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Jack Evans soars on indy scene
By
JASON CLEVETT -- SLAM! Wrestling
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  Seattle's "Corkscrew" Jack Evans. |
Also big influences on Evans are Japanese stars Hayabusa and the Great
Sasuke, as well as his hero Blitzkreig, who wrestled briefly in WCW.
Growing up as a wrestling fan he had always been attracted to the high
flyers but those three men were who he emulated as he developed his high
flying style. But some criticize that he is too much of a flyer and
risks injury. Others feel that if he had to mat-wrestle he wouldn't be
able to carry his own. Evans is honest about the fact that he does
concentrate on the high spots and is working on altering his style.
"I do tend to get overly spotty and bumping, that is my specialty. I'm
no Chris Benoit, but I do know how to wrestle. I am trying to work on
being less spotty. When training I am working on more basic stuff rather
then always practicing flips," he said.
Evans also works hard to avoid injury. "I do a lot of stretching which
keeps me flexible. That is how I can take the kinds of crazy bumps that
I do. I am trying to take care of myself as much as I can. I really
practice the high flying a lot, so when I hit a moonsault for example, I
land in a way to not injure my knees. I don't want to be like The Great
Muta, whose knees are shot. I try to perfect the landing above all else
because I want to make sure I can always do it. A lot of high flyers get
injured and I want to try and work as safe as possible."
Being an American citizen, Evans is lucky as he has the opportunity to
earn a living in the U.S. through other means while building his
reputation. His situation was the reverse of many Canadian wrestlers as
most of his training and early career was spent in Calgary.
"I did a lot of flying back and forth, but when I was up here for
Matrats they took good care of us, we had a place to stay and such. I
was in Tacoma for the last six months to rehab because I broke my ankle
but now I am back in Calgary working for Stampede, as well as seeing
where else I can get booked."
Truly considered an innovator of flying around the ring, Evans has
floored fans with his dizzying array of moves, many of which can be seen
at www.corkscrew630.com/movies. Jack was hard-pressed to narrow
his choice of favorites to a few moves.
"The rocket stardust is definitely a favorite. I stood on my partners
shoulders and did a Phoenix Splash off of them. The corkscrew 630 is
incredible, and fans really seem to pop for the standing 450," he said.
Evans was the first person to ever do a moonsault with two full
rotations, off of a cage in Ring of Honor. "The 720 moonsault off the
cage at ROH, Ted and I had talked about doing it for awhile, and when I
saw the cage I knew I could do it. I got to be the first to pull it
off."
It was that match, held on November 1st 2003, that made people really
stand up and take notice of the 21 year old. Dubbed the "Scramble Cage
Match" Evans teamed with Ted Hart as "The Hart Foundation 2003." They
faced The Backseat Boyz, The SAT's, The Carnage Crew and Special K.
Reports say that the match stole the show.
"That was honest to God one of the most fun matches I have ever had. It
was like a rollercoaster, I knew it was a good match. Everything worked
out fantastic and the teams were great to work with. I was especially
impressed with the SAT's and the Backseat Boyz. Loc and Devito were
great too but Devito hits hard with his belt. It was a great match."
Unfortunately what happened after the match overshadowed it and left the
wrestling world buzzing as Ted Hart did a series of backflips.
"It got crazy, I don't know what happened. After the 720 moonsault, I
hurt my knee so I had no idea what was going on until the fans started
chanting 'Teddy.' I've wrestled with him for years and he has always
done backflips and such. I feel bad for him because I know he didn't
directly mean to insult anyone that is the sort of stuff he does."
Jack limped to the back, where he and Ted were separated and Evans got
into his own altercation, an argument with ROH Champion Samoa Joe.
According to Evans, Internet reports of what happened were greatly
exaggerated.
"When I walked to the back, I was limping and some girl called me a
'fag' out of the blue. I was trying to be humble, being the new guy and
all but that set me off and I turned around and said 'What did you say
slut?' That was when Samoa Joe came over and it escalated. I don't think
he had heard her comment, he just thought I was being a jerk. Joe and I
got into an argument, Ted was gone by that point and Joe and I were face
to face arguing. I wasn't going to back down because in my mind I was
defending myself. Rob and Gabe were right there, so we didn't come to
blows, and Rob sided with me in terms of the comment. I was glad he did
that. Ted ran over and pushed Joe and I apart and that set Joe off. So
that escalated the heat about everything. I wanted to talk to Joe after
but I never got a chance." He did try to be respectful of the rest of
the locker room, making sure to thank his opponents in the match.
Jack shared his thoughts on the repercussions that have stemmed from the
night. A war of words has escalated among some wrestlers and Hart, who
is still one of the most talked about wrestlers on the Internet.
"I fully enjoyed working for Ring of Honor, I am sad things went the way
they did. They are probably the top promotion in America right now. The
whole thing would have died out quicker if some people hadn't started
making comments, but there is other heat involved in those comments.
Everything got blown out of proportion," he said. Evans did talk to Rob
Feinstein after and ROH has expressed interest in bringing him back and
he would like to wrestle for them again. In the meantime, it was
recently announced that Major League Wrestling was re-launching in
January and moving its base of operations from Florida to New York,
working the exact circuit as ROH. Evans is scheduled to be a big part of
the promotion as a part of "The Hart Foundation 2K3" with Hart and "The
Stampede Bulldogs" TJ Wilson and Harry Smith.
"Court Bauer has been really good to me so I will be happy to work for
MLW. I don't want to see a big feud between ROH and MLW because they two
great promotions," Evans explained.
Presently taking bookings in North America through Dave Penzer's www.inyourfacebookings.com, in the future Jack wants to
travel overseas to Japan, and also considers it a possibility to head
south to Mexico. There are a lot of stars that fly like Jack and he
would relish the opportunity to face some of them.
"The new Toryumon promotions graduates are excellent, and I've heard of
guys like Venum Black in Mexico and Dragon Kid in Japan, they are both
super flyers and I would love to work those guys. America is my home, I
want to stay on that indy scene but for sure I want to head to Japan."
As to whether he would like to pursue a career in the WWE, Evans would
like the opportunity but doesn't feel that he is ready to take the
physical toil of being on the road 315 days a year.
Calgary fans were thrilled on November 14th when Jack rushed to the ring
along with Ted and hit Duke Durrango with a Corkscrew 630, which is a
twisting 450. On November 28th, Jack and Ted faced TJ Wilson and Duke
Durrango in a hard hitting tag match. Duke and TJ got the win, but the
issue was far from settled and the two teams will face off again
December 12th. Evans plans to thrill fans once again in what should be a
fantastic match, despite some tension between two of the participants.
On the 28th, Ted punched Wilson hard enough to knock his front tooth
out.
"The match against TJ and Duke is going to be crazy. Stampede Kid got a
Stampede tooth knocked out last time, straight up. So there is a lot of
tension for that match, anyone in the area should definitely come down
and check it out."
For more information on Stampede Wrestling visit www.stampedewrestling.com Jack Evans is a guest on Ringside
Manner, along with Ted Hart.
Jason Clevett lives in Calgary, but has visited Jack's hometown of
Seattle, Washington and can see why Jack loves both cities. You can
e-mail him at j_clevett@hotmail.com
