Why Liberace appeared at Wrestlemania, and more links between him and Wrestling

It’s often been said in books and documentaries that the success of Wrestlemania hinged on it’s use of celebrities to make it feel like no ordinary card at Madison Square Garden. There were some that came from the sports world like Muhammad Ali and Billy Martin, ones you might expect to see involved with wrestling, some and some that were less obvious.


In this video I’m going to get into every involvement I could find of Liberace in wrestling. I know it seems like he’s an odd choice to make a video about when you also have Cyndi Lauper and Muhammad Ali there too, but I’m also working on separate videos about them. The goal is to look for any other involvement they have had in wrestling, and I might do more of these in time.


At the first Wrestlemania on March 31st 1985, Liberace was introduced just before the main event, and announced to be the time keeper for the match pitting Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. At the age of sixty five, he would enter the Garden with four of the Rockette’s and would dance around the ring with a big smile on his face. If you’re wondering, I could find absolutely no information on how the Rockette’s were brought in, so don’t worry, there'll be no video on them. On the surface, Liberace might seem like an odd choice, I mean look at this image, one of these is not like the others. Maybe though, there was some method to it.


Earlier in the same week, Liberace would be interviewed on a local news broadcast, and would talk in depth about his love for New York, having performed in Radio City Music Hall many times. He was also no stranger to Madison Square Garden, the site of Wrestlemania, as on May 26th 1954 he would perform there to fifthteen thousand people.


On March 29th, WWF would hold a press conference, where Hogan, Muhammad Ali and Liberace would appear. Liberace was quoted as saying ”If my mother was alive today, she would say, ‘Son, you’re finally a man.’ Because she was a great fan of wrestling.” It turns out that this, combined with his love for New York, may have explained why Liberace was asked, and why he accepted the chance to appear.


Liberace’s involvement with WWF wasn’t limited to just an appearance in the Garden though, as he would appear briefly on the March 30th episode of WWF Championship Wrestling, being interviewed by Mene Gene Okerlund. I say interviewed by, but that’s very generous wording to be honest. This was more of a thirty second TV spot, designed to let you know very quickly that Liberace will be at Wrestlemania, and he is looking forward to it.


Later on that same night, Liberace also appeared on Season ten episode fifthteen of Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, and also included appearances from their opponents Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. While he didn’t interact with any of them on the show, only appearing in a talk show sketch with Billy Crystal and Martin Short, he could be seen front and center with Hogan and Mr. T in the Goodnights.


While he might have only made one appearance in a WWF arena, in an Associated Press article that was published days before Wrestlemania, “He recalled that Gorgeous George, a champion of the 1950s, once sent the Liberace family a lavender turkey for Thanksgiving.” George was sometimes considered a pioneer of television wrestling, and his name will come up again a bit later.


As Liberace will likely never come up on this channel again, here are a few more tenuous links I found between him and wrestling. In a 2020 tribute to Mr. Wrestling II following his passing, Dave Meltzer wrote of his wife Olivia Walker, who was notable for having made robes for Ric Flair, as well as other wrestlers such as Dusty Rhodes, Tommy Rich, Paul Orndorff and her husband. Dave also notes that she made clothing for musicians too, naming Dolly Parton, Porter Wagner and Liberace.


As with many other figures in pop culture, Liberace has had wrestlers that took inspiration from him. In 1999, Robbie Kellum, who had previously wrestled under the name Gorgeous George III, the original being a distant relative, would be brought in by WCW. If you're wondering who Gorgeous George two is, the name was given to Stephanie Sellers, the valet of Randy Savage in WCW. Kellum had a few stints in WCW and struggled to find a foothold until given a new Liberace inspired gimmick. Gorgeous George III was given a piano, sparkly ring gear, and the name The Maestro. This was a short lived character, as were many in WCW around the time, with his most notable feud with Earnest Miller, culminating with James Brown appearing at Superbrawl 2000. Unadvertised. WCW 2000.


One last tenuous link isn’t actually to do with the man himself. In April 2010, Deadline reported on WWE acquiring the film rights to a 2008 biography called ‘Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Popular Culture’. The article says “A Gorgeous George film was McMahon’s idea, an exception to his unwritten rule not to make pictures about wrestlers. Pavone, (Mike Pavone, head of WWE Studios) said George’s flamboyant persona not only set the tone for future stars like Hulk Hogan and The Rock, but also helped Bob Dylan come out of his shell and influenced the likes of Muhammad Ali, James Brown, and Liberace.” While both Muhmmad Ali and James Brown had said in the past that they took inspiration from George and other wrestlers, as far as I can tell Liberace didn’t ever say such a thing publicly.


So there sia ll I could find of Liberace’s involvement in the world of pro wrestling. One last thing I found of note was an interesting quote that was published in the March 26th 2001 edition of Figure Four Weekly. Bryan Alvarez wrote that a main event level WWE star had been interviewed by Mancow, no I don't know either, and bemoaned the use of celebrities in wrestling. “He said the company didn’t need to use celebrities at WrestleMania anymore because the wrestlers were the big stars now. He said he didn’t think Liberace sold one extra PPV buy, except maybe to Pat Patterson.” This quote came from Triple H, who probably changed his tune recently when he saw IShowSpeed’s guts being turned inside out go viral.


