5 Things That Could Change Professional Wrestling Over The Next 12 Months

#3 WWE considering the purchase of EVOLVE

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at the 2018 NBCUniversal Upfronts

Founded by former Ring of Honor booker (and Dragon Gate USA VP) Gabe Sapolsky, EVOLVE Wrestling was started up in 2010. Initially, not a full-time promotion, EVOLVE booked talent from other promotions. In 2015, EVOLVE announced a working relationship with WWE which has led to Evolve using the WWE-contracted talent on some of its live events.

Right now there are rumors that WWE is considering the purchase of EVOLVE. It has also been rumored that WWE is considering adding EVOLVE's video library to the WWE Network, in addition to that of other independent wrestling companies. Considering that WWE has signed a lot of talent that has previously worked for EVOLVE -- including Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly -- it would not be surprising that WWE wishes to expand its involvement with Evolve.

Where this relationship goes is particularly of interest for a number of reasons. First, it relates to WWE's interest in independent wrestling. Also, it potentially adjusts the role of NXT as WWE would have another place to have its talent develop before getting on televised programming.

Furthermore, it implies that WWE may be on the market to buy up other promotions, realizing the need to not let any of the indies grow too big. But at the very least, WWE's acquisition of EVOLVE would mean for more interesting content on the WWE Network, likely some of that including a lot of WWE and NXT Superstars before they were such a big deal.