Anyone going to be checking out the Evolve shows Fri and Saturday. The Friday one interests me the most with a Thatcher vs Ricochet match .

Anyone going to be checking out the Evolve shows Fri and Saturday. The Friday one interests me the most with a Thatcher vs Ricochet match .

 

Yea, I am definitely getting the Friday show. I am also intrigued by the Ricochet vs. Thatcher match. Busick vs. Trevor Lee could also be interesting depending on how they work it. Plus, the FIP show before it airs for free and while nothing stands out on that show, it does have several guys I don't get to see a lot of. Undecided on Saturday's shows because there is a West Virginia basketball game on the same time plus the stacked CMLL card from this past Tuesday. That card doesn't look as appealing to me. I thought Ricochet and Galloway's first EVOLVE match was alright but not anything special.

Friday does look like the better of the 2.

I'm going to be reviewing both shows for Pro Wrestling Ponderings. Not used to "live" reviewing so we'll see how it goes. Really looking forward to Night 1 and Night 2 I think looks fine with Biff vs Uhaa and Thatcher vs Strong. Another styles match-up for Thatcher.

Strong was better last year than he has been in a long time. I'm confident he will have a good match with Thatcher

Signed for Smash in Toronto for February is two awesome matches. Tyson Dux vs Drew Gulak and Biff Busick vs Josh Alexander. Could be two legit MOTYC.

I'm going to be reviewing both shows for Pro Wrestling Ponderings. Not used to "live" reviewing so we'll see how it goes. Really looking forward to Night 1 and Night 2 I think looks fine with Biff vs Uhaa and Thatcher vs Strong. Another styles match-up for Thatcher.

Do you have a link?

Busick vs Alexander? YEP, I'm in. Alexander is up against Kingston towards the end of January so he could be in line for a heck of a year.

 

And pwponderings.com for the site. Can't offer anything I have done for them since I haven't done anything for them.

Busick vs Alexander? YEP, I'm in. Alexander is up against Kingston towards the end of January so he could be in line for a heck of a year.

 

And pwponderings.com for the site. Can't offer anything I have done for them since I haven't done anything for them.

I still don't know how Josh Alexander is not signed to NXT or ROH in a major role.

Anyone going to be checking out the Evolve shows Fri and Saturday. The Friday one interests me the most with a Thatcher vs Ricochet match .

I'm going to the Saturday show. I'm more looking forward to the FIP show with Strong/Swann and the 4 way tag team match and the Mia Yim match. It's always nice to see Thatcher and Biff live though.

Strong and Swann could be real good. Nothing else on that show is interesting to me but that does. Wish Swann got more opportunities to shine without feeling like a placeholder :-/

Has anyone used the WWN live thing before?

I just watched and reviewed my first House of Hardcore show (their latest an iPPV). I enjoyed what Dreamer did with it. For all the "reunion" shows capitalizing on ECW nostalgia this show in the old ECW Arena actually captured a bit of the spark. Nice mixture of talent, styles, old faces and new, etc. Highlights for me were the Austin Aries vs. Drew Galloway (McIntyre) bout and the main of Young Bucks vs. Hardyz (step behind one of 2014's MotY candidates Hardyz vs. Briscoes but still awesome). Some heartfelt sentimental stuff from guys like Stevie Richards, Dreamer and Beulah, etc. and a whole slew of unadvertised cameos. Good stuff.

I got the Evolve show and overall thought it was a good show. The Ricochet vs. Timothy Thatcher match is worth taking a look at. Bell to bell they got 17 minutes and I wanted at least 3 to 5 more minutes to really flesh out the finish. I thought the body of the match was really well done. We get a feeling out process to start. Thatcher works different holds looking for a chink in the armor. He finds it and goes after the arm. Thatcher is great at destroying the arm with crisp, hurty looking arm locks. The key spot is we get a modified divorce court on the ring apron. Now Thatcher is a shark here destroying the arm. Ricochet does a solid to good job selling his arm. He was great at reaction selling to the arm. Thatcher got a good 8-10 minutes of working over Ricochet with some hope spots mixed in. Ricochet is in control and is using assorted kicks and high flying . He has Thatcher reeling.In the spot of the match Ricochet goes up for a 450 or something and Thatcher catches him in a Fujiwara armbar. Ricochet escapes, and we get the finish that felt kinda rushed. 3 3/4* I really want a rematch between these guys.Some people might feel Thatcher took too much of the bout. I didn't feel that way.

Went to the Evolve show tonight. Really good stuff with some great matches like Rodrick Strong/Thatcher, Ricochet/Drew Galloway and Biff Busick/Uhaa Nation. The Strong match was good especially since Strong worked twice after having match on the FIP card vs Rich Swann. Thatcher is just a treat to watch live. The way he lays in headbutts and does submissions is different than anyone in wrestling these days. The Ricochet match was fun cause Ricochet was just a total dick in it. He injured Galloway's finger somehow and did a huracarana off a basketball hoop. He also got fallaway slammed into a concrete wall which had to hurt. Biff/Uhaa was a war back and forth. Can't wait to see Uhaa in NXT vs guys like Tyson, Sami, Neville and Owens. AR Fox/Trevor Lee was cut short when Fox got knocked out from a Lee kick. He was busted open but the ref didn't bother checking on him till Lee tried to pick Fox up and he went limp. It was a scary few minutes with Gabe running around and no EMT around. Luckly AR Fox was fine after the show.

 

FIP show was pretty bad though. Tag title match and Swann/Strong were ok but bad finishes all show. The Fray match was a mess and sloopy. Too many of Chaysen Rance's shitty students booked. Teddy Hart showed up unannounced and had to 3 way match. I know it's not cool to like Teddy these days but I popped for the damn cat.

Did you go to the Ybor show or the Winter Park? I'm pissed I didn't know about the shows until the day after

Anybody going to the XWA show in West Warwick, RI on January 17th? AJ Styles & Biff Busick are on the card. I'm pumped!

Did you go to the Ybor show or the Winter Park? I'm pissed I didn't know about the shows until the day after

 

Winter Park. It was about 3 miles from my house which was nice.

I appreciate EVOLVE for being a super indie that books Busick/Thatcher/Gulak but I have to watch their matches on mute with how obnoxious the commentary is.

Unfortunately I feel that way about pretty much all US commentary now

I appreciate EVOLVE for being a super indie that books Busick/Thatcher/Gulak but I have to watch their matches on mute with how obnoxious the commentary is.

 

Lenny Leonard and whoever his partner is are definitely not good but they don't drive me to the mute button the way some other commentators do. I find Lenny's constant usage of "Jesus Christ" as is "Oh my God!" to be amusing. You don't hear that dropped by any other announcers (for obvious & probably good reason). I kind of wish Gabe still did commentary so we could have got a "Dangerous!!" when Galloway slammed Ricochet into the wall. I do think when they have something that is both specific and logical to get over (ie. the preemptive explanation to why the ref was going to be lenient in throwing out the Galloway/Strong match) they do an play job.

Ybor is only 10 mins from my house and this is the second time I missed them.

For someone who hasent watched indy wrestling in over a decade any recommendations. Used to buy loads when tape trading was about and wondered what good stuff is about.

I'm right down the road from NWA Smoky Mountain which I consider to be one of the best indie companies out there. I did a special YouTube vlog on a recent trip to ROH and I'm going to be doing the same for the NWA Smoky Mountain show this weekend. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.

 

Josh Alexander and Ethan Page are debuting in PWG in February!