Evolve reborn - this looks promising

[Stopspot]

Evolve was shaping up to be Gabe Sapolsky's next own wrestling project back in 2010 after being fired by ROH in 2008 and then hired by Dragon Gate to run their American brand. Evolve was supposed to be the home of athletic wrestling and the evolution of the business...Sadly it was not to be. Key figures in the fledgling company dropped out (Davey Richards over a contract dispute and him at the time being fed up with wrestling) and the company was eventually merged with Dragon Gate USA, accepting all of DGUSA's belts but keeping the win/loss records which were supposed to be the ranking system of Evolve. Resulting in a cluster fuck and Evolve becoming a shell of what it was supposed to be. That was until Wrestlecon 2013 that is.

At Wrestlecon, Evolve held a title tournament to crown their first ever champ, making away with the win/loss records in favor of a belt whilst still keeping the idea of pushing for the sport aspect and using that as the basis for feuds and stories combined with athletic matches. The event itself which crowned the champ was a bit of a cluster fuck due to having to make away with the win/loss records, but after watching the three events after that I think Evolve is getting back on track.

Evolve 20-22 were 3 highly entertaining events which felt like a restart for the promotion, finding it's own identity whilst still being connected to Dragon Gate USA (They share rosters and recognize each others titles). A lot of seeds were planted for future feuds and for future talent. A lot of new talent was introduced, it has a bit of a feel of old school ROH to it. Key here is in the roster. Evolve has with this rebirth brought in a lot of young talent with potential. Guys who they can build their company on like they did with Punk, Joe, Bryan and Low Ki in ROH's early years.
I have found some guys who are filling out some key roles.

Johnny Gargano is filling the role of CM Punk. This guy is absolute money with Main eventer written all over him. He's also already established from being the Dragon Gate USA champ for 500+ days. He's one of the hottest acts on the independents now and brings eyes to the product. Which in turn helps the other talent and the promotion itself.

AR Fox (the first ever Evolve champ) I'd say is the Low Ki. He's not the greatest talker but brings people in with presence and athleticism. Where Low Ki was incredibly technically solid Fox goes by the Jeff Hardy school of doing insane flips. Fox is doing good as the first ever champ, and this is coming from a guy who was against him winning it. He is establishing himself as a fighting champ and will make the Evolve belt a good independent title to chase. He'll also be in the company long term since I doubt WWE or TNA will sign someone who has done hardcore gay porn.

Jon Davis is filling the Samoa Joe role of the big athletic guy with a mean streak. Davis just needs a more defined character and he will work really well. Not that good a talker but his pure presence and athleticism in the ring has gotten him pretty over.

Caleb Konley has the potential to be Evolve's Austin Aries. Konley was a guy I saw going nowhere when he was part of the tag team known as the Scene, since the entire team was going nowhere. But once Konley turned face boy was I impressed. He has that attitude to him which combined with a good look, a decent amount of charisma and nice ring skills will get him over with the fans very well.

Mix that with some established talent like the Young Bucks, Chuck Taylor, Brian Cage and Rich Swann and the other young guys like Shane Strickland, Andrew Everett, The Bravado's, Tommy Taylor and the other guys on the DGUSA and Dragon Gate roster and you have a damn good independent roster. Combine that with planting seeds for real feuds and getting back to finding their niche and you have a very promising promotion. Running 2-3 events a month also helps with advancing stories and feuds which is a plus compared to Dragon Gate USA who does 3 shows every 3 months due to the cost of flying in Japanese talent.

Evolve still have things to work out of course, a full on identity needs to be established but that seems to be on it's way. IPPV needs to work better but it took ROH 2 years to fix that.They need to find 3-4 or so states to hold their events in and rotate between and build up loyal fan bases and thus make the crowds grow to the size they should be. Because the product after last weekend deserves to get bigger crowds than it has. Also fix the DVD issues. Things are far from the best of course or from WWE production standards. But the potential is there in my opinion.

Still some things to work on, but with this spiritual rebirth of Evolve they seem to be on the right path to being a big indy company. I'm looking forward to next month.

 

[Pop Tatari]

I think they should bring back the win/loss records thing for everyone who is not the champ,it would give their characters that drive to improve and pardon the pun evolve, as a way of getting to the title.

I like Konley from what i have seen of him is limited a few PWX and DGUSA appearances, he still needs work but he is solid in the ring. Its more the other areas.
The reviews for the latest event seems really positive which is encouraging. If Gabe gets the DVDS out quicker same with DGUSA then i will invest my time and money to support them.

 

[Crayo]

A thread like this deserves more replies.

 

[Testify]

^Here you go good sir.

 

[seabs]

Davies is lacking in the Joe comparison from the little I've seen of him, I don't see him holding the strap as long as Joe did for example due to his lack of an aura. Gargano is Punks match though definitely, I watched Evolve 20 and was impressed but not as greatly as you were although I need to catch the others.

 

[Snowman1]

Caught Evolve 20, trying to get through the other ones. (Thanks, Alkaline!)

Never watch indy wrestling and have heard for years "omg five star match every week", so my expectations were pretty much impossible to meet.
Loved the last two matches and Eita vs Tomahawk, were impressed by some of the guys in the Fray too.

 

[Roray]

Johnny Gargano is money indeed. If this guy isn't signed to the big 2 by 3 years from now I'll be shocked. The guy is a total package.

The fact that you said Jon Davis fills a role of Joe disgusts me. I find him to be so boring and useless in the ring and as a character.

Caleb Konley is getting up there. He has the look. I've just never seen him have an "amazing" match or a match that puts him up there for me.

 

[seabs]

A lot of the guys just lack the special feel ROH had sadly, Gargano has the potential to be lightning in a bottle but who else? Compare that to ROH up until 2007 you had Joe who was incredibly hot, take his TNA debut as an example people were hyped for him and still were in 08 ROH played a big part in that, CM Punk who was arguably the hottest man ever in the company from 03-05 people loved him as a babyface chasing the strap and wanted to celebrate him winning the title and well we all know what happened next. Aries and Nigel had that feel of they could be megastars too, it's the mythical IT Factor if you will.

I'll get a lot of heat here but Evolve has a ton of Bryan Danielsons, they're phenomenal workers and some are very good mic workers but they lack that superstar feel. Maybe like Danielson they can use that to their advantage and become the most entertaining men in the world, who knows?

However the biggest thing I believe Evolve is missing is the same of DG:USA it's great crowds, the guys mentioned above wouldn't have had as much of an aura without "Joe's gonna kill ya" or the crowd singing Miseria Cantare as they replicate the drum beat. Chanting is infectious, look at PWG they need to embrace that.