I SPIT AT YOU: EVOLVE 4 Review

EPIC WAR

EVOLVE 4 was the first of two that featured Bryan Danielson during his tie-induced exile from WWE. It couldn't have come at a better time, given that EVOLVE needed a hook to get people to do more than just nod at the critical acclaim it was receiving from bloggers and smarks. Thankfully, the hype surrounding AmDrag's EVOLVE debut for the fed that he helped ideate was justified by the results, as this turned out to be a pretty spiffy card.

The DVD started with a quick promo by Danielson that was interrupted by some douchecaptain, I think his name was Sean Davis? Danielson kicked him out of the arena. Graphics ran down the rules and we got to our first match, Jon Moxley against Brodie Lee. Lee was crazy over as a face, which is odd, since I'm used to seeing Lee get his face booed off by Chikara fans. Weird. Anyway, Moxley acted like he was begging off from Lee before the bell, and then as soon as it rang, he charged in and attacked. This was my first experience with Moxley since seeing him in that dark match at Open the Freedom Gate, and he actually looked a million times better than he did against B-Boy on that card. Lee hit a big boot, and Moxley sold it like a gunshot before both men went to the floor. They were throwing big punches, whipping each other into the guardrails and everything. The finish came when Lee said "fuck it" and grabbed a chair. Moxley grabbed one and they both hit the ring. The ref threw the match out IMMEDIATELY before they even could use the chairs, and the announcers sold it like neither guy would ever be back in EVOLVE ever again, which is fair given that the rules were all emphasized before the event began. Moxley ate a chair to the face for his troubles anyway after the decision. Instead of doing the documentary crew that they did the first three shows, they taped a bunch of sit-down interviews the day after and had various guys react, which I thought was cool.

Second match was a four-way, single fall match featuring Drake Younger, Chris Dickinson, Ricochet and Rich Swann. The action was really all over the place early on with this one, very hard to follow at first. The two thinner guys were tossed, and Dickinson and Younger got to tee off on each other. It got pretty stiff, but both guys are known for giving and receiving big strikes. The spot guys got back into the ring, and at one point, they got simultaneously backdropped by Dickinson. Impressive spot. There was a split off into two matches again, with Dickinson reversing an inverted rana from Ricochet into an Alabama Slam. He put the erstwhile Helios in a camel clutch, while meanwhile, Swann had Younger lined up for the standing 450 splash. Younger put his knees up, countering the move, and then hit Swann with the Drake's Landing (Vertebreaker), getting the 1-2-3 while Dickinson still had Ricochet in the camel cluch. Dickinson thought that he had Ricochet knocked out and wasn't happy with the result.

Next up, Mercedes Martinez defended her WSU World Championship against Tina San Antonio, although it was a defense in name only as it was a merciless quash. It set up a post-match segment where Martinez continued to call out Amazing Kong, who appeared on the big screen tearing up and eating a picture of Martinez. I guess that meant she accepted?

Match numbaaaah four featured Johnny Gargano taking on Adam Cole. Gargano sidestepped a collar and elbow early and taunted with some jumping jacks, playing up his "experience" advantage over Cole (despite the fact that Gargano himself is relatively new to the business out of kayfabe). The disrespect abounded even more during the match as Gargano spit in Cole's face, which didn't go over too well. Cole responded with a nice counter off a leapfrog into a Samoan drop. He then countered Gargano on the ropes by knocking him off with a Sick Kick right to the face. Cole was super-impressive in this match, both on offense and in selling. Gargano wasn't bad either. He feigned an Oklahoma Stampede and just tossed Cole face first into the turnbuckle with his Lawn Dart. God, I love that move. They moved into one of those pinfall-counter-paloozas that Eddie Guerrero would have with Chris Jericho or Dean Malenko, and then Gargano went for Hurts Donut, which Cole countered into a roll-up for the surprise win. Really, really good match, one of the best on the card. I haven't really decided if I liked this or the main event better. After the match, Jimmy Jacobs came out presumably to taunt Gargano, with whom he's been feuding, but he started getting really condescending towards Cole, like his win was a fluke, so much so that it induced Cole to chase him out of the ring. In the next-day interview, Cole challenged Jacobs to a match.

Next up, a tag match between Aeroform and two of Quack's brightest students, Hallowicked and Jigsaw, who was rockin' the killer green and gold duds in this match. The match started off as you'd expect one between these two teams, some acrobatics and spot-fu, but it was well-executed at least. These two teams worked really well together. Match ended on a big flurry from the Chikara team, with Jigsaw hitting a double stomp on Flip Kendrick while he was in Hallowicked's fireman's carry. Wicked then hit Go 2 Sleepy Hollow. Kendrick stumbled to his feet and ate a Jigsaw superkick and then a Wicked yakuza kick before succumbing to a pin.

