Arn Anderson has revealed that he was behind the name Evolution. The stable comprised of Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista. He opened up about creating the name for the group during an ‘Ask Arn Anying’ episode of his podcast, ARN.
“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,” Anderson explained. “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.”
Anderson noted how a creative decision was made to have Orton and Batista become a part of the group. Cena, meanwhile, would be kept solo and focus on a singles run.
“[…] 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,” Anderson said. “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.”
Arn Anderson believed Evolution was made up of a good combination of old and new talent. Their alliance allowed WWE to “get a couple of new guys over really quick.”
Ultimately, Arn Anderson believed that the Evolution concept, coupled with how the men worked with each other, accomplished what it was meant to.
