The Independent Mid-Card 03.04.08: Evans vs. Dragon
Posted by Samuel Berman on 03.04.2008
Why is it that every time I mention Jack Evans something dangerous is going on?
Hello and welcome back to The Independent Mid-Card. In last week's column, we took a look at the newly crowned Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion, the Human Tornado. This week, we're going to take a look at the man making a bid for that same title this coming weekend at PWG's Scared Straight event. Coincidentally, the challenger in question was also recently injured by Tornado while the two men were on tour for Dragon Gate in Japan. Intrigue abounds this week in the IMC.
Jack Evans vs. Super Dragon
Tournament – Semifinal Match
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla – Battle of Los Angeles 2006: Night Three – Reseda, CA – September 3, 2006
The Wrestlers:
Jack Evans – Respected as one of the top high-flyers in all of professional wrestling, Jack Evans is best known for his work in Ring of Honor. There, as a part of the Generation Next stable, Evans found much success, especially in tag team action alongside Roderick Strong. Evans had previously appeared for PWG periodically in 2005, but had yet to truly make an impact in the company. Evans was eliminated in the first round of the 2005 Battle of Los Angeles Tournament by "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles, but was able to defeat Claudio Castagnoli and Dragon Gate's Genki Horiguchi to advance to the 2006 BOLA Semifinals.
Super Dragon – A longtime veteran of the Southern California Independent scene, the masked Super Dragon is regarded by many as the top talent in SoCal wrestling history. A early star for the Revolution Pro promotion, Dragon, who is noted for his strike-heavy offense, is currently one of the six primary owners of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and has over the years held both the company's World Title as well as its World Tag Team Titles. Super Dragon had also been eliminated in the first round of the 2005 BOLA Tournament, in his case by longtime rival "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen, but had advanced to the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles Semifinals by besting the Necro Butcher in a No DQ, No Countout contest and then by having his opponent "The Future" Frankie Kazarian forfeit his second round match after being attacked by Joey Ryan & Scott Lost, members of the devious Dynasty faction.
The Match:
As is normal for PWG shows, we cut right to the in-ring introductions. As we open, Jack Evans is being restrained by the referee. The match is announced as a semifinal match, scheduled for one fall with a sixty minute time limit and Rick Knox serving as the referee. Evans is introduced first, weighing 165 pounds and fighting out of Parkland, Washington. He does a standing backflip to demonstrate his gymnastic prowess, but Super Dragon walks over and gets in his face once he lands. Dragon is announced second, weighing an even 200 pounds and hailing from Orange County, California. For the record, I'll put myself out there in saying that there is absolutely NO WAY that Super Dragon only weighed 200 pounds here. Dragon removes his coat as the crowd begins to chant for him. Knox calls for the bell and the match begins.
The two men circle to start. Jack prompts the crowd to chant for him and Dragon responds by doing the same. After a long circling sequence, the two men grab a double knucklelock. Dragon forces Evans back into the corner and pie-faces him on the break. The circle again and Evans talks some trash with the crowd. A lockup leads to Dragon grabbing a waistlock and then Evans getting a standing switch. Dragon takes Evans down to the mat with a drop toehold and then segues right into an armlock. Evans counters into a wristlock, but Dragon reverses to a front facelock and takes Evans over with a butterfly lock that Evans is forced to flip out of to reapply the wristlock. Evans switches to a front facelock as Dragon works his way to his feet, but a double-leg takedown puts the Parkland Warrior on the mat where Dragon drops an elbow to his knee. Dragon holds on with a leglock, all the while punching Evans in the knee, so Evans works his way over to the ropes to force a break.
The two men circle again and tentatively reach for a knucklelock. Dragon kicks Evans in the midsection and turns it into a wristlock. Evans handstands out of it and reverses to one of his own, so Dragon casually walks over and grabs the ropes to break. Then, when Evans is about to release the hold, Dragon turns and just levels him with a forearm to the face. Dragon whips Evans cross-corner, but Evans hops up to the second rope and then jumps from there to the top, sending Dragon rolling to the outside with a subsequent flying hurricanrana. Evans then follows out with a Space Flying Tiger Rana (handspring into a flip over the top rope catching the opponent with a hurricanrana takedown on the outside) that pops the crowd big time. Evans rolls Dragon back in, but his pinfall attempt only gets two.
Evans whips Dragon off the ropes and catches him on the rebound with a spinning heel kick. He follows up with a standing corkscrew moonsault for two. A chant for Jack starts up as he hits Dragon with a forearm in the corner. Evans gets in a cross-corner whip, but Dragon catches him on a handspring elbow attempt. Dragon goes for a backdrop suplex, but Evans flips out and lands on his feet. Evans then gets a kick to the gut and another cross-corner whip, but another handspring attempt (this time into a moonsault press) is caught by Dragon, who absolutely murders Evans with a tombstone piledriver.
Dragon just kneels next to Evans for a bit, refusing to make the cover, prompting the crowd to start a "you killed Jack!" chant. Dragon does a couple of condescending slaps and kicks to Evans' head to check for a pulse before prompt the crowd to clap. Evans works back to his feet and hits a couple of weak punches, but Dragon quickly takes him over with a cravate into a snapmare before locking in a chinlock. Dragon then switches things up and uses his legs to apply a full nelson, but Evans is able to squirm his way over to the ropes.
Dragon drags Evans over to the corner and slams his face on the top turnbuckle. He follows up with a couple of hard chops to the chest and then an open hand slap. Dragon snapmares Jack down to the mat and kicks him square in the back before applying a figure-four headscissors. The crowd begins to clap for Jack again, who responds by impressively backflipping his way out of the move and into the ropes to force a break.
Jack reverses an Irish whip and catches Dragon with a glancing blow on a flipping kick to the head. Evans then trips Dragon up on the follow through, sending the masked man crashing to the mat. Evans then follows up with a running double knee drop for a two count. Evans then pulls Dragon towards the corner and hits him with a standing Phoenix Splash (moonsault into a 450 splash), also for two. Evans climbs to the top and goes for a flying corkscrew hurricanrana, but Dragon catches him and goes to reverse it into a powerbomb. However, Evans is able to reverse the momentum yet again and takes Dragon over with the hurricanrana for two.
Evans tries to hit a charging Dragon with a clothesline, but Dragon ducks to avoid it and dumps Jack on his head with a German suplex. Knox begins to count as both men are down and gets all the way to five before both men get to their feet. Dragon tries to set up for the Psycho Driver (torture rack dropped into a piledriver), but Evans avoids it by going deadweight. Jack counters into a wristlock and then dropkicks Dragon's knee. He then hops up onto the masked man's shoulders and hits him with a reverse hurricanrana from a kneeling position. There's no way that was safe. Jack makes the cover, but Dragon lifts his shoulder before the count can reach three.
Jack pulls Dragon to the middle of the ring, but takes too much time climbing to the top and his corkscrew 630 attempt lands him back-first on the canvas. Dragon goes for the Psycho Driver again, but Evans elbows out of it. Evans hits a combination of kicks before coming of the ropes with a running knee strike. Evans climbs to the top once again, but Dragon cuts him off and follows him up. Dragon sets up for what looks to be a top rope Psycho Driver, but Evans strikes away to avoid it. Evans wriggles his way down to the apron and then tries to follow Dragon back up. Dragon, however, has had enough and hits Evans with a hard slap before dropping him down to the mat with a disgusting second-rope piledriver that gets the academic pinfall at 9:17. Dragon is announced as the winner as we cut out.
The Analysis:
Ok, first things first. Immediately after finishing play-by-play for this match I watched the finish again three different times in various degrees of slow-motion. To make things clear, the finish was probably intended to be a powerbomb from the second rope rather than a pseudo-piledriver. In real time, it appears as if Evans lands right on his head and should have been toe-tagged on the spot. When the move is slowed down, it actually becomes clear that the botch was as much Evans' doing as Dragon's. Rather than allow Dragon to hoist him up for the powerbomb, Evans kept ahold of the top rope and ended up stalling the moves momentum. Fortunately, Evans actually seemed to land on his shoulder and side, rather than directly on his head, a stroke of luck that probably saved him from serious injury.
As for the rest of the match, it was fine for a mid-tournament contest, especially one where one of the participants had already wrestled earlier in the evening. Until the finish, most of the moves were hit pretty cleanly, especially for Evans, who at this point was still struggling to find a consistent offense outside of his various twisting splashes. It's always interesting for me to watch Evans' outings from 2006 and earlier and then compare them to his matches from 2007 and beyond, when his multiple tours of Dragon Gate had helped to hone his offensive skills.
Super Dragon was able to hit a curiously small number of his signature spots in this match, choosing instead to react to Jack's offensive flurries. That said, though Evans got a number of two counts along the way, Dragon made his opportunities count, especially when catching Evans on the handspring moonsault press was turned into the tombstone piledriver.
All-in-all, this was a solid back-and-forth contest, but the finish unfortunately mars that effort by leaving a bad taste in the viewers' mouth. At the very least, thank god that Jack wasn't seriously hurt.
