Jake Manning vs. Caleb Konley vs. Adam Page – Larry Dallas and Scott Reed are in Japan, so for some odd reason Johnny Fairplay accompanies Konley to ringside. This was actually a lot better than I expected. Page had another impressive showing, as did Konley – he really needs to ditch Scott Reed and go into the singles divisions. Even Manning looked pretty good here, and indeed picked up the win with a backbreaker/flatliner combo at 7.21. Incidentally, Jay Lethal uses the same move, but Manning’s execution of it is far better.
Mike Cruz vs. Alex Reynolds – Reynolds teamed with Jon Silver at Evolve 10, while Cruz had a match with Ricochet in DG:USA over Wrestlemania weekend. They have a decent little match; on balance you’d say Cruz is slightly more advanced at the moment. It’s Reynolds who gets the win though, with a bridging O Conner roll at 7.28.
Low-Ki vs. Jigsaw – I actually switched this one off halfway through, that being triggering by Low-Ki doing his ridiculous “lie on my back like an MMA fighter thing.” Fuck off. Low-Ki wins at 14.21 with the Ki Krusher. It’s a waste of time watching or reviewing his matches; the result’s a foregone conclusion and no-one gets over as a result of wrestling him. It’s sad to see someone with so much talent waste it; but you can’t legislate for someone being a dick.
Jon Davis vs. Fit Finlay – Surprisingly, this was miles better than Finlay vs. Callihan from EVOLVE 11. One would have expected a real war between these two given Davis size; but instead it turned out to be a gripping mat-based affair, with Finlay working over the leg and Davis working over the arm respectively. You could have a gripe at the fact that a) the finish came out of nowhere, and b) it consisted of Finlay giving Davis a nasty looking tombstone at 23.45 – making you wonder what the point of all the leg work was. But I’m inclined to overlook it, as the match delivered in spades. Davis desperately needed a good outing here after a fairly indifferent 2012 in EVOLVE/DG:USA thus far, and he got it. Finlay’s outings on the indies’ have been a mixed bag; he had a couple of scorchers, but at least one real stinker (Elgin).
Johnny Gargano & Samuray Del Sol vs. Chuck Taylor & Silas Young – Interestingly, Gargano and Young had a feud going in EVOLVE in 2010 where Gargano was supposed to have been responsible for Young falling off the wagon; but said feud pretty much disappeared, until now – but of course now Gargano is the promotions top babyface and Young is teaming with the promotions top heel. Odd. Anyway, this was a fun post-intermission tag match to get everyone going again; Del Sol continues to make progress, and in the past year or so Silas Young has gone from being a journeyman card filler to a guy who deserves a proper run somewhere. The stipulation for this one is that Taylor or Gargano get to pick the stipulation for their singles match if their team wins; and Taylor spikes Gargano with the Awful Waffle at 10.19. Presumably that match will happen in DG:USA as opposed to EVOLVE.
El Generico vs. Ricochet – Low-Ki joins Lenny Leonard on commentary. Obviously these two are incapable of having a bad match, although I wouldn’t quite put this one on a par with their PWG efforts – mainly due to small crowd compared to Reseda. Ricochet hits the 630 senton on Generico at 16.33 to get the victory. After the match, Ricochet challenged Lo-Ki to a match. Brandon accepted, then ran down El Generico on the mic.
Fit Finlay vs. Sami Callihan – obviously this is a rematch from EVOLVE 9, and also their third bout against each other – their wXw match in Germany is included on here as a bonus feature. I found this one extremely disappointing. Their match at EVOLVE 9 went thirty minutes and absolutely flew by; by contrast, this one went 20 minutes and felt a lot longer. It started off quite nicely, with Finlay giving Callihan a good battering; but the pace quickly dropped off, ala Finlay vs. Elgin in ROH. There were also too many false finishes; Callihan shouldn’t be kicking out of the tombstone, and the suspension of disbelief went as soon as he did. Finlay counters the Horsecollar with a crossarmbreaker, and Callihan taps at 20.41.
Overall – a disappointing show for me. I know they had guys missing from the card, but still, only the three-way really delivered.
