WWE Evolve – 5/21/25

Hey, folks! It’s Wednesday night, and you know what that means! It’s time to get in the Tubi and ride off into the WWE developmental metaverse for some Evolve action.

I’m going to be handling this show for the blog from here on out, as I both want folks to have a place to discuss it on here AND am a big fan of what the WWE is doing with their three million developmental signees. We’re already seeing some of the fruits of the company’s labor with these folks pan out, as Jasper Troy, Sean Legacy, and (soon) Tyra Mae Steele have had strong debuts on NXT proper. There’s a lot of talent here to watch grow from the ground up, and I am here for it.

A couple of notes before we start:

1. I’ll always try to have these done on Wednesday evening, but I don’t always watch the show at 8:00 PM proper, and life sometimes does get in the way. My goal is to have these up Wednesday evening, but I may not get to it until Thursday.

2. I’ve NEVER done this before. I have a general idea as to how I want to do this but, like all of us, this will be a work in progress. Constructive criticism is appreciated. I will be subscribing to the Kat school of not giving you every move here. It just doesn’t sound like a fun way to do this.

3. I’m piloting a system this week in which the match gets a letter grade while adding a separate letter grade for each wrestler’s development during the match. This is the bottom rung of developmental, so expecting A+ matches out of this crew would be silly. However, how they are learning their craft may merit a higher grade, because this is my review.

4. I couldn’t have done this without both Tommy Hall and Robert Leighty paving the way with their respective reviews of Evolve and the other more niche WWE shows. I am grateful to them both.

Got it? We good? Alright, let’s go Evolve!

We are, as always, in a small room within the PC, with some fans who have been threatened by death to never release spoilers. Your hosts are Peter Rosenberg and Robert Stone, with the already-underrated Chuey Martinez handling the interviews, and the always-smokin’ Stevie Turner serving as Prime Minister. Speaking of Stevie, I miss the podcaster gimmick. Is she ever going to wrestle again?

TWO MONTHS AGO, Evolve re-launched and, since then, Keanu Carver and Harlem Lewis have emerged as the top two hosses. After Harlem turned on Keanu last week during a tag-match with the now-released (and not even acknowledged here) Gallus, Stevie has booked another match between the two, with the winner joining the once-again SUPER Sean Legacy, and two other dudes, in the Fatal Four-Way to crown the first-ever Evolve Men’s Champ. Clips of them beating dudes up follow.

There’s also one spot left to decide in the Women’s Championship Fatal Four-Way, with Wendy Choo, Kali Armstrong, and Kendal Grey already qualifying. Chantel Monroe, Kylie Rae, Zayda Steel, and Aria Bennett will compete tonight to decide who gets that final spot. Clips of them beating dudettes up follow, and that match starts the show!

Zayda Steel (with the Vanity Project) vs. Aria Bennett vs. Chantel Monroe vs. Kylie Rae

We begin with a standoff and everyone pairing off. Monroe and Steel get dumped to the floor, while Bennett does some athletics with Kylie. Monroe trips up Bennett, while Zayda rolls up Kylie for two. Chantel comes off the top with a crossbody, while Bennett hits an enziguri, and is thus far looking the crispest out of the four in the ring. Aria performs more athletics until Chantel hits the double knees on her. Zayda does basic stuff, proving that not everyone magically learns to wrestle in Japan. Zayda badly sells a missed knee into the corner, with Bryce Donovan distracting the ref so that Swipe Right can stop a pin attempt from Kylie. This earns a trip to the locker room for the rest of the Vanity Project from the referee, plus angry faces from Kylie. Chantel and Kylie get their own segments to shine, which earns them a plancha to the floor on both from Aria. Kylie and Aria return to the ring, where Kylie briefly locks on a crossface, reversed, only for Kylie to then hit a superkick for the sudden three-count.

Winner: Kylie Rae

Match Rating: C – It was three inexperienced women, plus Kylie Rae, getting their stuff in. It was better when Aria was in there than when the two others were.

Kylie: C – Kylie’s work is always OK, but the smiley gimmick continues to not work for her on the bigger stage. She is far more interesting when showing some grit, and I hope that continues to be the case. The woman deserves to make some money in this business.

Aria: B – Aria continues to impress with her athleticism, and she can sell. There’s not a ton of personality there just yet, but I could see an ascent similar to Kali Armstrong’s with her.

