Phrederic Reviews Evovle — page 2

Welcome back to more Evolve action as we are finally going to get the next Evolve women’s champion with an 8-woman gauntlet match and probably (maybe) some other stuff.

But if you want to catch up on everything going on in the greater WWE wrestling sphere…

Impact – SmackDown – AAA – Rebellion – Raw – NXT: Revenge

We start with Karmen Petrovic talking to the camera about the gauntlet match and the Evolve title and I guess she’s our lucky number 8 (called it!). Karmen runs down the rest of the participants, Laynie Luck, Wendy Choo, Nikkita Lyons, Kali Armstrong, Tyra Mae Steele, PJ Vasa, and Sloane Jacobs and puts them all over and how big this match is for everybody.

Science! Chemistry! Posing! Moves! And some new faces in the mix!

Welcome to Evolve, but before we begin, here are some links if you need to catch up with what’s happening in the greater televised WWE universe.

Impact – SmackDown – Stand and Deliver – AAA – Raw – NXT

We have a title defense tonight as Aaron Rourke defends his Evolve championship against Chazz “Starboy” Hall and then the odd couple of Tate Wilder and Luca Crusifino take on Harley Riggins and Kam Hendriz. And speaking of Chazz, we start with him monologuing at the camera as he walks backstage, he knows the opportunity he has, he became a big star on the indies at 23 years old (okay what?) and now he’s in Evolve and he’s worked NXT, so Raw, SD, and WrestleMania are next. Timing is of the essence and the time for the Denim Dragon is now-but we hearing clanging and the cameraperson runs over to Kam Hendrix and Harley Riggins standing over a prone Tate Wilder and Luca Crusifino with weapons in hand as they talk trash.

Snarling wrestlers! Rapping! Science! Flips! It’s Evolve!

Welcome back to Evolve, but before I start I realize I should include some links into the other WWE-verse reviews we have.

Impact – Smackdown – Sacrifice – Rey de Reyes Part 3 – Raw – NXT

We were promised some new and exciting news with new talent being showcased and a 4 5-way to determine placement in the gauntlet-rumble-thing for the vacant Evolve Women’s Championship.

We start with Evolve Men’s Champion Aaron Rourke talking about how it’s a new chapter and he puts over the 5-way women’s match and the debuting talent and I already did that Aaron! Jeez! He’ll keep his eyes peeled cause he knows they’ll want a piece of his gold. And because WWE ID did so much for him, he’s going to raise the stakes, whomever wins the triple threat between these three new prospects will challenge for his title.

Science! Scowling! Wrestling! Purple! Rapping! It’s Evolve!

Welcome back to some more Evolve as we seem firmly looking into the future as both our long-term champions, Kendal Grey and Jackson Drake, have relinquished/lost their championships (respectively) and have graduated to NXT. What’s next for Evolve? We’ll find all that out and more!

And we have our commentary team of Pete Rosenberg and Blake Howard running down the card before we have a COMMOTION IN THE RING as the “Sheriff of Justice” Tate Wilder is calling out Kam Hendrix and Harley Riggins for ambushing him in the parking lot, all because they blame Tate for costing them the big Team ID vs. Team PC match because Tate called it down the middle and Kam couldn’t get the job done, so Tate asks them to come out and see if they can beat him legit…and Kam, accompanied by Harley and Kai Kavari (who I’m pretty sure used to be Cyrus, he’s sorta shrimpy but is apparently some football guy, slot receiver maybe?) accompany him. Kam and Harley do their cliche mean jock stuff as they mockingly wish Tate well and are glad that he’s back as they guffaw like good goons. They seem to be upset about Tate betraying “PC guys for ID guys” (ugh, let this feud end!) and they do some more bad lines about putting Tate in the hospital again. But while they’d love to beat Wilder up, there’s a long line of guys that want their chance first, and Harley calls Wilder “Tater Tot” and brings up that Wilder messed up Kai’s debut, putting him down in front of his kids, his parents, his wife, and how despicable that act was…and Kai takes his shirt off, runs in, and gets immediately put down by Tate’s dropkick…and we have a match!