Sources:

Associated Press article March 29th 1985, Liberace quote

Mr. Wresting II Tribute, Dave Meltzer, June 15th 2020: https://members.f4wonline.com/tributes/mr-wrestling-ii-tribute/

Gorgeous George Film:
https://deadline.com/2010/04/wwe-films-pic-flurry-culminates-in-gorgeous-george-wrestler-biopic-35862/

A History of Wrestling at the Theater in Madison Square Garden.

 

Madison Square Garden. After all these years still the worlds most famous arena, mainly because all the others change their names. Looking at you Crypto arena, you’re still the Staples center to me. This video isn’t about MSG though, it’s about the Theatre underneath it. Formerly known as Felt Forum and the Paramount Theater, the place has had it’s current name for nearly thirty years. It has hosted legendary boxers, comedians, and yes, the Wiggles, but more importantly, it has hosted a fair bit of wrestling over the years.

On March 11th 2025 NXT Roadblock was presented from the venue under the worlds most famous arena, and it would mark the first time a full WWE broadcast had been aired from there. Did you know though, that WWE had run a match in the venue once before? And did you also know that other promotions had run in it too?

In this video, we’ll look at every wrestling show that ever occurred in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. We’ll look at the circumstances around each event, and what happened on each night.

Before I get into actual shows held in the venue, it’s worth noting that wrestling fans would fill Felt Forum back in the 1970’s and 80’s, as fans who couldn’t get into the WWF cards could watch in there on closed circuit. Felt Forum’s capacity for this was around five thousand, meaning that MSG’s attendance was technically even higher than often reported. This video is more concerned with actual events that took place in there, but it’s still worth noting. The first time a live wrestling show took place in the venue was in the Paramount Theater days, and it might not be who you would expect.

April 14th 1993 WCW

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=54390


On April 14th 1993, WCW would run the Paramount Theater. This might well have been the first time a live wrestling card was presented in the MSG theater, and it was also WCW’s first ever event in New York City, the home base of their biggest rival. In 1989, still under the NWA banner, the company would run house shows in Rochester, Troy, Syracuse and Buffalo. The first time they televised an event from the state was Clash of the Champions 9, New York Knock Out in Troy later that year. Until April 1993, the closest they had come to Madison Square Garden was the Meadowlands, then known as the Brendan Byrne arena, just a few miles away, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

At the time the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the show was considered a complete disaster by fans in attendance, and by staff behind the scenes. Firstly, Ric Flair who had been scheduled to make a non-wrestling appearance was not at the show, as the plane he was flying in from Charlotte on had engine problems. This resulted in chants throughout the night of “we want Flair”, but WCW was unable to fix this. Dave even notes that the show was compared negatively to that years recent Wrestlemania 9, and that’s saying something.

In another interesting note from the week before;’s issue, Rick Rude had appeared on Howard Stern on April 9th to try and promote the event. I say try, as Rick barely got a word in as Stern cracked jokes at Fred the Elephant Boy. The Observer also noted that WCW had far from sold out the venue, drawing two thousand nine hundred paid, just over half of what the venue could hold. In the following week’s issue, this number was corrected to just two thousand three hundred, moving it to less than half.

As far as the card, reports were that the best match of the night, Ron Simmons versus Chris Benoit was stopped abruptly a minute in, for which nobody knew the reason. In the main event, Sting defeated WCW World champion Vader by DQ, when his manager Harley Race interfered. According to the Observer, this “only added to the feeling of being ripped off by the high ($25, $19, $11) ticket prices.” Bloody hell, try getting into a WWE show for that now. WCW would return to the Paramount Theater a few years later, right before one of their biggest moments in history, but we’ll get back to that soon. The next show at the venue might be a surprising one though.


July 27th 1994 AAA/ICW

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=75048

On July 27th 1994, Triple A of all companies ran in the Paramount Theater. Not only did they outsell WCW the year earlier, but they did so by hundreds of fans, with two thousand eight hundred paid reported initially. Dave notes in the Observer that the number may have ended up higher than this, with more fans piling in throughout the night to make the place feel like a sellout by the end. The event was part of a two show tour, with Triple A also running the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago the night before. While both shows were money losers for the promotion, the tickets were priced at between twenty five and fifty dollars, and so made for an impressive looking gate figure.

As early as May, Dave Meltzer had referred to the events, which were promoted as Triple A IWC shows as a “gamble”. He says “While both New York and Chicago have large spanish speaking populations, this is the first time AAA/IWC will have attempted shows outside of the Southwest and in markets where there is no past history of successful Lucha Libre style shows.” Triple A had run in California a fair bit, but as Dave also said the week earlier, “venturing outside of California for Lucha Libre is definitely a major dice roll.”

While many Triple A stars that US fans would come to know in later years were on the card, such as Konnan, Psicosis and La Parka, there were a fair few Americans too. Diamond Dallas Page, Too Cold Scorpio were on both nights, and in the main event, Jake Robers teamed with Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr. While Jake had wrestled for Triple A a few times in the year earlier in California and Mexico, and Scorpio would wrestle for them after the New York and Chicago shows, these would be DDP’s only matches for the promotion.

Going into the show, it was also announced that Pedro Morales would be honored on the night. The Puerto Rican Morales had been WWWF champion from 1971 to 73, and had sold out Madison Square Garden throughout that time.


