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As you might expect, morale in EVOLVE went sky high after Triple H showed up at the EVOLVE show this past Saturday. EVOLVE officials were at the Royal Rumble as well. Gabe Sapolsky and Triple H had a long talk about EVOLVE and the relationship between the two sides is moving forward, but nothing is "officially" signed as of this writing. I am told some pretty interesting ideas have been pitched and discussed from each side.
William Regal's role at the EVOLVE shows was to do the angle helping to set up EVOLVE champion Timothy Thatcher and Matt Riddle and that was always the plan before Thatcher was pulled from the ring. Riddle is getting a lot of acclaim for his work and there's been WWE interest. One source believes WWE actually suggested Riddle to EVOLVE. One person described Riddle to me as someone who performs as if he's been wrestling ten years even though it's closer to one. Riddle was trained at the Monster Factory in New Jersey after fighting in UFC. Thatcher vs. Riddle for the EVOLVE title will headline the 3/19 return to Queens, NY.
The big story of the past weekend was crowning the first EVOLVE Tag Team champions over the course of the three day tournament, all of which is available online for VOD orders at www.WWNLive.com. Johnny Gargano and Drew Galloway winning was the plan all along and you have to think part of that is to have sort of a dream team of a WWE NXT talent in Gargano teaming with a TNA talent in Galloway, which is pretty unique.
Team Tremendous impressed here and will be
brought back. The decision was made to have them win the Second Chance Tag
Team tournament after seeing how they got over. The Bravados, who are
perhaps the most underrated team in pro wrestling, were brought back for the
first time in a year, impressed and will also be brought back. The initial
plan was to use them in Florida over the weekend events and go from there, but
they pretty much earned additional bookings with their hard work. I was
shocked they were finished up here to begin with because their work had been so
good.
EVOLVE champion Timothy Thatcher was actually cleared to wrestle over the past
weekend (if he had worn long tights) due to being on antibiotics, but management
decided it was safer not to rush him back in the ring and risk someone else
catching the staph infection. The original plan for the Sunday
1/24 show was Thatcher defending against Caleb Konley.
With Thatcher out, Tomasso Ciampa (in town for the NXT taping) was added,
paving the way for Sami Callihan to replace Thatcher in the Tag Team tournament.
Zack Sabre Jr. received his usual raves for his work over the weekend as well.
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