Welcome back to more Evolve action as we have the FINAL EVOLUTION of Jackson Drake as he defends his title against Aaron Rourke, will we have a new champion crowned or will Drake be able to walk away and relinquish the gold?

We start with The Vanity Project’s Jackson Drake, Brad Baylor, and Ricky Smokes in their frathouse talking about how Evolve made them and they hype up their achievements. Jackson Drake says that he’s fine with a Final Evolution as he’ll happily embarrass Aaron Rourke and show why Vanity Project is the foundation of Evolve and the future of WWE.

Entrance theme! Faces! Posting! Science! Moves! Evolve!

After the mostly nothingburger of last week’s Succession II: The Vanity Project Strike Back, we’re onto the next episode of Evolve which…starts with the theme song? Posing! Science! Lyrics! Purple!

We start with Robert Stone in the ring, and surrounding it is the Evolve roster. Stone puts the brand over, but says that along with ambition we need authority, and so we have a new Evolve GM…Timothy Thatcher. Stone explains that Thatcher’s history with Evolve, as well as his endeavors scouting talent around the world, makes him the perfect choice. Timothy appreciates the trust and the support, but he says he’s no GM…but because Evolve is about hard work, because Evolve is about constructing talent…he’s the Foreman of Evolve! Stone accepts, but says that there’s some hard choices to be made about the two champions of Evolve, Jackson Drake and Kendal Grey, who are full-time on NXT. Thatcher understands, and says that Evolve is about moving things along, so he’s asked both champions to defend their titles one last time in a FINAL EVOLUTION, and if they win, the title is vacated. So tonight it’ll be Kendal Grey defending against Tyra Mae Steele, and next week it’ll be…and Harlem Lewis interrupts and say that title shot is his. Thatcher shuts this down and says that he expected this, and he’s got a match for Lewis…and it’s right now!

Welcome back with more Evolve action as we have a supercard of sorts, yes, I said it, a supercard! We got Jackson Drake defending his Evolve Men’s Championship against Cappuccino Jones, Kendal Grey defending her Evolve Women’s Championship against PJ Vasa in a streetfight, and Brooks Jensen and Harlem Lewis duking it out in a special stipulation match, no titles on the line, DQs count, and one fall to a finish (with falls only counting inside the ring), unique gimmick match here and I’m looking forward to it!

If you want to watch you can do so totally free on Tubi right here.

We start with Vanity Project’s Jackson Drake, Brad Baylor, and Ricky Smokes meeting in their…club house (apparently they’re Nascar fans!) and the champ brags a bit about how good it’s going for them and runs down his achievements. Brad Baylor adds that he saw the girl that Joe Hendry swapped with a while back and adds that after Drake takes care of business, it’s party time. Jackson agrees and then says that Cappuccino better be ready, cause you need to be on another level when you step into the ring with Dr. Thirst (that name ugh).

While the Vanity Project definitely can play their characters in the ring, extended monologues are not their strength, it was awkward.

Welcome to the season finale of Evolve! No, I don’t know what that means either. We start with Peter Rosenberg (yes that Peter Rosenberg) running down Team PC vs. Team ID’s 10-man tag match later on in the show. And we jump to previous footage with Team PC’s Kam Hendrix, Harley Riggins, and Cole Braxton talking about the plan, Keanu Carver texted to say he’s good for tonight, and Harley cracks about Jax Presley (his partner) blew out a pec benching 495, which he adds “is my warmup weight.” Kam brings up that Team ID can’t win in a fair fight, and it’s next man up so he introduces…Cyrus, who is apparently some college football guy and a “blue chip athlete.” Hendrix vows to “make a few open roster spots” after he destroys Sean Legacy and Swipe Right.

Pretty generic stuff which is what we can expect from these guys, Harley Riggins at least has the ability to add a bit of extra-jerkishness to his act and is the only one to me that stands out at all.

Opening credits! Purple! Belts! Science! Flips! Posing!