June 30th 1996 - One week before Bash at the Beach 96

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=44938

On June 30th 1996 WCW would return to the Paramount Theater, this time with a familiar face to the New York fans on the card. No, not Hulk Hogan but more on him in a minute. The semi-main event on the night, Randy Savage versus Ric Flair, a very clever main event to put on given that they had faced off at Wrestlemania 8 a few years earlier, was refereed by Bruno Sammartino, famed seller outer of Madison Square Garden. Pedro Morales also appeared, accompanying Konnan to the ring. Overall this show could be considered a far greater success than the last, as three thousand five hundred paid were reportedly there according to the New York State Athletic commission, much improved over last time.

Reports that came in to the Observer after the event were generally positive, however one wrestler on the card didn’t receive too warm a welcome. United States champion Konnan would defend his title against Kevin Sullivan, but would be heckled throughout the match by the crowd, who were chanting things such as “You still suck,” “ECW,” and “Sandman kicked your ass.” These chants are referring to Konnan’s brief time in ECW, where on his first and last nights in the promotion he would lose to the Sandman for the ECW World title. This poor reception would cause Konnan to go on a profanity laden rant. “Konnan after swearing at the fans, which drew him a lot of heat among WCW officials, said that ECW was in a bingo hall and WCW was where the big boys played and they were drawing 5,000 people. Sullivan quickly got the mic away from him and basically did an apology saying that those weren’t the opinions of WCW and that WCW wasn’t feel that way and then said some politically very nice things about being a fan of ECW.” At Bash at the Beach a week later, Konnan would lose the US title to Ric Flair. Whether this was planned already or a punishment for what happened we might never know, but it’s surely not the thing anyone remembers from Bash at the Beach 1996.

I said before that I would get back to Hulk Hogan, well one week after this event would take place, Bash at the Beach 1996 would happen, where he would do a John Cena as I’m now calling it, and turn on the Hulkamaniacs, forming the New World Order. Neither Hall, Nash or Hogan were on the show, but who knew that a week later the three would make history?


30th August 1998 Summerslam 1998 - Lion's Den match

Remember that one WWE match I hinted at in the intro? It happened at Summerslam 1998 on August 30th 1998. While the rest of the card, headlined by Stone Cold Steve Austin defending the WWF title against the Undertaker took place in the main MSG arena, one match did take place in the theater. Half way through the night, Ken Shamrock would do battle with his rival Owen Hart in a brand new kind of match, as they would step into the Lions Den.

At Fully Loaded a month earlier, the two had a fight in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon, where Owen would cheat to win by using a dumbell. For the rematch, they would battle in a cage that was more suited to Shamrock, clearly inspired heavily by the UFC Octagon.

In an interview with James Romero in 2022, Ken Shamrock said that he had input in the design of the cage, including the slanted walls, which according to him allowed he and his opponents to work with them similar to ring ropes, like how Owen jumps off the wall in the Summerslam ‘98 match. In later versions of the match, weapons were hung from the top of it, and Ken also says that was his idea. One other thing Shamrock adds is that the walkway along the top was thought of as something for a wrestler to jump off, though this would never happen in any of the Lion’s Den matches.

In the August 10th Observer, Dave would lay out the tentative plans for the match. “They have booked the 4,500-seat Theater in Madison Square Garden (formerly known as the Paramount Theater and before that the Felt Forum) and will set up a fighting structure similar to a UFC octagon and the Shamrock-Hart match will take place there with all tickets $18 and they’ll probably also do a live angle in that building, and they’ll air the rest of the show on closed-circuit from next door.” In another interesting part, Dave notes that “WWF asked UFC for use of the octagon for the match but even though UFC and WWF have been on good terms, as WWF has given UFC plugs on TV for its PPV events and UFC has allowed WWF use of all Shamrock and Severn footage, UFC felt it would be compromising the product if the octagon structure was used in a worked match.”

Perhaps the reason that WWE hasn’t attempted anything quite like this since lies in the numbers from the night, as fifthteen thousand paying fans were reportedly in the main arena, while the Theatre didn’t do so well. While with the Lion’s Den cage in there, the venue was set up for four and a half thousand fans, only two and a half thousand attended, of which eighteen hundred had bought tickets. While WWF likely wasn’t hurting for money following the night thanks to it’s high ticket sales in the arena, two hundred grand in merchandise sales and seven hundred thousand buys on pay per view, as the Observer notes, “Considering the hype for this show and the state of the business, that theater figure just exemplifies, even more so than the Nitro attempt in Philadelphia some months back, that closed-circuit is dead.”

Despite the UFC aesthetic, Hart and Shamrock had a very pro wrestling feeling match in the MMA setting. I don’t know what they used for the flooring of the cage, but the bumps taken in the match sounded pretty gnarly. Former UFC heavyweight champion Dan Severn would refuse to throw in the towel for Owen Hart, allowing Shamrock the win, which would lead to a submission match between Severn and Hart in the following month.

The Lion’s Den would return a few more times, often lurking in the corner of the arena, much like mud pits, graves and other gimmicks had for other matches, and would not be seen again after Ken Shamrock left WWF a year later. Now that WWE and UFC are both under the same corporate overlords, who knows if the Lions Den could someday make a comeback? I do, it’s not likely.


November 16th 2016 NXT House show

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=164496


For the next show, we jump eighteen years ahead. On November 16th 2016 NXT black and gold, the name retroactively given to the super indie days of the brand, presented a live event from the Theatre at MSG, which was reported to have had three thousand fans in attendance. That number sounds massive for what is a developmental brand, but NXT was becoming a very strong at this time, even touring internationally and holding WWE Network specials outside of their regular home at Full Sail University.

