Over the past 24 hours, one of the biggest rumors going around in wrestling involves the prospect of WWE NXT working with WWN. WWN is the parent company of one of the top independent wrestling companies in the United States, Gabe Sapolsky’s EVOLVE Wrestling, as well as Full Impact Pro Wrestling and the now-defunct Dragon Gate USA.
The possible deal between WWE and WWN would also involve companies such as EVOLVE signing talent to contractual deals, including merchandising rights, and then serving as a kind of minor league feeding system to NXT and WWE. This would work in a similar fashion to what Ohio Valley Wrestling once did for WWE in the early 2000s. Under an arrangement like this, WWE could bring in talent from EVOLVE or Full Impact Pro without having to worry about prior merchandising conflicts.
Finally, another motivating factor involves the NXT women’s division. WWE is very high on building up a roster of athletic women wrestlers in NXT, and WWN also owns the Florida-based SHINE Wrestling promotion. SHINE is a successful promotion based around women’s wrestling, and it also happens to be based in the same state as NXT. WWE is interested in using WWN’s SHINE Wrestling as a source for bringing in women to NXT in the future.
The situation is still a fluid one, as no deal has been made between WWN and WWE as of Thursday morning. Johnson notes that the deal is being pushed by a top WWE developmental executive, with Johnson speculating that this most likely is Paul Levesque (Triple H).
: HHH has turned NXT into a company that does indies better than the indies, so now he wants his own territories to pluck talent.