At first we were in the primordial ooze of professional wrestling, but with luck and chemistry we will all Evolve! Okay that was probably too much, anyway we’re back with more Evolve and we got…stuff happening before the season finale and Succession 2: Pro Wrestling Bugaloo, so we’re setting the table so to speak. We start with Nikkita Lyons and Arianna Grace in a cold open, Lyons hasn’t been this excited since “Mercury stopped being in retrograde” and Grace brings up that while Kendal is doing well, she does have PJ Vasa 1v1 at Succession II: The Revenge. Lyons prods about how that’s not the exciting thing, so Grace brings up that it’s because of Laynie Luck repping WWE ID and Nikkita is frustrated before Arianna brings up Tyra Mae Steele’s official announcement as an Evolve talent! Lyons continues to be angry and reminds Arianna that the real excitement is that they’re going to have a match with Layla Diggs and Masyn Holiday later on and both Lyons and Grace vow to get revenge against them! And also they’re happy for Laynie Luck.

Okay that worked a lot better than the WrenQCC version of this last week cause Lyons and Grace are such cartoons that them doing whacky sitcom stuff actually works pretty well.

PURPLE! WRESTLERS! SCIENCE! It’s Evolve, only on Tubi!

It’s time, it’s time, it’s Evolve time! After two high concept (of a sort) shows the last couple weeks it seems that we’re returning to business as usual with Kendal Grey defending her Evolve Women’s Championship against Karmen Petrovic.

And speaking of…we open with Kendal and Wren in the lockerroom talking about how things are feeling a bit weird, they talk about how Kali Armstrong is on a bit of a losing streak, though they’re sure she’ll bounce back, Kendal brings up Tyra Mae Steele and PJ Vasa as rising threats. Wren brings up that Kendal is doing herself no favors with all these title defenses, but Grey isn’t RUNNING FROM THE GRIND (cough cough) and that pressure is a privilege and being on both shows is just a sign that people have faith in her (shoot comments…yadda yadda). Kendal brings up that she won the title at Succession, so she’s definitely going to defend it at the upcoming Succession II. Wren of course is supportive and agrees to help Kendal train before the match.

This was not one of Kendal’s better promos, but in her defense nobody sounds good doing the super awkward exposition stuff, at least her and Wren’s chemistry remains undefeated.

Credits! Purple! Science! Moves! Posing! And I think one of the lyrics is “you know what I’m doing this for” maybe, possibly.

Swipe Right (Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes) w/ Jackson Drake vs. Mike Cunningham and Eli Knight

We’re back with Evolve, filmed in the Evolve Dome! Where all the Evolvemaniacs are about to lose their Evolve-loving minds! We got a title match with Jackson Drake defending the Evolve men’s title against Kam Hendrix and some other stuff too I’m sure.

And we start with Harley Riggins and Jax Pressley talking about how they lift while Keanu Carver calls it a lie while they trash their locker room and Kam talks about how well it went last week and how he’s gonna win tonight. Braxton Cole walks in brings up that Sean Legacy is gonna clean this all up. And here’s Sean to start his janitorial services via the stipulation for last weeks lost.

Theme music! I think one of the lyrics talks about keeping it 100, we have stars, backflips, posing, lab fires, microscopes! It’s purple! It’s dangerous! It’s Evolve! Only on Tubi!

Tyra Mae Steele vs. Carlee Bright

Background: So Tyra, if you don’t remember (and it’s been a while) is of course an Olympic gold medalist wrestler signed to WWE and is still very, very happy to be here, though she’s updated her look a bit from last I remember. She’s just bursting with joy and energy during her entrance and has a bit of the “nice until she isn’t” thing. Bright of course is a bubbly cheerleader and the former partner of Kendal Grey who wanted to make her own path and start trying to win on her own…I uh…don’t like her chances here.

We’re back with more Evolve action in the Evolve Zone as I cannot remember who runs the show tonight. Oh right! Pete Rosenberg reminds us that since Team PC won the gauntlet match a ways back, they have total control tonight and a title match later, so Kam Hendrix, who won the shot, is calling it in next week…but this week he’s set up Evolve Men’s Champion Jackson Drake for a 3v1 beating. Nefarious!