I did say at the start that some of these stories weren’t exactly going to be revelations, well the most newsworthy thing that was reported about this NXT event, were some special guests in the crowd. Shane McMahon, his kids and former member of the Mean Street Posse, Pete Gas were all in attendance, and they would even take part a little bit, dancing with No Way Jose following his win over Roderick Strong. That’s right, No Way Jose was a thing, and he beat a former Ring of Honor World Champion. Later in the night it would also be noted that Johnny Gargano would dive out of the ring, nearly landing in Shane’s lap. Well that is one way to get noticed but it might not get you onto the main roster.

The show was headlined by a six man tag team match, in which NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and DIY would defeat Samoa Joe and the NXT tag team champions, the Revival, now known as FTR. Shinsuke would pin Dash Wilder after hitting a kinshasa, just a few days before NXT Takeover Toronto, where Samoa Joe would defeat him for the NXT title. Joe and Nakamura had been trading the championship back and forth for much of 2016, and would continue to into the new year. Shinsuke had originally won it from Joe at Takeover Brooklyn 2 in August, but Joe would take it back in November. Nakamura would win the title back in December in Osaka Japan, and would end the feud by retaining it in a steel cage match in Melbourne Australia one week later, though this would air in January 2017.

Speaking of Takeover Toronto, DIY would also win the NXT tag team championships from the Revival. This match would rank number one in a top twenty five list of wwe.com’s top matches of 2016. These were truly interesting times for NXT, when they had a mixture of guys they wanted to build themselves, mixing with top international indie talent.


September 15th 2019 AAA Lucha Invades NY

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=228061

For the final entry in this video, Triple A would return to the former Paramount Theater twenty five years after their first time there. This would be the only show on this list to take place during the brief time that it was known as the Hulu Theater, though it was originally supposed to take place inside Madison Square Garden itself. The story of this is long and complicated in itself, as Triple A had been trying to get an event in the Garden since the year earlier. WWE had long had a stranglehold on running MSG, but in June 2018, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that “the Garden had been reaching out to other wrestling companies as WWE has not been running at the venue consistently, choosing instead to run the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. WWE is running all of their Wrestlemania 35 week events at Barclays, which has been in a promotional war with MSG over touring acts since the Brooklyn venue opened in 2012.” This may well have led to Ring of Honor and new Japan being able to run in the Garden in April 2019.

In the August 26th Observer, Dave reports that the show was officially moved to the Hulu Theater, citing low ticket sales and very poor advertising. PWInsider reported that the decision was “quietly made two weeks earlier after AAA executives met with Garden executives.” Dave adds that at this point they had two thousand tickets sold, so these could likely be transferred over to the smaller venue. Another problem the show faced was the promotion not being able to get work visa’s, which Dave blamed in the Trump administration. “It’s been hard for Japan, but because of Trump’s presidency, it’s ten times worse for those from Mexico. We were told that visas used to take maybe a month, but there are some visas that have taken eight months and they still haven’t been approved.”

On September 15th 2019, Lucha Invades New York would take place, co-promoted with Impact Wrestling. The link with Impact came about only a couple of weeks before the event, as the September 9th Observer notes that Triple A didn’t have a license to promote in New York, but Impact did as they had run there before. At that time, the only match announced that included Impact talent was Taya Valkyrie versus Tessa Blanchard, and possibly due to them coming to help out, more Impact names would be added to the show. Josh Alexander, Sami Callihan and Michael Elgin all represented Impact in a six man tag against Triple A stars, while a couple of other matches would feature regulars for both promotions, as Taya Valkyrie would defeat Tessa Blanchard for the Reina de Reinas championship, while the Lucha Bros would defend the Triple A World tag team titles against Santana and Ortiz.

Looking at the card, even with the Impact wrestlers on it, one name noticeably stands out. Former two time UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. I should probably warn you here that I'm not well versed in lucha libre, so apologies if I butcher any names here. Cain was taking part in his second professional match, his first being a month earlier at Triplemania twenty seven, a match that also had Cody Rhodes in it. On this night at the Hulu Theater he would team up with Brian Cage, who was an Impact talent at the time, to face El Texano Jr, Rey Escorpion and Taurus, now known as AEW’s Beast Mortos.

Not long after this event, Cain would sign what was reported by major outlets to be a “multi Year deal” with WWE, and later that month, he would have his one and only televised match for the promotion, a two minute clash loss to his former UFC rival, Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia. As of me making this video, this would be his one and only singles match of his pro wrestling career. He would wrestle one more match at a house show in Mexico City, before being released on April 28th 2020 as a cost cutting measure during the pandemic, along with a slew of other wrestlers.

Aside from all of the issues I mentioned earlier, there were more woes for Triple A after the show. Lucha Invades New York had been available as both in i-pay per view on Fite, and on traditional pay per view, the numbers for the latter being terrible. In the Observer, Dave reported that “In more than one market with a high percentage of Hispanics, there were 0 buys, as in not a low number, but zero. Based on actual numbers we have, it would indicate less than 60 buys nationwide and even that may be high because the early market actually included heavy Hispanic markets. There must have been some iPPV numbers, but our response level was very low.” In the same newsletter Dave noted that the show would air for free on AXS tv, where Impact also aired.

