The WWE has announced that Evolution will have a reunion on the 1,000th episode of SmackDown next month in Washington, D.C.
The group that consisted of Triple H, Dave Bautista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair formed in 2002 and were aligned as the top heel faction on Raw until 2005.
The unit helped launch the careers of Bautista and Orton, with the former winning the 2005 Royal Rumble and then challenging Triple H at that year’s WrestleMania, which was one of the best buildups in company history. In the case of Orton, he won the World title in August 2004 from Chris Benoit and was attacked by his stablemates the following night during a well-remembered angle in London, Ontario. It featured Bautista hoisting Orton onto his shoulders and was given the “thumbs down” by Triple H as Evolution turned on Orton. He dropped the title to Triple H several weeks later and didn’t connect as a babyface with Bautista surpassing Orton in 2005 as the bigger star.
The SmackDown reunion will mark Bautista’s first appearance on WWE programming since June 2014.
The 1,000th episode will take place on Tuesday, October 16th from Washington, D.C. at the Capital One Arena.