Chantel: C – Chantel’s pretty much a tabula rasa assigned the character of “vain fashionista who looks in the mirror a lot” at the NXT 2.0 gimmick window. There’s potential there, but it’s very, very raw, and there’s little connection between the person and the character.

Zayda: D – Zayda hit a decent tornado DDT at one point, but did nothing to stand out here at all, being the least interesting of the four. She continues to underwhelm for being the first WWE ID signing.

Backstage promo from Keanu Carver, whose facials are solid, giving me some Monty Brown vibes.

Chuey is backstage with the since-released Oro Mensah. Poor Oro’s got his Meta-Four jacket on, to further dig in how much of a dead man walking he is here. Oro complains he’s not in the Fatal Four-Way but will earn his shot against Edris Enofe tonight. This sounds as riveting as it reads.

Oro Mensah vs. Edris Enofe (Qualifying Match for Men’s Fatal Four-Way)

We get the shot of Oro waiting in gorilla for his music cue because nothing matters anymore as we cut to break. Edris’s music tells us he’s “far from a rookie,” and I do like his Nana-ish attire as he heads to the ring. Edris gets a “welcome back” chant after being out seven months with an injury. Ghana versus Nigeria here, in a cool touch. They exchange strikes before Oro hits a headscissors for two. Edris with a sweet dropkick, dropping some elbows and a standing moonsault for two. Oro sweeps the leg on the apron as my remote goes apeshit are rewinds all the way back to the women’s match. This isn’t easy to do in real-time, I am learning. Peter and Stone argue which African country has better jollof rice. Damn yuppies, although jollof sure is yummy. Let’s discuss injera next week. Oro hits a twisted something on Edris’s shoulder to the outside which then gets two. The announcers work up some drama by questioning whether Edris came back too early. Oro takes control, including setting up for a tornado DDT, but instead hotshotting Edris’s neck over the top rope in a cool move. Oro hits a springboard dropkick back into the ring for two before we hit the bodyscissors and chinlock. Edris hits his comeback with a backdrop, some clotheslines, and a spinebuster. Oro with a superkick and snapdragon suplex for two but gets the big knee from Edris as he hits the corner. They go up top for the superplex, with Oro hitting the mat. Edris hits a pretty flying elbow, with some height, for three.

Winner: Edris Enofe

Match: C+ – A decent back and forth between two guys with heavy athleticism, with the occasional wonkiness which is par for the course here.
Oro: C+ – RIP Oro Mensah. Nice guy, but absolutely zero stand-out tool.
Edris: C – I love Edris’s look and energy. He is the legit version of what they attempted with Apollo Crews’s heel run. In the ring, at this point in time, though, he’s one of 800 green athletic high-flyers on the roster. A singles run after some time off may help here.

Edris gets interview time with Chuey. He’s pretty gassed but shows some good fire here. Edris puts Oro Mensah over, which should serve as a reference for future job applications. Stevie comes out and adds Edris to the Fatal Four-Way. Stevie, though, gets pulled to the back by officials, where the ghost of Dani Palmer has been attacked. She best be careful not to fall off the flat earth on the way out.

Harlem Lewis is hitting the resistance bands, cutting an “angry” promo as only a Long Island white guy in a do-rag can do. I imagine he picked “Harlem” as a name because “Syosset” was far less intimidating. In other words, his promos need work.

Last week, Brinley Reece was attacked in the same manner as Dani Palmer was. You can tell it was the same attacker since both sold the attack in exactly the same manner.

Here comes the Vanity Project to the ring, with Zayda at least selling the previous match for about five seconds before forgetting. Swipe Right puts over Zayda as deserving to be in the women’s four-way, and Jackson Drake for the men’s four-way. This leads to….