We now cut to a walk and talk with Team ID with Cappuccino Jones talking about being from “Decafeteria” and stating they’re not scared, Sam Holloway adds that they’ve grinded too hard to be kicked out of the arena, Laynie Luck adds that she’s been making towns for 10 years to earn her spot, Aaron Rourke (in a sheer top) adds that Team PC doesn’t understand the struggle of working tiny venues and long car rides to get to where they’re at, Eli Knight is next to say they’re ready before Sean Legacy basically immediately cuts him off and says it doesn’t matter what Team PC’s plan A, B, or C is, they’ll be ready cause the only thing worse than Jackson Drake as Evolve champ is Kam Hendrix. A ref now comes up to inform them that Team PC told them that Sam, Aaron, Mike, and Eli are not booked and gotta go home or there will be fines and suspensions. Somehow this shocks and baffles Team ID, and it’s just Sean Legacy, Laynie Luck, and Cappuccino Jones tonight.

We’re back with more Evolve action, it’s faaaaaantastic! We open with Karmen Petrovic doing a walk and talk outside (though intelligently enough she’s avoided the parking lot) where she runs down the general goings on in Evolve (WWE ID vs. PC! Harlem Lewis!) but most importantly it’s about her versus Kali Armstrong who is coasting off being the first Evolve woman’s champion and doesn’t deserve all her continued title shots. Harsh words!

Powerslams! Beakers! Unintelligible lyrics! A purple color scheme! It’s Evolve!

Wendy Choo makes her way to the ring, and even though she’s now a smiling babyface she still has the creepy theme and tron. Choo is kinda sassy on the mic and says she has three resolutions, to be unbothered, unfiltered, and unapologetic. Wendy is a bit upset she’s never had a real shot at the Evolve women’s title, and so she’s calling out the person that made sure “I’ll never shut up again” in Kendal Grey. The champ comes out, but is cut off by interviewer Chuey Martinez (who is now the authority figure?) who says that due to last week’s title defense, Kendal isn’t supposed to wrestle again…but Grey is a fighting champ so if Wendy wants some, she can get some and out comes the ref.

We’re back with more Evolve as NXT is in upheaval and I’m sure the taped nature of this show isn’t going to lead to any awkward moments of random out of whack continuity…coughs. Oh, I suppose I should bring up that it’s Robert Stone on color and Peter Rosenberg on play by play, and it never gets less weird that Peter Rosenberg is doing wrestling commentary on a Z-grade WWE show.

We start with Team PC walking and talking through the parking lot at night as Harley Riggins and Jax Presley talk about they’re here and Team ID doesn’t belong, Keanu Carver (coughs loudly) adds “them boys got packed up” and Braxton Cole says there are only a few lingering around in The Vanity Project, and then Kam Hendrix adds that while ID used to run the joint, now they do and he’s going to take Jackson Drake’s Evolve title, and then we get Harley Riggins hitting Kam’s “Lights, Kamera, Action” catchphrase as they all laugh.

Now a follow-up from Vanity Project…who step into the building while it’s clearly light out and Brad Baylor talks about how they don’t care what the PC guys say (okay maybe Team PC got there before dawn?) and Jackson Drake adds he’s been champion for over 250 days (…seriously?) and he stacks up dubs like its his job (well it literally is your job!). They get confronted by other Team ID guys in Cappuccino Jones, Eli Knight, and Aaron Rourke, Rourke thinks their bluster is cute, Knight reminds Drake that Kam was a defensive lineman, and Jones drinks coffee. Rourke seems to be offering their assistance against the Team PC guys who outnumber Vanity Project. Vanity Project are offended these guys are talking to them since they run the joint, and Jones then tells them to calm down cause the PC guys are coming and since the Project have avoided them, Cappuccino thinks they might be a bit scared. Baylor brushes this off and Ricky Smokes adds an “irregardless” to remind us all he’s a dope (intentionally!). Jackson Drake instead challenges these guys to a trios match.