So that brings us to the present day, and NXT Roadblock. While the event had begun in 2016 as a WWE Network special on the road to Wrestlemania, since 2022 the name had been used for a special televised episode of NXT. This year's iteration was first announced on February 11th, exactly one month before, and was booked into the Theatre to tie in the Raw on the previous night coming from the Garden. NXT has run some really interesting venues over the last year, like the former ECW arena and long may it continue, as it gives these shows a very special look and feel to them. WWE made the place look so stunning, it makes me wonder why they haven’t run the venue more.

As of the afternoon of the show according to Wrestle Tix on X, they had distributed over four thousand seven hundred tickets, with just fifty eight remaining based on the setup they had. The venue was displaying a big “Sold out” sign outside, and as far as I can tell, NXT Roadblock may have been the first show to achieve this. If all of the numbers I have quoted through this video are accurate, that makes this the most successful wrestling show to ever come from the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.

That doesn’t feel too unbelievable though, with WWE riding high these days, breaking some kind of record seemingly everywhere they go. The card for Roadblock was absolutely stacked too, with the Hardy’s defending their TNA tag team titles, as well as a match for the NXT championship, and a title for title match between two of WWE’s biggest acquisitions of last year who seemed to be on a collision course. NXT hasn’t just out sold their own last effort in 2016, they have outsold every other wrestling show the venue ever held, and I bet the LFG legends think they did it too. Except for Mickie James, she seems cool.


Sources:

Wrestling Observer April 26th 1993 WCW show 1 report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-26-1993-observer-newsletter-disastrous-wcw-show-msg-kerry-von/

Wrestling Observer April 19th 1993 Howard Stern https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-19-1993-observer-newsletter-von-erich-death-fallout-hogan-title/

Howard Stern April 9th 1993 - Rick Rude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2veZNPsm3A

Wrestling Observer August 1st 1994 AAA report: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-1-1994-observer-newsletter-mcmahon-titan-not-guilty-92761/

Handheld AAA New York Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmuOz5jY1U

Wrestling Observer July 4th 1994: AAA ticket prices https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-4-1994-observer-newsletter-jury-selection-mcmahon-trial-horrible/

Wrestling Observer June 20th 1994 Pedro Morales note https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-20-1994-observer-newsletter-wcw-debuts-hulk-hogan-wwf-debuts-fake/

Wrestling Observer May 9th 1994, AAA show is a gamble https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-9-1994-observer-newsletter-charles-austin-receives-gigantic/

Wrestling Observer July 8th 1996 - WCW return and Konnan story https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-8-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-warriorwwe-relationship/

Wrestling Observer July 15th 1996 WCW 2 attendance https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-15-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-bash-beach-1996-recap-ufc/

Wrestling Observer August 10th 1998 Lions Den https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-10-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-96877/

Wrestling Observer September 7th 1998 Summerslam 1998 report

https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-7-1998-ric-flair-legal-battle/

Ken Shamrock on the Lion's Den Cage - WSI November 18th 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_tLK3BBs8o

Wrestling Observer November 23rd 2016 NXT show recap: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-28-2016-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwe-survivor-series/

WWE.com’s top matches 25 of 2016: https://www.wwe.com/article/top-25-matches-of-2016

PWInsider June 22nd 2018 MSG upset with WWE https://www.pwinsider.com/article/118328/does-aaa-still-have-dates-at-madison-square-garden.html?p=1

PWInsider August 16th 2019 Show moved to Hulu Theater: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/128831/aaa-nyc-return-moved-from-madison-square-garden.html?p=1

Wrestling Observer August 19th 2019 Visa issues https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-19-2019-observer-newsletter-summerslam-and-g1-finals-reviews/

Wrestling Observer August 26th 2019 AAA moved from MSG: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-26-2019-observer-newsletter-birth-wednesday-night-war-more/

Wrestling Observer September 9th 2019 Impact involvement https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-9-2019-observer-newsletter-aew-all-out-review-chris-jericho/

Wrestling Observer September 23rd 2019 AAA show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-23-2019-observer-newsletter-nxt-debut-usa-clash-champions/

ESPN reporting Cain’s WWE signing: https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/27822250/cain-velasquez-signs-multiyear-deal-wwe-tyson-fury-appear



Wrestle Tix on X from March 11th 2025: https://x.com/WrestleTix/status/1899598476377272563

The Creation of Evolve Wrestling: Gabe's Exodus

 

Coming soon to Tubi and YouTube internationally, WWE is set to launch it’s fourth weekly show, sort of, known as Evolve, but that name has a long history out on the indies. Over it’s ten years as an independent promotion, Evolve hosted many talents who would become future stars all over wrestling, with many of those becoming champions. Evolve may have been sold to WWE in 2020, but it’s beginnings were as indie as they could be, by which I mean in born out of a desire to stick it to ex-employers, allegedly. In this video, We’ll look at the events that led to Evolve. We’ll follow the timeline from it’s creation to the first event, as well as the wrestlers who were involved from the start, and how show one went. You might also hear from the company’s founder himself, if it gets past the YouTube copyright overlords.


