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What's the story?
According to The Wrestling Observer (via WrestlingInc), WWE may be interested in purchasing Evolve Wrestling, a wrestling promotion based out of the US. The report states that WWE could buy the promotion and air its content on the WWE Network, if a deal is finalised.
In case you didn't know...
The promotion is run by Ring of Honor co-founder, Gabe Sapolsky, and was started in 2010. Sapolsky, notably, was the head booker at Paul Heyman's now-defunct ECW promotion.
Evolve is a well-known indie promotion, having had the likes of Ricochet, Sami Callihan, Johnny Gargano, Tony Nese, Zack Sabre Jr., Drew Galloway, Rich Swann as a part of their roster.
The heart of the matter
Wrestling Observer's report indicates that Vince McMahon has been dilly-dallying on a deal to air Evolve shows on the WWE Network for the last two years.
WWE have had a partnership with Evolve for the last three years, and in the last three years, Evolve wrestlers have appeared on the WWE.com website, while then NXT stars like Chad Gable and Sami Zayn made appearances at Evolve shows. Evolve even hosted matches for the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic.
In 2001, WWE purchased their biggest rival, WCW, and then followed up by purchasing another rival promotion, ECW, effectively making WWE the biggest wrestling promotion in the United States. This was mostly done by Vince McMahon and co. to wipe out the competition and the wrestlers that were signed from these two promotions didn't have memorable runs in the WWE.
But in recent times, WWE has adopted a different method of functioning, tying up with smaller promotions in the US and abroad (UK, specifically) to hone and train talent and possibly sign them to the WWE.
What's next?
WWE seem to be laying down a lot of emphasis on signing technically talented wrestlers and the deal with Evolve will showcase these types of wrestlers on the WWE Network and even be used as a scouting platform for future WWE stars.
Do you want to see this purchase go through? Let me know in the comments below!