Welcome back as after a holiday break we have new Evolve content including a title match. We got “Super” Sean Legacy starting the show as he sorta monologues while entering the building and breaks down how 2025 was very good for him but now it’s 2026, but it’s a what have you done recently business, so he’s gotta make 2026 even better and he can start by winning the Evolve title from Jackson Drake tonight. Not a fantastic promo here but Sean isn’t gonna get over based on mic work anyway.

Roll the credits and I don’t remember shots of generic b-roll “science and chemistry” stuff, but they’re in THE LAB, get it?

Karmen Petrovic vs. Laynie Luck

Background: So Karmen of course is a NXT talent and yes, her doing nothing in NXT and being in Evolve might be one of those Signs To Worry About (what is the order of concern if you’re a NXT talent, being sent to TNA or being sent to Evolve?) but if you don’t know what she is, she’s a Bosnian-Canadian Karateka and she has an entrance where she’s got a sword, she kinda looks and comes across as a character in a cult favorite 90s fighting game. Laynie Luck is as of right now, the only woman signed to the WWE ID program and the WWE ID Women’s Champion (so many titles). She’s a strawberry blonde with a lot of tattoos, maroon and blue gear (good colors you don’t see a lot!) and since her tron had “Too Turnt” on it, which combined with her generic 90s movie club music lets me think that she’s got a party girl gimmick.

We start with It’s GAL in a pre-tape breaking down the big main-event, where the WWE ID guys vs. WWE PC guys. Team ID is Cappuccino Jones, Mike Cunningham, Aaron Rourke, and Marcus Mathers, but with Sean Legacy injured, we have a MYSTERY OPPONENT. Feel the excitement here. Team PC Keanu Carver, Brooks Jensen, Jax Pressley, Harley Riggins, and Braxton Cole, and I probably made one of those names up. It’s a gauntlet match, so no tags, just both guys competing til a fall and then the next one coming out until one team is eliminated. Apparently whatever team wins runs an episode of Evolve, and whomever gets the winning fall has an Evolve title shot. Huh, this is…more ornate than I expected. You got all that? No? Good, cause neither did I.

We start with a Vanity Project promo and Jackson Drake complaining cause Swipe Right have ruined their dorm but they’ll have one of the generic guys moms pay for the cleaning, but they stop bickering cause now we have Layla Diggs vs. Nikkita Lyons.

Layla Diggs vs. Nikkita Lyons

Background: So Nikkita Lyons beat down Masyn Holiday after a match, Layla took affront to that, and now we have a match, as one does. Layla is a track athlete and she’s facing the entirely nonsensical gimmick of Nikkita Lyons.

The Match: Wait apparently Malik Blade is still employed as he’s watching ringside and we get some standing grappling with Diggs getting the advantage before Nikkita uses power. Layla with a heel kick and a standing moonsault for a cover and then a headlock but Lyons uses power to move to the apron and uses the ropes for a takedown and some ground and pound and a snap suplex. Layla slips out of a slam and gets a cradle for 2 before Nikkita’s superkick gets 2.8. And then a…reverse Bronco Buster? But Nikkita gets distracted by Masyn Holiday and Layla gets a sunset flip for 3.

Okay so I’m going to be stepping into Evolve cause it’s a fun enough show and we need a reviewer of it, errr, need is probably a stretch, but I want to do it, so I shall. If you don’t know, WWE Evolve is basically Double A ball to NXT’s Triple A (not that AAA), D-2 to D-1 football. It’s a mix of what NXT kinda USED to be 10+ years ago and also what LVL Up was. The super green rookies wrestling and feuding in a tiny little warehouse in taped blocks, booked by Gabe Sapolsky. I am going to try a few different review styles for this compared to my regular style just cause Evolve like…folks the show kinda needs to be graded on a curve here.

We start with a shot of Kendal Grey (Evolve Women’s Champion) walking to the arena and she cuts a promo about how she is a fighting champion who doesn’t care about who she faces and she’s ready for Chantel Monroe and how other people think she’s just conceited, Kendal knows she can beat Chantel and she’ll do it again tonight.

Solid promo! Kendal’s weakest point is talking and stuff like this might be clunky, but it’s just about reps.

Carlee Bright vs. Arianna Grace