WWE Evolution has been a-buzz on Twitter following a report from Rajah that there is no Evolution card on the WWE’s calendar for this year, despite it doing quite well for the company for its first outing last year. In fact, many fans proclaimed Evolution as arguably the best top to bottom PPV from the WWE last year. But despite the lack of announcement, there are some notes worth paying attention to that seem to indicate that Evolution 2 is still going to happen, despite it not being on the calendar yet.
WWE LISTS IT AS AN ACTIVE PPV
On their official WWE website, WWE still lists Evolution as an active PPV in their schedule under the Shows section. Now it’s still listed alongside Super Show-Down as well, and they haven’t announced that as a returning PPV either, so there is still a chance that neither one of them will be returning in 2019, but as of now, they are listed as active PPVs in their rotation of PPVs.
WWE HAS LISTED EVOLUTION’S FORMER PPV AS RETIRED
Up until Evolution was announced last year, that October slot was reserved for Night of Champions/Clash of Champions (as it became known later). Beneath the active PPVs schedule is a section called “Retired Pay Per Views” (kind of like the WWE Alumni section for past PPV names) and Night of Champions is listed under there. Night of Champions was renamed Clash of Champions in 2016 (after the WCW event of the same name), but its last event was in 2017. While it was normally in December, the WWE schedule still lists TLC in its new slot of December, with TLC’s old slot in October still empty (which Evolution occupied last year). CBS Sports, which usually gets its info directly from the WWE, even still has a TBA in place for the October PPV.
THEY MOST LIKELY WANT TO MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT A PUBLIC AFFAIR
While most WWE Pay Per Views have years (if not decades) of promotion behind them, revealing they are returning each year isn’t that big of a deal anymore. It’s pretty much guaranteed we’re going to have a WrestleMania or SummerSlam or TLC event every year – only the locations are big news these days. But Evolution is still in its infancy, and with the anticipation of whether or not a second will occur still a big deal, the WWE and its PR machine most likely want to make a big deal of announcing it as an on-going annual event. With the October slot still a TBA, chances are Chief Branding Officer Stephanie McMahon is just waiting for the right time and place to announce its “historic” return to WWE programming, and perhaps the best time and place would be on March 9, 2019, at South By Southwest, where Stephanie McMahon, her husband Triple H and WWE Superstar Charlotte Flair will be on hand for a seminar entitled “The Women’s Evolution in WWE and Beyond”.
