10 Last Minute Changes That Saved Wrestling Stables

Triple H’s on-screen presence throughout WWE for the last 30 years has been really rather consistent and, as such, you can kind of track the company by era depending on what he was doing: DX Trips, reign of terror Trips, corporate shill Trips, NXT Daddy Trips etc.

During the early 00s after the disbanding of DX, Triple H was leader of a stable by the name of Evolution. He represented the current state of the industry; with his council, leather handbag in the shape of a man Ric Flair, harkening back to wrestling’s past. Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle though was who should represent the future. Randy Orton was a no-brainer but the muscle of the group, at one point, was a role considered for Mark Jindrak.

So close was this decision to being final that Jindrak shot promotional material for the stable but an assessment was made that he wasn’t quite ready for that level of pressure. Even Jindrak himself has admitted in recent years that he wasn’t the right fit, saying “attitude and s**t matters. Orton got with it… I didn’t.”

Evolution’s proudest accomplishment is breaking-out two of the industry’s biggest stars of that era in both Randy Orton and Jindrak’s eventual replacement Batista. More than that, the former Evolution nominee departing WWE to go work in Mexico proved to be the right move for the young Jindrak. In essence, everybody benefitted from this last minute switcheroo.