EVOLVE 48 was decent.
- Nese vs Ethan Page was a solid show opener. **½
It was a heel vs heel opener. Ehh, not a fan of that.
But considering Nese is from NY, he's getting crowd support and is de facto babyface.
The homestretch was fun and contained some great counters, but ultimately, a 450 Splash got Nese a clean, decisive pinfall victory.
They should've booked a different ending, though and played off of what happened at EVOLVE 47 and had Gargano cost Page the match, but oh well. Moving on.
I admire heel Page. Post-match, he cut a Gargano-esque promo in attempt to make a mockery of Johnny.
That brought out Gargano, who looked like he was sick of Page's BS and was about to shut him up.
Swann blocked his former best friend's path to his nemesis.
Johnny then tried to talk Swann out of fighting him and was willing to forgive him for attacking him at EVOLVE 47, but Swann sucker punched him instead, leading into the second match...
- Swann vs Johnny Gargano was rock solid. **¾
While I liked the story and the work, and Swann playing the heel role well, there were just too much shenanigans for my liking.
Post-match, Page cut a promo saying he's accomplished everything since coming to EVOLVE, and would proceed to lay the title on fallen Gargano and saying both him and Open The Freedom Gate mean nothing.
This might've been a Gargano write-off.
Hopefully Gargano's latest NXT appearances indicate he'll be there soon.
- Konley vs Baretta was good. ***
Both guys worked hard, but it should've had more of a grudge match vibe than just a regular midcard match.
- Gulak & Williams vs Mike Bailey & Horus was so meh and uninteresting. *
This was a long bout for the sake of being long and it was basically a 20 minute squash match.
- Chris Hero vs Zack Sabre was great and MOTN. ****
- Timothy Thatcher vs Biff Busick was a very good ME. ***½