Arn Anderson reveals that he came up with the name for the Evolution faction
This week’s episode of “ARN” on AdFreeShows.com is an “Ask Arn Anything” episode where fans can send in questions on Arn’s career or some of the behind-the-scenes things that happened during his time in the NWA/WCW and WWE.
During this show, Arn revealed that he came up with the name for the Evolution faction that consisted of Triple H, Ric Flair, Dave Bautista, and Randy Orton.
Arn said, “I named them. Vince had us all in there when he listened to us. This was back in a time prior to Randy or Batista or (John) Cena getting their push. He had this new group of talent he brought in from the schools and said, ‘Guys, who are going to be our stars of tomorrow? Who do you guys think so far that has it?’ It was Cena, Randy and Dave.”
Arn said the decision was made for Orton and Bautista to be put into the group and for Cena to go off on his own as a singles wrestler.
“That’s what everyone pretty much agreed on. So Cena was going to be split off by himself. I think the company saw an opportunity to take Dave and Randy who needed to have more seasoned talent guiding them which could be Hunter and Ric. They saw an opportunity because those guys looked like a trillion dollars together when they came through the curtain, all four of them. They were dressed to the nines. It was a good combination of old and new and he had a chance to get a couple of new guys over really quick. I thought that concept worked. I thought those guys worked really well together and it worked.”
During the podcast, Arn also talked about some of wrestling’s top factions, celebrity hosts on Raw, his favorite songs, and much more.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit ARN (Arn Anderson’s podcast) on AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription