The Independent Mid-Card 03.06.07: Richards vs. Evans

Davey Richards vs. Jack Evans
Ring of Honor – Glory By Honor V, Night 2 – New York, NY – September 16, 2006

The Wrestlers:
Davey Richards – A fast-rising star of the Independent scene, Davey Richards gained national notoriety for both his work in the Los Angeles-based Pro Wrestling Guerrilla promotion as well as his win in 2006 edition of the prestigious ECWA Super 8 Tournament. Though his debut with Ring of Honor was initially postponed due to injury, Richards finally competed in June of 2006, defeating ROH veteran Jimmy Rave. Richards competed in a number of high profile matches during that summer, repeatedly defeating Rave, but falling short in contests against AJ Styles and his newfound mentor, Japanese superstar KENTA. Richards’ style had long been reminiscent of KENTA’s, featuring a variety of stiff kicks and high impact maneuvers. Ring of Honor took the opportunity to pair the two, though the duo did lose a main event tag team match against Jay & Mark Briscoe in early August.

Jack Evans – A graduate of the Hart Dungeon in Calgary, Alberta, Jack Evans is one of the preeminent high-flyers in all of pro wrestling. A founding member of the Generation Next stable, Evans had been an ROH stalwart since mid-2004, but more recently had begun to tour Japan for the upstart Dragon Gate promotion. His many trips to that promotion had helped develop Evans into a far more complete wrestler, moving him away from the spottiness that had been his calling card for the first part of his career. Evans had lost a fall to Richards in July during an 8-Man Tag Team match that signified the end of the Generation Next group, thus setting up this contest.

The Match:
Richards enters to Running With The Devil, which is arguably one of the best entrance music choices I’ve ever heard. Davey is noticeably hyped tonight, handing out high fives at ringside and wearing a pretty big smile on his face. Big “Jack” chant in advance of his entrance. The pop for Evans when The End is Now hits is just tremendous. Coincidentally, both guys are from the state of Washington. Jack does his great split-leg slingshot into the ring and then does some break dancing. When the ref checks Evans, he turns around and puts his hands on his head, like he’s being frisked by the police in a subtle, but funny bit for his character. Handshake and they’re off.

The two men circle and Davey moves in to lock up, but Jack is encouraging the crowd to continue the “Jack” chant, adding in a pretty superfluous cartwheel for good measure. Finally, they lock up and Davey forces him to the ropes. We get a clean break, as Davey chooses to act like a face here and not kick Evans into the third row. Richards backs off and claps, prompting the crowd to do the same. Another circle and lockup and this time Davey just throws Jack into the corner, trying to prove his superior strength. Jack, however, goes with the momentum and backflips into the corner, flipping over Davey when he comes running in on a blind charge. They do a nifty leapfrog sequence leading to Jack getting a triple-jump hurricanrana and then dropkicking Richards out to the floor. Evans looks to follow with a dive, but jumps to the top rope and then backflips back into the ring to fake Davey out (and earn a HUGE pop from the crowd). Davey kicks the guardrail in frustration at not being able to take advantage of the smaller man in the early going.

Richards makes his way back in and now looks to be ALL business. They get a knucklelock going and then Davey just dumps Jack down to the mat with a waistlock takedown. The crowd is super hot, if you didn’t catch that, even going “OOOOH!” for the waistlock takedown. Jack counters into a headlock, but gets whipped to the ropes. Davey goes for a hiptoss, but Evans lands on his feet. Evans then goes for a mule kick, but Davey grabs his foot. When Davey tries to flip him, Evans goes with the momentum and does a front flip to land on his feet before flipping backwards and hitting Richards with a Pele Kick. Davey is staggered and falls back to the corner, so Evans comes running in with a handspring elbow that lands him on the apron. Richards, just gets pissed, though, hitting a big boot to the face to send Jack to the floor.

Davey’s all fired up now, stomping around the ring for a bit and shouting to the crowd before going out after Jack and whipping him into the guardrail. Davey rolls Evans back in and gets a noticeably long two count off of the guardrail whip. A snap suplex by Richards also gets two as the crowd has begun dueling chants. When Davey goes for another suplex, Jack hits a knee strike to break, but then he comes off the ropes and gets caught with a fireman’s carry into a chestbreaker and a front suplex onto the top rope that lands Evans on the ring apron. Jack actually can’t maintain his balance and goes crashing through part of the ringside table to the floor in an ugly bump.

Jack slowly makes his way in, with the ref holding Davey off. Richards hits a standard backbreaker for two. Davey grabs a rear chinlock (seemingly to call some spots), and then Jack powers up and elbows out. Jack goes off the ropes and dodges a kick, using his momentum to get a schoolboy cradle for two. Jack ducks a clothesline and springboards back with a backflip elbow that sends Richards rolling to the outside. Jack follows him out with a Space Flying Tiger Drop into a corkscrew press. If you’ve never seen that move, you should really see a match that features it, because it’s just an incredible maneuver. “M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross actually does a version into a rana that’s out of this world. I digress. Back in, Jack gets a very close two count with Davey getting his shoulder up, but not kicking out proper. That’s a lot of respect for that move.

