EVOLVE 82
MATT RIDDLE PROMO - he basically explains the rationale for Thatcher getting the first shot at the WWN Title: Riddle is 0-3 against Thatcher. Riddle uses his "Trashy Tim" nickname for Thatcher. This brings out Stokely Hathaway, who says that they should have the match right now so we start off with the…
WWN TITLE MATCH:
GRAPPLING! The fans are now singing that "Thatcher is garbage," so this "Trashy Tim" thing is catching on.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - Good. Stokely starts to cut a promo putting Thatcher over and burying Riddle. Thatcher walks to the back in the middle of it, not even paying attention. Stokely keeps going anyway. He says that he takes care of all of Thatcher's business arrangements and makes sure that all Tim has to do is train and wrestle rather than hang out with fans and sign autographs. Riddle told Stokely "I don't hang out with fans because it's my job. I do it because it's fun," and he smiled his goofy Matt Riddle smile and came off like the biggest babyface ever.
The story of this match was ACH getting more douchy as the match went on. The announcers speculated that this bad attitude was developing as a result of ACH's disappointment at failing to capture the Evolve World Title at Evolve 80. That low punch almost caught Theory in the balls (it looked like it hit him in the waist). He really should stop doing that spot altogether if he's not going to be a clear heel. ACH got the win, and thus was willing to show Theory respect after the match. Despite the loss this felt like a big step forward for Theory, as, towards the end of this match it began to feel like he had a very good chance of beating ACH.
DREW GALLOWAY PROMO - GREAT! He says he's sick and tired of being disrespected by Evolve and lists of a long litany of incidents in which he feels he has been treated unfairly, including, most recently, losing to Matt Riddle via referee stoppage at Evolve 79.
He says that he didn't have to come to Evolve this weekend, but he chose to come here to "take back everything" that he did for EVOLVE. He insists that the referee was told to screw him at Evolve 79 and that he has been told to screw him tonight but he can't let that happen so he headbutts the referee, knocking him out. This is something that has gotten Drew suspended in the past but, as the announcers note, they can't really do anything to Drew anymore. Drew calls his scheduled opponent for tonight, Evolve World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. out for a "fight" and that's exactly what we got…
This wasn't technically a match because there was no referee but it was a long, crazy brawl between two guys who were scheduled to have a match against each other tonight, so I rated it as a match. If I was going to rate it as a segment, though, I would rate it together with the post-"match" segment, so…
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - AWESOME! Zack was about to break Galloway's arm when Ethan Page came out and attacked him while Page's Gatekeepers stood guard over the entranceway. Page then offered Galloway a hand of friendship and handed him the Evolve World Title. Drew then went to the back and returned with a sledgehammer. Page restrained Zack as Drew prepared to smash the Evolve World Title but Keith Lee came out to make the save. Most of the heels bailed, but Zack managed to catch the Caucasian Gatekeeper and broke his arm. Lee handed the belt back to Zack, but it was clear by body language that he is coming after the championship soon.
KEITH LEE PROMO - Decent.
An excellent first match back on a big stage for Kyle, but once again the real star here was Keith Lee, who displayed excellent selling and excellent facials. They two different big stories here. The first was Kyle trying to counteract Lee's size by working over his knee, and the second was Lee's overconfidence coming back to cost him several different times.
There is also something interesting brewing with Kyle, as they originally ended the match with questionable low blow call. Lee refused to accept this, saying that he thought it was accidental and insisted that the match be restarted… and as soon as the referee agreed to do so Kyle charged right at the still-recovering Lee. It felt quite heelish- or at the very least desperate. In addition to that interesting element and the two above stories they also had some CRAZY close nearfalls in here. An AWESOME match.
EVOLVE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
This match was INTENSE AS F*CK! From the moment the bell rang until the moment the match ended. It was also a hard-hitting slugfest that resulted in Catchpoint being stronger at the end and me myself being completely shocked that Jaka & Dickinson had somehow become solid babyfaces. Yehi and Williams worked well together, so I guess there are no hard feelings after Williams rolled Yehi up from behind in the main event of Mercury Rising.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - Extremely interesting. Larry Dallas comes out and claims to have "the scoop of the century." He claims that Tracy Williams has been talking with Stokely Hathaway about becoming Catchpoint's agent. Tracy says that this is crazy-talk and no one else in the building buys it, either, with the other three members of Catchpoint actually laughing at Dallas' latest attempt to stir the pot within Catchpoint. And yet, when I look at Tracy Williams, it almost seems like he is nervous. Maybe it's just my imagination.
Stokely Hathaway comes out to deny these allegations as well. Williams wants nothing to do with these insinuations so he heads to the back. His business out here now concluded, Stokely heads to the back as well. This could all be innocent, but it did look kind of suspicious. Then Jaka and Dickinson headed to the back with their new championships. Meanwhile, Yehi snaps and takes out Larry Dallas' bodyguard The Big C, then DESTROYS Larry himself with about five German Suplexes. This was uncharacteristically vicious behavior outside of a match from Yehi. The announcers framed this as Yehi "taking out a little bit of that frustration" over losing the belts.
LAST MAN STANDING MATCH:
Evolve officials have decided to take off the canvas so that it won't be damaged, LOL. That was kind of weird.
Page has come out with a freakin' shovel. And they used it in the match. This was as creatively sick as you would expect from these two in this feud. Austin Theory once again got involved to even things up for Darby. Priscilla Kelly also once again came out but did nothing of consequence. Then she got taken out when Page back body dropped Darby on top of her. I expect that this feud is not close to being over.
Final Thoughts
An excellent and quite newsworthy show from EVOLVE. You should go out of your way to see it.
