In a recent interview with James Stewart of Wrestling Inside The Ropes, EVOLVE Wrestling’s booker Gabe Sapolsky discussed how the promotion airing on the WWE Network has been planned since back in 2016.

“Well its actually been in the works since 2016. So, before the Cruiserweight Classic, they had reached out to us about having some of our guys in it which of course, I was thrilled for at the time, and our relationship has grown since then and there was talk of it all the way back then and it was just a matter of a whole bunch of stuff way above my level of knowledge and pay grade at WWE that I don’t know about, but it was just one of those things where now, everything seems to be coming together and then you add to the fact that we are in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena on July 13th which is the legendary ECW Arena and just a tailor-made venue to walk in and do this kind of thing.

So it’s still for TV, and also, the other factor is that WWE has a pay-per-view in Philly the next night so all of their people are there already. So, it’s a very affordable thing, a very easy thing for them to do. So all those factors came together and made July 13th the magic date but its been a long time in the making and one thing about Triple H is, this guy has a long-term vision on things. He knows where he’s going, he knows how to get there and he’s patient on how to get there. He’s gonna come up with a plan and he’s gonna take the steps and he’s gonna make sure it’s done right and July 13th is the day that we’re gonna do this thing right.”

The interview is available in full at this link.