Evolve’s story begins with it’s founder Gabe Sapolsky leaving Ring of Honor, where he had served as it’s booker from the start of the promotion to October 2008. According to the Wrestling Observer months afterwards, Cary Silkin, who had owned Ring of Honor since 2004, “fired Sapolsky on 10/25 in Edison, NJ, although it was largely because Silken wanted to take the company in another direction, feeling the product wasn’t drawing a mainstream audience. The argument was whether any significant audience of that type could be drawn without television, which the company didn’t have at the time.” His firing occurred at the event titled ‘Ring of Homicide 2’, a not at all daunting title for a new fan. Gabe’s last show was not a particularly stand out one, apart from the second of two return matches for the former World champion, who brought his LAX tag team partner Hernandez with him for a match with the Briscoes.


During Gabe’s time as booker, having cut his teeth working under Paul Heyman in ECW, he had gained a reputation for being an exceptional creative mind behind the promotion, earning several best booker awards and contributing to the rise of stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and many more, but there was an argument of whether or not Gabe’s ROH could draw more eyes to it, or would it be stuck at the level it had gotten to? Following his absence, Ring of Honor would change it’s product, toning down the heavy emphasis on workrate, and it’s darker storylines like their emo group the Age of the Fall. These changes occurred under it’s new booker Adam Pearce now of WWE, who would help the move into television with Ring of Honor on HDNet. Gabe would later admit that he had begun feeling burnout in his role at ROH, so despite his stellar reputation, it may have worked out well for him.


In April 2009 Gabe’s new venture was made known, Dragon Gate USA. The project was announced by Japanese promotion Dragon Gate officially on April 15th, and the plan at the time to do six-ish shows per year, with Gabe at the helm. It was also announced that Dragon Gate intended to send over eight of their top Japanese wrestlers per show, and the rest of the card would be filled out with domestic talent. “The goal is to draw 400 to 600 fans per event, based on the idea that Dragon Gate itself has become well known enough in the U.S. to draw that level of a niche audience.” This announcement was in a way, a kick in the teeth for ROH, as they had previously had a good relationship with Dragon Gate, especially over Wrestlemania Weekend, which as Dave Meltzer noted in the Observer when covering the announcement were some of ROH’s most profitable and sought after shows each year. The most notable being Supercard of Honor 2006, which occurred on March 31st 2006 in Chicago Ridge, Illinois on the same weekend as Wrestlemania 22. That event featured a Dragon Gate showcase six man tag between Do Fixer and Blood Generation, six relatively unknown wrestlers at the time in the US, who would achieve a five star match for ROH, their third behind Samoa Joe vs CM Punk and Samoa Joe vs Kenta Kobashi. The dissolution of this relationship was a big deal for ROH at the time, and Dragon Gate looking to use a similar business model to ROH seemed like a bit of an underhanded move. The Observer reported at the time that “The concept is similar to ROH at the beginning, where they will look at DVD sales as a primary revenue stream. The annual shows with the Dragon Gate wrestlers were always among the best selling DVDs each year for ROH.”


Days before this announcement, CIMA of Dragon Gate, one of the six from that five star match, had taken to his Myspace page to explain why there had been no Dragon Gate presence on the recent ROH Wrestlemania weekend events, claiming that it came down to ROH not living up to financial agreements. Whether this is true or a way or breaking the relationship to start their own US presence, the timing of CIMA saying this and Dragon Gate’s announcement is interesting.


There’s a lot more to Dragon Gate USA which is more relevant for it’s own video, but it’s formation played a big part in the founding of Evolve. In the early days DGUSA used US talent that weren’t necessarily ROH made stars. The first card featured the Young Bucks largely through their Pro Wrestling Guerrilla links, and their friendship with CIMA. An eight man tag team match filled with Chikara talent also occurred, as the card took place in Philadelphia, where Chikara was based.


By November, Dragon Gate was set to put on their third pay per view, Freedom Fight 2009. Just before that though, the first inklings of Evolve were reported in Figure Four Daily by Bryan Alvarez. *clip 1* (Bryan reported that Gabe Sapolsky, as well as Full Impact Pro founder Sal Hamaoui and Davey Richards were leading the promotion, and no other details were available. “There was literally no other info about the group at press time, although there were all sorts of rumors about what kind of style the group would feature, etc. All I can say is that everyone involved is being very tight-lipped by design, so anything that comes out that wasn’t reported on their official site is probably premature.”) The inclusion of Davey Richards was interesting, as he was not only a fixture of Ring of Honor at that point, but he was even one half of their tag team champions with Eddie Edwards as the American Wolves, and had been for most of 2009. He had worked for FIP throughout the year though, and had wrestled one match for DGUSA, and would work for Dragon Gate proper in December as well. On November 12th, Bryan would speculate more, and report on the rule that singles wrestlers and tag team wrestlers would compete in separate divisions, and seemingly never the twain would meet. *clip 2*


A few days later the Wrestling Observer would provide a little more info. Dave speculated that the promotion will follow the Dragon Gate USA model of DVD releases and several pay per views a year, and as far as the style of the promotion, “All Sapolsky has said is that they are going to work around each individual talent’s strengths and weaknesses, and regards to rumors it would be a shoot style promotion, he said that there isn’t enough talent to pull that direction off.” The next information was revealed in the November 17th Figure Four, when it was reported that TJ Perkins, Bobby Fish and Ricochet were set to join. It’s also noted that Davey Richards is not an owner of the company, “though that information came from Sapolsky originally so I would guess he just doesn’t want to be seen as one of those guys who is a worker and also a company owner.” In a rather weird note, Alvarez adds that “They’re saying that all competitors must “follow the inherent rules of sportsmanship and ethics that govern all sports,” which includes no biting the ears off dudes, no killing referees, etc.” It almost feels like it doesn’t need saying, but what he is getting at is the suspension and fines system that would be put in place from show one as a way of addressing rule breaking after the events.


