The Tiger’s Take 6.16.10: EVOLVE Needs To Evolve

What I’m about to say will probably not be a big shock. In fact, I’d venture to guess that 99.9% of the people who read this will not be surprised at all.

Wrestling isn’t a legit sport.

If you’re one of the few who are surprised to find this out, my apologies for letting the cat out of the bag. But it’s true. Wrestling is a work. It always has been. Yes, it *always* has been. Despite what you might have heard from Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Dick Beyer, and other old timers, wrestling has never been a legit sport.

Why am I using up 411’s web space to tell you this? Because, apparently, the people who run EVOLVE haven’t yet figured out that the fans already know that it’s a work. Wrestling fans are funny in that way. We talk about not liking our intelligence insulted, but we tolerate just that week after week, month after month. We know that Nick Dinsmore really isn’t “special,” we know that Delirious can really speak English and doesn’t have a lizard face, and we know that Robert Roode isn’t really a Wallstreet business man. Yet, week in and week out, wrestling fans routinely hear and accept what we’re being told.

However, EVOLVE seems to have gone one step too far with their claims that EVOLVE is pro wrestling, but being done as a legit sport. They seem to be about 20 years too late, had they started in 1990 with that idea, they’d be breaking new ground. When the first incarnation of the Japanese UWF (not to be confused with Bill Watts’ or Herb Abrams’ respective promotions called the UWF) was formed and they made the bold statement that they were real while New Japan and All Japan were fake, it made big waves. They forced NJ and AJ to work a more realistic and stiff style. That’s another problem with the ‘legit’ concept of the fed, they don’t work a very MMA or realistic style. As much as indy zealots are going to hate hearing this, there’s a real comparison to be found between TNA and EVOLVE. Not all of TNA, just that famous TNA Title match between Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. Despite all the claims that they went UFC style, the match was full of pro spots, backdrops, not to mention the typical overbooking that TNA has come to be synonymous with. That’s how EVOLVE is, they’re supposed to be wrestling done legit, but full of obvious cooperation. The best match of EVOLVE 1 was Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi, and it featured Ibushi’s famous (and annoying, to me) double moonsault, where he misses, lands on his feet and then hits a standing moonsault. Does anyone think we’ll be seeing GSP try anything like that in his next Welterweight Title defense?

Let’s go back to 2002 when ROH first formed. It didn’t have the MMA influence (because MMA hadn’t quite hit the big time in the U.S. yet) but ROH hammered home that they were *wrestling* not sports entertainment, with countless insider references, and allusions to ‘shoots.’ Jake Ziegler said it best on a podcast a couple of years back “I thought it was all a work, but then ROH told me that every match James Maritato had in ROH was a shoot!” What happened with ROH? They had some short term success, but eventually wound up going the way of what wrestling in the U.S. has always been, storylines and angles. I don’t disagree with Gabe’s position that matches sell DVDs, but it’s usually angles and storylines that keep fans coming to the lives shows. Look at the huge buzz from the NXT angle on RAW, and then look at the rating the following week. People tuned in to see what was going to happen.

A look at how their attendance has evolved (pun intended) is indication (to me) that their attempt to claim legitimacy isn’t working. EVOLVE 1 had a healthy attendance of 350-500, depending on who you ask. Not bad at all either way, especially for an indy. Granted, EVOLVE had a buzz about them online before the debut show due to the involvement of Gabe Sapolsky and Davey Richards, two online darlings. But still, that shouldn’t take anything away from the fact that they put 500 asses in seats. Two months later they were down to 100-120 or so. Blame the weather if you will, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I can buy a blizzard, hailstorm, tornado warning, etc. for causing people to stay in, but a rainstorm? “Hey Bill, what time are we leaving to go to the EVOLVE show tonight?” “There’s a thunderstorm, we can’t go!” EVOLVE 3 took place on a beautiful Saturday night in May, according to 411’s own Stuart Carapola, it was still under 200. Just for a comparison, 2CW, who has probably 1/10 of the online exposure as EVOLVE, put over 800 people into the arena at the Watertown, NY fairgrounds this past April.

EVOLVE’s silliness continues with their poll on whether or not EVOLVE should include an instant replay rule. Again, this is something that they’re trying too late into the game to be effective. There used to be this huge belief that anytime a match had a ref bump or didn’t end cleanly, then it was horrible. But this line of thought has long since passed by. If they do adopt on instant replay rule, then the booking is going to get very boring very quick. There will be virtually nothing to really build angles and feuds off of other than promos. While UFC has done a great job of creating hype for a fight based off of interviews, they’ve got a lot more outlets at their disposal than an American indy fed will.