One of the most intriguing developments of the past ten months has been WWE's increasing willingness to work with selected "independent" wrestling promotions, presumably to keep promising young talent from signing long term contracts with companies that have national television deals like TNA, Ring Of Honor (ROH) and Lucha Underground.

This started last June when WWE started negotiating with Gabe Sapolsky's EVOLVE promotion for a loose affiliation / cooperative agreement. Whatever arrangement the two sides came to has been shrouded in secrecy, but it is believed that EVOLVE started using former UFC fighter Matt Riddle on their events partially at WWE's behest, because WWE saw him as a potential future NXT signing but wanted him to get more experience under his belt before doing so. Riddle has quickly developed into one of EVOLVE's top stars being well suited to their mat based style.

This led to Paul "Triple H" Levesque praising EVOLVE on his October 6th NXT Takeover: Respect conference call and Gabe Sapolsky publicly thanking him for his support. Later that month, WWE.com profiled Timothy Thatcher, Johnny Gargano, "Hot Sauce" Tracy Williams, Anthony Nese and Zack Sabre, Jr. as "the 5 EVOLVE wrestlers you need to know" and potentially "NXT’s next breakout stars". Of those five, Gargano has regularly worked NXT television tapings and recently was signed by WWE to a unique contract that will still allow him to work independent dates, and Sabre, Jr. has been announced with Gargano for WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series this summer.

In addition to that, Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan, and William Regal have all made non-wrestling appearances for EVOLVE, including signing autographs and taking pictures at pre-show meet and greets, which has helped the promotion's live attendance increase in recent months. At EVOLVE 56, Regal announced that qualifying matches for the WWE Network's Global Cruiserweight Series will take place at a future EVOLVE event (something that will also happen on British based indies Progress Wrestling and Revolution Pro Wrestling). NXT personnel like Regal, Canyon Ceman and even Triple H himself, have also attended EVOLVE events to scout talent.

It should be unsurprising then that this mutually beneficial relationship is growing stronger, according to PWInsider.com, but at the cost of focusing more on talent that WWE may be interested in signing for NXT one day:

"Some big changes to EVOLVE. Moving forward, the promotion is going to try and focus more on talents who have upward mobility to move onto WWE developmental. While the door is still open to use talents who are under contract elsewhere in shorter programs or as guest stars on certain events, the idea going forward is to have a pool of talents that WWE scouts could see and potentially want to hire, as they did Johnny Gargano last week. As part of the initiative, Sami Callihan finished up with the promotion on Saturday as he's signed a deal with Lucha Underground. The original plan for Wrestlemania 32 weekend was to have Callihan challenge EVOLVE champion Timothy Thatcher. Again, the door isn't closed and he could pop up but a longer-term program or storyline is a little more difficult as he would be outside the parameters of what EVOLVE wants to focus on going forward."

That cost isn't as great as it once would have been, as WWE is increasingly open minded about its hiring policies, being willing to sign a variety of performers of all shapes, sizes, nationalities and styles. It still is a cost though, as WWE's eye for talent isn't foolproof and it seems it would also preclude EVOLVE from heavily featuring talent who have been through NXT and didn't make it, some of whom like Chris Hero are very talented performers. At the moment, the benefits of cooperating with WWE clearly outweighs the costs involved for EVOLVE, but as WWE inserts more control over the group that may not remain the case. It's clearly a negative for someone like Sami Callihan, whose options to find work in the business are being further restricted.

As I indicated above this could possibly be an ominous sign of things to come. As WWE gets their tentacles ever deeper into the independent wrestling scene, it may have a stifling effect on any affiliated promoter's creativity and booking freedom. Instead of producing a show to cater to the taste of their fans, one eye will always be on what Canyon Ceman and Paul Levesque thinks. Who do they want to look good, who aren't they so high on, will they approve of my storylines? It may lead these companies to homogenize their products to be more in keeping with WWE's corporate sensibilities. It all depends upon how much influence WWE is seeking to establish outside their own turf.

It's hard to predict whether such concerns will be completely unfounded or very genuine, as WWE keeps their cards very close to their chest. It is both an exciting time to be an independent wrestling fan, due to the scene's vibrancy at the moment and WWE innovations like the Global Cruiserweight Series, and also a worrying one, because WWE may become too greedy and raid their feeder promotions of all their best talent all at once, hurting them in the process. That would be a boon to NXT's business, but not necessarily to the wider wrestling industry, especially if indy signings end up getting wasted by WWE in the process.