In the following week, we finally get information about Evolve's first show. In the November 23rd Observer, Dave writes that “They are going to put more emphasis on wins and losses, and the web site already lists the wrestlers signed with won-loss records (they are all 0-0 to start with obviously). The debut show will be 1/16 in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center, which is also the home base of Jersey All Pro Wrestling.” it’s also about ten miles from where Gabe got fired from ROH, coincidence? Probably. In another curious note, “They also are going to do a sports-like theme, as they showed videos of a football brawl, the Gilbert Yvel hitting the ref and the Mike Tyson ear-biting incident and noted that incidents like that would lead to suspensions.” It seemed that going in, Evolve's unique selling point was going to be “rules!”


It was though, a little more than that. On Evolve’s website, they would post the following mission statement. “Evolve is an attitude. Evolve is not a particular in ring style. It is not an age group. It is not strictly defined. Evolve has no limitations. It has no restrictions. It has no boundaries. Evolve is the ability to look into nothingness and instead of seeing nothing to recognise infinite potential and absolute possibilities. Evolve is the desire to be something greater than what we’ve become.” Aye, okay. Another feature of the Evolve website was it’s message board, which Gabe no doubt would have hoped would be a key part of his promotion’s online presence, much like the Ring of Honor’s message board was at the time.The one last notable thing I found on the archived version of the Evolve website is a contact form to report piracy anonymously for a free gift as a reward. I bet that got used a ton.


Around this time Evolve was also posting on it’s YouTube channel, on which some of the content still exists today. There are several short videos with some very 2009 editing, announcing roster members Davey Richards, Aeroform and Kota Ibushi. There was also a series of more cryptic videos featuring a man in shoes you’d expect Zoolander to wear, walking down a corridor. Briefly on the screen would flash an email address, abstract wrestler @gmail.com, and the number 161, referencing the Age of the Fall stable in Ring of Honor, whose code name before debuting in a similarly cryptic way was Project 161. These ended up revealing the debut of Jimmy Jacobs, who had many interesting storylines in Gabe’s time in ROH, and would also join Dragon Gate USA in January 23rd 2010, one week after Evolve’s first show.


The next note came from the December 1st Figure Four, and it's the announcement of Davey Richards facing Kota Ibushi in the debut main event. The December 9th Observer adds more roster members, including Brad Allen, Arik Cannon, Kyle O’Reilly, and the Dark City Fight Club, the latter also getting a video on Evolve’s YouTube channel. He added that we should expect new additions from Chikara, as well as the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup, a tournament that had existed since 2003, but that year had been booked by Gabe, who quote, “said that there was a lot of undiscovered talent on those shows.” An early video on Evolve’s YouTube channel has footage from the event, referring to it as “the precursor to Evolve”.


Speaking of Kyle O’Reilly, in the previous week’s Observer Dave had written that he and Adam Cole, who were both young in their careers at the time, had worked the pre-show of the November 28th Dragon Gate USA show, and may have turned some heads. He said of them “O’Reilly is a protege of Davey Richards and Cole is a CZW wrestler. Nobody knew the two guys, but they got over great and will probably both end as a regulars with the Evolve promotion. (sic)”H The two would eventually arrive in Ring of Honor around the same time and team up as Future Shock, a team that I had totally forgotten about until making this video. Upon the breaking up for that team, the two would have a brutal hybrid rules match at Best in the World 2012, a match in which Cole would lose some of his teeth, and they would even go on to wrestle each other in the Tokyo Dome. Sorry for going off on a tangent, but I felt it was worth remembering.


More roster additions were announced as of the December 15th Figure Four, as a Chikara six man tag had been booked, adding Mike Quackenbush, Hallowicked, Jigsaw, Gran Akuma, Icarus and Brodie Lee to the card. As well Chuck Taylor and Cheech in a singles match, and TJP’s opponent was announced to be Munenori Siwa, making one his first US appearances. Chuck Taylor being in the singles division was an interesting choice, as in Chikara he teamed regularly with Akuma and Icasus as FIST, which stood for Friends in Similar Tights. It’s interesting given how the rules stated you could only be a singles or tag wrestler, and clearly Gabe wanted Chuck in the singles division.


In this same newsletter, Alvarez notes that Gabe Sapolsky had written in a blog that Bryan Danielson is the one who came up with the name Evolve, which is the first time I could find his name attached in any way. In the December 30th Observer, Dave explains Danielson’s involvement a bit more. “The Evolve name was actually the idea of Bryan Danielson, who e-mailed it to Sapolsky while on a tour of Japan. Danielson was originally planned to be the top star of the promotion, and he was originally going to announce the forming of the promotion at a Dragon Gate USA show, but before it happened, he signed with WWE.” Danielson at this point had wrestled one match for Dragon Gate USA, against Naruki Doi in September 2009. In his brief time away from WWE he would wrestle three more matches, including ones against SHINGO, later known as Shingo Takagi, and Jon Moxley, his seemingly last ever opponent at the time of me making this video.