Swipe Right vs. Timothy Thatcher and “Super” Sean Legacy

This should be good. Thatcher and Baylor start off. Baylor sells Thatcher’s stuff very well before tagging off to Ricky Smokes, who doesn’t fare much better. Legacy and Thatcher with the frequent tags, working the arm on Smokes. Baylor comes in, with the arm continuing to be worked on. Swipe Right finally gets an advantage on Thatcher and his awesome ugly faces. We go to break as Swipe Right take a breather outside. Funny how the Zepbound ad doesn’t tell you a prescription will run you a thousand bucks a month when your insurance says “no.” We return to the faces in control as this hasn’t hit the next gear yet. Legacy is so quick and explosive with his signature stuff. Legacy tries Shambles, misses, and fights off the double team for only so long in the corner. Baylor with a clothesline, as this ref has allowed the Vanity Project to remain at ringside. Did he not watch what happened before? Where did he go? This place is tiny. You could probably hear it from the toilet. Swipe Right effectively double-team Legacy before he hits the hot tag to Thatcher, who starts tossing these dudes all the place and hitting uppercuts on Ricky Smokes. All four hit the ring, with Swipe Right eventually hitting the Super Swipe on Thatcher for an anticlimactic three.

Winners: Swipe Right

Match: C+ – Having probably the three best male talents, and the player/coach, in the match, and you’re going to have a far more professional presentation here. It never hit the gear of what you’d expect from an NXT or main roster tag match, and the ending was kind of meh, with Legacy just disappearing into oblivion, but it was solid for what it was.

Swipe Right: B+ – There really aren’t any flaws in their game, at this point, other than gaining further experience, and perhaps bulking up a bit more. They’re going to be players on the bigger stage.
Sean Legacy: B- – Not Legacy’s most standout performance, but he hit his signature stuff and looked good. He’s going to be somebody quick as well, as NXT last night showed.
Timothy Thatcher: B – Always so damn great, and he’s doing a solid job adding legitimacy to these matches. His getting pinned almost seems like a given weekly, though, and he deserves a bit better as an actual in-ring talent.

Speaking of early standouts, here’s Kali Armstrong to cut a promo on Kendal Grey. Kali questions why Kendal jumped her from behind this week and asks if it’s because she broke her spirits. The Women’s Four-Way Title Match is next week! Good fire from Kali.

Backstage, Kendal answers back to Kali in front of Carlee Bright, Masyn Holiday, and Chantel Moore. Chantel takes umbrage and walks away.

Next week, we have a qualifying three-way between Jackson Drake, Jordan Oasis, and Lince Dorado (?!). Oasis earned his shot at this match at an indie show. Lince, however, probably just earned his standing around in catering.

Time for our main event!

Keanu Carver vs. Harlem Lewis (Qualifying match for Men’s Championship Fatal Four-Way)

They start slugging it out before Keanu hits a big clothesline coming out of the corner. Keanu tries the pounce, but Harlem bails to the floor before the strike it out again. Harlem launches Keanu into the ring steps, throws him back into the ring, and goes to work as only a dude from Massapequa can do. Keanu hits a nice back suplex and fallaway slam. Bigtime punch by Keanu on Harlem in the Randy DDT position or two before hitting the POUNCE, with Harlem hitting the floor. I’ve seen Keanu hit that better before. Back to the outside, and a big clothesline from Harlem. Back in the ring, Harlem with the jackhammer, but his knee’s hurting and he can’t make the cover. This just in: His jackhammer is named the “boom slang,” because he learned that name working as a bouncer in the Hamptons or something. Harlem hits a plancha to the outside while I make Long Island jokes no one will get. Powerbomb by Harlem, but the leg gives out again. The world’s weakest “this is awesome” chant ensues. Harlem can’t hit a suplex, and we get another pounce, slightly better this time. Twisting powerslam from Keanu gets the pin.

Winner: Keanu Carver
Match: B- – Decent young hoss battle, with good intensity, and nothing really missed.
Keanu: B – There’s a bit of “We have Oba Femi at home” with Keanu, but he absolutely has a chance to carve out his own path with some additional experience. He’s well on his way, and he’s going to be somebody.
Harlem: C+ – He’s got a good look, sold well, and his stuff looked crisp. He’s certainly behind Keanu in his development, but there’s something there. Sure. I see it.

Overall show: B- A good enough week for Evolve this week, with the emphasis on some of the better talents on the roster. It was straight and to the point, with no use of the VIP section, or any of the more comedic, greener characters. The Women’s Four-Way should be solid next week, as the vets are certainly good enough to help the greener women do their thing, although I’m not so sure how the men’s match is going to turn out with Legacy, Keanu, Enofe, and one of the three listed above. That could be rough.

Please let me know what you think of my review. I look forward to doing this again next week!