WWN TITLE MATCH:
Matt Riddle(c) vs. Timothy Thatcher (w/Stokely Hathaway) - 7.5/10
GRAPPLING! The fans are now singing that "Thatcher is garbage," so this "Trashy Tim" thing is catching on.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - Good. Stokely starts to cut a promo putting Thatcher over and burying Riddle. Thatcher walks to the back in the middle of it, not even paying attention. Stokely keeps going anyway. He says that he takes care of all of Thatcher's business arrangements and makes sure that all Tim has to do is train and wrestle rather than hang out with fans and sign autographs. Riddle told Stokely "I don't hang out with fans because it's my job. I do it because it's fun," and he smiled his goofy Matt Riddle smile and came off like the biggest babyface ever.
ACH vs. AUSTIN THEORY - 7.25/10
The story of this match was ACH getting more douchy as the match went on. The announcers speculated that this bad attitude was developing as a result of ACH's disappointment at failing to capture the Evolve World Title at Evolve 80. That low punch almost caught Theory in the balls (it looked like it hit him in the waist). He really should stop doing that spot altogether if he's not going to be a clear heel. ACH got the win, and thus was willing to show Theory respect after the match. Despite the loss this felt like a big step forward for Theory, as, towards the end of this match it began to feel like he had a very good chance of beating ACH.
DREW GALLOWAY PROMO - GREAT! He says he's sick and tired of being disrespected by Evolve and lists of a long litany of incidents in which he feels he has been treated unfairly, including, most recently, losing to Matt Riddle via referee stoppage at Evolve 79.
He says that he didn't have to come to Evolve this weekend, but he chose to come here to "take back everything" that he did for EVOLVE. He insists that the referee was told to screw him at Evolve 79 and that he has been told to screw him tonight but he can't let that happen so he headbutts the referee, knocking him out. This is something that has gotten Drew suspended in the past but, as the announcers note, they can't really do anything to Drew anymore. Drew calls his scheduled opponent for tonight, Evolve World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. out for a "fight" and that's exactly what we got…
ZACK SABRE JR. vs. DREW GALLOWAY - 7/10
This wasn't technically a match because there was no referee but it was a long, crazy brawl between two guys who were scheduled to have a match against each other tonight, so I rated it as a match. If I was going to rate it as a segment, though, I would rate it together with the post-"match" segment, so…
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - AWESOME! Zack was about to break Galloway's arm when Ethan Page came out and attacked him while Page's Gatekeepers stood guard over the entranceway. Page then offered Galloway a hand of friendship and handed him the Evolve World Title. Drew then went to the back and returned with a sledgehammer. Page restrained Zack as Drew prepared to smash the Evolve World Title but Keith Lee came out to make the save. Most of the heels bailed, but Zack managed to catch the Caucasian Gatekeeper and broke his arm. Lee handed the belt back to Zack, but it was clear by body language that he is coming after the championship soon.
KEITH LEE PROMO - Decent.
KEITH LEE vs. KYLE O'REILLY - 8.75/10
An excellent first match back on a big stage for Kyle, but once again the real star here was Keith Lee, who displayed excellent selling and excellent facials. They two different big stories here. The first was Kyle trying to counteract Lee's size by working over his knee, and the second was Lee's overconfidence coming back to cost him several different times.
There is also something interesting brewing with Kyle, as they originally ended the match with questionable low blow call. Lee refused to accept this, saying that he thought it was accidental and insisted that the match be restarted… and as soon as the referee agreed to do so Kyle charged right at the still-recovering Lee. It felt quite heelish- or at the very least desperate. In addition to that interesting element and the two above stories they also had some CRAZY close nearfalls in here. An AWESOME match.
EVOLVE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
Catchpoint (Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi)(c) vs. Catchpoint (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) - 8.25/10
This match was INTENSE AS F*CK! From the moment the bell rang until the moment the match ended. It was also a hard-hitting slugfest that resulted in Catchpoint being stronger at the end and me myself being completely shocked that Jaka & Dickinson had somehow become solid babyfaces. Yehi and Williams worked well together, so I guess there are no hard feelings after Williams rolled Yehi up from behind in the main event of Mercury Rising.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - Extremely interesting. Larry Dallas comes out and claims to have "the scoop of the century." He claims that Tracy Williams has been talking with Stokely Hathaway about becoming Catchpoint's agent. Tracy says that this is crazy-talk and no one else in the building buys it, either, with the other three members of Catchpoint actually laughing at Dallas' latest attempt to stir the pot within Catchpoint. And yet, when I look at Tracy Williams, it almost seems like he is nervous. Maybe it's just my imagination.
Stokely Hathaway comes out to deny these allegations as well. Williams wants nothing to do with these insinuations so he heads to the back. His business out here now concluded, Stokely heads to the back as well. This could all be innocent, but it did look kind of suspicious. Then Jaka and Dickinson headed to the back with their new championships. Meanwhile, Yehi snaps and takes out Larry Dallas' bodyguard The Big C, then DESTROYS Larry himself with about five German Suplexes. This was uncharacteristically vicious behavior outside of a match from Yehi. The announcers framed this as Yehi "taking out a little bit of that frustration" over losing the belts.
LAST MAN STANDING MATCH:
Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page (w/one of the Gatekeepers) - 8/10
Evolve officials have decided to take off the canvas so that it won't be damaged, LOL. That was kind of weird.
Page has come out with a freakin' shovel. And they used it in the match. This was as creatively sick as you would expect from these two in this feud. Austin Theory once again got involved to even things up for Darby. Priscilla Kelly also once again came out but did nothing of consequence. Then she got taken out when Page back body dropped Darby on top of her. I expect that this feud is not close to being over.
Final Thoughts
An excellent and quite newsworthy show from EVOLVE. You should go out of your way to see it.