Featured image from Burch Photography
Came across this match while going through the MOTD database of Simon of Handwerk Reviews. On paper, it shows a lot of promise. I’m a big fan of Chris Hero, I’m a big fan of Zack Sabre Jr., and I find Sami Callihan and Tommy End inoffensive in the ring and at times even actively good.
Unfortunately, this match does not quite live up to the promise of the talent involved. It already has a few things going against it. First of all, these two pairs aren’t seasoned tag teams. While Hero & End did enjoy some time teaming on the indies, they never had the time or chemistry to gel in the way that Hero did with Claudio Castagnoli, for example. As for Callihan and Sabre? Perhaps longtime EVOLVE fans can illuminate me but that’s just a pairing that has no cohesion or sense to it whatsoever. Very much the epitome of “Let’s see what they can do, I guess.”
This match’s main sin is going far too long. Just shy of a 30 minute run time, there’s very little in the opening half of the match to justify the length these guys went. I can only assume that the length of the match was a matter of necessity as well as artistic choice as this match was stalling for time to allow Johnny Gargano (who worked an NXT event earlier that night) the time to arrive at the venue.
Luckily, the back half of the match does a lot to win back some good will. Zack Sabre Jr., who did the brunt of the selling in this match, played a great fiery babyface defiantly stepping up to his much larger nemesis in Chris Hero. Hero, for his part, does a great job of battering Sabre to draw the determined passion out of him. Few can bully as well as Hero.
I particularly enjoyed the sequences leading into the finish. There was a real sense of inevitability that surrounded it. Zack Sabre Jr. endured Chris Hero’s brutal bombs–ranging from knockout strikes to stump piledrivers–just long enough to build an incredibly thrilling extended finishing stretch. Despite a brief glimmer of hope in the form of a Sami Callihan save, the combined forces of End & Hero was too much for Zack Sabre Jr. At its best, felt very much like an All Japan tag finishing stretch down the line and it’s quite an accomplishment to evoke even the faintest shadows of that style. Not an all time classic here but it sneaks in on the low end of great.
