Daniel Bryan On Wishing He Had More Time With EVOLVE, The WWE - EVOLVE Partnership Helping Wrestlers
Above is another clip to promote the EVOLVE 10th Anniversary Celebration airing on the WWE Network later this month. SmackDown Tag Team Champion Daniel Bryan talks about how important EVOLVE was to his career. Bryan talks about working with Gabe Sapolsky to come up with the name of the promotion.
"Well, it's interesting. I wish I could have spent more time at EVOLVE," Bryan said. "I was actually the one who came up with the name EVOLVE for the company, because I looked around at the wrestling industry and everything seemed like it hadn't changed much, or it was changing in a way that I didn't like. Both in WWE, both on the independents and in Japan. I was like, 'This whole thing, for it to remain popular, there needs to be an evolution. It can't be a static product, things have to change.' And I got with Gabe, and Gabe was telling me about his promotion and stuff, and I said, 'Man, we should name it EVOLVE and that will be what this company represents.'"
Bryan was also asked how cool it is to see so many people get launched into the WWE spotlight with something he had a hand in. He praised EVOLVE for doing what they do, especially with the WWE partnership.
"It's always cool to be a part of something that helps other people, right? That's what I always wanted out of independent wrestling, was to create platforms for other people. To one, be entertained for the wrestling fans, but two, for these incredible athletes and these unreal wrestlers, that are on the independent scene, that people don't know who they are, give them a spotlight to show people how talented some of these guys are. And EVOLVE's done an incredible job at that, especially with their partnership with WWE," Bryan said.
WWE Network will air the EVOLVE 10th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, July 13 at 8pm ET, live from the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia. This will be the first non-WWE in-ring special to air live on the Network since it launched in 2014. The main event will see WWE NXT Champion Adam Cole defend his title against Akira Tozawa. You can see the full card at this link.