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ADAM COLE VS. WALTER & MORE: EVOLVE 107 LIVE REPORT

By Adam Cardoza on 2018-06-24 22:29:00

EVOLVE 107

6/24/18 - Melrose, MA

Coming off of last night’s EVOLVE 106 event, featuring a huge WWN title win for Joey Janela and tonight’s promised Match between WALTER and NXT North American Champion Adam Cole, it is a packed house in Melrose tonight!

Match 1: Josh Briggs vs Dominic Garrini (w/ Stokely Hathaway)

Briggs is out with heavy offense to start until Garrini germans him into the top turnbuckle. Dominic is wearing the big man down with submissions but Briggs powers through. He reverses a standing dragon sleeper into the M5 for the pin. Good sprint of a match pitting power vs technique.

Post-match, a highly impressed Stokely Hathaway tries to recruit Briggs into Catch Point. He whips out a contract but Briggs shoved him and walks away....with the contract in hand.

Winner: Josh Briggs

AR Fox is out with the Skulk for a match....

...annnnnnnnnd the fire alarm just went off. It’s quite loud. The crowd is chanting “Burn It Down”. 5 minutes later, the alarm stops but there’s no audio system yet until the stage power returns. A match is going to happen. And that match isssss....

Match 2: Adrian Alanis (of the Skulk) vs Bshp Kng 

The crowd is hype that the show is continuing without an evacuation but everyone is feeling the confusion from what just happened. In the ring, Alanis and Kng are having a decent back and forth fight. Alanis hits Kng with a top rope senton for the win, to the delight of his Skulk compatriots and the crowd. Props to these guys for having a match out of nowhere in a bad situation.

Winner: Adrian Alanis

Post-match, AR Fox gets on the mic (now that we have audio again) and challenges Evolve champion Matt Riddle. “I want my belt back!”

Match 3: Jarek 1:20 vs Darby Allin

Allin swarms Jarek and tries to end it early with strikes and a corkscrew springboard splash. Jarek gets Allin in the tree of woe and hits a Whoopie Cushion from the top. Jarek takes control and—

—the fire alarm is going off again. The match continues. Allin gets a couple of near falls after Jarek whiffs an elbow drop. The alarm is still flashing but the sound is cut off at least. again. Jarek gets a near fall from a powerslam facebuster. Jarek tries it again from the top rope but Allin gets the rope to break the pin. Jarek misses a coast to coast and Allin hits a pair of top rope Coffin Drops to get the pin. Decent match from Allin but it looked like Jarek got lost in a couple of sequences and the added distraction of the alarm did not help the situation.

Winner: Darby Allin

We have a brief pause while the alarm is reset and audio is restored.

Match 4: Anthony Henry vs Timothy Thatcher 

Henry tries to overwhelm Thatcher early but gets stuffed and dragged into a trademark Timothy Thatcher beatdown. He looks to have it locked in with an armbar but Henry gets out and starts returning Thatcher’s offense in kind. This is a fight, with Anthony Henry matching Thatcher blow for blow and hold for hold. Thatcher looks to KO Henry but his leg locks up from all the damage Henry has laid into it. He adds to it with a figure-four around the ring post outside. More hard-hitting action inside, Henry hits a top rope double stomp and transitions right into an ankle lock that Thatcher taps to. This was awesome. I didn’t expect Henry to beat Thatcher at his own game and the crowd popped huge for it. This was really the match that needed to bring the crowd back from the last few matches worth of alarm confusion.

Post-match, WALTER hits the ring and ambushes Anthony, leaving him laying as he pulls out his Ring Kampf teammate from the arena.

Winner: Anthony Henry

Match 5 - FIP World Heavyweight Championship Match: DJZ vs (c)Austin Theory (w/ Priscilla Kelly)

This is being contested under FIP rules, which we’re told means “no rules”. Theory is out to say losing the WWN belt to Janela last night was a fluke and no one will take the FIP belt from him. Joey Janela is out with the WWN belt. He says if the loss was such a fluke, maybe Austin should put his FIP up against him too. We have a 3-way!

