Evolving EVOLVE Wrestling

For a long time I’ve tried to pinpoint exactly what it was I disliked about EVOLVE Wrestling. I think that it’s a plenty quality promotion but something’s never sat right with me. The slightly less-than-high-gloss production values do factor in but I can get over that. I’m not familiar with a lot of their roster now but at one point I knew their top stars better, wasn’t more of a fan back then. Is it the size of the game they talk versus what I feel like they’ve accomplished? That’s closer but not really it. So is it just that I don’t like Caleb Konley that much?

No. I figured it out.

The issue is with me, and more specifically, what I want(ed) out of EVOLVE. I was paying attention to indy wrestling when EVOLVE was still just a concept and I remember what was touted about it: it’d be hard-hitting, ultra-realistic stuff that would be sold ‘like MMA’ with a huge amount of focus on wins and losses, etc. That’s not exact copy but that’s the gist of it. The rumor is that originally they were building around Daniel Bryan, but then when he went to WWE they tried to build around Davey Richards. What I was hoping to see was an intense and realistic product that had as its edge a real tenacious approach to grappling. What has developed is… a plenty quality indy promotion and that’s just about it. They still use the MMA-ish thing as a theme but if you watch one of their shows, you’re not going to get something that’s all that different from any other aspiring indy group: flashy moves, high flyers, heavy suplexes, and STIFF~!.

That’s not necessarily bad. I was just hoping for something different.

That got me thinking of exactly what kind of pro wrestling I’d like to see ideally. That is to say, if I could sort of map out my total dream promotion, what would it look like? I’ve never been a huge fan of fantasy booking but I’m going to do a little bit of that here, though I’m not gonna get into any specific cards. I’ll just spitball a while about what EVOLVE could have been and we’ll leave out any speculation about if it was ever gonna be this.

So you know, my favorite promotions of all time are UWFi and AJPW late 80s/early 90s; I grew up on hour 1 of WCW Nitro, the cruiserweights and US title. My favorite wrestlers are Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Daniel Bryan, and Billy Robinson. The booker/matchmaker I respect most is Jim Cornette.

Also, the scope of this fantasy promotion will be just about EVOLVE level: top indy, about 12–15 shows a year, DVD & iPPV distribution. Keeping things fairly realistic, also not having to deal with WWE-affected stuff too much.

The Style: Strong Catch Wrestling

What I would really love to see is intense, skillful grappling in a pro wrestling ring. A lot of times we hear the phrase ‘wrestling is mental chess’ but you don’t often see it in pro wrestling rings, at least not in terms of the actual wrestling itself. I’d like to see the focus in matches go back to grappling and throwing. At the same time I like the fact that pro wrestlers can get rougher and have more tools at their disposal than the amateurs. The style would certainly be inspired by mixed martial arts but it would scale back on the striking in order to emphasize the wrestling aspect of it. Succeeding in this sort of setting would require a lot more grit than in most contemporary promotions because if you hope to win you can’t count on clobbering the other person with a big move and laying on top of them to get the victory. Every single bit is a struggle and if you want to get a pin you’ve got to force their shoulder’s to the mat with all your strength.

One of the important ways of framing a preferred fight style are the promotion’s rules. In pro wrestling we usually ignore the specific rules because the ‘playstyle’ as it were is determined by the show-runner’s direct instructions. Competitive sport fans can talk in detail about arguments over rules like the designated hitter and how they can totally change how you become successful in a sport. To help me visualize this style I wanted I drew up a set of rules which you can check out for yourself. I’ll summarize the major changes to the usual stuff:

Fast count: Still a three count but it should be a total of about 1 second, rather than the usual three-second count; puts it closer to amateur style, more believable that the pin could be real.
Point system: Inspired by the UWFi points, each wrestler would start with 21 points, losing them when the opponent makes a scoring move like a grand amplitude throw (e.g, most suplexes), threatening a pinfall, or securing a submission hold. Points would only really come into play if the time ran out.
Rope break: Still here but it scores 1 point for the aggressor, inspired by UWFi.
New fouls: No punches (closed fist or open), no kicks/elbows/knees/headbutts to the head & neck, no head-drops. Extreme, right? This is all to decrease instant knockout shots while still allowing a variety of strikes like palm thrusts, chops, and body blows.
The Bill Watts rule: That’s right, no jumping up off the ropes. Or more specifically, it would draw a foul. Ever since I heard this idea I’ve been fascinated by it and convinced that if there was more trust between Watts and the roster (though I’m sure Watts did plenty to alienate them) it could have been very interesting. Basically, the idea is to discourage flying as a total strategy to win a match while still allowing it to go on. You can take the point risk and jump but you’ve gotta finish things on the mat.

The point of all this is to promote a wrestling style based on trying to gain a wrestling advantage and a style that would build up to big throws without overusing them. A German suplex could score five points, a quarter of the way to winning. Not only does one side want to hit it, the other side wants to do everything they can to avoid it. Extra tension is already built around a slew of moves that are lesser regarded these days. There’s plenty of room for rough tactics like eye gouging and back raking as long as the ref can be distracted or a wrestler doesn’t care about the foul. Keep the action between the ropes where both guys can’t get away (the original reason for the ropes, after all) and force them to press the fight forward. Rules like these could pave the way for an intensely aggressive style of wrestling that has been a bit rare all over the world lately.

There’s another ‘secret’ banned move that needs mentioning: no more Irish whip! That is to say, no more extending the arm and dragging the other person like a they’re a reluctant grandmother, then giving them a light shove that somehow makes them run at nearly full speed. Running the ropes, perfectly fine. Shooting your opponent off the ropes, go for it. But if you’re gonna do it you have to get your weight behind them and really push to get them going. Most likely they’ll have to be a bit loopy before you can get it to work cause they’ll probably either stop themselves or grab the ropes. This one is all about realism. Moves like the Irish whip and the vertical suplex so clearly require collaboration that I’d just try to nix them. I’m not saying that we should get rid of working matches — I think the safety of performers is paramount and the artistry involved is better served by working — but I think there should be an emphasis on things that look more-or-less possible in a competitive match.

So where does this leave high-flying speedsters? In something of a bind to be sure, but not a total one. I would actually love to see a few flyers working their way through a promotion like this, either adapting their style to some TJ Perkins-esque acrobatics or taking the risk of fouls by leaping off the top anyway. Yeah, it’s ‘against the rules’, but flying is undoubtedly going to be the most popular foul that any wrestler can draw. It would reduce people putting together a totally flight-based offense and that’s more of the point. Use the flying prowess as the cherry on top, not the sundae (sundae sundae). Wrestlers who have flinging themselves around the ring as their entire act might not find this promotion the best fit but not everything is for everybody.

One other thing is that every single move should be defended tooth and nail. A hammerlock that’s not totally in is still doing a lot of damage, but once you fully cinch it in there’s really no going back. If the move is totally cinched in the match should be over in a few seconds if it’s not broken. A hit that lands flush is probably devastating, a throw without any defense could lead to a knockout. The fast count is to help believability that someone could be forced down for the whole count, thus allowing the defender to be more active in struggling while being pinned. All the struggle helps the appearance of realism because it’s harder to say that one person definitively laid down for the other.

Presentation: Hard-Edged Sports

Getting this sort of product over would definitely require some adept handling. It’s relatively easy to thrill audiences with death-defying or gory stunts: all you’ve gotta do is put them on. As countless MMA promotions and Real Pro Wrestling will tell you, just having mat competition isn’t enough. It’s key to present your competition in a package that catches people’s attention. Pro wrestling has a leg up on MMA and competitive wrestling because it’s acknowledged as worked so there’s more leeway as far as directly developing certain storylines and ensuring they pay off as planned. This is taken for granted as well. You’ve gotta remember that since the fans know the product is staged they’ll expect something worth their time every single time they go to a show. One bad outing can really drive business away from even a strong town. Real thought is needed to create something special.

I’m not an accountant and I don’t run a wrestling promotion so I can’t speculate on details like lighting, video screens, ring size, and the like. I also can’t tell you anything about booking venues. I’ll limit myself to talking about general matchmaking and promotional ideas.

So, with that all said, let’s go ahead.

A promotion like this would be best served starting off with a somewhat workmanlike technical champion, think Dean Malenko. Someone intense who can really thrive in this environment and show off everything it’s supposed to be about. Everybody who steps into the league at the outset should hold some (probably totally puffed-up) claim to greatness and this Technical Ace beats them all. At first they should be unchallenged as far as real superiority, though probably a couple people will give them a strong run for their money. Their first major challenger wouldn’t debut for the first several shows, probably missing the first landmark show. This Challenger would come in highly touted, regarded as dangerous, rough and merciless. Like the Technical Ace, the Challenger would run roughshod over all competition, eventually earning the right to face the Ace. In the match they’d take each other to the limit but ultimately the Challenger would win.