Jack moves Davey closer to the corner and starts to go up, prompting the crowd “you know what time it is”. Davey, of course, cuts him off with a hard forearm shot and goes up after him. They exchange strikes on top, with each guy getting in some good shots, but Evans then gets a flurry of slaps to the face to send Davey down to the mat. Jack then goes for the 630 splash (which is also a magnificent visual), but Davey gets his knees up, right into Jack’s neck. That was just sickening. Jack stumbles over to the opposite corner, so Davey pulls off his elbow pad and comes charging with a stiff forearm to the face. Richards follows up with a running powerslam that gets two. Davey locks in the stretch muffler (single leg crab over the neck), but Jack makes the ropes. Davey goes for a powerbomb, but Evans goes deadweight. Davey strikes away at Jack’s back and finally gets him up for the powerbomb, but Jack flips out of it and goes for a rana. Davey holds on and tries to get a running powerbomb, but Jack goes with the momentum and gets a rana rollup for two. Davey gets some Kawada Kicks (repeated shin kicks to the face) and goes for a big roundhouse kick, but Evans ducks it and hits a kicking combination of his own. Jack comes off the ropes, but Davey presses him into a stiff kick to the face (intended to be similar to KENTA’s Go 2 Sleep). Davey hits that elusive powerbomb that he tried to get earlier and then locks in the stretch muffler again. Jack taps at 7:35 to give Richards the win. The crowd gives the guys a standing ovation for the match as Van Halen plays in the background. Davey helps Evans to his feet for a handshake and the two men hug in mid-ring as we cut out.

The Analysis:
This was a nice, brisk opener that the crowd absolutely loved. I won’t go so far as to call this a classic encounter or anything, but Richards and Evans turned in a really competitive and crisp face vs. face contest, without the need for unnecessary heel work by either guy. Richards, who is noted for his stiff kicks, looked particularly good, but was best served by his decision to sell for Evans’ offense. Though he obviously had a major size advantage over the smaller and (much) lighter Evans, Davey showed that Evans’ improved Dragon Gate-influenced offense was credible enough to do damage.

Now, as for the finish, though it’s reasonable to assume that Evans was in a lot of pain, and he had just absorbed a modified Go 2 Sleep and a hard powerbomb, Richards barely touched Evans’ leg during the match. In fact the only leg work that had been done to that point was when he locked in the stretch muffler the first time, and that only lasted a few seconds before Jack grabbed the ropes. In retrospect, it would have made more sense for Richards to lock on a neck-based submission, what with Evans’ neck having landed on his knees on the 630 attempt, but that’s a minor quibble. The truth is that Richards was trying to get the move over at the time, and it seemed like as reasonable a finish as any. Especially with Evans’ history of absurd resiliency, going for a submission was probably the best route, rather than going for the D.R. Driver II or some other high impact move and trying for a pinfall.

And before I finish, I cannot stress enough how far Jack Evans has come in terms of having a credible, good-looking offense that believably makes him a threat against competitors who are bigger and stronger than he is.

The Aftermath:
Jack Evans has been in-and-out of ROH since September, going on multiple tours of Japan where he continues to be a major contributor to Dragon Gate. In the ROH universe, Evans is a part of the major angle that is the post-Generation Next gang wars. With former stablemates Austin Aries and Roderick Strong determined to lead new groups to dominance, Evans has announced his intention to do the same, though no member of his new stable have been announced.

Davey Richards, who not long after this match would win PWG’s 2006 Battle of Los Angeles Tournament, is also an important part of the new age gang wars storyline, as he recently joined with Roderick Strong to form the No Remorse Corps. Though the duo recently lost a tag team match to Austin Aries & Matt Cross in Chicago and Richards has lost singles contests to both Homicide and Samoa Joe, his star remains bright in ROH, as he is being viewed as one of the potential top stars for the company in 2007.

The Final Word:
The whole post-Generation Next angle has the potential to become one of the great storylines in ROH history. Getting people like Richards, who is still a newer face to ROH crowds involved with near-icons like Strong, Aries and Evans can do nothing but help his credibility. Now if we could only solidify the membership of each group, we’d be on to something. For my money, Aries’ new group (featuring Cross, Delirious and Aries himself) seems like the early front-runner for most-completely-awesome-group-EVER, but your mileage may vary on that.

If you’d like to check out this week’s contest, Glory By Honor V, Night 2 is available at rohwrestling.com, and now has the distinction of being the first show to make two appearances in the IMC. It’s well deserved, too, as GBHVN2 is easily one of the top five wrestling shows I’ve ever seen.

Elsewhere on 411 this week, you should be sure to read Ari’s Column of Honor and Stu’s Friendly Competition. Brad & JZ have reviews of ROH Irresistible Forces and Honor Reclaims Boston, both of which are great shows (and the first of which features yours truly sitting ringside). Also, check out JD’s ROH DVD Reviews, as he’s now deep into the excellent Summer of Punk. And when you’re done with that, try to check out the newest edition of The Box in the Attic, which should be up at some point this week.

No ROH Roundtable this week because, well, umm, there aren’t any ROH shows to discuss. But I hear Liverpool was awesome.

Have a good week everyone. I’ll see you again next Tuesday.