In one final bizarre note before the first Evolve show, in the January 12th Figure Four Weekly, Bryan Alvarez reported that “will include an “Extreme Surprise” and they’re teasing that “INNOVATION WILL EVOLVE.” In other words, Tommy Dreamer is coming in.” Truly one of these is not like the others.


Before I get to Evolve’s first show, let’s hear from Gabe himself. On January 13th, just days before Evolve 1, Gabe was interviewed by Alvarez on Figure Four Daily. He talked in great depth about his thought process changing a little while after leaving ROH, and how that led to Evolve *clip 3* He then gave an interesting explanation for the heavy emphasis on rules and the enforcement of them, something he calls “the inherent rules of sportsmanship.” *clip 4*


On January 16th 2010, Evolve would finally hold it’s debut show, in front of an estimated 350 to 400 fans. In Bryan Alvarez’s report, he notes that “They also took a bunch of concepts out of MMA, but the matches were still indy-style pro-wrestling matches and not fake MMA a la UWFi.” He’s referring to the presentation of the show, in which every wrestler in each match would walk out to the same generic music, and each would be announced with their record, which was obviously 0-0. Post match they conducted interviews, ala Joe Rogan in the UFC Octagon. Alvarez reported that “There were mixed reviews on the first show, with some saying it was an interesting concept and others saying it just didn’t work and they wouldn’t go back”, but he also noted that Gabe was happy with how things played out, noting that they had laid the groundwork for things down the road. Final additions to the roster included the team of Aeroform, Flip Kendrick and Louis Lyndon, Mercedes Matrinez who defeated Niya, Silas Young who lost to Brad Allen, and Ken Doane who lost to Jimmy Jacobs, who also had a dispute with yes, Tommy Dreamer. Filling out the card was Johnny Gargano, who beat Chris Dickinson. As far as the card itself, Bryan noted that “many of the matches lasted under 10 minutes, a big departure from a lot of the stuff Gabe has booked in the past.” This didn’t apply to Davey Richards and Kota Ibushi in the main event though, which was described as an awesome match that went twenty.


On the show to push future roster additions, Brad Allen also made a challenge to Chris Hero for their next show in March. Hero’s team mate at the time in the King’s of Wrestling Claudio Castagnoli would also join for the second show, as would Adam Cole and Jon Moxley for the third. As rosters go for a new promotion, that’s a pretty impressive one, especially when you consider how many of them would go on to big things in the future. For the fourth and fifth shows, Bryan Danielson would wrestle, having been briefly released by WWE for the infamous neck tie incident when Nexus debuted on Raw. Looking at that roster, there are many, many future world champions for many different promotions.


Over time, Evolve would drop many of the MMA and other sports like aspects of their presentation, though the style would continue to be similar to what Gabe had booked in Ring of Honor. Many more talents would pass through Evolve on their way to greater success, and WWE has been reminding us of this on their way to Evolve coming back in their image. The new version hasn’t aired as of me making this, but it looks to be a new platform for new and aspiring talents to showcase themselves, and hopefully for them, one that gets more attention than Level Up did. And hopefully for us, Bully Ray isn’t anywhere near it in his Tough Enough Hardcore Holly role.


Sources:

Evolve YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EvolveWrestling

DGUSA: https://www.youtube.com/@WWNLive/videos

Wrestling Observer April 20th 2009, DGUSA announcement https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-20-2009-observer-newsletter-draft-details-mania-business/

Supercard of Honor 2006 Dragon Gate six man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeKPZpA2fWQ&t=1s

Figure Four November 10th 2009 Evolve rumour https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/nov-10-2009-figure-four-weekly-strikeforce-cbs-dixies-weird-meeting-stalking/

Wrestling Observer November 16th 2009 Evolve announcement https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/nov-16-2009-observer-newsletter-strikeforce-cbs-ufc-war-wwe-biz-great/

Figure Four November 17th 2009 Roster notes: https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/nov-17-2009-figure-four-weekly-brocks-future-ufc-105-great-tna-ppv-shane-meets/

Wrestling Observer November 23rd 2009 First show info: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/nov-23-2009-observer-newsletter-exclusive-lesnar-scoops-ufc-105-live/

Evolve mission statement: https://web.archive.org/web/20100309110313/http://www.evolvewrestling.com/

Evolve Roster March 9th 2010: https://web.archive.org/web/20100309110313/http://www.evolvewrestling.com/

Figure Four December 1st main event announcement https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/dec-1-2009-figure-four-weekly-business-and-ppv-breakdown-rey-update-dgusa/

Wrestling Observer December 9th roster additions https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-9-2009-observer-newsletter-kameda-does-gigantic-rating-masa-saito/

Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Z9qPCeRUs&t=4s

Wrestling Observer December 7th Cole and O’Reilly note https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-7-2009-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-biz-war-machine-rampage/

Figure Four December 15th, more matches and Danielson note https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/dec-15-figure-four-weekly-tlc-ppv-3-hour-raw-ufc-107-lucha-year-end-showssheamus/

Wrestling Observer December 30th 2009 Bryan Danielson explained https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-30-2009-observer-newsletter-ufc-vs-illegal-streams-roh-final/

Figure Four January 12th 2010 Tommy Dreamer note https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/jan-12-2009-figure-four-weekly-faber-vs-aldo-possible-monday-night-war-2-raw-vs/


Figure Four January 19th Show one report https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/jan-19-figure-four-weekly-ufc-sells-10-russohogan-week-2-genesis-recap-lesnar/