Evolve 131 Exceeds Expectations
First of all, if anyone missed Evolve 131 because you were watching the AEW event or something entirely different, you missed a spectacular show and a glimpse at the future of the wrestling industry (which will be headlined by people like Josh Briggs and Austin Theory).
It was incredibly smart of WWE to form a mutual collaboration with Evolve and to feature events for that company as well on the WWE Network. This diversity in events that are featured on the Network will provide wrestling fans with a little something different and it may be attractive particularly for the 18-30-year-old demographic, which WWE is trying to gain more appeal from.
From a marketing perspective, one cannot call this collaboration with Evolve horizontal integration, or merging with a competitor, because WWE does not directly acknowledge Evolve or anyone else as a direct competitor. It can’t be considered vertical integration, or buying out a supplier, either because Evolve is not a supplier to WWE (although they have indirectly supplied WWE with quite a bit of human capital in the form of superstars such as Matt Riddle, Drew Gulak, Johnny Gargano, and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott as well as Cesaro, Daniel Bryan, and a slew of others).
While I was watching the event, the moment I felt compelled to write about it was when Paul Heyman appeared in the middle of the ring to do the announcing for the title match between Austin Theory and JD Drake and declared that he wanted to be a major part of the future of the wrestling industry as opposed to being a “dinosaur” who simply reminisces about the past. He would like to be at the forefront leading the next generation of this industry and that is very respectable. This will undoubtedly be a very memorable event in the history books of professional wrestling. Fortunately, even if you missed the event, you can see it whenever you like on the award-winning (and rapidly growing) WWE Network, which appears to be finding a niche for itself in focusing primarily on getting a little deeper into the personal lives of superstars (with their cooperation of course).