By: Zack Heydorn
So, I spent the last few weeks binge watching the new WWE Evolve series on Tubi and I’m here to tell you that it’s not a bad show.
I wouldn’t lead you astray and if you know what you’re getting into, then the real WWE developmental program that started up in March of this year is a breezy watch with some ok to good matches and the future main roster WWE talent right in front of you. Nobody is getting or should even be expecting Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson level stuff on this show, but you get a tried and true approach of good guys vs. bad guys that makes it easy to invest.
With that praise out of the way, the key takeaway from watching 11 episodes of the new program is that it showcases a glaring hole in WWE’s talent development strategy. I’m talking a Grand Canyon size hole in how WWE is searching for it’s next batch of top stars. It’s bad.
Everyone on WWE Evolve is the exact same. The gimmicks, if you can even call them that, are the same from one star to the next and to the next in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Characters? What characters? Everyone on the show is playing the same damn part and in an ecosystem like that, nobody stands out.
The most over act on the show is the Vanity Project faction that includes the Swipe Right tag team, Zayda Steel, and some other talents that blend into the background. They stand out because of their charisma, but not because they are all that different from anyone else on the roster.
Braxton Cole, Harlem Lewis, Keanu Carer, Sean Legacy, and Tate Wilder are all featured men’s talent on the show, but I couldn’t tell you one discernible difference between these dudes. WWE hasn’t really tried to either.
On the women’s side of the house, the creepy nightmare that is Wendy Choo stands out because she’s the only talent on the entire program committed to an actual gimmick, but the rest blend in together as much as the men do.
Brinley Reece, Carlee Bright, Kendal Grey, Kylie Rae, and Kali Armstrong are the talents that get most of the television time and like the men, nothing stand out about any of them. Kylie Rae has an innate charisma like the Vanity Project faction, so she glows, but is neutralized by the lack of something different around her.
What the hell are we doing here? We don’t need to go back to the days of truck drivers, dentists, and tax consultant pro wrestling characters, but this new crop of talent needs something to grab fan attention.
The talent names are awful. Brinley Reece and Carlee Bright? C’mon, now. That’s the same damn person. Those two names sound like painful AI generated, ChatGPT nonsense created by a WWE intern getting paid minimum wage for a summer. Same thing with Braxton Cole and Harlem Lewis.
But, whatever. I’ll give WWE the benefit of the doubt when it comes to names. I shouldn’t, but I will for the sake of argument here. Names aside, the talent needs to find gimmicks that will stick.
What is Sean Legacy? What is Kendal Grey? Who are these talents supposed to be and why are fans supposed to care about them?
The WWE Evolve program doesn’t appear interested in answering that question at this point, so lookout NXT. Hell, lookout WWE main roster, too.
If the company isn’t careful, fans will be disconnected from all future talent in the pipeline before they even make an entrance on Raw or Smackdown.
Have you seen WWE Evolve? What do you think of the program? Let us know in the comments!
That’s nearly all of WWE at this point. Under Endevour we’ve seen nearly all the gimmicks get neutered if not actually eliminated. Shawn Michaels gives some leeway in NXT, only for them to be done worse on the main roster.
It’s like we’ve committed to making the majority of the product to realism by making everyone as bland and forgettable as gosh i don’t know, Triple H’s reign of terror? But now for some reasons the nerds who hated HHH back then, now kiss his rear for it. Mind you though AEW and NJPW aren’t much better when it comes to gimmicks or characters right now. Sure a couple people sneak through but most of the rosters are interchangeable generic wrestlers.
Not entirely wrong, but for the sake of playing devil’s advocate here are a few counterpoints:
* It’s a one-hour show. If you want to have matches, there’s less time for character development. We’ve seen from Raw and Smackdown that three hours is probably too long, but two seems to be that sweet spot. In a common problem for WWE, you also have to be really careful about your roster size because the time to feature everyone is even more limited.
* They do typically air a video package when they debut a new talent that gives some insight into their personality/character. They can’t do that every time, so if you didn’t catch that you’re limited to what you hear on commentary and the quick graphics they show during matches.
* Some of these people have been on the indies for a while doing a DIY approach to growing their characters, but most of them have had a limited amount of time in the WWE system. Just as their ability isn’t main roster ready, in the same way their character development isn’t going to be either. You have to adjust your expectations in both areas. The fact that the one singled out for praise here is Wendy Choo, who has years of prior experience in NXT, only reinforces that point.
* No argument on the names. I hope they’re at least meaningful to the Superstars because most of them aren’t to anyone else. It would be nice if WWE wasn’t so obsessed with copyrights and IP and the like and could go back to letting people use their real names, or at least the names they made for themselves before getting there, as a norm instead of an exception.