In early February, WWE announced the official re-launch of WWE Evolve, set to begin streaming weekly on Tubi, beginning on Wednesday March 5 at 8PM EST. It’s quite frankly a “dynamite” time slot…though with streaming, fans will be able to watch WWE Evolve whenever they want after each week’s 8 PM drop time.
How to Watch WWE Evolve – Tubi is a free streaming platform, meaning all fans can access WWE Evolve by tuning in Wednesday nights at 8 PM or anytime after.
Evolution from Indie to WWE
In 2009, fresh off his firing from Ring of Honor, Gabe Sapolsky started his own promotion, Dragon Gate USA. A year later, DGUSA’s sister promotion was founded. That promotion was Evolve and for the next 10 years, would go on to showcase some of the top names in wrestling today. Early Evolve cards served as a preview of a who’s who in wrestling history. The first card was main evented by Davey Richards vs Kota Ibushi and also featured wrestlers Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, Johnny Gargano, Ricochet, Chuck Taylor, and others. Claudio Castagnoli was part of the second card and Sami Callihan, Adam Cole, and Jon Moxley wrestled on the third. Alongside Fish, Brian Danielson main evented the fourth card with Zack Sabre Jr on the seventh and Kevin Steen debuting on the ninth. El Generico, Josh Alexander, and Adam Page made their way to Evolve for the 11th card, Orange Cassidy debuted on the 17th, the Young Bucks showed up for Evolve 19, and Shane Strickland first arrived for card #20. And that was just the first 20 cards.
Over 146 cards in total, wrestlers including Moose, Ethan Page, Drew Galloway (McIntyre), Roderick Strong, Tommy End (Malakai/Aleister Black), Timothy Thatcher, Matt Riddle, Tommaso Ciampa, Will Ospreay, Darby Allin, EC3, Keith Lee, Sammy Guevara, Brody King, Austin Theory, the Street Profits, Shotzi Blackheart, Eddie Kingston, Konosuke Takeshita, Kushida, Kris Statlander, the list goes on. Even BOTH current WWE world champions, Cody Rhodes and Gunther, wrestled several matches during Evolve’s decade-long run.
In the summer of 2020, following the promotion’s 10-year tenure, it was announced that WWE was acquiring the rights to Evolve, one of the country’s top independent wrestling organizations. WWE had begun work with Evolve in 2015, when they brought the promotion under their umbrella as somewhat of a developmental scouting opportunity. This relationship grew as in 2017, WWE began exploring deals to air Evolve on the WWE Network and in 2019, co-promoted a show with the company, marking the first time an independent wrestling show aired live on WWE Network. Sadly, Evolve would shut down a year later during the pandemic, ending its run with Evolve 146 in 2020 nearly five years to the day (March 1).
It seemed Evolve would exist only as a tape library until in January 2025, it was announced WWE was seeking trademarks for Evolve. A few weeks later, the company revealed plans to reboot the promotion as a brand for their PC recruits and WWEID wrestlers. Shortly after, it WWEID championships for the men and women were announced, with plans being to defend them across indies, including the revived Evolve.
What to Expect from WWE Evolve
According to WWE’s press release, “WWE EVOLVE will introduce viewers to the most intense and charismatic prospects recruited from college athletics and independent wrestling as they strive to build their in-ring careers and elevate their personas. WWE EVOLVE will prominently feature talent from WWE’s world-class Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., and WWE ID, a first-of-its-kind developmental program.”
In many ways, WWE Evolve could be likened to expanding the so-called minor league farm system. In professional baseball, there is a major league team at the top, followed by AAA, AA, and Single A teams lower down the rung. So let’s say Raw and SmackDown are WWE’s major league team. That would make NXT the AAA team and WWE Evolve the AA team. That would make the Performance Center in general, essentially the Single A team, the place where wrestlers fresh off being drafted (WWE ID) would go to begin their careers. Much like in baseball or Money in the Bank, the goal is to climb those rungs all the way to the top and secure that brass ring.
The return of WWE Evolve is providing wrestlers just one more opportunity to do so. With NXT having become a touring, televised brand, there aren’t as many opportunities for wrestlers at the beginning stages of their careers to wrestle there. But with WWE Evolve, those rising stars will receive a streamed platform to showcase their abilities beyond their work in the PC. Prior to Evolve, that didn’t exist as wrestlers would go straight from the Performance Center to NXT, sometimes taking a while to make that jump. Evolve will provide a more gradual transition and will be able to provide more opportunities for more wrestlers as WWE’s minor league reach expands. And much like when kids wait outside minor league locker rooms to selfies and autographs, wrestling fans through Evolve, will be able to say they witnessed the next wave of superstars – the future Gunthers and Cody Rhodes of the world – just when they were first starting out.
As Shawn Michaels, WWE senior vice president of talent development creative, noted in WWE’s press release: “We are excited to work with our incredible partners at Tubi to showcase our young, rising talent to the WWE Universe, as they start their in-ring journey competing each week to fulfill their lifelong dream of becoming a WWE Superstar.”
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – WWE – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on WWE Evolve and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
You can check out WWE programming on Netflix (Raw), USA Network (SmackDown), The CW (NXT), Tubi (WWE Evolve), A&E (WWE Superstar Sunday – Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and Peacock (WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on YouTube, and catch fast-paced action on X (WWE Speed).
