As I said last night, I'm guessing that Tommy Dreamer passed along the recommendation for the building to Gabe since House of Hardcore regularly runs this building. serenewarfare said that he (?) bailed on the show before the main event because of the heat, and I know of at least two people who fainted during the show. I was starting to nod off during Thatcher vs. Dijak from the heat and dehydration, and I was definitely worn down by the semi-main. When Cooper got hurt, it basically put a capper on an evening that had deteriorated. I had a good time, but it didn't match expectations, and it's the second show PROGRESS has run in the US that's been marred with logistical problems. Not surprisingly, it's also the second show they've run in conjunction with WWNLive.
They oversold the GA section to a dangerous level. There were people standing on each step of each staircase, and you had to go up the bleacher staircase to leave the building. In case of emergency, there were exits for the floor seats, but it could have been bad.
There was AC during the Evolve show, so I'm not sure if the AC broke or was just overwhelmed. The PROGRESS show probably had double the number of fans at the Evolve show.
It's odd that the Evolve show was delayed because they were waiting for EMTs, and then there were no EMTs for the PROGRESS show. However, they definitely had to call EMTs for Cooper and the fainted fans because there were two sets of ambulance lights visible outside the sealed shut windows of the ELMCOR center during the Travis Banks vs. British Strong Style match.
Contrary to the post, there was running water in the building. On the other hand, the floor of the bathroom, the merchandise area, and even the ground floor was damp. It wasn't slick to the point of slipping, but I definitely felt like I had to watch my steps.
Between the disastrous Style Battle show in the courtyard with the palm trees, the lack of improvement on Evolve's production, and the cheap-feeling roster, it doesn't feel like FloSports's money has improved Evolve's product in tangible ways. There was some new merchandise, but the laughable flyer about promoting wrestling from home in conjunction with Evolve and WWNLive seemed desperate in a way that a dying company would put out.
klonere and I discussed how the booking in Evolve's been really shaky this year, and it doesn't seem like Gabe is really paying attention. Maybe he's overstretched because he also has to run FIP and Style Battle for FloSlam. But Evolve is coasting on match quality, and I can get a lot of the matches that Evolve would push with Riddle, Lee, and Sabre elsewhere and better. The live experience, particularly at LaBoom, is still good enough that I'll probably still go, but Evolve's lost a lot of its shine in the past year.