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| Merging with EVOLVE effective now |
Gabe Sapolsky had been promising big news on Black Friday for a couple of weeks prior to the day after Thanksgiving. Usually, Black Friday news means big DVD sales for indie wrestling companies. Yes, Dragon Gate USA did have a big half-off sale, but that wasn't the announcement. The news actually dealt with a merger, with DGUSA joining forces officially with EVOLVE.
This move sounds like a no-brainer to me. One, Gabe being the head booker for two promotions, even ones that run as sparsely as these two run, has had to tax him creatively. It doesn't matter what the workloads for each are; it can be exceedingly difficult to have two different creative visions in one's grasp and to keep them completely separate without either one suffering. Two, I'm not sure about the kinds of gates EVOLVE was getting in their most recent shows, but the fact that the company's most recent show was cancelled couldn't have been good for morale.
Three, as I stated before, I'm not sure what the EVOLVE concept was supposed to accomplish in concrete terms. As an arm of a company that has titles and interesting storylines, it might have some value. They also announced that there might be an EVOLVE title coming forth, and I think that could be good. Then again, if the promotion was going to stay separate, I still would have loved to have seen them go to an 18-22 month regular season and a one-weekend playoff extravaganza to crown a "seasonal" Champion. Ah well.
Given that my faith in DGUSA has been restored, I'm interested in seeing what role EVOLVE will play in DGUSA, especially since it said on the news release that EVOLVE will "bridge gaps" between Dragon Gate weekends. Maybe this is where the American talent will get their chance to develop more of a niche. Maybe this is where side stories will get developed. Who knows. However, I like where it's going.
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, Chikara and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography
