7 Ups And 4 Downs From Evolve 10th Anniversary

3. A Different Kind Of Brawl

Arturo Ruas Anthony Henry
WWE.com

Watching WWE regularly gets you conditioned to a certain way matches are supposed to flow. So when something deviates from that norm, you sit up and take notice.

Case in point, Arturo Ruas versus Anthony Henry was a straight-out battle that was unorthodox in a really good way. Ruas, currently in NXT, fought Henry in a fast-paced match the focused on submission attempts, as both men kept going for armbars as they slugged it out with various kicks, strikes and open-handed slaps.

Ruas at one point reversed an ankle lock into a kneebar, which led to both men slugging it out on the mat. In the end, Arturo nailed a roundhouse kick for the win, but this was an enjoyable fight to watch.

Here’s hoping NXT lets Ruas wrestle this style, because if he’s allowed to brawl like this, he’d look a lot different than his counterparts and could stand out. If they make him succumb completely to “WWE style,” it would be a complete waste.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.