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COMPLETE EVOLVE 39 BLOG

By Mike Johnson on 2015-03-26 22:33:32

EVOLVE  kicks off the WWNLive Experience with a live EVOLVE 39 iPPV tonight from the San Jose Fairgrounds in San Jose, CA. David Tees will be doing a play by play of the iPPV broadcast and I'll be live blogging thoughts from the show. We will have coverage of many of the WWNLive events over the course of this weekend as well.

Pre-Show:

There look to be about 500 or so fans here. 

They are discounting Dragon Gate USA shirts down to $10 so that should tell you what you need to know about the state of that brand.

Heather Lynn is the ring announcer tonight.

The first bout was Drew Gulak vs. Timothy Thatcher.   Gulak cut a promo before the bout saying that he felt that the wrestling business and his peers have lost sight of the importance of the win in wrestling.  They were going for something here to set EVOLVE apart and perhaps explain to the crowd what they were trying to present, but the crowd was quiet and one guy heckled for them to wrestle.  In the end, Gulak got across that they wanted the crowd not to just buy their product but feel it.  The crowd got behind the promo.  I expected a lot of really good European style matwork and reversals here and that's what we got.  The crowd was really receptive to the escapes and the reversals.  This was the type of bout where they took all the little things and made them matter as they worked the submissions.   Gulak controlled much of the early portion and showed some aggression with slaps when he had Thatcher down.  Thatcher raised Gulak's hand after the match and the crowd loved them showing respect for each other. Gulak scored the win. These guys are great. A fine way to kick things off. 

Tommy End vs.  Biff Busick was next.  End is from Holland and is making his debut here.  Lots of people yelling support for him.  Busick controlled the early going but End drilled him with a hard kick to the chest.  They began exchanging uppercuts.  End drilled him hard and took him down before nailing a stiff clothesline.  Yep, he's going to fit in perfectly here.  While the first bout was more of an exhibition of great holds and submissions, this was more of a fight with two guys striking hard.  End caught Busick in the corner and drilled him with some stiff kicks.  Busick finally made a comeback and caught End with a sick clothesline that sent him upside down  The storyline is that Chris Hero sponsored bringing in End and I can see why.  He shocked the crowd catching Busick with a big running knee and went to the top.  He scored with several kicks for a near fall.  Busick came back to choke out End for the win.  The real winner here was End and he won the crowd's respect as they loved the hell out of him.  You saw him earn his place in EVOLVE tonight.   Busick cut a promo saying that Hero fears him and then walked out the front door.  Good promo and it sets up for the future as he just choked out Hero's guy.  End got a great round of applause as he left.  Two for two.

Next out was Ethan Page, who was debuting.  He showed some nice charisma cutting a promo thanking Johnny Gargano for sponsoring him and that he hoped to make him proud.  Page works a lot of the Mid-Western independents and this is his debut here.  He's facing Chris Hero, who received a hero's welcome, no pun intended.   They did a deal early where Page tried to test himself against Hero so Hero invited him to do it again, then drilled him with a knee.  Page is pretty funny at portraying a smarmy jackass when he's in control.  They battled to the floor and when they returned, Page turned on the offense.  Hero tried to cut him off but was caught with a nice sitdown spinebuster for a near fall.  Hero was sent to the floor and Page nailed the first tope of the night.  He nailed a nice cutter but Hero popped up and drilled him with a sitdown powerbomb.  Hero eventually gets the win.  The story of the bout was that the younger Page brought it with a swagger but in the end, Hero the veteran had his number.  Nice introduction for Page.  Hero then responded with Busick, saying that Busick has to earn the right to use his name and he hasn't earned it.  He mocked the idea that he was afraid of Busick or his choke.  Busick came to the ring.  They went back and forth to set up future bout.  Good stuff.

Blog continues on Page 2!


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