Consistent with recent rumors, it appears WWE acquiring EVOLVE Wrestling is a done deal, with the agreement being finalized after months of back-and-forth negotiations.
With the buyout, WWE will have complete legal rights to use not only the EVOLVE brand name moving forward, but they could also technically produce EVOLVE events and run them independently if they chose to do so.
Past content from EVOLVE is surely going to be added to the WWE Network and there’s a good chance the promotion may stream live EVOLVE events as well.
There is also much speculation that several EVOLVE talents will likely transition over to WWE contracts and debut on the NXT brand once the deal is official.
EVOLVE and WWE have had a working relationship for a number of years and several talent that came up through the EVOLVE system were eventually signed by WWE. Notable names include Matt Riddle, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano and Keith Lee.
The promotion was owned jointly by Gabe Sapolsky and Sal Hamaoui with the latter also owning the independent streaming service World Wrestling Network (WWN) of which EVOLVE was a big part of, however, WWN was not part of the sale and will continue to operate under Hamaoui.
We will keep you posted here at eWrestling.com as details regarding WWE and EVOLVE Wrestling continue to surface.
UPDATE: What was the strategy behind #WWE‘s acquisition of #EVOLVE (@WWNEVOLVE), and what does the company have planned now that the purchase is finalized? DETAILED backstage news update~!
FULL STORY: https://t.co/0UyZZF7cxy pic.twitter.com/riCjPCbXBx
— Matt Boone (@MattBoone1984) July 3, 2020
REACTION: WWE ACQUIRES EVOLVE WRESTLING
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