The Aftermath:
Super Dragon has struggled through a myriad of injuries in the year-and-a-half since the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles. Though he has found time in the interim to hold the PWG World Tag Team Titles on three separate occasions (twice with B-Boy and once with Davey Richards), it is beginning to look as if years of abuse and damage may be catching up with the SoCal legend. In fact, his most recent title reign (his second with Richards) was cut short due to the belts being vacated when both men no-showed a string of PWG shows, which on Dragon's part was reportedly due to injury. It is truly unfortunate to see such a talented performer reduced to such levels in recent months, as Super Dragon truly has been the standard bearer for the Southern California Independents for the better part of a decade.
Jack Evans has seen his profile increase across the Independent scene since the end of 2006. Though he has yet to hold gold in either Ring of Honor or Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, he has become a regular performer for Dragon Gate, even becoming an adjunct member of Shingo's New Hazard faction since the group's inception in mid-2007. Evans has also become a leader of his own group, forming the Vulture Squad in Ring of Honor to compete in the company's ongoing Faction Warfare angle. As the point man for Ruckus, Jigsaw and manager Julius Smokes, Evans has scored a number of big wins for his stable in previous months. Recently, however, disaster struck as Evans was severely injured by a superkick from PWG World Champion Human Tornado while the two were in Japan competing for Dragon Gate. Though it was originally reported that Evans would be out of action until at least April to let his facial wounds heal, PWG is advertising Evans as the challenger for Tornado's belt at this weekend's Scared Straight show. Time will tell whether Evans is able to make his scheduled bid for the strap, but whether it is this weekend or off in the future, it seems certain that Evans will eventually be back in the ring with the man who injured him.
The Final Word:
If you're in the Los Angeles area, you should make an effort to get to PWG's show this weekend. Aside from Tornado's title defense against Evans, Jay & Mark Briscoe will get a shot at Joey Ryan & Scott Lost's PWG World Tag Team Titles. There will also be a pair of big singles matches, one pitting Claudio Castagnoli against Roderick Strong, and the other seeing a presumptive brawl between the Necro Butcher and "The Last of a Dying Breed" Eddie Kingston. The show is certain to be a solid effort, as are all PWG events, so take the time to go out and support Independent wrestling. More information on the show, which will be Friday night March 7th at 8pm, can be found at PWG's website.
To see this week's match, the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles is available at prowrestlingguerrilla.com. There are a number of solid matches throughout the tournament, including Super Dragon's first round brawl with the Necro Butcher, El Generico taking on Dragon Gate ace CIMA, and a solid three-way PWG World Tag Team Title match that sees Arrogance of Scott Lost & Chris Bosh defend their belts against Jay & Mark Briscoe as well as Homicide & B-Boy. Though not the blowaway affair that the 2007 tournament would be, this is certainly a solid trio of shows, and a nice starting point for those interested in getting into PWG.
Buy or Sell this week will feature Larry & Bauer covering a bunch of Independent news and notes, while no ROH shows means no ROH Roundtable.
iTunes fly-by goes like this:
1. "Sullivan Street" by Counting Crows – from Across A Wire: Live in New York [Disc 2]
2. "Either Way It Goes" by Blue Merle – from Live at The Workplay Theater, 3.25.05
3. "Break Away" by John Mayer – currently unreleased
4. "Amsterdam" by Coldplay – from A Rush Of Blood To The Head
5. "Only Traffic" by Dave Tamkin – from "Only Traffic"
The most recent podcast at The Cool Kids' Table is something new that we're trying called "The Lunch Break". It's basically an abbreviated form of our longer editions, where we focus on one or two topics rather than all the big news of the week. Check it out for my (halfway decent) King of Trios picks as well as Brad & my thoughts on IWA Mid-South's 500th Show. Again, that's The Cool Kids' Table. And keep your eyes out for our upcoming move to The Cool Kids' Table Dot Net! Viva la rebel website!
In fun real life news, I got to see an old friend (like, ‘we met in kindergarten' old) the other day for the first time in like four years, and it was definitely fun to get to catch up. Other than that, it's all about the countdown to baseball season for me. And working. I do a lot of that, too.
Oh, I do want to say that on a personal wrestling viewership note that I have been watching a lot of 2004-05 IWA Mid-South lately and have really enjoyed it. If you haven't watched the feud between Chris Hero and Arik Cannon from that period, as well as CM Punk's last match for IWA and Hero's matches with Samoa Joe, you really should make an effort to check them out.
