#AllEliteWeek: Angélico & Jack Evans – Flying in Style

This weekend will mark the start of a new generation for professional wrestling, as the highly-anticipated All Elite Wrestling (AEW) kicks off with their debut show Double or Nothing. The wrestling world is buzzing about it, and rightfully so. It provides the first real competition for WWE since the days of WCW and with the diverse roster that they have, all signs point towards nothing but success for the promotion. Two of those roster members are without a doubt two of the greatest high-flying stars in today’s wrestling scene – Angélico and Jack Evans, known together as Los Güeros del Cielo (Spanish for “The Sky Blondes”). One of the more recent signings, Angélico and Evans will be facing off against the Best Friends duo of Trent Baretta and Chuck Taylor.

Flying In Style: Angélico

Angélico made his wrestling debut in 2007 under the alias of Adam Crow where he first performed for the short-lived Pro Wrestling Alliance: Africa (PWA: Africa) promotion, a company that was co-owned by two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee Booker T. Following the closure of the company, The Blonde Superman joined the roster of World Wrestling Professionals (WWP). While there, he captured the World Cruiserweight Championship, and also had one of the company’s most notable rivalries against Ananzi. A ladder match between the two on November 22nd, 2009 was heavily edited by the promotion’s television network Colours TV as they considered the bout to be far too violent for primetime television.

Angélico’s first link to the lucha libre style came when he spent six months in Spain working for numerous independent promotions, most notably Nu Wrestling Evolution (NWE). During this time, he mastered the high-flying acrobatic style that’s made him the huge star that he is today, utilizing it to his fullest potential against opponents such as Orlando Jordan, Juventud Guerrera, and Último Dragón. Following this, the South African sensation spent three years training with Dragón in the Toryumon promotion in Mexico. While there, he competed in the 2010 Young Dragons Cup, lastly eliminating Trauma I to win the entire tournament, later adding the 2010 and 2012 Yamaha Cup (alongside El Hijo del Fantasma and Último Dragón respectively) to his list of tournament victories. While in Mexico, Angélico also spent a small chunk of his career wrestling for the International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG), where he would win the South American Light Heavyweight Championship from Negro Navarro.

March 21st, 2011 would mark a turning point in Angélico’s career as he made his first appearance for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, a promotion that would soon become a home for him. It was here that he and Jack Evans gelled as the team we’ve come to love, becoming three-time AAA World Tag Team Champions during the four years they spent there. Their second reign, which began at Héroes Immortales IX in 2015, was cut short due to Angélico suffering a leg injury, an injury that fortunately didn’t keep him out for too long. By the end of 2017, the man who proclaims to be Half Man, Half Amazing had announced his departure from the promotion.

While he had been appearing for AAA, Angélico became recognizable to a more wider audience when he began appearing for Lucha Underground (LU) in 2014, becoming a 2x Trios Champions along the way with The Son of Havoc and Ivelisse. During his tenure with the promotion, The Ultimate Airdevil wowed fans across the globe with his unbelievable athletic ability. One of the most famous clips from the history of LU saw Angélico fly from the balcony on to some opponents in the ring with a massive crossbody. His abilities within the ring are unprecedented and the list of top companies he’s wrestled for goes on – as well as the ones previously mentioned, the South African export has also stepped foot in rings for the likes of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), and PROGRESS Wrestling to name just a few.

If there’s anyone who’ll make for a perfect fit on the AEW roster, it’s undoubtedly Angélico.

Flying In Style: Jack Evans

At 37 years old, Jack Evans made his wrestling debut in 2000 after being trained by members of the prestigious Hart family along with a couple of others. In his early career, he competed for promotions including Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Stampede Wrestling, while also wrestling a WWE Velocity dark match opposite Funaki under the alias of Jack Edwards. It didn’t take long for Evans’ career to skyrocket, thanks in part to the role he played in the early days of Ring of Honor (ROH) which was, at the time, nothing more than an upstart indy promotion. Throughout the early 2000s, he would find himself allying with various Hart family members in variations on a new Hart Foundation, most notably Teddy Hart.

L-R: TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd), Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, Natalya, Davey Boy Smith Jr.

After debuting in a scramble cage match, Evans became a member of the villainous Generation Next faction alongside Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, and Roderick Strong (later joined by Matt Sydal and Daizee Haze), with the four men feeling that they were the top athletes within ROH. During his time spent as a member of the group, Jack would collide with some of ROH’s top names at the time, including Bryan Danielson, The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe), and The Second City Saints (CM Punk and Ace Steel). In 2006, Evans went to Japan to tour with Dragon Gate (DG), where he became a member of CIMA‘s Blood Generation group. By the time he made his way back to ROH, Generation Next was no more as the members felt as if there wasn’t a need for such a faction any longer. His final days in the promotion following this were spent alongside Ruckus, Jigsaw, and Julius Smokes as part of The Vulture Squad, with Mercedes Martinez later becoming a member.

With his days on the ROH roster behind him, Evans headed to Mexico to join AAA, immediately joining Konnan‘s group La Legión Extranjera. After some dissolution between he and Hart Foundation 2.0 partner Teddy Hart though, Jack found himself ousted from the group and was now on the other side of things as part of Team AAA to combat Konnan’s cronies. That decision would come back to bite Konnan though as the AAA team were victorious over La Legión Extranjera at Triplemanía XVII to send Konnan packing from AAA. Going forward, Evans had tremendous championship success in AAA, becoming a one-time World Cruiserweight Champion and a four-time World Tag Team Champion, once with Xtreme Tiger and the other three times with current tag team partner Angélico.

After leaving AAA in October 2016, Evans would find himself working for promotions such as Lucha Underground (becoming a Trios Champion with Johnny Mundo and PJ Black), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (where he had previously been a World Tag Team Champion alongside Roderick Strong), and a number of English promotions. Although he’s in his late thirties, there’s no doubting that Jack Evans hasn’t lost a step. He’s been as entertaining as ever throughout each of the 17 years he’s been competing week in and week out. He’s done as much as he possibly can on the independent circuit, and now All Elite Wrestling is the place for him to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8YhtnQHTo

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