This review was commissioned by Pro Wrestling Only over on my Ko-fi account.
While very good, I can’t help but get the impression that this match is hampered by some unfortunate political positioning. This match happens at the tail end of EVOLVE’s run on the independents, and they’re not really their own thing. EVOLVE is acting as a feeder league for the WWE at this point, and a place where signed talents can get some reps in when necessary. That’s what allows for something like this, as fresh WWE signee KUSHIDA gets to take on American indie stalwart JD Drake.
What the means is that no matter what, the match is about KUSHIDA entirely. That totally reshapes how the match gets structured and presented to us. In this bout, despite the obvious size difference between the two (KUSHIDA famously worked as a junior heavyweight in New Japan, and even here at this time is part of WWE’s cruiserweight division), it’s KUSHIDA presented as the overwhelming favorite. In fact, much of the match centers around JD’s struggle to get any kind of offense in on KUSHIDA while the smaller worker plies his craft.
To that end, they do a great job with the assignment provided.
KUSHIDA makes it easy to buy into him as a favorite in spite of the size difference. He’s so slippery on the mat, constantly ducking and weaving JD’s lumbering attempts to knock him down. And when the match finally gets taken to the mat, where KUSHIDA wants it, he has an easy time controlling the hulking mass of JD and maneuvering him as he sees fit on the mat. To Drake’s credit as well, he never tries to play KUSHIDA’s game in this, basically allowing himself to get tied up down on the mat and only using the rope breaks to get free.
The early moments of the match are all KUSHIDA to the point that it becomes a lot more interesting to see how Drake even responds to this problem than it is to root for KUSHIDA to win. If anything, a KUSHIDA victory feels like a foregone conclusion. Even when Drake’s in control, it sort of feels like a little something is held back. Drake’s chops aren’t nearly as wild and stiff as they feel in other similar situations (the Daniel Garcia matches, for example), and it can’t help but feel like he’s being ginger so as not to break Triple H’s new favorite toy.
Drake’s smart enough to make his transitions count though. It’s only when the match comes down to the floor that he’s able to get his rebound clubbing forearm in to seize control. And for as dominant as KUSHIDA is, there’s a built in struggle for him to overcome as well. It’s a classic choice here but KUSHIDA makes an early mistake of trying to body slam Drake, and that fails twice before finally being able to pull it off in the last third to make us feel like he really did earn something out of this instead of having it handed to him. The back half comes off a little too much as a back and forth bombfest, but all the work before that is real solid and clever in execution for the most part.
A little flawed and working against a WWE-imposed glass ceiling, but just great enough to enjoy.
Rating: ***3/4
