As EVOLVE prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, WWE caught up with Daniel Bryan to ask him about the company. During the conversation, Bryan revealed that he was actually he one who came up with the name EVOLVE, and his thought process behind the name was to help create something that became different.
“Well, it’s interesting. I wish I could have spent more time at EVOLVE. I was actually the one who came up with the name EVOLVE for the company, because I looked around at the wrestling industry and everything seemed like it hadn’t changed much, or it was changing in a way that I didn’t like,” he said. “Both in WWE, both on the independents and in Japan. I was like, ‘This whole thing, for it to remain popular, there needs to be an evolution. It can’t be a static product, things have to change.’ And I got with Gabe, and Gabe was telling me about his promotion and stuff, and I said, ‘Man, we should name it EVOLVE and that will be what this company represents.'”
Bryan also touched on how exciting it is to see something that he had a hand in effect so many people. EVOLVE has helped launch many superstars into the WWE spotlight, and according to Bryan, it’s nice to know that he was able to do something that helped so many.