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WWE is adding another element to its developmental funnel, as WWE Evolve launches on the Tubi streaming platform March 5.
The pro wrestling promotion has long used NXT as its developmental platform, and it has reached a point where it has more performers in the pipeline than there is available TV time in the weekly two-hour show on Tuesday nights on The CW.
“This is something that as we continue to look at the future health of WWE talent, it’s incumbent on us to find the best and the brightest out there, train them at the Performance Center in Orlando, and take WWE into the future,” WWE senior VP of talent development creative Shawn Michaels told Front Office Sports.
Michaels is a two-time WWE Hall of Famer, both as an individual and as a member of the D-Generation X stable. Michaels has been working with NXT since 2018, and he began overseeing it entirely in 2021.
Peter Rosenberg will be the play-by-play broadcaster. He has been a host for WWE studio programming since 2016, and he is also a radio host at Hot 97 and ESPN New York. It’s been about 15 years since he called play-by-play for independent promotions around the tristate area like Pro Wrestling Syndicate.
“It feels like a wrestling show,” Rosenberg said of Evolve. “There’s a small live audience at the Performance Center. Think old-school, like Georgia Championship Wrestling studio show vibes.”
WWE is partnering with Tubi at a time when the Fox-owned streaming platform is growing fast. As media has become more fragmented and consumers weigh which content subscriptions are worth it, the fact that Tubi is free for anyone with an internet connection has made it a palatable option for where to spend screen time. In the recent Super Bowl, Tubi averaged 13.6 million viewers, a 27% gain from last year’s Super Bowl streaming numbers. Tubi recently announced it has 97 million monthly active users. It is a platform where people mainly watch TV shows and movies, but it also has a NASCAR fast channel.
“It’s an interesting moment because it feels like Tubi just sort of had this breaking point where everybody knows about it,” said Rosenberg, adding that his 77-year-old mother was aware of the platform when he mentioned the show to her.
The show will stream every Wednesday and will also be available on YouTube internationally.
Evolve is being booked (the wrestling terminology for scripting the show) by longtime promoter Gabe Sapolsky, who Michaels touts as having “actually traveled the country looking for some of the best independent talent out there.”
The show will be a mix of independent wrestlers who are in the WWE ID program (meaning they are in the mix in WWE’s developmental pipeline but not exclusive to the company), former Division I athletes whom WWE is seeking to mold into pro wrestlers from scratch, and current NXT performers.
For all three groups but especially the raw athletes, Evolve will be vital in helping the wrestlers get on-air reps as they grow toward the goal of reaching the WWE main roster.
“As we take these athletes, there’s a great deal that goes into what we do from a foundational standpoint—understanding the basics—but also getting them to understand … not all of them grew up being fans of WWE,” Michaels said. Part of working for the show involves learning the history of not just WWE, but the wrestling business as a whole, he says.
“When all is said and done, the goal is to help them understand and fall in love with it—and most do,” Michaels added.
Examples of the athletes who will be on Evolve include former NFL safety Trill Williams (wrestling name Trill London), former Arizona fullback Case Hatch (Tate Wilder), former Temple defensive tackle Kevin Robertson (Keanu Carver), former Mercer tight end Drako Starks (Drako Knox), and former Morehead State linebacker Vincent Winey (Harlem Lewis). Experienced independent wrestlers on the program include Kylie Rae and Zayda Steel.
“The people who have been around the indies for a long time will mesh with some of these athletes,” Michaels said.
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