The idea here is to get the Technical Ace over as a special talent, not totally without peer but instinctively getting what the promotion is about and fitting right into it. They’re exactly what the promotion is about. Their initial run over everybody is not just to get them over, it’s to give the whole promotion time to establish its character. On the undercard you’d have a variety of acts sort of bumping against the rules: a noted flyer who’s struggling cause they can’t use their usual arsenal, a striker who keeps drawing fouls, rulebreaker who finds themself too boxed in. These characters would all eventually establish who they are within the promotion as well and help to flesh out the whole setting. By the time the Challenger came in, there would be a clear pecking order as far as a top wrestler and top contenders, the wrestlers (and fans) would understand the rules, in sum there would be a totally ordered world just waiting for the Challenger to come in and wreck it.

The Challenger winning that first meeting is key because the point is that one style or one form is not superior. The Technical Ace had things figured out to begin with but everybody’s got to change with the times. There are plenty of ways to take this particular angle that would be satisfying, but keeping the Technical Ace and the Challenger as the top two wrestlers for the first ‘season’ makes for a solid focus. Of course, undercard stories can’t be forgotten and they should be developed with an idea to making a set of strong new contenders and future champions. For the moment, though, all other wrestlers should take falls from the top two. Establishing them will allow them to establish others (at least as long as they stick around; it might be worth making a few of their wins over your second-level talent a bit dodgy just in case injury or departure hits).

On the subject of ‘squash matches’, I think they should be mostly phased out in favor of the euphemistic ‘enhancement matches’. The match function is the same — getting one wrestler over by showing their clear superiority over another — but the way I understand squash has always been that the losing guy gets basically no chance, the winner succeeding with the most minor effort. This sort of thing is still common on TV. What’s better are matches that are generally competitive but the loser is completely outclassed, when the winner still needs to work and demonstrate skill & strategy. With this sort of match it’s not as difficult to bring someone who was losing a few weeks ago up to a point where they are a consistent contender. No one has a reputation as being totally without ability and, with the right guidance, perhaps even the least regarded wrestler could get to the top.

Managers and entourages would be kept to a minimum; the ‘manager’s license’ would definitely be very present in determining who gets to stay at ringside. Entrances should be timed somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes just to keep things moving but within that they could be as wild or as tame as the wrestler wanted. A visible scoreboard would be necessary, something that didn’t look like a high school basketball scoreboard being preferred. The seats in the arenas should be pretty close to the ring because flying out isn’t really expected. The whole idea is to keep things looking credible and competitive.

You may notice that I’ve made very little mention of titles so far. One flaw I see in a lot of new promotions is that they rush to crown a definitive champion within the first few shows. Though EVOLVE never did too much with the concept of ‘wins leaders’ I think they had a solid approach in refusing to name a champion for a long while. Instead of the heavy focus on win-loss records, I would likely run short tournaments every several shows. The early ones are obviously won by the Technical Ace, then one would be won by the Challenger to earn the big Ace/Challenger match. Winning a tournament would definitely give one a claim to being the best in the promotion but no one would be able to claim that definitively. You might even allow a third wrestler to win a tournament. After the controversy had brewed a bit, a definitive championship match or tournament would be organized and a champion would be crowned, complete with belt.

Are titles important? Yeah. But titles like ‘winner of _____ tournament’ or ‘best in the league’ can be as important as carrying a belt that says ‘champion’ on it. My idea is to build up the wrestlers themselves and allow people to choose their own idea of an eventual champion before deciding who that should be. It’s much easier to believe that anything can happen when one person doesn’t have a belt to carry around all the time. Unpredictability is a key tool in wrestling and that’s one thing I would try to ride out as long as possible. As for lesser titles, those aren’t too vital to the direction of a promotion. Any group just starting out has got more to worry about than television champions. One thing I would definitely have are exhibition matches without the use of fouls as a way to show off a variety of new talents, wild prelims for the serious major matches. It would be nice to have a television or other mid-level title which operated on the exhibition rules, giving a clear importance tiering between that and the major title.

