EVOLVE 50
Evolve 50 (10/18/2015)- Deer Park, NY
TRACY WILLIAMS vs. TJ PERKINS- 7.25/10
About fifteen minutes of non-stop hold-for-hold wrestling. Loved it.
Williams won, which absolutely shocked me. Based off of last night’s results, I’d have assumed that Williams and Gulak would both continue to lose and create some major tension between them while Perkins would pick up a win to build to him up for a title shot against Thatcher which last night’s tag match seemed to be the beginning of the build to.
Instead, after the match Gulak came out, apologized to Williams for his comments last night, and put over the skill of both wrestlers before telling Perkins â€"if you have a problem with Drew Gulak, then we have something we need to talk about†which sounds fine on its own, but the way the whole sentence was structured made it seem like Gulak and Thatcher were good buddies and Gulak was unhappy with Perkins for having an issue which Thatcher… which seems pretty backwards considering that the end of Evolve 48 featured Gulak coming out and confronting Thatcher in a rather unfriendly manner (only for both of them and Williams to get knocked out by Chris Hero).
ETHAN PAGE vs. MATT CAGE- 6/10
A good showing for Cage, and good post-match stuff with Page as well.
DGUSA OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH (taped 11/16/2014 on the WWN China Tour): Ricochet(c) vs. Johnny Gargano- 7.75/10
They played this in place of the Sami Zayn appearance which they weren’t allowed to show on the iPPV. I this was also probably Gabe’s way of getting Gargano on the iPPV, and bringing the idea of him as a babyface champion to the front of our minds. Seeing Ricochet play the heel was very weird.
Lenny Leonard recapped what happened for us, which basically amounts to Sami Zayn telling Evolve Champion Timothy Thatcher that if he wants to be â€"The Man†in Evolve, he has to beat Johnny Gargano first. Lenny Leonard can already confirm for us that this match will happen at the next weekend of shows… so it’s not looking so good for Trevor Lee later tonight.
ANDREW EVERETT vs. PETER KAASA- 6/10
Okay… those idiotic New Day Rocks-metered chants need to go.
CHRIS DICKINSON vs. MATT RIDDLE- 4/10
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Team Catchpoint comes out and Drew Gulak suggest that they and Riddle can learn from each other, so they agree to have Riddle vs. Gulak on one night of the next Evolve weekend and Riddle vs. Williams the other.
DREW GULAK vs. WILLIE MACK- 6.25/10
EVOLVE TITLE MATCH: Timothy Thatcher(c) vs. Trevor Lee- 6.75/10
This never felt like it got out of second gear.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good segment.
TJ Perkins joins up with Team Catchpoint and they are all now definitely heels.
ROPPONGI VICE vs. PREMIER ATHLETE BRAND (w/SoCal Val)- 7.5/10
The most over person in this match, by far, was Trent’s mom, who was in the front row.
A decent show from Evolve. The wrestling was solid and there were some storyline developments, but the show itself just didn’t feel big.
TRACY WILLIAMS vs. TJ PERKINS- 7.25/10
About fifteen minutes of non-stop hold-for-hold wrestling. Loved it.
Williams won, which absolutely shocked me. Based off of last night’s results, I’d have assumed that Williams and Gulak would both continue to lose and create some major tension between them while Perkins would pick up a win to build to him up for a title shot against Thatcher which last night’s tag match seemed to be the beginning of the build to.
Instead, after the match Gulak came out, apologized to Williams for his comments last night, and put over the skill of both wrestlers before telling Perkins â€"if you have a problem with Drew Gulak, then we have something we need to talk about†which sounds fine on its own, but the way the whole sentence was structured made it seem like Gulak and Thatcher were good buddies and Gulak was unhappy with Perkins for having an issue which Thatcher… which seems pretty backwards considering that the end of Evolve 48 featured Gulak coming out and confronting Thatcher in a rather unfriendly manner (only for both of them and Williams to get knocked out by Chris Hero).
ETHAN PAGE vs. MATT CAGE- 6/10
A good showing for Cage, and good post-match stuff with Page as well.
DGUSA OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH (taped 11/16/2014 on the WWN China Tour): Ricochet(c) vs. Johnny Gargano- 7.75/10
They played this in place of the Sami Zayn appearance which they weren’t allowed to show on the iPPV. I this was also probably Gabe’s way of getting Gargano on the iPPV, and bringing the idea of him as a babyface champion to the front of our minds. Seeing Ricochet play the heel was very weird.
Lenny Leonard recapped what happened for us, which basically amounts to Sami Zayn telling Evolve Champion Timothy Thatcher that if he wants to be â€"The Man†in Evolve, he has to beat Johnny Gargano first. Lenny Leonard can already confirm for us that this match will happen at the next weekend of shows… so it’s not looking so good for Trevor Lee later tonight.
ANDREW EVERETT vs. PETER KAASA- 6/10
Okay… those idiotic New Day Rocks-metered chants need to go.
CHRIS DICKINSON vs. MATT RIDDLE- 4/10
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Team Catchpoint comes out and Drew Gulak suggest that they and Riddle can learn from each other, so they agree to have Riddle vs. Gulak on one night of the next Evolve weekend and Riddle vs. Williams the other.
DREW GULAK vs. WILLIE MACK- 6.25/10
EVOLVE TITLE MATCH: Timothy Thatcher(c) vs. Trevor Lee- 6.75/10
This never felt like it got out of second gear.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good segment.
TJ Perkins joins up with Team Catchpoint and they are all now definitely heels.
ROPPONGI VICE vs. PREMIER ATHLETE BRAND (w/SoCal Val)- 7.5/10
The most over person in this match, by far, was Trent’s mom, who was in the front row.
A decent show from Evolve. The wrestling was solid and there were some storyline developments, but the show itself just didn’t feel big.