Match 5 - FIP World Heavyweight Championship Match: DJZ vs (c)Austin Theory (w/ Priscilla Kelly) vs Joey Janela (w/ Penelope Ford)

DJZ hits a dive right at the start, somersaulting and landing in a seated position on the guardrail. That had to hurt but damn, it looked cool. From here, we have a good high spots triple threat where Austin is constantly trying to get his hands on Janela while DJZ picks his spots against both. Priscilla and Penelope get involved and take each other out. A lot of back and forth until Janela wipes out DJZ with a super plex, allowing Theory to roll up Joey for the sudden win to retain his championship. This was a good spot match, definitely heightened by the drama between Janela and Theory but DJZ was not forgotten in this shuffle here. This was a good way to help Theory

Winner (and still champion): Austin Theory

INTERMISSION

Match 6: Four-way Freestyle: Saieve Al Sabah vs Bad Bones vs Jaka vs Jon Davis

Jaka powders immediately and lets Davis beat down everyone. Saieve is wrestling in heavy hoodie and is sweating like that might have been a poor life choice. Jaka enters and tries to get a quick roll up win on Davis. Bones and Saieve are battling on the top until Davis hits a double superplex. Jaka with a splash on Davis fails to secure the opportunistic win. Al Sabah hits a seriously impressive corkscrew dive on Bones & Davis, landing on his feet. Back in the ring, Saieve hits a top rope blockbuster on Jaka to get the pin. This was a fun showcase for some of the newer or lesser known guys but Jaka taking the pin here was weird for me, as he’s the current EVOLVE tag team champion. Saieve is just starting to build his Evolve highlight reel.

Winner: Saieve Al Sabah

Match 7: Tracy Williams vs Chris Dickinson (w/ Stokely Hathaway)

This match is contested under Catch Point rules. Each participant gets 3 rope breaks. 20-count to the outside. No closed fists or you lose a rope break. Use a closed fist when you’re out of rope breaks? You’re instantly DQ’d.

Williams immediately uses a closed fist three times, running out of rope breaks and then pounces on Dickinson with more. Instant DQ. The ref leaves and Dickinson lays in a beatdown on Hot Sauce. Hot Sauce comes back after a series of chest kicks to german Dickinson out. Dominic Garrini hits the ring but Sauce drops him too. Jaka is here and finally Catch Point swarms him, allowing Stokely to get some hits in. Josh Briggs arrives....and takes out Catch Point! He pulls out Stokely’s contract from earlier and tears it up in front of Hathaway. Catch Point is sent packing and Briggs shakes hands with Williams after.

Winner (by DQ): Chris Dickinson

Match 8: No Rope Breaks Match for the EVOLVE Championship: AR Fox (w/ the Skulk) vs (c) Matt Riddle

We go from 3 rope breaks to NO ROPE BREAKS. This is becoming Riddle’s signature match and I love the gimmick of it. To top it all off, Fox is out in blue MMA trunks and no footwear. He intends to fight Riddle at his own game. They do some stand-up fighting and grapple action before Riddle uncorks his inner human suplex machine. Fox escapes a Bro to Sleep into a cutter and then locks a deep reverse dragon sleeper that Riddle barely escapes. Fox hits a dive over the corner to the entranceway and then hits a few 450’s but Riddle barely kicks out. A brief scramble and then Riddle hits a running knee. And another. And another. Riddle swarms with strikes and the ref is forced to stop the match. This was reallllllly good. I loved the story telling of Fox trying to out-MMA Riddle and building to have to go to his comfort zone of high-energy offense.

Post-match, Austin Theory ambushes Riddle and lays him out. Fox and the Skulk run him off. Riddle says he’ll fight AR Fox again anytime but Austin Theory has a target on his back for August 5th when EVOLVE returns to Melrose.

Winner: Matt Riddle

(FOR THE LIVE CROWD ONLY) Match 9: For the NXT North American Championship: WALTER (w/ Timothy Thatcher) vs (c) Adam Cole

The crowd is on fire at the first note of WALTER’S theme. This is gonna be crazy. WALTER playing the power game with the smaller Cole, who counters with dropkicks and strikes. A chop from Cole prompts a “You effed up” chant as an angry German man proceeds to pummel the champion around the ring. WALTER’s chops are like gunshots but Cole tricks him into chopping the ring post and goes to work on the hand. WALTER comes back with slams and an Earthquake splash. WALTER is clutching his hand and holding it behind his back, trying to save it from further damage. WALTER hits a pair of huge lariats that flip Cole inside out for a near fall. Cole starts to headbutt the chopping hand of WALTER. A powerbomb/crab combo almost finished the champ again. WALTER catches diving Cole into a rear naked choke. Cole escapes and starts hitting a series of superkicks and shining wizards that finally keep the big man down for the three. This was well put together and Cole looks like he barely escaped with his life. The match itself was an excellent watch and the absolutely on-fire crowd put it over the top.

Winner (and still champion): Adam Cole

Briggs and Garrini was a fun sprint but the show almost got derailed by two matches fighting a fire alarm. After that was cleared up though, the show picked up and was great from then on. Evolve shows can sometimes feel like a pile of matches with little narrative connective tissue. This felt like a cohesive show (even with the fire alarm shenanigans). The main event wasn’t streamed but maybe it might find its way to another company’s video library. If it doesn’t, this is still an excellent show to catch for Henry/Thatcher, the FIP triple threat and Riddle/Fox. Check it out!

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