SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor
First, Heath Slater suffered a gruesome eye injury at a WWE house show last Saturday night in Maine. Then, Slater was the only eligible roster member not drafted Tuesday night on Smackdown.
To add insult to injury, WWE actually did not complete the Draft since 59 of the 60 announced spots were filled, leaving Slater without a home. This was due to WWE changing the mathematically efficient Group of Five picks in each round to a Group of Six mid-way through the Draft, resulting in neither Raw nor Smackdown having the 60th pick.
Slater played up fictional commission by tweeting about being “the hottest free agent” in wrestling, taking a page from how NXT has introduced recent TNA stars like Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, and Eric Young.
But, WWE’s website introduced WWNLive’s EVOLVE brand as a potential destination for Slater to continue playing up the fiction.
WWE fictionalized that “rumors have even surfaced that sports-entertainment’s newest free agent has already been in talks with EVOLVE Wrestling’s Gabe Sapolsky and has reached out to William Regal regarding promotions in the United Kingdom.”
It feels very similar to Slater’s former Social Outcast stablemate Curtis Axel playing up how the 2015 Royal Rumble went for him when he was not actually eliminated from the Rumble after being attacked by Erick Rowan.
How this all sorts out seems pretty simple – Slater joins the Raw roster to balance out the current depth chart break down of 17 faces and 16 heels.
Never heard of Evolve.