7 Ups And 4 Downs From Evolve 10th Anniversary

2. Unification Match Showcases Talent

The Evolve/WWE title unification match really showed you the range of wrestlers they have competing out there.

Austin Theory looks like the prototypical wrestler, and by his own admission is a future WWE champion in waiting – and at 21, he might very well be right. Then there’s JD Drake, who by his own admission, looks like he should be driving the ring truck and setting up the ring, rather than wrestling in it.

But both men got down to business inside the ropes, putting together a pretty entertaining Winner Take All match. Drake in particular was impressive, likely because it didn’t look like he should have been able to pull off half the moves he did. And Theory definitely seems to be a guy we’ll see more of in the future.

Interestingly, we should note that JD’s gimmick is being a blue collar guy, which sounds awfully similar to Heavy Machinery (not suggesting either one “stole” it from the other). But Drake’s gimmick isn’t cartoony, nor does it drag down his wrestling at all. Compare that to Tucker and Otis’ antics. That just shows you the difference between a wrestling promotion and WWE.