Wrestlers and the promotion should be pushed as fully committed to fighting and competition. It might be a show but the show I want to put on features top level wrestling. Soap operatics would have little place. Stories would develop out of matches, rarely being hamfisted run-ins; rather anger stemming from ‘cheap’ victories or fouls would develop while they continued to compete against others. Promos and video packages tell the background well enough. Long ring speeches are a bit overdone in my opinion. Fans overwhelmingly go to pro wrestling shows in order to see pro wrestling. This is a very particular concept, sure, but ultimately it’s all about delivering the best pure pro wrestling to the public.

The Talent: New Age Shooters

Obviously it’s easy to stock an organization when you have a bottomless fantasy wallet to work with. My purpose with this last part isn’t to point out who I would definitely ‘have to get’ in order for this promotion to work. Really, I want to show that there are people out there who could thrive in this sort of style if it actually came to pass.

Daniel Bryan or Brock Lesnar: Instant success. Not worth talking about, either is basically cheating.

Timothy Thatcher: Out on the sidelines right now but this is probably the one guy working that I’d try to build as the Technical Ace, a job he’s currently serving in EVOLVE. Very strong submission game and I’m sure he’d adapt great to a primarily throws-based ruleset. Engaging in the ring though not necessarily the smoothest talker, which I honestly believe is an asset for anyone who wants to seem like a ‘serious athlete’.

Matt Sydal: It seems like he’d be a lock for the role of the struggling flyer, but honestly in what I’ve seen of him he’s much more of a ground-based striker than a pilot. In all he’s got a wonderful varied style and he’s got a great subtle gimmick/persona that could play really well in a hard-nosed promotion like this.

Dalton Castle: It probably wouldn’t be the whole gimmick as it appears in Ring of Honor but Dalton Castle is exactly the kind of electric character who would be perfect for this idea. What makes him work excellently is that his ring style is both capable of real intensity but it’s as eccentric as the out-of-ring character. With his amateur wrestling background he might be one of the best in the country for this sort of promotion.

Jack Swagger: Of course being an All-American American recommends him pretty highly already but I’ve always been a fan of Swagger and think that the potential in him always shines the brightest when he’s both allowed to be aggressive and free to be goofy. It’s not that he’s a comedy character but his ‘hyperactive gorilla’ phase was the last period I found him really engaging, it was a different kind of exuberance that I really dug.

Sara Del Rey: I’ll admit that this pick is as much about how good Del Rey was/is as it is about how little I know of current women’s wrestling; I know some names but no one who’d fit the concept. Lucha Underground has raised the subject of intergender wrestling and while I have issues with their presentation (risks or lack thereof) I’d be fully behind any woman stepping into this environment. SDR was known for her powerful kicks but she was skilled at grappling and certainly could hold her own against anyone.

Zack Sabre Jr: I’ve been cold on ZSJ for the longest time but I could never deny that he was skilled at what he did. Last time I saw tape of him I thought he was better, so maybe he’s matured or maybe I have. Regardless, he’s a guy who I think could really shine in this grappling-based promotion. In a place like EVOLVE or NOAH he has to contend with strikers and while his strikes aren’t bad it feels to me like his art is more in the holds, transitions, and surprises. Without knockouts or lots of flying to worry about ZSJ would be an insane threat from every angle using his bevy of tight cradles.

The Final Say

What I wanted to do with this idea was to present something very different from what we see in other places. EVOLVE is, in my mind, a victim of the pro wrestling mindset that sort of ignores what goes on in the ring. They like a lot of action, yeah, but it seems that very little thought has gone into presentation details like what rules are being used. Their win-loss system was an intriguing idea but, ultimately, there were always going to be problems with new arrivals and people who were deserving of a push after spending a while eating losses. Whatever character EVOLVE has comes from its talent far more than the promotion and while I don’t think that character is bad, I do think there’s a lack of vision behind it. Keep in mind that it’s possible to push an actual promotional concept to the fore: UWFi did it, CHIKARA does it, Lucha Underground is doing it. A lot of care was taken in all of these situations to make something more than a ‘typical pro wrestling company’. If a typical company is all EVOLVE is looking to be then that’s plenty okay and they’re doing well at it. Ring of Honor, after all, is just a typical pro wrestling company and they might be my favorite operation going today. All I’m saying is that I was hoping for something a bit more evolved.

(I’m sorry.)