Sixth match featured Arik Cannon taking on Sami Callihan. This was kind of a mixed bag. There was a lot of good stuff mixed in, like Cannon working in with a standing figure 4 into an Indian death lock. There's some standing up for submission wrestling, eh? However, it had a lot of what I don't like about indie wrestling, the preponderance towards no-selling, the rapid fire moves with no context etc. It also dragged on about five more minutes than it should have. It's a shame, too, because I usually like Cannon, but not here. Callihan got the win with the stretch muffler.

After a Gargano promo on Jacobs, it was time for the Osirian Portal's EVOLVE debut against Up in Smoke, aka Cheech and Cloudy. This was a pretty interesting match. At one point, Ophidian had a nice leg-wrap full nelson applied on Cloudy, who was playing the face in peril despite the Portal being clearly the more over team in the match. Ophidian worked the mat really well, maybe the best I've ever seen him. Again, the crowd was not hot for the hot tag to Cheech at all. They were clearly marking for the Portal here. Cheech made a nice pin breakup, shoving Amasis into a nearfall attempt. There was another cool spot where Amasis somehow coaxed Cheech to give Cloudy a headlock and then forced a same-team DDT with a Sick Kick. Ophidian looked to have the match won with the Death Grip cobra clutch on Cheech, but Cloudy knocked Ophidian into the corner with a kick. Up in Smoke won with a top rope Sick Kick into a powerbomb on Ophidian. The post-match promo and the next-day sitdown by Up in Smoke totally contradicted their face-playing during the match, saying they were out to stop all the flippy shit that teams like the Portal and Aeroform were bringing in. I thought that was questionable, seeing that they're pretty flippy themselves. It was a good match though.

The sub-main was Jimmy Jacobs taking on Chuck Taylor in a match for the wins and win streak leadership in EVOLVE. This match didn't really grab me as much as it should have given that it was a Taylor match, but the more I see of Jacobs, the less I like. Jacobs tried to build around the guillotine choke, but Taylor, who was mega over as a face which surprised me, especially given how he was booked in later cards, ended up winning with the Omega Driver. Meh.

Finally, it was time for your MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIINNNN EVENT! Bryan Danielson, who was pelted with ties upon his entry, took on Bobby Fish, who heretofor was winless in EVOLVE. There was an extended feeling out process, a lot hesitant kicks and pulled-up strikes. Fish actually took the early advantage landing the first hard kicks of the match, but Danielson, who was almost unanimously over with the crowd, quickly took control of the match.

This match reminded me a lot of both the TJP/Munenori Sawa and Chris Hero/Ikuto Hidaka matches from prior EVOLVE cards in that it felt like a shoot fight, especially early. A lot of struggling and a very authentic "real" feel. I said it before, and I'll say it again, I love that kind of ethos in a match. If that's Danielson's greatest innovation in wrestling (and he has been working it slowly into his WWE stuff, most notably against Miz and Dolph Ziggler), then he'll go down with the greats as an all-time trendsetter. AmDrag worked rudo really heavily in this match. He had a nose gouge locked in on Fish at one point, he scowled at Fish a lot and he even spit in Fish's face, the third match that had spittle flying in it in the evening.

He also worked the submission game really well too, but duh, if anyone is going to do it, it's definitely going to be Danielson. He had a nice Indian deathlock sequence that he turned around into a pseudo-backslide pin, very cool spot. Fish played his role in the match well, especially on the selling end. My biggest problem with him against Kyle O'Reilly at EVOLVE 1 was his questionable selling, but against Claudio Castagnoli at EVOLVE 2 and here against Danielson, it was top notch. He had some nice offense too, especially with his kicks. He even rolled out of Cattle Mutilation at one point, but Danielson hit him with 20 MMA elbows. Danielson worked the legs the entire match, and that figured into the finish as he tapped Fish with a nice kneebar. After the match, the two shook hands, and then Danielson called out Sawa for the next EVOLVE card.

Like I said with my EVOLVE 2 review, I'm glad that EVOLVE went more into the struggle and sell direction rather than the no-sell, "LETZ HAVE TEH MOST AEWSUM MAIN EVENT EVERRRRR" style that seemed prevelent at the first card. This match had several strong matches, including a great coming out party for Adam Cole and an excellent main event. Again, this is a must buy DVD.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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