Yes indeed, ladies, gentlemen, and assorted nonbinary folks, it’s time for the World Wrestling Network to come back in to your home with Evolve 108 (live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Evolve 109 (live from Melrose, Massachusetts), and as always, I’m here to give you the low down on what’s going down.
Video Roundup
Evolve 106 Recap: A New WWN Champion!?
Evolve 107 Recap: Exclusive Footage Of Vicious Attack
Evolve 4K Mini-Doc: The Shocking Title Change
Evolve 4K Mini-Doc: The Man Behind The Muscle
Evolve Special Report: Parking Lot Incident
Evolve Special Report: Career vs. Career Match Set
Evolve 4K Mini-Doc: The Riddle vs. Strickland Story
NEW FEATURE: Special Evolve Update
Evolve 4K Mini-Doc: Darby vs. WALTER
Darby Allin: Will The Pain Be Worth It?
Evolve 108 (Saturday, August 4, at 4PM Eastern)
Matt Riddle faces Shane Strickland for the third time in a Hardcore War. Just based on the merits of Swerve’s record (0-1-1) against Riddle, this should in no way be a title match, but the King of Bros is nothing if not a fighting champion and so the Evolve World Championship is on the line.
Their feud in many ways hearkens back to the classic series Drew Galloway and Roderick Strong had in Evolve some years ago; violent, vicious, and unable to be contained inside a pro wrestling ring. So, it’s only fitting that here, in the former ECW Arena, the birthplace of extreme, Riddle and Strickland will meet under hardcore rules.
It’s a ruleset that favors Shane, given the extensive time he’s spent in CZW and the sheer viciousness with which he’s approached Matt, but Deep Waters himself has plenty of extreme experience thanks to, among other things, his bloody feud with Matt Tremont for Beyond Wrestling.
One thing’s for certain— we will have a definitive winner, and the matter will likely be settled for good.
“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams’ war against Stokely Hathaway continues as he challenges Doom Patrol for the Evolve Tag Team Championship with TK Cooper. Hot Sauce’s August schedule is all about seeing his vendetta against Big Stoke to the bitter end with a handicap “I Quit” career vs. career match set for the end of the tour in Detroit next weekend, and it starts here in dream tag action.
Neither man is a stranger to tag team success, with Tracy being one of only four men to hold the Evolve tag titles twice and TK as one half of arguably the best tag team in Progress history, the South Pacific Power Trip, and Evolve has long been a place where so-called superteams find themselves on the winning end of things.
Regardless of outcome this one seems likely to be a scorcher, and if I had to pick one match to set the tone for the entire tour on night one, I think it might be this one.
AR Fox takes on WWN Champion Joey Janela in non-title action. They’re two of the wildest and craziest dudes in pro wrestling today, and make no mistake, they’ll live up to that reputation here. Thanks to his laundry list of accomplishments, Fox is always within a hair’s breadth of another title shot here in Evolve, and even a hard-fought loss could catapult him into a position to take the title from Janela.
Darby Allin and Austin Theory look to settle their score once and for all with a grudge match. As two of the World Wrestling Network’s fastest-rising young stars, they’ve been antagonistic towards each other over a year now, going as far back as the FIP reboot when Allin was one of Uncle John’s Friends, but their feud has kicked into gear after Austin attacked Darby last month. Theory is up 2-1 in singles action, but his last victory at FIP was the direct result of a cheap shot— here in Philadelphia, with the relaxed rules of a grudge match, he’ll have to hit more than just one to put Darby down for the count.
It’s all-out HOSS WAR as JD Drake, Jon Davis, Josh Briggs, and Odinson do battle in a four-way freestyle. There’s no story here, folks, just Evolve management eyeballing the roster and saying “Hey, you know what’d be cool? Let’s put all our best HOSSES into a big ol’ HOSS FIGHT!” There’s gonna be some big boy lucha libre on display here, and that’s for damn sure.
Saieve Al Sabah begins his journey as a full-time member of the Evolve roster with a match against Anthony Henry. This is a classic clash of styles matchup as Sabah’s high-octane high flying style butts up against the Lethal Lover’s shoot-style mixture of grappling and striking. Both men are looking to prove themselves, Saieve as a total newcomer and Anthony as a former tag team champion looking to make his mark as a singles star, and a victory here could mean everything for momentum over the course of Evolve’s four shows this August.
Evolve 109 (Sunday, August 5, at 4PM Eastern)
Joey Janela puts the WWN Championship on the line against Darby Allin. Allin has become defined by his quest to become a champion in Evolve. Janela walked in on his first day and claimed the WWN Championship.
Thus, the contrast between the two men is obvious— both have similar devil-may-care attitudes to putting their bodies on the line, but fortune and circumstance have put the Bad Boy where Darby longs to be, standing tall with title in hand.
It’s a recipe for violence, folks, as Allin looks in the proverbial mirror and sees what he’s always wanted, and lord only knows what lines he’ll be willing to cross to put Joey away.
Matt Riddle and Austin Theory go toe-to-toe in a non-title champion vs. champion matchup. They met in the four-way where Riddle became #1 contender to the Evolve World Championship back in February, but this will be their first singles encounter anywhere in the world.
In some way, this is a mirror match much akin to Janela/Allin— both Riddle and Theory are young in their wrestling careers, neither man with even four years in the business, and both made an immediate impact on Evolve as soon as they came here. But Deep Waters is, as the nickname suggests, centered, perhaps in part by his UFC success, where Austin is still brash and untempered.
My bet for this one is that the King of Bros wins handily, but Theory learns a little something in the process that will end up helping him grow into his full potential.
Hot Sauce gets Chris Dickinson alone with no holds barred. Following up on the Catch Point Rules match that Williams intentionally tanked by punching Chris in the head until he was disqualified and free to mete out a cathartic beatdown, this time there will be no DQs in play and these guys will be free to wail on each other with whatever tactics they so desire.
Jaka is on a mission of revenge against Josh Briggs. Stokely Hathaway wants Briggs to pay for turning down a contract with the Dream Team, and who better than the Smooth Savage to cut the big man down to size?
Out of the frying pan and into the fire for Saieve Al Sabah as he challenges himself against Shane Strickland. Depending on the results of their matches at Evolve 108, this could be a new Evolve World Champion defending his position on top of the heap against a newcomer riding a wave of momentum or two defeated men strugging for a scrap of momentum, but either way, the spots will be most high indeed.
Giant-killer Dominic Garrini finds himself arrayed against one more big man in the form of JD Drake. It’s classic David-and-Goliath action with a strong undercurrent of grappling vs. power, and given half a chance, you know these guys will deliver.
Anthony Henry meets another man cut from the same mold as he challenges Jon Davis. They had a match for PWX in 2016 that was a real hard-hitting, intense contest where both men were driven to their limit. In Evolve, the stakes are even higher and I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of magic they can make.
Plus more yet to be announced featuring, AR Fox, the End, and more.
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