2010 – EVOLVE 1: Richards vs. Ibushi

It is a brand new year and there’s no better way to start things off then with the introduction of a brand new promotion – EVOLVE! How high can this debuting company set the bar for independent pro wrestling in 2010? You have NO idea!

As of this writing, and over the course of three days, I’ve watched "EVOLVE 1: Richards vs. Ibushi" (1/16/10) twice. Full viewings both times, from the opening match to the main event. This is a fantastically put together product full of tremendous wrestling. And at slightly over two hours, the show gives you tons of action without asking for too much time from your schedule.

Let’s go match by match through the event:

-You put a DVD into your player. You hit play. You have no idea what to expect of what is about to come on your TV. In a best case scenario, you get Bobby Fish vs. Kyle O’Reilly – an amazing, hard-hitting, passionate battle from two men you’re not too familiar with but now want to be! What a way to kick the show off. With this one bout and these two men, everything you need to know about EVOLVE is established. The style, the zeal, the level of competition, it is all right there. And it is awesome! I’ve seen some work from both men before and considered myself curious to see more, but now I am a bona fide fan of Fish and O’Reilly. This is a contest I can watch over and over and react to every time. Love it.

-Nice to see Chuck Taylor and Cheech Hernandez work a more serious match than what was maybe expected of the two. It is very different for them, but both men make up for their toned down personalities by spicing up their usual move arsenals. Cheech especially pulls a few wow-worthy maneuvers out of his bag of tricks.

-Another fast-paced, assertive affair comes at us between Arik Cannon and Ricochet. Both men look absolutely awesome here and have just the right amount of time to put on a great spectacle of athleticism and tell a strong story. Good stuff.

-Perhaps EVOLVE is going for “something different” with tag team wrestling, but the lack of tags in the TAG match between the Dark City Fight Club and Aeroform bothered me a bit. Past that, the action from the four men is pretty solid, with Aeroform showing off their remarkable abilities in the air and DCFC demonstrating their best impressions of brick walls. Maybe it is because I like the Fight Club already, they remind me so of the types of teams that populated ECW many moons ago, but generally speaking I enjoyed this match.

-Don’t know that there is technically much to say about Mercedes Martinez vs. Niya. What we have here is clearly an attempt to show off Martinez as a powerhouse, and in that respect, the bout works. Wish it could have been longer and more competitive, but can’t take points away for the contest doing exactly what it aimed to do.

-Find myself on the fence (less painful than it sounds) about Silas Young vs. Brad Allen. On the one hand, both men bring the intensity and have quite the battle. At times it is downright brutal and neither guy walks away without looking battered for their efforts. On the other hand, there is a certain lack of shall we call it finesse with some of the action. It troubles me a bit, as over the years I’ve wanted more and more to be a Silas Young fan and now that he is regularly working where I can watch, he seems to have lost a step or two from what I was expecting. He isn’t bad, not by any fathomable definition of the word, but he isn’t as sharp or polished as I originally thought. Allen, on the other hand (that’s three hands for those keeping count) is a promising young talent that shows lots of potential for being a huge star. Ultimately, the story is great and overall the match is entertaining so thumbs up.

-Being perfectly blunt here – I haven’t seen Jimmy Jacobs look as happy or healthy as he does here in years. The tan does him well, the hair looks good, and overall he appears joyful to be involved in EVOLVE. That’s a great thing, as a happy Jimmy Jacobs is a Jimmy Jacobs that is completely on his game. Jacobs is great as a fan favorite against Ken Doane, who for his part does a perfect job playing the bad guy that feeds on the audiences’ disdain. There may be nothing particularly special to point out about this match, but both guys do a lot with their roles to keep it enjoyable.

-Another bout featuring two guys I haven’t seen a lot of yet, this time Johnny Gargano and Chris Dickinson. And again, they are two new-to-me wrestlers that I want to see way more of! Fantastic and inventive is the best way to describe both men. Gargano comes off as the more colorful of the two characters, but Dickinson’s ability and intensity speaks for itself. Really good stuff.

-I keep using passion and intensity to describe so many matches on this show, and by now it should be clear that what EVOLVE aims to bring to the table is exactly those two things. Muneori Sawa vs. TJP is again all about the aforementioned words. The two men strike stiffly, fight fluidly and overall put on one heck of an outing. Their willingness to go all out in an attempt to leave the crowd dazzled by their encounter is nothing short of remarkable. The ending does feel a bit sudden, and frankly it would have been nice to see this match go a bit longer. That aside, Sawa and TJP are great and watching these titans clash is a lot of fun. When people are looking back ten years from now at the classics of the company’s early days, they will no doubt look to this match.

-Every time talents from CHIKARA go out and “do their thing,” it is expectedly excellent. Same rule applies here as Mike Quackenbush, Frightmare, and Hallowicked take on Gran Akuma, Icarus, and Brodie Lee. Anybody who is already a fan of CHIKARA shouldn’t be surprised by how pleasing this bout is. Anybody who hasn’t seen their work before should be in for quite the treat.

-Advanced warning: I’m not sure any actual words will truly do justice for Kota Ibushi vs. Davey Richards in the first EVOLVE main event. I can try using clichés like brilliant, epic, and astonishing. And of course I’m going to use intense and point out the level of passion both men show. I can call it an early Match of the Year contender and heck maybe even match of the decade though that’s a really early declaration. I can talk about how this had me yelling at the TV, jumping from my couch seat, and generally scaring my guinea pig because of how involved and excited I was during every brutal moment and could be finish. I can say all of these things, but really, you should just go watch the match for yourself and be left in awe as I was.

In the end, I am left feeling extremely high on the EVOLVE product and looking forward to seeing both their next shows and what the rest of the wrestling world has in store to compete with them. 2010, off to an unbelievable start.