against Johnny Gargano.


BONUS FEATURES:

2010 JEFF PETERSON MEMORIAL CUP QUARTERFINAL MATCH (from 12/4/2010): Arik Cannon vs. Craig Classic- 6/10
A solid eleven minutes of wrestling, but nothing worth writing home about.

2010 JEFF PETERSON MEMORIAL CUP QUARTERFINAL MATCH (from 12/4/2010): Rich Swann vs. Jigsaw- 6.75/10
Fun action. Swann won with a roll-up including a handful of tights.